Azed No. 2,705 Plain

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A plain puzzle from Azed.

I found this a bit tougher than some of the more recenet Azeds I’ve blogged, but I think that may be me rather than the setter. It took me ages to work out the parsing from RICKLE and SPANE and in the end they were pretty straightforward.

Thanks Azed.

ACROSS
2 CROSSFADES
Moves from one picture to another, putting votes about strong personal preference (10)
CROSSES (“votes”) about FAD (“strong personal preference”)
10 FOULE
Light woollen fabric mostly in a tangle (5)
[mostly] FOULE(d) (“in a tangle”)
11 ALEGAR
Condiment that’s an ingredient for pale garnish (6)
Hidden in [that’s an ingredient for] “pALE GARnish”

Alegar is sour ale, or a condiment made form it.
12 FLITES
More than one Scottish fracas getting itself in a knot (6)
*(itself) [anag:in a knot]

Fyte or flite is a Scottish word for quarrel or brawl
13 RICKLE
Weak Scotch removed from barrel? Jock’s may collapse (6)
B (barrel) removed from (b)RICKLE (Scots word for “barrel”)

A rickle is a loose heap in Scotland.
14 RUNFLAT
Manage pad – it won’t require urgent repair (7)
RUN (“manage”) + FLAT (“pad”, as in appartment)

A runflat tyre is designed to run for a while even after a puncture.
17 MINEOLA
Citrus fruit from Italy, found in a lemon that’s hybridized? (7)
I (Italy) found in *(a lemon) [anag:that’s hybridized]

A mineola is a cross between a tangerine and a grapefuit.
18 COGGIE
Menial employee Jock’s present – something for his porridge? (6)
COG (“menial employee”) + GIE (Scots for give, so “Jock’s present”)

A coggie is a Scots bowl.
19 PARSI
Indian immigrant originally? Last pair in capital changing places (5)
[last pair in] PAR-IS (“capital”) [changing places]

The Parsis originally emigrated from Persia to India
20 KRAIT
Venomous creature – overturned box on it (5)
[overturned] <=ARK (“box”) on IT

A krait is a poisonous rock snake.
23 EISELL
Part of stale dressing that is returned to trade (6)
<=i.e. (“that is”, returning) + SELL (“to trade”)

Eisel (aka eisell) is a sour-tasting vinegary condiment.
25 OUTTRAY
Yaourt, last of it going off? Despatch what’s in it (7)
*(yaourt t) [anag:going off] where T is [last of] (i)T
28 LEPTOME
Plant tissue, grated peel cat consumed (7)
*(peel) [anag:grated] consuming TOM (“cat”)
29 INGRAM
No longer clueless, scribbled in margin (6)
*(margin) [anag:scribbled]

Ingram is an old word for clueless.
30 LAMMER
The colour of Scotch? First denied in clink! (6)
[first denied in] (s)LAMMER (“clink”)

LAMMER is a Scots word for AMBER, the colour of Scotch whisky.
31 NEROLI
Fragrant oil extractable from finer olives (6)
Hidden in [extractable from] “fiNER OLIves”

 
32 SPANE
Childless one north of the border begging for wean there (5)
SP (sine prole, Latin for “without issue”, so “childless”) + ANE (Scots for “one, so “one, north of the border”)

“Spane” is a Scottish word for “wean”.
33 DEPORTMENT
Once mad about wine, showing manners (10)
DEMENT (once “mad”) about PORT (“wine”)
DOWN
1 OFF-RECKONING
Deduction, concern agreed upon in time some way in the future (12)
RECK (“concern”) + ON (“agreed upon”) in OFFING (“time some way in the future”)
2 COLUGO
Flying creature that makes murmuring sound catching worm (6)
COO (‘murmuring sound”) catching LUG(worm)

A colugo is a flying lemur.
3 RUIN AGATE
Variegated stone, one pocketed by vagabond (9, 2 words)
I (one) pocketed by RUNAGATE (“vagabond”)
4 SEELY
Luminance in eyes, terribly happy (5)
L (luminance) in *(eyes) [anag:terribly]
5 SESAME
Source of oil pleases Americans to some extent (6)
Hidden in [to some extent] “pleaSES AMEricans”
6 ALIT
Men denied food were striking (4)
ALI(men)T (MEN denied form “food”)
7 DECREASE
What’s suggested by iron making loss (8)
If you “iron” something you remove the creases, so DECREASE
8 SALALS
Shrubs lass twice cut short rashly (6)
*(las las) [anag:rashly] where LAS is LAS(s) cut short
9 CREMAILLERES
Gunners on post left in shifting scree, zigzag fortifications (12)
RE (Royal Engineers) on MAIL (“post”) + L (left) in *(scree) [anag:shifting]

I think Azed has made a rare mistake, and meant to put “engineers” (RE) instead of “gunners” which would lead to RA (Royal Artillery)
11 ARTIC
Flexible lorry: it backs up entering bend (5)
<=IT [backs up] entering ARC (“bend”)

Short for “articulated”
15 FOREWOMAN
She speaks for group, few room accommodated if old (9)
*(few room) [anag:accommodated] + AN (“old” owrd for “if”)
16 AGITPROP
Communist activity giving a fool support (8)
A + GIT (“fool”) + PROP (“support”)
21 RUINED
This uni is overdrawn, one assumes (6)
Ruined UNI would be UIN and “overdrawn” is in the RED, hence R(UIN)ED
22 SALMI
Strong stew Laplander is served around his capital (5)
SAMI (“Laplander”) is served around L (“capital” of L(aplander))
23 EYELET
What sounds like key for small hole (6)
Homophone [what sounds like] ISLET (“key”)
24 LAMENT
Pieces in column are woeful (6)
MEN (chess “pieces”) in LAT (Indian “column”)
26 SPASM
Brief period in hydro ends in fitness reform (5)
SPA (“hydro”) + [ends in] (fitnes)S (refor)M
27 LALO
Composer all besotted with love (4)
*(all) [anag:besotted] with O (love, in tennis)

Boris Schifrin (aka Lalo) is an Argentine-AMerican composer known for his film scores, among them Cool Hand Luke, DIrty Harry and The Eagle has Landed.

19 comments on “Azed No. 2,705 Plain”

  1. Thanks loonapick, medium strength I thought.
    Agree about CREMAILLERES, also RICKLE seems to be a noun, whereas the clue implies an adjective ‘rickly’ – unless we are being told Jock’s rickle might collapse.
    RUINED is a very intersting clue. SPANE was my last to parse after some days – the ‘begging’ seems superfluous and suggested a deletion.
    There’s also an Edouard LALO 1823-1892 who may be more what Azed had in mind (to whom thanks as ever).

  2. …and surely Lalo Schifrin is most famous for Mission Impossible 🙂
    dum…dum…dumdum…dum…dum…dumdum

  4. Certainly, Edouard LALO was the composer I thought of first when doing this. His Symphonie Espagnole is played quite often on Radio 3.

  5. Three consective weeks I’ve found hard. I gave up trying to construe RICKLE and SPANE and I don’t consider I’ve ‘solved’ a crossword until I’ve filled in the grid and understood how the clues work.

    I’m not sure about the clue for RUINED because there has to be a superfluous word. It’s moderately clever by Azed’s standards but I thought it must be a composite anagram. Perhaps “Ruined uni in red…” is allowable crosswordese and I’m just nitpicking.

    “Part of stale dressing that is returned…” must be an indicator of a reversed hidden. I had the first ‘E’ and the first ‘L’ so it had be ERDELA. It is a word but not in my Chambers. (Another of Azed’s winks at us? How does he do it?) And yes, the Gunners have always been the RA and the only place for them was if RICKLE ends in A, the R comes before the A of MINEOLA or my ERDELA was correct and PARSI was wrong. I played around with these for ages but could not get CREMAILLERES, a word not known to me. Very frustrating.

    I’ll add a definition for ERDELA: an attempt by Azed to mislead us more than usual.

    Stefan

  6. Thanks for the blog, I have very tough written by my clues, took me twice as long as a normal plain. I agree that CREMAILLERES seems to be a mistake , fortunately the first E was checked. I agree with Gonzo for SPANE , but I was fine with RICKLE , I took the clue as saying IT may collapse but with the Scottish angle. The Scotttish indications were very unimaginative this week.
    Thanks to Dormouse@4 for the extra on Lalo .
    Stefan@5 I have done this myself, sure of one answer and then try to bend all the others to fit.

  7. I found it hard to get going on this one, but then it started to fall into place. A number of questions with the clues, though, starting with the aforementioned Gunners/RE in 9dn. 12ac FLITES: the verb flite or flyte means to brawl, but (according to my Chambers), the noun means “an open debate”, which is not a fracas. 13ac: Brickle is a Scots word for weak (not barrel – typo in the blog); “removed from barrel” actually equates to barrel (b) being removed from it. And after discussion last week on required/requiring as a link word, we now get a superfluous “begging” in 32ac, as Gonzo@1 mentions.

  8. Agree with most comments so far, especially Royal Engineers/Artillery. But can anyone tell me why EISELL 23ac is stale? Use of RUIN in two clues a bit below standard in my opinion. I spent a long time trying to avoid one or other of them. Liked 30ac, LAMMER being both a Scottish word for a colour and the colour of whisky. Thanks to loonapick and to Azed

  9. Stale is Azed’s way of telling us this word is obselete , not the vinegar itself.

    TimC has another VHC for clue writing, the winner this week is very good.

  10. Thanks to loonapick for the parsing of SPANE and RICKLE, which I was too lazy to hunt down. Otherwise a fairly average Azed, I thought, except for the RE/RA glitch.

  13. Ah well, I’ll take it. Just found the slip online. I’d only marked it as a comp. anag. but “&lit” has been added. After 3 years of doing this I’m still trying to work out what makes a good clue. I agree it was a worthy first place by T.C. Borland.

  15. Hello- belatedy- to anyone stiil reading this.
    Thanks to Azed, as alwyas, and to loonapick for the blog. I did this in on longish sitting (crouching?) and do remember being puzzled over engineers. RICKLE, I commented on in my scribbled notes to myslf at the time as the relation between Scottish “weak” and “barrel” seemed upside-down.
    How does one get the Azed slip on line, as some seem to manage- I usually hope, usually vainly, for a HC and those are not in the Observer. Sadly the andlit website has bee frozen since John Tozer’s illness.
    I wonder how much of the internet is filled with sites of lost editors (a local hotel has FIVE with different dates, only distinguishable by looking at meal prices!

  16. KeithThomas@15 – you have an HC this month. Congratulations. Google will find the slip if you search for “Azed slip” and ignore the Guardian offering. This month’s is here

  17. I don’t imagine anyone is still reading this, but just in case . . . either I am being very dense or LEPTOME is not in my 13th Edition Chambers. Is it in earlier versions? I spent a while trying to find another ?OM which could be a cat, but ended up putting in LEPTOME and hoping for the best. Google throws up several on-line results, so I am rather surprised not to find it in the usual place.

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