We have a standard puzzle from Azed, no competition clues and no quirky cluing devices.
That said, I reckoned there were more new words for me than in the majority of plain puzzles. There were some others that I had come across before in other crosswords even though they are not words I use in everyday vocabulary.
As ever, the cluing was clear with some slightly simpler wordplay for the most obscure entries.
There is always plenty to learn about in an Azed crossword.
I liked the three definitions in the clue for CHOU.
I note the definition for AMANTADINE in an earlier Chambers did not mention the drug was helpful for controlling influenza. It only appeared in later editions to join the use as a treatment for Parkinson’s disease.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | Sea fish caught on Welsh river (4)
CUSK (another name for TORSK [a North Atlantic fish of the cod family]; sea fish) C (caught) + USK (river in Wales) C USK |
| 4 | Russian spy unit treads westward, extremely racist? Not I (8)
SPETSNAZ (a select intelligence unit in the former Soviet Union, specializing in undercover activities, counter-insurgency tactics, raids, etc) STEPS (treads) reversed (reading westwards) + NAZI (person of extreme racists views) excluding (not) I SPETZ< NAZ |
| 10 | A male child at home with little energy requiring treatment for flu (10)
AMANTADINE (a drug used in the treatment of influenza and Parkinson’s disease) A + MAN (male) + TAD (little lad; child) + IN (at home) + E (abbreviation [little] for energy) A MAN TAD IN E |
| 11 | Set out to capture castle, a blow of old (7)
STROOKE (archaic form [of old] of STRIKE (a blow]) Anagram of (out) SET containing (to capture) ROOK (castle piece in chess) ST (ROOK) E* |
| 13 | Trumpeter maybe showing off abandoned by king (4)
SWAN (reference a trumpeter SWAN, the largest of the world’s SWANs) SWANKING (showing off) excluding (abandoned by) KING SWAN |
| 14 | Red wine, ordinary, taken in measure, mature (8)
PINOTAGE (red wine made form a grape of the same name) (O [ordinary] contained in (taken in] PINT [a measure]) + AGE (mature) PIN (O) T AGE |
| 15 | Coarse fellow, Henry or Bill, in poetry (4)
HOGH (Spenserian [poetic] term for a HOE [promontory]) HOG (low filthy fellow; coarse fellow) + H (henry, the SI unit of inductance) HOG H |
| 16 | Swirling fogs hid such as Dagon (7)
FISHGOD (Dagon is the national god of the Philistines, half-man, half-fish) Anagram of (swirling) FOGS HID DOGFISH* |
| 19 | Spell of contact sport? It’s murder (6)
RUBOUT (murder) RU (Rugby Union, a contact sport) + BOUT (turn or period of time doing something; spell is defined similarly) RU B OUT |
| 23 | Catch that is supplied with locks for Edmund? (6)
HEARIE (Spenserian [of the poet Edmund Spenser] term for hairy; supplied with locks) HEAR (pick up; catch) + IE (id est; that is) HEAR IE |
| 24 | Casualty transport serving some maimed evacuees (7)
MEDEVAC (the transport, usually by helicopter, of military or civilian casualties to hospital; casualty transport) MEDEVAC (hidden word in [serving some] MAIMED EVACUEES) MEDEVAC |
| 25 | Medical personnel perform with gas (4)
DOCS (doctors; medical personnel) DO (perform) + CS (reference CS gas used by riot police to quell demonstrations) DO CS |
| 26 | Sri Lanka, southern, mostly producing skinny layers (8)
CLAUSTRA (thin [skinny] layers of grey matter in the brain hemispheres) CL (international vehicle registration for Sri Lanka [ex Ceylon]) + AUSTRAL (southern) excluding the final letter (mostly) L CL AUSTRA |
| 29 | Dance music performed by singers out of bounds? (4)
HORA (music for Romanian or Israeli dance of the same name) CHORAL (choir; singers) excluding the outer letters (out of bounds) C and H HORA |
| 30 | Panel holds nurse fit for defence (7)
TENABLE (capable of being retained, kept or defended) TABLE (board; panel) containing (holds) EN (enrolled nurse) T (EN) ABLE |
| 31 | Part of ship’s frames, bent keel rim crafted with no length (10)
KNEETIMBER (timber bent into a shape suitable for a knee [specific shape of timber required in ship’s frames]) Anagram of (crafted) BENT KEEL RIM excluding (with no) L (length) KNEETIMBER* |
| 32 | Javanese mulberry? Erect one alongside highway mostly (8)
UPAS TREE (Javanese tree of the mulberry family) UP (erect) + A (one) + STREET (highway) excluding the final letter (mostly) T UP A S TREE |
| 33 | Foreign country is profitable (4)
PAYS (French [foreign] word for country) PAYS (is profitable) PAYS |
| Down | |
| 1 | Child slicing a corm’s misused old spade (8)
CASCHROM (sort of spade with a bent handle, formerly used in the Scottish Highlands for tilling the ground; old spade) CH (child) contained in (slicing) an anagram of (misused) A CORM’S CAS (CH) ROM* |
| 2 | Dame’s place once for Scots chemise (4)
SARK (reference Dame Sibyl Hathaway [1884 – 1974], who was Dame of SARK [island in the Channel Islands] from 1928 until her death) SARK (Scottish word for a shirt or chemise) double definition SARK |
| 3 | Name in floor peg? It reveals fault in timber (8)
KNOTHOLE (hole in wood where a knot has fallen out; fault in timber) (N [name] contained in [in] KO [knockout; floor]) + THOLE (peg) K (N) O THOLE |
| 4 | Night owl resolute about work (7, 2 words)
STOP OUT (person who goes out for the evening and remains away from home until late or for the whole night; night owl) STOUT (resolute) containing (about) OP (opus; work) ST (OP) OUT |
| 5 | Helping of fettucine, dealt up, blissful (6)
EDENIC (like the Garden of Eden; like paradise; blissful) EDENIC (reversed [up; down entry] hidden word [helping of] in FETTUCINE DEALT) EDENIC< |
| 6 | Central American found in Atlantic Ocean (4)
TICO (native or inhabitant of Costa Rica. a country in Central America) TICO (hidden word in [found in] ATLANTIC OCEAN) TICO |
| 7 | Modern trendy, joker in Rhine heading north (7, 2 words)
NEW AGER (someone involved with the New Age movement [a cultural trend that emerged in the late 1980s, concerned with the union of mind, body and spirit, expressed through popular interest in a variety of beliefs and disciplines, including mysticism, meditation, astrology and holistic medicine]; modern trendy) WAG (joker) contained in (in) REEN (an alternative spelling of rhine [ditch or watercourse]) reversed (heading north; down entry) NE (WAG) ER< |
| 8 | Dancing a conga gaily? Not quite striving for high ideals (10)
ANAGOGICAL (striving in the unconscious towards morally high ideals) Anagram of (dancing) A CONGA GAILY excluding the final letter (not quite) Y ANAGOGICAL* |
| 9 | Erstwhile footie star to take dinner out weekly? (4)
ZINE (a weekly magaZINE) ZINE (reference ZINEDINE [Zidane], born 1972. French football manager and former player for well known clubs; erstwhile footie star) excluding (out) DINE (to take dinner) ZINE |
| 12 | Loud troupe in the wars, what cavalrymen may dread (10)
TROU-DE-LOUP (a pit with a vertical stake in the middle, used as a defence against cavalry; what cavalrymen may dread) Anagram of (in the wars) LOUD TROUPE TROU-DE-LOUP* |
| 17 | A lady mostly dressed in sacking? A dazzler often (8)
HEADLAMP (something that may often dazzle oncoming drivers) (A LADY excluding the final letter (mostly) Y) contained in (dressed in) HEMP (material used for making sacks; sacking) HE (A LAD) MP |
| 18 | Those getting kitted up? They may be Welsh (8)
DRESSERS (people getting kitted up) DRESSERS (reference Welsh DRESSERS [sideboards with drawers and cupboards below and a high back and shelves]) double definition DRESSERS |
| 20 | Canoe? One difficult to understand sailor holds up (7)
BIDARKA (an Alaskan Inuit kayak; canoe) AB (able seaman [sailor] reversed (up; down entry) contains (I [Roman numeral for one] + DARK [difficult to understand]) B (I DARK) A< |
| 21 | Relic of old rock chap found in wild Eire (7)
REMANIÉ (fossil or other relic of an older rock preserved as a fragment in a later deposit; relic of old rock) MAN (chap) contained in (found in) an anagram of (wild) EIRE RE (MAN) IE* |
| 22 | Idle chat from peevish old fellow cop ignored after noon (6)
NATTER (idle chat) N (noon) + ATTERCOP (obsolete or dialect[old] word an ill-natured person; peevish old fellow) excluding (ignored) COP N ATTER |
| 26 | Rosette, dear in e.g. Savoy (4)
CHOU (an ornamental soft rosette) CHOU (French [Savoy is a region of France] word for ‘sweetheart’ or ‘dear’) CHOU (French [Savoy] word for cabbage of which Savoy is a variety) triple definition CHOU |
| 27 | Local closed, group getting hot inside (4)
SHET (dialect [local] word for ‘shut’ or ‘closed’) SET (group) containing (getting … inside) H (hot) S (H) ET |
| 28 | Garment made of yarn, primarily Arabian (4)
ABBA (alternative spelling of ABA [covering outer garment, usually black, worn by women in some Arab countries]) ABB (woof- or weft-yarn, but sometimes warp yarn) + A (first letter of [primarily] ARABIAN) ABB A |
Good blog. Not much to comment on here. The only clue I found a little iffy was 9D. Was the player every popularly known by his first name only? I had heard of Zidane, and I might have even seen him play on TV in some international match, but I do not follow soccer. I kept trying to figure out how to make the clue work as ZI[DA]NE minus DA, but of course, that won’t work.
All I would add is that the only way 17, HEADLAMP, can work is if ‘dressed’ is taken as the anagram indicator (for A DLA in HEMP), not the container indicator, which is just plain ‘in’. I have no idea about sport in general (politics is another subject) and I often find Azed’s proper-name clues obscure to say the least and even parochial. I did know Dame of Sark though. Perhaps it’s an age thing.
Many thanks.
Stefan
HEADLAMP
Agree with Marmite Smuggler@2.
SWAN (a minuscule point)
The ‘maybe’ needs to be underlined.
RUBOUT
I think it’s better to read the ‘Spell of contact sport?’ as one unit to arrive at RU BOUT (probably, that’s what duncan says in the blog).
CHOU
If it’s a case of triple def, Savoy is used twice. Is it ok?
Thanks duncan for the excellent blog!
Thanks for the blog, I bow to nobody in my disdain for football but even I knew Zinedine Zidane, something about the name, a bit like Galileo Galilei .
We had two hidden words in a row which is a bit clumsy.
A few words hard to believe and then there they are in Chambers, UPASTREE and ATTERcop especially.
Agree with KVa@3 about CHOU: “in eg Savoy” is simply indicating French (otherwise “in” would be superfluous), although the use of Savoy (as opposed to, say, Paris) is a cheeky extra pointer.
Zinedine Zidane is popularly known as Zizou, but I think his first name is as well known as his surname.
AMANTADINE wasn’t in my Chambers 98, but according to Wiki, it’s no longer recommended for flu, because of widespread drug resistance.
Roz@4: I’ve come across ATTERCOP (usually meaing a spider) in crosswords before and also UPAS (though not UPAS-TREE). I agree they are unusual words – but that makes them easier to remember!
Thanks,
Small correction in the blog – an unexpected dogfish at 16a.
Is clueing MEDEVAC (whose EVAC part comes from evacuation) by hiding it in evacuees acceptable?.. I find it rather lazy…
I have recently graduated to AZED from Everyman. Finished it but got three clues wrong. This excellent blog really helped me understand parsing the clues- thank you!