A 13 by 11 grid this week, although Azed has chosen to use a grid which only allows him one 13 letter word.
Mathematicians will be aware that a grid with these dimensions has only 143 cells, as opposed to the 144 you would get in a 12 x 12 grid. I don’t suppose that makes the setter’s task appreciably easier!
There is an abundance of Scottish and Spenserian terms this week, as well as the usual mix of ordinary and obscure words.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | KALANCHOE |
Succulent cabbage stuffed with dried chilli pepper (9)
|
| ANCHO (dried chilli) inside KALE (cabbage). | ||
| 12 | ABITUR |
School finals, rather a filler? (6)
|
| A BIT UR (i.e. something used to fill a gap in speech). The term itself is German for what I suppose is the equivalent of our A-Levels. | ||
| 13 | ANGRIER |
Rearing boils, increasingly inflamed (7)
|
| *REARING. | ||
| 14 | TUPI |
Amazonian monkey found on island (4)
|
| TUP (a pile-driving monkey), I(sland). | ||
| 15 | BIGAE |
Roman chariots, grand, of an appropriate age (5)
|
| BIG (grand) AE (aetatis, of his or her age). | ||
| 16 | ALTAR STONE |
Consecrated slab varying astral timbre (10, 2 words)
|
| *ASTRAL, TONE (timbre). | ||
| 17 | LAMIA |
Witch or priest assimilating the ego (5)
|
| I (ego) inside LAMA (priest). | ||
| 18 | SIRENIC |
Typical of mermaid in South Pacific (7)
|
| S IRENIC (peaceful, or pacific). | ||
| 19 | TRANSCENDENCE |
Number in fantastic dance centres displaying superiority (13)
|
| N in *(DANCE CENTRES). | ||
| 23 | REDOWAS |
Lively dances? Further attempt is past (7)
|
| REDO (further attempt) WAS. | ||
| 26 | REIKI |
Gentle massage one’s given to king, held in check, not new (5)
|
| K(ing) inside REI(n) (check), I. | ||
| 29 | AMPHISCIAN |
China map is wrong for one dwelling in the tropics (10)
|
| *(CHINA MAP IS). | ||
| 31 | NILOT |
Sudanese possibly in love, reverse of forward (5)
|
| NIL (love) TO (rev). | ||
| 32 | PERK |
Coffee maker, no longer brisk (4)
|
| Double definition. The (archaic) adjectival sense is obviously connected to PERKY, which is still current. | ||
| 33 | STANDEN |
Jock’s bound to hold and be steadfast as once (7)
|
| AND inside STEN (Scottish term for a bound). The term itself is not Sottish but Spenserian: Jock in the clue refers only to the subsidiary element. | ||
| 34 | LOWRIE |
Scottish Charley, left drooping locally (6)
|
| L(eft) OWRIE (a Scottish term which can mean drooping). A Charley can mean a fox and a Lowrie (it is capitalised in Chambers) is a nickname for a fox. | ||
| 35 | GREENEYED |
Longing to return east in grip of craving, jealous (9)
|
| YEN E(rev) inside GREED. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | KATAL |
SI unit, kelvin? Almost in any circumstances (5)
|
| K(elvin) AT AL(l). Nothing to do with temperature as such, this is the unit of catalytic activity. | ||
| 2 | ABUNA |
E. African patriarch, one clad in goat’s hair (5)
|
| UN in ABA (goatskin cloak). | ||
| 3 | LIPOMA |
Tumour, forming soft ring in bean (6)
|
| P O (soft ring) inside LIMA (bean). | ||
| 4 | NULLAS |
Everyone basking perhaps turned up in Indian streams (6)
|
| ALL in SUN (all rev). | ||
| 5 | CRITICASTER |
Second-rate judge, US creature accepting international case mostly (11)
|
| I(nternational) CAS(e) inside CRITTER (US creature). Apparently it means a petty critic, just as a poetaster is a poor poet. | ||
| 6 | HAMAS |
Clumsy types taking hold of amateur fundamentalist group (5)
|
| A(mateur) inside HAMS (clumsy types). I do question this parsing, because although HAM as an adjective can mean clumsy, I can find nothing in Chambers to suggest that the noun form carries this meaning. | ||
| 7 | ON PRINCIPLE |
To assert a basic norm, incline prop that’s shifted (11, 2 words)
|
| *(INCLINE PROP). | ||
| 8 | TRITE |
Tense before ceremony, rinky-dink (5)
|
| T(ense) RITE. | ||
| 9 | FIGO |
Odd characters in fling, so displaying sign of contempt once (4)
|
| Odd letters in “fling so“. | ||
| 10 | NEANIC |
Premature canine’s development (6)
|
| *CANINE. | ||
| 11 | GREECE |
Flight from France for somewhere else to the east thereof (6)
|
| Double definition, the first being an alternative spelling (one of many) of grece, meaning a flight of steps. | ||
| 19 | TRANSE |
Wee one’s Xmas present, parts of it missing? He’ll go through it (6)
|
| TRA(i)N SE(t). “Wee” indicates the Scottish usage. | ||
| 20 | REMITS |
Matters to confer on getting them informally in rising commotion (6)
|
| ‘EM inside STIR (rev). | ||
| 21 | DRALON |
Number fatten up in acrylic fabric (6)
|
| NO (number) LARD (fatten) (all rev). | ||
| 22 | NITERY |
I’ll be induced by free entry for cabaret (6)
|
| I inside *ENTRY. “free” is the anagram indicator. | ||
| 24 | OHONE |
With which Paddy bemoans being single around house (5)
|
| HO (use) inside ONE. | ||
| 25 | SCONE |
A portion of strawberry ice cream, teatime treat? (5)
|
| S(trawberry) CONE (ice cream). | ||
| 27 | KYRIE |
Ancient prayer from Galloway etc incorporating religious teaching (5)
|
| RI (religious instruction) inside KYE (a Scottish term for cows, such as Galloways). I think that kye is also to be found in Northumbrian dialect. | ||
| 28 | IRKED |
Poet’s difficult to understand, first to last, making one annoyed (5)
|
| DIRKE, with the first letter moved to the end; it’s a Spenserian term meaning dark. | ||
| 30 | PLAT |
Formless basis for braided material (4)
|
| PLAT(form); it’s an alternative spelling of plait. |
Well done on the blog.
Thanks bridgesong. The only thing that held me up was bunging in Titi (a S. American monkey and a group of islands off the south island of NZ) instead of TUPI. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Thanks for the blog , I found this tricky , especially the top left corner and some of the looking-up after was very messy. STANDEN for example and LOWRIE I had to check four different things .
REIKI I think is slightly different , IK inside REI (N) or the king is not held .
Thanks Azed and Bridgesong.
I was lucky in that most of the obscure words were ones I had already come across for some reason; unlucky in that I miswrote ABITUR as ATIBUR which held me up considerably.
Was Spenser the last of the greats to use archaic spelling words etc? A decent proportion of the obs. spellings in Chambers are his; far more than other huge names in English literature. Not my area so apologies if this is easy off the mark or well known
Btw. Do they publish the best reader clues for competition puzzles like 2724 anywhere or just in the Azed Slip? TIA
Matthew @6: only in the Azed Slip, so far as I am aware. You can pay for a subscription, but it is available free online at the Crossword Centre website and also (very much later) on the Guardian crossword website page. 2724 is not yet on the Crossword Centre page although I would expect that the results are to be found in today’s Observer (I’ll go out to buy mine when the rain stops…)
I thought “clumsy types” was ok for HAMS – as well as a poor actor, it can mean an inexpert boxer, who could perhaps be described as clumsy types.
I agree with Roz@3 about the parsing of REIKI. I thought at first it was as suggested in the blog, but that seemed a bit strained and I then realised RE[IK]I(n) made more sense.
Thanks for the very clear blog.
[Off-topic, but maybe of interest: Guardian Media Group is in talks with Tortoise Media to sell The Observer. Let’s hope that this doesn’t interfere with the continued publication of Azed, Everyman and other puzzles. I suppose that they will disappear from the Guardian’s website, which will affect those who access them online.]
Not a good week for me. By Monday afternoon I was doing word searches and anagram finders just to make headway. Even then, most of the left side was blank, Worst Azed attempt for me for some time.
[Oh dear bridgesong @8.]
The prize winners are in the paper today and I am less than impressed this month.
The Guardian this week said the talks with Tortoise are at an early stage. They may come to nothing .
The Observer went through several owners in the 70s/80s but Azed and Everyman continued as normal . The Everyman would benefit from a new setter and not someone who is also the editor.
I understand from Derek Harrison (who posts the Azed slips on his Crossword Centre website) that he has not yet received the Azed Slip for this month’s competition (No 2724). I guess that the delay may be occasioned by the fact that we have now (I think) reached the end of the competition year and there may be a need for time to collate the results. No doubt Derek will post the Slip as soon as it is available.
Thanks all for info re slip
Greetings- always late. Thanks as always to Azed.
I think bridgesong was at the same table as I was at 50th year “do” so special greetings and thanks for blog.
Enjoyed finding 2726 kindly- each week is a new test. Was left puzzling over TRANSE until tra(i)nse(t) clicked in the small hours. “parts of it” does say the inserts are split so, as always with Azed, everything is “in urdnung”
Keith, your memory is correct: we were both on the same table for the lunch a couple of years ago, and perhaps we’ll meet again at next year’s celebration!
A pity we still don’t have the slip for this month’s competition.
Got slip with results only, no commentary from Azed. Got undeserved HC using a hyperboloid snack
Keith, yes the slip has now been published and it is, as you say, free of comment. Apparently Azed has been very busy recently. I was pleased to see that I joined you among the HCs!