Azed provides us with a plain puzzle this week.
Azed seems to have been scouring the dictionary for alternative spellings this week. I counted six entries that were not spelled the same as the headword in the dictionary or weren’t even in Chambers at all (admittedly we were told in advance about that one). I reckon INDICTOR, PARIAL, RATTLIN, RATU, KREESE and SAMPIRE were variants on more common spellings.
Azed is usually very strict about indicating archaic, obsolete, ancient etc words, but there was no reference to the status of SATIVE in the clue at 33 across. Chambers describes it as an obsolete word.
The surfaces of Azed’s clues are very good, week after week. Today I liked the linking of cat and comb in 13 across, as well as the association between Homer [Simpson] and yellow in the clue for UROCHROME.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | Pub rep disturbed by din, typical of the nobs? (12)
UPPER-BRACKET (descriptive of a superior set, possibly typical of the nobs [UPPER-class people having wealth or high social class]) Anagram of (distributed) + RACKET (din) UPPER-B* RACKET |
| 10 | Free swimmer forming line in drain (4)
SALP (any free-swimming planktonic tunicate of the genus SALPa) L (line) contained in (in) SAP (drain) SA (L) P |
| 11 | One with no respect for the law formerly, if old and cunning (6)
ANARCH (one with no respect for the law) AN (an old form of ‘if’) + ARCH (cunning) AN ARCH |
| 13 | Cat tires, being groomed with a comb (8)
CRISTATE (crested; with a comb) Anagram of (being groomed) CAT TIRES CRISTATE* |
| 14 | Straight Scotch, outrageous with a dash of tonic (5)
RICHT (Scottish word meaning right or straight) RICH (outrageous) + T (first letter of [dash of] TONIC) RICH T |
| 15 | Bit of old silver, foreign, first to last a surprise coming out of the blue (5)
ALERT (sudden attack or surprise; surprise coming out of the blue) TALER (obsolete [old] German [foreign] silver coin [bit]) with the opening [first] letter T moving to the end [last] [first to last]) to form ALERT ALERT |
| 16 | Iron-rich mineral, form of pale stone (9)
PLEONASTE (a dark green to black magnesia-iron spinel; iron-rich mineral) Anagram of (form of) PALE STONE PLEONASTE* |
| 17 | One convinced space is not a vacuum and is within endless abundance (7)
PLENIST (someone who believes all space to be completely filled with matter; one convinced space is not a vacuum) IS contained in (within) PLENTY (abundance) excluding the final letter (endless) Y PLEN (IS) T |
| 20 | Change course, being slack (4)
VEER (change course) VEER (to slack) double definition VEER |
| 21 | Where beer may be served before universal prohibition (4)
TAPU (taboo; prohibition) TAP (short pipe from which beer may be served) + U (universal) TAP U |
| 24 | Massage thigh in club, not new (7)
SHAMPOO (massage) HAM (thigh of an animal) contained in (in) SPOON (name for an old-fashioned wooden type of golf club used like the modern day three-wood) excluding (not) N (new) S (HAM) POO |
| 27 | See our Homer funnily portrayed in yellow pigment (9)
UROCHROME (yellow pigment in urine) Anagram of (funnily portrayed) C [see] and OUR HOMER UROCHROME* |
| 30 | Twiggy, large scale, conveyed by artist, man mostly (5)
RAMAL (of a branch, twiggy [?] given that twigs form on the branches of trees) RA (Royal Academician) + MALE (man) excluding the final letter (mostly) E RA MAL |
| 31 | Virus hospital noted in folio? (5)
PHAGE ([bacterio]PHAGE [any of a large number of viruses, present in the atmosphere, soil, water, living things, etc] H (hotel) contained in (noted in) PAGE (folio [a leaf of a book, equivalent to a page]) P (H) AGE |
| 32 | Shower not active? Charger required (8)
INDICTOR (one who lays charges; charger) INDICATOR (pointer; shower) excluding (not) A (active) INDICTOR |
| 33 | Cultivated French composer incorporates little volume (6)
SATIVE (obsolete word for cultivated) SATIE (reference Erik SATIE [1866 – 1925], French composer) containing (incorporates) V (abbreviation [little] for volume) SATI (V) E |
| 34 | Vessel essential to save navy (4)
VENA (vein; blood vessel) VENA (middle letters of [central to] SAVE NANY) VENA |
| 35 | Mason notes damaged sideboard (12, 2 words)
STONE DRESSER ([stone]mason) Anagram of (damaged) NOTES + DRESSER (kitchen sideboard) STONE* DRESSER |
| Down | |
| 2 | Trio keeping melody in place (6)
PARIAL (variant spelling of PAIR-ROYAL [three cards of the same denomination, especially in cribbage and in the obsolete game of post and pair; a throw of three dice all falling alike; a set of three; trio]) PL (place) containing (keeping … in) ARIA (air or melody) P (ARIA) L |
| 3 | Creases I kept in place with pressing (6)
PLICAE (folds; creases) I contained in (kept in) an anagram of (with pressing) PLACE PL (I) CAE* |
| 4 | One of lines on board, endlessly irritating (7)
RATTLIN (one of the various spelling of words meaning any of the small lines forming steps of the rigging of ships) RATTLING (disconcerting or irritating) excluding the final letter (endlessly) G RATTLIN |
| 5 | Cheek about the French being without support (7)
BRALESS (without support) BRASS (impudence; cheek) containing (about) LE (one of the French forms of the definite article, ‘the’) BRA (LE) SS |
| 6 | Ruler in Fiji, and Argentina also (5)
RATOO (alternative spelling of RATU [local chief or ruler in Indonesia and Fiji]) RA (international Vehicle Registration for Argentina) + TOO (also) RA TOO |
| 7 | Label on American marsh plant (5)
CALLA (a poisonous marsh plant) CALL (name; label) + A (American) CALL A |
| 8 | Dirk seen in ruck by the sound of it (6)
KREESE (kris; dagger; dirk) KREESE (sounds like [by the sound of it] CREASE [a mark you might see in a ruck of cloth or clothing]) KREESE |
| 9 | Ballet position to follow step by step from below centre of entrechat (6)
ECARTE (in ballet, a position in which the arm and leg are extended to the side) TRACE (to follow step by step) reversed (from below; down entry) + E (middle letter of [centre of] ENTRECHAT) ECART< E |
| 10 | Religious texts stir RCs up unusually round Spain (10)
SCRIPTURES (religious texts) Anagram of (unusually) STIR RCS UP containing (round) E (International Vehicle registration for Spain) SCRIPTUR (E) S* |
| 12 | Moths, three fluttering over, are caught soaring (10)
HETEROCERA ( a loose term for moths, distinguished from Rhopalocera [butterflies]) Anagram of (fluttering) THREE + O (over) + (ARE + C [caught]) reversed (soaring ; down entry) HETER* O (C ERA)< |
| 18 | Scots over there in Perth on derricks (7)
THONDER (Scottish word for yonder [over there]) THONDER (hidden word in [in] PERTH ON DERRICKS) THONDER |
| 19 | Seaside plant mum pulled up, cutting stalk (7)
SAMPIRE (alternative spelling of SAMPHIRE [an umbelliferous plant of sea-cliffs, seaside plant) MA (mother; mum) reversed (pulled up; down entry) contained in (cutting) SPIRE (stalk) S (AM<) PIRE |
| 22 | Bracken artist found climbing famous mountain (6)
ARARAT (famous mountain reputed to be the final destination of Noah’s Ark) (TARA [variety of bracken found in New Zealand and Tasmania] + RA [Royal Acaemician]) all reversed (found climbing; down entry) (AR ARAT)< |
| 23 | Brit overseas mixed oat in grafted veg (6)
POMATO (a tomato grafted on a potato; grafted veg) POM (Australian term applied to a person who has immigrated from the British Isles; Brit overseas) + an anagram of (mixed) OAT POM ATO* |
| 25 | Feet in blended pastel (6)
PLATES (feet) Anagram of (blended) PASTEL PLATES* |
| 26 | Tincture, faint? Concentrated it was held to have curative powers (6)
ORGONE (according to Wilhelm Reich, a vital force permeating the universe, which, concentrated in a specially made orgone box, could cure certain diseases) OR (a heraldic term for the tincture gold or yellow, indicated in engraving and chiselling by dots) + GONE (weak or faint) OR GONE |
| 28 | Compartment, a killer containing little breadth (5)
CABIN (compartment) CAIN (in the Bible, we read that CAIN killed his brother ABEL) containing [containing] B (abbreviation for [little] breadth) CA (B) IN |
| 29 | In old letters what’s scribbled under? (5)
RUNED (in old letters [RUNEs]) Anagram of (scribbled) UNDER RUNED* |
I remember getting through about half of this without too much trouble, then really getting stuck for a while. In retrospect, nothing really stands out as all that unusual, though. I think the long perimeter solutions helped a lot this time. Nice job on the blog.
Thanks for the blog, I agree with Cineraria @1 the perimeter clues were very friendly and very helpful.
When checking at the end I did notice a lot of secondary look-ups . My Chambers93 even gives SATIVE (obs) .
For cribbage we say prial but there are many variants of pair-royal . The overseas students are mad on cribbage at the moment , I have had to change some of the terminology.
TALER, the basis of the wordplay in 15ac, could be added to the list of unusual spellings, as it’s more commonly THALER. Re 2dn, I’d previously come across prial, pair-royal and pairial, but not PARIAL; to start with, I was trying to fit AIR into PL and then find an extra letter, until ARIA dawned on me. My C98 doesn’t seem to give INDICTOR under any spelling in the meaning of “charger”; inditer, from the verb indite, is listed but seems to have a different meaning.
INDICTOR/ER is not in Chambers93 but I thought it was implied by indictee .
Yes, INDICTER is in the latest Chambers under the headword INDICT, but not this spelling.
I messed up 30ac/23dn, putting in RATAN and POTATO without thinking it through.
Thanks Azed and Duncan
32ac: I have found indictor with that spelling and the required meaning in Collilns 2023 (p. 994). I really feel that if Chambers and OUP do not come up with new print editions of their dictionaries fairly soon, Collins is the only sensible option for Azed to take up.
I’d be happy for Chambers to update their app. Paper dictionaries have a habit of falling apart and e-dictionaries are easier to take on holiday.