A fairly straightforward Azed.
I completed this a bit quicker than I’d normally solve an Azed, and am fairly confident in all of my parsings except that of FRESH.
Thanks Azed.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DRESSING-SACK |
What covers wound discharge? Woman may use it in boudoir (12)
|
| DRESSING (“what covers wound”) + SACK (“discharge”)
Dressing-sack is an old term for a woman’s dressing gown. |
||
| 10 | WESTIE |
Terrier is twee when dressed up (6)
|
| *(is twee) [anag:when dressed up] | ||
| 12 | AS TO |
Regarding clergyman, not ‘priest’ outwardly (4, 2 words)
|
| (p)ASTO(r) (“clergymen”) without Pr. (priest) [outwardly] | ||
| 13 | TROUSER |
Appropriate transactions around reveille (7)
|
| Tr. (transactions) around ROUSE (“reveille”) | ||
| 14 | NURDLE |
Score here and there, returning single unimportant? Not I (6)
|
| [returning] <=RUN (“single” in cricket) + (i)DLE (“unimportant”, not I) | ||
| 15 | BROOM |
Shrub given space behind front of bed (5)
|
| ROOM (“space”) behind [front of] B(ed) | ||
| 16 | GRIDELIN |
Violet Grey having smirk about foreign food place? (8)
|
| GRIN (“smirk”) about DELI (“foreign food place”) | ||
| 19 | VICAR |
Religious deputy, man from Rome holding cases (5)
|
| VIR (Latin for “man”, so “man from Rome”) holding CA (cases) | ||
| 20 | ISOLINE |
Element of climatic graph is first to include US island (7)
|
| IS ONE (“is first”) to include LI (Long Island, so “US island”) | ||
| 21 | MATRASS |
Chemical flask, in tangles round point (7)
|
| MATS (“tangles”) round RAS (headland, so “point”) | ||
| 23 | SMASH |
Band pockets millions for terrific success (5)
|
| SASH (“band”) pockets M (millions) | ||
| 26 | STIPITES |
Stalks ancient paths round mine shaft (8)
|
| STIES (old word for paths, so “ancient paths”) round PIT (“mine shaft”) | ||
| 28 | ROROS |
Ferries old men traversing river (5)
|
| ROOS (kangaroos, aka “old men”) traversing R (river)
RORO stands for roll on, roll off. |
||
| 30 | CILICE |
Jersey etc with parasites, get-up for penitents (6)
|
| CI (Channel Islands, so “Jersey etc”) with LICE (“parasites”) | ||
| 31 | EPIMERS |
Compounds refashioned premise (7)
|
| *(premise) [anag:refashioned] | ||
| 32 | SLUB |
Line penned by understrapper, lumpy (4)
|
| L (line) penned by SUB(ordinate) (“understrapper”) | ||
| 33 | KERNEL |
Sailors shortly boarding ship, forming nucleus of a sort (6)
|
| RN (Royal Navy, so “sailors shortly”) boarding KEEL (“ship”, poetically) | ||
| 34 | HEMIPARASITE |
Saprophyte? I perish with a mate, decayed (12)
|
| *(i perish a mate) [anag:decayed] | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DWANG |
See Jock’s strut, pale for love of Scottie? (5)
|
| D(o)G (“Scottie?”) with WAN (“pale”) for (i.e. instead of) O (love) | ||
| 2 | REBURIAL |
Incomplete rule with a bier involved in second funeral? (8)
|
| *(rul a bier) [anag:involved] where RUL is [incomplete] RUL(e) | ||
| 3 | STADDA |
Saw wee boy died in it (6)
|
| TAD (“wee boy”) + D (died) in SA (sex appeal, so “it”)
A stadda is a double bladed saw. |
||
| 4 | SILLER |
What Sandy may have spent for pop endlessly? (6)
|
| SILLER(y) (a type of champagne, so “pop”, endlessly)
Siller is a Scots word for money (cf silver) |
||
| 5 | NARCISSI |
Scan iris mistaken for spring flowers (8)
|
| *(scan iris) [anag:mistaken] | ||
| 6 | GLOB |
Dollop, drop of liquid in cakehole (4)
|
| [drop of] L(iquid) in GOB (“cakehole”) | ||
| 7 | SAUREL |
What’s caught off US coast in sound, reddish-brown (6)
|
| Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [in sound] of SORREL (“reddish-brown”)
Saurel is another name for the horse-mackerel or scad. |
||
| 8 | ASSOCIATION |
Union anti-Co., as is, squabbling about nothing (11)
|
| *(antico as is) [anag:squabbling] about O (nothing) | ||
| 9 | KORMA |
It may be consumed in Bangkok or Madras (5)
|
| Hidden [in] “bangkoK OR MAdras” | ||
| 11 | SERICTERIUM |
Gland yielding fluid, mostly jaundiced within (11)
|
| SERUM (“fluid”) with [mostly] ICTERI(c) (“jaundiced’) within
The sericterium is the gland in a spider or a silkworm which produces webs or similar discharges. |
||
| 17 | LISTERIA |
Bacterium found in trials, i.e. after treatment (8)
|
| *(trials ie) [anag:after treatment] | ||
| 18 | UNSECRET |
Sun out before canonical hour is up, concealing nothing (8)
|
| *(sun) [anag:out] before <=TERCE (one of the hours of the Divine Office, so “canonical hour”) | ||
| 22 | RHOMBI |
Rib tidied round house before noon – their sides are all equal (6)
|
| *(rib) [anag:tidied] round Ho. (house) before M (meridiem, so “noon”) | ||
| 23 | SPIREA |
Rosy shrub requiring heat in spring (6)
|
| IRE (“heat”) in SPA (“spring”) | ||
| 24 | MILORS |
Gentry rarely having run in fancy limos (6)
|
| R (run) in *(limos) [anag:fancy] | ||
| 25 | FRESH |
Is fed without second, hot, salt-free (5)
|
| F(i)RES (“is fed” without second (letter)) + H (hot) | ||
| 27 | SELLE |
Race whose winner is auctioned without right saddle once (5)
|
| SELLE(r) (“race whose winner is auctioned”) without R (right) | ||
| 29 | SEEP |
Get penny for leak (4)
|
| SEE (“get”) + P (penny) |
Thanks loonapick.
25 is FARES (as in “we fared very well at his table”) – it’s in Chambers.
Old Men for adult kangaroos was tricky.
Thanks as ever to Azed.
I agree with Gonzo@1 that “fares” was intended, but I also thought that “fires” just about worked, too.
It took me the longest time to see how ISOLINE worked. “L.I.” for “US island” felt like a bit of a deep-dive.
The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo is one of Rudyard Kipling’s Just So stories, but I had to check Chambers to confirm as I’m more used to the phrase “Old Man Emu” currently (which Chambers doesn’t have).
I didn’t even start this one, being busy and leaving it too late, but I’m dropping in to raise the matter of the sale of The Observer, and the intention to place its content behind a paywall. If that paywall includes Azed, will that put it at risk? I’m guessing a considerable proportion of the people who solve the puzzle every week, and who post clues for the monthly competitions, do so via the free online pdf.
As someone who currently subscribes both to The Observer and to Tortoise Media, I am in a fortunate position, but I understand the concern expressed by Michael R @4. I suspect that what to do about puzzles, including crosswords, is a very long way down the agenda of those currently negotiating the proposed sale, but it would do no harm to raise the issue. The only email address I can find on the Tortoise app is hello@tortoisemedia.com but I imagine that any communications will be forwarded to those in charge.
Agree with Cineraria@2 that LI is a bit of a deep-dive – too deep for me, as I couldn’t parse it! I also wasn’t sure of the connection between old men and kangaroos. I was using my 1988 Chambers, which was missing quite a few words (eg DWANG, SERICTERIUM, SPIREA), but the wordplay was clear enough and Google confirmed most things.
Thanks for the blog.
Thanks Azed and loonapick
20ac: On page 881 of the recommended dictionary (Chambers 2016), we have the following:
LI abbrev : Light Infantry; Long Island (US).
That seems perfectly fair to me.
Often when completing Azed, I will bung in an answer that must be right but which I can’t parse and mean to look at it later, but I often never do. Last week, FRESH, ISOLINES and ROROS I didn’t parse (not helped by accidentally entering RIROS for the last).
I do have The Observer delivered, but it is a complicated history. When I left university, I started getting the Sunday Times but they went on strike in the late seventies and I started getting The Observer. A comment in my office got me interested in Azed and started solving it, even submitting entries even to the clue writing puzzles. Then The Independent started and I switched to Beelzebub. Then the paper went online only so I started getting The Observer again. But if I’m away (as I was a couple of weeks ago) I don’t get the online puzzle.
Born the same year as Sir Jeremy Morse I may be Azed’s longest addict. Started on Ximenes in 1956 or so, on a train journey. Went through the “Tiny” Rowland phase an delighted when the Ob became part of the Guardian group. So sad if it loses that link. I used to have the “slip” in which I was a fellow VHC with a whipper-snapper called Jonathan Crowther.
Thanks as always for another mental trampoline. and to loonapick for the blog.. just settled to 2736
Dwang, roros, gridelin, dressing sack,nurdle, siller, selle, hemiparasite, sericterium (explicated by icteric), matrass, stipites, idoline, saurel, cilice. The last one I believe I’ve seen before, the others are varying degrees of obscure and were new to me and I can’t imagine them coming in by handy any time soon.
Cheers
Keith@9, I can beat you by a year. My parents took the Observer, and my mother insisted that the Everyman was her monopoly, so I had no alternative but to try the Ximenes. In 1955 I bought a copy of Chambers (New Mid-Century Version) with my birthday money, and that’s what got me started.