Azed No. 2,742 Plain – Competition Puzzle

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Some of the clues in this week’s Azed felt a bit quirkier than usual. I think that I have provided a fair parsing for everything, but I look forward to any further elucidation that might be forthcoming in the comments.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1 SUG
Attempt sale deviously, involving more than 50% flattery (3)
More than 50% [of] SUG[AR] (flattery)
4 TOMBOYISH
Like a sort of ladette, sit by homo uncomfortably (9)
Anagram of (uncomfortably) SIT BY HOMO
10 EPEIRA
Garden arachnid kept in jar, i.e. peering round (6)
Hidden in (kept in) [J]AR I.E. PE[ERING] reversed (round)
11 VALUE
Prize? Upholder’s No. 1 in the world (5)
First letter of (No. 1 [of]) U[PHOLDER] inside (in) VALE (the world)
13 ATONAL
Making entry into Sheraton although lacking a key? (6)
Hidden in (making entry into) [SHER]ATON AL[THOUGH]
14 RIBALD
Church education, in short, blunt and coarse (6)
RI (church education, in short) + BALD (blunt)
15 HIMATION
If once lacking vigour, put on hot old cloak (8)
H (hot) + [AN]IMATION (vigour) minus (lacking) AN (if once, i.e., archaic form)
16 RECTORAL
Clergyman briefly has spoken of God as ruler (8)
RECT (clergyman briefly) + ORAL (spoken)
18 GO-TO
What’s only resorted to in desperation received nul points! (4)
“GOT O” (received nul points, i.e., got zero [as a score])
20 CARÊME
Lenten period was approaching – recipe with bit of excess limited (6)
R (recipe) + first letter of (bit of) E[XCESS] inside (limited [by]) CAME (was approaching)
22 CERUSE
Pigment causing dash of eosin in earthenware pot (6)
First letter of (dash of) E[OSIN] inside (in) CRUSE (earthenware pot)
23 ÉLAN
Spirit ever-present in Ireland (4)
Hidden in (ever-present in) [IR]ELAN[D]. This might also be read as clue-as-definition, I think.
25 HUISSIER
Doorkeeper is needed in both directions with lookout man around (8)
HUER (lookout man) around {IS + IS with the second reversed (in both directions)}
29 ASSEGAAI
Spear from a long time back, thrust into a monkey (8)
AGES (a long time) reversed (back) inside (thrust into) {A + SAI (monkey)}
30 LEARNT
Was informed of adjustment to rental (6)
Anagram of (adjustment to) RENTAL
31 GRATIS
Complimentary quota not on when getting into G & S (6)
RATI[ON] (quota) minus (not) ON inside (when getting into) {G + S}
32 EVERT
Turn out former court star (5)
Double definition, the latter referring to tennis great Chris Evert
33 BEMETE
Old measure reached in what’s associated with carpenter? (6)
MET (reached) inside (in) BEE (what’s associated with carpenter?, i.e., a carpenter-bee), listed in Chambers as “archaic,” thus “old”
34 TENEBROSE
Dark (9)
The competition word
35 RID
Free journey requiring no energy (3)
RID[E] (journey) minus (requiring no) E (energy)
DOWN
1 SEAHOG
Porpoise I’m surprised to see in leaping spells (6)
AH (I’m surprised to see) inside (in) GOES (spells) inverted (leaping)
2 UPTIE
Conclude marriage that’s at an end beforehand (5)
UP (at an end) + TIE (marriage), with the rest of the clue indicating the order of the wordplay
3 GEOMETRIDAE
Moths mate, ergo die, fluttering (11)
Anagram of (fluttering) MATE ERGO DIE
4 TINAMOU
Bird like a partridge can love having tail clipped (7)
TIN (can) + AMOU[R] (love) minus last letter (having tail clipped)
5 ORATRESS
She commands the podium, alternatively dominating varied stares (8)
OR (alternatively) + anagram of (varied) STARES
6 BAROCCO
Flamboyant only child bitten by writhing cobra (7)
OC (only child) inside (bitten by) anagram of (writhing) COBRA
7 YA-BOO
Nothing in a boy changed what one might say with contempt (5)
O (nothing) inside (in) anagram of (changed) {A BOY}
8 SULU
Fijian sarong, universal in water channel (though it’s slipped off) (4)
U (universal) inside (in) SLU[IT] (water channel) minus (though . . . slipped off) IT
9 HEDDLE
Lyric tenor? He departs, led astray (6)
HE + D (departs) + anagram of (astray) LED, presumably referring to (William) Heddle Nash (June 14, 1894 – August 14,1961), evidently a very highly regarded operatic performer in his day
12 LAUREL-WATER
Sedative liquid a late ruler mixed with dash of whisky (11)
Anagram of (mixed) {A LATE RULER + first letter of (dash of) W[HISKY]}
17 TABRERES
Old drummers err badly, in grip of wasting away (8)
Anagram of (badly) ERR inside (in grip of) TABES (wasting away), Spenser, thus “old”
19 LEISTER
Spear on Tay could make eel stir (7)
Anagram of (could make) EEL STIR, Scottish, thus “on Tay,” used for salmon fishing
21 RED GAME
Moorland quarry in tale going round school (7, 2 words)
REDE (tale) around (going round) GAM (school). This is listed in Chambers toward the end of the entry for game¹, defined as “grouse.”
22 CHALET
Holiday house, and what it often is after tea (6)
CHA (tea) + LET (what it [i.e., a chalet] often is, i.e., rented out)
24 NOISED
Foreign river in North Dakota? One often comes across this abroad (6)
OISE (foreign river) inside (in) ND (North Dakota). I am not sure that I see a definition per se here, unless a very cryptic one. Chambers defines the phrase “noised abroad” as having “spread by rumour or word of mouth.”
26 SERRE
Society misbehaved endlessly – press close in (5)
S (Society) + ERRE[D] (misbehaved) minus last letter (endlessly)
27 HAITI
WI location? You’ll find greeting round island (5)
HI (greeting) around (round) AIT (island)
28 YEVE
The old donate in clemency everywhere (4)
Hidden in (in) [CLEMENC]Y EVE[RYWHERE], Spenser, thus “old”

12 comments on “Azed No. 2,742 Plain – Competition Puzzle”

  1. Thanks Cineraria, well done in finding red game in Chambers. I eventually found it in a Scots dictionary.
    I suppose that if something is noised abroad, one often cones across it. An odd one.
    Thanks as ever to Azed.

  2. Thanks Azed and Cineraria
    24dn: I put this in unparsed. I think you have the right idea, and that “One often comes across this” relates to the usu where Chambers gives the meaning of noise as a verb marked “usu with about or abroad“. I think Azed has done this sort of thing before on a small number of occasions.

  3. Thanks for the blog, well done for finding RED GAME , I checked red but not game , I did assume it must be the grouse.
    NOISED , I think we are all agreeing really but I took the definiton as “this” , hard to explain in writing.
    HEDDLE seems a bit of a stretch to me for a definition , wordplay was fine. Azed will often give a brief note for something like this with his Chambers recommendation.

  4. I can’t remember anything that is worthy of comment in this one. I do remember coming up with what I thought was a good clue for TENEBROSE, which will probably mean that it won’t rate a mention. 🙂

  5. Thanks Azed and Cineraria. I haven’t been doing Azed for long and I think Heddle was the first actual person clued (maybe an emperor or suchlike). Took me a long time. Otherwise all the rest were the usual fun quirky and difficult

    Like TimC above I was very happy with my clue – which dooms it to no mention

  6. PSA. The answers to Playfair special were published today. I seem to remember reading that blog was written but held as closing date seemed to be a likely misprint

  7. If 24dn is meant to mean “one often comes across this expression [ie noised abroad]”, I beg to differ! It seems old-fashioned to me. I thought 9dn was rather obscure – perhaps that was the reason for the question-mark. Chambers gives a word HEDDLE, defined as a series of vertical cords or wires in weaving, but perhaps Azed found that too much of a challenge to work into a clue!
    18ac: I don’t have the latest Chambers, so I don’t know how it defines GO-TO, but all the online definitions I found suggested it was something you could rely on (which is what I thought myself) – not at all “what’s only resorted to in desperation”. Can anyone enlighten me?

  8. A couple I couldn’t parse (that I remember). 9dn seemed obvious to me, as someone interested in English music, but seemed it might be obscure to the general public, or even the Azed-solving public. (Chambers does give HEDDLE as a term in weaving.)

  9. MunroMaiden@7: We crossed.

    The Chambers definition of GO-TO is “To be resorted to with confidence in an emergency” but not what I would have defined it as.

  10. Dormouse@9 – thanks for that. I guess people tend to use it without the “in an emergency” bit of the definition. Glad someone is familiar with HEDDLE!

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