Possibly my quickest Azed solve yet.
After years of solving plain Azed’s I am at lat getting the hang of it, rattling through this one really quickly helped by the four longest entries being fairly easy to solve. But then it came to the parsing, and that took a wee bit longer, especially as I could not see the parsing of ENDLESS at all, but kenmac stepped up to show me what I was missing.
Thanks Azed (and kenmac)
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ESPRIT FOLLET |
Gremlin that diverts English prof’s little (12, 2 words)
|
| *(e profs little) [anag:diverts] where E is English | ||
| 10 | SORUS |
Spore cases getting to soak mostly when penetrated by start of rain (5)
|
| SOUS(e) (“to soak”, mostly) when penetrated by [start of] R(ain) | ||
| 11 | PIEND |
Projecting angle, one in vaulted passage north of the border (5)
|
| I (one) in PEND (“vaulted passage north of the border”, i.e. in Scotland) | ||
| 13 | PLASMA |
Bright green stone filled with luminance dad’s set before mum (6)
|
| PA’S (“dad’s”) filled with L (luminance) set before MA (“mum”) | ||
| 14 | REMADE |
Some more madeira in fresh rendering (6)
|
| Hidden in [some] “moRE MADEira” | ||
| 15 | MATE |
Couple formerly exhausted tea (4)
|
| Triple definition, although the third is actually MATÉ | ||
| 17 | TINK |
Chime bringing together elements from district in kirk (4)
|
| Hidden in [bringing together elements from] “districT IN Kirk” | ||
| 19 | LEANED |
Directed round old bear bent over (6)
|
| LED (“directed”) round EAN (“old” word for “bear” as in “to give birth”) | ||
| 20 | TRADITORES |
Persecuted Christians adroitest when hiding round Rome’s capital (10)
|
| *(adroitest) round R(ome) [‘s capital]
The only word in the clue that indicates an anagram is “round”, but I can’t make the clue work unless “when hiding” can also be an anagrind? |
||
| 22 | RACECOURSE |
Star with jinx goes round unplaced after run here? (10)
|
| ACE (“star”) with CURSE (“jinx”) round 0 (unplaced, in the form column of a racecard) after R (run, in cricket) and semi &lit. | ||
| 24 | ROO-BAR |
It protects driver in the outback, and sounds like rumpus without breadth? (6, 2 words)
|
| Homophone/pun/oral wordplay of [sounds like] RHUBAR(b) (“rumpus” without B (breadth)) | ||
| 25 | CUIT |
Skene-dhu may be stuck in here – and what results when one’s stuck in? (4)
|
| CUT (“what results when stuck”) with I (one) in
Cuit is a Scots word for ankle, which isn’t a million miles away from where a Scot would wear his skene-dhu. |
||
| 28 | NOIL |
One duck nips another producing separated fibre (4)
|
| NIL (“duck”) nips O (“another” duck) | ||
| 30 | RATITE |
Bird that can’t fly – it’s limited in speed (6)
|
| IT limited by RATE (“speed”) | ||
| 31 | ASPINE |
One poetic tree like another (6)
|
| AS (“like”) + PINE (“another” tree)
Aspine is an alternative to “aspen”. |
||
| 32 | SCEND |
Plunge into trough – baconers do? O, this boar possibly (5)
|
| *(baconers do) [anag:possibly] is an anagram of “boar SCEND“ | ||
| 33 | TONER |
Turkey has a certain stuffing, something that adds quality (5)
|
| TR (International Vehicle Registration for “Turkey”) has ONE [“a certain”] stuffing | ||
| 34 | STREETS APART |
Trap teasers set deviously taking in tons? Quite different (12, 2 words)
|
| *(trap teasers) [anag:set deviously] taking in T (tons) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | SOLDI |
Foreign cash I added to pay once (5)
|
| I added to SOLD (old word for pay, so “pay once”) | ||
| 3 | PRAJNA |
Justice included in essential life force or understanding of Buddhism (6)
|
| J (Justice) included in PRANA (“essential life force” in Hinduism) | ||
| 4 | ISMATICAL |
Suffering calamities, energy spent, being addicted to faddish ideas (9)
|
| *(calamitis) [anag:suffering] where CALAMITIS is CALAMITI(e)S with E (energy) spent | ||
| 5 | TRAT |
Good place for pizza or pastry served up (4)
|
| <=TART (“pastry”, served up) | ||
| 6 | FORELOCK |
Cabbage climbing in branch? It’s for plucking! (8)
|
| <=COLE (“cabbage”, climbing) in FORK (“branch”, e.g. in a road) | ||
| 7 | LIMP |
Floppy disc I’m featured in (4)
|
| I’M featured in LP (long-playing record, so “disc”) | ||
| 8 | LEARNS |
Gets tips around end of dinner (6)
|
| LEANS (“tips”) around [end of] (dinne)R | ||
| 9 | ENDLESS |
Sons going forward with a bit of learning, incessant (7)
|
| (s)END (“forward”) with LES(son)S (“a bit of learning”) with S + SON (sons) going | ||
| 10 | SPUTTERERS |
Those jabbering to give opinion in press wildly (10)
|
| UTTER (“to give opinion”) in *(press) [anag:wildly] | ||
| 12 | DEADLETTER |
Unenforced law to prevent getting wrongly dealt within (10)
|
| DETER (“to prevent”) getting *(dealt) [anag:wrongly] within | ||
| 16 | PERONISTA |
One’s into a Pres. abroad (or was) (9)
|
| *(into a pres) [anag:abroad] and semi &lit. | ||
| 18 | STERNEST |
Stone erected above US writer possibly, extremely rigorous (8)
|
| St. (stone) erected above ERNEST (Hemingway) (“US writer possibly”) | ||
| 21 | RIOT ACT |
S. American diplomacy? It’s aimed to deter rebellious behaviour (7, 2 words)
|
| “S(outh) American diplomacy” if it happened in a certain Brazilian city could be described as RIO TACT | ||
| 22 | ROTTER |
King excessively topping Queen or Knave (6)
|
| R (rex, so “king”) + OTT (over the top, so “excessively”) topping ER (Elizabeth Regina, so “queen”) | ||
| 23 | RUMINA |
I’m involved with a run requiring some guts (6)
|
| *(im a run) [anag:involved] | ||
| 26 | INNER |
Not a bad shot, something very impressive but missing wicket (5)
|
| (w)INNER (“something very impressive”, but missing W (wicket, in cricket)) | ||
| 27 | BINE |
Part of hop, no good in a drinking session (4)
|
| No G (good) in BIN(g)E (“drinking session”) | ||
| 29 | OATS |
Con artist’s regularly shedding such seedy stuff (4)
|
| (c)O(n) A(r)T(i)S(t) [regularly shedding] |
Thanks loonapick.
I think ‘in fresh rendering’ is the definition for REMADE.
Agree that ‘hiding’ is the anagrind for TRADITORES.
In RACECOURSE the O has to be the symbol for ‘unplaced’ – I couldn’t find where that applies.
I touch ENDLESS to be S(ENDLESS)ONS with the surrounding SONS removed.
CUIT is very cute.
It took a long time to twig that 1ac was French.
Thanks as ever to Azed.
O or rather 0 is common for unplaced in any horse racing form guide. The string of numbers and letters next to a horse’s name show the results of previous races with the oldest race on the left. The digits 1-9 indicate finishing position, with 0 indicating that the horse finished outside the first 9, i.e. was ‘unplaced’. The letter U if it appears doesn’t stand for unplaced but that the horse unseated its jockey in that race.
It’s not in Chambers.
Thanks for explaining endless which had me completely foxed
Thanks for the blog, strange how we perceive puzzles, I found this trickier than a normal Plain and took much longer. I did not get going until the bottom half and had to work upwards.
I had ENDLESS the same way as Gonzo @1 , agree that “hiding” gives the anagram for TRADITORES , round is needed to put the anagram around R .
PIEND was a pain , no first letter and no wordplay .
PRAJNA not in Chambers93 but had to be right.
For STERNEST I think the computer has changed your writer to driver.
Thanks Loonapick and Azed
All I can remember about this puzzle is that I posted it off (along with some other important letters) using stamps from a new sheet of 1p stamps that I thought read 1st. Oh well. I really hope Azed didn’t pay the missing postage.
For the missing Chambers93 definition – from the app
prajna /präj’nə/
noun
(in Buddhism) understanding of the truth achieved directly rather than through reasoning
ORIGIN: Sans
I struggled to parse ENDLESS and eventually came up with the same as Gonzo@1, although I think loonapick’s version is also valid. Either requires the second source-word to be Lessons, plural, which seems odd for “a bit of learning”. “Son going forward….” leading to (S)END/LESS(ON) would seem more appropriate.
25ac – CUIT: a skene-dhu (or sgian dubh) is traditionally tucked into the top of a knee-length sock, so quite some way from the ankle. Perhaps Azed was envisaging it stuck into someone else’s ankle with intent to injure?
Agree with Roz@4 about PIEND. PRAJNA was also not in my C98, but confirmed via Google.
Thanks to early commenters:
Gonzo @1 – I’ve amended the blog to reflect your comment about REMADE and have corrected the O/U in RACECOURSE which was a typo (I used to manage a betting shop so did of course know the difference between unseated (U) and unplaced (0).
Roz@5 – I’ve changed “driver” to “writer”. I assume this was autocorrect, but I may have been thinking of something else at the time.
MunroMaiden @7 – as a Scot, I was giving Azed the benefit of the doubt when I suggested the ankle “wasn’t a million miles away”.
Thanks Azed and Loonapick
3dn: prajna is in Chambers 2011 (p 1220) and 2014 and 2016 (p 1219). Perhaps it would help to persuade Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd to bring out the long overdue 14th print edition of Chambers if Azed would promise to use lots of words that are only in that new edition.
I suspect the demand for print dictionaries is now so low, sales would not be enough to justify a new edition. An assistant in Waterstones a few years ago, when I was buying the latest edition of Chambers, said as much.
I would be quite happy just for an upgrade of the Chambers app, maybe even a subscription version.
llonapick @8 : I see ‘a remade’ does exist, but think the adjective sense fits the given definition better.
Loonapick@8: I did think your phrasing “not a million miles away” probably meant you were being generous! 🙂
Finished, but not completely parsed. I could not quite figure out what was going on with MATE (although I should have looked more carefully in Chambers) or ENDLESS, even though those seemed like the correct solutions. The sort of subtraction used in ENDLESS (either version), where the elements to be subtracted are distributed through the source word, is a device that I find very hard to spot on the solver’s side of things, even though I have seen this in previous Azed puzzles. I did not know O or 0 for “unplaced,” either, but if I had known that this was a reference to horse racing, then I see that I might have found this out by diligent googling.