Azed No. 2,748 Plain

11 comments on “Azed No. 2,748 Plain”

1. Thanks Cineraria, the ON in ONCOME is left as in motoring I think?
   Or is it left as in ‘on the menu’?
   Tricky having ‘vessel’ in the wordplay but not the definition of COPPER-BOTTOM.
   Thanks as ever to Azed.

2. Thanks Azed and Cineraria

   26ac: I was not sure what to make of this one. I do not think that “on” = “left” works in cricketing terms, because it would change depending on whether the batter facing the ball is left or right handed, and also of course whether you are looking towards him or away from him.

   27dn: I do not think there is any sort of anagram involved here, but you have given a complete explanation of the clue starting with “the clue translates as”.

3. ONCOME
   A question:
   Could ‘left to’ be ‘ON’?
   Left to you=on you (not exactly?)

4. We’ve been here before with “why is left equal to on” as recently as 2 years ago in Azed 2588 with the clue for HON, “Last bit of lunch left for pet (3)”. I don’t think there’s any support in Chambers for left=on.

5. Thanks for the blog, I also could not justify ON= left, as Pelham Barton@2 says , it is not cricket. The bowler and batter will always disagree on whether the ON side is left or right , regardless of the handedness of each , a simple matter of parity .
   I thought CHIAN was very neat , a good example of “this … ” as the definition .
   BATTEILANT I do not like the BAT going around and also appearing at the start , not wrong just clumsy.

6. I think I’ll allow left = on—it’s just not cricket. Off is still defined as ‘(of a horse or vehicle) right’. And on is defined as ‘not off’. Chambers could equally well have defined it as ‘(of a horse or vehicle) left’, but chose not to.

   In cricketing terms, it’s interesting that Chambers used to define onside as ‘on’, noun, (where mysteriously onside becomes two words) and the definition was ‘on the side on which the batsman stands (normally the bowler’s right)’, which would indeed mean that (normally) on = left. Sometime between 1988 and 2006, Chambers dropped the ‘(normally the bowler’s right)’.

   Azed sometimes pushes his luck as he gets older, in my opinion, but I’ll give both him and Chambers some leeway here.

   Stefan

7. Thanks Azed and Stefan

   Had to come here for parsings and glad to note I wasn’t the only one.

   I had always assumed that the on(leg) / off terminology in cricket was precisely to avoid left and right confusion; eg from which perspective or from lefthanded bat.

   The on side of a car is left in UK but more commonly known as near side. The are definitely better clues for On than Left

8. For those interested in attending the lunch to celebrate Azed 2,750 (to be published next month) there is an obvious typo in the announcement in today’s Observer. It should read 3 May, not 3 March.

9. 22ac and 33ac: Personally I quite liked the mild misdirection in the way these clues were set as “container and contents” types, but the “container” (BR or BAT) could also be found at the start of the answer. I was sure that this was not the first time Azed has done that sort of thing, and only had to go back to Azed 2,745 where MARINER was clued as RINE in MAR.

   26ac: Further to Matthew@7, the recommended edition of Chambers has definitions for the adjective near including “(of horses, vehicles, roads, etc) left, left-hand” (p 1027) and (on the same page) “nearside n the side of a vehicle nearer to the kerb eg when it is being driven, in Britain the left side; the left side of a horse or other animal, or of a team of horses.”

10. Marmite Smuggler @6, my C98 still has “(normally the bowler’s right)” in the cricket-related definition of on. Similar to “on” depending on the handedness of the batsman, the offside of a car is the right in the UK, but would not be in a country that drives on the right (Chambers specifies “towards the middle of the road”). And in the UK, as Matthew says, we talk about “near-side”, not “on-side”. So, I don’t think either of these possible explanations really work, unless we’re being generous.
    22ac: I agree with Cineraria that “odd flavour” isn’t justified by the Chambers definition, where “peculiar” clearly means “particular”.
    Overall, though, I found this one straightforward.

11. Don’t suppose anyone will read this but don’t like to be left out of the chat. Was too busy on Sunday (pleased to polish off 2749 within 90 minutes)
    Re ON “the on side rear door of the car was ajar” was the sense I understood though our US enthusiasts wouldn’t concur.
    How daft that the month for the “do” was March. Not quite as catastrophic as when a “Right and Left” grid was re-numbered by the editor!
    Spring has sprung today.

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