It’s an Azed competition this week so one entry has no wordplay. Solvers can submit their own clue as part of competition.
For me, 1 across, MUSTARD GAS, went in quickly, followed by SUBBIE and ARISTO. The rest of the puzzle didn’t fall so quickly, but I wouldn’t expect it to.
There were a couple of Asian references with Brunei and Bangalore featuring in wordplay. Malay people cover a wide swathe of South East Asia, not just Malaysia. Bangalore changed its name to Bengaluru in 2014, but I expect many solvers still know it by its former name.
We had two similar words as entries – HERETO and HEREAT. In fact, we had three across entries beginning with HER, HERISSON being the third one.
As usual, there were some entries I was not familiar with. Even Chambers seemed unsure of the meaning of PORTLAST, using the word ‘probably’ in its definition. Other new words for me were NEESE, GEMMAE, HERISSON, MBAQANGA, MARIDS and HOUT.
One clue (the one for BLUR) gave us two definitions as well as wordplay.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | Poisonous vapour causing drama with gusts swirling (10, 2 words)
MUSTARD GAS (the vapour from a poisonous blistering liquid obtained from ethylene and sulphur chloride) Anagram of (swirling) DRAMA and [with] GUSTS MUSTARD GAS* |
| 10 | Group creating fuzzy impression from puff book left off (4)
BLUR (English rock band formed in 1988; group) BLUR (confused or fuzzy impression) double definition BLURB (publisher’s commendatory description of a book, usually printed on the jacket; any brief commendatory advertisement; advertising puff) excluding (left off) B (book) – obviously, it is the second B that is excluded, but it is not indicated as such. BLUR |
| 11 | Jewellers’ stone presented by person that is including marriage portion (8)
PERIDOTE (green olivine used in jewellery; jeweller’s stone) PER (person) + (IE [id est; that is] containing [including] DOT [marriage portion]) PER I (DOT) E |
| 12 | Playwright even if old-fashioned (5)
ALBEE (reference Edward ALBEE [1928 – 2016], American playwright) ALBEE (archaic [old-fashioned] form of ALBEIT [even if]) ALBEE |
| 13 | Scotsman’s great, leading ace – some bloke (5)
FELLA (man or boy; some bloke) FELL (Scottish word for great or mighty) + A (ace) FELL A |
| 15 | Malay travel that is returning during prohibition (8)
BRUNEIAN (native of BRUNEI Darussalam, an independent country on the island of Borneo, inhabited by people of Malay descent) (RUN [travel] + IE (id est; that is] reversed [returning]) contained in (during) BAN (prohibition) B (RUN EI<) AN |
| 16 | Noble, one leading unruly riots (6)
ARISTO (member of the aristocracy; nobleman) A (one) + an anagram of (unruly) RIOTS A RISTO* |
| 20 | Ecstasy experienced returning? This calls for blessing (5)
NEESE (sneeze, an action that often attracts the comment ‘bless you’) (E [ecstasy tablet] + SEEN [experienced]) all reversed (returning) (NEES E)< |
| 21 | Brother Etonian must forgo outside foursomes for this (6)
HERETO (for this object) brotHER ETOnian excluding (must forgo) the first four and the last four letter (outside foursomes) BROT and NIAN HERETO |
| 22 | Heroine, divine lady outwardly, displaying budding protuberances (6)
GEMMAE (buds or protuberances from the body that become new individuals) GE (in Greek mythology, the goddess or personification of Earth; divine lady) containing EMMA (heroine of the novel of the same name by Jane Austen [1775 – 1817]) G (EMMA) E |
| 24 | Wander about in Scotland, having time to vouch (5)
TAVER (Scottish word meaning to wander about aimlessly) T (time) + AVER (declare to be true; vouch) T AVER |
| 27 | Effect of sun, absorbing ray by reason of this (6)
HEREAT (at or by reason of this) HEAT (an effect of the sun) containing (absorbing) RE (second note of the scale; ray can be defined similarly) HE (RE) AT |
| 28 | Urchin is second caught by wader (8)
HERISSON (hedgehog in heraldry; urchin is an archaic or dialect word for a hedgehog) (IS + S [second]) contained in (caught by) HERON (a wading bird) HER (IS S) ON |
| 30 | It may seal oil, being a turn-off (not the first) (5)
O-RING (toroidal RING, usually of circular cross-section, used as an air or oil seal for example) BORING (tedious; uninteresting, so being a turn-off) excluding the initial letter (not the first) B O-RING |
| 31 | Cereal crop determined acreage (5)
DOURA (Indian millet; cereal crop) DOUR (determined) + A (acreage) DOUR A |
| 32 | Waving, inappropriate when former reputation’s involved (8)
UNDULOSE (undulating; waving) LOS (obsolete [former] word for reputation) contained in (involved) UNDUE (inappropriate) UNDU (LOS) E |
| 33 | Lines dividing island indicating disasters? (4)
ILLS (disasters) LL (lines) contained in (dividing) IS (island) I (LL) S |
| 34 | Prickly trees surrounded by fragrance (10)
SPINESCENT (having spines; prickly) PINES (trees) contained in (surrounded by) SCENT (fragrance) S (PINES) CENT |
| Down | |
| 1 | Black music: mark query/answer dividing Indian city without lore (8)
MBAQANGA (a type of black African urban music, originating in Soweto) M (mark, think Deutscmark) + ([Q {query} + A {answer}] contained in [dividing] BANGALORE (former name of the Indian city of Bengaluru) excluding (without) LORE) M BA (Q A) NGA |
| 2 | Absorbing books I use variously, he works for main contractor (6)
SUBBIE (sub-contractor, one who works for the main contractor) Anagram of (variously) I USE containing (absorbing) (B [book] + B [book] together giving books) SU (B B) IE* |
| 3 | Short pants, once straight? (4)
TREW (old [once] spelling of TRUE [straight]) TREWS (trousers; pants) excluding the final letter (short) S TREW |
| 4 | Moving back, rediscovered sincere roots (12)
RETROCESSION (moving back) Anagram of (rediscovered) SINCERE ROOTS RETROCESSION* |
| *5 | A sink (12)
DRAUGHT-HOUSE (sink or privy) This is the competition word that has to be clued, so there is no wordplay in the puzzle. DRAUGHT-HOUSE |
| 6 | Remove from legacy, making one think (5)
ADEEM (cancel a bequest by destruction or sale of the thing bequeathed, or otherwise; remove from legacy) A (one) + DEEM (think) A DEEM |
| 7 | Minor joist needing to settle I instilled (6)
SOLIVE (a joist or beam of secondary importance; minor joist) I contained in (instilled) SOLVE (settle) SOL (I) VE |
| 8 | Monster discovered in antenatal after being operated on (9)
ATLANTEAN (gigantic; monster) Anagram of (after being operated on) ANTENATAL ATLANTEAN* |
| 9 | Dead removed from fortification found in ditch (4)
REAN (a local Somerset term for ditch or watercourse) REDAN (fieldwork of two faces forming a salient; fortification) excluding (removed from) D (dead) REAN |
| 14 | Water birds around shoal in large woody plants (9, 2 words)
TREE FERNS (large, tropical FERNS with tall woody trunks) TERNS (long-winged aquatic bird; water birds) containing (around) REEF (shoal or bank) T (REE F) ERNS |
| 17 | Bird losing head in lift? (4)
TEAL (any of several kinds of small freshwater duck; bird) STEAL (llift) excluding the first letter (losing head) S TEAL |
| 18 | Jumpers execute this early – they start with one (4)
JETÉ (a leap from one foot to the other in which the free leg usually finishes extended forward, backward or sideways) JETE (initial letters of each of [they start with] Jumpers, Execute, This and Early) J E T E |
| 19 | Part of ship’s side left full of brine rising (8)
PORTLAST (obsolete term thought to refer to the gunwale; part of ship’s side) PORT (left side of a ship) containing (full of) SALT (brine – Bradford’s gives brine as a synonym for SALT) reversed (rising; down entry) POR (TLAS<) T |
| 23 | Miss being parched inside? Spirits required (6)
MARIDS (members of the most powerful class of jinns; spirits) ARID (parched) contained in (inside) MS (unmarried woman; miss) M (ARID) S |
| 25 | Vessel in line filling rendezvous (6)
VENULE (any of the small-calibre blood vessels into which the capillaries empty, and which join up to form veins) L (line) contained in (filling) VENUE (meeting-place or rendezvous) VENU (L) E |
| 26 | Dram suggests this dish (5)
PIN-UP (portrait pinned up on a wall for admiration; attractive lady; dish) NIP (dram) is a cryptic representation of [suggests] PIN-UP PIN-UP |
| 28 | Cry of derision unreservedly follows end of match (4)
HOUT (alternative spelling of HOOT [cry of derision]) H (last letter of [end of] matcH) + OUT (unreservedly) H OUT |
| 29 | Fossil-bearing, revealing hybrid type of cattle I see (4)
ZOIC (relating to animals; of rocks, containing evidence of life, in the form of fossil; fossil-bearing) ZO (cross between a male yak and a horned cow; hybrid type of cattle) + I + C (see) ZO I C |
Thanks for the blog , I prefer the competitions because I never send them off so I can put in answers and not worry about Chambers and my grid getting messed up later . All the new words were fairly easy to get from the wordplay , MBAQANGA and SPINESCENT in particular . PORTLAST could have had some indication for (obs) .
Next weekend will see the last edition of The Observer to be published by Guardian News and Media Ltd, before the sale to Tortoise Media takes effect the following weekend. Yet this week I have been notified by The Guardian that my subscription to The Observer will continue to be collected by them. In the meantime, a number of long-serving columnists (e.g. Jay Rayner, Simon Tisdall) have published their last pieces in The Observer: we can only hope that the crosswords will continue as they always have done.
Roz@1: there were a number of indications that weren’t given: HERISSON (urchin is dialect or archaic in its meaning of hedgehog), Bangalore @ 1dn being an old name, as duncanshiell mentions in the blog and REAN (a dialect term from Somerset), as well as PORTLAST. It seems to be hit and miss these days whether dialect/archaic/obsolete indications are given. 18dn JETE was a good idea, but I didn’t think it quite worked – I’m not sure a jete is executed “early” or at the start of something (but I may be wrong, as I know very little about ballet).
MunroMaiden I do agree , I just thought PORTLAST the worst of several .
JETE is the whole movement from take-off to landing , the clue is a bit of a mess , early is needed for the E but not the definition , the whole thing sort off tails off .
Jete is not executed early as far as I know having been married to a ballet dancer for nearly 50 years, except it has an early start, a middle flight, and a finishing end. Early’s first letter is part of the wordplay as Roz @4 indicates. Maybe the whole clue should be underlined as the definition in the blog as a sort of &lit.
Not able to join in bot popped in to say hello!
bridgesong @2, there’s further news about the future re Azed on the Clue Clinic site.
A quick update for Azed solvers:
The next Azed puzzle, No. 2,757 (20 April), will be published on the Guardian website as usual. That’s the final edition of The Observer under Guardian News & Media ownership.
From 27 April, Tortoise Media will publish The Observer, and Azed will continue without interruption, appearing both in print and online at the new web address: http://www.observer.co.uk
The format, competitions, and postal submission process remain unchanged.
There will be a new interactive version online, but answers will not be revealed, and solvers will still need to print and submit by post for the weekly competition, to the new address:
Azed No. —-, The Observer, Tortoise Media, 22–24 Berners Street, London, W1T 3LP (including your name and address).
Submissions to the PO Box for the monthly clue-writing competition remain unchanged.
For now, crosswords will be freely available at observer.co.uk. Register on the website and sign up to the Observer Daily newsletter to hear about future plans for crosswords, puzzles and more.
More soon!