A 12 x 12 grid with four 11 letter words, but no 4 letter ones.
The shorter words in Azed puzzles can often be tougher to solve than the longer ones, with fewer crossing letters available, so this puzzle was probably on the easier side. There were nevertheless some obscurities which I hope I have explained adequately, although for the most part I don’t bother simply repeating the definition to be found in Chambers. I was fooled at first by the incorrect spelling at 10 across and I was unaware of the second definition at 19 across. It took me far too long to parse the clue for SWEET ALE.
| ACROSS | ||
| 2 | SPLINTER BAR |
What supports springs? Pole holding belt in – right, possibly (11, 2 words)
|
| *(BELT IN R) inside SPAR (pole). Apparently it’s part of the suspension system of a coach. | ||
| 10 | HARI-KARI |
Suicide? Not right – give ear, lilting air about one (8)
|
| I (one) inside HARK, *AIR. It’s a misspelling of HARA-KIRI, hence “not right”. | ||
| 12 | ORANT |
Worshipper hastened amid Christian text (5)
|
| RAN (hastened) inside OT (Old Testament, Christian text). | ||
| 13 | ALMUCE |
Hooded cape, capital when held by dancing girl (6)
|
| UC (upper case, or capital) inside ALME, a spelling of ALMA, a dancing girl. | ||
| 14 | TAXEME |
Language element to make heavy demands on old relative (6)
|
| TAX (make heavy demands on) EME (obsolete term for an uncle). | ||
| 15 | PETIT |
Large part of inner hunger, not significant (5)
|
| (ap)PETIT(e). | ||
| 16 | SWEET ALE |
Tasteless water swallowed? It’s certainly not bitter (8, 2 words)
|
| My first thought that this was a DLM clue with an extra letter, like the recent competition (the extra letter being an S). It was only much later that I realised that it parsed as WEE (water) inside STALE (tasteless). | ||
| 17 | SESEY |
Reverse affirmations? It meant ‘nuff said’ (5)
|
| YESES (rev). A Shakespearean term, which might derive from a Spanish or French word. | ||
| 19 | REELER |
Dancing Scotsman? A warbler in the grass (6)
|
| Double definition: it’s the grasshopper-warbler. | ||
| 21 | POONCE |
Pole aforetime, Nancy down under (6)
|
| I suppose that this parses as PO (le) ONCE, but I can’t find any support for the abbreviation. | ||
| 24 | PASHM |
Crush middle of stomach in fine wool (5)
|
| PASH (crush) (sto)M(ach). | ||
| 27 | HUARACHE |
Sandal one’s in pained mostly, twice (8)
|
| A (one) in HUR(t) ACHE. | ||
| 30 | ERROR |
School basics about over after English clanger (5)
|
| RRR (the 3 Rs, or school basics) surrounding O(ver), following E(nglish). | ||
| 31 | OUTGUN |
Middle of round includes damaged gut and defeat in shooting, … (6)
|
| *GUT inside (r)OUN(d). | ||
| 32 | RELOAD |
… Precluding need for one awkward ordeal? (6)
|
| *ORDEAL. The definition refers back to the previous answer, linked by the double ellipse. | ||
| 33 | CHELA |
Religious novice from part of the capital (not south-east) (5)
|
| CHEL(se)A. | ||
| 34 | SARSENET |
Fine silk tissue snare damaged in value (8)
|
| *SNARE inside SET (value). | ||
| 35 | PIPE-CLEANER |
Part of smoker’s wherewithal? Pierce panel in pieces (11)
|
| *(PIERCE PANEL). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PHOTOSPHERE |
Source of solar light, ardent in pop’s unwrapped present (11)
|
| HOT (ardent) inside *POPS, HERE. | ||
| 2 | SARAPE |
Showing taste, copy warm blanket (6)
|
| SAR (a Scottish form of “savour”), APE (copy). | ||
| 3 | PRAXIS |
Prince riding deer in India as customary action (6)
|
| PR (ince), AXIS (a white-spotted Indian deer). | ||
| 4 | LINEMEN |
US footballers from eastern state clothed in e.g. cotton (7)
|
| ME (Maine: eastern US state) inside LINEN. | ||
| 5 | NAVEW |
Wild root vegetable our lot shovel up (5)
|
| WE VAN (van can mean a shovel) (all rev). | ||
| 6 | TRACERY |
Maple in sample ornamental openwork (7)
|
| ACER (maple) inside TRY (sample). | ||
| 7 | RAMET |
Individual plant soak has enveloped before noon (5)
|
| AM (before noon) inside RET (soak). | ||
| 8 | BRUTAL |
Tough course in workshop taken up (6)
|
| RUT (course) inside LAB (rev). | ||
| 9 | ANCILE |
Might one find Rome concealed with this, one miracle possibly (6)
|
| Compound anagram: take the letters of “ONE MIRACLE” and remove the letters of ROME, and you are left with an anagram of the answer. According to Chambers, this refers to the shield believed to have fallen from heaven on which the prosperity of the empire depended, making the clue an & lit. | ||
| 11 | DETERMINATE |
Fixed engagement taking in East End, fashionable (11)
|
| E TERM (East End) IN (fashionable) all inside DATE (engagement). | ||
| 18 | DECADAL |
Transaction involving rotter, to do with tenners (7)
|
| CAD (rotter) inside DEAL (transaction). | ||
| 20 | EARTHEN |
Make round article of clay (7)
|
| THE (definite article) inside EARN (make). | ||
| 22 | OUREBI |
Wild ox once enveloped in charm, creature roaming the plains? (6)
|
| URE (old wild ox) inside OBI (a charm). | ||
| 23 | OARLAP |
Distinctive rabbit causing row with leaping mate (6)
|
| OAR (row) PAL (mate, rev). Apparently (this is a word I’ve never met before) it means a rabbit with its ears standing out at right angles to its head. | ||
| 25 | SAGENE |
Clever chap bags measure in old net (6)
|
| EN (a measure used in printing) inside SAGE (clever chap). | ||
| 26 | HAULER |
One tries to draw some money in Czechia including heart of resources (6)
|
| (reso)U(rces) inside HALER (Czech monetary unit). | ||
| 28 | ROOSE |
Praise for some was swelling, filled with love (5)
|
| O (love) inside ROSE (was swelling). Chambers classifies it as “dialect” hence “for some”. | ||
| 29 | HOWRE |
Old time tart lowering her head somewhat (5)
|
| WHORE with the first letter, or head, dropping a couple of places. It’s an old spelling of “hour”. |
“po” is in Chambers 2016 as an abbreviation for pole.
Thanks for the blog , PHOTOSPHERE was a gift for me and gave so many first letters .
Not a good week for Chambers93 , I could not find SPLINTER BAR , ALMUCE ,SWEET ALE , POONCE , HUARACHE and RAMET although did not look too hard for some . All the wordplay was there so they had all gone in .
Roz @2, you may find SWEET ALE under the headword beer in your version. It’s unusual as it’s not defined separately, but just mentioned under “bitter beer”
Thanks Tim but the ale is NOT in bold in C93 , it is not a two word entry , the term is just mild or sweet . It may be different in later versions .
Tim C @2: you’re right of course. I looked under po, but it’s listed separately under po. (with the full stop).
It’s in C83 Roz under the beer headword….
“beer……..
…..; bitter beer pale ale, a highly hopped beer made from the finest selected malt and hops (mild or sweet ale being of greater gravity or strength, and comparatively lightly hopped);……”
Roz@2: much the same for me with C98, although SPLINTER BAR is in (under splint) and ALMUCE (as “see amice”). Being pedantic (again!): 15ac, “large part of” was a bit imprecise; and 9dn, the shield (and copies of it) were apparently kept in a kind of museum, so didn’t “conceal” Rome (I get the use of conceal for the purposes of wordplay, just a bit imprecise as an &lit). 22dn: as an observation, “once” seems to be doing double duty, as URE is given in Chambers as an obsolete word for an extinct animal (better known as urus).
I’m blogging next week and because the Guardian/Observer website has done something odd, I printed this one out thinking it was today’s. So now I’ll have to do today’s. The only questions I had was why does Azed from time to time, with no apparent justification, say ‘old’ as in 25dn? Chambers doesn’t say it’s old. It says it’s rare. And why does set = value in 34ac? I pored over the Chambers definitions of both set and value and couldn’t find anything. Perhaps I missed something.
Will@8 , Azed uses old to indicate words that are obsolete , archaic etc . He is not totally consistent , missing it out sometimes or , as here , using it when not needed .
Set is well known for having the most entries , SET = VALUE is there in Chambers93 , about halfway .
Do not worry about the blog , we all know Azed can be very awkward and we like to discuss things on here . Sometimed we disagree but we do not fall out .
Will @8: it’s the verb sense of “set” that can mean value, not the noun as you might suppose from the clue.
A quick update for Azed solvers:
Azed puzzle, No. 2,757 (20 April), is 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!
Thank you Caitlin@12 very helpful . Is it the same for Everyman ?
@Roz, yes that’s the text same as the link I posted yesterday. See also my latest posts on GD. Everyman will also move.
Small point – I parsed 27ac as:
A (one) in HUR(t) ACHE(d)
Thanks, Aaron J @15. When solving this puzzle, I was impressed by Azed’s scrupulous attention to detail in using the past tense “pained” to ensure that both words HUR(t) and ACHE(d) were only “mostly” required. I was too lazy to comment on this myself, but I’m glad that someone did!