Azed No. 2,766 – plain

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This grid seemed impenetrable until I managed to get a few crossers established . . .

. . . but apart from a few quibbles (noted below), and barring some overlooked subtlety, this seemed reasonably straightforward when all was said and done.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1 PAVID
Page, eager to be paid and mousy? (5)
P (page) + AVID (eager to be paid)
5 SUSPENS
Old poet a monarch’s left enthralling us, held back as before (7)
SPENS[ER] (old poet) minus ([has] left) ER (a monarch) around (enthralling) US, attributed in Chambers to Milton, thus “as before”
10 METAPELET
Jewish foster-mother, married, with rations allowed (9)
M (married) + ÉTAPE (rations) + LET (allowed)
12 STROP
He’s expelled from chorus in a paddy (5)
STROP[HE] (chorus) minus ([is] expelled from) HE
13 DELICE
Dainty to free of infestation, one might suppose? (6)
Double/cryptic definition, the latter read jocularly as “de-lice”
14 TREMOR
Met middle part of arrow fixed in quiver (6)
Anagram of (fixed) {MET + inside letters of (middle part of) [A]RRO[W]}
16 DOCK
Wharf detail, might one suppose (4)
Double/cryptic definition, the latter read jocularly as “de-tail”
17 LIENAL
Milt’s almost all found alongside Nile, working (6)
Anagram of (working) NILE + AL[L] minus last letter (almost), both meaning “of the spleen”
18 THAT’S TORN IT
T-topper isn’t curved round peak? I do regret it! (11, 3 words, apostrophe)
T- + HAT (topper) + {anagram of (curved) ISN’T around (round) TOR (peak)}
20 CURETTEMENT
Scoundrel pitched tent around river, causing scraping of tissue (11)
CUR (scoundrel) + {anagram of (pitched) TENT around TEME (river)}
24 ARROBA
Run over, having gone into carriage (variable weight) (6)
{R (run) + O (over)} inside (having gone into) ARBA (carriage)
26 LYSE
Get gradually better as part of daily serotherapy (4)
Hidden in (as part of) [DAI]LY SE[ROTHERAPY]
28 ANNATS
Post-mortem payments in Scots law, tons not left in records (6)
ANNA[L]S (records) with T (tons) substituting for (not . . . in) L (left)
29 INDOLE
Chemical compound by way of pittance (6)
IN (by way of) + DOLE (pittance)
30 TOLAS
Nothing in season returning? They tip the scales in India (5)
O (nothing) inside (in) SALT (season) reversed (returning)
31 DO-GOODERY
Zero success with poem in frigid self-righteousness (9)
{O (zero) + GO (success) + ODE (poem)} inside (in) DRY (frigid)
32 EVENTED
Competed in equestrianism, just 50% boredom (7)
EVEN (just) + TED[IUM] (boredom) minus second half (50%)
33 EISEL
Stale vinegar is enveloped in fish (5)
IS inside (enveloped in) EEL (fish), listed in Chambers as “obsolete,” thus “stale”
DOWN
1 POSTDOC
Advanced research work having position to render before college (7)
POST (position) + DO (render) + C (college)
2 ASTROTURF
Short jog in a browse? Durable stuff (9)
TROT (short jog) inside (in) {A + SURF (browse)}. Chambers lists this as a two-word registered trademark, but other sources list this as one word.
3 VARECH
Running over beaches causes obese such wrack! (6)
Compound/composite anagram (running . . . causes . . . such): OVER BEACHES = VARECH OBESE
4 DEPORT
Gave e.g. metaphor to being brought up in exile (6)
TROPED (gave e.g. metaphor to) inverted (being brought up)
5 STORM-STAYED
Confined to port once, maybe, rages with date spoiled about year (11)
STORMS (rages) + {anagram of (spoiled) DATE around (about) Y (year)}. I am not sure why the clue says “once,” unless this term is an historical relic from the Age of Sail.
6 SPEK
Fatty bacon doesn’t go off when turned over with centre removed (4)
KE[E]PS (doesn’t go off) inverted (when turned over) minus middle letter (with centre removed)
7 PELTER
Sharp downpour? One’s safe, left inside (6)
L (left) inside PETER (safe), with “one [is]” redundantly referring to the solution as being an example of the definition
8 ELIAN
Typical of Charles, trusty when outsiders are absent (5)
[R]ELIAN[T] (trusty) minus outside letters (when outsiders are absent), referring to Charles Lamb, who wrote under the pen name Elia.
9 STEEL
Sword handle (5)
Double definition
11 ADULTERATED
Mature, a tree shown wrongly with date falsified (11)
ADULT (mature) + anagram of (shown wrongly) {A TREE} + D (date)
15 WAIT STATE
Period for fetching data? It was confused with gallery (9, 2 words)
Anagram of (confused) {IT WAS} + TATE (gallery)
19 TRESSEL
Supporting beam? Certainly not large T – wrong way up (7)
[THE] LESSER T (could be regarded as certainly not [the] large T) inverted (wrong way up)
21 EOZOON
Ooze that’s reset covering fossil organism? (6)
Anagram of (that’s reset) OOZE + ON
22 MONTRE
Organ pipes that interrupt sermon tremolando (6)
Hidden in (that interrupt) [SER]MON TRE[MOLANDO]
23 NYALAS
They roam plains in SA, and also may be seen in big city, sad to see (6)
NY (big city) + ALAS (sad to see)
24 ASIDE
US private, second held by attendant officer (5)
S (second) inside (held by) AIDE (attendant officer), with “US” here referring to American usage
25 RADGE
First in rank demoted somewhat, an unpleasant Scot (5)
GRADE (rank) with the first letter G moved farther down in the word (demoted somewhat), Scots for “an unpleasant person”
27 BLOT
Drunk not accepting a disgrace (4)
BLO[A]T (drunk) minus (not accepting) A

10 comments on “Azed No. 2,766 – plain”

  1. [I’ve just come back from two weeks in Spain and I have to say that I’m disappointed by a couple of comments on Azed 2764. Please desist with calls for any form of discipline when a clue or answer doesn’t sit well with you. Or risk facing a ban]

  2. Thank you, Admin.

    I do not find Azed crossing boundaries unless you are particularly, effusively, and, in my opinion, not just politically, correct, but you are not allowed to speak good English any more. Azed’s clues are based on Chambers Dictionary.

    I shall be back when I’ve calmed down.

    I found this one very hard.

    Stefan

  3. I struggled with this. I had a Zoom meeting Sunday lunchtime and never really
    got into it, and had to resort to a lot of cheating on Monday to finish.

  4. Glad I wasn’t the only one who found this tricky. Needed a nudge or two from Doctor Clue.
    Thanks to Cineraria

  5. I read a number of clues without feeling much the wiser, but got going in the south-east corner (helped by being familiar with ANNATS, TOLAS and EISEL); then it gradually yielded.
    Stefan@2 – there are a number of words in Chambers that would not usually be considered “good English” – slang terms as well as offensive ones. The word in question from 2764 isn’t even in my C98 (although it’s certainly not a recent coinage). However, I fully agree with the comment from Admin@1.

  6. Managed to finish within my own allowed boundaries – i.e. any searching for words that you could reasonably do with a hard copy of Chambers – I used to spend many Sundays when I was young hunting through Chambers for words that would fit 🙂 I finished the right hand side first and so most of the letters I had were towards the ends of words which made life difficult so in the end it took three times as long as the one last week which I found remarkably doable. I failed to parse 25D as I was fixated on the R being the first letter of “rank”. I was pleased that a hazy memory of encountering “speigelei mit speck” in German lessons helped with 6D. Thanks to Cineraria!

  7. ‘Trusty’ and ‘reliant’ don’t appear synonymous to me. Explanations welcome.

    Definitely a tough one.

  8. Aaron J@7: Apparently, both words have a less common or archaic meaning of “trustful.” In current common usage, I would take “trusty” to mean “reliable,” and “reliant” to mean “dependent.”

  10. I talked myself into sot accepting n for not with def as a disgrace, contemptible person. Also befuddled with R for range as I’d put ionone in as my chemical . Definitely a struggle, and, obviously because I was wrong, hard work. Thanks

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