Only one error (and that only the numbering of a clue) in a plain Azed this week.
One or two excellent surfaces (I particularly liked 31 across) and the usual mix of obscure and foreign words, all to be found in Chambers. I’m not sure that I’ve correctly parsed 25 down, and I have a lingering doubt about the fairness of 28 across, but otherwise Azed continues to educate and entertain us.
I see that the correct grid for last week’s competition puzzle has now been published in the paper (although you’d need a magnifying glass to read the numbers) and that the closing date for entries has been extended by a week, although I doubt that anyone was really misled by the obvious error.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SPRINGHAAS | Sparing has set free nocturnal rodent (10) |
| *(SPARING HAS). | ||
| 12 | HAIRTAIL | Fish to welcome round Scottish region (8) |
| AIRT (Chambers gives this as “direction, quarter” so “region” seems a bit loose) in HAIL. | ||
| 13 | SCROWS | Writings: self-contained lines (6) |
| SC ROWS. | ||
| 14 | SPLAT | Part of chair back, thin wooden strip receiving pressure (5) |
| P in SLAT. | ||
| 15 | CHYND | Sliced like old carcase from surgeon – you need doctor initially (5) |
| CH Y N D (initial letters). | ||
| 16 | MEDISE | Render Persian restructured demes outside Iran, not administered (6) |
| I(ran) in *DEMES. It means to become like the Medians, a people of ancient Persia. | ||
| 17 | HARMALA | Sort of caper (so-called) creating damage on wing (7) |
| A charade of HARM and ALA (wing). Chambers defines it as:”The so-called African or Syrian rue of the bean caper family”. | ||
| 19 | ECHO | Nymph in the chorus (4) |
| Hidden in “the chorus”. | ||
| 21 | SYNTONIN | Swaggering ninny’s about to show a bit of muscle (8) |
| TO in *NINNYS. | ||
| 22 | RAWLPLUG | What’ll mess wall up in ultimate bits of amateur building? (8) |
| *(WALL UP) in (amateu)R (buildin)G. Certainly true of most of my attempts at drilling holes in walls! | ||
| 26 | PICA | One of the magpies, pilferer according to hearsay (4) |
| Sounds like “piker” which can mean a pilferer. | ||
| 28 | ANGLIST | Eng. Lit. scholar feeling fraught, about 51 (7) |
| LI in ANGST. Is “feeling fraught” (an adjectival phrase) a fair indication of the noun “angst” I wonder? | ||
| 30 | CRANTS | Was there one for Ophelia? Head of cast does go on! (6) |
| C(ast) RANTS. It’s a Shakespearean term for “a garland carried before the bier of a maiden and hung over her grave”. | ||
| 31 | BITTE | First of Basil’s instructions to the employees: ‘Don’t mention it to the Germans!’ (5) |
| Initial letters of “Basil’s Instructions To The Employees”. Wonderful surface reference to the Fawlty Towers episode. Perhaps surprisingly, “Bitte” is to be found in Chambers and can mean “don’t mention it”. | ||
| 33 | HINDU | Delhi’s sun? It bothers me less possibly (5) |
| Composite anagram: remove the letters “LESS” from DELHI’S SUN and rearrange what’s left. | ||
| 34 | ANNUAL | Hardy is often associated with this regular publication (6) |
| Nothing to do with Thomas, or Oliver, for that matter. | ||
| 35 | INAURATE | Lustrous wild Una with flaming clothing (8) |
| *UNA in IRATE. | ||
| 36 | UNTREASURE | Despoil nature with devastation certain (10) |
| *NATURE, SURE. | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | PACHA | High-ranking Turk, a fellow with power going to the top (5) |
| A CHAP with the P going to the front (or top, as it’s a down clue). | ||
| 3 | RORY | Noisy Scots signifying ‘red’ (4) |
| Older editions of Chambers give “red” as the meaning of the name. | ||
| 4 | IRON-MOLE | Blemish left by old Scots laundry-maid upset one milor (8) |
| *(ONE MILOR). | ||
| 5 | GASHLY | Greyish hideous non-U coats – hideous indeed (6) |
| ASH in (U)GLY. | ||
| 6 | HITMAN | Contract killer? After success, lots Yard put away (6) |
| HIT MAN(Y). | ||
| 7 | ARSEY | Rolling years making one bad-tempered (5) |
| *YEARS. | ||
| 8 | SALIAN | Old Frank’s girl seen with another man? (6) |
| SAL, IAN. The Salians were a tribe of the Franks. | ||
| 9 | MIASMIC | Operatic heroine beginning to complain about a soprano, foul (7) |
| A S(oprano) in MIMI, C(omplain). | ||
| 10 | ALTERNATELY | One not long ago embracing bird? Cheer shows how he appears (11) |
| TERN in A LATELY; cHeEr. Presumably the overall sense is intended to refer to one whose sexuality has changed, but it seems weak as a definition. | ||
| 11 | ESCHERICHIA | Bacteria, full-flavoured, I found in a cheese almost going off (11) |
| RICH I in *(A CHEES). | ||
| 18 | FOPLINGS | Dandies producing little work, engrossed in sprees (8) |
| OP in FLINGS. | ||
| 20 | CAPRINE | A member of royal family, clubs taking precedence, lecherous? (7) |
| A PRINCE, with the C transposed to the beginning of the phrase. | ||
| 23 | WHANAU | Extended family husband dressed in pale gold (6) |
| H in WAN AU. It’s a Maori word. | ||
| 24 | LASCAR | Foreign sailor left sand banks, rounding Cape (6) |
| L, C in ÅSAR (a kame or esker, or sandbank). | ||
| 25 | UNCATE | What’s crooked relative at replacing first in line? (6) |
| I think the wordplay is UNC AT E, replacing L IN E, but I wouldn’t be entirely surprised to be told that I’ve got it wrong. | ||
| 27 | STURT | Disturbance in Scotland caused by royal pretender, losing one? (5) |
| STU(A)RT. | ||
| 29 | STAIR | Flight from Carstairs (5) |
| Hidden. | ||
| 30 | TUTU | Its berries are poisonous – vengeance locally follows merest taste of them? (4) |
| T, UTU. Another Maori term, as, appropriately, is UTU meaning vengeance. The correct number should be 32: the program adopts the numbering as printed originally and I have left it unaltered. | ||
*anagram
I parsed 25dn as AT replacing L in UNCLE.
Managed to get both 20dn and 30ac wrong.
Thanks Azed and Bridgesong. I had 25dn the same way as Dormouse @1.
28ac: I took “feeling fraught” as a noun phrase.
10dn: I think the first six words are just wordplay, and the last five form the definition.
Lots of trips to the big red book required this week, and a lot earlier too than I usually need them. Thankfully short of errors this week!
10d. Cheer contains the letters H and E, fitted into the word alternately. That’s my theory.
Dormouse and Pelham Barton: thanks both for putting me right about UNCATE. I had all the elements but couldn’t put them together.
John Brown: I had attempted to indicate this in the blog. I don’t follow Pelham’s point on this clue: in what way do the last five words define “alternately”? They illustrate it, but that’s not the same.
Bridgesong@5 re 10dn: I take your point that the last five words of this clue are more of an illustration than a direct definition, but I still think that is the only part of the clue in which Azed is intending to represent the full meaning of the answer. It will be interesting to see what (if anything) appears in the notes when the solution is published.