Azed 2333

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I rattled through most of this very quickly, but took at least as long again on the last half-dozen clues (I think the SW corner was the last to fall). Thanks to Azed

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. CYNIPS Wasps of a kind, see, reverse of troublesome? (6)
C + SNIPY<
8. TOYS Nursery stuff, lush, set back round yard (4)
Y in SOT<
12. OVEN-READY Duck and every cut requiring no preparation before cooking (9)
O + (AND EVERY)*
13. NOWT Highland cattle in the present time (4)
NOW + T – related to the more familiar ‘neat’ for cattle
14. REVOKE Faux pas at the bridge club? It’s made by vicar all right! (6)
REV + OKE. To revoke is to fail to follow suit in Bridge and similar games
16. SO-CALLED Nominal codes unscrambled, completely grasped (8)
ALL in CODES*
17. TUGRA Wherein you’ll see initials of Turks, usually grand royals actually (5)
First letters of Turks Usually Grand Royals Actually, &lit – it’s ‘the ornamental monogram of the Turkish Sultan’.
18. SPODE China mug, eastern (5)
SPOD (‘a socially inept person’) + E
20. UNENCUMBERED Rube, dunce men ragged without hindrance (12)
(RUBE DUNCE MEN)*
21. PAREIRA BRAVA Diuretic making you pee, shifting a barrier with narcotic drink (12, 2 words)
P + (A BARRIER)* + AVA (= kava, a Polynesian drink)
23. ARLES Rhone valley travellers may stay here – down payment required (5)
Double definition
25. SCRIM E.g. curtain fabric, barely old but needing end trimmed (5)
SCRIMP (obsolete ‘barely’) less its last letter
26. UNHALLOW One end for church: permit to deconsecrate? (8)
UN + [churc]H + ALLOW
29. SAULIE One paid to keen, that is in the wake of Scottish spirit (6)
SAUL (Scots ‘soul’) + I.E. giving a hired mourner
30. DADO Border giving Dutch trouble (4)
D + ADO
31. OMNIRANGE Navigation system that when faulty could make marine go north (9)
(MARINE GO N)*
32. STAR Leader on the right board dismissed (4)
STAR[board]
33. STEADY Date’s arranged with boy’s latest regular (6)
DATES* + [bo]Y
Down
1. CONK Endless sign of problem with engines arising – before they do? (4)
Reverse of KNOC[k] (engine noise indicating a problem) – I think I’ve only ever seen this in the phrase ‘conk out’, but Chambers seems to think it can appear on its own. There doesn’t seem to be a definition here, except by implication: perhaps the clue could have said ‘…before they do this‘.
2. NEW AGE Dreamy music, not once preceding payment (6, 2 words)
NE (old ‘not’)+ WAGE
3. INTERNEE Suspected terrorist, possibly, that is found clutching crumpled tenner (8)
TENNER* in I.E.
4. PRESA Symbol in score all over the place in operas (not old) (5)
OPERAS* less O
5. SEROPURULENT Like infected blister, sore? Rule punt out (12)
(SORE RULE PUNT)*
6. SARCOMATOSIS Bend in body and jerk gripping one – result of tumours (12)
ARC in SOMA + I in TOSS – so if you ever need two twelve-letter words for unpleasant medical conditions, you know where to come..
7. IDEAS Let’s have fish, roughly a pound – what do you think? (5)
IDE (fish) + AS (‘a Roman pound of 12 ounces’; ‘roughly’ seems redundant here)
9. OBOL Cockney vagrant maybe left old coin (4)
[h]OBO + L
10. YOKE-DEVIL Kid lovey spoilt with ultimate in love, partner in wickedness once (9)
(KID LOVEY [lov]E)*
11. SEEDED Fully grown as one of the best players (6)
Double definition
15. LUNARNAUT Buzz, possibly? A brutal nun squashes bee with one! (9)
(A BRUTAL NUN)* less B, the Lunarnaut in question being Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin, second man on the moon
19. PERCIDAE Most of crew in river swim brought up freshwater fish (8)
CRE[w] in EA DIP, all reversed
21. PAUSES The old man makes something of short breaks (6)
PA USES
22. ARCANA Secret remedies college fed to a prince (6)
C in A RANA
24. SLIMY Sycophantic one superior to maiden in cunning (5)
I + M in SLY
25. SWART Singular excrescence, malignant (5)
S + WART
27. HUMA Restless bird, kind, getting end away (4)
HUMA[n] – Chambers defines this as ‘a fabulous restless bird’ (from the Persian for phoenix), which doesn’t leave me much the wiser. Wikipedia knows a bit more.
28. GOEY Pleasure-loving Scots, full of love, energetic (4)
O in GEY (Scots form of ‘gay’, in what is now the old-fashioned sense)

6 comments on “Azed 2333”

  1. Very similar story here. Rapid progress to the north, slowing as I moved south. On the whole though on the gentle side for Azed.

  2. 15d: I have to confess to thinking of Buzz Lightyear when writing in LUNARNAUT – and I haven’t even seen the film Toy Story. Evidently (see wikipedia), 10% of school children in 2010 believed that he was the first man on the moon rather than Aldrin, after whom he was named. Not that it makes any difference to the solution. Thanks to Azed for a good puzzle at the easier end of the range – more so than today’s – and to Andrew as well.

  3. I have no memory of completing this but I have completed grid so I guess I did. 🙂

    As to Buzz Aldrin, he was actually the second man to step onto the moon, after Armstrong. I did see Aldrin speak once at an SF convention in Los Angeles about 20 years ago. He came on stage brandishing a Buzz Lightyear doll and actually said, “To infinity and beyond.”

  4. I wondered about the LUNARNAUT clue; where is the anagram indicator? “squashed” refers to the elimination of the letter b. “possibly” is part of the definition (by example, hence the qualification and question mark). And what does “with one” add to the wordplay?

    Congratulations, though, to Azed on the anniversary celebrated today.

  5. bridgesong – I read 15d as meaning that if you ‘squash’ (LUNARNAUT [the ‘one’, i.e. the answer] + B) you get A BRUTAL NUN, so it’s really a simple kind of composite anagram.

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