Either I’ve been doing this long enough to actually have improved or… (more likely) this was on the easier end of the Azed spectrum. In any event, finished this off in about an hour (v. fast for me) without overly abusing Chambers.
| Across | ||
| 1 | MADRASSAH | Indian city (as formerly) holds back religious school (9) |
| MADRAS=Chennai now, rev(has=holds) | ||
| 8 | FRA | Brother having to adapt without me (3) |
| FRA[me] – where frame=adapt and Fra=brother of the friar persuasion. | ||
| 11 | SHAKE-RAG | Disreputable old fellow, dishevelled rake embraced by whore (8) |
| rake* in shag=whore (v. impolitely I would have thought). | ||
| 12 | DOSSAL | After celebration girl returned church hanging (6) |
| DO=celebration,rev(lass=girl). Good example of wordplay being very obvious and looking up the result in the BRB to learn that it’s a “cloth hanging for the back of an altar…” | ||
| 13 | STANG | Shadow enveloping North Pole (5) |
| STA(N)G – where stang is a pole and to stag is to shadow. | ||
| 14 | SLEEVEEN | Seven bamboozled slippery fellow’s about taken in – Irish one? (8) |
| rev(eel=slippery fellow) in seven* and we get a “smooth-talking person” (in Ireland) — so “Irish one” refers to a kind of ‘slippery fellow’ | ||
| 15 | CUBAN | Like some heels, making copper curse (5) |
| CU=copper, BAN=curse and ref Cuban heels which “were first widely popularized by Beatle boots” | ||
| 17 | ARTSY | Somewhat pretentious, in part symbolic (5) |
| hidden | ||
| 18 | TREFOILS | Non-kosher style of painting heraldic devices (8) |
| TREF=non-Kosher, OILS – “three-lobed form … in heraldry” | ||
| 22 | WELDMESH | Old age: millions kept in we shut up in fencing (8) |
| W(ELD,M)E,SH – eld= archaic age thus “old age — it’s a kind of fencing material. | ||
| 23 | COAST | Take it easy when in bed? (5) |
| CO(AS)T | ||
| 26 | WONGA | Stuff that can be made into a gown (5) |
| (a gown)* — slang for money thus “stuff that can be made” – though the wordplay is “can be made into a gown” so a bit of an overlap. Maybe definition is just “stuff”? | ||
| 27 | STAGGARD | Young adult deer was shocking to those hearing it? (8) |
| Sounds like “staggered” — a four-year old deer so I guess “young adult” makes sense (they grow up so fast). | ||
| 29 | ADDIN | Some extra software a learned cleric installed? (5) |
| A(DD)IN | ||
| 30 | STONED | One’s getting to be so in the old place! (6) |
| ST(ON)ED – but I don’t quite see a definition here unless it refers to getting high — &lit maybe? STED=achaic stead=place. Ref “one’s getting ON” (older). I feel something else might be going (getting?) on. | ||
| 31 | PLENARTY | Occupied living has this union leader accepted by Labour, say (8) |
| P(LEN)ARTY – another case of clear wordplay leading to a result that I looked up in the BRB to find: “the state of a benefice when occupied”=”occupied living”. Ref Len McCluskey | ||
| 32 | TYR | Equivalent of Mars, first of treats youngsters rate (3) |
| First letters. Norse war god. I guess all self-respecting religions have to have their gods of war. My first clue solved. | ||
| 33 | EXTENSILE | Numbers entering banishment that may be lengthened (9) |
| EX(TENS)ILE | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MUDSCOW | Foul woman after diamonds in rising total? One works on flats (7) |
| MU(D)S,COW – D in rev(sum=total). It’s a “flat mud-boat” | ||
| 2 | APOLUNE | Outer limit for spacecraft, one lap somehow including turn? (7) |
| U in (one lap)* – at first I was sure this was apogee proving I can’t count. | ||
| 3 | DOSE | Lead from southpaw penetrates rabbit in nasty bout (4) |
| DO(S)E – doe is also a female rabbit. | ||
| 4 | RISE AND SHINE | Dense, an Irish irregular gets first order of the day? (12, 3 words) |
| (Dense, an Irish)* – my second clue. | ||
| 5 | SHLEP | Clumsy oaf needing help’s at sea (5) |
| (help’s)* — glad to see Yiddish is still alive and kicking. | ||
| 6 | SAGENES | Antiquarian group is missing first book for networks (7) |
| SA=Society of Antiquaries, GENES[is] – networks (probably from fishing nets). | ||
| 7 | HETEROLOGOUS | Abnormal horloge: to use needs winding (12) |
| (horloge: to use)* | ||
| 8 | FRACTION | Rule accepted by party – it may be improper (8) |
| F(R)ACTION – ref. improper fraction. | ||
| 9 | RANKS | Gross son belongs to a particular class (5) |
| RANK=gross,S=son — struggled with this since I had convinced myself early on that g=abbrev(gross) | ||
| 10 | AGGRY | Like beads of glass, silver and dull (but not English) (5) |
| AG=silver,GR[e]Y – “applied to… variegated glass beads” | ||
| 16 | BILANDER | Two-master, wooden frame, light amidships (8) |
| BI(LAND)ER – BIER=wooden frame, LAND=light and “amidships” is the containment indicator. It’s a Dutch two-masted vessel. | ||
| 19 | RESTART | A fresh beginning requiring tranquillity and skill (7) |
| REST,ART – I had renewal on my brain so struggled a bit here though the clue is quite simple and elegant. | ||
| 20 | LOG-REEL | Marine line goes round it, e.g. roller endlessly negotiated (7) |
| (e.g. roll[e])* – it’s… well… a reel on which a logline is mounted. | ||
| 21 | SWADDLE | Wrap deserted dead in a shady spot (7) |
| SWA(D,D)LE – swale=shady spot in deed. | ||
| 23 | COAPT | Adjust cover round piano (5) |
| COA(P)T – another case of premature assumptions — was sure this was adapt. | ||
| 24 | ODDLY | Strangely pious (but not good), about god (5) |
| [g]OD(D)LY – D is Deus=god, godly=pious. | ||
| 25 | WASTE | Gradual decay? It makes law defunct(5) |
| Not sure about wordplay here – I don’t see a sense of WASTE that is a related to law other than archaic “injure”, Pelham correctly notes: W as TE makes laW into laTE. | ||
| 28 | ANTI | Member of the opposition in Churchillian tirade (4) |
| hidden | ||
*anagram
Thanks Azed and Ilancaron
26ac: I took the definition as being simply “Stuff”.
29ac: I think this is just A,DD,IN.
30ac: Chambers gives on = “on the way to being drunk (sl)”.
5dn: A typo in the answer (which is of course SHLEP).
25dn: W as TE makes laW into laTE.
@pelham: thanks for the corrections! embarrasssed didn’t work out 25D
Finished in a faster time than some daily cryptics over the past week, so definitely on the easy side.
Actually, I often find I finish Azed faster than a daily cryptic. (After doing yesterday’s, I went and tried the Indie puzzle and couldn’t finish it.) I think the larger number of checked letters leads to my being able to work out the answers from pattern recognition.