Azed 2387

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This all went in quickly and smoothly, with the application of quantities of educated guesswork, and just a bit of trouble finishing off the NW corner. Thanks to Azed.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. FROTH S ign of cold weather, not special, teeth only ultimately chatter (5)
FROST less S + [teet]H. The clue (at least in the PDF version) incorrectly has a space between the S and I of “Sign”
6. PRECISE Very complicated recipes (7)
RECIPES. Chambers gives “very, identical” as one definition of precise; as in phrases such as “the very/precise thing”
12. LARGACTIL All upset about tragic playing, requiring tranquillizer (9)
TRAGIC* in ALL*
13. IMPROV I am in favour of verse that’s ad-lib (6)
I’M PRO V[erse]
15. SLIME Gooey stuff, not fat, on rear of univalve (5)
SLIM (not fat) + [univalv]E
16. BANGLA Asian language, no good in north Welsh town (6)
NG in BALA (town in Snowdonia) – an alternative for the Bengali language
17. ALAAP Introductory musical section, one in a round (5)
A in A LAP – an introductory section to an Indian raga
20. PERIANTH Part of flower Her Madge stuck in bent hatpin (8)
ER (the Queen, informally “Her Madge”) in HATPIN*
21. EPHEMEROPTERA Mayflies etc a rheometer revived with pep! (13)
(ETC A RHEOMETER PEP)*
23. RECTORAL The Lord’s concerned with court examination (8)
RE + CT + ORAL – referring to the definition “of God as a ruler”
27. GLOUT Nothing in excess? Sulk as before (5)
O in GLUT
29. DUPLET Sweet turns allowed for a pair of sixes maybe (6)
Reverse of PUD (pudding, sweet) + LET – a duplet is “a like throw of two dice”, e.g. a double six; I think the surface is suggesting scores in figure skating, etc, though I see that the system in which 6 was the maximum score in such events was superseded in 2005
31. ATILT Busy getting lance’s head in, as in a joust? (5)
L[ance] in AT IT (busy)
32. PLISSÉ ‘Puckered’ fabric? Piles machined round front of shirts (6)
S[hirts] in PILES*
33. PERSIMMON Version of memoirs penned by posh name initially? It’s plummy (9)
MEMOIRS* in P[osh] N[ame]. The persimmon has (or is) a plum-like fruit
34. TRYSTER One who’s agreed to meet in Coventry’s terminus (7)
Hidden in CovenTRY’S TERminus
35. CRANE I’ll draw off liquor, a dash of rum – stick around (5)
R[um] in CANE – “a bent pipe for drawing liquor out of a cask”, taking its name from the long-necked bird, I would presume
Down
1. FLABBERGAST Workshop with British work unit occupying fixed floor (11)
LAB (workshop) + B + ERG (unit of work in the CGS system) in FAST (fixed)
2. RACA Carmen, amateur, useless (4)
RAC (Royal Automobile Club, so “car men”) + A. This word (meaning “worthless”, from Chaldean) appears once in the bible, in Matthew 5:22: “But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.” So, mind what you say to your brother…
3. O-RING Barrel lost dry seal (5)
BORING (dry) less B[arrel]. A failed O-ring seal was the cause of the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster in 1986
4. HAPLY One in hospital set perchance (5)
A in H PLY
5. SCRAPE Tricky spot right inside shaft (6)
R in SCAPE
7. RIVER Plate e.g. duke nicked from club (5)
DRIVER (golf club) less D
8. COLLATE Merge short section of text that’s overrunning? (7)
COL[umn] + LATE
9. INIA Outstanding capital features in Bernini aquatints (4)
Hidden in bernINI Aquatints – plural of “inion”, “the external occiptal protuberance”, i.e. the slight bulge you can feel half way down the back of your skull, so “capital” here means “of the head”
10. SUMATRA What may cause traumas at sea? (7)
TRAUMAS* &lit – sumatra is a “short violent squall”, named after the island
11. ELEPHANTINE Cumbersome peahen trips catching end of bill on spike (11)
[bil]L in PEAHEN* + TINE
14. OVERALL Protective garb, taking everything into account (7)
Double definition
18. SPELTER Impure metal forming second shower of missiles (7)
S + PELTER
19. SETULES Bristles? Use half of them wrongly (7)
Anagram of USE + [bris]TLES
22. OLDISH Over 50, belle getting on a bit (6)
O[ver] L (50) + DISH (atttactive woman)
24. RUPEE Currency unit, note about to increase over euro (5)
UP (to increase) in RE (note, as in do-re-mi) + E
25. MUSIC Is in with climbing band of yesteryear (5)
Reverse of IS in CUM (with): archaically used to refer to a band of musicians. This is the sense used in the title “Master of the Queen’s Music”
26. ULEMA Professional theologian providing some useful emails (5)
Hidden in usefUL EMAils
28. OILY Like lardy-cake, or what it’s served on, without topping? (4)
DOILY less its “topping”
30. EXON Former mate subject to senior officer in the Guards (4)
EX (former mate) + ON (subject to) – it’s “one of the four commanding officers of the Yeomen of the Guard”

6 comments on “Azed 2387”

  1. Yet again they have messed up the today’s AZED, by linking to a png of he grip, not the pdf of the puzzle.

  2. Thanks to Azed and Andrew (AA, other Carmen)

    I managed about half of this before recourse to Chambers, so felt rather pleased with myself, especially with 20 and 21 – botany and biology – going in on wordplay alone.

  4. One or two I didn’t quite follow, but overall this was an average Azed – in terms of difficulty, not in terms of enjoyment, because this was as good as always. Now the impatient wait for them to sort out today’s puzzle.

  5. A minor typo – 21ac is an anagram of A RHEOMETER PEP.

    There was one clue that I wasn’t entirely happy about. In 3dn, we are expected to understand ‘Barrel lost dry’ as meaning ‘a word for dry minus an abbreviation for barrel’; if there were a comma between ‘lost’ and dry’, I think the solver can reasonably interpret the wordplay as ‘[with] Barrel lost, dry’, but in the absence of punctuation I feel it’s iffy. ‘Clothing taken off, the man pitched into the pool’ and ‘Clothing taken off the man pitched into the pool’ mean two different things.

    Generally I thought the clues were well up to standard, perhaps with the exception of 14dn, where the two definitions of OVERALL (albeit one of a noun and the other of an adverb) are more closely related than strikes me as ideal.

    Incidentally, I took the ‘Carmen’ in 2dn to refer to the Royal Automobile Club of Pall Mall rather than the spin-off RAC motoring services organisation of Walsall, as the former seems to fit the Chambers definition of ‘carman’ more accurately (being a group of drivers rather than of mechanics, although the Club does now admit both men and women), justifying the omission of a ‘perhaps’ or similar fancifulness indicator.

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