Azed 2435

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A moderately tricky Azed this week, and one where I often had the experience of constructing a possible answer from the wordplay and then confirming with Chambers that it really was a word that fitted the definition: a tribute to the excellence of the clueing. Thanks to Azed

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. CORCASS First of clues across clued as ‘Irish salt-marsh’ (7)
C[lues] + ACROSS*
7. CHIMP You may see me involved in much impishness (5)
Hidden in miCH IMPishness &lit
13. ARAEOMETER Specific gravity gauge showing old measurement in jungly tree area (10)
OM (“Old Measurement”, says Chambers, capitalised, but without further elucidation as to what it means) in (TREE AREA)*
14. AUGUR One divining gold, unrefined stuff, from cane (5)
AU (gold) + GUR (Hindi word for an unrefined sugar)
15. LIBERO Member of team reconditioning boiler (6)
BOILER*. It’s another word for a sweeper in football – a player who can move freely around the field
16. UNGLOVED Ready for a serious fight, loaded gun held close (8)
GUN* + LOVED
17. MARONITE Uniat spread, on replacing central mass (8)
MARMITE (spread) with ON replacing the central M – a member of a particular Christian sect
18. TIBET Norman (say) coming over ousts leader of Britons in this country (5)
Reverse of (Norman) TEBBIT less (one) B[ritons]
20. BASIC Count, almost 100, without extras (5)
(Count) BASI[E] (bandleader) + C (100)
23. FAURD Heart of heuch in remote, deserted Scotland’s well-liked (5)
[he]U[ch] in FAR + D[eserted] – Scots form of “favoured”
26. SPENT Crisp entrecote only partly consumed (5)
Hidden in criSP ENTrecote
27. ICTERINE Yellowish cuckoo inert, frost-bound (8)
INERT* in (bound by) ICE
31. ACALEPHE Jellyfish making one jump, as before, in pain (8)
A LEP in ACHE
32. DANGLE Show to encourage girl that’s lost heart in Hamlet? (6)
G[ir]L in HAMLET (who was a Dane)
33. ARSES Barristers clearing every second character– they’re upbeat (5)
Alternate letters of bArRiStErS – not what you might think, but the plural of “arsis”, meaning an up-beat
34. E CONTRARIO Action or reaction? Not at all (10, 2 words)
(OR REACTION)* – a Late Latin version of “on the contrary”
35. RELET As part of exposure, letters released (5)
Hidden in exposuRE LETters, with released = re-leased
36. OSMANLI Fellow in oil’s rolling, a Turkish dynast (7)
MAN in OILS*
Down
2. OPUNTIA Cactus bursting out, and pain’s involved with it (7)
(OUT PAIN)*
3. RAGGA Rhythmical stuff, grand in south Asian piece (5)
G in RAGA (piece of Indian music) – Ragga is a type of rap derived from Reggae, but despite the similarity of the names it apparently comes from “ragamuffin”
4. CRULLER Sweet cake recipe – one reducing numbers restricts it (7)
R[ecipe] in CULLER (one reducing numbers of e.g. deer)
5. SELVAS Luminance being admitted rescues towering rainforests (6)
L in reverse of SAVES
6. SOLERA Sherry casks filling señora with local cheer (6)
OLE (a Spanish cheer) in SRA (Señora – rather surprisingly, this abbreviation is not in Chambers)
8. HEBEN Erstwhile black personification of youth, note (5)
HEBE + N – an old variant of “ebony”
9. ITEMISE I strain to retain first of ingredients in list (7)
I + I[ngredients] in TEMSE (a sieve or strainer)
10. MERIT Club, first in table, displaying worth (5)
MERI (club) + T
11. PROTECTRESS Rubbish etc churned out in the papers. Guardian may be one (11)
ROT + ETC* in PRESS
12. FAULT‑FINDER Critic in review anti, ruffled (11)
(ANTI RUFFLED)*
19. BUTANOL One of an isomeric pair saving an elderly person sine die (7)
BUT (saving) + AN OLDIE without (“sine”) DIE
21. APTERIA Bird’s bare patches more appropriate on centre of dial (7)
APTER + [d]IA[l]
22. INSHELL The old withdraw from sin dodging place where it often occurs (7)
SIN* + HELL
24. CICERO Decorator in company, type that’s close to English (6)
ICER (one who decorates a cake) in CO. Cicero is “a measure of type between pica and English” – see here for more
25. ANABAS Adventurous fish one catches round middle of beach (6)
[be]A[ch] in A NABS – “an East Indian fish that often leaves the water”
28. CHACE Chestnut, one in traditional hunt (5)
CH + ACE – variant of “chase”. CH = chestnut must be the abbreviation that Chanbers dosn’t give, as mentioned in the rubric; I couldn’t find any justification of it online, and I don’t know if it’s used in the context of trees, horses, or something else Ignore this – I looked again in Chambers and there it was. See 6d for the actual missing abbreviation.
29. EIGNE Without siblings, seeing one’s first off, possibly? (5)
Anagram of [s]EEING – it means “first-born”, so without siblings at least for a while
30. EPSON Big electronics company producing record issue (5)
EP (record) + SON (issue)

9 comments on “Azed 2435”

  1. ch. abbrev. = chestnut is given in my 2006 edition. So now I can’t find the one that Azed’s referring to!

    Stefan

  2. Thank you Andrew, I didn’t know the singular of 33 so assumed some public school spectacle.

    I think ch. is for the colour of horses in racing.

    And Old Measure could be the pre Saxon standardisation of various lengths.

    Very nice puzzle.

  3. Thanks Azed and Andrew

    6dn/28dn: Further to Marmite Smuggler, Sra for Señora is the abbreviation I could not find in Chambers 2014, although Sr for Señor is there.

  6. I remember coming across the ARSES plural many years ago in another crossword.  I couldn’t remember the abbreviation for senora and was surprised I couldn’t find it.

    The one that appears to have defeated me was 25dn.  A week later, I can’t remember if I couldn’t work it out or I just didn’t notice I’d not done that clue.

  7. Thanks to all above and, of course, to Azed.

    An aside, if I might add: Azed 2435 included two answers or lights that had appeared in quite recent puzzles. EIGNE had appeared in 2420 as well as 2435. There were two different clues, both, in my opinion, quite nicely derived.

    The other answer or light was ACALEPHE, in Azed 2423 and 2435. This had a virtually identical clue, with the same wordplay.

    I am aware that barred crosswords, with the few unchecked letters, are likely to lead to equally few unchecked words which fit the possibilities. So if ACALEPHE has to turn up twice, I might at least be trying to come up with a variant clue.

    Stefan

  8. The clue for 5dn prompted me to look in more detail at a reversal indicator (for down entries) which I had always viewed with some suspicion, ‘towering’. The definitions of verbs given by Chambers can sometimes make it hard to determine the senses in which they can be used, with Cruciverbophile’s ‘touring’ from last week being a good illustration. I am happy to report that the usage examples given in the OED have led to ‘towering’ being given my PG rating (pretty good).

    The parsing of 29dn (“Without siblings, seeing one’s first off, possibly?”) was interesting. I take this to be SEEING without the first letter of SIBLING (“one[ie sibling]’s first off”) rearranged (‘possibly”), although the whole thing does seem a tad clunky.

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