Azed 2465

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A harder-than-average Azed, I thought, with a fairly high proportion of unfamiliar words. All impeccably clued as usual, though I’m a little unsure about my parsing of 28. Thanks to Azed

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. BLACKCAP Sign of ultimate judgment (in a word) for baked apple dish (8)
The “sign of ultimate judgment” is the BLACK CAP, formerly used by judges when pronouncing the death sentence. Azed helpfully (though I think unnecessarily) then tells us to write it as a single word, to get a baked apple dish, which I’d never heard of – recipe here (BLACKCAP is also a bird, which came up in a Phi puzzle that I blogged recently.)
7. SOVS Shiners? Against getting in help! (4)
V[ersus] in SOS (distress signal). Shiner and Sov are both slang for a sovereign (ths coin)
11. THREEPEAT Outstanding NFL achievement? English record in risk (9)
E EP in THREAT – it’s a portmanteau of three and repeat, referring to a triple success in US sport (e.g. American football, hence the NFL)
12. DUB POET Reggae lyricist, but befuddled with dope (7, 2 words)
(BUT DOPE)*
14. ERNE Pine historically planted in eastern empires (4)
Hidden in eastERN Empires. It’s an old form of “yearn”
15. FLATPACK Scrum lacking in energy? It’ll require constructive work at home (8)
The energy-less scrum is a FLAT PACK, giving the type of furniture sold by Ikea et al
16. CHAV One with more money than taste? Here’s chapter and verse about one (4)
A in CH + V. The definition is as per Chambers, though I associate the word more with the description in the Wikipedia article: “a particular stereotype of anti-social youth dressed in sportswear”
18. HAYLE Once robust old fence ends in total collapse (5)
HAY (a fence or hedge) + last letters of totaL collapsE
19. HYSTERICS Fit? Queen kept inside is chesty, poorly (9)
R in (IS CHESTY)*
22. CHELASHIP Being a religious disciple muddled Shia with constant aid around (9)
SHIA* in C HELP
24. CRASS I dropped out of grammar term being grossly stupid (5)
CRASIS less I. Crasis is the merging of two vowels into one, as for example in the French contraction of de le into du
28. CANT Lively tune followed by tenor (4)
CAN + T. I’m not totally sure about this: Chambers gives can. as an abbreviation for the musical terms canon and canto: I think the latter – “the part in a piece of music that carries the melody” is the closest to “tune”
29. PARADING Showing off heavy knife I had held wrong way round (8)
Reverse of I’D in PARANG
31. IMAX Broadcast, I am shown with kiss in latter-day CinemaScope®? (4)
(I AM) + X – like CinemaScope, a trade name for a type of cinema projection
32. ORECTIC Item mostly croc disposed off, having appetite (7)
Anagram of ITE[M] + CROC
33. NILPOTENT Element of abstract algebra that converts 10p into 50! (9)
Anagram of IO P INTO L. I knew this mathematical term as an adjective, but don’t remember coming across it as a noun, as defined here
34. GAEL Set that includes a Celtic speaker (4)
A in GEL (to set)
35. PUTTER-ON Club working as initiator (8)
PUTTER (golf club) + ON (working)
Down
1. BODY‑CHECKING Footballer’s foul play echo’d by misguided Catholic monarch (12)
(ECHO’D BY)* + C KING
2. LAUF Winter sports performance, reverse of fluid but bagging gold (4)
AU (gild) in reverse of FL (fluid)
3. ARBLAST Old weapon gunners brought up – explosion follows (7)
Reverse of RA (Royal Artillery) + BLAST
4. KHOTBEH Sermon based on version of The Book that’s short of love – hard (7)
Anagram of THE BOOK less one O, + H
5. CREPY Wrinkled traveller in Cyprus (5)
REP (travelling salesman) in CY – wrinkled like crepe
6. PEACH Chap crazy about European beauty (5)
E in CHAP*
8. O’ERBY Circular (rarely) one’s taken round Edinburgh’s capital, getting one just beyond there (5)
E[dinburgh] in ORBY (like an orb, so “round”, labelled as rare by Chambers). O’erby is a Scots word for “a little way over”, hence “just beyond there“, i.e. in Edinburgh
9. VANILLIN Cook’s essence? Nothing left – empty bags (8)
NIL L in VAIN (empty)
10. STEREOPTICON Projecting lantern that merges images? Reset differently to select image (12)
RESET* + OPT + ICON
13. TABI Socks worn with sandals I tucked under strap (4)
TAB (strap) + I
17. HYDREMIA Build I harmed with yen for injection – it thins the blood (8)
Anagram of I HARMED + Y[en]
20. CANDENT Once extremely heated, careless drivers —— bodywork (7)
A “fill in the gap” clue – careless drivers CAN DENT bodywork
21. CHANTER Beggar hugging hot pipe in piping (7)
H in CANTER (beggar). A chanter is the pipe attached to a set of bapipes that is used to play a tune, in contrast to the drones
23. EURO Australian native seen regularly in emu brood (4)
Alternate letters of EmU bRoOd. Euro another name for the Wallaroo
25. AVALE Grandparent’s pyre, finally alight as before (5)
AVAL (relating to a grandparent) + [pyr]E – a Spenserian word, meaning to alight, in the sense of “land”
26. SALOP Hot tonic, slushy stuff, one swallowed (5)
A in SLOP
27. CARET The mark of an editor, leader in Courier given award once (5)
C[ourier] + ARET(obsolete word, to award)
30. GIRO In being found wanting, start up income support payment (4)
Reverse of ORIGIN, less IN

19 comments on “Azed 2465”

  1. Believe it or not but this is the first ever barred crossword that I solved. That is, together with my Mrs Chambers.

    Did I like it?  Mmm, not sure. A lot of archaic and obscure stuff.

    Andrew, I had for 28ac: RANT.

    RAN + T, and Chambers gives as one of the definitions of ‘rant’: ‘A lively tune’.

    ps, being not familiar with Azed, are hyphens ignored in the enumeration? (35ac)

  2. Like Sil @1 I had RANT. Chambers has “to follow” (vt) as one of many definitions of run.

    Sil, you’re right about no hyphens being shown after any clue in Azed.

    As for the surfeit of archaisms and obscurities, I think that’s common to barred puzzles. Something about the extra crossers making it harder to fill the grid with common solutions? (I’ve been doing them for less than 4 years so I’m not sure.)

  3. Blow me down: I too had CANT at 28 Ac. “Run” is indeed both transitive and intransitive for “follow”. But I don’t think CANT is wrong. Was it Ximenes or even Torquemada who produced two crosswords with only one set of clues—the clues giving rise to two interpretations? And these were not side-by-side or left-and-right clues either. Some very clever people.

    Sil van den Hoek will learn by next Sunday that there is already no hope for him (I assume him). Please, please take care of Mrs Chambers: she is going to get some very hard treatment but she is almost never unfaithful. (Yes, no hyphens. See the commentary on fifteensquared to Azed 2447 for what you might expect).

    Andrew, I really liked your blog with the odd expansion. But the reference to CRASIS in French is not really a true example. Where I come from, something like “I’ve got to go out” could equally well be spelt “Vgorra gwout”. That merging of the long ‘o’ of “go” and the diphthong of “out” is true crasis. Some say that it’s a triphthong, which would mean that even OED would need to extend its definition. In the 1970s, language experts were recruited to help police in solving the crimes of the Yorkshire Ripper. The police had received tape recordings. Crasis was used to advise that it was likely that the tapes were a hoax.

    Stefan

  4. Many thanks for the explanations Andrew. I also had RANT for 28a as it was one I just could not see clearly any way.

    I have raised the hyphen situation before but had it pointed out to me it is difficult to adequately fit them in without making the solution easier. I now accept it as an added layer of difficulty and find it does not affect my enjoyment of these lexicographic excursions. The only easy solution I can see is to label the solution as something like (8h) for the word count.

    And I must express my continued appreciation of Azed for the exercise.

  6. I don’y like “robust” (which can only be an adjective) as a definition for at 18a. Chambers gives HAYLE as a noun, meaning welfare.

  8. CHAV is an interesting one. From the ODE:

    chav /t?av /
    ? noun British informal, derogatory a young person of a type characterized by brash and loutish behaviour (usually with connotations of a low social status).
    – DERIVATIVES
    chavvy adjective
    – ORIGIN 1990s : probably from Romany chavo ‘boy, youth’ or chavvy ‘baby, child’: sometimes said to have originated in Chatham, Kent, and to be a shortening of that name.

  9. Sil @ 1: Well done! And a quick solve, too, given the time of your post. I reckon you’ll be hooked now.

    I also had RANT, which I think fits the clue bettter. Rants are tunes for country dances prevalent in NE ENgland, which use a particular sort of rather energetic step. In my younger days  I danced and played the fiddle for a great meny of them.

  10. Chris @6. The full OED does give HAYLE as an ME alternative to HAIL (now itself superseded by HALE), meaning robust – though without giving a quotation that spells it that way. But that is a tenuous thread, and Chambers is the recommended dictionary, so I guess you are correct. At the time I didn’t feel the need to check. Nor do I remember if I wrote CANT or RANT. Let me echo the welcome to Sil. On hyphens, it is sometimes claimed that barred puzzles ignore them in the cluing, but some do put (hyphenated) in brackets, the equivalent of what Mystrogre @4 suggests.

  11. Thank you, sidey. I should have assumed that something would turn up sooner or later. Interesting that those soundbites are posted as recently as four months ago, so forty years after the events. It’s safe now to walk uvver Rowland Road ‘ill.

    Interesting also: for me, 2464 (PeeDee’s “easier than usual”) was a long slog. 2465 (Andrew’s ‘harder than average”) seemed to take only one pot of tea.

    The only thing I could not understand was “disposed off” at 32 Ac. Is it just a typo?

    I am annoyed with myself because I am young enough to remember the High Level Ranters!

    Stefan

  12. Marmite Smuggler@11: At least two of the High Level Ranters are still going. Mrs G, playing concertina as the Whitby festival last month was much amused by the sight of Johnny Handle firmly dealing with a barman who had short-changed him, and Alastair Anderson has been here several times.

    It’s a typo for “disposed of”, the anagrind.

    Name Stephan, folk music, and the Newcastle area. You wouldn’t be luthier Stephan Sobel, by any chance?

     

  15. Gonzo@14: Yes, but…

    When I was doing this last week, I assumed that HAYLE was an alternative spelling of hale, but that’s not what it says.    Under Hale, it gives HAYLE as a separate word, meaning welfare, as Chris says.  Possibly, Azed also misread Chambers.

  17. We are all detectives, Goujeers. We have to be to solve the Azed.

    Dear old Newcastle-upon-Tyne: whatever happened to the Bagpipe Museum? There one might have heard a High Level Ranter using a chanter in a rant.

    Stefan

    P.S. Try again.

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