Azed provides us with our weekly crossword challenge and opportunity to increase our vocabulary.
It was a plain Azed this week with a good mix of well known and obscure words. As always, the cluing was precise and shows that any word can be clued with wit and clever allusions.
My favourite clues this week were those for APPESTAT and BALNEATION, neither of which were words I had come across before, and CORSELET for the picture conjured up of breadcrumbs causing irritation within a suit of armour.
As I mention in the detail below, I’m not sure about ‘corner’ as an anagram indicator in 10d for TRYSTING-TREE so wouldn’t be surprised if someone tells me there is a better way to parse the answer.
I have struggled to find a direct use of PALAEOLITE (19 down) on the internet but can find very similar forms.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| 1 | Cocaine frequently got for cash in Glasgow (4) |
C (cocaine) + OFT (frequently) C OFT |
COFT (Scottish [Glasgow] word meaning bought [for cash]) |
| 4 | Fit after intake of pâté’s modified – does this control desire for food? (8) |
APT (fit) containing (intake) an anagram of (modified) PATES AP (PESTA*) T |
APPESTAT (neural centre in the hypothalamus believed to control [food] appetite) |
| 11 | There’s a surprise when dad’s caught a big fish (4) |
PA (dad) contained in (when caught) OH (expression of surprise) O (PA) H |
OPAH (the kingfish, genus Lampris, a large sea-fish with laterally flattened body) |
| 12 | Changeable rainy, stormy, but very good before and after (7) |
V (very) + an anagram of (stormy) RAINY + G (good) V ARYIN* G |
VARYING (changeable) |
| 13 | Painful to contemplate and very touching (4) |
SO (very) + RE (about; on; touching) SO RE |
SORE (painful to contemplate) |
| 14 | Tins, jagged with age? What swimmers should avoid (8) |
Anagram of (jagged) TINS + GRAY (old; with age) STIN* GRAY |
STINGRAY (a fish [Trygon or related genus] with a formidable barbed dorsal spine on its tail. a fish that swimmers should avoid for fear of getting injured) |
| 15 | Drum beats followed by a symbolic gesture (5) |
Anagram of (beats) DRUM + A MUDR* A |
MUDRA (any of the symbolic hand gestures in Hindu religious ceremonies and classical Indian dance) |
| 18 | Crumbs irritated steel item of armour (8) |
COR (gosh!; crumbs!) + an anagram of (irritated) STEEL COR SELET* |
CORSELET (protective body-covering of leather, or steel, etc) |
| 19 | Eastern oil, ruined in taste – it’s prehistoric! (10) |
(E [eastern] + a anagram of [ruined] OIL) contained in (in) PALATE (sense of taste) PALA (E OLI*) TE |
PALAEOLITE (something from the distant past; it’s prehistoric) |
| 21 | People round edge of shore chasing roller endlessly, bathing? (10) |
BAL BAL N (E) ATION |
BALNEATION (bathing) |
| 24 | Sheep moved around by gal with hat on… (8) |
Anagram of (moved around) GAL and HAT ON LOAGHTAN* |
LOAGHTAN (breed of four-horned sheep with a soft brown fleece, native to the Isle of Man) |
| 27 | … metallic colour, she removed outside, not satisfied (5) |
UNMET |
UNMET (not satisfied) |
| 28 | Alloy reduced temperature in jug mostly? (8, 2 words) |
T (abbreviation for [reduced] TEMPERATURE) + INTERNE T IN TERNE |
TIN TERNE (an alloy, chiefly of lead and TIN) |
| 29 | Number on organ for left hand (4) |
N (number) + EAR (organ of hearing) N EAR |
NEAR (left, as in NEARside of a car in the United Kingdom) |
| 30 | Rascal astride horse, horse not giving its all? (7) |
TINKER (rascal) containing (astride) H (heroin; horse) T (H) INKER |
THINKER (a horse that takes care of itself in a race and therefore does not try hard enough) |
| 31 | Pay in part for a part that’s not ordinary (4) |
A + R A RLE |
ARLE (preliminary payment, especially in confirmation of a bargain, or an engagement of a servant; pay in part) |
| 32 | Rocking swinger, No 1 in lap-dancing – she delivers daily? (8) |
Anagram of (rocking) SWINGER + L (first letter of [No 1 in] LAP-DANCING) NEWSGIR* L |
NEWSGIRL (a young lady who delivers daily newspapers) |
| 33 | Cloth covering tramp, by the sound of it (4) |
HYKE (sounds like [by the sound of it] HIKE [go walking; tramp]) HYKE |
HYKE (variant spelling of HAIK [an oblong cloth worn by Arabs on the head and body]) |
| Down | |||
| 1 | Brits turning up? Act relaxed about it, and mostly unprejudiced (12) |
(COOL IT [act relaxed] containing (about it) POMS [immigrant Brits in Australia] reversed [turning up; down clue]) + AN CO (SMOP<) OL IT AN |
COSMOPOLITAN (someone free from local or national prejudices) |
| 2 | Raged with flab that’s distorted stomach (9) |
Anagram of (that’s distorted) RAGED and FLAB FARDELBAG* |
FARDEL-BAG (omasum [ruminant’s third stomach]) |
| 3 | Article to publish on climbing marsupials etc(6) |
THE (definite article) + AIR make public knowledge; publish) reversed (on climbing; down clue) THE RIA< |
THERIA (subclass of mammals, comprising marsupials and placentals, and their extinct ancestors) |
| 5 | Ship’s captain looking up cloud type on board vessel (7) |
OORT (an OORT cloud is a cloud of frozen comet nuclei orbiting the solar system) reversed (looking up; down clue) contained in (on board) PAN (cooking vessel) PA (TROO<) N |
PATROON (captain of a ship) |
| 6 | Senior monk, of greater importance (5) |
PRIOR (the head of a priory of monks or of a house of canons regular or of friars; senior monk) PRIOR |
PRIOR (more important) double definition |
| 7 | They had pupils, not all men yet, but heading upwards (4) |
EYNE (hidden word in [not all] MEN YET reversed [heading upward; down clue]) EYNE< |
EYNE (archaic [had] word for eyes [organs of sight with pupils]) |
| 8 | Ring engineer up, having cracked model (6) |
ENG (engineer) reversed (up; down clue) contained in (having cracked) SIT (model) SI (GNE<) T |
SIGNET (a ring with a seal) |
| 9 | Religious community, open-mouthed when given endless cash (9) |
AGAPE (open mouthed) + MONE AGAPE MONE |
AGAPEMONE (a religious community of men and women whose ‘spiritual marriages’ were in some cases not strictly spiritual, founded in 1849 at Spaxton, near Bridgwater) |
| 10 | Meeting place? Test street corner, circling river meadow (12) |
(TRY [test] + an anagram of [corner?] STREET) containing (circling) ING (meadow, especially one beside a river) ‘Corner’ is a fairly unusual word as an anagram indicator (although it does mean to out into a fix or difficulty) so I wonder if I am missing something about the way STREET is reformed as STTREE TRY ST (ING) TREE* |
TRYSTING-TREE (a meeting place) |
| 16 | Garnet in form of grape, metal plate circling it (9) |
UVA (grape) + (ROVE [metal plate or ring through which a rivet is put and clenched over] containing [circling] IT) UVA ROV (IT) E |
UVAROVITE (a green lime-chrome garnet) |
| 17 | Leo: ‘I’m excited with prey being more numerous than normal‘ (9) |
Anagram of (excited) LEO, I’M and PREY PLEIOMERY* |
PLEIOMERY (the condition of having more than the normal number) |
| 20 | Student looking for something profitable after Latin (7) |
L (Latin) + EARNER (something [especially illegal or slightly shady] that brings a good income or profit) L EARNER |
LEARNER (student) |
| 21 | Silver suit tailored in stripy furs (6) |
AG (chemical symbol for silver) + an anagram of (tailored) SUIT AG UTIS* |
AGUTIS (patterns of fur characterized by irregular stripes) |
| 23 | Cop shop? Is leaving this, devouring several pies (6) |
TH T (ANNA) H |
TANNAH (military or police station in India) |
| 25 | Ottoman possibly to direct family (names withheld) (5) |
TUR TUR KI |
TURKI (both Ottoman and TURKI relate to Turks and people who speak the language of Turks) |
| 26 | Old couple in pieces, divorcing finally (4) |
MEN (pieces, e,g, chess pieces) + G (last letter of [finally] DIVORCING) MEN G |
MENG (archaic [old] word meaning to couple) |
Thanks Duncanshiell. The parsing of TRYSTING TREE held me up too – it’s ST for street and TREE as in chase into a tree, or ‘corner’.
Nice one Azed.
Thanks for the blog, duncanshiell.
For 10d, TREE can be a verb meaning ‘to drive into a tree, to corner’, so street=ST and corner=TREE.
Thank you for the blog duncan, could I politely ask you to not use that bright red again? Some of us find reading screens difficult without having to squint even further. Thanks in advance.
Thanks for all the explanations of 10dn. I couldn’t work out how to parse that at all.
I don’t envy whoever has to blog this week’s 😉