Always a pleasure, thank you Azed.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ORCHESTRALIST | Musician, vocal practitioner taking in right dresser (13) |
| ORALIST (vocal practitioner) contains R (right) CHEST (dresser) | ||
| 11 | HERACLEAN | Goddess, entirely heroic (9) |
| HERA (goddess) CLEAN (entirely) | ||
| 13 | SCUDO | Old coin like this is round copper penny (5) |
| SO (like this) contains (round) CU (copper) D (penny) | ||
| 14 | SCOUSER | Lancastrian at heart, source in a stew (7) |
| lancaStrian (middle letter, at heart) then anagram (in a stew) of SOURCE. the definition is &lit, scouse being a stew from East Lancashire (now Merseyside) | ||
| 15 | CURATE | One served rotten breakfast Fido polished off? (6) |
| CUR (a dog, Fido perhaps) ATE (polished off) – from the phrase “a curate’s egg”, one served a rotten egg for breakfast by his bishop | ||
| 16 | UTTER | Vent not good at head of drain (5) |
| gUTTTER (drain) missing G (good) as the start (head) | ||
| 17 | GRAIN SIDE | I ride nags at large displaying smoother face of leather (9, 2 words) |
| anagram (at large) of I RIDE NAGS | ||
| 19 | FERINE | Wild Scottish gallop, breaking into charge (6) |
| RIN (run Scottish, gallop) inside FEE (charge) | ||
| 22 | SHELVE | Lady paramour, love lost, set aside (6) |
| SHE (lady) LoVE (paramour) missing (lost) O (love) | ||
| 24 | FLAMELESS | Following girl around, confused group mostly showing lack of warmth (9) |
| F (following) LASS (girl) contains (around) MELe (confused group, mostly) | ||
| 28 | LATHI | it may give character at heart of mêlée a nasty hit (5) |
| meLee (character at the heart of) then A and anagram (nasty) of HIT – a policeman’s stick, that may give the character a nasty hit | ||
| 30 | HUMANE | Being philanthropic follower, dye clothing (6) |
| MAN (follower) inside (with…clothing) HUE (dye) | ||
| 31 | AUTOMAT | Vending machine: to the French salad staple (mostly) may be seen here (7) |
| AU (to the, French) then TOMATo (salad staple, mostly) | ||
| 32 | WAMUS | Some warm clothing in the old West, found in wigwam usually (5) |
| found inside wigWAM USually | ||
| 33 | STANDGALE | Hawk, not in its best form to withstand strong wind (9) |
| STAND (to withstand) GALE (strong wind) – a corrupt form of staniel (a hawk) | ||
| 34 | SHEPHERDESSES | Such as Amaryllis? She dresses unusually outside, being well up with fashions (13) |
| anagram (unusually) of SHE DRESSES contains (outside) HEP (being well up with fashions) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | RECULE | King on silver coin the French shrink from as of old (6) |
| R (rex, king) on ECU (silver coin) LE (the, French) | ||
| 3 | CRURA | What produces wines with hints of redcurrant and ‘legs’ (5) |
| CRU (wines) with first letters (hints) of Redcurrant And | ||
| 4 | HADARIM | Poster posted inside seraglio for religious schools (7) |
| AD (poster) inside HARIM (seraglio) | ||
| 5 | SLYER | Killer one’s escaped from, having greater dexterity (5) |
| A (one) missing from SLaYER (killer) | ||
| 6 | TESTAMENTAR | Confused state before chaps set on what’s left in Jock’s estate? (11) |
| anagram (confused) of STATE then MEN (chaps) TAR (set on). It seems to me that “on” needs to be part of the definition to make it into an adjectival phrase, but it is also needed for TAR to be “set on” rather than “set” | ||
| 7 | RACHIS | Hunting dog lives for a line of bones (6) |
| RACH (hunting dog) IS (lives) | ||
| 8 | LOUT | Rustic garment when it’s not cold (4) |
| cLOUT (garment) missing (when it has not) C (cold) | ||
| 9 | INSTIL | I love host street – drop in (6) |
| I NIL (love, zero score) contain (host) ST (street) | ||
| 10 | SPEED | Sea’s rising – hurry (5) |
| DEEP’S (sea’s) reversed (rising) | ||
| 12 | ARREEDES | Oldie counsels: take grass planted in salt water up (8) |
| R (recipe, take) REED (grass) inside SEA (salt water) reversed (up) | ||
| 13 | SCOFFLAW | Confirmed villain setting food before Jude? (8) |
| scoff (food) then LAW (Jude Law perhaps, actor) | ||
| 18 | SEPMAGS | Dubbing tapes of a kind recasting MSS page (7) |
| anagram (recasting) of MSS PAGE | ||
| 20 | RATTLE | Irritate earl badly having to accept not drinking? (6) |
| anagram (badly) of EARL containing TT (not drinking) | ||
| 21 | ELUATE | Product of purification – boost involving half of us (6) |
| ELATE (boost) contains (involving) Us (half of) | ||
| 23 | VENULE | Small vessel left in chosen location (6) |
| L (left) inside VENUE (chosen location) | ||
| 25 | LAUGH | Music to comic’s ears? Note opposite reaction (5) |
| LA (note) and UGH (opposite reaction to a laugh) | ||
| 26 | SHEND | Shame once cast contains reduced number (5) |
| SHED (cast) contains N (number, reduced indicates abbreviation) | ||
| 27 | CAMAS | Hyacinthine plant from America, protected by inverted bag (5) |
| AM. (America) inside (protected by) SAC (bag) reversed (inverted) | ||
| 29 | HOOP | Sign of bad cough? Ring and stop work (4) |
| double definition and HO (stop) OP (opus, work) | ||
Yet again they have completely fouled up the link to today’s AZED puzzle.
I was a bit dubious about 33ac, where STAND appears in both the clue and the solution. I agree with you, PeeDee, about TESTAMENTAR.
bridgesong – the same thought occurred to me for 33ac. If the clue had been in the Guardian I would have explained it as a lift-and-separate “GALE with STAND”. I don’t see Azed thinking this way.
I assumed that the similarity of STAND and WITHSTAND was an oversight in 33 across. I agree with PeeDee that “on” is doing double duty in 6 down, unless TESTAMENTAR can also be a noun (not given in Chambers). Otherwise the usual enjoyable stuff from Azed.
This week’s Azed page now shows the correct grid and they’ve removed the link to the election article. They haven’t yet put the new link in, though. Perhaps come teatime one of the techies will have worked out how to do it?
I suspect it’s not the techies who screw this up but the editorial staff. The Azed puzzle has a hand-crafted name that varies in format from week to week. This doesn’t seem like an IT way of doing things. In contrast, the rest of the crossword links on the Guardian website are clearly machine generated.
You may be right, PeeDee, though”hand-crafted” suggests something that’s been prepared with care and attention. That certainly doesn’t describe the Guardian’s cavalier attitude towards the Azed crossword. And it’s still not there…
I know what you mean crucuverbophile, but I try to be nice to the editor! Anyway, to really screw things up properly you need a computer.
The Azed pdf files have names that appear to refer to the date the pdf was loaded onto their website. This does not appear to be a consistent period in advance of the publication date, which would make automating the upload rather tricky to code.
Thank you Azed and PeeDee. I too am annoyed at not being able to tackle today’s, though perhaps that is a hint that I should go out and buy the paper.
Glad to see the correct understanding of the famous Punch cartoon at 15ac. The point of the original joke was that it was impossible for “parts of it are excellent” to apply to an egg, so it was indeed rotten. I have always assumed it was some commentary on the state of the Church of England at that time.
Though I see that Chambers has the more recent use of the phrase “anything of which some parts are excellent and some parts are bad”.
Cruciverbophile @4, I’m not sure it is the correct grid on the site right now – despite the correct puzzle number above it, it’s the same as the grid for last week’s, which would be some coincidence.
There were no Observers in my local newsagent this afternoon – all a bit annoying as it’s a clue-writing competition puzzle and I’m really pushed for time this week.
When writing this, there is still no link at all to the newest Azed.
But, I just wondered, why can’t there be a nice weekly print version of the Azed on the Guardian website, in the same fashion as all the all crosswords.
As a PC user, the print on the PDF version is far too small to be properly readable (for me, anyway).
Therefore I download the thing and open it in Acrobat to resize it..
Coincidentally, I have today’s Observer at hand.
[just did some shopping at Waitrose – however, the paper is (unlike The Sunday Times or The Telegraph) all at once not free anymore after spending £10 on shopping]
Marienkaefer – my mother told me as a child that the curates response to “How is you egg?” was “Good in parts”. I had never questioned this and luckily I decided to check it on Google before I explained the clue. The shift in meaning must have happened at least 50 years ago.
Sometime in the latish 90’s I won the ‘crossword club’s’ word to clue ref. 1ac – Tim Moorey was the judge:
Early bird say, is the one that scores (13)
Obviously Azed didn’t read it!
Hi Sil,
Azed is the odd one out in the Guardian puzzles. The rest of them (cryptic, prize, everyman, quiptic etc )all use the same system that generates the online solver and all the features associated with it (including print). Azed seems to be published more like external content, the puzzle is just a PDF file that sits in a downloads area somewhere and apart form a download link isn’t really incorporated in to the rest of the crossword functionality at all.
There seems to be a significant manual element to getting the page up and running each week. Perhaps if someone is off sick then something gets missed?
For anyone champing at the bit, some kind soul has scanned the puzzle: http://andlit.org.uk/otherimages/azed2477.jpg
The lack of a readable AZED version for we Oblomovian iPad users who eschew the call to prayer is becoming a perennnial problem .
Maybe someday a kick-ass Guardian Crossword Editor who can marshall his apprentices ?
This week’s puzzle is now available on the site.
I think we have to see this as a sign of respect for Azed that the Guardian still has a system built solely around the needs of one setter and his puzzles. I can’t imagine any of the other setters being given this luxury. For them the rest it must be a case of “provide your puzzles how we want them or don’t bother sending in at all”.
A big ‘thank you’ to the kind soul who sent a link to yesterday’s AZED – in a large, readable format as well. Happy days!
… the point is: some of us can’t just nip down St Kilda Pier, say mornin’ to the penguins and pick up the newspaper. Not to mention a packet of five Park Drive.
My link, which is the first thing I go to on Sunday, reminds me that I might like to consider donating to “independent” journalism. Yes, fine: all you have to do is give me my Azed.
Stefan
Am glad I’m a paper-only user. Sorry (but smug) when I read all the moans. And especially so as I completed Sunday’s comp on Sunday- the first on-the-day for a while (other activities swamping out even Azed). Now to trying to concoct a clue!
The celebration for the 2,500th in May is to be a week before the event to postpone the tussle on the landmark weekend (at earlier events some people have been too busy getting a start on that to socialise! I fear I may not be able to make it but it is a wonderful achievement.