As I was writing up this blog, it struck me that most of the parsing of the clues is very straightforward: I think more so than usual. Of course there’s the usual helping of unusual words, but these can all be confirmed by Chambers. Thanks to Azed.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | POP-UNDER | Bruiser with power breaking additional window (8) P[ower] in POUNDER |
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| 7 | ARIL | Seed covering ball is there? He belts it possibly (4) Composite anagram: (BALL IS THERE)* = HE BELTS ARIL |
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| 10 | LAEVIGATE | Delayed receiving a present sent back – unusually smooth (9) A + reverse of GIVE in LATE – “unusually” because Chambers describes it as a “non-standard spelling” of “levigate” |
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| 11 | PELF | Positive German football team making money (4) P + ELF (German “eleven”, i.e. a football team) |
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| 13 | GATSO | Starts going at this speed one’s gift for traffic police (5) First letters of Going At This Speed One’s |
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| 14 | SCALADO | Party at the opera house? It benefits investors (7) it’s a DO at [la] SCALA, or a SCALA DO |
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| 16 | SPINDLE OIL | Light lubricant: treated solid pine with litre (10, 2 words) Anagram of SOLID PINE + L |
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| 17 | CANID | Wolf maybe died having escaped from fair (5) CANDID less the first D |
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| 19 | ELENCH | Get even with church introducing Latin bit of old sophistry (6) L in E’EN CH |
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| 21 | KNIGHT | King, black chess piece (6) K[ing] + NIGHT |
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| 23 | FESTA | Holiday abroad, shortest one if there’s no Brie (5) BRIEFEST A less BRIE |
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| 24 | CONNATURAL | One involved in nocturnal flirting, being of similar character etc (10) A in NOCTURNAL* |
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| 28 | LEOTARD | It’s a tight fit in the dressing room – stars almost late (7) LEO (constellation, stars) + TARD[y] |
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| 29 | GOPAK | Republicans having a bit of a knees-up in lively dance (5) GOP (Grand Old Party, nickname of the US Republican party)+ A K[nees-up] |
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| 30 | INNS | Places to stay favoured partners at table? (4) IN (favoured) + NS (bridge partners) |
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| 31 | GUIDE-POST | Help for travellers I upset with dog running wild (9) (I UPSET DOG)* |
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| 32 | YONI | Sex symbol that is given leading part in India (4) YON (that) + I[ndia] |
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| 33 | YESTREEN | Certainly wood growth having nitrogen applied quite recently (8) YES (certainly) + TREE + N[itrogen] |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | POPSOCK | Part of mum’s hose giving dad a whack? (7) POP (dad) + SOCK (punch, whack) |
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| 2 | OLECRANON | King Cole in a bad way? Soon one’s out at the elbows (9) Anagram of COLE R (king) + ANON (soon) |
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| 3 | PALAS | Indian tree, one replacing millions of others? (5) PALMS (other trees than the one in the answer) with the M replaced by A |
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| 4 | NAVAID | It helps steersman, one in bed, laid up (6) A in reverse of DIVAN |
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| 5 | DEAD-NETTLE | Labiate late, tended poorly (10) (LATE TENDED)* |
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| 6 | RIGOLL | Channel for water to flow in runnel (6) GO in RILL |
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| 7 | AGAR | Cook’s jelly I see extracted from fungus (4) AGARIC less I C |
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| 8 | RATIONS | Food cooked in roast (7) (IN ROAST)* |
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| 9 | LEOS | Sun rising round East? Many of us enjoy summer birthdays (4) E in reverse of SOL. The astrological sign Leo covers July 23 – August 22, so perhaps “many of us” could be regarded as redundant |
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| 12 | BODEGUEROS | Vintners to get an early feeling for blend of rouges (10) BODE (to have a presentiment of, get an early feeling for) + ROGUES* – from the perhaps more familiar “bodega”, a Spanish shop or warehouse for wine |
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| 15 | PICTARNIE | Photo on lake that is showing Walter’s bird (9) PIC + TARN + I.E. – a name for the tern used by Sir Walter Scott |
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| 18 | NINE-PIN | Writer I put up in disorderly inn, one of several in alley? (7) Reverse of (PEN I) in INN* |
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| *20 | HANDS-ON | Favouring active involvement (7) The competition word |
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| 22 | HAWKEY | Not strictly a Mohican cut for harvest celebration (6) In James Fenimore Cooper’s novel The Last of the Mohicans (and the many film versions of it), the character Hawk-eye (real name Nathaniel Bumppo) was raised by Native Americans, so is “not strictly a Mohican”. Truncating his nickname we get a kind of harvest celebration |
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| 23 | FROWST | Fug, with being kept in by cold weather (6) W[ith] in FROST |
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| 25 | LANDE | Region of SW France suggested by the French? (5) French “the” is LE, or L AND E |
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| 26 | EGGY | Such a face suggests one foolish cracksman, first to last (4) YEGG (safe cracker) with the first letter moved to the end. A foolish person may be said to have egg on their face |
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| 27 | WADI | In hollow, a dip through which river runs (4) Hidden in holloW A DIp |
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Thanks Andrew. This solved smoothly for me, unlike the previous week’s with its unfriendly grid. Nice to get RIGOLL purely from the wordplay and confirm it, and the ‘investors’ in SCALADO was sneaky.
Thanks as ever to Azed.
I didn’t think ‘Many of us’ was redundant in 9d because my brother is a Leo, but he lives in New Zealand so he has a winter birthday.
Thanks for the blog , much easier than last week and a non-Chambers finish.
POP-UNDER was not in my 93 when I checked but was an obvious entry.
OLECRANON I actually knew, it is a heading word in my 93 and I have often seen it and looked at the meaning.
I did like SCALADO and LEOTARD, it was the second use of LEO and Matthew@2 is quite right about winter birthdays in the Southern hemisphere. ( I did read once and was amazed that only 10% of the world’s population is in the South ) .
I didn’t parse HAWKEY, the only hawk-eye I’m familiar with was played by Alan Alda.
I was also puzzled by ‘unusually’ in 10A but I see now it’s a further clarification of the definition. I was similarly confused last week too.
Otherwise that seemed quite straightforward although I made quite a meal of it discounting several answers early that were correct, by expecting more obscure words than there were.
Thanks Andrew and Azed.
Thanks Azed and Andrew. This was definitely at the easier end of the spectrum for Azed – which is evident from the fact that I finished it! (I rarely do complete an Azed.) Even the more obscure words didn’t seem all that obscure in many cases – quite a few I half-remembered from somewhere (eg YEGG, RIGOLL, WADI, FROWST)
The only ones I had trouble parsing were ARIL (but got there eventually when I realised it was one of those confounded compound anagrams) and LANDE, which I got from the definition, just couldn’t see how the clue worked (and still not entirely sure how it ‘suggests’ spelling out LE, tbh).
SCALADO isn’t in my Chambers but was very gettable from the wordplay so I entered it confidently anyway. Nice clue.
Blah @4 – Hawkeye in MASH is named after the character from Last of the Mohicans. I think this is explained in the film (along with the reason for Hotlips Houlihan’s nickname too, but let’s not go there).
Andrew, you’ve given the definition for the competition word as it appears in Chambers; in the printed paper it was “favouring active involving”.
Thanks Widdersbel,
Well done on finishing, I counted a dozen words I didn’t know which seems low, I agree. FROWSTER was a recent azed clue, I wouldn’t have known FROWST otherwise.
And LE (the french) is quite literally spelled ‘L’ and ‘E’ hence L(AND)E. Same device as ALINED for w(EALD) last week.
bridgesong@6. Curious. I always download AZED from the Grauniad website. This version has “favouring active involvement” as the definition for the competition word. Definitely at the easier end of the AZED scale. Thanks both.
Thanks Blah – I got the construction of the solution from Andrew’s blog, I just don’t quite see how the clue as written leads us to that. It just feels a bit imprecise. But I’m probably missing something obvious! Never mind.
Sorry, me again… on pondering it some more, I think I understand the LANDE clue now – the solution is suggested by reading LE as “L and E”…
One of those Azed stylistic quirks.
Yes: I think Azed’s been in top form for two or three weeks now. Some of the “definitions” tickle me pink when the clue finally clicks. I too liked SCALADO and LEOTARD but I thought EGGY was very clever too. Widdersbel, you might find SCALADO in your Chambers under “Scalade”. Azed is oustanding at finding these things in not quite the right place and they are easy to miss.
We had HADARIM the other week and how is anyone supposed to find that?—Except Azed.
Wiggers is right: it did say “involvement” online. In fact my 2006 doesn’t have either! I’m also agreement with Blah @4—I too had correct answers but passed them over. I decided to check “labiate” to make sure I knew what it meant. And the answer DEAD-NETTLES ir right there in the definition. Yet still I didn’t get it.
The one thing that got me this week was FESTA. This one of Azed’s periodic oddities. The clue must surely not read: “Holiday abroad, shortest one if there’s no Brie (5)”
The holiday abroad can only be the briefest one if there is a Brie.
Stefan
Stefan@11 I just took FESTA as two parts. Holiday abroad = FESTA.
shortest one = briefest a then cross out the brie.
It was “involving” in my paper but I did think it should be involvement .
widdersbel @5 – the confounded compound anagrams are my favourite and I always look for them. “this” or “it” is often a giveaway in the clue.
Marmite Smuggler – just checked my notes and I’m misremembering… scalado is in my chambers (under scalade, as you suggest) – I just couldn’t reconcile it with the definition in the clue. Of course, it pays to look up the meanings of the clue words too… I now realise Azed was using a definition of investors that I wasn’t familiar with. Sneaky! But now I understand it, I like the clue even more than I did before. Thats excellent!
Agreed SCALADO was the stand out clue for misdirection in my book too. Hard to parse and confirm and yet so simple to construct. Given that scalado was also a tech company acquired for an undisclosed sum (one assumes large, as their software ended up in nearly billion phones) by Nokia many years ago, the clue actually had several levels.
Another SCALADO fan here. Great misdirection, I actually solved from wordplay and went to look it up confident it’s would be some kind of financial instrument. Nice Pdm on finding out it was a different kind of investor!
Also thought PELF and HAWKEY were excellent clues, though in both cases they are obscure words where the wordplay involves somewhat obscure GK (German numerals, character in somewhat obscure book/film). I could get HAWKEY from the kind crossers and back-parse kind of (though I did t know the character’a back-story which adds a layer of cleverness). PELF I outright cheated as I’d bashed in PuLA once I saw P-L- and the. Couldn’t progress what tourney out to be the LOI OLECRANON , which I also had to cheat on.
Still almost all solved and parsed without assistance— definitely a slightly easier test fromAzed but still hugely pleasurable thanks Azed and Andrew for the clear blog!
When I was young, The Last of the Mohicans was a TV series that seemed to be shown continuously as repeats, so I was very familiar with Hawkeye.
I’ve had a go at writing a competition clue for last week, but have missed the deadline for sending it, would anybody object if I posted it here? I really would welcome any and all feedback as I have a couple of options for it. Obviously if it’s against site policy then I won’t, but as the deadline for entries has passed?
Roz@16: I remember that series, vaguely. Helped getting the answer. Can’t remember much about it, though.
Dormouse @ 18 It just always seemed to be on , Sunday I think, and Land of the Giants , never much to watch on a Sunday in those days. I think we used to get American series years later.
I do not see any problem Blah @17 , the crossword is blogged and the clue deadline has passed. I never really send off or even try much but I did have an idea this time.
Blah – I don’t know about site policy but I say go for it.
I managed to get mine in the post in time (I think).
Roz: I think I’m thinking of an earlier series. Land of the Giants started in 1968 and my memory is earlier. A quick check of the IMDb says that there was an American series called Hawkeye and The Last of the Mohicans which started in the US in 1957 and reached the UK in 1962, which fits with my memory of seeing in the house we moved out of in 1963.
Good to have company here. It was a smooth solve and I certainly agree with the admiration for SCALADO with “investor” sweetly misleading found HANDS-ON a beast to clue.
Thanks to AZED (as always) and Andrew.
Ok here goes;
Practical? This management style bizarrely shamed Antony’s gentleman.
Blah@23. Ooh aye—it’s one of them, is it? Azed, by the way, refers to them as composite anagrams. I’ll leave this one to Roz, I can’t be bothered. But I will give you 10 / 10 for “Antony’s gentleman.” I just wonder if it might be a little obscure even for Azed. I think he prefers rugby players, politicians, Italian football clubs, the occasional film star and even pop stars!
Stefan
I like it, Blah, but like Marmite Smuggler, I’m not the best person to pass judgment on comp.anags. It feels like you might need some kind of indicator word to link the two parts, ie to show A+this = B, but I’m really not sure. Maybe it’s fine as it is.
Dormouse@21 I am thinking of the 70s , it could have even been a BBC series , did not really watch it.
Blah@23 , very impressive anagram but i think widdersbel is right , you need to indicate that – this …….
bizarrely will BECOME shamed …… .
Stefan I think that cricket is Azed’s favourite reference of all .
Thanks Stefan, Widdersbel and Roz. I was tweaking for an hour or so but couldn’t quite get what I wanted. My first version was;
Gentleman shamed Antony’s adulterate management style like this?
I was trying to reference Marc Antony’s adultery and fall into corruption as arbiter or consul (whichever he was) , but I had two problems I wasn’t 100% convinced about adulterate as an anagrind even tho it can mean spurious or corrupted. And the real biggie was I realised I had no definition DOH!
I shall try again. Many thanks for the feedback very helpful.
Well, blow me down: I thought you were on about Dryden. I should have included “cricketers” in my earlier reference. But he’s still very good on UK politicians and some of us, who live half the world away, haven’t a clue what the clue’s about.
Stefan
Blah, it’s worth being ambitious, since it is a competition after all. But when you attempt something like a composite anagram it soon becomes apparent how hard it is to pull off a really good one – not just the anagram itself but building it into a sound clue – and highlights just how good Azed is at what he does. But he has had a few years more practice at it than most of us.
All for love was a reworking of Antony and Cleopatra so the reference could have been historical or literary for either the bard or Dryden I suppose, anyway, I could change the fodder to “and shames Gentleman Tony“
Blah: But you need to ask yourself this: “Who is/was the Gentleman?”. I don’t know if there is reference to a Gentleman concerning M.A.?
I think I may give up on this one, it clearly needs a lot of work. Thank you all for bearing with me while I played with it. Oh and good luck Widdersbel, and anyone else who entered!
Azed recently had a clue for RANA (frogs) involving Aristophanes and a compound anagram. Hard to believe how good it was.
That was my introduction to the compound/composite anagram I got the answer from crossers and frogs but had no idea how to parse it until you explained the device Roz. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it “Aristophanes? Poet played around with his frogs like this”
Very late to this, have only just seen it Blah, but for some reason that I simply can’t understand Azed likes the two parts of the comp. anag. to have some sort of link and not to be simply juxtaposed. In a regular clue with anagrams part of the skill of the setter is to make it all as seamless as possible; why not with comp. anags?
Thanks Wil, I think you’re right about the link, I’ve been looking at some old composite anagrams and it’s always there and in many cases the fodder also forms the definition.
So I’ve come up with something that I think works better
Tinsmith and others forged using their mitts like this?
Blah again very impressive , both anagrams and &Lit. Sorry to be critical but one thing sinks it, LIKE has no place in the clue really except in the reading which is not enough for Azed.
I am just being analytical, it is far superior to anything I would come up with.
It’s fun to practise but I wouldn’t overthink submitting composite anagrams or andlits for Azed’s competitions.
Although they feature heavily compared to other clue-writing competitions (and cryptic crosswords in general), most of the prize-winning and VHC clues are neither.
Thanks Roz and Blorenge,
I may be overly taken with the composite anagram format having only recently come across it. I also realise that I’ve been slavishly copying ‘like this’ from the Aristophanes rana example. Reading a few more it’s the only time I’ve seen ‘like this’ used. But just ‘this’ or ‘it’ or ‘such’ seems to indicate a noun to me, so not exactly the right part of speech, but I’m choosing to interpret hands on as a verb phrase. Which leads me to..
Tinsmith and others forged using their mitts thus?