Azed 2585

by

The first Azed after the Christmas special is traditionally supposed a bit gentler than usual, but that wasn’t my experience with this one. All sorted in the end, though. Thanks to Azed, and Happy New Year to all.

 
Across
1 UP-PERCHED Person imbibed decorated cup he had, seated on high table? (9)
PER[son] in CUP* + HE’D
12 PERIPETIA Favourite about finished, reverse of ideal change of fortune (9)
RIPE (finished) in PET + reverse of A1
13 NAVY Fleet in point of fact welcoming sign of victory (4)
V (sign of victory) in NAY (in point of fact)
14 CRISP Succinct drama is replaced by page (5)
CRISIS (drama) with the second IS replaced by P
15 GRISON Carnivore like this appears in ring jumping around (6)
SO in RING*
16 HUMBLE Hornless stag, or cow? (6)
Double definition, with “cow” in the sense of “to subdue, keep under”
17 HENBANE When you see wife avoiding cooked bean, don’t eat it! (7)
WHEN less W[ife] + BEAN*
19 AFFY Former trust: a relationship is lacking in it (4)
AFFINITY less IN IT
22 DYSTONIA Muscular disorder not returning Daisy’s got round after treatment (8)
Reverse of NOT in DAISY*
23 LARGESSE Bass polished off, beer glass refreshed – sign of generous host? (8)
Anagram of BEER GLASS less B[ass]
25 REDS Large wine range available from hired salesman (4)
Hidden in hiRED Salesman
27 STATISM Miss out, having to accept tawdry stuff, in socialistic regime? (7)
TAT in MISS*
30 KRAKEN Nautical measure including trawl for supposed monster (6)
RAKE (to trawl) in KN (knot)
31 ADONAI Lord, one accompanied by sweetheart, independent (6)
A + DONA (sweetheart) + I[ndependent]
32 RINDY Having crust that’s dry, one assumes? (5)
DRY is “R IN DY”
33 SCAN Image showing centre of viscera, taken in hospital? (4)
[vis]C[era] in SAN (hospital)
34 UNDULATES Usual trend left by river forming waves (9)
Anagram of USUAL TREND less R
35 MADERISED Graves when neglected may be so disordered and want backing (9)
MAD (disordered) + reverse of DESIRE – with Graves being the type of wine
Down
2 PHARE Power race, e.g. Fastnet? (5)
P + HARE (to race). Fastnet is a remote lighthouse off the coast of Ireland
3 PAVIN Stones (flat), not good for formal dance (5)
PAVIN[G] – a variant of pavane
4 RELOADED Do leader stirred up, with chamber full again (8)
(DO LEADER)*
5 CRANNY Sly circumventing rule in secret place (6)
R in CANNY
6 HITHE Landing place on this side when river ebbs (5)
HITHER (on this side) less R
7 DERMA Minor scratch may not affect this part of spiderman (5)
Hidden in spiDERMAn
8 STIBINE Poisonous gas: a little coming up interrupts function (7)
Reverse of BIT in SINE (trigonometric function)
9 MISLAID Girl pocketing key that’s this and this! (7)
Some devious self-reference here – ISLAND less AND (i.e. “key that’s mislaid ‘and’” in MAID, thought I’m not totally sure how the definition works
10 CAPE JASMINE Gardenia Jim interspersed with peas held together by stick (11, 2 words)
(JIM PEAS)* in CANE (stick)
11 ENGHALSKRUG Hunk gargles boozily, common sight at Bierfest (11)
(HUNK GARGLES)* – an elaborate type of beer jug with a lid: I rather doubt one would be seen at a Bierfest these days
18 STEADIER Notice I’ll be brought in to direct with more consistency (8)
AD I in STEER
20 FAIRING What’ll aid streamlining following publication? (7)
F + AIRING
21 FRIANDE She’s a discerning foodie, and a friend in trouble (7)
(A FRIEND)*
24 STACTE It smoulders in thurible, around start of communion say (6)
C (around) in STATE (say) – a kind of incense
26 EK DUM Party thrown, dukedom’s ruined immediately (5, 2 words)
Anagram of DUKEDOM less DO – from Hindi
27 SNEAD What harvester grips and studies lifted round acreage (5)
A[creage] in reverse of DENS (studies) – it’s the handle of a scythe
28 INCUS Like an anvil, more than half banged up? (5)
IN CUS[tody] – incus is familiar as the anvil bone of the inner ear, but it’s also an adjective meaning “anvil-shaped”
29 SAAME Some Finns are found in South America having run away (5)
A (are, unit of area, one hundredth of a hectare) in S AME[r]; the Sámi people, formerly known as Lapps (now deprecated) – not necessarily Finns

18 comments on “Azed 2585”

  1. Thanks for the blog, MISLAID was a bit odd , perhaps the first “this” tells us what we need to do and the second “this” is the definition.
    I did like STACTE , cold not believe it was a word, MADERISED was very neat with the misleading Graves, devious capital G put at the start to appear natural.
    CAPE JASMINE not in my Chambers93 but was easy to get.
    Happy New Year to all.

  2. Thanks Azed and Andrew. I found this one much tougher than the Christmas special. Quite a few cases where I just couldn’t break down the clue – eg I guessed 29d must be a variant of SAMI but was bamboozled by “are” and the unfamiliar abbreviation for America. And 1a I read as needing to put PER inside the “decorated cup” (and didn’t twig “decorated” as an anagram indicator either), so couldn’t deduce a word that made any sense… ultimately, it was all a bit of a trial.

    I’m putting it down to post-Christmas fug. This week’s Azed seems a lot more accessible already.

  3. Still in a fug, obviously – I meant I read 1a as needing to put the cup inside PER, not the other way round as required.

  4. Just popped in to say thank you to Roz for alerting me to ENGHALSKRUG. As Andrew suggests, it’s not a ‘common sight at Bierfest’ – more likely in a museum devoted to 17th century ceramics! (see images here)

    I wonder if Azed may have been misled by the word ‘Krug’ at the end? By itself it can mean a beer mug or tankard, but it can also be any kind of jar/pitcher/ewer, used for carrying and/or dispensing any kind of liquid. An Enghalskrug (literally ‘narrow neck jar’) was definitely not a thing for drinking out of.

    Nevertheless thanks for the interesting diversion!

  5. Post-Christmas, I was a bit slower than usual at getting started. I’ll admit I used an anagram finder for 11dn which opened up the left-hand side for me.

  6. Isn’t the second “this” in 9 down just used as a sort of anagrind telling the solver to mislay “this and” to give mislandaid?

  7. Good to see MrEssexboy @4 in this blog, I hope you did some of the puzzle, the long word down the left side is always very useful with lots of first letters.
    Thanks for the background, to be fair to Azed, Chambers does give – a type of beer jug ( that is all)
    However the etymology gives – narrow neck jug – exactly as you say.

  8. I struggled to parse 9dn. I finally realised key = island, which then had AND mislaid, but I didn’t think the final “this” constituted a definition. Possibly if it had had a question-mark – it might then have worked better as an &lit? For 28dn, I started off thinking INCUS wasn’t “like” an anvil, but later looked it up and found the adjectival definition.
    Thanks for the blog and Happy new year to all.

  9. I couldn’t see how the second “this” in 9 down constituted a definition either. It works in the sense of “this is what MAID pocketing ISL(and) gives you” but isn’t a definition of MISLAID. If it’s meant to be a (semi-)&lit it doesn’t really work, because if you pocket a key you haven’t mislaid it!

  11. Possible, MM. Or it’s the Chambers definition “to place wrongly” – maybe she should have hung the key on a hook instead of putting it in her pocket. But having to make guesses like this doth not a good definition make…

  12. I read it as MAID pocketing ISLAND that’s MISLAID ( first this ) AND . Hence M ( ISL) AID .
    So ” this ” stands for mislaid in the wordplay and then secondly the definition.

  13. I’m sure that’s what was intended Roz, but the double self-reference means we don’t actually get a definition of MISLAID anywhere in the clue, which is unusual.

  16. Still enjoying these but this one was hard. Managed about 75% – over the week. Really grateful for this site which shines a light in all the dark corners. Good to see essexboy here. Why are you not joining in? I’m really struggling but somehow hooked on Azed now. So wanted to get ENGHALSKRUG but failed. Couldn’t get away from kugelsomething. Happy New Year all.

  17. trish@16 Azed can be hard going, I remember struggling a lot all week. It does improve with practice and I got good at tracking down answers in Chambers when I just had a few letters.

Comments are closed.