As is often the case, Azed presents us with a grid having 36 entries. For this competition puzzle, there is no wordplay for 3 down. Solvers are asked to submit a clue for this entry with their solutions.
I’m unable to find a dictionary entry for RADGES at 7 down. The wordplay leads to RADGES. I have looked in a wide range of dictionaries, including a Scottish one, but I can’t find a definition. Apart from a definition and example of usage in the Urban Dictionary, that I wouldn’t want to put in a blog, I have also failed in an internet search.
I was a bit surprised to se Azed using the same wordplay construction twice in 15 across and 32 across where the format ‘some … retreating’ was used each time to indicate a reversed hidden word.
There were plenty of new words, all clued very fairly. All of the first three across entries were new to me. The next two – POPADOMS and NOSH-UP – were in my vocabulary.
I liked the four-part wordplay for AVANTGARDIST
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 |
Sap scattered with spore, one in strange attachment for parasite (12) APPRESSORIUM (a flattened outgrowth which attaches a parasite to its host) Anagram of (scattered) SAP and SPORE +( I [Roman numeral for one] contained in [in] RUM [strange]) APPRESSO* R (I) UM |
| 10 |
Lizard, large or small variety and tailless (5) VARAN (monitor lizard; very large lizard) VAR (abbreviation for [small] VARiety) + AND excluding the final letter (tailless) D VAR AN |
| 11 |
Part of botanical label for marsh plant (5) CALLA (poisonous marsh plant of the arum family) CALLA (hidden word in [part of] BOTANICAL LABEL) CALLA |
| 12 |
Father having trouble writing accompaniment for Indian? (8) POPADOMS (one of many spellings of a word that is defined as a thin circles or strips of dough fried in oil, etc until crisp, often served as an accompaniment to Indian meals) POP (father) + ADO (trouble) + MS (manuscripts; writing) POP ADO MS |
| 13 |
Bit of nutmeg, hot, in soup embellished blow-out (6) NOSH-UP (large meal; blow-out) N (first letter of [bit of] NUTMEG) + (H [hot] contained in [in] an anagram of [embellished] SOUP) N OS (H) UP* |
| 14 |
Stuff our country is short of and as of old (6) ENGLUT (fill; stuff) ENGLAND (‘our country’ to many of Azed’s solvers) excluding (is short of) AND + UT (Latin [of old] form of ‘as’) ENGL UT |
| 15 |
That’s some book, I admit, retreating – I’m beaten for sure (5) DAIKO (large Japanese drum; an instrument that will certainly be beaten) DAIKO (reversed [retreating] hidden word [that’s some] in BOOK I ADMIT) DAIKO< |
| 18 |
Old fur, bits regularly shed by girlies (4) GRIS (obsolete [old] word for grey fur) GRIS (word formed by omitting letters 2, 4 and 6 [regularly shed] of GIRLIES) GRIS |
| 19 |
Love poetry set before HM editor lost? (8) OVERSEER (obsolete term [lost] for an editor) O (character representing zero or the ‘love’ score in tennis) + VERSE (poetry) + ER (Elizabeth Regina; Queen Elizabeth; Her Majesty) O VERSE ER |
| 20 |
E.g. Bunthorne, upset about these being distributed (8) AESTHETE (Reginald Bunthorne, a character in Patience by Gilbert and Sullivan, was an AESTHETE. Wikipedia tells me that Patience is a satire on the AESTHETIic movement) ATE (worried; upset) containing (about) an anagram of (being distributed) THESE A (ESTHE*) TE |
| 23 |
What’ll come from murder motive as reported? (4) CAWS (sound made by crows. Murder is the collective noun for a group of crows) CAWS (sounds like [as reported] CAUSE [motive]) CAWS |
| 25 |
Highland clamour, increasingly restrained, from the right (5) REIRD (Scottish [Highland] word for din or clamour) DRIER (increasingly restrained [from consumption of alcohol for example]) reversed (from the right) REIRD< |
| 27 |
Source of insecticide? Show contempt about lapse (6) DERRIS (any plant of the tropical genus of papilionaceous plants [related to peas and beans] whose roots yield an insecticide powder) DIS (show contempt) containing (about) ERR (sin; lapse) D (ERR) IS |
| 29 |
Early Irish settlers fixing sign round thoroughfare briefly (6) OSTMEN (Danish settlers in Ireland; early Irish settlers) OMEN (sign) containing (round) ST (abbreviation for [briefly] street [thoroughfare]) O (ST) MEN |
| 30 |
Occupying lodgings mostly, ten awfully hard-up (8) INDIGENT (impoverished; in need, especially of means of subsistence; hard-up) IN (occupying) + DIGS (lodgings) excluding the final letter (mostly) S + an anagram of (awfully) TEN IN DIG ENT* |
| 31 |
Whence topees are made, coloured rings going round (5) SOLAH (spongewood, an Indian papilionaceous plant, its pithlike stems are used in making lightweight hats. Topees are pith helmets) HALOS (coloured circles) reversed (going round) SOLAH< |
| 32 |
Some useless officers retreating in trench (5) FOSSE (ditch, moat, trench or canal) FOSSE (reversed [retreating] hidden word [some] in USELESS OFFICERS) FOSSE< |
| 33 |
I may redesign plot – reset linen rat-traps I abandoned (12) TRANSPLANTER (one who moves plants from one place to another, perhaps when redesigning a garden plot) Anagram of (reset) LINEN RAT-TRAPS excluding (abandoned) I TRANSPLANTER* |
| Down | |
| 1 |
One against exemplar of industry digs art possibly, fan of modernism? (12) AVANTGARDIST (someone who creates or supports the newest ideas and techniques in an art, etc) A (one) + V (versus; against) + ANT (worker; exemplar of industry) + an anagram of (possibly) DIGS ART A V ANT GARDIST* |
| 2 |
Getting up, make space for former idol (5) PAGOD (obsolete word for demigod or idol; former idol) (DO [make] + GAP [space]) all reversed (getting up; down entry) (PAG OD)< |
| *3 |
A commonplace person (8) PROSAIST (commonplace person) This is the competition word for which entrants have to write a clue. Consequently there is no wordplay offered by Azed) PROSAIST |
| 4 |
Take on gardener’s enemy, something found in plant cells (6) RAPHIS (a needle-like crystal, usually of calcium oxalate, occurring in plant cells) R (recipe [Latin], take) + APHIS (a plant-louse [eg greenfly or blackfly], a small homopterous insect that sucks plant juices; gardener’s enemy) R APHIS |
| 5 |
What streaker at Lord’s may do in interval? (8) STOPOVER (break in a journey; rest; interval) STOP OVER (a streaker on the pitch at Lords Cricket Ground will STOP an OVER being bowled whilst security staff deal with the intruder) STOP OVER |
| 6 |
Military caps raised, king ignored aid to road-holding (4) SIPE (tiny groove or slit in the tread of a tyre, aiding water dispersal and improving the tyre’s grip; aid to road holding) KEPIS (flat-topped French military caps) excluding (ignored) K (king) SIPE< |
| 7 |
Smoke rising round centre of verdure creeps over the border (6) RADGES – I can’t find a definition of RADGE or RADGES in any standard dictionary SEGAR (variant of CIGAR [smoke]) reversed (rising; down entry) containing (round) D (middle letter of [centre of] VERDURE) RA (D) GES< |
| 8 |
Trees a Filipino reared, millions planted (5) ULMUS (the elm genus; trees) M (millions) contained in (planted) SULU (member of a Muslim people of the Sulu Archipelago in the SW Philippines; Filipino) reversed (reared; down entry) UL (M) US< |
| 9 |
Burgher poet, German, sister translated (12) MASTERSINGER (Meistersinger [German Burgher poet or musician) Anagram of (translated) GERMAN SISTER MASTERSINGER* |
| 11 |
Seats may get attention from me! (5) CANER (one who makes CANE furniture, such a chair [seat]) CANER (some one who administers punishment to the buttocks [seat] with a CANE) double definition CANER |
| 16 |
Cavalry piece? Nelly’s holding on (8) PETRONEL (short large-calibre rifle carried by mounted soldiers in the 16th and 17th centuries; cavalry piece) PETREL (a nelly is a large petrel) containing (holding) ON PETR (ON) EL |
| 17 |
Round start of opera strengthens tenor last of all (8) REARMOST (nearest the back; last of all) (REARMS [strengthens] containing [round] O [first letter of {start of} OPERA]) + T (tenor) REARM (O) S T |
| 21 |
Despot, all but the last one’s seen in purple? (6) TYRIAN (reference TYRIAN purple [in ancient Rome and Byzantium, it was the colour worn by an emperor or senior magistrate]) I (Roman numeral for one) contained in (seen in) TYRANT (despot) excluding the final letter (all but the last one) T TYR (I) AN |
| 22 |
What’ll be heard encouraging dance from the audience? (5) HEIGH (cry of enquiry, encouragement or exultation) HEIGH (sounds like [from the audience] HEY [country dance]) HEIGH |
| 23 |
Candied peel? This, aged, is misused in decorating (6) CITRON (lemon rind, candied and used as a decoration and flavouring for food) CITRON (together with AGED, CITRON forms an anagram of [is misused] DECORATING*) CITRON |
| 24 |
Foreign gent erected guttering for Scots (5) SENOR (Spanish title of form of address for a man; foreign gent) RONES (Scottish word for guttering) reversed (erected; down entry) SENOR< |
| 26 |
Nothing surmounts this compact for Danish conurbation (5) DENSE (compact) DENSE (if you add the letter O above [down entry] you form ODENSE [a city and clustered suburbs [conurbation] in Denmark) DENSE |
| 28 |
Learn origin of primordial ooze (4) SEEP (ooze) SEE (understand; learn) + P (first letter of [origin of] PRIMORDIAL) SEE P |
Chambers 2014 does have a entry for RADGE, as adjective or noun, ‘unpleasant person’. Indicated as (Scot), thus ‘over the border’.
Thanks duncanshiell for the explanation of OVERSEER – ‘lost’ as an indicator of osolescence didn’t occur to me.
Thanks as ever to Azed. TYRIAN was very nice.
RADGE is also in the eChambers.
Another enjoyable lexicon wander. Thanks Azed and Duncan.
Thanks for the blog, RADGE is in Chambers 93 but only as an adjective for angry etc so thanks for the confirmation @1 and @3. DAIKO not in at all but I did know that one.
Bunthorne was also a fearsome Guardian setter, those were the days.
I did like CAWS and CITRON.
RADGE is a good example of why Azed recommends Chambers (2014) I guess. One of my favourite reads at the moment are the Rebus novels by Ian Rankin. In “Black and Blue” there is the quote “He’d done most of the major drugs in his time: Billy Whizz, skag, Morningside speed. He was on a meth programme now. On dope, he was a small problem, an irritation; off dope, he was pure radge. He was Mental.”
Here’s an article in The Scotsman about the word.
RADGE is in Chambers ’98 as a noun (“unpleasant person”) as well as an adjective. I’ve mostly heard it used as an adjective, in the sense Tim C@5 describes, and as a noun I would say it meant a “psycho” (in the colloquial sense), rather than an unpleasant person. Many of the Scottish words that appear in Azed are not ones I’ve heard used in everyday life (eg REIRD), but RADGE is an exception, as is RONES.
I have a definite memory of finding the last few answers difficult to get, but nine days later, I can’t remember which answers these were. 🙁
Dormouse @7, I find myself looking at some of the solutions as if I’m seeing them for the first time with no memory of having written them in the grid, so half-convince myself that I must have got them wrong.
I’m not sure why the Azed blog can’t revert to Sunday alongside the Everyman. The current instructions are for entries to be *received* by Monday, and there are no postal collections on a Sunday…
I liked RADGES for the “creeps over the border” deception. I have a vague memory of hearing it, or perhaps Radgie, in Rab C Nesbitt. Caner was amusing too.
Mind you, these days I can complete a crossword over lunch and have forgotten it all by teatime.
Thanks Azed and Duncan
Twmbarlwm@8: I was at least partly responsible for alerting Gaufrid to the Monday deadline, leading to the blogs being published on Tuesdays, so perhaps I should respond to your comment. For monthly (clue writing) prize puzzles, the rules for “home” entries do indeed say “received by Monday week”, but note that, for these puzzles, “Emailed entries from overseas will be accepted”, presumably with the same Monday deadline. The “random draw” puzzles have “postmarked no later than Monday week”. Thus it seems to me that Tuesday is the earliest acceptable date for the publication of all Azed blogs.
Pelham @10, thanks. I must admit I didn’t double-check the other non-cluewriting puzzle deadline, assuming that would be the same now too – apologies. Good point on overseas entries being emailed on the Monday, so theoretically a ne’er-do-well could crib from a Sunday blog and spend most of Sunday and Monday composing a clue!
Talking of overseas entrants, and just out of interest in case anyone didn’t know, the first time the Azed cup made a journey abroad was to Paul Henderson (‘Phi’) in New Zealand. Someone in Saudi Arabia had won it before, but Azed opted not to send the cup there.
“Crib from a Sunday blog”?—Nah, mate: what’s the point? You’d miss the fun of jousting with Azed.
“Radgey” or radgie is a word from my youth in the Midlands of England and still appears in local “dictionaries”. It meant to us “irritable” but it was hardly worse than being “mardy”.
Stefan
Not sure if the intersection of Viz readers and Azed solvers is the empty set (I find the Viz crossword hard enough) but there is a character described (wikipedia) thus:
“Wee Radge Joe – A short man who tends to make too much of an accident, misunderstanding or taunting from youngsters, ending in him getting beaten up as he won’t “Let it go” or walk away when the other person involved (who is usually larger than him) is happy to do so.”
While I am not likely to become an Azed solver for a while, I do enjoy the blogs from time to time as a taster for the “next step up”, so thanks Duncan.
I can’t see why Azed persists with postal entries, which are probably far more unreliable than email ones (although I must admit I don’t know the figures). He’s keen that we actually solve the puzzle and that’s fair enough, but we could easily send a scan of the crossword. My clues often fail completely despite my expectations, and so I console myself with the thought that perhaps the postal delivery failed (even though it probably didn’t).
The postal deadline is very tight: when he sets a special, which often takes ages, I don’t have much time to compose a clue before I send it off, and I’m reluctant to send it on Saturday since even first-class can’t be relied on.
Don’t know why it said Wil Ransome/John in the post above. I never told it to. But it’s not giving anything away — it can easily be looked up.
Wil @14, your track record for Azed cluewriting is pretty enviable, and you’re also one of the few commenters here to have achieved a first. How do you know there isn’t a rival intercepting your post? 😉
I think it’s OK, because the clues match so far as I can see. In an anal way I’ve kept a record, and over the years I’ve entered 254 competitions, with one win, 32 VHCs and 118 HCs. That means quite a lot of turkeys, many of which were originally thought of as potential winners.
Best to assume that any clue that’s not top 3, VHC or HC must be C for Commended! (I kid.)
Wil @14 etc. My excuse as I’ve said before is that my clues end up in Azed’s spam/junk folder. 😉 I’m fortunate? in living overseas in that email entry (at least to the clue writing competition puzzles) is acceptable. If you think the postal system in the UK is less than perfect you should try Australia (of which it is said that it’s the only third world country where you can drink the water).