Azed No. 2,616 Plain – Fifteensquared

A plain Azed that gave me a bit of trouble.

I normally complete plain Azeds without too much difficulty (once I have checked a few in Chambers), although the parsing is often a different matter. In this case, I spent an inordinate amount of time in the southeast corner, as I was sure the perch in question was ROOST and that meant that I couldn’t get the crossers. I eventually saw the error of my ways, though. However, I still can’t parse KNOWALL to my satisfaction, so once again I throw myself upon the mercy and superior intelligence of you, my commenting readership, to put me right (EDIT – the first comment explains the proper parsing, and I have edited the blog accordingly – thanks, Twmbarlwm)

Thanks, Azed.

ACROSS
1	MEGASTAR	Outstanding performer? Margate’s thrilled (8)
		(margates) [anag:thrilled*]
7	OATH	What may be piping hot, making one curse? (4)
		OAT (“what may be piping”) + H (hot) An oat is a musical pipe made out of pipe-straw, or a shepherd’s pipe.
10	ANTIMASQUE	Comic interlude, very old, filled with pulp mostly (10)
		ANTIQUE (“very old”) filled with MAS(h) (“pulp”, mostly)
11	SOLD	Betrayed first sign of senility, getting on (4)
		[first sign of] S(enility) + OLD (“getting on”)
12	STUMM	‘Hush’? That’s ‘mum’, put another way (5)
		ST (“hush”) + (mum) [anag:put another way*] and &lit.
14	KNOWALL	Clever dick? Reverse of studious person ? quite (7)
		[reverse of] <=WONK (“studious” person) + ALL (“quite”)
17	SPEERINGS	Coverage in The Scotsman , say, rants nobleman penned (9)
		SINGS (“rants”) with PEER (“nobleman”) penned To speer (or speir) is “to ask questions” in Scots, so “speerings” could be newspaper interviews.
18	ARNOLD	Head of Rugby no lad’s messed with? (6)
		(r no lad) [anag:messed with] where R is [head of] R(ugby) and &lit. Refers to Thomas Arnold, head of Rugby school between 1828 and 1841*
20	TECHIE	Scientific geek absorbed in dispute chiefly (6)
		Hidden [absorbed] in “dispuTE CHIEfly”
21	BALTIC	Extremely frosty exchange? (6)
		Double definition, the second referring to the Baltic Exchange, a membership-only trading organisation based in London
23	ASHAME	Jock’s one to admit hoax and feel disgrace as before (6)
		AE (Scots for “one”, so “Jock’s one”) to admit SHAM (“hoax”) Ashame is an old word for “to feel shame”.
24	ORGANISED	Road sign needs to be this round start of excavation (9)
		(road sign) [anag:organised* (“this”)] round [start of] E(xcavation) and &lit.
27	MANSARD	In which you’ll see more than one slope arms and get drilled (7)
		(arms and) [anag:get drilled*]
29	IONIC	Old philosopher, one mostly kept in readiness (5)
		I + [mostly] ON IC(e) (“kept in readiness”)
30	ESKY	Middle of September? Heavens, it’s often fine for a picnic (4)
		[middle of] (sept)E(mber) + SKY (“heavens”) An Esky is a type of coolbox.
31	TRINKETERS	They were plotting part of bowling green in street strangely (10)
		RINK (“part of bowling green”) in (street) [anag:strangely] “Trinketer” is an old word for someone involved in a plot.*
32	EYNE	What’s associated with Milton (centrally)? Blindness may have affected such (4)
		(k)EYNE(s) (“what’s associated with Milton”, centrally)
33	FRISKERS	Search Scots in quick movement? They may do that (8)
		SKER (“Scots” word for “search”) in FRIS (a “quick” Hungarian dance “movement”)
DOWN
1	MUSK	Deer e.g. avoiding marshy ground (4)
		EG avoiding MUSK(eg) (“marshy ground”)
2	E CONTRARIO	What may create worried reaction, or conversely (10, 2 words)
		(reaction or) [anag: worried*]
3	GALOP	Dance making you miss work (5)
		GAL (“miss”) + Op. (opus, so “work”)
4	STRAPLINE	Troubled pal taken in by jocular Australian subtitle? (9)
		(pal) [anag:troubled] taken in by* STRINE (“jocular” word for Australian” English)
5	TITLED	Noble nag was at the front of the field (6)
		TIT (“nag”, a worn-out horse) + LED (“was at the front of the field”)
6	AMULET	Talisman, a cross with letter associated with one? (6)
		A + MULE (“cross”) with T (“letter associated with one” i.e. a cross (tau-cross)) and &lit. possibly
7	OSTRICH	Hiding head was expensive for Dick ? being one such? (7)
		[hiding head] (c)OST (“was expensive”) + RICH (“Dick”, both short for Richard) Ostriches famously hide their heads when chased.
8	AQUA	Pale blue component of Paraquat (4)
		Hidden in [component of] “parAQUAt”
9	HEMPSEED	Male sitter, recognized locally? One deserved hanging (8)
		HE (“male”) + MP (one sitting in Parliament, so “sitter”) + SEED (dialect word for seen, so “recognized locally”) In Shakespeare, a hempseed was someone who deserved to be hanged.
13	MAGI-MARKER	Felt-tip, one creating circles Margi scrawled (10)
		MAKER (“once creating”) circles (Margi) [anag:scrawling*]
15	PRESENCES	Former assemblies mostly screened, broadcast in postscript (9)
		(screene) [anag:broadcast] in PS (postscript) where SCREENE is [mostly*] SCREENE(d)
16	TABORITE	Follower of Huss curtailed forbidden liturgy (8)
		[curtailed] TABO(o) (“forbidden”) + RITE (“liturgy”) The Taborites (aka Picards) were a faction within the Hussite movement in medieval Bohemia.
19	OTARINE	Like sea creature’s fur? Sailor I spotted clothed in one (7)
		TAR (“sailor”) + I spotted in ONE An otary is an eared seal, and otarine is the adjective which describes its silky fur.
22	CIMIER	Top of helmet I found in Crimea, battered, rear piece missing (6)
		I found in (crime) [anag:battered] where CRIME is CRIME(a) with its rear piece missing*
23	A SALTI	Sailor joining middle of sail, not all at once (6, 2 words)
		SALT (“sailor”) joining A + I ([middle of] (s)AI(l)) A salti means “in fits and starts.
25	BASSE	Perch causing head of splinter to pierce bottom (5)
		[head of] S(painter) to pierce BASE (“bottom”)
26	PNIN	Eponymous hero appearing in early page (not English)? (4)
		P(age) NIN(e) (“early page”, not E (English)) Pnin is an eponymous hero of a Vladimir Nabokov novel, published in 1957.
28	DYES	Blond may change? Yes, looking at latest colours (4)
		(blon)D (ma)Y (chang)E (ye)S [looking at latest, ie, last letters]

14 comments on “Azed No. 2,616 Plain”

KNOW-ALL = reversal of WONK (studious person) + ALL (quite). I think those checked out in Chambers at the time.

Another one here who confidently wrote in Roost instead of RASSE which caused problems when it came to the crossers. I did like EYNE with the clever misdirection of Milton and the reference to his famous sonnet.

Thanks for the blog, I have heard of “policy wonk” in political terms , someone who has studied a particular topic and knows a lot about it. I wonder if “ROOST” was deliberate, it certainly works if you cold solve the clue, fortunately I had letters by the time I got to it.

Don’t recall too many problems but in 12ac I didn’t know “st” to mean hush. I now see it’s in Chambers if I’d bothered to look.

10ac, I thought it was MAS(h) for ‘pulp’ in the middle of ANTIQUE. I didn’t know PNIN, but eventually got there (when I had _NIN)! Thanks for the blog.

Hello all!
Thanks to Azed (hope he’s over his COVID) and to loonapick. I think this was a one-sitting solve with a few chuckles.
Re 2617, my paper had clue 2 as (10) but checking word-lengths there was a (9) too few and a (10) too many. Fortunately I spotted that it was 2 that was incorrect. Hope this comment doesn’t break the rules. I expect some Australians will have on-line correct versions.

Keith @6: you’re right about the enumeration error in 2617, but I don’t suppose too many people will be troubled by it. Am I right in remembering that some recent jigsaw puzzles by Azed have included no enumeration at all?

I have no information about Azed’s health but of course share your good wishes. He doesn’t yet appear to have published his slip with the results of the July competition, now a fortnight overdue.

Looking at my grid again, I see I totally failed to spot I hadn’t got the first letter of 26dn.

Thanks Keith, fortunately clue 2 was probably the easiest to solve, I then looked at the 10s and found 4 in the grid and 5 in the clues, problem solved.
bridgesong@7 , the carte blanche puzzles do not give the length of answers making the clues much trickier.

Thanks loonapick, especially for the OAT of OATH.
My reading of the Chambers entry for otarine is that it is the adjective applied to the seals, not their fur.
Another ROOST here.
Thanks as ever to Azed.

If anyone is still reading this, I too got held up by ROOST for a very long time. I also frequently seem to fail Azed on one letter, and today it was PNIN. Had the last three from the crossers, but could have stared at it for the rest of my life and still not got it so thanks to Loonapick for that one. I think I was about to plod through Chambers before seeing what time it was already, and clearly forgot the next day but I’m guessing that may not have helped me in this case?

All great fun though, thanks both!

Fiery Jack I always check back , I too stared at -NIN , the only thing that saved me was “page” in the clue, leading me to P . Did not know PNIN but my ever helpful librarian knew it straight away, problem solved. Only then did I click with the P(age) NIN(e). You are right that Chambers was no help, I think the hardest clues are always something obscure with the FIRST letter missing.

ROOST tripped me up in the SE corner — and I didn’t get off the ground. That said, the lower third remained largely undone even after the upper two-thirds went in steadily.

Thanks Azed and loonapick.

I agree that this was more difficult than the other puzzles of the past few weeks (including the eightsome reels). I avoided ROOST by not having any ideas until 32A (lovely clue) was solved. PNIN was LOI having been hung up on the idea that an early page was an old word for a boy servant. At the _NIN stage, even checked NINE for unexpected meanings. “C2014 is recommended” is a less strong commitment from Azed than “Every word is in C2014” and this was indicated as a proper noun so no surprise when C didn’t help (though I checked). Not the best known eponymous Nabokov character.

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