Azed 2621

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Quite a few non-English words (only some of which are Scottish) in this one, but not too high up the hardness scale, as far as I remember. Thanks to Azed.

 
Across
1 DOG-PARSLEY Cook leg with spray misguidedly? It’s not a real herb (10)
DO (cook) + (LEG SPRAY)* – aka Fool’s Parsley or Aethusa cynapium, a poisonous plant that looks a bit like real parsley
10 AGORA What Israelis will spend in marketplace of old (5)
Double definition – as well as the familiar marketplace meaning it’s also one hundredth of a shekel, currently worth about a quarter of a UK penny
12 TOPHET Waste dump, upper surface on fire (6)
TOP + HET (agitated, angry, so presumably “on fire”)
13 NON-EGO Everyone stays for personality, objectively? (6)
If everyone stays then NONE GO
14 GEMMA Gardener’s first novel bud (5)
G[ardener] + EMMA (Jane Austen novel)
15 ON TARGET Tot, anger boiling, well aimed (8, 2 words)
(TOT ANGER)*
16 ENDITE Former charge: bring it to a close before end of audience (6)
END IT + [audienc]E
17 DONE Fellow with little English cheated (4)
DON + E
18 MEASURED Stable placed in grassy field, as is deliberate (8)
SURE in MEAD
23 WAR-WHOOP Slogan relative with love inserted in part of threadwork (8, 2 words)
WHO (relative pronoun) + O in WARP
25 CAPO One such (though not born abroad!) (4)
CAPONE (Al C, who was a Mafia boss or capo) less NE (French “born”). I find it quite hard to classify this – it’s kind of an &lit, as Capone was born in New York City, so not “abroad” from where his activities took place
27 VIELLE Hurdy-gurdy played live by the French (6)
LIVE* + LE
29 ACQUIRAL What’ll demonstrate such attainment? By its sound, a musical group will, briefly (8)
Homophone of “a choir’ll”
30 BRITS Fish (various), those originating in island group? (5)
Double definition
31 IBERIS Flower to occupy position in flag (6)
BE (Chambers has “to occupy a position in space”) in IRIS (flag)
*32 RIBALD Coarse (6)
The competition word
33 DRACO Group of stars to perform touring Carmen? (5)
RAC (“car men”) in DO. Carmen for AA or RAC (I./e. “car men”) is fairly common, but I was a bit surprised to see Azed using it, but I see that Chambers defines carman as “a man who drives a car or cart”, though as it’s archaic presumably not a car in the modern sense
34 PRESSWOMAN Member of fourth estate cultivating some prawns (10)
(SOME PRAWNS)*
Down
1 DANSE MACABRE Damn scarabee is represented in this allegorical series (12, 2 words)
(DAMN SCARABEE)*
2 GONADAL Girl holds on, notice, concerning reproduction (7)
ON + AD in GAL
3 PRÉCIS Abstract price adjusted before start of sale (6)
PRICE* + S[ale]
4 RHONE Major flow of water in Scots gully (5)
Double definition, with a circumflex on the o for the “major flow of water” (i.e. river) sense
5 STOTTER Children given lift, school period ending early ? it’s smashing for wee ones (7)
Reverse of TOTS + TER[m] – it’s “a person or thing that is admired, a smasher”, with “wee ones” indicating that it’s a Scots word
6 LOGAN Bit of wood on old rocker (5)
LOG + AN (old version of “on”)
7 ÉPERDU Mash pureed? R. Blanc’s sidetracked (6)
PUREED*, with Raymond Blanc appearing to tell us it’s a French word
8 MEMENTO Chaps captivated came across love token (7)
MEN in MET + O
9 STATESPERSON Government minister perhaps resents a post being reshuffled (12)
(RESENTS A POST)* – it’s perhaps questionable whether any of the latest crop of minsters are worthy of being described thus
11 GOON Don’t stop silly name being applied to saccharin (4)
Two different wordplays: GO ON (don’t stop) or GOO + N, with the definition (“silly” as a noun) in the middle
19 EPACRIS Spacier spreads revealing heath-like plant (7)
SPACIER*
20 RAMRODS Martinets giving student hostel a going-over with head around (7)
Reverse DORM in RAS (headland)
21 WOLFRAM Predatory beast on top of its victim in compound? (7)
WOLF + RAM – Wolfram is an old name for Tungsten (chemical symbol W), but also “a native compound of tungstate of iron and manganese”
22 SOUTAR Scottish snob unfashionable in his taste (6)
OUT in SAR (Scots form of “savour”, taste)
24 HERERO Bantu woman’s one ’eld in ’igh esteem (6)
HER (woman’s) + [h]ERO
26 AISLE Wherein crew moves around and is opening drink (5)
IS in ALE – the “crew” being e.g. aircraft cabin crew
27 VAILS Lowers 50% of sail in vessel (5)
[sa]IL in VAS
28 LAIC Non-pro RAF rank I’ll be in (4)
I in LAC (Leading AirCraftsman)

14 comments on “Azed 2621”

  1. Thanks for such a thorough blog, answered a lot of my minor points.
    I am not overly fond of CAPO, you really need the answer first and then an example of one, then mess with it to get the answer, very circular and not convinced there is really a definition.
    I wrestled with BRITS for far too long thinking that T must be in some island group.
    SOUTAR was in the recent 50th year special with the SNOB idea or it could have been a long search for the first letter.

  4. No real major problems for me. I do like the word TOPHET. According to Chambers it’s “an ancient place of human sacrifice near Jerusalem, the valley of Hinnom or part of it, later a place of refuse disposal; hence Hell”. I knew the word from my youth from Tophet Bastion, a crag on Great Gable in the Lake District next to Great Hell Gate (a scree gully)

  5. Thanks to Azed & Andrew. CAPO does seem not quite up to Azed’s usual, spot-on, clarity and I felt re=assured when I read the blog. Thought this was very PC with STATESPERSON & PRESSWOMAN.

  6. Re TOPHET. The question of whether or not the Phoenicians did child sacrifices appears to be still debated. On a visit to Carthage ruins some years ago we went to a children’s graveyard. We were told that wealthy families, whose child was chosen, would pay a slave to give up a child as a substitute. Pretty horrible. No wonder later religions thought ill of the Phoenicians.

  7. Roz@1 and Keith Thomas@5: I agree that there is no definition. Andrew’s tentative &lit doesn’t work for me because the whole clue describes one particular capo.

  8. I wasn’t too fond of CAPO, either, but also thought 29ac, ACQUIRAL, didn’t entirely work. I understand the homophone, but don’t see why a choir might “demonstrate” acquiral. Usually in a clue of that type there is some connection – for example, if acquiral specifically meant the attainment of a correct note, that would provide the reference. Perhaps I’m just being over-fussy, but I thought it was a bit clumsy for Azed. Roz@1, I too thought BRITS was going to be T in an island group, but fortunately set it aside until I’d got enough crossing letters to see my mistake.

  9. MunroMaiden@8, I took the whole first sentence of 29A as the definition, so acquiral is what (trivially?) demonstrates attainment. Also saw the wordplay as a charade of a homophone of “a choir” + “will” briefly.

  11. I am new to doing the AZED so now feel better about failing on CAPO and ACQUIRAL after reading the blog. Overnight I was still puzzling about BRITS which I’d also missed but now see Brit in Chambers as a young herring etc. That feels like useful crossword general knowledge!

    Thank you Andrew for the blog to fill my gaps and AZED for providing this entertainment.

  12. Well done CanberraGirl@11 for getting so far, when I was learning to do Azed I would be lucky to get halfway. BRITS and many other fish are very common in Azed, I was happy with the fish part but the word play would not drop for a while for me.
    TimS @9 I agree with your reasoning it does work but I agree with MunroMaiden@8 that the two parts would usually have some connection.

  13. Final thought , we have been watching “Sunset Song” on BBC4, there are so many Scottish words in it that Azed uses . I think MunroMaiden has an advantage over all of us doing Azed.

  14. Roz@13 – I know more obscure Scottish words from crosswords than hearing them spoken! Folk here no more speak of a “soutar” than English people would of a “snob”. I would grant you “Stotter”, though 🙂

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