A nice plain from Azed with the usual sound clues. In one or two places I’m a bit doubtful but that’s very possibly me. In his latest slip he mentions that some people find the 11×13 grid (as here) often a bit easier to solve that the usual 12×12.
I used to blog Azed’s crosswords some years ago and seem to remember making the same remark then: the actual wordplay is usually fairly simple; the difficulty lies in the extraordinary words, which I have usually not explained.
Definitions underlined in crimson. Anagram indicators in italics.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DISADVANTAGED |
Being worse off, I’d returned wretched vehicle, cross, old (13)
|
| (I’d)rev. sad van T aged | ||
| 11 | PARAFOIL |
Father leading service with unction, by which one may be guided from aloft (8)
|
| Pa RAF oil — a parafoil is a form of steerable parachute, so in a sense it guides from aloft (although I’m not quite sure about the ‘from aloft’) | ||
| 13 | BIAS |
What signals repetition including a bowler’s slanting line (4)
|
| bi(a)s — bis the musical term, the bowler is someone who plays bowls | ||
| 14 | ACROTER |
Pedimental ornament actor flourished before her late majesty (7)
|
| (actor)* ER | ||
| 15 | STROWN |
Local barge clad in tin dispersed roughly (6)
|
| S(trow)n — Sn is the chemical symbol for tin; I wanted this to be the obvious STREWN, but STROWN is a variant spelling (?) | ||
| 16 | ATOK |
Eleven characters in a row? That’s quite a stinker! (4)
|
| The letter a to the letter k takes up 11 characters in a row | ||
| 18 | IGNARO |
One called backward, with minimum marks? (6)
|
| 1 (rang)rev. 0, &lit. | ||
| 19 | DWALE |
Shield’s black lead forged with little inner weight (5)
|
| w in (lead)* — heraldry — not quite sure what the ‘little’ is doing: if it should be there at all should it not be ‘with inner little weight’, which spoils the surface? | ||
| 20 | REDCAP |
Dreadfully parched, lacking hydrant ? try US porter (6)
|
| *(parc[h]ed) | ||
| 23 | PEPSIN |
Letter from Greece received by writer ? it’s juicy stuff (6)
|
| pe(psi)n | ||
| 25 | TRASS |
Type of cement wears out, high explosive shifted (5)
|
| I think this is tras[HE]s, but |
||
| 27 | LAISSE |
Tirade getting aisles rolling (6)
|
| (aisles)* | ||
| 30 | IRIS |
Showy plant from Italy king avoided put in danger (4)
|
| I ris[k] | ||
| 31 | SANGHA |
Buddhist monks celebrated in this year (6)
|
| sang ha — hoc anno | ||
| 33 | SOLFEGE |
Trilling of glee’s a vocal exercise (7)
|
| *(of glee’s) | ||
| 34 | QUID |
Bit off head of cuttle, something to chew on (4)
|
| [s]quid — I’m not all that comfortable with squid = cuttle(fish), but I suppose it’s OK because they’re both cephalopod molluscs | ||
| 35 | HEADACHE |
Programming language caught dividing two men, a worry (8)
|
| he (Ada c) he | ||
| 36 | STEEPLECHASER |
Awkward places he has to negotiate round? (13)
|
| *(places he) in steer, &lit. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DUBS |
Terms for heavy conditions at Murrayfield? (4)
|
| Murrayfield, the Scottish rugby stadium, indicates the Scottishism | ||
| 2 | SPARID |
E.g. sea bream, species very short of water (6)
|
| sp. arid | ||
| 3 | DRAWN |
French maybe having to accept rule, gutted? (5)
|
| D(r)awn — ref. Dawn French | ||
| 4 | VARNA |
What dalit’s denied, as opposed to water buffalo! (5)
|
| v. arna | ||
| 5 | NO CHOP |
Worthless poncho in tatters (6, 2 words)
|
| (poncho)* — not an expression I’d ever heard of | ||
| 6 | TIRADE |
In practice I scored run (6)
|
| t(I)rade — a run between two notes in music, hence a ‘scored’ run | ||
| 7 | GUTTA |
Drop of medicine, thick milky stuff (5)
|
| 2 defs | ||
| 8 | ENEOLITHIC |
With little energy, one woozy drunk, here, registering copper’s time? (10)
|
| e (one)* lit hic | ||
| 9 | DARKENS |
Turns black box in the course of studies (7)
|
| d(ark)ens | ||
| 10 | BITTER-ROOT |
A little child swallowing most of what’s mistaken for xerophyte (10)
|
| bit t(erro[r])ot | ||
| 12 | FAIRFACED |
Grazed round Africa, wild and beautiful (9)
|
| fed round (Africa)* | ||
| 17 | ARTISTS |
Creative school maybe starts off going round island (7)
|
| (starts)* round i | ||
| 21 | ASLEEP |
One starts rising scales, not paying attention (6)
|
| a (peels)rev. — but peels = scales?? | ||
| 22 | PLAGAL |
Chum holding girl up, not authentic (6)
|
| pal round (gal)rev. | ||
| 24 | SEGUES |
Follows on, as in courts (6)
|
| e.g. in sues | ||
| 26 | AILIE |
Little Alice? I am still after answer (5)
|
| a I lie — so far as I can see from Google Ailie isn’t short for Alice, but the old Chambers directs you from Ailie to Eilidh, which it says is a Gaelic diminutive of Alice or Helen | ||
| 28 | ISIAC |
‘Relating to Egyptian deity’ is your first clue? (5)
|
| is 1ac | ||
| 29 | SAUCH |
Scottish willow of this kind is found round Australia (5)
|
| s(A)uch | ||
| 32 | ADAR |
Month in Tel Aviv and Cairo evens out (4)
|
| Adar is a month in the Jewish calendar; a{n}d {C}a{i}r{o} |
Thanks John,
Ailie is in Chambers 2016 under Alison, alongside Alice.
I think “little inner weight” is ok – “tall handsome stranger / handsome tall stranger” are interchangeable after all.
Peels=scales as in scale fish?
Agree about TRASS, STROWN is in Chambers but new to me too.
Thanks as ever to Azed.
Thanks Azed and John
25ac: No need to worry about trashes = wears out. “To wear out” is the first definition of trash[3] vt.
Thanks for the blog. I thought 28D was innovative, or, at least, I have never seen that before.
Thanks for the blog, I do not know how you explain it so well but so concisely.
Perhaps the 13×11 slightly easier because they usually have a long word across the top giving many first letters.
Not a good week for Chambers93, no SANGHA or ISIAC, NOT MUCH CHOP but not NO CHOP, ENEOLITHIC only with an initial AE… , the clues were fine though.
On the other hand it has names in the back and for Alice it gives AILIE as the first diminutive and for SCALE it gives peel off in thin layers.
I nearly put STREWN but the I checked TREW/TROW . STEEPLECHASER was very neat.
The lack of an M in the grid is very unusual. It could even be the first time this year, including for the Guardian cryptic, though I may be wrong. Roz @4, yes, DISADVANTAGED across the top made for a friendly start. Thanks to Azed and to the always-helpful John.
I seemed to get stuck Sunday night and two more days and still not complete down the left side so very much did not finish.
Roz@4, my Chambers 98 was similarly lacking, but does give ISIAC as an adjective under Isis. Re PARAFOIL, I suppose a steerable parachute allows you to guide your journey from the air to the ground, so in that sense ‘guided from aloft’. Interesting to have TIRADE appearing as both an answer and a definition and neither time the best-known definition (or best-known to me) of a rant.
Regarding 28d, he has used that device before, in a puzzle which had a 1d, but no 1ac (he used “what this puzzle lacks…” to clue MANIAC)
MunroMaiden@7 , Chambers 93 does not even have Isis , I was very surprised, and yes TIRADE is a rant most of the time.
Roz@9, that is a surprise. I wouldn’t have thought Isis became any more common between 1993 and 1998, so perhaps it was just a general enlargement. Does it have Osiris? Ra? 1998 has those, plus Anubis, Horus, Thoth and quite possibly others I don’t know.
MunroMaiden, they are all there except Isis, it must have been an oversight that they put right.