How Azed manages to produce these grids is a source of amazement. I think he does it all by hand in an exercise book, and doesn’t call upon electronic help. We have three eleven-letter answers from top to bottom, and nothing seems to be strained (although perhaps caa’s was a bit of a stretch). There are one or two places where I’m not quite sure; no doubt all will be explained.
Definitions in crimson, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | FORSWONCK |
Once overworked crown’s somehow leaving king in a cleft (9)
|
| (c[r]own’s)* in fork — why do we have ‘a’? Surely the clue would have read fine without it? Some people don’t like these floating a’s and the’s, but others don’t care. | ||
| 12 | RUANA |
Princely Rajput appears round the bend in something like a poncho (5)
|
| R(u)ana | ||
| 13 | AVAILE |
Poet’s come down a glen grasping start of idyll (6)
|
| a va(i[dyll])le — and in this one, unlike 1ac, the a is significant — the poet in a clue like this nearly always seems to be Spenser; there are others | ||
| 14 | SCRAPPLES |
Where dons gather supplied with fruit and US meat loaves (9)
|
| SCR apples — SCR = Senior Common Room | ||
| 15 | WRAITHS |
This war disconcerted spooks (7)
|
| (This war)* | ||
| 16 | TALMA |
Coastal mass envelops this cape (5)
|
| Hidden in coasTAL MAss | ||
| 18 | BEERINESS |
Pub atmosphere feeding stale crusts to hard-working creatures (9)
|
| bee(rines)s | ||
| 22 | RENDS |
I’m backing out of jogs yielding ruptures (5)
|
| (I’m)rev. removed from reminds | ||
| 23 | BOYAU |
Raw recruit returned to the French trenches (one of them) (5)
|
| (yob)rev. au — strange because both boy = raw recruit (possibly: one thinks of Pike in Dad’s Army), and yob = raw recruit, so one wonders why Azed bothered with ‘returned’: it must be because the boy definition is a bit loose, and also because it makes it much easier for him to produce a sentence that reads well | ||
| 24 | DREAMLESS |
Endless sleep, drams drunk deep? (9)
|
| (slee[p] drams)*, with a bit of &littery going on — maybe it’s a full one and the criticism one could make of Azed, that he calls any type of &lit. an &lit., is unnecessary here; not sure — I think P.G.Wodehouse sometimes refers to sleep as dreamless, both nouns | ||
| 25 | BERRY |
A particular bean soup (5)
|
| 2 defs | ||
| 28 | NEPHRIC |
Labiate, unusually rich, suggesting type of bean? (7)
|
| nep *(rich) — it suggests kidney and thence kidney-bean | ||
| 30 | LATTER-DAY |
Modern lady spoilt with treat (9)
|
| (lady treat)* | ||
| 31 | ORIENT |
Pearl, round, I found in cranny (6)
|
| O r(I)ent | ||
| 32 | ELVES |
Snow White’s friends? Day away from digs (5)
|
| [d]elves | ||
| 33 | PYRENEITE |
Precious stone, stone that is including a bit of tourmaline (9)
|
| pyrene i(t[ourmaline])e | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | FROWARD |
Unreasonable old rumpus in remote department (7)
|
| f(row)ar d | ||
| 2 | OUVRIER |
French worker having mistaken au revoir with afternoon off (7)
|
| *([a]u revoir) | ||
| 3 | RAMA |
Main character in epic plays, not the first (4)
|
| I think it’s [d]rama, with Rama, an incarnation of Vishnu, the main character in epic (the Ramayana) — but although I think this is the right answer I’m not 100% sure and maybe someone can correct me | ||
| 4 | SNAIL DARTER |
Radial nets arranged on river for US fish (11, 2 words)
|
| (Radial nets)* r — I certainly couldn’t enter this until I had plenty of checkers! | ||
| 5 | OSCHEAL |
Like bags of nuts or varied coals he’s put in (7)
|
| he in *(coals) — Azed doesn’t lose the opportunity to be a little bit rude | ||
| 6 | NURSE-TENDER |
One caring for the sick to roll up with number during Passover feast (11)
|
| (run)rev. Se(ten)der — I suppose run = roll in the sense ‘let it run/roll’ of a piece of film or some such; anyway it’s in Chambers | ||
| 7 | CAA’S |
Drives in Scotland when following borders of Caledonia (4)
|
| C[aledoni]a as | ||
| 8 | JAPANOPHILE |
Orientalist possibly making joke about phonal blundering I introduced (11)
|
| jape round (phonal)* with I introduced | ||
| 9 | MILL-EYE |
Outlet for meal I call up in Maine (7)
|
| (I (yell)rev.) in Me | ||
| 10 | YLEM |
Elemental stuff turning up in some lysosomes (4)
|
| Hidden rev. in soME LYsosomes | ||
| 11 | MESA |
Feature of Ford westerns the old master located on centre of plain? (4)
|
| mes [pl]a[in] | ||
| 17 | INERTIA |
I train freely putting energy in — opposite of this? (7)
|
| (I train)* containing e | ||
| 19 | ROSEATE |
Blooming noise of e.g. US breakers with tide coming in (7)
|
| ro(sea)te | ||
| 20 | SATINET |
Soft cloth one with money included in array (7)
|
| s(a tin)et | ||
| 21 | SUCCOSE |
Endless sun leading to blend of secco and fruity (7)
|
| su[n] *(secco) | ||
| 25 | BLOB |
Bowled lofted delivery yielding zero score (4)
|
| b lob | ||
| 26 | EARD |
East-ender’s reputed to sink Scotch? (4)
|
| ‘eard — eard = sink = bury (Scottish) | ||
| 27 | ARTY |
Do without leader with cultural pretensions? (4)
|
| [p]arty | ||
| 29 | RAVI |
‘Sunny’ fellow enraptured with removal of bottom half (shed) (4)
|
| ravi[shed] — quite why Ravi is a ‘sunny’ fellow I’m not sure: was or is there someone like Sunny Gavaskar? Google tells me that there is someone called Ravi Sunny — not sure if it’s him |
Thanks John,
Ravi is one of the names of the Sun God in India.
I agree with your parsing of RAMA.
In 1ac, the ‘a’ certainly makes a nicer surface, and also distinguishes the noun ‘cleft’ from the adjective.
Thanks as ever to Azed.
Thanks Azed and John
29dn: In the section “Some first names” at the back of Chambers 2014, we can find Ravi m (Sans) sun.
Azed wouldn’t think it fair or acceptable to clue RAVI with just “fellow” as the definition as it’s not specific enough. Hence the qualifying “sunny” as Gonzo and Pelham Barton say. That “some first names” section in Chambers does come in useful at times. In a similar way, he probably doesn’t think that boy is specific enough for “raw recruit” in BOYAU (a raw recruit is not necessarily young), hence the yob reversal.
Favourite was OSCHEAL for the “bags of nuts”.
I agree with the parsings and further comments above. I think in 18A “stale” refers to the fact that “rine” is obsolete/Spenserian.
SNAIL DARTER was a delightful write-in for me, the little fish having been, as an endangered species, the focus of landmark environmental litigation in the US back in the 1970s.
Thanks for a very detailed blog, I have a few thoughts on your queries.
FORSWONCK , a great word , fork= A cleft is fine by me. For no logical reason I do not mind the “a” in a clue for a word going outside , but not INSIDE. See your note on AVAILE.
BOYAU I agree with Tim@3.
DREAMLESS , the classic &Lit has the WHOLE clue being the word play and the definition, so I would say no for this one.
RAMA I agree with you, it is in my Chambers93 with reference to the epic.
RAVI see Gonzo@1 , my query is the (shed) at the end, is it needed at all ?
Roz@5, I thought the (shed) in 29dn might be there as an extra help, since RAVI = sun is quite obscure. I certainly found it helpful, as I’d not yet got the crossing letters when I looked at the clue. I agree that FORSWONCK is a great word and I thought OSCHEAL was a great (if cheeky) definition.
My first Azed (thanks to a recommendation from Roz over on the Sunday Everyman thread) and most enjoyable. Ravi was my last one in and I spent a good while reading about Ravi Shankar, eventually arriving at the Sanskrit meaning of the name. I agree that “(shed)” felt a bit odd and I wondered if it had been left there in error. I was fortunate to have recently encountered the Scottish ‘CA/CAA’ in a Wee Stinker clue for CAPERCAILZIE.
Thanks to Azed and John
A rare completion for me, hurrah! My only disappointment was discovering that MES is an obsolete form of Master in 11d. I was clinging to the hope that it might be a reference to the late and great old master Mark E Smith, but I’ll tell myself instead that the reference was fully intended 🙂
Thanks to Azed for the fun, and to John for the very detailed blog.
Glad you liked it Jay@7 , a good one to start with.
MunroMaiden@6 I agree the (shed) helped but I think the clue is fine without it and Azed should be making things harder not easier.
Roz@9 I agree about the (shed), and it certainly made me raise an eyebrow when I finally saw the solution. It does seem unnecessary and it makes the surface uncharacteristically clunky. It reads almost like it’s a complier’s note to self during setting, which was intended to be deleted before publishing?
Did my usual- tried to underline and blew the message up! Trying to remember nine days back is a problem but thanks to Azed and John for the detailed blog. Delighted to greet a newcomer. I claim to have solved all 2,644 and remember a Ximenes slip in which my HC was matched by a youngster called J.Crowther!
Oldtimers note that Colin Dexter got a citation in the “Guardian” letters page.
Did this on the day and thought it needed less dictionary-fodder than some.
My last in was 1ac FORSWONCK, really weird.
I think you could be right Fiery Jack@10 , Jay had similar thoughts. It is like a hand-written note that was typed up by mistake. Pure speculation of course.
Ravi , I think non Indian ancient texts stands for sun.’ Sun’day is Ravi -var ( var is day )