A plain puzzle from Azed.
This was about as straightforward as Azed gets – some obscure answers but the wordplay and crossers give you a chance at guessing any answers you don’t know.
Thanks, Azed
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PISS-A-BED |
Common weed of various colours, deep round inside (8)
|
| PIED (“of various colours”) with <=BASS (“deep”, round) inside
Piss-a-bed is another term for the dandelion. |
||
| 7 | UPAS |
Fabulous tree, one inhabiting downs? Certainly not (4)
|
| A (“one”) inhabiting UPS (“downs, certainly not”)
In Javanese mythology, the upas-tree was a fabled tree that poisoned everything in its vicinity. |
||
| 10 | CARABINERO |
Spanish lawman in core organized to protect urchin? (10)
|
| *(in core) [anag:organized] to protect ARAB (offensive word for an “urchin”) | ||
| 11 | STUBS |
Horse painter setting aside barrel inside for farrier’s scraps (5)
|
| (George) STUB(b)S (“horse painter”) setting aside B (barrel) from inside
Stub or stub-nail is the name given to a worn horseshoe nail, used as scrap. |
||
| 13 | ABLOW |
Like a puffer, line entering a bend? (5)
|
| L (line) entering A BOW (“a curve”) | ||
| 14 | TELPHER |
Form of help cutting monstrosity as abandoned, cable system (7)
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| *(help) [anag:form of] cutting TER(as) (“monstrosity” with AS abandoned)
A telpher is a form of electric transport, using overhead cables. |
||
| 17 | ESCHAR |
Search in litter for portion of dead tissue (6)
|
| *(search) [anag:in litter]
I wasn’t sure of “in litter” as an anagrind at first, but then thought of something in litter being something “thrown out”. |
||
| 18 | URBANITE |
Townie to join, taking in renovated bar (8)
|
| UNITE (“to join”), taking in *(bar) | ||
| 19 | KECK |
Throwing away half, keep odd bits of cake, making one feel sick (4)
|
| [throwing away half] KE(ep) + [odd bits of] C(a)K(e) | ||
| 21 | PALM |
Winner’s achievement among principal models (4)
|
| Hidden in [among] “princiPAL Models” | ||
| 22 | CATTLEYA |
Herd always rejected orchid (8)
|
| CATTLE (“herd”) + <=AY (“ever”, rejected)
Cattleya is a genus of Central and South American orchids. |
||
| 24 | SIRIUS |
Teacher is welcoming university star outshining the rest (6)
|
| SIR (“teacher”) + IS welcoming U (university)
Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. |
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| 28 | IN STYLE |
The old rise in line dressed grandly (7, 2 words)
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| STY (an old word for “to rise”, so “the old rise”) in *(line) [anag:dressed] | ||
| 29 | GROAN |
Deep sound ordinary in piccolo? The opposite (5)
|
| O (ordinary) in GRAN (“large” in Italian, “the opposite” of “piccolo”, which means “little” in Italian) | ||
| 30 | LUCAN |
Classical poet, one that disappeared mysteriously (5)
|
| Double definition, the first referring to Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (39-65AD) and the second to John Bingham, the 7th Lord of Lucan, who disappeared in 1974 after being accused of the murder of the murder of his children’s nanny. | ||
| 31 | GOLDEN SEAL |
Medicinal root of yesteryear taken in as gel, mixed (10, 2 words)
|
| OLDEN (“of yesteryear”) taken in *(as gel) [anag:mixed]
Golden seal is an American plant, the rhizome of which is used in medicine. |
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| 32 | YGOE |
Poet’s since disheartened young with Old English (4)
|
| [disheartened] Y(out)G with OE (Old English)
Ygoe is an archaic poetic form of AGO. |
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| 33 | DISTRESS |
Difficulty is time getting into clothes (8)
|
| IS + T (time) getting into DRESS (“clothes”) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PASTE-UP |
Collage showing chemist finally serving prince in place of king (7)
|
| (Louis) PASTEU(r>P) (“chemist”) finally serving P (prince) in place of R (Rex, so “king”) | ||
| 2 | INTERRAIL |
Travel as young often do? I love going round the old world (9)
|
| I + NIL (“love”, as in “zero”) going round TERRA (“the old” Latin word for “world”) | ||
| 3 | SCULP |
Make engraving rarely an advantage put up round college (5)
|
| <=PLUS (“an advantage”, put up) round C (college) | ||
| 4 | ARSHIN |
Measure once adopted in Russia boyars hindered in part (6)
|
| Hidden in [in part] “boyARS HINdered”
An arsine was an old measure of length, about 71cm in Russia, but 76cm in Turkey. |
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| 5 | BABESIASIS |
Cattle affliction: very young one is brought up with no change? (10)
|
| BABE (“very young one”) + <=IS [brought up] + AS IS (“with no change”) | ||
| 6 | DIALS |
Mugs spoke up about what’s central to knowledge (5)
|
| <=SAID (“spoke”, up) about [what’s central to] (know)L(edge) | ||
| 7 | UNBUCKLE |
Let loose, stop living having to accept rotten luck (8)
|
| UNBE (“stop living”) having to accept *(luck) [anag:rotten] | ||
| 8 | PELT |
Hide from downpour (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 9 | SOWAR |
Trooper in India well before hostilities (5)
|
| SO (“well”) before WAR (“hostilities”) | ||
| 12 | PRETTINESS |
Ogre once presented in Fleet Street displaying charming quality (10)
|
| ETTIN (old word for a giant, so “ogre once”) presented in PRESS (“Fleet Street”) | ||
| 15 | LACY GLASS |
Delicate material indeed disheartened young in lesson (9, 2 words)
|
| LA! (“indeed!”) + [disheartened] Y(oun)G in CLASS (“lesson”) | ||
| 16 | CAMISADE |
Night-time attack happened, catching one stiff (8)
|
| CAME (“happened”) catching I (one) + SAD (“stiff”, to describe heavy dough in baking) | ||
| 20 | KALENDS |
The first always comes last after spirit has left (7)
|
| ENDS (“comes last”) after KA (“spirit”) has L (left) | ||
| 23 | TASLET |
Mount rode up, showing overlapping piece of armour (6)
|
| <=(TEL (“mount”) + SAT (“rode”), up) | ||
| 24 | SOGGY |
Cooked pastry base shouldn’t be like this, very like an omelette (first off)! (5)
|
| SO (‘very”) + (e)GGY (“like an omelette”, first (letter) off) | ||
| 25 | URNED |
Like votes when cast under being distributed (5)
|
| *(under) [anag:being distributed]
One of the meanings of “urn” is “ballot box” |
||
| 26 | CYCLE |
Revolution contained by papacy, clearly (5)
|
| Hidden in [contained by] “papaCY CLEarly” | ||
| 27 | KOLO |
Performance by Serbs, look, dancing (4)
|
| *(look) [anag:dancing]
Kolo is a Serbian folk dance or its associated tune. |
Very grateful for occasional very straightforward AZEDs. It’s motivating to be able to finish!
Thanks for the blog , well done CanberraGirl@1. I have a theory that Azed Plain puzzles are easier around the time of a complicated special. The recent PD must have taken a lot of effort to set.
I liked LACY GLASS , Azed got me once with indeed=LA and I have always remembered it. PASTEUP was neat and I liked the INTERRAIL clue , I used to love going round Europe on the trains when I was a student and it was so cheap.
Slightly surprised to see “disheartened young” used twice (32 ac and 15d) to give YG. But otherwise no complaints!
Two forms of clue appealed here. Those like KOLO and YGOE which were solvable entirely from the wordplay but which required a dictionary search to confirm; and those like SOGGY, the solution to which readily came to mind, but which required a little more thought to decipher the wordplay.
TASLET was LOI and not fully parsed as I hadn’t come across TEL for MOUNT before. Indeed for LA was also new but I found it in Chambers to my surprise.
Thanks to A and L
Like Bridgesong@3, I was a little surprised to see ‘disheartened young’ used twice and also three ‘hidden’ clues (21ac, 4dn and 26dn), which must be the simplest type of wordplay to solve. Overall, I found this pretty much a write-in, but like Roz@2 I enjoyed PASTEUP and also KALENDS – ‘The first always’ was a good definition.
Hands up how much time was wasted trying to fit corregidor into 10 Across. I’m sure Azed does this deliberately with a twinkle in his eye.
Tel ought to be well known. Tel el Kebir and Tel el Eisa should be etched. Some of the tels are not really “mounts”—little more than slight rises in the ground. Behind them lie still many dead unknown soldiers who had no mount to hide behind.
The word is also familiar from archaeology, Tel el Amarna springs to mind.
Stefan
Oops! I worked on this last Sunday and completely forgot that I was stuck on TASLET and LUCAN and had left the puzzle unfinished. (This is my first DNF, not counting the recent PD.) I remembered the experience as a typically smooth one, but I now remember that I had not fully parsed LACY GLASS. (I now see it and will remember that LA = indeed.)
Only just got time to join in. Hello! and thanks, as always to Azed and to loonapick for the heavy lifting.
Yes, this was on thew easy side. I like PDs and usually romp through them, whislt recognising what a chore they must be to set.
Clues I remember include PISS-A-BED (the French term for dandelion is piss-en-lit so I assume the dialect English version derives from that.
I remember Tel from reading, in the 1960s, about the Tel el Amarna letters which revealed much about the, then unknown, Akkadian civilisation
And, Mr. Thomas, you will not mind my claryfying for solvers that pissenlit is one word.
Because I am only a few years behind you (and Azed, if it’s of importance). I do believe the psychiatrists who say that these puzzles keep us alive; our minds working.
Nous ne mangeons pas les pissenlits…
(Which is French for: “we’re not pushing up the daisies…” Yet!)
Stefan