Azed 2662

by

I found this a bit of a slow solve, perhaps because of a higher-than-usual proportion of unfamiliar words. Fortunately I managed to get there in the end. of Thanks to Azed.

 
Across
1 BUTTERFINGERS To prepare soldiers one drops everything! (13)
To prepare soldiers (the sort that are dipped into boiled eggs) is to BUTTER FINGERS (of bread)
11 ORION Ball leading to runs acceptable, one in belted one (5)
I in O R ON
13 ARNUT Woodland umbellifer naturalist transplanted, having cut a border (5)
Anagram of NATURALIST less A LIST (a border)
14 PROUSTIAN Like a French author favouring bombast? Not the first (9)
PRO + [f]USTIAN (bombast)
15 TECTONIC Regarding building eye something bracing (8)
TEC (detective, [private] eye) + TONIC. I didn’t know, or had forgotten, this meaning of the word, from the Greek tekton for a builder
16 OIKS Dimwits starting shed from the wrong end (4)
Reverse of SKIO (shed in Orkney/Shetland)
17 CELLOS Band section, briefly famous, LSO exploited (6)
CEL (celebrated) + LSO*
19 CURTALS Dogs covering tail I clipped – they’re docked (7)
TAIL less I in CURS
24 TOPLESS With no children around, give up school? Quite revealing! (7)
STOP LESSONS less the surrounding SONS
25 PHYTON Measure of acidity that restricts opening of this tiny cutting? (6)
PH (measure of acidity) + T[his] in YON
27 CRUE Very old gang of seamen is excluded from sailing to and fro (4)
CRUISE less IS
29 SARABAND Dance revealing Saudi in his element? (8)
ARAB in SAND
31 TINNINESS Dancing isn’t including numbers producing thin sound (9)
NINES in ISNT*
32 ELIDE Suppress very old magistrate’s comeback (5)
Reverse of EDILE (variant of aedile, a magistrate in ancient Rome)
33 SUKIE Tawdry lass (misspelt?) to woo once, accepting half a smacker (5)
KI[ss] in SUE, with the definition referring to Suky [sic] Tawdry, a character in The Threepenny Opera. Both spellings are included in the list of “Some first names” at the back of Chambers
34 RENSSELAERITE Talc for carving about scattered eastern isle (13)
RE (about) + (EASTERN ISLE)*
Down
1 BOOT-CATCHER Repairer holding torn coat? He helped to keep tavern floor clean (11)
COAT* in BOTCHER*
2 URDEE Indian bean, end of vegetable doubly spiked (5)
URD + [vegetabl]E twice
3 TIE CLIP It may hold kipper still ’til piece almost cooked (7, 2 words)
Anagram of TIL PIEC
4 ENROOT Near unit put up, take in plant firmly (6)
R (take) in TO (near) ONE (unit), all reversed
5 ROON Strip of plaid maybe making jumper, new? (4)
[kanga]ROO + N
6 INSCULP The old engrave fancy lupins round head of chair (7)
C[hair] in LUPINS*
7 NATO Military alliance? There’s no action with regular abstentions (4)
Alternate letters of No AcTiOn. The question mark seems unnecessary – there’s surely no doubt that NATO is a military alliance
8 GRIOTS Tellers of tales creating ruction in G & S (6)
RIOT in G S
9 RUNKLE Sign of aging like what’s left of Ozymandias statue in part? (6)
A reference to the opening of Shelley’s poem: “I met a traveller from an antique land,/Who said, “Two vast and tRUNKLEss legs of stone/Stand in the desart [sic]…”
10 STOSS AND LEE Glacial feature leads stones adrift (11, 3 words)
(LEADS STONES)*
12 QUICKSAND Substance enveloping dodgy snack? It’s best to keep off this (9)
SNACK* in QUID (substance, in the sense of “that which is”)
18 SESSILE Judge accepts Hants parish being put up for sitting (7)
Reverse of LISS in SEE
20 ASTATKI Petroleum fuel residue, rubbish taken on board in a race downhill (7)
TAT in A SKI
21 WORTLE Specially-shaped trowel, instrument for narrowing tubes (6)
TROWEL*
22 BLENDS Different whiskies maybe? Litre consumed in Scotch sprees (6)
L in BENDS. Again the question mark seems superfluous, its meaning being included in the “maybe”
23 CHASSE Fool taken in by deception at being denied dram (5)
ASS in CHEAT less AT
26 ON-DIT Canard, not wholly recondite (5)
Hidden in recONDITe
28 ONES Countess with every other character taken out for drinks? (4)
Alternate letters of OuNtEsS; drink=one as in “have another one”
30 REZA Reservation, one for former royal family (4)
REZ (abbreviation for a Native American reservation) + A; family name of the Shahs of Iran. This is the proper name not included in Chambers, as referred to in the rubric

11 comments on “Azed 2662”

  1. Thank you, Andrew. A couple of points:

    I’ll defend Azed, certainly on the first question mark. Azed is calmly apolitical. It is after all a crossword. We shall learn very soon how allied the NATO alliance is when Turkey (all right: Türkiye) votes on the membership of Sweden. And if Ukraine thinks it’s ever going to get Türkiye’s vote, I don’t think I’ll be alive to see it. Perhaps Azed was thinking this way and the question mark at 7 Dn is his way of showing that he does have views.

    The second question mark isn’t important to me. Some grammarians justify it as the only way to indicate in writing the sing-song intonation we use in speech: “Different whiskies maybe” could have the stress anywhere. Others agree with you that it’s unnecessary. I’ll agree with both.

    It might be worth pointing out to some members that “Ozymandias” is one of Azed’s other incarnations, so that was a nice touch. I imagine Azed’s trunk is gently corporational now.

    Anyone else have trouble with the Grauniad upload (again)? And fifteensquared, for that matter? I ended up using PressReader.

    Stefan

  2. I failed with REZA having entered an unparsed RESA and had assumed that it was SUKIE that was the name not in Chambers. Did anyone else spend time trying to make GRIMMS fit for 8d? All good fun, thanks to Azed and Andrew.

  3. Thanks, Andrew. The Chambers app doesn’t have that list of names, so Sukie was a guess, although the wordplay and crossers left little room for doubt.

    Azed has now clarified that he is only prepared to accept email submissions for the monthly competition from solvers outside the UK, so I shall have to go and buy some more stamps. The Observer published revised T & Cs on Sunday to reinforce the message. Apparently Azed had not been consulted about their previous decision to allow UK solvers to submit by email. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that my emailed submission for ARITHMOMANIA failed to meet with his approval!

  4. Glad I can now pop in my pennorth after 3 days without 15squared.
    Thanks to Azed, as always, and Andrew. I don’t remember this in detail, though think I finished it (late) on the day.
    The recent preference for a border of singles continues. Does Azed start here?. Getting 1ac and (with Chambers handy) 1d made a helpful start. RENSSELAERITE at 34a was one of those “can there possibly be such a word” examples.

  5. Thanks for the blog and the reference for “Tawdry lass ” I think that clue is much better now, the only SUKIE I know is from “Polly Put the Kettle on ” .
    I agree with Keith @4 for 34Ac and also ASTATKI which I was surprised to see in Chambers.
    The winning entry for the recent prize was in the paper yesterday and is a quite brilliant clue.

  6. @bridgesong, I’m looking at the T&Cs online and at the printed instructions in the pdf file for this week and there is no indication that email entries are only accepted from overseas. However, I will take your word for it. Are the winning clues from previous prizes online or just in the paper?

  7. Jay@6 in the paper it gives all the instructions for posting entries. It then says – Emailed entries from overseas will also be accepted – The implication is not email for the UK .

  9. Jay@6, at crossword.orgyou will find slips with all the winning and VHC clues, the list of HC entries, and Azed’s comments. This month’s also has Azed’s statement on the entry rules, as bridgesong@3 implies.

  11. Lemming@ 8 , the crossword and answers and instructions etc take up half a page, The winning entries are in the bottom right of this half.

Comments are closed.