Azed 2671 is a plain puzzle
I am defeated by the word play for CABLET at 4 down. In fact, I’m not a hundred percent sure of the definition. I think is ‘light rope’ or even just ‘rope’. I have set out an idea for the word play parsing in the detailed table below but it involves using CT as an abbreviation for ‘caught’ and I can’t find a dictionary that lists it as such. I look forward to having the parsing explained.
It’s not often you see two words meaning the same thing in a grid, but we have PRAHU at 14 across and PROA at 31 down. Both spellings appear under the headword PROA in Chambers.
Another meaning that appeared was more than once in the clues or the grid, with slightly different words, was that for tramp, HOOKER and pro.
I deduced the entry at 22, ALEPH, from the crossing letters before I understood the reference to Simona in the clue.
I wasn’t convinced by either ‘concealed’ as an anagram indicator at 33 across or by ‘shrivelling’ at 9 down, but I can’t see what other purpose each word has.
Overall though, I did enjoy solving the puzzle and found it slightly less challenging than many Azeds I have blogged recently.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 3 | The old discern church councillor behind voodoo? (10)
WITCHCRAFT (voodoo) WIT (archaic [the old] word for discern) + CH (church) + CR (councillor) + AFT (behind) WIT CH CR AFT |
| 12 | Posh queen, one who’s aka Aphrodite (6)
URANIA (another name for [also known as] Aphrodite) U (upper class, posh) + RANI (Indian queen) + A (one) U RANI A |
| 14 | Malay vessel turning up, cheers welcomed (5)
PRAHU (Malay sailing-boat or rowing boat) UP reversed [turning) containing (welcomed) RAH (hurrah; cheers) P (RAH) U |
| 15 | Lunch? Pet, reverse of healthy, given tons (4)
TIFT (slight quarrel; pet) TIFT (to lunch) – a second definition FIT (healthy) reversed (reverse of) + T (tons) TIF< T |
| 16 | Duck in salad of crab and lettuce – flamboyant offerings (8)
BAROCCOS (variation of BAROQUES [exuberant styles in architecture]; flamboyant offerings) O (character representing zero [duck score in cricket]) contained in (in) an anagram of (salad of) CRAB + COS (type of lettuce) BAR (O) C* COS |
| 17 | Plant put aboard vessel (not Noah’s) (5)
EMBED (plant) EMBARKED (on board a vessel) excluding (not) ARK (vessel used by Noah at the flood) EMBED |
| 18 | Jock’s suffered, being drunk after imbibing for all to see (4)
LUIT (Scottish variant of the past participle or past tense of LET [suffer]) LIT (drunk) containing (imbibing) U (classification of a film that is suitable for viewing by all ages) L (U) IT |
| 19 | Horror flick, bore when denouement’s missing (6)
CARRIE (title of a horror film [flick]) CARRIED (bore) excluding (missing) the final part [outcome] D CARRIE |
| 21 | Youngish bucks of old creating more than one let-down involving love, right? (7)
SORELLS (Shakespearean [old] word for bucks in their third year; young bucks) SELLS (disappointments; ; let downs) containing (involving) (O [character representing zero [love score in tennis] + R [right]) S (O R) ELLS |
| 22 | Old letter, first from Simona kept till last? (5)
ALEPH (first letter of the Phoenician and Hebrew alphabets; old letter) HALEP (reference Simona HALEP [born 1991], Romanian tennis player and former World No 1) with the opening letter (first) H moving to (kept till) the last position to form ALEPH ALEPH |
| 24 | Wretch keeping note in account (5)
SNAKE (wretch) SAKE (account) containing (keeping) N (note) S (N) AKE |
| 26 | Church dignitary’s having treatment involving mug (7)
DECANAL (relating to a dean [church dignitary]; church dignitary’s) DEAL (treatment) containing (involving) CAN (drinking cup; mug) DE (CAN) AL |
| 29 | What tar yields, measure caught in system of nets? (6)
RETENE (hydrocarbon obtained from tar; what tar yields) EN (printing measure) contained in (caught in) RETE (network [system of nets], eg of blood vessels or nerves) RET (EN) E |
| 30 | Fencer’s move, not new? It features in Olympic sport (4)
LUGE (light toboggan used in the Winter Olympic event of the same name) LUNGE (move by a fencer) excluding (not) N (new) LUGE |
| 31 | Bird displaying seat with that certain something! (5)
PEWIT (bird, alternative spelling of PEEWIT) PEW (church seat) + IT (that certain something) PEW IT |
| 33 | Secret concealed by coteries (8)
ESOTERIC (secret) Anagram of (concealed by [?]) COTERIES ESOTERIC* |
| 34 | Contender dropping pound in local rock fissure (4)
RIVA (Shetland [local] word for a cleft in rock; rock fissure) RIVAL (contender) excluding (dropping) L (symbol sometimes used for pound sterling) RIVA |
| 35 | Steer becoming tangled in highland fence (5)
RESET (Scottish [highland] word for fence [receive stolen goods) Anagram of (becoming) STEER RESET* |
| 36 | Pro giving one a smack (6)
HOOKER (prostitute; pro) HOOKER (small fishing smack) HOOKER (possibly a boxer giving an opponent a smack) – double or maybe triple definition HOOKER |
| 37 | Executive committee in varied patterns face to face (10)
RESPECTANT (facing each other) EC (Executive Committee) contained in (in) an anagram of (varied) PATTERNS RESP (EC) TANT* |
| Down | |
| 1 | Early invader? That means a bit of sacking (4)
JUTE (member of a Germanic people originally from Jutland, who with the Angles and Saxons invaded Britain in the 5th century) JUTE (a fibre used for making sacks, mats, etc) double definition JUTE |
| 2 | China closing border, original (6)
PRIMAL (original) PAL (friend; china) containing (closing) RIM (border) P (RIM) AL |
| 4 | Shattered parent, I rest between parties (11, 2 words)
INTER PARTES (Latin for ‘between parts’) Anagram of (shattered) PARENT I REST INTER PARTES* |
| 5 | Light metal combined with a little copper? (4)
TIND (to kindle; to light) TIN (metal) + D (symbol for a penny in the United Kingdom pre-decimalisation) TIN D |
| 6 | In some parts light rope caught round seaman’s ‘attachment’ (6)
CABLET (A cable or cable-laid rope with a circumference of less than 25cm (10 inches); light rope) CABLET – I’m unsure of how to parse this. One option is CT (caught, but I can’t find a dictionary that list CT rather than C as an abbreviation for caught) containing (round) ABLE (a word used as an ‘attachment’ to seaman to form able seaman, someone of a higher ranking that an ordinary seaman) If C on it’s own is caught, then AB may be the seaman but I don’t know what the attachment is and where it fits. I’m also baffled by the ‘in some parts’ reference CABLET |
| 7 | Bibelot made of copper and iron, mostly twisted (5)
CURIO (a piece of bric-a-brac or a knick-knack [also known as a bibelot]) CU (chemical symbol for copper) + an anagram of (twisted) IRON excluding the final letter (mostly) N CU RIO* |
| 8 | Old magistrate about to admit rudimentary gut (11)
ARCHENTERON (the primitive gut) ARCHON (one of nine chief magistrates of ancient Athens) containing (about) ENTER (to admit) ARCH (ENTER) ON |
| 9 | Bright sunspots fuel a shrivelling round centre of back (7)
FACULAE (spots brighter than the rest of the surface, especially as seen on the sun) Anagram of (shrivelling) FUEL A containing (round) AC (middle letters of [centre] BACK) F (AC) ULAE* |
| 10 | Old-fashioned peg either end of tent leading to guffaw (5)
THOWL (obsolete [old-fashioned] variation of THOLE [a peg]) T (first or last letter of [either end of] TENT) + HOWL (loud peal of laughter; guffaw) T HOWL |
| 11 | Last among mixed-race people given promotion – something that’s not to be missed (7)
MUST-SEE (something that MUST be SEEN, i.e. something not to be missed) MUSTEES (offspring of a white person and a quadroon [person of one quarter black descent]; mixed-race people) with the final [last] S promoted up this down entry to form MUST-SEE MUST-SEE |
| 13 | Searing pain that brings about a GI being deformed (9)
CAUSALGIA (burning pain) CAUSAL (being the cause of; brings about) + an anagram of (being deformed) A GI CAUSAL GIA* |
| 19 | They’re known for freeloading, cards e.g. being exchanged (7)
CADGERS (scroungers’ freeloaders) Anagram of (bring exchanged) CARDS E.G. CADGERS* |
| 20 | Leisure centre to miss, shut again (7)
RECLOSE (shut again) REC (RECreation ground; leisure centre) + LOSE (miss) REC LOSE |
| 23 | German dramatist, genuinely inferior to British (6)
BRECHT (reference Bertolt BRECHT [1898-1956], German playwright and poet) BR (British) + ECHT (genuine) – this being a down entry, the letters in ECHT are below or inferior to the letters BR BR ECHT |
| 25 | Cutters are submerged having capsized, pair out of several involved (6)
KNIVES (cutters) VE (one of the six pairs of letters in SEVERAL) contained in (involved) SINK (are submerged) reversed (having capsized) KNI (VE) S< |
| 27 | Time out for festival – one relaxes (5)
EASER (one who relaxes) EASTER (religious festival) excluding (out) T (time) EASER |
| 28 | Emanations emerging regularly from faquirs, aged (5)
AURAE (subtle emanations) AURAE (letters 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 [regularly] of FAQUIRS AGED) AURAE |
| 31 | Tramp in contact with a rowing vessel (4)
PROA (Malay sailing or rowing boat) PRO (prostitute; tramp) + A PRO A |
| 32 | It produces edible rootstock suggesting essence of star anise (4)
TARA (variety of bracken found in New Zealand and Tasmania, with an edible rhizome [rootstock]) TARA (hidden word [essence of] STAR ANISE) TARA |
I think you’re right in questioning the double appearance of PROA/PRAHU and the Pro/Tramp/HOOKER repetition.
I’m also puzzled by CABLET which is smaller than a cable. I suspect that “in some parts” is part of the definition and indicates a local/dialect usage although this isn’t supported by C2016. Also C = Caught in C2016 but I understand that CT is used by cricket scorers (for example here). I just took ‘attachment’ as an unusual way of referring to “able” being a descriptive attachment to “seaman”. A strange clue.
Neither “concealed by” nor “shrivelling” are listed as anagram indicators in Chambers Crossword Dictionary or on the Clue Clinic site.
“Ct” is in my Chambers as an abbreviation for Court as used “in addresses, etc”. It is also listed under “ct”, I think this may be in a legal courtroom sense, but it doesn’t specify.
Thanks for the blog, I agree that CABLET is a bit of a mess for all the reasons mentioned althought the “able” bit seems fine.
Perhaps PRAHU and PROA were the only words to fit, Conrad uses prau but both alternatives in Chambers93.
CAUSALGIA not in Chambers 93 but was clear. For KNIVES, pair out of several is not very precise.
Does Azed really need to use PRO=HOOKER=TRAMP ? I know they are in Chambers but why use such insulting terms ?
I confess I glossed over the problem with CABLET. Thanks for the boat meaning of hooker.
I love the way Azed uses everything that the language has to offer and introduces us to alternative points of view without fear or favor. Long may it continue – I’d hate him to be a wet blanket.
Another one kind of confused by the clue for CABLET, for the reasons stated, but the intent seems to be CT around ABLE, with the result supposedly a dialect word??? I wondered whether “let” or “ablet” factored in somehow, but I could not make that work. The blog looks good otherwise.
I also agree about CABLET; I was okay with CT = caught, but didn’t think the definition really matched what was in Chambers. I would also query ‘genuinely’ to indicate ECHT in 23dn. Echt means genuine and is an adjective. Adding -ly obviously makes the surface read well, but seems to be rather sloppy cluing. Overall, though, I found this pretty straightforward, just looking up the more unusual words after completion to learn more about them.
“Genuinely” for ECHT is in my Chambers 2006. I’m sure Azed knows that the adjective and adverb forms in German are the same and he might not have bothered checking.
On the matter of PRO / HOOKER / TRAMP: I have come to Azed’s defence before and almost got banned. PRO and HOOKER are give as (inf) in Chambers and I think that’s fair enough. TRAMP is (sl). Chambers doesn’t indicate exactly the difference between these “Classification labels”. None of those three is (offensive) though. I too agree that there are words which will always be taboo for an Azed crossword but those three aren’t amongst them. To me they are inoffensive and he is allowed to use them as he wishes. I thought “Tramp in contact with a rowing vessel” was moderately clever.
It reminds of the time someone complained because some of the bars in the grid formed a swastika. So what?
CABLET is surely just an aberration. Duncanshiel is the only one to point to the word “light”. Put your hands together: ten inches! If that’s a light rope, I’m a monkey’s uncle. Although it’s given in Chambers, we were always taught in the Boy Scouts never to use cable when you mean rope and vice versa. (Sea Scouts, too, though what Sea Scouts were doing in Leicester is anyone’s guess.)
Stefan
I am not saying do not use wods like PRO TRAMP HOOKER but why always use them in the sense that they insult women ? They all have multiple meanings .