A pleasant and not too difficult crossword from Azed. I got into a bit of a mess with the software that produces the blog (which was thrown by the strange enumeration at 1ac), but with some help from the writer of the software and a little fiddling I think it’s now in an acceptable form. Some of the anagram indicators are a bit extreme, but Azed basically allows anything where there is a little bit of jiggling.
Definitions in crimson, underlined; anagram indicators in italics; anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | JOGPANTS |
What to take exercise in? Notes will include pang when running (8, 1 word or 2)
|
| (pang)* in jots | ||
| 11 | HAIRLINE |
Reduced height pursued by planes, very fine (8)
|
| h airline — that meaning of fine | ||
| 12 | CRESS |
Salad garnish Escoffier’s devised – not the off-licence! (5)
|
| (Escoffier’s – offie)* | ||
| 13 | NARAS |
Fruit creation of banana with raspberries (5)
|
| Hidden in banaNA RASpberries — to me it seems rather odd to say that a hidden is a ‘creation of’ | ||
| 14 | KEASAR |
A naker’s not the first struck for old emperor (6)
|
| (A [n]aker’s)* | ||
| 15 | TORSK |
Against hazard I released fish (5)
|
| to r[i]sk | ||
| 17 | COLESEED |
Rape without passion, ecstasy, look, being limited (8)
|
| col(e see)d | ||
| 18 | TAG LINE |
Sort of stew incorporating Latin slogan (7, 2 words)
|
| tag(L.)ine | ||
| 19 | NACRE |
Shellfish tooth, bits in the wrong order (5)
|
| crena, with cre and na interchanged | ||
| 22 | PYOID |
Purulent result of botching DIY op (5)
|
| *(DIY op) | ||
| 23 | MATCHER |
Parent engaging chaplain as intermediary? (7)
|
| mat(Ch.)er — as in matchmaker | ||
| 25 | OTTOMITE |
Turk requiring fragrant stuff, tiny amount applied (8)
|
| otto mite | ||
| 28 | ARCUS |
Corneal deposit? Philosopher has me accepting this (5)
|
| Marcuse can be read as me round arcus | ||
| 29 | TASSET |
Piece of armour, something worth having after start of tilting (6)
|
| t[ilting] asset and an &lit. | ||
| 31 | ARIEL |
Swallow maybe beginning to eat inside seed covering (5)
|
| e[at] in aril | ||
| 32 | UTERI |
Bellies formerly cauterized in part (5)
|
| Hidden in caUTERIzed — ‘formerly’ as ‘an old word for’. | ||
| 33 | TRANSIRE |
Strainer readjusted – it’ll allow things to pass through (8)
|
| (Strainer)* | ||
| 34 | STERNSON |
Boy trapping sea birds – does it help to support budget? (8)
|
| s(terns)on — budget = tiller | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | JACKET POTATO |
Servant with boiling teapot near – one gets baked (12, 2 words)
|
| jack *(teapot) to | ||
| 2 | OWRELAY |
Old woman’s taken over shift in Scotsman’s cravat (7)
|
| o w relay — one might complain that in Chambers w = women rather than woman, but I think Azed gets away with it because w = wife and wife = woman | ||
| 3 | GREAT GO |
Final exam one’s working on in overcoat (7, 2 words)
|
| gre(at)go | ||
| 4 | PUSS |
Mug for pet? (4)
|
| 2 defs: puss is a slang word for the face | ||
| 5 | NAPRON |
Granny fed tart, requiring old-fashioned bib (6)
|
| na(pro)n | ||
| 6 | TITTLE |
Whisper name, tense inside (6)
|
| tit(t)le | ||
| 7 | CLARSACH |
Type of harp creating clash with a cor heartlessly played (8)
|
| (clash a c[o]r)* | ||
| 8 | BIRSE |
Wind catching end of hair in part of Jock’s beard (5)
|
| bi([hai]r)se | ||
| 9 | SNAKE |
Drudge had nothing on disposing of bundle outside (5)
|
| was naked minus wad | ||
| 10 | DESIDERATION |
Wanting readies I don’t spread lavishly (12)
|
| (readies I don’t)* — this threw me for a while, since I thought Azed had made a mistake and that it was an anagram of (I don’t spread) — only 11 letters, since it didn’t seem likely that the anagram indicator should consist of two words, each of which would be an anagram indicator on its own. But nearly always when I suspect Azed of making a mistake I’m wrong. | ||
| 16 | PLIOCENE |
Writer, English, gets wind up inside like a lot of old fossils (8)
|
| (coil)rev. in (pen E) | ||
| 20 | CHASERS |
Flirts of old – they won’t be singles (7)
|
| 2 defs, the first connected with those who chase members of the opposite sex, the second referring to drinks | ||
| 21 | REVERSO |
Backhand stroke fashioned by Rafa initially to a great extent (7)
|
| R[afa] ever so — one is led to think of tennis, whereas it’s swordplay | ||
| 23 | MISFIT |
Sad sack following one in a fog (6)
|
| mis(f 1)t — the wordplay was easy enough, but the definition was beyond me until I learnt the US slang meaning. | ||
| 24 | ATTIRE |
Jacques maybe going topless, about right get-up (6)
|
| [H]atti(r)e — the reference is to Hattie Jacques, who may not be all that well known to younger solvers | ||
| 26 | TARRY |
Sojourn in vague W. European area of old? No thanks (5)
|
| Tar[ta]ry — but if one were being pedantic the clue would lead to ‘RRY’, since it says ‘No thanks’, which means that Ta is missing at every one of its appearances. | ||
| 27 | TRIAS |
Bunter was part of it, forgetting Latin in tests (5)
|
| tria(L.)s — it’s nothing to do with Billy Bunter; you have to look carefully in Chambers — the second appearance of L. = Latin | ||
| 30 | STUN |
What helps to render pugilist unconscious? (4)
|
| Hidden in pugiliST UNconscious, &lit. |
Thanks John. Medium strength I thought. Was led astray by thoughts of Jacques Tati in ATTIRE, but the penny dropped eventually.
Thanks as ever to Azed.
My first DNF in a very long while. I might have got there in there in the end but gave up. PATCHER is also a valid answer at 23 Ac which left me scratching my head with PISFIT or PISSIT at 23 Dn. PISFIT is even in the Urban Dictionary and I assumed my Chambers is too out of date.
Thank you for Hattie Jacques. I am old enough to remember her well. The entry was easy enough but I spent far too long trying to figure out how to work the clue round Jacques [T]ATI. Most frustrating. I’m sure Azed does these things deliberately sometimes with a wink in his eye.
Stefan
Thanks Azed and John. This took me longer than my normal maximum time. I lost quite a lot of that time over 23dn and 27dn, because it took me longer than it should have done to think of looking up sad sack and Bunter in Chambers. Of course, as soon as I did so, the answer was staring me in the face.
I seemed to be on Azed’s wavelength with this one. My LOI was GREAT GO, which I knew from an earlier puzzle, but I struggled to parse. Thanks for persevering to get the blog out.
Thanks for the blog, the puzzle was quick , 1Ac and 1D very helpful to get started , the checking after took quite a while , some of it a bit fiddly. Like Cineraria I remembered GREAT GO and where to find it in Chambers.
ATTIRE I thought Jacques must be a potato variety, tattie , I even looked in my gardening books with no success. Hattie came three days later listening to HHH.
CHASERS , not really a quibble , just wondering. Is the chaser itself really a single? I know there are two drinks but typically a pint of beer with a whisky chaser ?
Good fun I thought. GREAT GO was new to me but I did manage to find it a very long way down the page under the entry for “GO”. I also immediately thought of Jacques Tati.
Thanks to Azed and John.
Not a great week for me. Just couldn’t make headway into this with about a quarter done on Sunday night. Came back to it on Monday and didn’t really get many more. My view is that if I haven’t finished a plain puzzle by Monday night, I’m never going to finish. You can look at a clue many times, by which it is just a blur.
I thought the same as Roz@5 concerning chasers. In Scotland, people on a limited budget used to (and maybe still do) order a “hauf and hauf”, meaning half a pint of beer and a single whisky. Of course, with a single, there is maybe less need for the chaser, so perhaps doubles are more common.
Also, it’s usually the beer (or whatever) that’s regarded as the chaser, not the spirit – so “single” doesn’t really apply.
Perhaps the English usage of CHASER comes from the French (also in Chambers)…
chasse /shas/
noun
A dram or liqueur taken after coffee (also chasse-caféˈ)
ORIGIN: Fr chasser to chase
So the expression chasse-café works on the same lines as whisky-chaser – it refers to what follows the coffee, not the coffee itself. In the case of a whisky chaser, I believe the beer is intended to chase away the fiery taste of the whisky. Perhaps with the chasse-café, a sweet liqueur counteracts the bitter taste of strong coffee.
About three quarters done this time, with a big blank space in the NE between TITTLE and DESIDERATION. I also had PATCHER for some time, until MISFIT became apparent. I thought the overcoat was a griego and as I couldn’t find GREAT GO that one also stayed unfinished.
How does SNAKE=drudge?
9dn: About half way down the list of definitions of snake in Chambers 2016, we have “a wretch or drudge”. If the definition is in the recommended dictionary, Azed is entitled to use it.
Well done Gladys , soon be there, GREAT GO and LITTLE GO have been seen before so I knew where to look.
MunroMaiden, I agree that in the case of a whisky chaser, the whisky is drunk first and the beer then used to calm the palate. Though I suspect that after a couple of iterations of this process the ordering of the parts becomes less relevant.
Like Roz I used to think of a chaser as being a short (usually whisky) that’s downed after a beer (perhaps to top you up during a possibly long wait for the next round), but note one of the definitions for boilermaker in the current Chambers: ‘a drink consisting of whisky with a beer chaser’. OED dates it to 1940 at least.
I’m thirsty.
Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary, no date but believed to be the reprint of the 1901 edition with Supplement produced in 1914:
Chaser, … a cooling drink after spirits; a chasse.
I wonder why and when they changed it. It was never, to me, uniquely Scottish and, from when I learned to drink, it was always the beer that was the chaser.
Stefan
Don’t suppose anyone will read this but greetings. Spent most of yesterday struggling with the Comp.
Last week’s seemed fairly kind. Like others I was trying to fit M Hulot (aka Jacques Tati) into ATTIRE.
Regarding CHASER one spot of alcohol is always enough for me.