Azed 1986/Scotland Yard

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Sorry for the late blog… no excuses (OK other than 48 World Cup games + Wimbledon). I thought this slightly harder than the run-of-the-mill Azed (oxymoron?). No lack of the requisite mysteries.

Across

1 C(A,CHU[r]CH)A – it’s a dance.
11 AEROTRAIN – (Re-retaion a)*
12 C(HOCK)O – an Aussie vet (I wonder where that nickname came from?)
13 V(I)OLET – volet is a folding part of a tryptych.
14 K(AS)HA[n] – it’s horrible stuff KASHA. Khan is our Eastern inn.
15 SWAG,E – both swag as depression and SWAGE for tool were new to me.
17 SP,R,INGER* – SP=sin parole (no offspring) and R for rex=king.
18 HIS,SY – his for “a chap’s” and SY is sympathy exhausted (containing nothing).
19 DRY,AD – it’s a forest-tree
21 CO,DON – it’s a sequence of three DNA bases
23 APSES – comp. anag. (a chap is, APSES)* = (as a spaceship). And I suppose the definition is “orbital extremes” (of a church) somehow?
25 [n]OC(CID)ENT – Scotland Yard’s first appearance. Nocent is “guilty” (as in “not innocent” I suppose).
28 WAIVE – (a view)* – archaic “disregard”
29 A,NTAE* – architectural flanking thingies next to an opening
31 INDENT – tinned* – also means “cut”
32 MACACO – hidden. And it’s a lemur.
33 NEARWHITE – (in weather)*
34 F,[h]ECKLES,S – futile. I see that “jeers at ‘ustings” could be ‘ECKLES. But I don’t see how the F,S are generated: “Loud jeers at ‘ustings succeeded only briefly, futile”. Thanks to Sidey: it’s F=loud and S=”succeeded only briefly”.

Down

1 COCKTH(ROW)ING – indeed a bizarre sport (throwing sticks at cocks) but is it arguably more bizarre than 22 grown men running around chasing a ball etc.? I see rank=ROW inside but how does “dungheap event” produce the rest: “Bizarre old sport, dungheap event, rank inside”
2 AMHARIC – (armchai[r])*
3 C(OO)S – OO=glasses=pair
4 HAC*,H,IS – hash
5 CRO(UP)ON – yes, it’s your bottom. Well , it was.
6 H,OVER
7 B(ROWN)Y – worn* in BY
8 MALAGA,SH – someone from Madagascar.
9 LI(EG)E
10 INTEROSSEOUS – (seniors use to)*. These ligaments are between your bones.
16 PSOCIDAE – (as copied)* – it’s a booklice.
19 D(YNAM)IC – rev(MANY in CID) where CID is chief (ref. El Cid) and our second Scotland Yard reference. Well, not really.
20 DEF,ACES,S
22 DIVE(R)S – ref. Dives an old rich biblical kind of guy.
24 PENCE,L – a pennon, i.e. a pennant thus small rag.
26 CAN,EH – a biblical measure.
27 E,A,THE – archaic (Spens.) easy.
27 TAKE – three meanings: photo, catch, please the public – my last clue.

6 comments on “Azed 1986/Scotland Yard”

  1. It was a bit tougher than the previous week’s, but nothing horrendous. Slow start to today’s offering.

  2. Solved it o holiday without aids. got food poisoning so had plenty of time 🙁 Was dialling in to check some of my guesses.. From my playstation …..

  3. Ilan, 34a is LOUD = F (h)ECKLES + S(ucceeded [only briefly]

    I agree it was a touch more difficult, I missed CODON and DIVERS.

  5. 23ac. An APSIS is the extreme point of a spaceship’s orbit – though plural is actually APSIDES.

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