It is a privilege to be able to blog this latest milestone in the Azed series.
The lengthy preamble read as follows:
Clues are of four types:
1 Normal Cryptic
2 Letters Latent. From the answer to each clue the solver must omit one letter wherever it occurs (sometimes more than once) before entry in the diagram. Definitions in the clues refer to the full unmutilated answers: subsidiary indications, such as anagrams etc, refer to the mutilated forms to be entered in the diagram. The nine letters omitted, taken in clue order, spell out an appropriate two-word compound.
3 Misprints. Each clue contains a misprint of one letter, always occurring in the definition part. The misprinted letters (not the misprints themselves), when taken in clue order, spell out the same two-word compound.
4 Definition and Letter Mixture. Each clue contains a definition of the answer and a hidden mixture of its letters plus one additional letter, beginning at the beginning or ending at the end of a word in the clue. The additional letters, taken in clue order, again spell out the same two-word compound.
Each group of four clues (except the group containing the asterisked one-word definition at 14 Down) contains one of each of the clue types. Solvers must determine which is which. Numbers in brackets throughout indicate the length of unmutilated answers.
Although somewhat daunting at first sight, each of the three special types of clue will be familiar to experienced solvers. The Letters Latent clues are easy to identify, because their grid entries are always going to be shorter than their enumerations. Azed has further eased the solvers’ task by grouping the clues into sets of four and by using the same letter in each group as the one to be removed, misprinted or added. It fairly soon became apparent that the two-word compound was MOOSE FURS, an anagram cryptic representation of the puzzle’s title. I have shown those letters in BOLD in the blog.
It seemed to me that the clues were (perhaps deliberately) not the most difficult that Azed could devise so in practice solving the whole puzzle took me not much longer than for a normal plain Azed. There only then remained the task of devising a clue for the competition: I calculate that if a typical Azed puzzle has 36 clues, then Azed has compiled 99,000 clues over the course of the series. A magnificent achievement!
There is no news, so far as I am aware, of the completion of the sale of The Observer to Tortoise (and I am a subscriber to The Guardian and a member of Tortoise). The Guardian has just taken the direct debit for the next month’s issues (I pay for the Saturday Guardian and The Observer) so clearly they don’t expect anything to change this month at least.
Finally, many thanks to Ken for his expertise and patience in resolving an issue with uploading this post.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | AHOETAN |
Islamite, a rake with bronzed skin (9)
|
| A HOE TAN. Original answer was MahoMetan. Clue type 2. | ||
| 7 | SPUD |
Fronts of shirts pressed, usually dirty – one may end in wash (4)
|
| Initial letters of Shirts Pressed Usually Dirty. Misprint in definition: it should read Mash. Clue type 3. | ||
| 10 | PRECIEUSE |
Overly refined lady who’s complicated recipe to follow once (9)
|
| *RECIPE, USE (which once meant to follow). Normal cryptic clue, type 1. | ||
| 11 | ADIT |
It made opening, underground possibly (4)
|
| Mixture (with added M) of letters: clue type 4. | ||
| 12 | EARDROP |
A poor red pendant (7)
|
| Mixture (with added O); clue type 4. | ||
| 13 | TRATTRIA |
One serves a lot of pasta, mostly trying after minced tart (9)
|
| *TART, TRIA(l). Original answer: TRATTORIA. Clue type 2. | ||
| 15 | DOTTY |
Add too much filling in extreme dentistry (5)
|
| OTT in D(entristr)Y. Definition should be Odd. Clue type 3. | ||
| 17 | KITTLE |
Capricious king beheaded young (6)
|
| K(ing) (l)ITTLE. Clue type 1. | ||
| 19 | LEE TIDES |
Fish in water channels – they go with the wind (8, 2 words)
|
| IDE in LEETS. Normal cryptic clue, type 1. Thanks to fellow blogger Andrew for help parsing this one. | ||
| 21 | RADISNDE |
Dire sand drifting – it indicates atmospheric conditions aloft (10)
|
| *(DIRE SAND). Full answer is RADIOSONDE; clue type 2. | ||
| 23 | AUGUST |
Astronomical unit accompanied by windy blast inspiring warship? (6)
|
| AU (astronomical unit) GUST. Definition should read WORSHIP. Clue type 3. | ||
| 25 | RETRY |
To err yet have a second test (5)
|
| Letter mixture including an extra O. Clue type 4. | ||
| 27 | AVENTAIL |
Piece of ballet, benefit including ten dancing (8)
|
| *TEN inside AVAIL (benefit). Definition should read “piece of Sallet” (a light helmet in mediaeval armour). Clue type 3. | ||
| 29 | OPHITER |
University student struck note of hesitancy after work (9)
|
| OP (work) HIT (struck) ER (note of hesitancy). Full answer is SOPHISTER; it’s a term for students after their first year at certain British Universities or third or fourth year students at Trinity College, Dublin (presumably related to the US term sophomore). Clue type 2. | ||
| 30 | WINO |
Is wondrous lush (4)
|
| Letter mixture with extra S. Clue type 4. | ||
| 31 | WHITENESS |
Being pale the least bit distorted sense (9)
|
| WHIT (the least part) *SENSE. Normal cryptic clue, type 1. | ||
| 32 | ESKY |
It may contain bear, chilling – yikes one’s left trembling (4)
|
| *Y(i)KES. Definition should read “It may contain beEr, chilling”. Clue type 3. | ||
| 33 | METISSE |
One of mixed race encountered on island south-eastern (7)
|
| A simple charade of MET IS(land) SE. Normal cryptic clue. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ARAT |
A renegade to get one excited (6)
|
| A RAT. Full answer is AERATE. Clue type 2. | ||
| 2 | HYDRONAUT |
A submariner, ahoy, turned around (9)
|
| Letter mixture with an extra E. Clue type 4. | ||
| 3 | OPIATED |
Rendered slat, i.e. to pad out (7)
|
| *(IE TO PAD). Definition should read “rendered Flat”. Clue type 3. | ||
| 4 | TROTYL |
TNT exploited rattly duck, not active inside (6)
|
| *R(a)TTLY with an O. Normal cryptic clue. | ||
| 5 | AEERMENT |
Reduction to a fixed sum, deficient, always contained (10)
|
| EER (always) inside AMENT (deficient). Full answer is AFFEERMENT. Clue type 2. | ||
| 6 | PIRAI |
River fish, if riparian (5)
|
| Letter mixture with an extra F. Clue type 4. | ||
| 7 | SEDCTIVE |
Alluring devices reconfigured, and about time (9)
|
| T(ime) indide *DEVICES. Full answer is SEDUCTIVE. Clue type 2. | ||
| 8 | PURI |
Spicy cake maiden excluded from March feast (4)
|
| PURI(m) (March feast). Normal cryptic clue. | ||
| 9 | DEPRESS |
Run in wild speeds resulting in crash (7)
|
| R(un) in *SPEEDS. Definition should read “crUsh”. Clue type 3. | ||
| 14 | CLEARINGS |
Treeless areas (9)
|
| The competition word. I’m not sure why the preamble refers to “a one-word definition” when in fact there are two! Perhaps there was a last minute redraft. Competitors will have to submit a clue of type 4, with an extra U. | ||
| 16 | TRIUNITY |
I turn (I try) spinning as threesome (8)
|
| Letter mixture with an extra R. Clue type 4. | ||
| 17 | KEDGEREE |
Nice dish, reek strangely circling rim (8)
|
| EDGE (rim) inside *REEK. Definition should read “Rice dish”. Clue type 3. | ||
| 18 | CRACOWE |
Old boot, councillor, one to cringe mostly (7)
|
| CR (councillor) COWE(r). Normal cryptic clue. | ||
| 20 | DATAIES |
Papal officers filling terms with sloth (8)
|
| AI (sloth) inside DATES (terms). Full answer is DATARIES. Clue type 2. | ||
| 22 | ERNEST |
Chap who’s a little tense pursuing birds (6)
|
| ERNES (birds) T(ense). Normal cryptic clue. | ||
| 24 | SATED |
Lakeland’s teas satisfied fully (5)
|
| Letter mixture with extra S. Clue type 4. | ||
| 26 | WHIK |
Beat participant in slow hike (5)
|
| Hidden in “slow hike”. Full answer is WHISK. Clue type 2. | ||
| 28 | LOSE |
Mist approaching, but not cold at first (4)
|
| (c)LOSE (approaching). Definition should be “misS“. Clue type 3. |
Thanks bridgesong. This was fun, and not too hard. I did think the ‘compound’ spelt out would be relevant to the setting milestone, so nice misdirection. Also I fixated on EEL or EELS being the fish in 19 (especially after I had the EE), and was further led astray by apostolic NOTARIES being Papal officers too. Rather a vague definition for LEE TIDES!!
Many thanks to Azed, more power to your elbow.
What an achievement! I’m afraid I cannot travel ten thousand miles to attend the celebration so a sort of internet shake of the hand. The joy of Sunday mornings for over fifty years. Yes, I sharpened my teeth on Ximenes and I remember young upstart Crowther.
Within about the first five puzzles he was coming out with clues so memorable that we didn’t need to worry:
Paddy’s temptation: a drink along the way (4)
What might cause problems with joints? It’s that lunch on dripping sandwiches. (7)
Stop Duke interrupting most of Snout’s part with Thisbe (9)
Yes, this puzzle was less difficult than getting the preamble exactly right. I do not think I have seen a DLM with an extra letter before, but it was helpful. I was a bit surprised when I got MO_SE F__S and assumed it had to be a mixed ‘foursomes’. It’s not a two-word compound in my Chambers but fair do’s. Azed must have spent many more hours setting it than I solving it.
So, Azed, thank you. And, bridgesong, that must have been a brute to blog. Well done.
Here is my criticism of Azed. ‘Extreme dentistry’ is most defintely NOT allowable for d——y. Azed has himself made this clear. Page 16 of A–Z of Crosswords: Gateshead cannot mean gate’s head; cocktail cannot mean cock’s tail. Extreme dentistry does not mean ‘extremes of dentistry’ and the clue is unworthy. The Don agrees.
If we allow an odd lapse like this, as well we should, I fail to see why we cannot look forward to Azed 3000.
Stefan
Thanks bridgesong for the milestone blog and a big thanks to Azed from this pommie bastard living half a planet away. I’m a n00b at Azed but it’s provided some entertainment the last few years. In this case Azed compensated for the complicated preamble with less unusual words so I found it an easier solve than usual.
[Who are you referring to as The Don Stefan @2?]
Thanks for the blog , the same letter for each group helped a lot , the latent letter clues were easy to identify and I thought Azed gave us pretty obvious misprints for the definition . I found Type 4 the hardest , kept forgetting that the mixture had an extra letter . I really liked having the different types of clue, full Letters Latent puzzles are probably my favourite .
CRACOWE not in Chambers93 but fortunately an obvious normal clue , your brilliant blog has the A missing here .
Tim@3 it is Don Manley – Pasquale , Bradman etc .
Thanks Roz, for helping Tim C. Does anyone truly know how many Don’s there are knocking around? Does The Don himself know?
I just checked my Chambers 1988. Have you checked under ‘Cracovian’? I do have a 1990s Chambers but I don’t know where it is. Azed is brilliant at this kind of stuff: finding things not quite cross-referenced by Chambers. I’ve just found ‘open-steek’ which refers to ‘open-work stitching’. There is no such word as ‘open-work’. ‘Openwork’, not hyphenated, means ‘open-cast’, which is. Open-cast is a mining term and I get very confused, because I picture a Glasgae granny doing some kind of embroidery or crochet ‘open-steek’ sitting on her chair at the bottom of some open-pit mine. Is she wearing her safety helmet?
This is bizarre but it’s the joy of Chambers, and why I don’t know how long it typically takes me to do an Azed. I’m not interested in beating the clock because a lot of the time I’m just reading the dictionary and not doing the crossword at all!
I wonder if Tim C is on the same continent I’m on.
Stefan
Thanks Roz @5 and Stefan @6. I know of Don Manly and have his “Chambers Crossword Manual” which is a great resource. I just wasn’t sure you were referring to him. The Clue Clinic also objected to “extreme dentistry”.
I’m guessing you’re in a similar location to me given your 10,000 mile reference. I’m in a northern suburb of Sydney called Beecroft.
Thanks Stefan@6 but cracovian not there either . I like to solve without Chambers , usually on the beach , just have to be brave about educated guesses . I do like to check everything later including all the bits of wordplay and cross-references . It means I can handle my dictionary carefully , I am on my second Chambers93 , it is “new” and I want it to last .
I found this reasonably straightforward; as has been said, the Letters Latent clues were easily identified and the normal/misprinted clues could usually be spotted (though not necessarily distinguished) by having a recognisable mix of definition and wordplay. The DLMs confused me at first, as I hadn’t read all the blurb and missed the bit about the extra letter! 25ac could be a DLM without an extra letter ([e]rr yet)*, but 2dn had me wondering if there was a mistake, until I reread the instructions.
Roz@8: that’s odd, because Cracovian/cracowe is in C88, as Stefan says, and also in C98. C93 is clearly an interesting edition, well worth looking after!
Have to join in with this week’s blog earlier than usual. This really brightened my week.
Thanks, as always, to Azed (Phew!) and to bridgesong for piecing everything together. Sight problems in reading the DLM explanation meant I was puzzled by extra letters for a while
We all seem to have had similar routes (spotting EEL instead of IDE for example).
I had to produce several sheets to keep track of the triple use (and disuse) of the MOOSE FURS I;m sure Azed will have sought for a more apposite anagram, any suggestions.
An astonishing achievement.
To give a contradictory view, this puzzle totally defeated me. After two hours I’d got two answers and realised I wasn’t going to get any further. Couldn’t work out which type of clue was which. This didn’t fit in with my usual solving style – get an answer and work out from there.
Also, I’d never try and do a puzzle without the Chambers app open on my computer.
MunroMaiden@9 I have checked again , goes from Cracknell to -cracy . 93 was the first “The Chambers Dictionary” and a major revision from 88 , later editions are slight updates on 93. They must have took it out and put it back again . My first 93 lasted 30 years , my current was bought for me second-hand but mint condition so should last a long time .
2d and 16d, these are given as type 4 but have anagram indicators, is that a slip or what am I misunderstanding?
James @13: yes, there do seem to be anagram indicators in those two clues but they don’t seem to be needed. Force of habit, perhaps?
Or just confusing the issue a little, to make solvers work harder?
I should think the time saved by the clues being made more obvious was just about balanced by the time wasted rereading and puzzling over the rubric. Only a minor hiccup.
Dormouse, as several people have said, this was by no means as difficult as you might have thought. Yes: reading the preamble was the only real hurdle. Just an off-day, perhaps. We all have them.
Roz, James, MunroMaiden and bridgesong: I tiried to check the archive on &lit. I know Azed has done pure DLMs in the past. I used to enjoy them because they were easy. The rules—were they actually Ximenes’ rules?—were that you had the definition, and the letter mixture started or ended in some string of words but you were allowed nothing extra, no spare words. It will be interesting to read the slip: how many people got it right? It was CLEARINGS + U. (My own idea was CLAUSE IN GReek…). Will Azed allow extraneous words? He didn’t ban them.
Tim C, I’m in Victoria. You deal with your winds and flooding and we’ll deal with our bushfires at the same time. Weird world, which is why Sunday mornings with Azed are an absent relief. I wonder if Azed knows he provides this service.
On that matter: Roz, are you referring to ‘Cracknell’ or ‘cracknel’? Ruth Cracknell was a wonderful Australian actor, a scene stealer to challenge Alec Guinness.
Stefan
Stefan@17 it is cracknell , the C was just my misprint .
For DLM clues I do not know the “rules” but I think extra words should be “allowed” or it can be too easy to find the mixture .
Keith@10 , MORSE OF US , still weak .
I did not attempt this puzzle – I was not in the right frame of mind – but I can give some information about the DLM clue type. I kept the crossword section from the July 1994 edition of Games and Puzzles, and this has a DLM crossword by Mike Laws entitled “Homilies”, which uses an 11 by 11 barred grid, and there are ten triple DLM clues, of which I quote the first. I have put the definitions in italics and the letter mixtures in bold type: they were of course not indicated in that way in the original.
Not feeling so dusty? Has your morale gone to pieces? Let’s not hide it, if the chuckles from a comical jest keep bugging you, you need some kind of restorer (4,7,11)
Answers: ASHY, ECLIPSE, STEEPLEJACK.
My memory is that DLM puzzles often had double or triple clues, sometimes in verse form, and that redundant words were a standard feature of the clues, as in the example I have quoted. I believe that earlier ones allowed the letter mixture to start and end in the middle of words. Although I cannot provide a reference for this, my memory is that this one was quoted as an example:
At what point do ravenous tigers become risky pets? (4)
This clue is ambiguous, and fickle memory tells me that I have seen it with the answers GiST (point) and SUIT (become).
Stefan @17: I’ve checked what Ximenes had to say about DLM clues and it doesn’t wholly support your thesis. He credits the invention to a Mr TW Melluish, and describes it thus: “In this form of that class a letter-mixture of the word required is hidden as well as a definition: this makes it easier for the solver to get a start”. (The class referred to is the classification devised by Torquemada and Ximenes placed this type of clue in the “Hidden clue” category. He says nothing about any requirement for an absence of extraneous words; given some of the clues in this puzzle, it seems unlikely that Azed will penalise competitors for doing what he himself did at 2 and 16 dn.
Further to the DLM theme, Don Manley says in his Chambers Crossword Manual that “unlike with strictly hidden clues, a certain amount of verbal “cottonwool “ is encouraged to produce an interesting context. Often [as in the example cited by Pelham @19] three DLM clues are run together…”
Whatever the history of such clues, the only relevant authority for them is the description given for them in the puzzle where they are found – without detailed instructions they are nonsense.
The instructions here are silent on whether superfluous words are allowed, and it seems reasonable that they would be so long as they don’t obscure the definition. But surely the extra words in 2d and 16d aren’t cottonwool, or at least weren’t meant as such – it’s too much of a coincidence that a) they are both anagram indictors b) the anagram fodder + extra letter comprises the whole of the remainder of the non-definition words, and c) all the other clues of that type have no superfluous words.
You can search on &lit by clue type, which in the case of DLM gives a list of eleven crosswords. There are 2 by Azed, both of which are multi-word clues, and 9 by Ximenes.
Brilliant detective work, bridgesong and Pelham Barton. Surely no one is alive who remembers Torquemada. (Double, triple entendre?)
Roz, I’ve just phoned my ex-wife, who, I remembered, wanted a good dictionary and of course I had one. (We get on very well.) It’s Chambers 1998. ‘cracowe’ was in 1988, not in 1993, but was back again in 1998. Brilliant.
And, Roz, I too had thought about Morse but I had come up with ‘fous Morse’. Azed is a French-speaking Francophile, if you hadn’t noticed, but I thought it was a bit too far. For those who might not know: “CJ and RS Morse” regularly won prizes in Azed’s competitions for their brilliant clues. As did the incomparable Colin Dexter, who named his detective after his fellow solvers. RIP all.
Stefan
Oh well. LEE LINES / NOTARIES caught me out, my clue entry is doomed to the void.
Grand to see so many joining in. I was bon the same year as Jeremy Morse. Began on Xumenes in 1953 anD particularly remember some of the details of a Theme and variations puzzle whose theme words were Nottingham, Lords, Manchester, Leeds and Oval. Cannot recall all the variations (Ladies/Gentlemen was easy) there were lace-making towns (Brussels &ano) shapes, castles (Leeds in Kent a misguider) It was a famous Ashes year (first post-war defeat of Oz. Ehe fugaces.
Here’s a fun DLM Azed from 2017 if anyone wants to print it and have a go: https://uploads.guim.co.uk/2017/06/24/Azed-print_version-2,350_Jun25.pdf
The review (spoilers!!) is here: https://www.fifteensquared.net/2017/07/02/azed-no-2350-summer-reading/
Stefan @24, I thought Richard Morse was still with us, but I could be wrong.
Stefan @27 I am too young to remember Ximenes , we crossed by three years and yes surely nobody can remember Torquemada but I do have a possible link . My grandmother told me that her mother was the only winner of a Torquemada prize twice in the 1930s , no other correct entries . It may not be true , she was prone to teasing me .
Keith@10, Roz@18, Stefan@24: my best anagram effort was “O, more fuss”. Reference the long preamble – although I did enjoy the puzzle in the end.
Twmbarlwm:
If Mr Morse is reading his own obituary, may he enjoy it. I am so abject that I don’t know what to say.
MunroMaiden:
‘O, more fuss’ was just magnificent.
Stefan