Thanks to Azed for another quality puzzle.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | ARCTOPHILIST | Pal I associated with tot Chris somehow, e.g. C. Robin (12) (PAL I TOT CHRIS)* – an arctophilist is a lover ot teddy bears, such as Christopher Robin in the Winnie th Pooh stories |
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| 10 | FOIST | Insinuate love in writing (5) O in FIST (as in handwriting) |
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| 12 | ONAGER | Perrier once that has orange mixed in it (6) ORANGE* – perriers and onagers are both machines firing stones |
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| 14 | OUTACT | Dark blue adroitness to surpass in play? (6) OU (Oxford University, associated with dark blue) + TACT |
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| 15 | LAMA | Lively dance? Not bad for priest abroad (4) LAMBADA less BAD |
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| 17 | HYDREMIA | Certain interference in constellation, a watery condition (8) EMI (electromagnetic interference) in HYDRA |
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| 18 | SHOP | Bird limps back to front (4) HOPS with the last letter move to the front. Shop is “old slang” for a prison; bird more usually refers to a sentence (bird-lime = time) but can also mean the prison itself |
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| 21 | NARC | One after dealers imprisoned by monarchy (4) Hidden in moNARChy |
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| 22 | MINIPILL | Low-dose contraceptive I pinch inside grinder (8) I NIP in MILL |
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| 25 | WALLAROO | Euro we Scots will go after completely gripped by conflict (8) ALL in WAR + OO (Scots “we”) |
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| 26 | TONG | Criminal guild from east and north in dress (4) N in TOG |
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| 27 | TAPU | Ban some catapults (4) Hidden in caTAPUlts – a variant of tabu/taboo. It’s not very common to have a hidden answer that is entirely enclosed in a single word, but here we have two in close succession |
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| 28 | INDIGENT | Oriental without a name, fellow that’s very hard up (8) INDIAN less A N + GENT |
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| 32 | ITEM | Fond couple displaying reverse of prudence mostly (4) Reverse of most of METIs – a Greek personification of prudence |
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| 33 | ATONAL | Spreading ailanto I trimmed, not scaled (6) AILANTO* less I |
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| 34 | ANDINE | Like a silky old dress? Far away from famous range (6) FARANDINE (a silky dress) less FAR, though the wording suggests an adjective, and Chambers only defines FARANDINE as a noun. ANDINE is a variant of Andean |
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| 35 | ENTRY | Lobby the upper classes in need of introduction (5) [g]ENTRY |
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| 36 | LOPSIDEDNESS | Dreadfully sodden spiels showing unbalanced quality (12) (SODDEN SPIELS)* |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 2 | ROUGHIE | Hooligan that is found under gutter, block knocked off? (7) GROUGH (a gully in peat moors) minus its first letter, + I.E. |
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| 3 | CITO | Company imbibing something with gin in a jiffy (4) IT (Italian Vermouth, as in “Gin and It”) in CO |
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| 4 | OTCHIPWE | Native Americans confused with Hopi etc (8) Anagram of W HOPI ETC |
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| 5 | PITY | Snobbish but not completely, a matter for regret (4) UPPITY (snobbish) less UP (completely) |
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| 6 | HOLDALLS | Big bags, passe in colleges (8) OLD in HALLS |
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| 7 | LAMENTATION | Hazel’s bits, tons seized by Leo, causing wailing (11) AMENTA (catkins) + T in LION |
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| 8 | SEMI | Second-year student in theological college, missing second half (4) Half of SEMI[nary] |
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| 9 | TREACHOUR | Trickster that was displaying range in turn of work (9) REACH in TOUR |
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| 11 | SALPINGITIS | Internal inflammation: chloride is restricting whistling sound with one (11) (PING I) in SALT IS |
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| 13 | GAMAY | Red wine, sensational, adult quaffed (5) A in GAMY |
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| 16 | ISMATICAL | It’s a claim that’s silly being addicted to faddish ideas? (9) (IT’S A CLAIM)* |
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| 19 | DIADEMED | Wearing royal headgear, acted to contain an ancient township (8) A DEME in DID |
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| 20 | ALLOTTED | Antiseptic, see, turned up in portions (8) Reverse of DETTOL (brand of antiseptic) + LA (“see!”) |
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| 23 | POPLARS | Trees dad’s planted round another one child removed (7) LARCH less CH in POP’S |
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| 24 | UNDID | Portion of ground I dug ruined (5) Hidden in groUND I Dug |
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| 29 | NO-NO | Failure just after being backed repeatedly (4) Reverse of ON (just after) twice |
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| 30 | NAZE | What’ll sound like votes against head (4) Sounds like “nays”. A naze is a headland or cape, e.g. this one. Azed has resisted the temptation to use part of his pseudonym in the wordplay |
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| 31 | ANTE | Heater turned up? It’s a gamble (4) Reverse of ETNA (a vessel for heating liquids, named after the volcano) |
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Good blog on a relatively straightforward puzzle. For ROUGHIE, I had the more prosaic [T]ROUGH + I.E.–but, same difference. I had to reach pretty deep in my bag of UK GK for Dettol, probably a commonplace for most solvers. I think the US equivalent is Pine-Sol. My last parsing was [UP]PITY. which took a remarkably long time for me to figure out.
Thanks for the blog , I thought of tROUGH IE as well . Chambers93 does not have OTCHIPWE , Ojibwe is there but not this variant . I could not find this meaning of SEMI but I did not look too hard .
ISMATICAL was in a month ago but in this type of grid there are bound to be some repeats .
Yes, OTCHIPWE was odd. The current Chambers (ODE and Collins too) only has OJIBWA, and it’s quite a difference in transliteration.
This ex-semie (short for semi-bajan) always spelt it with the e on the end. There again, we always spelt ‘bajan’ ‘bejant’.
Phi @3, the current Chambers (2016), both printed and e-version, has OTCHIPWE.
Printed version…
Otchipwe n same as Ojibwa
e-version…
Otchipwe /ō-chipˈwā/
noun same as Ojibwa
Tim C
Can people see the clue winners for 2750 ? CLEARINGS plus U ( DLM ) .
Number 2 looks like a standard compound anagram to me .
DESOLATING + LARCHES + S = CLEARINGS + LOST + SHADE
Where is the U and the DLM ? Am I going nuts ?
Another one for T(Rough) + IE. Like Andrew, I queried the adjectival reference to (FAR)ANDINE and my Chambers defines ANDINE as “of or like” the Andes, rather than “from” (but I dare say someone will retort that “from” can mean “out of “, so it’s effectively the same).
Roz@2 and Phi@3: My Chambers ’98 has a definition for SEMI as “semi-bajan (also semie)” and under Bajan, it has “bajan (Aberdeen) or bejant (St Andrews)”.
I was stuck for a wee while around ROUGHIE/SHOP/FOIST/SALPINGITIS; it didn’t help that I was assuming 18ac would be a complete reversal of “limps”, but it all fell into place once I’d got FOIST.
Thanks MunroMaiden@6 , I saw semi-bajan and thought it meant somebody with one parent from Barbados .
Roz@7, I like that definition! Re your comment @6, you’re not going nuts. As you say, it’s a compound anagram and there’s not even a U in the entire clue!
Roz @5: you’re absolutely right. I thought at first that “larches” was a misprint for “lurches” but that just spoils the sense and doesn’t have a valid DLM. Very odd; the writers of the clue are seasoned competitors and I would have expected them to produce a clue that met the criteria. I would also expect Azed to reject clues that are manifestly wrong. This month’s slip is not yet available, but I doubt that it will contain an explanation.
August 1st 2021 , CLEARING also the competition clue for a plain puzzle . I wonder if there has been some sort of mix-up with the admin . I do not record the winning clues in my diary .
Interesting idea, but not one of the winning clues: http://andlit.org.uk/azed/slip.php?comp_no=2564
I have no idea really . I cannot see how it could be a winning clue for this competition as stated .
Jugular @4 So it does. Just checked on the iPad I was using when I solved the puzzle. Can’t think how I missed it.
Roz and others, that clue in 2nd place is baffling. I can’t think of any similar word with a U in it that might indicate a misprint.
As I don’t see my name in the VHCs, I suspect that Azed actually awarded me 2nd place and absent-mindedly mixed up the paperwork when listing the winners’ names.
Admin please close this thread.
Why close this thread? When the slip is published, some others might want to see the clue in question and comment…
An error or oversight can’t be discounted; there have been a few of late. Repetition of clue words… wrong closing dates… I won an ‘extra prize’ for puzzle 2740 which failed to arrive, and I’ve not had a reply from the Guardian helpdesk when I emailed…
I was just being silly, Andrew, pretending I’d solved the problem and dropping the mic. I have a snowball’s chance in hell of getting a VHC, let alone a clue in 2nd place.
See now Derek Harrison’s comment in response to mine on his forum: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/crossword_centre/azed-2750-t582.html
Of course, Michael R, thought you were! Keep persevering: the more clues you write, the better you definitely will become!