Gemelo 7

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Gemelo seems to be settling nicely into the Sunday slot. His puzzles have a bit of a different feel to Azed’s (in a way that’s hard to put my finger on) but are enjoyable and well constructed nonetheless, so thanks to him for this one.

 
Across
1 COSSACK BOOTS Chief of Staff to plunder profits for Russian bases? (12, 2 words)
C.O.S.+ SACK (plunder) + BOOTS (profits)
9 OPPUGN Attack dog chasing opposite number (6)
OP + PUG + N
10 IO MOTH Where Douglas is turning against hard, venomous creature (6, 2 words)
IOM (Isle of Man, which Douglas is the capital of) + reverse of TO + H[ard]
12 DUCT TAPE Adult in trusted third party wearing Mussolini sticker? (8, 2 words)
A in TTP in DUCE
14 SUM Tashkent’s ready to tackle problem? (3)
Double definition – the Sum is the currency unit of Tashkent
17 SPA Governing party member abandoning country treatment centre (3)
SPAIN less IN (a member of the governing party, those who are “in” power)
18 GRAPHITE Use this to write good knock knock joke at last (8)
G + RAP + HIT + [jok]E – graphite is the “lead” in pencils
19 NUDIST “I’m barely going grey in retirement” I inanely suggest (6)
Reverse of DUN (grey) + I + S[ugges]T
20 PASH Kiss Shakespeare’s head (4)
Double definition
21 REEF Rejection of former spouse’s bank (4)
Reverse of FEER (archaic word for a spouse)
23 NORITE Metal sent back by follower of LA rock (6)
Reverse of IRON + TE (follower the note LA in sol-fa)
25 TIPPEXED Did White River finally flood? Almost smart to go first (8)
TIPP[y] (smart) + EXE + [floo]D – for younger solvers, Tipp-Ex is a white fluid used to correct typing errors on paper
26 D’OH What young modellers use to avoid drama that was stupid (3)
PLAYDOH less PLAY – Homer Simpson’s “annoyed grunt”
29 TEF Patch of cost-effective grass (3)
Hidden
30 TEN TO ONE Almost certainly past anger, consuming Peanuts? (8, 3 words)
TOON (cartoon, e.g. Peanuts) in TENE (old word for anger)
31 AIRMEN People navigating princes, it could be said? (6)
Princes could be “heir men”
32 ZONURE Area containing opening for primitive lizard (6)
UR (primitive) in ZONE
33 GRANDE ENTREE Court admission enraged new policeman, in the end no longer cross (12, 2 words)
ENRAGED* + [policema]N + TREE (cross)
Down
1 COUSIN Relative from Colombia endlessly taking drugs (6)
CO + USIN[g]
2 SPAM 17 million unwanted emails (4)
SPA (answer to 17 across) + M
3 SUDORIFIC Perhaps getting into a lather if our disc fails (9)
(IF OUR DISC)*
4 AGUE Peeled agave makes you fit (4)
[m]AGUE[y]
5 KITCHENER Who famously recruited cook? (9)
Double definition: Lord Kitchener famously appeared on WWI recruitment posters
6 BOTHIE Cottage or hut, or temporary dwelling that is beneath the two (6)
BOTH + I.E.
7 OOPS Court cut short over response to error (4)
Reverse of SPOO[n]
8 SHEATH Case of special butterfly (6)
S + HEATH
11 HUGUENOT Protestant unionist aboard Titanic? That wasn’t true (8)
U in HUGE + NOT (slangy “that wasn’t true”, as in “Trump is a genius – not!”)
13 EPISTLER Irrational figures race to drop e.g. Paul? (8)
E + PI + ST LEGER less E.G.
15 OPTOPHONE Work to surpass perfect text translator (9)
OP + TOP + HONE (to perfect)
16 AT PRESENT American troop with grudge for now (9, 2 words)
A[merican] + TP (troop) + RESENT
21 RED RAG Not for the first time, violently pull tongue (6, 2 words)
RE-DRAG – does dragging have to be violent?
22 SPITED Hated what might be added to bills about education (6)
Reverse of TIPS (what might be added to a restaurant bill) + ED
24 ENFREE Head of editorial previously called about French release of the first folio (6)
E[ditorial] + FR in NEE – Shakespearean word for “set free”, hence the reference to the First Folio
27 HERA Goddess isn’t all the rage (4)
Hidden in tHE RAge
28 ANON Custard apple, say, almost immediately out of fashion (4)
ANON[e], and two definitions (though I’m not sure about “out of fashion”)
29 TOUR Battle to fire first round (4)
[s]TOUR – a battle generally, not as I originally thought a particular “Battle of Stour”

19 comments on “Gemelo 7”

  1. Your notes look remarkably like mine. I think ANON is just the one definition, “immediately,” with “out of fashion” intended to indicate that the word is archaic. It took me several sessions to grind my way through this puzzle, but, after all is said and done, I have no quibbles with Gemelo’s clues. I agree that the style is Azed-ish, but subtly different.

  3. I suppose I have to count this as a failure in my attempt to correctly fill the grid for these puzzles without looking anything up. In 32a I had though of ZONE but then I thought it should contain a P or a word for ‘opening’ and then the lizard is primitive, and it didn’t help that I wasn’t confident about 29d. Eventually I looked up words starting with ZON in Chambers and I wasn’t happy with myself. I know it’s a pretty arbitrary standard because I entered 4d without knowing what word for ‘agave’ I was removing the first and last letters from, and there were several other cases where I was pretty sure a certain word existed and less sure that it meant what the clue needs it to mean.

    In 32a, I think ‘opening for primitive’ is supposed to indicate the prefix UR-.

    I agree with Cineraria@1 about the definition in 28d, and also think the letter being removed should be [a] rather than [e].

    For 14a, I would have said it’s the currency unit of Uzbekistan, of which Tashkent is the capital, and in 8d ‘Case’ rather than ‘butterfly’ should be underlined.

    AR@2: I wasn’t sure about that when I was solving, but the first three meanings of ‘inane’ in Chambers are ’empty; void; vacuous’, all of which I think could work.

    Thanks, Gemelo and Andrew.

  5. [ Goujeers@4, there is a note with today’s Azed which reads “Please note this is a prize draw puzzle, not a clue writing competition. The next clue writing competition will be Azed 2,771 on October 5th 2025.” ]

  6. Enjoyed this puzzle. The Clue Clinic G-rating was 3.5 (out of 5) based on 45 votes, the same difficulty rating as the previous week.

    I did note as a point of interest that “ENFREE” does not appear anywhere in the First Folio. “Enfreedoming” and “Enfreed” appear in LLL and TC respectively. Not a criticism, just an observation. I did think that “First Folio” should be capitalised though.

    Thanks to Gemelo and Andrew

  8. I have just started doing barred puzzles. Hats off to anyone who completes without looking anything up. I am still getting misled by the indicators of archaic words like ‘first Folio’s and ‘out of date’

  9. I was rather surprised to see that today’s Azed wasn’t a competition puzzle. In the Slip where the new arrangement was announced, Azed said “the competitions will remain on the first Sunday of each month”.

  10. Agree with Matthew@3 on all clue comments. 32ac: I initially thought “opening for primitive” was just misleading, making you think it would be P, but Chambers suggests “ur” in the meaning of primitive only exists as a prefix. 19ac: I was puzzled by “inanely”, but then found that Chambers gave the meanings of empty and vacuous.
    I thought 31ac was pretty weak – “princes” to be “heir men”; I don’t think “heir man” actually exists as a phrase? I also thought “bases” in 1ac was a bit of a stretch to mean boots. And while I’m being pedantic, I know that “SUM” (14ac) can mean problem, but where does “to tackle” come in?

  11. I can never remember the previous week’s puzzle so I make indications of words I can’t parse (and, of course, blank squares for answers I couldn’t get). Went looking last night for last week’s paper only to find I’d already put it out for recycling. Aargh!

  12. Andrew, I share your surprise that there is to be no clue-writing competition for Azed this month. In the small print in the paper, it says that the August Azed slip will be published in the next fortnight; we are still waiting for the July one! I have emailed Caitlin at The Observer to try and find out what is going on.

  13. The text printed beside the puzzle in Observer today (7 Sep) is the usual one including reference to an asterisked clue for which a clue is to be written so a little slip-up there, I think, unless I’ve misunderstood something.

  14. Nmsindy @13: there is a correction on page 29 of the main section to confirm that the next clue-writing competition will be Azed 2771 (which is due to be published on 5 October).

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