A slightly odd grid in that there are the usual straddling 12-letter answers and sixteen 4-letter ones. But this apart we have a perfectly pleasant crossword with many of the usual nice clues. Sometimes Azed has just relied for difficulty on strange words, it being fairly obvious what is happening in the wordplay, but he is also as one would expect clever from time to time.
Definitions underlined, in crimson. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*.
I’m sure the repetition of a rare device was unintended, also the mistake with the spelling of the famous actor’s name. Likewise the repetition of the clue-word.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SAECULUM |
One bit of European cash invested in squalid area – age required (8)
|
| s(a ecu)lum | ||
| 7 | ODDS |
Scriptural academic opening mouth causes dispute (4)
|
| o(DD)s | ||
| 11 | AUXIN |
What’ll promote plant growth wife’s sown in middle of rains (5)
|
| [r]a(ux.)in[s] | ||
| 12 | ELEGIAC |
Glee I wasted on account being mournful (7)
|
| (Glee I)* ac | ||
| 13 | BLADDER SENNA |
Means of climbing within beans twined round pole for leguminous shrub (12, 2 words)
|
| ladder in ((beans)* round N) — I find it impossible to find my way round all these words like papilionaceous, leguminous, etc and am inclined to accept that bladder senna is a leguminous shrub | ||
| 16 | AGIN |
Opposed to liquor being offered by adult (4)
|
| A gin | ||
| 17 | PAPER-COAL |
Hard stuff that splits à la copper when treated (9)
|
| (a la copper)* with some sort of &littery going on perhaps, although I don’t know what ‘a la copper’ means | ||
| 18 | KOTO |
Stunner, forward – one’s for the plucking (4)
|
| KO to — a Japanese musical instrument that is plucked | ||
| 20 | KEPI |
What may distinguish legionnaire exchanging parts of spear (4)
|
| pike with the two parts pi and ke swapped | ||
| 22 | NERD |
One with few positive qualities making appearance in dinner- dance (4)
|
| Hidden in dinNER-Dance | ||
| 23 | OLID |
I’ll be appearing in former rank (4)
|
| ol(I)d | ||
| 25 | BESONIANS |
They begged for their food etc, form of boniness gripping one (9)
|
| a in *(boniness) — it was obvious how the clue was constructed, but I found it hard because I had i for one and had forgotten that Azed sometimes has a for one | ||
| 26 | SITH |
Old time model, centre of fashion (4)
|
| sit [fas]h[ion] — this is clear enough once you see that it isn’t old-time | ||
| 30 | KLIPSPRINGER |
Antelope jumping almost perkily around season (12)
|
| *(perkil[y]) round spring — I made it all hard by carelessly writing KILPSPRINGER | ||
| 31 | IDOLISE |
Adore fish full of varied oils (7)
|
| ide round *(oils) | ||
| 32 | PILEI |
Old caps lay in a heap in front of one (5)
|
| pile 1 — a trap since there is also a word pilea | ||
| 33 | NENE |
Rare bird internees regularly cut (4)
|
| [i]n[t]e[r]n[e]e[s] | ||
| 34 | SCARLESS |
Working farmer dividing tax, as once, unmarked (8)
|
| s(carl)ess | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SABA |
Old Yemenis mostly cast down from below (4)
|
| (abas[e])rev. | ||
| 2 | AULNAGE |
Examining cloth in maturity coating bone (7)
|
| a(ulna)ge | ||
| 3 | EXASPERATION |
Pa disturbed with extra noise – it’s infuriating (12)
|
| (pa extra noise)* | ||
| 4 | CIDE |
Most of decree taken up in textual emendation (4)
|
| (edic[t])rev. | ||
| 5 | LEEP |
Boil rind up (4)
|
| (peel)rev. | ||
| 6 | MESCALINE |
Seine calm originally? It may result in a trip (9)
|
| (Seine calm)* and the trip is a drug-induced one | ||
| 8 | DINGLE-DANGLE |
Swinging to and fro (12)
|
| The clue word (a repetition of one many years ago) | ||
| 9 | DANIO |
Tropical fish making whoopee at bottom of tub! (5)
|
| dan io! | ||
| 10 | SCANTIES |
Take a quick look at ribbons for underwear (8)
|
| scan ties | ||
| 14 | PROLEPSIS |
Member of the lower orders sips boozily in anticipation (9)
|
| prole (sips)* | ||
| 15 | GOOL |
Sentimentality with line as in Jock’s bloomer (4)
|
| goo l — this is I think the only Scottishism (indicated by Jock) in this puzzle — perhaps Gemelo is influencing Azed here | ||
| 17 | PONYSKIN |
Asian fur transformed poky inns (8)
|
| *(poky inns) | ||
| 19 | TOSA |
Bone fed to it cheers fighting dog (4)
|
| ‘Bone fed to cheers’ gives ‘t(os)a’ and ‘to it’ gives ‘to SA’ but I can’t see how the clue works: it seems to be a bit of a confusion of the two pieces of wordplay in order to make a nice surface. Perhaps it’s something terribly sophisticated that I just can’t see, but … | ||
| 21 | PENSEES |
Author experiences thoughts (7)
|
| pen sees — Chambers seems to have many French words; and German ones too (as in a Listener some years ago) | ||
| 24 | VILDE |
In Shakespeare, mean old fellow switching parts (5)
|
| devil with the two parts de and vil swapped — we had this device before, with KEPI, and it’s so rarely seen that twice in one crossword? It’s as if Azed has just discovered it and is keen to use his new toy | ||
| 27 | AREA |
Motorists circling about region (4)
|
| A(re)A — AA, the Automobile Association, not a = about | ||
| 28 | ANIL |
Adult love, sort of blue (4)
|
| A nil | ||
| 29 | KRIS |
Dirk, maybe? Or Brannagh, in short on the up? (4)
|
| (Sir K)rev. because he’s Sir Kenneth Branagh — the spelling Brannagh is a mistake and will no doubt eventually be corrected on the online version — and in the surface there is a reference to Dirk Bogarde |
I found solving this puzzle to be rather pleasant, especially after the struggles I had with Gemelo last week. I think this was the quickest I have ever solved an Azed puzzle, but I think solving on the computer and not looking things up as I go obviously makes it take less time, at the risk of possibly getting things wrong. Maybe it also means I am less likely to notice things like Branagh being spelled wrong.
I solved BLADDER SENNA, BESONIANS, CIDE and LEEP without knowing the definitions, but found the wordplay reasonably clear once I had some checking letters. I also left the last cell of 32a blank until I solved 29d.
Thanks, John and Azed.
TOSA
Should ‘it cheers’ be read as TA (instead of cheers=TA)
I forgot to say earlier about TOSA that I was happy that ‘Bone fed to it cheers’ could mean ‘Cheers with bone fed to it’.
Yes. That makes better sense. Thanks Matthew@3.
Thanks for the blog. Grids with lots of four-letter words are usually difficult to complete, but this one seemed easier than usual (or perhaps that’s just in comparison with Gemelo!). I agree that the clue for TOSA is poorly worded, but fortunately the answer was obvious.
Well done on spotting that the competition word has been used before, although it was over 20 years ago. It baffles me that it never seems to occur to Azed to check on the andlit.org website before selecting the word for us to clue. I would have expected the misspelling of Branagh to have been picked up by someone before the puzzle appeared: it may not have been Azed’s error.
I thought TOSA was parsed as Matthew@3 has said, although it’s a clumsy construction. I thought “Brannagh” was maybe a misdirection, along with Dirk (nothing to do with Bogarde), but obviously just a typo. Overall, I found this remarkably quick to solve, compared with recent Gemelo experiences, and I didn’t open the dictionary until I’d finished – which certainly isn’t always the case!
Well, I didn’t finish this, but I got a lot further than the last two Gemelos. I guessed WIGGLE WAGGLE for the clue word which stymied me.
I mentioned the clue word to my wife. Her response was that she’d been singing for many years about “the dingle, dangle scarecrow with the flippy, floppy hat” in the playgroup she runs.
What’s the significance of ‘working’ in 34 across please?
BrianG @9: none, perhaps. I think the clue would have been perfectly OK without it. Did Azed just want to indicate the type of farmer a carl was?
Chambers gives “carl” = “husbandman” and “husbandman” = “working farmer”
I enjoyed this – Azed is now a monthly treat in between the teeth-pulling. It was a relatively quick solve for me as well although I looked up plenty of words in Chambers. The thing I love about Azed is that you can use the wordplay to put “age” around “ulna” for example – come up with something unlikely like “aulnage” – look it up and joyfully find it there with almost the exact definition. Wonderful!
Dodgyprof@11. I will try to remember to check indirection of Chambers definitions from now on. Thanks all.
Why does “mouth” give OS in 7A?
Thanks Azed and John
7ac: Chambers p 1088 has os² (anat and zool) n a mouth or mouthlike opening.
A welcome relief from Gemelo but no amount of explanation in the world will convince me that TOSA is just badly (wrongly?) clued
It was suggested on another site that for the TOSA clue to work as apparently intended you need to imagine a comma between ‘it’ and ‘cheers’. Then you can read it as Matthew#379 does. But if you actually insert the comma you render the surface reading meaningless. So I’d suggest it’s not one of Azed’s finest.
My first AZED – at least the first where I have actually solved any clues !
What a load of archAIc words like elegIAc. I will certainly be able to cause a stir at my next Scrabble match.
I wonder how many of these words will you use in normal conversation in the next year?
A KRIS is a curly bladed knife, which would play havoc if stuffed down your sock in place of a DIRK.
I had (Kim) PONDERS as the author who ‘experiences thoughts’, which fitted nicely with many of my other incorrect, but logically parsed, solutions.
Dan io! could do with some elaboration, though . . .
HALFWITS above at 12:25am on October 13…. Chambers for the 3rd definition of “dan” has it as a dialect word for a tub, and “io” as ‘Of invocation, or expressing joy or triumph or grief’ (hence whoopee)
Imagine: about 1970, a young bloke in his first job, walks round the office on a Monday and sees an old woman (who should have been working) pouring over what is obviously a crossword.
I’d solved it in The Observer the previous day. Ah! She had travelled to Spain. I had no money. And she and I had different pronunciations of ‘Ximenes’.
So now: my Spanish isn’t great but I’ve been a few times. Do we know how to pronounce Gemalo in Spanish? Or Catalan? Or English or Scottish?
I solved two of them but I thought: I’m an an old man now. It is perhaps time for the young to take over. Best of luck. Not for me.
Stefan