An unusual Christmas competition, in that there is nothing Christmassy about it.
Azed’s normal practice at Christmas is to set a special puzzle with some sort of seasonal theme, but this puzzle is (correctly) described as plain. There is another unusual feature of this puzzle, in that there appears to be an error in the anagram fodder for the clue at 18 across. At the time of drafting this blog, I struggled with the wordplay of a couple of other clues, namely 3 and 23 down. but no doubt one of the usual suspects will help me out. I understand that the results of the December competition should appear on the first Sunday in January, when the next Azed puzzle is due; this puzzle, presumably because it’s plain, has the usual deadline for submissions of the Saturday following publication, but the results will not be published until 1 February.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BRETWALDA |
Superior king (9)
|
| The competition word: to the best of my recollection it’s not one that Azed has used before. | ||
| 10 | CALLIATURE |
Dyers’ wood, name by law including a T (10)
|
| CALL (name), A T inside IURE (by law). | ||
| 12 | TUPLE |
Set of computer data let out, completely contained (5)
|
| UP (completely) inside *LET. | ||
| 13 | RIBES |
Fruit family growing wild in Serbia mostly (5)
|
| *SERBI(a). | ||
| 14 | PLEURA |
Rule modified in settlement, fringe elements? (6)
|
| *RULE inside PA (a Maori settlement); the definition is perhaps a little loose, hence the question mark. | ||
| 15 | UNSTEP |
Tunes played on piano shift out of place? (6)
|
| *TUNES, P(iano). | ||
| 17 | CODA |
Cold accommodation in zenana coming to an end? (4)
|
| C(old) ODA (a room in a harem). | ||
| 18 | RAWHEAD |
Something to scare the kids we heard shivering (7)
|
| I think that this is intended to be an anagram of “we heard” but it doesn’t work, since the answer has two As, not two Es. A rare example of a slip by Azed, unless I’m missing something. | ||
| 19 | LUTES |
Plugs onset of trembles amid syphilis (5)
|
| T(rembles) inside LUES (syphilis). This is the second meaning of LUTE given in Chambers, nothing to do with the musical instrument. | ||
| 22 | TULIP |
Showy occupant of bed, unusually lit up (5)
|
| *(LIT UP). | ||
| 24 | PALMATE |
A couple of buddies, ‘handy’ as one might imagine (7)
|
| A simple charade of PAL and MATE, with a somewhat whimsical definition. | ||
| 26 | ELTS |
Lacking pressure, skins piglets (4)
|
| (p)ELTS (skins). | ||
| 29 | GURGLE |
Clunk as leg gets tied up with rug (6)
|
| *(LEG RUG). I wondered about the definition, but Chambers gives one meaning of clunk as “to gurgle while swallowing”, although it says it’s a dialect term, which the clue does not indicate. | ||
| 30 | SACQUE |
Old woman’s gown, cover for the head pair of characters exchanged (6)
|
| CASQUE (cover for the head) with the C and S exchanged. | ||
| 31 |
Message, reversing deception mum enclosed (5)
|
|
| MA inside LIE (rev). | ||
| 32 | MAORI |
Foreign tongue – one included in what goes with memento (5)
|
| A (one) inside (memento) MORI. | ||
| 33 | SPINAL TAPS |
Lumbar punctures? Throbbing pains, last with power inside (10, 2 words)
|
| *PAINS, P inside *LAST. | ||
| 34 | ANASTASIS |
One of the Romanovs cut short second convalescence (9)
|
| ANASTASI(a) (one of the daughters of the Tsar) S(econd). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BIT-PART |
Catch out Shakespearean woman turning up for minor role (7)
|
| TRAP (catch out) TIB (used as a typical woman’s name by Shakespeare) (all rev). | ||
| 2 | ROULEAU |
Pile of e.g. coins from Uruguay in part gold (7)
|
| U(ruguay) inside ROLE (part), AU (gold). | ||
| 3 | TALUS |
Case for alcohol (not wallop!)? It’s partly fortifying (5)
|
| AL is the case, or outer letters of the word AlcohoL, but I can’t explain the rest of the wordplay. The definition relates to the second meaning given in Chambers, the sloping part of a fortification. | ||
| 4 | ALLA CAPPELLA |
Lily turned up with pale pal, shivering, unaccompanied (12, 2 words)
|
| CALLA (lily, rev), *(PALE PAL). | ||
| 5 | LIQUID ASSETS |
Substance in limestone possibly coagulates as deposits? (12, 2 words)
|
| QUID (substance, or essence) inside LIAS (a type of limestone), SETS (coagulates). | ||
| 6 | DARNEL |
Rye-grass in patch the French reared (6)
|
| DARN (patch) LE (the in French, rev). | ||
| 7 | SUBTOTAL |
Bust, a lot distended? Not the full amount! (8)
|
| *(BUST A LOT). | ||
| 8 | GREED |
In ornamental lacework young girl we hear abandoned? One of seven possibly (5)
|
| (fili) (sounds like filly, or a young girl) GREED. One of the seven deadly sins. | ||
| 9 | VESPA |
Feature of thoroughfare, especially for Italy (5)
|
| ESP(ecially) for I(taly) in VIA. A lovely & lit clue. | ||
| 11 | LERNE |
One who penned songs endlessly in Everglades maybe (5)
|
| LERNE(r); Alan Jay Lerner is the lyricist in question, but I don’t know of any particular connection with Florida, so Everglades is just being used here to denote a swamp. | ||
| 16 | OWL-TRAIN |
It might have travelled US tracks, pounding town rail (8)
|
| *(TOWN RAIL). | ||
| 20 | ETOURDI |
I’ll follow deviation, first to last, in France being foolish (7)
|
| DETOUR with the first letter moved to the end, I. Although a French word it is to be found in Chambers. | ||
| 21 | SEREINS |
Tropical rains dried up in south (7)
|
| SERE (dried up) IN S. | ||
| 23 | POLLAN |
Whitefish in savoury dish replacing centre of skillet? (6)
|
| I’m afraid I can’t work out what the savoury dish is that has been manipulated in some way to lead to the answer. Paella? | ||
| 25 | LLAMA |
Woollen stuff that’s turning up in a shopping centre (5)
|
| A MALL (rev). | ||
| 26 | EGEST |
Discharge partial intake of college students (5)
|
| Hidden in “college students”. | ||
| 27 | LUMPY |
Chubby still? Pet lost outside, somewhat thickset (5)
|
| (p)LUMP Y(et). | ||
| 28 | SCAPA |
Second cloak for bunk (5)
|
| S(econd) CAPA (a cloak). |
Thanks Azed and Bridgesong
3dn: TANTALUS less TAN
23dn: PAN with the central A replaced by OLLA
I had the same explanations as Pelham Barton@1 for 3d and 23d, but I definitely originally entered those answers based on the definition and only later understood the wordplay, as well as the ‘Substance in limestone’ in 5d.
I really needed Chambers to help with the top-left corner, as I didn’t think of BRETWALDA, TUPLE (the one I’m most ashamed of), ROULEAU or TALUS before I started looking things up, and I had entered PLEURA, RAWHEAD and LERNE without feeling sure about them, especially RAWHEAD which seemed to not fit the wordplay but did fit with 2d possibly ending in AU.
I was pretty sure Chambers didn’t give Uruguay = U which I had eventually used to explain 2d, but apparently it was the IVR code for Uruguay until 1981. I have only found ROU (the current IVR) and URU in Chambers.
I originally had SCAPE for 28d, which I think actually works and meant I thought Anastasia couldn’t work in 34a until I got most of the checking letters and thought it must be.
Thanks, bridgesong and Azed.
Thanks for this Azed and setter. For 23D i think OLLA is the soup that replaces the centre of pan.