Azed 2020: Clear vision

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A rather more tricky Azed than some recent ones, largely because it has more than the usual quota of obscure words. I needed to check quite a few answers. The first answer refers to the puzzle’s number.
My favourite clue is probably 35a, because I like the way ‘bike’ is used.

Across
1 TWENTY-TWENTY Being clear-sighted, doubled old infantry division
This being Azed 2020… Twenty is an old English division of infantry; twenty-twenty (or 20/20) indicates normal vision, or clear sight.
10 SIXER Scout leading group showing King is retreating
REX IS, reversed. The leader of a Brownie Guide or Cub Scout six
11 RIP-RAP Low-lifer gets criminal charge for hard core?
RIP = a disreputable person; RAP = criminal charge. Loose broken stones, used to form a foundation on soft ground or under water, or in the construction of revetments and embankments; a foundation formed of these
13 CLEAR-CUT Punished cruel act of which there’s no doubt?
*(cruel act)
14 ALBE Even if old showing some real beauty
Hidden in ‘real beauty’
15 SHEAR PIN Safety mechanism to try in brief car journey
HEAR = try (in a legal sense); SPIN = short car journey. A pin, which, as a safety mechanism, will shear and halt a machine or power-transmission when the correct load or stress is exceeded
16 EARED Earl, once counselled, able to give a hearing?
E = earl; ARED = counselled (Milton and Spenser). If you are eared, you should be able to hear.
17 CANT Lively northern melody? Not us
A cantus is a melody or chant, esp in medieval ecclesiastical music; the highest part in a piece of choral music. Cant, in Scotland and N England, means ‘brisk; lively; merry’
18 ROAD SIGN Scrawled on grid’s a warning to motorists
*(on grid’s a)
23 XEROMATA Extra in a levy coming back? Such will leave sufferers dryeyed
MORE in A TAX, all reversed. Plural of xeroma, a variant of xerophthalmia. It seems strange that it can be plural, but Chambers gives it.
25 OR SO Headless trunk (approximately)
[t]ORSO
28 FURAN It’s used in tanning skin with hair attached, if old
FUR = skin with hair attached; AN = old word for ‘if’. A colourless liquid heterocyclic compound, C4H4O, obtained from wood tar or synthesised, and used in tanning and nylon production
30 SEQUELAE Experience includes equal suffering as aftereffects of trauma
SEE = experience (as a verb); *(equal).
31 ELAN Antelope, not dead, showing distinct signs of life
ELAN[d]. Spelt élan — vigour and style
32 CANTHARI Big bowls filling for mendicant Harijans
Hidden in ‘mendicant Harijans’. Plural of cantharus, a large two-handled drinking cup; a laver in the atrium at the front of ancient churches.
33 MANATI Mammal found in Amazon outflows? It’ll take eons about for that!
[e]MANATI[ons] are outflows. The manatee, or sea-cow, is found in the Amazon, and can be spelt this way.
34 MANET Too early for elevenses? The reverse – stays on
TEN AM, reversed. As a stage direction, (he or she) remains on stage (from Latin, manere, to stay.
35 CYCLANDELATE Bike not on time, might one suppose? But it improved circulation
CYCL AND E = bike; LATE. A vasodilator used in the treatment of claudication, arteriosclerosis and Raynaud’s disease. It is also used to treat nighttime leg cramps, and has been investigated for its effect against migraine.
Down
1 TSCHERNOSEM Scent horse manure initially scattered to generate rich soil
*(scent horse m). Chernozem, a very fertile soil of sub-humid steppe, consisting of a dark topsoil over a lighter calcareous layer
2 WILGA Tree suited to dry conditions, wide, with wild gila underneath
W = wild; *(gila). A small white-flowered tree of the genus Geijera, able to withstand drought
3 EXEDRAE Halls Cockney bewitched, attention rising
[h]EXED; EAR, reversed. Plural of exedra, a portico, hall or vestibule; a room with seats; a columned recess in classical Greek and Roman architecture, containing a continuous semicircular bench, used for holding discussions in; any outdoor bench in a recess; an apse, recess or niche.
4 NEAPED Stranded between tides — requirement’s a tug going in, freeing ’ull
NEED = requirement; A P[ull]. Left aground between spring tides
5 YACHTIE Chay at sea before marriage – or indeed after it?
*(Chay); TIE = marriage. Reference to Chay Blyth, a Scottish yachtsman and rower, who was the first person to sail non-stop westwards around the world (in 1971), on a 59-foot boat called British Steel.
6 TRUER Less unreliable return, with spin, clipping head of net
*(retur); ‘with spin’ is the anagram indicator; ‘clipping head of net’ indicates the N should be omitted.
7 WITAN Anglo-Saxon councillors getting thanks in success
TA in WIN. Members of the Witenagemot, an assembly of the Anglo-Saxon ruling class whose primary function was advisory to the king
8 EPARCH Metropolitan church supports raising of brassica
CH = church, RAPE ( (Brassica napus). An eparch, or metropolitan, is the bishop of a metropolis, presiding over the other bishops of a province, in the Eastern Orthodox churches, a person ranking between an archbishop and a patriarch, in the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England, an archbishop;
9 TABINET Curtain material: somehow a bit superior to alternative?
*(a bit); above NET, an alternative curtain material. Tabinet, or tabbinet, is a delicate kind of tabby (a coarse waved or watered silk fabric) resembling damask, used for window curtains.
12 PENTLANDITE Native sulphide, it occurs in enclosed French plain
PENT = enclosed; LANDE = French plain; IT. Pentlandite
19 OWRELAY Old lawyer dressed up in Scottish cravat
O = old; *(lawyer). A large cravat, given in Chambers under overlay
20 GROANED Pike circling bay made loud creaking noise
GED = the pike or luce; ROAN = (of a horse) bay or dark, with spots of grey and white
21 PARGANA An Indian city power rising in part of zillah
AN AGRA P, reversed. A division of an administrative district or zillah in India
22 NOUNAL Lou-Ann unusually functioning as a ‘name’
*(Lou-Ann). At junior school, we were taught that nouns are ‘naming words’.
24 MUGHAL Swot up on Henry in connection with Indian dynasty
MUG, as in ‘mug up on’; HAL = Henry. Dynasty ruling the Mughal Empire
26 RECTA ‘Enteric’, say, may be applied in such intestinal parts? Yes
Anagram of ‘enteric say’ minus ‘yes in’. I’m not quite sure how the clue fits together to indicate that, though.
27 PLAIN Like this puzzle without pattern? Yes and no
This is a plain puzzle, and plain means ‘without pattern’. Another (archaic) meaning of ‘plain’ is complain — if you didn’t like this puzzle, you might complain about it, hence the ‘Yes and no’.
29 ARRET Climbing part of lunar high ground? Judgement required
TERRA, any area of higher land on the moon’s surface, reversed. An arrêt is the judgement of a tribunal.

2 comments on “Azed 2020: Clear vision”

  1. Thanks, Jetdoc. I confess that I omitted to return to 33A to find the parsing for that. I think the joke in 27D is Azed showing us, as he often does, that he keeps abreast of what the rest of us are getting up to, i.e. bloggers debating whether puzzles should have symmetrical grids.

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