Azed 2029

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I finished about three-quarters of this quite quickly and without aids, but finishing it off was a bit more of a struggle. As usual I had to do quite a lot of Chambers-trawling to confirm all the details of some obscure words. Clever and high-quality clueing as always from Azed.

 
 
 
 
 
Across
1 . Go away in spring, cases packed (5)
SCAPA CA in SPA. A variant of the more common “scarper”. Chambers gives an interesting etymology: it’s originally from Italian scappare (escape) but “possibly strengthened” by rhyming slang “Scapa Flow” = “go”. Chambers also gives ca=cases, but with no indication of the context in which this might be used: grammar? law?
5 . Woven carpets in more than one range of colours (7)
SPECTRA CARPETS*
10 . Lie about mum going after rich sculpted church vessel (11)
CHRISMATORY RICH* + MA in STORY. It’s a vessel for holding chrism, a holy oil.
11 . Some signore I kidded offering ‘oriental therapy’ (5)
REIKI Hidden. Reiki is an “energy therapy”, aka “New Age nonsense for separating gullible people from their money”
12 . Patch of ground includes boggy place, not good for ornamental tree (6)
LOQUAT QUA[G] in LOT. A tree also known as the Japanese Medlar
13 . Dried root, gingery, like e.g. a cuckoo-pint (6)
ASARUM AS ARUM
15 . Energy-fuelled buddies? Sets ringing the changes (5)
PEALS E in PALS
16 . One may have liked a churchwarden having page in support (5)
PIPER P in PIER. A churchwarden is a kind of pipe, which a “piper” might smoke
19 . Youth personified mangled duet, not being keen (8)
HEBETUDE HEBE (Greek goddess of youth) + DUET*
21 . Proper nooses permitted vis-à-vis the gallows (8)
DULE-TREE LET (permitted) RE (about, vis-à-vis) in (“noosed by”) DUE (proper). DULE is a Scots form of “dole” = grief.
22 . It’s tedious when cap comes off air seal perhaps (5)
O-RING [B]ORING. Faulty O-rings were blamed for the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
24 . Old stone turned up on small island in Maine (5)
PUMIE UP< + I in ME (standard abbreviation of Maine). Spenserian version of "pumice"
27 . Painter’s mixture lacking a constituent of butterfly’s hue (6)
PTERIN PAINTER* less A. Pterins occur as pigments of butterflies’ wngs.
28 . Tense with common preposition in old English, earlier than in Shakespeare (6)
TOFORE T + FOR in OE. Shakespearean for of “before”
29 . Wranglers will compete with such, turning in some impressive Latin (5, apostrophe)
LEVI’S Hidden in reverse of impresSIVE Latin. Levi’s and Wrangler are both brands of jeans – I very much hope that “Levi’s” (which the enumeration “5, apostrophe” insists on) is not a plural but an abbreviation of “Levi’s jeans”.
30 . Set new limits on old counsel with latest in civet fur (11)
REDETERMINE REDE + [cive]T + ERMINE
31 . Having got one up and clear, old injury contained? (7)
RIDERED DERE (old injury) in RID (clear) – a RIDERED horse has “got one up”
32 . Slams cuts square (5)
BANGS Double definition – “slams” and “to cut hair square across” (into bangs)
 
Down
1 . Hollywood writer maybe scribbled PCs to director (not English) (12, 2 words)
SCRIPT DOCTOR (PCS TO DIRECTOR)* less E. A script doctor may be called on to fix problems with a film script.
2 . Church woman archetypically with attractive thing in hair arrangement (9)
CHEVELURE CH + EVE + LURE
3 . A girl educated on stage in oriental porcelain (5)
ARITA A RITA, as in Willy Russell’s play (and subsequent film with Michael Caine and Julie Walters) ‘Educating Rita‘
4 . Youngish party turning up left what coolies could carry? (5)
PIKUL Reverse of UKIP (a “youngish party”, aka “the BNP in blazers”) + L. PIKUL is a Chinese weight of about 60k – a Malay word meaning “a man’s load”, or “what a coolie could carry”. We had some discussion a couple of years ago on a Brendan puzzle about the possible offensiveness of “coolie”.
5 . Singular flirt, one with dazzling charm (7)
SMASHER S + MASHER
6 . One has dalliance around Indian tree (5)
PALAY A in PLAY
7 . Discharge breaking crumbs in palm (7)
COQUITO QUIT (discharge – e.g. a debt, says C) in COO (crumbs!)
8 . Fabricate monkey holding tail (7, 2 words)
TRUMP UP RUMP in TUP (a “pile-driving monkey”)
9 . Players’ facilities arrangement of our seats must limit always (12)
AUTOREVERSES EVER in (OUR SEATS)*. I guessed this from the wordplay, but couldn’t see the relevance of “players” until I looked it up, Nothing to do with actors or musicians, but the autoreversing mechanism on tape cassette players, which are probably a fading memory for many of us.
14 . I lend freely amid clique withholding credit (9)
REDLINING (I LEND)* in RING
17 . Overcharge after meal automatically loaded (7)
CLIP-FED CLIP (overcharge, as in a clip-joint) + FED (after meal)
18 . Type of vacuum tube that’s wiggly not deep (7)
PENTODE (NOT DEEP)*. A valve with five electrodes (cf “diode”, with two)
20 . Happened to flow in river channel (7)
BETIDED TIDE in BED. I was going to criticise this on the grounds that “tide” had pretty much the same sense in both answer and wordplay, but it appears not: both come from Old English words, but with separate meanings (though I still suspect the ultimate sourec may be the same). I also learned that tide (as in the sea) is related to German “Zeit” = “time”.
23 . Rocky alpine edge making one a mass of nerves? (5)
ARETE A RETE
25 . Law expert and part rule-maker (5)
ULEMA Hidden – a Muslim expounder of the law, or a body of such.
26 . Something of an authority on wine is mum (5)
MAVIN MA + VIN. US slang (from Yiddish) for an expert, also (more familiarly to me) spelt “maven”

2 comments on “Azed 2029”

  1. Tor
    #1 - Sun 24th Apr 11, 03:35

    Now that’s a good blog Andrew.

    I have always suspected that Scapa is simply an ignorant version of scarper and the rhyming slang link is entirely wrong. Justification after the event.

    I suspect auto-reverse is an almost forgotten bit of technology already.

    I agree that BETIDED is not really up yo Azed standards.

  2. Jan
    #2 - Sun 24th Apr 11, 10:12

    Thanks, Andrew. I found this one to be quite a quick solve thanks to 1d, but I’m still wondering about the apostrophe in Levi’s.

    I was happy with BETIDED, but you’ve started me thinking about the phrase, ‘time and tide’ – which tide?

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