I found this a little harder than usual for an Azed, although on reflection it is just the unfamiliarity of many of the words that creates the difficulty. As always, there are no criticisms of the wordplay (although I don’t fully understand 22 down). I shall be away in Norway, with uncertain internet access, when this appears, so apologies for any delay (or total failure) in responding to any comments.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | POSTMAN’S KNOCK | CONK (rev) in *PANTO MASK |
| 10 | AMAZONITE | AM(erican), IT in A ZONE |
| 13 | ROTI | TI RO (halves swapped) |
| 14 | INERTIAL | *AIR INLET |
| 15 | ROUND | Two meanings. I was only familiar with round meaning “plain-spoken” in its adverbial form. |
| 16 | FRY-UP | Even letters in “of grey lumps”. |
| 18 | ODYSSEAN | *DAYS ONE’S |
| 20 | MINORS | MIN(utes) OR S(econds) |
| 21 | STUCCO | C-CUTS (rev), O |
| 24 | CATENATE | The competition word |
| 27 | TOLAR | A LOT(rev), R |
| 30 | ALLIS | Hidden in “Rockall islet” |
| 31 | TRANSUME | *TRUEMAN’S |
| 32 | ALBI | ALBI(on). The Albigensian crusade was a purely local affair, nothing to do with the Holy Land. Albion is an old name for the island of Britain. |
| 33 | ARETINIAN | E(nglish) TIN in ARIA, N(ew). Another name new to me, this medieval monk perhaps deserves to be better known |
| 34 | DEMICARACTERE | *AMERICA CREATED less A. Here’s a link to the real thing |
| Down | ||
| 1 | PARRAMATTA | ARR(ived), A MATT in PA. |
| 2 | SATURN | SAT URN |
| 3 | MOIDORE | ID in *ROMEO |
| 4 | ANIL | A NIL, and also N in AIL |
| 5 | NINNY-HAMMER | INN in NY, HAMMER. Chambers gives this as an archaic or dialect term for a simpleton. As “zany” can be a noun as well as an adjective, the clue is perfectly fair. |
| 6 | STEY | E in STY |
| 7 | NITRE | Compound anagram; take “a lamp” from “Parliament” and rearrange what’s left. |
| 8 | ORIYA | Y(ear) in (C)AIRO (rev). “The language of Orissa, in India, closely related to Bengali” (Chambers). |
| 9 | CHAUNCE | UN in CHACE |
| 11 | ZINCO | Hidden in “Velasquez (in colour)”. |
| 12 | ALPHONSINE | *POLISH ANNE. Alphonso was also known as Alfonso the wise, as the clue suggests |
| 17 | BICORNE | IC in BORNE |
| 19 | STEARIC | *EATS, RIC(h) |
| 22 | UHLAN | I think that this is H(orse), LA (=LO) in UN; any other suggestions? Azed last used it in puzzle 2024. |
| 23 | COLLIE | COLLIE(r) |
| 25 | ALARM | A LA RM |
| 26 | TANTI | T, ANTI |
| 28 | DURA | DURA(men) |
| 29 | ZETA | AT EZ (rev). |
All agreed, Bridgesong. Many thanks.
I don’t think you’ve missed anything in 22d, except possibly that UN = him
Thanks Azed and bridgesong. I must have been lucky this week as it was one of my quickest solving times ever.
Further to Brian @2 re 22dn:
Chambers marks UN = him as dialect, so possibly there could have been an appropriate indication in the clue.
I see Dr Watson on the ‘& lit’ site has this one as ‘a breeze’. I must say, I thought it quite tough for a ‘plaim’. However, I an struggling with today’s offering. Does anyone find the non-competition ‘plains’ tougher?
I found 2045 rather as Dr Watson appears to have done, Andrew. I’ve often had the feeling that comp. plains are easier, but I suspect that that’s because I raise my game and am focused on getting an entry ready. I don’t bother to enter non-comp. solutions and so I tend to complete them in short sessions, often forgetting ideas for certain clues and having to approach them afresh all over again. I usually do 2 or 3 Azeds a week – the current one, and then, if there’s time, 1 or 2 from a huge pile of back-numbers downloaded from The Guardian website. Incidentally, I noticed today that the Archive Search link no longer works. Searching for ‘Azed, October, 2005’ gave me only a selection of recent Guardian cryptics.