Still restricting myself to a Listener-only diet, Azed comes as a welcome relief in the advanced cryptic scheme of things. I found this puzzle to have the normal level of well-constructed clues requiring a bit of Chambers for resolution and having some absurd surfaces. Just for fun, I noted where I had to use Chambers to search for or confirm something. Your mileage might differ.
A little surprised that there was no acknowledgement of #1900 — unless I missed something? (it’s happened before!).
Across
| 1 | D(HANSA)K – HANSA is indeed the Hanseatic League (14C/15C German guild) and DHANSAK is a Gujerati dish. [Chambers] |
| 6 | COM(M)A |
| 11 | RA(DIAL)E – rev(laid) in rev(ear). A bone in the arm. |
| 12 | GR(A)IP – it’s a (Scots) fork for digging dung or potatoes (not to be confused). [Chambers] |
| 13 | SPRITSAILS – (slip sails, RA)* – sails are made from canvas so… [Chambers] |
| 14 | SE(C)TATOR – C in rev(rotates) — party adherent [rare] — thus “rarely” (under sect in [Chambers]). |
| 16 | TREE – double definition |
| 17 | D,EMOS=rev(some) – Greek for people defined as Latin masses. |
| 18 | S(UP,RAM)UN,DANE – literally “above the world” (I guessed supermundane at first) – ‘our’ star is the SUN and a (Great) Dane is a big dog indeed (thus “Canis Major”). And of course Aries is a RAM. [Chambers] |
| 20 | C(HITTER)LINGS – nice semantic shift of “batter” in the surface to the cryptic meaning. |
| 25 | PO,SEY=rev(yes) – The PO is a v. popular cryptic river. And “camp” in the arch sense, thus POSEY. Another nice semantic shift — though the surface is weak: “Camp, reverse of OK alongside river” |
| 27 | NERK – what a lovely word: a portmanteau of berk and nerd — compound anagram: (NERK, sing in a)* = (King, insaner)* [Chambers] |
| 29 | PLAISTER – (stir, ap[p]le)* — Scots plaster, thus “cake”. [Chambers] |
| 30 | UNI(M(MO)R)TAL – dying according to Milton (or Spenser). Double containment: UNITAL is “one”. [Chambers] |
| 31 | FI(R[op]E)D – FID is a “wooden pin” (marinespeak). [Chambers] |
| 32 | CORN, V,AN – CORN also means “pickle” and CORN VAN is a winnower [Chambers]. |
| 33 | FEE,SE – alt. faze which is “rush” (dialect, thus “for certain parts”) and FEE is archaic “property” thus “old” [Chambers]. And Kent being in SE England is another common crypticism. |
| 34 | KNEEING – E in (inn keg)* |
Down
| 1 | D,REST – archaic “dressed”. |
| 2 | HALE,RU – turns out it’s Czech currency (1/100th of a koruna) [Chambers] |
| 3 | NIP,TER – rev(ret, pin) “ecclesiastical washing of the feet” [Chambers] |
| 4 | SA=rev(as),RAN=”was liquid” – ref. SARAN wrap(which we use a lot here: it’s American clingfilm). |
| 5 | KETONURIA – (a turn? OK, i.e.)* [Chambers] |
| 7 | O(RATE)D – RATE in rev(do) |
| 8 | M,AILMAN=animal* – nice clue actually, ref. “The Postman Always Rings Twice” – good book (by James M. Cain that was on my parents’ bookshelves growing up) and movie, thus the definition: “double ringer, Hollywood-style”. |
| 9 | MILT,ON – this time the poet is the def. MILT is “spleen” [Chambers]. |
| 10 | APSIS – hidden. Def is “furthest orbital point” [Chambers] |
| 15 | T(IM)EC,LOCK – TEC is detective and so is “busy” (slang) [Chambers] and rugby has LOCK forwards. |
| 19 | PI(SMIR)E – rev(rims) in PIE |
| 21 | H(ORNI[s])E – Scots devil, aka “Old Harry” and ornis is “birds collectively of a region” thus “local birds” and HE is high explosive thus “dangerous banger” [Chambers]. |
| 22 | TERM(E)S – genus of termites. [Chambers] |
| 23 | IN,SAN,E – SAN is our sanatorium and E is indeed an upper (it’s an amphetamine I think). |
| 24 | GREGAN – (nagger)*. Ref. the (well-known?) Australian cricket captain. |
| 25 | P,LUFF – means puff thus “light gust” [Chambers] |
| 26 | MIT,RE – a cryptic def for MITRE as: “I’m often in corner of frame” since it’s a kind of joint in carpentry. I think the wordplay is rev(tim), rev(er) and ref. Tiny Tim but I’m not sure because I don’t see the reversal indicator? | 28 | KRENG – reeking* = (i.e, KRENG)* – compound anagram. KRENG is a whale carcass (a bit smelly too I bet). [Chambers] |
26d R (queen) in MITE (tiny one)
28d?
sorry about that… it’s KRENG.
I don’t think every century of Azed has been celebrated. 2000 will undoubtedly be a special…only two years to wait!
30a – I had “one’s”=UNITAL
8d – According to Chambers, MAILMAN is a North American word for “postman” which was how I interpreted “Hollywood-style”
24d – George Gregan was the captain of the Wallabies