Azed 2,080

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An unusual grid construction in this week’s Azed gave us rather more 4-letter words than usual, as well as the usual quotient of obsolete, foreign (particularly French) and downright obscure words.  The 4-letter words are often the most difficult; I initially had TOLL at 11 across, and TOSE held me up for some time.  The only clue where the wordplay has entirely defeated me is at 29 across.  I’ve set out a couple of other quibbles in the text.  Here’s a link to the pdf of the puzzle.

Across
1 BOBADIL BAD in BOIL. A source for Tom Bombadil in “The Lord of the Rings”, perhaps..
7 SNAP PANS (rev).  Chambers gives “cake” as a subsidiary meaning of pan, in a verbal sense.
10 LORRY-HOP OR R(ailwa)Y HO in LP. HO here is used in its exclamatory sense, not as an abbreviation.
11 TALL  TALL(age) was a tax in Norman times.
12 UTES *SUET; the Ute(s) are a Native American people.
13 SIDERITE SIDE RITE; it means a meteorite made mainly of metallic iron.
14 FILM Hidden and reversed in “from Liffey”.
15 PIG-WOMAN P *(WAGON I’M). Not the most elegant surface reading.
21 SQUETEAGUES QU(i)ET in SEA, GUES(s).  It comes from a native American word.
22 EDUTAINMENT *(MEN AT UNI TEND) less N.
26 MALA FIDE *FAIL in MADE.
28 PROA A regular in Azed crosswords makes a welcome reappearance, as part of a compound anagram: “keep oars” is an anagram of “seek proa”.
29 EPICOTYL  The definition is: “the stem of an embryo plant or seedling between the cotyledons and the next leaf”.
30 GOUT 0 in GUT.
31 TOSE TO(t)/SE(t). The alternative spelling of TOZE must clearly be wrong.
32 HELL-HOLE (s)HELL-HOLE.
33 STUD STUD(entry).
34 SKEPFUL *(FUELS KP).  “frail” can mean something (e.g. a beehive) made of rushes.
Down
1 BLUFF L in BUFF.
2 OOTID 0, *(DO IT).
3 BRELOQUE LO QU in *BEER.  A lovely surface to this clue; a breloque is an ornament attached to a watch chain (or albert).
4 DYSPNEAL *(ENDS PLAY).
5 LODGMENT D(eo) G(ratia), MEN in LOT.
6 SPEW P in SEW; to sew can mean to drain (hence sewer).
7 STRONGER RONG in RETS (rev).
8 ALTAR T in A LAR.  The lares and penates were the Roman household gods.
9 PLENIST IS in PLENT(y).  Plenists don’t believe that space is a vacuum.
16 OUTPACED *(AD PUT COE).
17 STIPITES TIP in SITES.
18 MAMSELLE *(LE MS) in MALE.
19 SUNPROOF *(UP FOR SON).
20 FEWMETS FEW MET S(abbath).
23 CAPOT Truman CAPOT(e).  It means winning all the tricks at the game of piquet.
24 VOULU VOU(s) LU.  It means “studied” or deliberate; I’m not sure that “having” at the start of the clue is necessary for either the surface reading or the definition.
25 DATEL DATE, L(ine).
27 FOHN Another compound anagram: take the letters of FOHN from “snow has failed” and rearrange to obtain “was Delia’s”.

 

10 comments on “Azed 2,080”

  1. re 29, picot is the loop, YE is another name for the letter ‘thorn’ reversed. And I suppose a thorn is a side branch.

    Not quite convinced though.

  5. Thanks Azed for a puzzle which I found to be at the more difficult end of the range, and to bridgesong for the blog.

    I agree with Matthew@2 and RCW@3 about 29ac and 17dn respectively.

    As bridgesong says, an unusual grid construction. Only 21ac and 22ac provide true links between the top and bottom halves of the grid. Although many of the down lights project beyond this pair of across lights, they do so only in a single unchecked letter each time.

  6. Thanks, Matthew for what is obviously the correct explanation for 29 across. Like RCW and PH I also had PIT in STIES originally at 17 down, but wasn’t entirely happy about the spelling of STIES, so was pleased to see the alternative. Perhaps both are correct?

  8. Further to earlier comments about 17dn: I think either parsing can be defended. However, “others” more naturally suggess “other filthy places” than just “other places”. I think that makes PIT in STIES preferable, even if not by a huge margin.

  10. I spent some time in the early stages playing with something in ‘stys’; I then checked Chambers and found only ‘styes’ or ‘sties’. In my student days a ‘pit’ was a very unkempt (probably filthy) bed.

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