A mixed bag this week from Azed. I was able to solve quite a bit on the train (with reference to Chambers when I got home to verify my answers) but I found the last few quite hard going (e.g. JAMBIYAH and YARRAMAN). Plenty of obscure words as usual, along with some nice surfaces.
Here’s a link to the pdf of the puzzle.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | FRATI | R(obin) in FAT 1. Plural of frate, a friar, so a reference to Robin Hood and Friar Tuck. |
| 5 | QUAPAWS | QUA PAWS. A native American people. |
| 10 | RELIQUAIRE | *(R QUEER ILIA). Defined as a receptacle for relics. |
| 11 | CORRIDOR | CORR(eg)IDOR, the chief magistrate of a Spanish town. |
| 13 | GLUEY | (m)U(d) in GLEY, which is a sticky clay. |
| 14 | GREETE | GREETE(d). Greet is a Scottish word for a lamentation, but the final e is only found in Spenser, so I think that the clue is misleading. |
| 15 | JACANA | CAN instead of V in JAVA. It’s a tropical swamp bird. |
| 16 | NAVIES | V in *(IN SEA). |
| 17 | AMAKOSI | MAKOS (a type of shark) in A1. They are Zulu chieftains. |
| 21 | ACETONE | ACE TONE. |
| 23 | BATATA | A in BATTA (an Anglo-Indian word for an allowance on top of pay). |
| 25 | OUNCES | Compound anagram: take the letters of “it’s three” from “these countries”. Here “ounce” is used to mean a big cat such as the jaguar. |
| 27 | IMARET | AR in I MET, and MARE in IT. Two clues for the price of one! |
| 28 | FIENT | FIE, NT. A version of fiend. |
| 30 | YARRAMAN | RAMA in YARN. An Australian term for a horse, not to be confused with a warragal. |
| 31 | NETTLE RASH | *ANT-SHELTER. |
| 32 | HEADSET | HE *(SATED). |
| 33 | FOSSA | F OSSA. |
| Down | ||
| 1 | FRAG | R in FAG. |
| 2 | RECLAME | Another compound anagram: take “dab” and “pal” from “Read A Campbell” in order to get this French word (“spinning” serves as anagram indicator) which is defined as the art of obtaining publicity. It’s also an & lit. |
| 3 | ALMUCANTAR | CANT in *(A MURAL). An astronomical instrument. |
| 4 | TINEA | Hidden in “expert in eating”. It refers to the clothes moth genus. |
| 5 | QUOTAS | OU (rev)(a S African term for a man) for AN in QANTAS. |
| 6 | AIR RAGE | RAG in A(dvanced) IRE. To rag and to wrangle can both mean to argue. |
| 7 | PRIEVE | P(ressure) RIEVE. A Scots version of “prove”. |
| 8 | WROTE | ROT in WE. |
| 9 | STRESSES | I think this is mistresses with the first two letters omitted, the M1 being a major traffic artery. |
| 12 | DEINOCERAS | *(OCEAN DRIES). |
| 15 | JAMBIYAH | (ar)M in JAB, I YAH. It’s a dagger. |
| 18 | OUTEATS | EAT in *(TO US). |
| 19 | ONENESS | O NENE SS. A reference presumably to Unity Mitford. |
| 20 | JARRED | JAR RED. |
| 22 | COBALT | BAL(lad) in COT. |
| 24 | AMATE | A MATE. An old word meaning to intimidate. |
| 26 | NITRO | INTRO with the first two letters reversed. |
| 29 | TAHA | A HAT (rev). It’s a weaver bird. |
Thanks Azed for the puzzle and bridgesong for the blog. I agree with your interpretation of 9dn.
14ac: Chambers 2011 gives greete as Scot as well as Spenser so to me there is no cause for complaint here.
Correction to 1 re 14ac: What Chambers actually says (omitting the pronunciation guide) is greet² (Scot; Spenser greete). The use of a semicolon rather than a comma inside the brackets means that the spelling “greete” is indeed Spenser only and not Scot. I apologise for my mistake but am willing to forgive Azed if he has made the same mistake that I did.
4dn
Being an entomologist, I appreciated this clue greatly.
The ‘clothes’ in the clue is, of course, what I call a ‘charade indicator’. ‘expert in eating’ clothes ‘Tinea’.
A standard definition + cryptic, disguised as an &lit.
Brilliant.
Norman