Azed No 2092

I found this on the hard side for a plain Azed, certainly harder than last week’s competition puzzle.  In that puzzle Azed wrote a clue in French; this puzzle also required a knowledge of French, including one word not to be found in Chambers.   Here’s a link to the pdf of the puzzle.

Across
1 ELLOPS POLL in SE(a)(all rev). The use of POLL as an old word for cod is buried deep in the entry for POLL in Chambers.
6 TELSONS *(LOSS, NET).
12 SOUSLIK (mue)SLI in SOUK.
13 OPAH OP(r)AH (Winfrey).
14 CREDENCE TABLE ‘ENCE for I in CREDITABLE.
17 KATIPO A TIP in KO.
18 REVUE EVER (rev) around (h)U(b). The Windmill Theatre in Soho was a famous centre for variety and revue.
19 SLIPT SLIP, T(ime).  One meaning of SLIP is a cutting.
21 BOBBLE HAT Hobble Bat is the Spoonerism. A very easy clue which got me started.
24 OLLIE *LILO, (punctur)E. It’s a skateboarding term.
26 GNOME A lovely compound anagram and & lit; take A ROD R from GARDEN ROOM and rearrange what’s left.
28 ANDREW DR in ANEW.
30 CORIANDER SEED *(REDOES RICE AND).
31 HAIN HA’ IN. I’m not sure why Azed has put a question mark here: perhaps he recognises that this is a fairly obscure use of “in”, only used with reference to a fire.
32 CADELLE A DELL in CE.
33 EXEGETE EX(odus), E.G. ETE.
34 LANDER L AND ER. In German there would be an umlaut over the E.
Down
1 ESCARMOUCHE *SCREAM, OUCH, (reprobat)E. It’s an old French word for a skirmish.
2 LORRELL L(eft) ORRELL. Orrell is a rugby union side, no longer in the first tier of English rugby.
3 LUES b(LUES). Pip can mean syphilis.
4 PLEBE Hidden in “purple beret”.
5 SINKY IN in SKY.
7 EYETIE EYE, TIE. I didn’t know that one meaning of EYE is a spring.
8 LATISH IT (rev) in LASH.
9 SOAPLAND A PLAN in SOD (an archaic form of seethed). As Azed points out, this word is shown in Chambers as a direct derivative of soap, rather than as a compound.
10 NALA Another compound anagram; take the letters of “big E(astern) I(for 1)” from A Bengali.
11 SHEET-FEEDER This is just a cryptic definition, but not a particularly subtle one.
15 CAULKED ‘ULK in *DECK. I hadn’t realised that in nautical slang, “caulk” means to snooze.
16 QUOINING Q *UN-INIGO.
20 POMMELE MM(essieurs) in POELE (French for frying-pan, not in Chambers).
22 BEDAZE BED, AZE(d).
23 BARNET BAR NET.
25 SWEAL Another compound anagram: take the letters of TREAT from STALE WATER.
26 GARDA A DRAG (all rev).
27 HOAX Sounds like HOKES; HOKE is an old word meaning to overact.
29 VELD Hidden in “rondavel-dwellers”.

4 comments on “Azed No 2092”


  1. … and SOAPLAND seems mispaced within the entry for SOAP.

    Thanks for the blog.


  2. …referring of course to Azed’s note “9 appears misplaced in the entry where it occurs”

  3. RCWhiting

    Thanks all
    A pretty standad effort here.
    I particularly liked 26ac, I am really getting a taste for these delightful compound anagrams.

  4. Pelham Barton

    Thanks Azed for the puzzle and bridgesong for the blog.

    11dn: This is more than just a cryptic defintion: SHEET = “Type of rubber” and FEEDER = “bib”, the rest of the clue defining the whole answer. True, the meanings of the two parts are not much different from their meanings in the whole answer.

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