I quite often manage to complete a large proportion the easier Azeds without any aids, but this is the first (at least for a while) where I was able to write in all the answers at one sitting without looking anything up. Of course, quite a lot of educated guesswork is needed, but after 40-plus years of doing these things you get a knack for recognising the possibilities for the more obscure words. Although filling in the grid was easy this time, writing up the blog took a bit longer, with the usual delving through Chambers, sometimes finding that words didn’t quite mean what I thought while I was solving. And pride comes before a fall – I can’t explain 30a.
| Across | ||
| 1 . Red colouring stuff disguised a lino stain, old, I got rid of (8) | ||
| SANTALIN | (A LINO STAIN)* less O[ld] and (one occurrence of) I. Santalin is “the colouring matter of red sandalwood” | |
| 7 . Innocent (say) character starting out in university course (4) | ||
| POPE | O (the character that starts “out”) in PPE (University course at Oxford and elsewhere). Innocent was the name taken by 13 popes and one anti-pope. | |
| 10 . Dullness for all to see in a dimwit (5) | ||
| CLOUD | U (for all to see, as in film classification) in CLOD | |
| 11 . Cross-roads: vehicle turned by sign for it? (6) | ||
| CARFOX | CAR (vehicle) + reverse of OF (by) + X (sign for a crossroads). The spelling “carfax” is probably more familiar – again there’s an example in Azed’s home town. | |
| 12 . Experiences farewell that’s almost unrestrained at heart – a foreign one (12, 3 words) | ||
| HASTA LA VISTA | HAS (experiences) + LAVIS[h] in TA-TA (farewell). Spanish equivalent of “au revoir”, familiar as spoken by Arnie | |
| 15 . Cutting put in tin? The opposite (6) | ||
| SECANT | CAN (tin) in SET (put) | |
| 16 . Mine flooded with water recalled bit of Birdsong? (6) | ||
| PEEWIT | WEE reversed in PIT. The surface refers to Sebastian Faulks’s novel “Birdsong”, partly set in the trenches in WW1 and describing the tunnels that were dug under them . Peewit is a bird (aka Lapwing) but also its cry. | |
| 17 . Sudden sharp blow circling north – such a breeze soon passes (5) | ||
| SLANT | N in SLAT – SLANT is “a transitory breeze” | |
| 18 . Colours: some altered density (7) | ||
| REDDENS | Hidden | |
| 19 . Strained relations? This riled a star possibly (7) | ||
| TENSION | Composite anagram – (STRAINED RELATIONS)* = TENSION RILED A STAR | |
| 21 . Upper class finally sunk low in recession (5) | ||
| SPEED | [clas]S + DEEP (sunk low) reversed or “in recession”. Speed = amphetamine, an “upper”. See also 2d for more drug-related slang | |
| 24 . Being humble, rarely gets back (left out) with leader of team (6) | ||
| MODEST | Reverse of SE[L]DOM + T | |
| 25 . Jock’s corridor in rail transport I’ll quit heading east (6) | ||
| TRANSE | TRA[I]NS + E. In Chambers, TRANSE refers to TRANCE, Scots word for a through passage | |
| 28 . My metal rings need reordering, with irregular delivery (12) | ||
| STAMMERINGLY | (MY METAL RINGS)* | |
| 29 . More advanced musically without backing of king (for Lully) (6) | ||
| SENIOR | SEN (musical abbreviation for SENZA, without) + reverse of ROI (French for King, Lully being a French composer) | |
| 30 . I’m much in evidence in Biergarten (way away from piano) (5) | ||
| STEIN | I can’t parse this – STEINs are to be seen at Biergartens, but what else? STEP IN less P? | |
| 31 . Scot’s to direct ‘Melody Time’ (4) | ||
| AIRT | AIR + T | |
| 32 . Thin soup mostly containing meal and fodder plant (8, apostrophe) | ||
| GOAT’S-RUE | OATS in GRUE[L] | |
| Down | ||
| 1 . Champion’s inside knowledge leading to fast run (6) | ||
| SCHUSS | CH in SUSS – a fast run (or the slope on which it’s done) in skiing | |
| 2 . Dry and in trouble, as of old? Try coke (9, 2 words) | ||
| NOSE CANDY | SEC (dry) + AND in NOY (Spenserian version of “annoy”). | |
| 3 . After temperature, aunt’s – dispensed old-fashioned panacea (6) | ||
| TUTSAN | T + AUNTS* – a species of St John’s Wort “once regarded as a panacea” | |
| 4 . He kept people locked up – a restraint (4) | ||
| ADAM | A DAM. ADAM is a Shakesperean word for a gaoler (“perhaps as wearing buff” says Chambers, which I presume means “seeing to be naked”, as Adam was in Genesis) | |
| 5 . Swamp bird from Tyrol, strangely, among brood of young (11) | ||
| LILYTROTTER | TYROL* in LITTER | |
| 6 . Nelson’s No. 1 active on flagship emptying contents for fleet (4) | ||
| NAVY | N[elson] + A[ctive] + V[ictor]Y (his flagship) | |
| 7 . Aggregate used for edging border, as charged? (6) (6) | ||
| PRIMED | RIM in PED (an aggregate) | |
| 8 . VIPs hiding points – insanity! (9) | ||
| POTTINESS | TINES in POTS (important people – from their pot-bellies?) | |
| 9 . Finished cold chop up with a slice of tomato (5) | ||
| EXACT | (C AXE) reversed + T. | |
| 11 . Bit of land in Canada fringed with wild erica, evergreen (11) | ||
| CARPENTERIA | ARPENT (old French measure of land, still used in Quebec) in ERICA* | |
| 13 . Bony fishes I found beneath eel-set, to set free (9) | ||
| TELEOSTEI | (EEL SET TO)* + I for a diverse group of bony fish | |
| 14 . Tiresome ten-year-old, say, icky, anger dissipated (9) | ||
| TWEENAGER | TWEE + ANGER* | |
| 20 . Skivvy at the manse, daily rising around noon? (6) | ||
| SEMMIT | M (noon, as in a.m. and p.m) in reverse of TIMES (daily newspaper). The skivvy here is not a servant, but an American slang word for a man’s undershirt | |
| 22 . I’ll be enthralled by underwear colours (6) | ||
| PAINTS | I in PANTS, making, unusually, two clues with the exact same definition (see also 18a) | |
| 23 . Shakespearean plot needs to be resolved around end of play (6) | ||
| DESYNE | [pla]Y in NEEDS*. Variant of “design”, though Chambers attributes it to Spenser rather than Shakespeare | |
| 24 . Revile endless church service (5) | ||
| MISSA | MISSA[y] | |
| 26 . Extract from seismogram indicating what necessitates mask? (4) | ||
| SMOG | Hidden | |
| 27 . Fool ingesting special substance (4) | ||
| GIST | S in GIT – “substance” as in the substance of an argument | |
STEINway
There are a few oddities in this engaging puzzle worth noting: the two ‘colours’ (18A & 22D) in addition to 1A being the least of them. The clue for SECANT is a real puzzler in that ‘set’ may be understood as ‘put’ or in its meaning as ‘a young cutting’ (though not the latter in explaining the clue). On a druggy matter, ought not ‘speed’ be indicated by ‘uppers’?
Thanks sidey. As a pianist of sorts I should definitely have got that!
17ac slant brought back memories for me, as in my only ever published crossword, I clued it as:
Slope off passing wind (5)
Nick