Azed 2142

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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

4 comments on “Azed 2142”

  2. 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’?

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