Azed 2208

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I thought I was off to a good start with this when I got all four of the long answers around the edges (including 34a by some inspired guesswork). I then polished off the top half pretty quickly, but had a lot more trouble with the bottom, for no particular reason that I can see looking back.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. CLOCK-WATCHER Rye-occupant famously having shut up wife within, one anxious for work to end (12)
LOCK (shut up) + W[ife] in CATCHER (in the Rye, as in the J D Salinger novel)
10. HAMAS Given to ranting like fundamentalists (5)
HAM (“given to overacting or ranting”) + AS
12. WOOF Catfish with bread (or greens) for texture (4)
W + OOF (money, which “bread” and “greens” are both slang for) in between two definitions
13. LIGN-ALOES Fragrant wood, one in hold of galleons at sea (9)
I in GALLEONS
14. SOLPUGA Venomous arachnids monkey found in spongy plant (7)
PUG (obsolete or dialect word for a monkey) in SOLA (aka Spongewood)
15. TRAT Where you’ll find padrone reverse of snappy? (4)
Reverse of TART
16. TRIADIST Father of triplets no longer sad about AID going wrong? (8)
AID* in TRIST . A triadist is a composer of triads, a triad being, inter alia “a group of three sayings, stories, etc”
18. DACE Part of coarse catch (dead one)? (4)
D + ACE – dace are caught by coarse fishermen
19. MINOAN Ancient Cretan in love, entranced by partner? (6)
IN O in MAN
20. TAGRAG ‘Vulgar’, old label attached to redtop? (6)
TAG + RAG (tabloid newspaper), the “old” being part of the defintion rather than attached to “label”
23. SCAG Heroin or cocaine put in sink (4)
C in SAG
26. KNOW-ALLS Wiseacres giving king no means of defence (8)
K + NO WALLS
28. BUMP Dislodge bishop, one judging appeals etc (4)
B + UMP (listed in Chambers as a word in its own right, short for “umpire”)
30. INTROIT First anthem, in time slowing down, about over (7)
IN T + O in RIT
31. EMBRACIVE After MBE excited English clergyman turned all ‘huggy’ (8)
MBE* + (E VICAR)<
32. ZOOM Animals, millions, making loud continuous buzzing noise (4)
ZOO + M
33. PRANG Pressure called for attack by bombers (5)
P + RANG (called) – RAF slang for a bombing attack
34. TUSSIE MUSSIE Misuse suites shredding nosegay (12, 2 words)
(MISUSE SUITES)*. Chambers gives no hint of the etymology of this expression, but this page gives some rather disreputable history for it
Down
1. CHASTITY BELT Keeps time in business zone? A real passion killer! (12, 2 words)
HAS T in CITY (business, as in “the City”) BELT (zone)
2. LABOR DAY The old approach in non-clerical US holiday (8, 2 words)
BORD in LAY
3. CALPAC Turkish headgear? Such a thing a huge number turned up (6)
Reverse of CAP (headgear) + LAC (also lakh, the number 100,000 in India etc). The alternative spelling KALPAK was, slightly controversially, clued in Azed 1868 as an indirect anagram of Jerome K Jerome’s middle name, Klapka
4. WIGGING Reprimand company of veterans after e.g. Ramillies (7)
WIG (Ramillies is a kind of wig) + GING (old word for a group or gang)
5. ANNAS Pay for sepoy band concealed in their headscarves? (5)
BANDANNAS (headscarves, from a Hindi word, though I associate it mainly with cowboys) with BAND “concealed”. The Anna is an old crossword staple, being 1/16 of a Rupee
6. TWAY The Old Couple? O, that’s Restoration playwright (4)
O + TWAY gives [Thomas] Otway, a Restoration playwright
7. COLTAN Metallic ore, colour brownish (6)
COL + TAN. Coincidentally I’ve just read an article about how the mining of the ore Coltan has been associated with some human rights violations and the funding of wars
8. HOOROO Aussie cheers and loud laughter, English batsman twice identically found wanting (6)
HOOT (loud laughter) + ROOT (I presume this Yorkshire and England batsman, though I am no expert) both “wanting” their final T. HOOROO is Australian slang for “goodbye” (i.e. “cheers”)
9. RESTING STAGE Like out-of-work actor on his natural milieu, activity in suspense (12, 2 words)
RESTING (as out-of-work actors claim to be) + STAGE (their milieu)
11. MELIA Trees covered in some lianas (5)
Hidden
17. TAGLIONI Slapdash tailoring’s not right for such an old coat (8)
TAILORING* less R
19. MUONIUM Isotope in Unio misguidedly swallowed by mother (7)
UNIO* in MUM. Muonium is an “exotic atom”, like Hydrogen but with an antimuon instead of a proton, so (as I understand it) not strictly an isotope
21. GUMBOS Guy put in stiffeners for glutinous soups (6)
BO in GUMS
22. REPROS High-quality proofs making one more irritated when including page upside down (6)
P in SORER<
24. CARERS Nurses err badly cutting body bag up (6)
ERR* in SAC<
25. ALOHA Farewell to one state, hail to another? Hotter in this possibly (5)
Composite anagram: (HAIL TO ANOTHER)* = HOTTER IN + ALOHA, and Aloha is a greeting or farewell in Hawaii
27. NICHE It’s hard getting into delicate business opportunity (5)
H in NICE
29. RAMI Weavers’ fibre displayed in pyramids (4)
Hidden

4 comments on “Azed 2208”

  1. Thanks Andrew, I too whizzed round the edges, can’t remember how I progressed from there though. I don’t think I’d ever have got the parsing of TWAY, as usual it was a four letter failure.

  2. I regretted mentioning the KALPAK indirect anagram in my comment last week as soon as I read ‘Turkish headgear’ in 3d. I hope I didn’t spoil this puzzle for anyone.

  3. Mathew, I wrote the blog last week and clearly remember your KALPAK comments. No need to worry, I completely failed to connect KALPAK with CALPAC which I had to look up in the dictionary as a new word!

  4. Thanks all
    Like you I mysteriously cracked all the long edges but after filling in mostly easily I crashed in the NW corner and left 10 & 18 ac and 2 down incomplete, so thanks for explanations.

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