Azed 2214 – Jigsaw

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Azed gives us a jigsaw about every two years, and by the luck of the draw I also blogged the last one. As I said then, my first step with these is to group the clues by the length of the answer (to help with grid-filling), and then there’s nothing for it but to do as much cold-solving as you can: the fact that the answers are in alphabetical order is some help with this.

The clues must have been reasonably gentle, because after I while I found that I’d solved 21 of them, and decided to start trying to fit them in the grid. I had three of the nine-letter answers, and it turned out that there was only one way they would fit. Quite a few more entries went in as a result of that discovery, and the rest was relatively plain sailing. An enjoyable challenge, with the usual sound and ingenious clueing thoughout.

Apologies that I haven’t included a picture of the completed grid this time – if anyone is still stuck the ten-letter answers are, in order, CHOCROUTE and TURGIDNESS across, and ULSTERETTE and ROUND-TABLE down; and it should be easy to work out the rest from that.

 
 
 
1. AGRISED Disfigured, old, die disguised with rags (7)
(DIE RAGS)*
2. AUTOCRIME Nicking cars? Tried endlessly to get round criminal court (9)
COURT* in AIME[d]
3. BOOS Disapproves of drink, we hear (4)
Homophone of “booze”
4. BREASTS Bass set before soaks, when admitted – of which many will be in their cups! (7)
B + AS in RETS – the “cups” are those found in bras
5. BUSH-CAT Wild African feline shut up roughly in barrel (7)
SH (shut up) + CA (circa, roughly) in BUT (variant of “butt”)
6. CEMBRA Pine to be enveloped in erotic embraces (6)
Hidden in erotiC EMBRAces. As often seems to happen to me with hidden answers these days, this was one of the last clues I solved, even after thinking early on that it was a hidden but missing the answer
7. CHOUCROUTE Version of German favourite – mostly toss with egg in the French way (10)
O in CHUC[k] + ROUTE. French form of Sauerkraut
8. COCCO Edible tuber? 200 in crumbs! (5)
CC in COO (“crumbs!)”
9. COMPOTES Fruit desserts, only half eatable, round cooking container (8)
POT in COMES[stible]
10. CRED Basic requirement for would-be gang member, a couple of cents? (4)
C + RED – not knowing any gang members, I don’t know how often “cred” is used on its own, e.g. as in “street cred”.
11. CRUD What skiers hate, chewed-up grass fringing runs (4)
R in CUD – as with SATE and SITE, this and CRED are (presumably) added to make filling in the grid a little harder
12. DEAD-SET Being sedated somehow brings one to a complete standstill (7)
SEDATED* – a less familiar nounal meaning, as opposed to the more familiar adjectival meaning of “very determnined”
13. E-LEARNING Internet education the French put into curdling agent (9)
LE in EARNING – a word for rennet, from earn=curdle
14. ETTLE Scots aim to put down roots, heading off (5)
[s]ETTLE
15. HARE-STANE Thanes are scattering their old boundary marker? (9)
(THANES ARE)*
16. KAROSS Fabrication of skins (not fashionable) clothing leaders in Africa, regal ones? (6)
Initial letters of Africa Regal Ones in anag of SKINS* less IN, &lit
17. KELP Some nickel processed as source for soda, etc (4)
HIdden in nicKEL Processed
18. MEND Master with ambition to reform (4)
M + END
19. MONER Primitive organism first found in fringes of Madagascar (5)
ONE in M[adagasca]R
20. MOPUS Millions work for little money, as of old (5)
M + OPUS
21. NIOBE One in black rarely looking back, her grief was legendary (5)
I in reverse of EBON. In Greek mythology, Niobe‘s 14 children were killed by Artemis and Apollo as a punishment for her boasting about them to Leto, causing her legendary grief.
22. OSHAC Pungent plant, fine cut, cook has in a stew (5)
(COOK HAS)* less OK (fine)
23. PHALANGE Stamina, possibly a help when struggling with nag (8)
(A HELP NAG)*. “Stamina” here is the plural of (the plant part) “stamen”, and phalange or phalanx is “a bundle of stamens”
24. RETALIATE Counter and other things I brought into class (9)
ET AL I in RATE
25. ROUND-TABLE Lie round barrel after group drinks, with none given precedence (10)
ROUND (group drinks, or drinks for a group of people in a pub) + B in TALE; second barrel in the puzzle
26. RUB UP Polish king, king appearing in drama part, artless (5, 2 words)
R (king) + UBU (another king, in the play Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry)
27. SATE Barbecued meat chewed on one end of skewer (4)
S[kewer] + ATE
28. SCHULN Lunch prepared after Sabbath synagogues (6)
S + LUNCH* – plural of SCHUL
29. SEANAD Upper house tittle-tattle, once spoken about (6)
ANA (gossip) in SED (Miltonic form of “said”)
30. SITE Plot starts to satisfy in the end (4)
Initials letters of Satisfied In The End
31. STUCCOED Successful r-racer once in stable given decorative coat (8)
[Sebastian] C-COE in STUD
32. TUART King maybe losing crown in eucalyptus tree (5)
[S]TUART
33. TURGIDNESS State of swelling? Doctor isn’t beginning to employ drugs (10)
Anagram on ISN’T + E[mploy] + DRUGS
34. ULSTERETTE Light coat: result (without cap) in storm, getting almost soaked (10)
RESULT* less T + RETTE[d] – second use in the puzzle of the old favourite ret=soak; “ulster” as an overcoat is another familiar word, so this “-ette” version wasn’t hard to guess
35. VAIL Once let down he goes to Paris swopping couples (4)
IL VA (“he goes”, in French), with the parts swapped
36. VENOGRAM Radiographic image showing poison, gross one injected (8)
GR A in VENOM

2 comments on “Azed 2214 – Jigsaw”

  1. Thanks Andrew. I’d not heard of Ubu Roi but the solution was fairly obvious.

    I find that spotting the shared initial letters gives a good start to filling the grid. In some ways, once you’ve a start, they are easier than Araucaria’s versions because of all the checking. Very enjoyable though.

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