AZED 2,254

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Another plain from Azed this week, with perhaps more four-letter words (which can be more difficult than the longer ones) than usual in the grid.

Although I didn’t find this particularly difficult I had some difficulty in parsing one or two of the solutions.  Some points were clarified in the writing of the blog, but I am still struggling to explain 12 across.

azed2254-2

Across
1 AMBER GAMBLER
Showing light jumper, one strolling round rustic dance? Ask away (12, 2 words)

BERGAM(ask) in AMBLER.  Lovely misleading definition; BERGAMASK is the rustic dance.
10 SARD
Deeply coloured mineral: it has its colour hollowed out (4)

SA R(e)D.  “It” in the clue is a reference to sex appeal or SA.
11 ARNA
This ghi is cooked hot in Agra (4)

Compound anagram & lit.  Take the letters H(ot)IN AGRA and remove GHI; rearrange to obtain the answer, which is a buffalo of the kind whose milk is used to produce ghee or ghi.
12 RIPP
Handful of Scottish corn – as stuffing for pike it is within one’s grasp (4)

Although the definition leaves no real room for doubt, I’m afraid that I can’t explain the wordplay here: something to do with grip perhaps?
13 CLIVIA
SA plant, mostly discoloured, displayed in cases (6)

LIVI(d)in CA(ses).
14 ORIBIS
Wader accompanying golden antelopes (6)

OR IBIS.
18 BASOCHE
Actor in old mystery play, French or German, when making entrance (7)

AS in BOCHE.  According to Chambers a basoche was “a medieval guild of clerks of the parliament of Paris, performers of mystery plays”.  If that is correct, perhaps the definition should have been “actors…”?
19 MURAL
‘Wally’ (might one say?) using only a little bit of apple in crumble (5)

A in MURL.  Another (perfectly fair) misleading definition.
21 STERNEBRA
Segment of bone giving back end of frame support (9)

STERN (fram)E BRA.
23 ANATOMIST
Soma disfigured with taint? That may be my speciality (9)

*(SOMA TAINT).
24 NISUS
Effort is put into big star’s comeback (5)

IS in SUN(rev).  Technically the sun isn’t particularly big, as stars go, although it seems so to us.
26 INSTEAD
Vice means this of sin compounded, brand no longer in use (7)

*SIN TEAD.  Another misleading definition, exploiting a different sense of “vice” to what the rest of the clue suggests.  “Brand” equates to “torch”, for which “tead” is a Spenserian term.
30 SODAIN
Some order brandy with this prompt, as of old (6)

SODA IN.
31 TOLZEY
Zloty changed when one enters European exchange (local) (6)

E in *ZLOTY.  It’s an old word for a tollbooth or exchange.
32 GRIT
Indomitability? In short English monarch has it (4)

GR IT.
33 REAK
Old prank in time between lessons, head being absent (4)

(b)REAK.
34 SENS
Able to feel less worried, since old (4)

SENS(ate).
35 INTERPLEADER
Printed endlessly in rags, main article, one discussing adverse claims (12)

*PRINTE(d), LEADER.  As a law student, I never really grasped this (now obsolete) form of legal process.
Down
2 MALM
Earth for making bricks used in formal masonry (4)

Hidden in “formal masonry”.
3 BRITSKA
Music from Jamaican immigrants in drag (sort of)? (7)

BRIT SKA.  It’s a kind of carriage, or drag.
4 RAIK
Journey to Scotland? Take car heading north (4)

KIA, R(rev).  R here (and at 9 down) is used in the sense of RECIPE, Latin for “take” (as found on prescriptions).
5 GRAPHEMIC
Chimp transported with rage expressing speech in writing (9)

*(CHIMP RAGE).
6 MARY
Gin: mother’s ruin merely started with yen (4)

MA R(uin) Y(en).  This exploits the third sense of “gin” in Chambers: an Australian Aboriginal woman, for whom “Mary” is given as an obsolete derogatory slang term.
7 BRIQUETTE
Something on the barbecue that French teetotaller coated in his cheese? (9)

QUE TT in BRIE.  Perhaps something in the barbecue might be more accurate; we were tempted by BROCHETTE, but couldn’t explain it.
8 LIBOR
Rising stir about book ?? it was at centre of scandal (5)

B in ROIL.  The printed version had a dash for the double question mark.  The clue refers to this.
9 EPICARP
Fruit layer magpies take in en passant (7)

PICA (the magpie genus) R in EP (en passant).  The abbreviation is shown in Chambers as e.p., which misled me briefly.
10 SCABLANDS
Area of bare rock, endless chain fringed by desert tract (9)

CABL(e) in SANDS.
15 SALAD DAYS
States welcoming star of Shane, the musical! (9, 2 words)

A LADD in SAYS.  Readers of a certain age (like me) will just about remember that Alan Ladd starred in the 1950s Western film Shane, which I recall seeing at school.
16 POSTULATE
Assume louts mixed up in the head (9)

*LOUTS in PATE.
17 PERINATAL
For each batting at one, length short around time of delivery (9)

PER IN AT A L(ength).
20 UNICORN
Fabulous creature: Tate provides setting for it in gown, decorated (7)

(T)UNIC ORN(ATE).
22 BREEZED
My heart, enthralled by progeny, proceeded cheerily (7)

(A)ZE(D) in BREED.
25 SOD IT
Very lyric? I couldn’t care less! (5, 2 words)

SO DIT.
27 GIRR
Might young Jock have bowled one w-wanton over? (4)

RRIG(rev).  This is an obscure Scottish term for a hoop; a rig can mean a wanton person.  I originally entered BIRR (force or might) but couldn’t then explain the wordplay.
28 ROKE
Light rain in burst, no extremes (4)

(b)ROKE(n).
29 DENE
Stretch of sand covered by tide, nearly (4)

Hidden in “tide nearly”.
*anagram

8 comments on “AZED 2,254”

  1. Thanks for the blog, bridgesong.

    You’re on the right track with 12a. If you stuff GED=pike with RIPP you can get GRIPPED.

  2. Couldn’t complete this without electronic aids. 12a, 26a, 17d, 20d defeated me. Thanks for the explanations.
    I agree that the short clues can be very difficult.

  3. Thanks, as always for the explanations. Could you enlighten me further on 11A, though? What in the clue suggested removing ‘ghi’ from the anagram?

  4. Answering Alastair re 11ac:

    The anagram indicator is ‘cooked’, so the whole clue interpreted cryptically is saying that the letters in this (i.e. the answer you’re looking for) added to the letters in ‘GHI’ is an anagram of H + IN + AGRA. The entire clue read as text confirms the answer. (& lit.)

    re 20 down
    The surface reading refers to the exhibit by Damien Hirst of a Unicorn in formaldehyde in the Tate (St Ives, I think). The Tate is the setting for the Unicorn so this leads you away from the correct parsing.

    There’s a similar misleading trick in 3 down where ITSK appears in BRA

  5. Matthew @1: thanks for explaining RIPP – I should have remembered ged=pike.

    And Norman @4, thanks for explaining the compound anagram at 11ac. Thanks also for adding the explanation about the Damien Hirst unicorn, which had eluded me completely. But I don’t understand your point about BRITSKA; what (or who) is ITSK?

  7. Azed’s compound anagrams seem to be unique to him. And I think he invented them. Other setters use similar devices these days but I think I’m correct in saying that Azed’s are always &lit, so besides the unravelling you have the whole clue as the definition.

  8. Thanks,Norman. I did once finish an AZED (with a LOT of electronic help) but I usually count it a success if I get to about half way. One day, maybe I’ll notice things like that myself…

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