By the “breakfast test” this counted as quite easy on the Azed spectrum, even though in retrospect it seems to have quite a high proportion of unfamiliar words. Unusually, there are only 34 clues (17 each across and down) rather than the usual 36. Azed has slipped up with 33 across, which clashes with 21d, but apart from that it’s the usual high-quality stuff.
Across | ||||||||
1. | PAPAPRELATIST | Supporter of popish church leaders? Pal at it papers lambasted (13) (PAL AT IT PAPERS)* – “a supporter of popish prelates”, says Chambers, which doesn’t leave me much the wiser – apparently it’s a nonce-word used by Sir Walter Scott |
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10. | ANABIOSIS | A north American bee, I love honey – it’s ability to revivify (9) A + NA + B + I + O + SIS (honey, as in a girlfriend) |
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12. | TOTE | Child on nurse’s back, a weight to carry (4) TOT + [nurs]E |
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14. | SCRAWLER | One with a poor hand, south leads what’s easily overtaken (8) S + CRAWLER |
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15. | CRESTA | What’s shot down in sport and may be found in chic restaurants (6) Hidden in chiC RESTAurants – a reference to the Cresta Run |
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16. | ULNARE | One pulled back Rex tucking into rubber bone (6) AN< + R in ULE (a rubber tree, and its produce) |
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17. | HARDOKE | Puzzling word in Shakespeare, troublesome, certainly English (7) HARD + OK + E – an unexplained word found in the folio of King Lear |
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19. | HYPE | With yen for love, anticipation leads to deception (4) HOPE (anticipation) with O replaced by Y |
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20. | STEARIN | Bottled retsina, acidic stuff (7) RETSINA* |
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23. | OOSY | Bairn’s nappy particular child lost (4) CHOOSY less CH – adjectival form of Scots oose, meaning “fluff, nap”, so the nappy is not what Americans call a diaper, though I remember dealing with some oozy ones of those.. |
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25. | TARTANA | Check a small covered wagon (7) TARTAN + A |
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27. | CRAVAT | Ascot rules active against appearing in e.g. civet (6) R + A + V in CAT |
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29. | DAUNTS | Daughter with relations is terrifying (6) D + AUNTS |
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30. | KIMONOED | Monk: ‘I dressed for God going round in exotic garb‘ (8) (I MONK)* + DEO< (the ablative form of deus, hence “for God”) |
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31. | GIST | Substance got from sulphur fool’s ingested (4) S in GIT |
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32. | SINHALESE | Draws breath among south-east Asian people (9) INHALES in SE |
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33. | TITTLE-TATTLER | Gossip provoking giggle about the state of France, bootless at heart (13) L’ETAT + [boo]TL[ess] in TITTER. Houston, we have a problem[1]: the first L of this clashes with the final E of 21d, TRANSE. I can only guess that Azed accidentally entered either TITTEL- or TITTER- as the first part of this word in his grid, and it escaped subsequent checking. (Incidentally, tittle-tattler was used in a clue in Azed 2091.) |
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Down | ||||||||
1. | PATCH POCKET | Add-on for seamstress – PC, tho’ damaged in parcel (11, 2 words) (PC THO)* in PACKET |
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2. | PATERA | Round dish, a long time with bit of butter on (6) PAT + ERA |
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3. | PINTO | Leg of horse (5) PIN (leg) + TO (of – given as a meaning of “to” in Chambers, though I can’t think offhand of an example to show this) |
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4. | ROSAKER | Old red mineral like this turns up with garden worker around (7) SO< in RAKE – it's “an obsolete variant of realgar [a red mineral]” |
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5. | ESCHEATMENT | Reversion of property in conversion of the manse, etc (11) (THE MANSE ETC)* |
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6. | A SALTI | Sailor splits centre of sail spasmodically (6, 2 words) SALT in [s]AI[l] – an Italian expression, literally meaning “in jumps” |
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7. | TOWN | Business centre – exchange those on the fringes and you’d end with nothing (4) If you exchange the T and N you get NOWT |
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8. | INLAY | Decorative work: little daughter thus becomes grown woman (5) ..and if you put D[aughter] IN LAY you get LADY |
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9. | THREE-MASTER | Sailing ship: one’s trained there with instructor (11) THERE* + MASTER |
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11. | PERPENTS | Walls person briefly gets shut up inside (8) PENT in PERS |
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13. | ORATORIO | Large-scale work: artist put on mouldings in circles (8) RA + TORI (plural of torus, a moulding) in O O |
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18. | SRADDHA | Offering to the departed, unusually rash sum included (7) ADD in RASH* |
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21. | TRANSE | Went racing among wild set? This’ll take Scots straight through (6) RAN in SET* – Scots word for a “through passage”, with its last letter clashing with 33a |
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22. | DANIEL | Wise judge misled by denial (6) DENIAL* – as in “A Daniel come to judgment, yea, a Daniel!—/O wise young judge, how I do honor thee!” from Act 4 Scene 1 of The Merchant of Venice”, referring to the apocryphal Book of Susanna (included as a chapter of the canonical Book of Daniel by some) |
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24. | SAMIT | Xmastime includes a stretch that involves these neighbours of Santa? (5) Anagram of MASTI or ASTIM from inside “Xmastime” (so could the clue read “.. includes two stretches..”?) – the word means “Lapps”, and is listed in C under its singular form Saam, which is why the rubric says it “takes some finding”, though not if you happen to have the Chambers app on your iPhone.. |
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26. | RABAT | Where in N. Africa you’ve to change and link with another plane (5) Although I knew RABAT as the capital of Morocco, I was completely baffled by the rest of the clue until I looked the word up in Chambers and found it’s a geometrical term meaning “to rotate into coincidence with another plane” |
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28. | VOLT | Fencing dodge? There’s a short book on it (4) VOL + ‘T – a move in fencing, also spelt volte |
[1] Yes, I know that’s a misquotation
Thank you Andrew. Oops indeed, I can understand, sort of, Azed pencilling 33a in incorrectly, I can’t see how the editorial staff missed it. Oh well.
‘Oose’, which for me has a soft ‘s’ (so rhymes with ‘loose’), is the fluffy balls that develop on a new carpet the first few times you walk on it. I don’t know if this is a particularly Scottish word, but if it is, what do the rest of the English-speaking world call that stuff?
The clash between ‘transe’ and ‘tittle’ confused me – I just assumed ‘transl’ must be a variant of transe that I couldn’t find. Also failed to find ‘Samit’ or to parse ‘Rabat’.
So thanks for the enlightenment.
Samit is under Saam Alastair.
Thanks, sidey. ‘Saam’ isn’t in my (admittedly 30-year-old) copy. Perhaps it’s time I bought a new one…