Azed No 2266

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A 13 by 11 grid for this week’s plain Azed puzzle.  Unfortunately, for technical reasons, I can’t include a picture of the completed puzzle.

No clashing letters this week, but there were two enumeration errors at 33 across and 18 down which wasted a little time.  As usual, Azed’s clues are perfectly fair, although they can require the solver to know obscure words or be au fait with cricket terminology.  Favourite clue was 33 across, whose subtlety eluded me until this blog was nearly ready to publish.

Across
1 OPUS OPERANTIS
Supper, two eggs, scrambled – those against showing effect of taking communion? (13, 2 words)

*(SUPPER, O,O) + ANTIS.
11 SYSOP
Computer engineer succeeded, reverse of affected(5)

S POSY(rev).
12 GROOMS
Good accommodation for strappers?(6)

G ROOMS.
14 CROTALUS
Pit vipers almost entirely confined to courts rattled(8)

AL(l) in *COURTS.
15 ROOT
Batsman dismissed on two, losing wicket, going back(4)

RO (run out) T(w)O (rev).  Quite a lot going on in this four letter word, which won’t mean much to anyone who doesn’t follow cricket.  Not the first time that the England cricketer Joe Root has featured in a crossword.
16 LITHARGE
Lead monoxide that’s copious, and it’s hot inside(8)

IT H in LARGE.
17 HIEMS
Bard’s cold period – poet’s to make haste with writing(5)

HIE MS.  I vaguely remember this word from O-Level English, but can’t now remember which Shakespeare play uses the term.
19 MENTOR
Trainer getting section of regiment organized(6)

Hidden in “regiment organized”.
20 TEMS
Riddle: what sounds like a river, then initially another?(4)

Two pieces of wordplay here combined for a lovely surface: sounds like Thames; T (hen) EMS (a river in Germany).  A tems, or temse, is a strainer or riddle.
21 DAWN
Day ending with beard beginning(4)

D AWN.  An awn is a beard of barley.  The first two words are nicely misleading.
23 COCHIN
Chicken trainer sacking centre on the spot(6)

CO(a)CH IN.
25 TONAL
Number tackled by alto vibrato according to key(5)

*N + ALTO.
26 HORNTAIL
Something akin to a wasp features at or near both ends of a cow? (8)

HORN TAIL.
29 GOGO
Erotic line taken from Russian writer(4)

GOGO(l).
30 ANIMATES
Energy involved, returning fortitude is exciting(8)

E in STAMINA(rev).
31 SIESTA
A quick zizz, essential for busiest always(6)

Hidden in “busiest always”.
32 PIERT
No longer in good health, support start of therapy(5)

PIER T.  It’s an obsolete spelling of an old word meaning in good health.
33 SENSELESSNESS
Idiocy? This possibly indicates Ecstasy!(10)(13)

At first I thought that this was just a cryptic definition – I should have known better!  Read it as SENSE LESS (minus) NESS and take the letters of NESS from SENSE to reveal E(cstasy).
Down
2 PYROPE
Father given year inside for what jewel thieves may be after (6)

YR in POPE.  It’s a red gemstone.
3 SOTTISHNESS
What’s taking steins and shots out of control?(11)

*(STEINS, SHOTS).  The only & lit clue in the puzzle.
4 OPAH
Big fish sending Marx up heartlessly?(4)

HA(r)PO (rev) is the Marxist in question.
5 PULLMAN
Luxury saloon in Mall, broken down – quibble about it(7)

*MALL in PUN.
6 EQUISETINAE
Scouring-rushes arranged in a set within borderless mass? (11)

*(IN A SET) in (r)EQUIE(m).
7 ARCHEAN
Like primeval US rocks, each found in ruined ranch(7)

EA in *RANCH.
8 NOW AND AGAIN
No sign of authority, an advantage occasionally(11,3words)

NO WAND A GAIN.
9 TOUR
Pleasure trip near ancient city(4)

TO UR.
10 IMAGO
Perfect stage villain taking maiden in(5)

M in IAGO.  It’s defined as “the last or perfect stage of an insect’s development”.
11 SCRATCHES
Equine disease bends mounts, chest heaving(9)

ARCS (rev), *CHEST.
13 STERNPOST
Rudder support stops working, seabird nesting therein(9)

TERN in *STOPS.
18 EVITATE
The old avoid life in summer months abroad(8)(7)

VITA in ÉTÉ.
19 MOOLIES
Cows do what they do? Depends(7)

MOO LIES.
22 WAGERS
Hazards of yesteryear, a lost time involved in hostilities(6)

(a)GE in WARS.
24 OORIE
Local fleece that is about right for Scottish chill(5)

OO (Scottish word for wool) R I.E.
27 REEN
Local watercourse? Try to avoid getting back in(4)

REEN(try).
28 IMPS
Redcap interrupting lives shoots as before(4)

MP in IS.  An imp is an obsolete word for a shoot (in the botanical sense).
*anagram

16 comments on “Azed No 2266”

  1. Thanks to Bridgesong and Azed.

    11d

    The answer ‘scratches’ is obvious from the wordplay, but I can’t find ‘scratches’ with this meaning in Chambers.

    Is it there?

    (Chambers does give ‘cratches’ as a swelling on a horse’s pastern, under the fetlock.)

  3. Norman,re ‘scratches’, my 12th ed on p1401, top left under ‘scratch’ has ‘(in pl) a disease in horses with the appearance of scratches on the pastern or ankle.’

  4. Thanks Bridgesong.

    TEMS was the one that defeated me; for a while I thought there’d been another mistake and that it was supposed to be TEASER (sounds like “Tees” + R)!

  5. Thanks to Bob re scratches/cratches.
    I note that the entry for ‘cratches (clearly the same condition) doesn’t use the word ‘disease’.

  7. Reference 33ac SENSELESSNESS.

    There is a rule that if you remove letters from a word, they need to be as ‘is’ unless indicated as a mixture. Azed has picked up on this in his slip many a time.

    Here, the letters SENS need to be removed to leave E, but there is no indication that NESS needs to be ‘mixed’ and then removed.

    Just an observation, no grouch.

    Nick

  9. bridgesong #8

    No, because looking at it, ‘this’ is redundant. ‘this possibly’ is really ‘hits’ (and other anagrams of ‘this’) not implying it’s NESS that is mixed.

    I can’t see how this can be clued to infer that NESS (mixed) needs to be removed from SENSES in a one word answer.

    Nick

  10. What if Bridgesong’s parsing is incorrect, and the clue could be explained better as s.e,n,s,e less n,e,s,s, leaving e? A single remaining letter does not need any indication that reordering is required.

  11. There is a ? and an ! in the clue, sufficient for me to indicate a bit of shuffling about.

    I do like 19d, very silly.

  12. The clue for SENSELESSNESS seems to me perfectly well-formed, nay elegant. ‘Idiocy’ is the def. SENSE less NESS leaves E = Ecstasy.

    19d I find disquieting. The only meaning I could find for M**LIES is a US alternative for the N-word (plural)and nothing to do with bovine animals.

  16. While I understand the different viewpoints expressed on SENSELESSNESS, it seems OK to me as the blogger suggests. “Possibly” is a recognised anagram indicator and I’d see “this” as referring back to SENSELESSNESS. Thanks for blog.

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