Azed 2269 Plain

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Being of a pedantic turn, I was struck by several little things that weren’t quite right here: 19dn is given as (6) when it is (7); 22dn is given as 23dn; whoever typed out the clues didn’t put a space after ‘meadows’ in 16ac or ‘alcohol’ in 11dn; and — this may be deliberate, I’m not sure — it says that Chambers 2011 is recommended when in the recent past we have had to use Chambers 2014. Perhaps Azed has become disgruntled with the 2014 edition.

To more important things: this was the usual enjoyable tussle with a whole lot of words that one didn’t know. Everything seems explicable (eventually).

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 In recess, work towards destruction of cells, naturally (9) — APOPTOSIS — ap(op. to)sis
8 Expletive: machine deleting it? Explosive results (3) — ACH — If you remove ‘mine’ from ‘machine’ you are left with ‘ach’
11 Food that ignores recipe – where’s Jock’s going? (3) — GUB —  The Chambers definition that is Scottish and so invokes Jock only gives ‘mouth’ as the definition; my guess is that Azed really means “where Jock’s is going” but is putting it into the form of a question, which leads to a surface that is almost meaningless until you see what is going on
12 Old brass and gold chalice melted down (9) — ORICALCHE — or [= gold] (chalice)*
13 Stakes once lowered defensively, rascal switching first pair (5) — ORGUE — rogue with its first two letters swapped
15 Good-for-nothing learning alongside learner (5) — LOREL — lore L
16 Ancient paths maybe inly trampled within meadows (8, 2 words) — LEY LINES — (inly)* in lees, an alternative spelling of the more usual leas
17 Operatic heroine, by the sound of her one prone to hysterics (6) — MEEMIE — “Mimi”
18 Prove stain must be treated with care (9) — ASCERTAIN — (stain care)*
21 Jerk beset by malicious women gossips (9) — CHITCHATS — c(hitch)ats
23 Old pro, Guthrie, among leaders of high-class theatre? (6) — Arlo in h{igh-class} t{heatre} — Arlo Guthrie
27 A clue I’m ploughing, little good in it – it’s certainly sticky (8) — g in (a clue I’m)*
28 Re serious disease, coffee gets rid of one before and after (5) — RABIC — {a}rabic{a}
29 Club heading league playing piece in game (5) — MERIL — meri l — I think the ‘heading’ is simply a juxtaposition indicator, otherwise we would be dangerously close to ‘first made’ = m, something that Azed would definitely not approve
30 Oral tumours to work on inside stoma on being treated (9) — ODONTOMAS — do in (stoma on)*
31 Quite a large edifice but lacking height (3) — ALL — {h}all I think
32 It was run by Nazi official, unit avoided by SS (3) — GAU — Gau{SS}
33 GR accepts decision for poor old author (9) — GARRETEER — G(arret)ee R
Down
2 Way of recovering nuclear fuel king found after rising’s overthrown (5) — PUREX — (up)rev. rex
3 One specializing in childbirth etc moved on by leader in geriatrics (5) — OB-GYN — (on by g{eriatrics})*
4 Octopus mostly mashed, stuffed with egg (6) — POULPE — p(O)ulpe{d}
5 Cereal, recipe I regularly included, not allowed at e.g.Passover (5) — TREIF — t(R)e(I)f
6 Circuit diagrams confused chemists alternating current (10) — SCHEMATICS — (chemists AC)*
7 Tin with duck in for one who can’t be bothered (6) — SLOVEN — S(love)n
8 Bone projections to target, whale coming up (7) — ACROMIA — (aim orca)rev.
9 Woolly stuff, hot, I have doubled up in bed (7) — CHEVIOT — (h (I’ve)rev.) in cot
10 Cassis includes this Ethel M.’s drunk with ruin (11) — HELMETSHELL — (Ethel M’s)* hell — the genus, not the drink
11 Huge amphibian: almost half of it is pickled in alcohol (11, 2 words) — GOLIATH FROG — ((hal{f} of it)* in grog
14 Old-style teacher, trendy shoemaker formerly taking girl in (11) — INSTITUTOR — in s(tit)utor
19 Declaration of faith in king with a big knife! (6) — SHAHADA — shah a da — (6) or (7)?
20 Deer mostly rotting, tail gone, black inside (7) — CARIBOU — cari(b)ou{s}
21 Activity of setter I found trapped in cleft (6) — CLUING — clu(I)ng
22 Philosopher, head cast very low, but most unlikely to need a doctor? (6) — HALEST — Thales with the T moved to the bottom — the paper says this is 23 but it is 22
24 Around afternoon ice sometimes cracks (5) — RIMAE — rim(a)e
25 Where Maoris congregate, sun going in West? (5) — MARAE — ma(Ra)e — Mae West
26 Swanky Scot to lie in water upside down (5) — AGILE — (e(lig)a)rev.

5 comments on “Azed 2269 Plain”

  1. Thanks for the blog, John.

    I assumed the recommendation of Chambers (2011) was a mistake since meemie does appear in that edition but not in Chambers (2014).

    It seems to me that ‘mostly’ and ‘tail gone’ in 20d are both indicating the removal of the last letter of CARIOUS, unless CARIOUS means ‘mostly rotting’ rather than just ‘rotting’, or a CARIBOU is a ‘deer mostly’.

    21d seems to be a mistake since cleft is the past tense and past participle of cleave¹ not cleave².

  2. I echo Matthew’s comment re 21d. Putting it slightly more explicitly, the verb ‘cleave’ of which the past is ‘cleft’ is not the ‘cleave’ synonymous with ‘cling’, past ‘clung’.

  3. re 11ac

    I couldn’t parse 11ac, and can’t see why changing the clue to ‘where Jock’s is going’ would make it any more parsable.

    Being ‘of a pedantic turn’ myself, I suggest adding – g(r)ub to your explanation, even though it is obvious.

    I think ‘Chambers (2011)’ arose because the rubric used an old puzzle as a template. (This was suggested as one possible explanation of wrong instructions being given in last week’s ‘Misprints’ puzzle.) The crossword editor could do better.

  5. On dictionaries, I have only recently thrown out my 11th (and greatly missed) edition. The spine had collapsed. Now I’m using my (good as new, but unloved) 12th. The 13th has yet to arrive in our local WHS. I fear the end is nigh.

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