As far as Inquisiotrs go, this was pretty straightforward.  A few recent puzzles have been of the “extra word in the clue” type, so I am becoming accustomed to them. 

In this example, the initials of the extra words read out an incomplete quotation from ALAN BENNETT’S FORTY YEARS ON (the answer to 1/38ac) - “Nature played a cruel trick on her by giving her a…”

In order to complete the quotation, you look at the completed grid to find 14 contiguous letters that you have to join.  If you look carefully in line’s 6-8, you should see “waxed moustache” written out in such a way, that joining them with acurved line will give you the representation of a curled moustache.

Not knowing the play, I assume that the afflicted girl was called Natasha as the title of the puzzle would imply that to be the case. 

Very clever, if not particularly difficult - solving time - approx an hour.

Some of the better clues were:
ACROSS

11 STOMACH - (to chasm)*

18 ’S-TEAK

22 MOUSMEES - M-(some use)* - Japanese girls
DOWN

3 N(EC)TAR

4 E(very)S(urvey)SO

8 ’S-HOE - the splayed bit at the bottom of some drainpipes

12 BET-WI(X)T
If you need explanations for other clues, leave a comment.

Solving time: 19 mins

* = anagram

ACROSS

1 T(RAJ)AN     A Roman Emperor       Raj = British rule in India

4 OBSERVER   A competing Sunday newspaper

9 COT    Short for cotangent - a trig function

10 CH (Companion of Honour) RON IC ALLY

14 NACRE   Hidden

15 (OVERSP) ILL   (proves)*

17 A(E)ROS PACE    Earth’s surface = its first letter in (soar)*

23 (w)INTER VIE W’ED

25 FLY (PAP) ER

26 SEVE(R)N

DOWN

1 T(he) ACT

3 A C-CRETE

5 BEND ONES ELBOW   (seen Don wobble)*

6 ES CAP ES    cap = put on a limit on.    Incoming = put it inside   e s  - first letters “repeatedly”.    Definition is ‘flights’

7 VALE (Latin for farewell) T

8 ROYAL FLUSH    From poker, the top five cards are honour cards

11 RADIO CAROLINE   (c - beginning to crackle) in (indoor aerial)*    Pirate Station from the 1960s.

16 I MP E DANCE    mezzo piano (mp)

21 KITTY   A kitten and the jack in bowls

22 SPIN(e)

A puzzle timed for the 30th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley, who to this blogger remains the King - for his earlier music and films especially. There were 7 lines of across words in the puzzle with titles of Elvis songs appearing in 6 of them - the exception being the centre row where ELVIS appeared in the middle.   It must have been quite a task to fit in down words so congrats to Nimrod on achieving it. In two down clues, while I’m fairly confident of the answers, I do not understand the wordplay, both noted below. Though I saw the theme immediately, I found it a very difficult puzzle.

Solving time: 38 mins

* = anagram < = reverse

ACROSS

9 BLUE (SUEDE - Britpop group) S HOES (weeds)

13 SKIP Double definition

15 ELVIS Hidden

18 PYRE Excellent cryptic definition

DOWN

1 ALL B LACKS A tease this because the 15 does not refer to Elvis, but the NZ rugby union team

3 ASYSTOLE, I think - the inability of the heart to pump out blood - forced on the setter by the theme, I’d say. Do not see the wordplay though the “form of aircraft” may be STOL  “Form of aircraft yielding to cycle, having inability to empty vital fluid”

4 MY DEAR

5 NIGH TCAP   Pact<

7 N?E?S    “Scratch driver’s essentials?”   Has to be NEEDS, but I don’t understand the wordplay.

8 DIE T

12 GREENROOM   Where actors go between scenes

14 P (OT AU Fait) EU    Un peu = a little in French.   Definition is ’stew’

16 L (4th letter of Fields) OO     A pair of ducks (cricket).     Definition = WC

17 SIR HENRY   (in sherry)*     All the four mentioned were Sir Henrys

20 N AND O O    Liked that a lot

21 WOOED   “wood”     Birnam wood from Shakepeare’s play Macbeth

22 END OFF    cf elvis(h)

23 FELT   Double definition

 It was mostly quite easy, but with a fiendish top right corner that held me up for ages, and I messed up on two clues early on, which didn’t help. Only finished properly and understood it all as I wrote the blog.

 ACROSS:

1. ANT ACID. Nice clue, obvious if you know formic acid comes from ants, probably very obscure if you don’t!

5. SUB (bus<) ROSA. Difficult because the term, meaning ‘private’ was unfamiliar to me, though the wordplay is straightforward and I could see the reference to Rosa Parks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks

1o. RU(I)NG. This one took a while too - if you are ruing something, you are sorry.

12. HANOVERIAN (IVANHOE RAN*).

14. TROIKA. (rev hidden). Good spot.

15. EN OUNCE. After a mistake at 5 down (cf) I had ’scanner’, assuming it must be a measure I hadn’t heard of, which held me up with 6 and 8 down. Ounce, confusingly, is a cat - the measure here is ‘en’.

16. OREGANO (ONAGER O<). And an onager is an ass.

20. WOODSCREWS (CROSSWORD WE*).

26. S(AN)D EEL. The city is Leeds<.

27. GINGHAM. Nice hidden clue.

DOWN:

1. (h)ARROW.

2. TRIMMER. Not sure how exactly this fits ‘timeserver’, but it’s someone who cuts their cloth to fit the prevailing wind, like the Vicar of Bray, or a Blairite turned Brownite.

4. DEAD AS A DOORNAIL. Good anagram with setter’s name in.

5. SHE DONE HIM WRONG. (SONDHEIM EH* - WRONG). The question mark warns you to watch out, and the shortage of anagram fodder made me suspect an anagram indicator within the clue like this. Unfortunately, not remembering the film well and mistaking the anagram, I had ‘She does him wrong’, which messed up 15ac for a while.

6. BURNE-JONES. Another tough one - not an artist I know well. The wordplay is very convoluted:’In Paris, I turned up with a poet, without a painter’ gives JE< + ONE  in BURNS, but using ‘without’ to indicate containment with a comma in between seems less than ideal to me.

8. ARGON NE. Not a French region I was familiar with - it is, in fact in the north east.

16. ON WARDS. Boom boom.

M A C BETH.

22. SA(L(arg)E)M. Extremely large can give OS for outsize, here it’s the extremes of the word.

23. EDEN. (NEED*).

Solving time: 57 minutes

A nice friendly monthly puzzle from Azed, with some clever clueing and no need to resort to brain straining themes or devices. I wonder whether indicating hyphenated answers would help as much as stating whether an answer has multiple words.

ACROSS (*) = ANAGRAM (R) = Reversal (CD) = Cryptic def.

1 POSTHASTE - This was the word to be clued, and a nice friendly word that loaned itself to a variety of ideas.

10 POINT AFTER A FT (ONE FOOT) inside POINTER

11 C-LIST - One of my favourite clues. Big Brother celebrities are likely to be C-LIST. See under ‘C’ in Chambers. L (left) in CIST (A TOMB). Nice combining of the ideas to make entombed.

13 LOGE Not sure why the word ‘fine’ is used here. It seems unnecessary. A LOG in this sense means an answer key / type of book.

14 KISS-ME Not just the seaside hat, but also a plant, a veil or a bonnet. MISS* inside KE (half of Poke)

16 SIPPET PPE (Course: Philosophy, politics, conomics: a university course) inside SIT.

17 DISHOME I + SH (ONE QUIET) inside DOME (Cathedral)

18 TOKENISM OK inside MEN IT’S*

20 AVON I liked this clue as well. I comes out of AVION to give the name of a flower (as in something that flows, i.e. a river)

22 PRIG Tom (as in Piper’s son) stole a PIG, with R in

23 SALTIERS TIER inside LASS*

25 INJELLY Rather surprisingly shown as one word in Chambers. J (Journal) inside I NELLY

29 SOOGIE SO replaces B at the front of BOGIE

30 ERYNGO GONE* around RY (edges of rockery)

31 TORT The first clue I solved today R in TOT

32 ALBAN Hidden in phrase “historicAL BANners”

33 ONEWORLDER O (love) + NEW ORDER (fresh system - no Manchester band for Azed, I’m afraid) with L (liberal) inside.

34 I NEVER DID Don’t go searching for operatic composers from England. Azed is being much more devious. It’s E + VERDI inside and anagram of DIN. Another clue to savour.

DOWN

1 POCKET PISTOL POCKET = PINT-SIZE, + TO LIPS*. Like the used of ‘applied’ as an anagram indicator.

2 OBLIGOR LIG (lie) in O (love) + BOR (Neighbour - see Chambers)

3 TOSSY Sinuous, ie Bending, characters = O & S inside TOY

4 HITMAN H (Hour) + ITMA (a radio show remembered by those of a certain age featuring Tommy Handley) + N (new)

5 STASI IS + ATS (abbr. Section) (R)

6 TAOISM AIMS TO*

7 STOPOVER P (Parking) + O (’On’. shortly) inside STOVER

8 BEGEM BEG + ‘EM

9 PRETENSIONED NINE RODS PETE*

12 MEDIA A (Afternoon) + IDEM (the same) (R)

16 SKIJORER JOKE + IS + RR *

19 SLYER LEY* (Half of Henley) inside SR (Southern Region) Nice rail allusion.

21 ORIGAMI (I GO + RAM) * plus I

23 SLIP ON NOS (R) about LIP

24 TIRADE Run = definition R = Runs inside A DIET*

26 NO-ONE NOON (12) + E

27 LEARE LEAR (Source of Nonsense!) + E

28 TYLER (S) TYLE + R (Rule)

Now dear gentlefolk, in addition to the splendid meet in that London next week, there is a small gathering of solvers meeting in York this weekend. The main gathering is on Saturday afternoon when we will be presenting a cheque to Medecins Sans Frontieres for the monies raised from the Bunthorne Tribute Book. We will be meeting at The Maltings public house, just opposite the Railway Station from around 1:00 onwards. Feel free to join us.