Fifteensquared

A straightforward puzzle this week, with a fair proportion of unfamiliar words.  Nevertheless, it’s worth making the point that Azed puzzles can in fact be easier to solve than a daily cryptic, as long as you are prepared to use Chambers to verify your guesses.  The wordplay, although often ingenious, is scrupulously fair, and the generous checking is a  great help.

Time taken: an afternoon.

Across
1	FATTRELLS	“ferret tails” minus i,e, and r	A well-disguised compound anagram
7	TOSS	two meanings
10	LORN	r in Lon(don)
11	EXECRATE	(River) Exe + crate
12	ADUNC	A + dun + c	A weak surface reading, using an adjective as a noun
13	MICRA	Hidden in atomic radiation
15	VANQUISHER	Qu in vanisher
17	IN ONE	O in inn + e(veryone)
21	ENGRENAGE	*gear shift less i
22	RICINULEI	ricin + ule + i
23	GREGE	eg in gre(y)
28	ANASTIGMAT	*against + mat	The anagrind is “buffed”
29	RAT ON	r + a + ton	“Shop” is the definition, in a very subtle clue
30	SNORE	Hidden	snore is the third meaning of rout in Chambers
31	INCIDENT	in CID + *net
32	GRIN	gr(a)in
33	ASAR	as(rev) in Ar(abia)
34	CRYOSTAT	*a story in ct
Down
1	FLAVA	Hidden
2	AO DAI	*Aida +O(pera)	This term came up in last month’s Guardian Genius crossword, which helped me a little
3	TRUNK	Three definitions
4	RECUR	ecu in RR
5	EXTINGUISHER	*thin sex urge + i
6	LESSER LITANY	*yells Stainer
7	TRIENNIA	rien in ain’t(rev)	To understand this clue, you have to know that a subsidiary meaning of “lustre” is a five year period
8	STRINGY	ring in sty	The reference is to the poem “The Owl and the Pussycat” by Edward Lear, but that has the piggy-wig with a ring in his nose standing in a wood, not a sty
9	SEA REED	(Dun)e in seared
14	CROAT	r in coat, and *actor	Unusual to have two pieces of wordplay for one simple word
16	PEIGNOIR	i in peg + noir
18	ARGYRIA	*gray + air(rev)
19	KIRPANS	pan in *risk	One of the five Ks worn by devout Sikhs
20	SCEAT	c in seat
24	VISTO	vis +to
25	AMORT	A + mort	Mort can mean a loose woman
26	MARIA	M + aria	The plural of mare, meaning a “sea” on the moon
27	STENT	ten in st(one)

This is obviously more relevant for readers of another blog, but if you have friends in need of help with broadsheet dailies, it does a good job for these puzzles in general as well as for the Times in particular.  More about it from me in a review on its Amazon UK page.

Solving time: 7:44

An amusing offering from Paul, with a theme: the key clue is the one to 13dn/20ac, which yields “ASK A STUPID QUESTION”. The definitions to 10 other clues are given as “13 20 …?”, hinting at the response “get a stupid answer”, and these 10 answers (given in bold below) are all synonyms for a stupid person, ranging from the jovial ‘dipstick’ to the less polite ‘pillock’. I thought this was probably easier than usual for a Paul puzzle.

* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.

Across
8	HARA-KIRI; HAR[d] + A KIR + I
9	CHUMP; CHUM (= ‘china’) + P
10	NERD (hidden)
11	WALT DISNEY; (NEWTS DAILY)* - marvellous definition (’Father of mouse drawn…).
12	PL(I)ANT - referring to 1dn.
14	C(RAM + F)ULL
15	JACKASS; JACK(AS)S - I think jacks was a playground game where you put some small objects on your knuckles, then turned your hand over and tried to catch them, or something like that. I was more into British Bulldog, football and how-far-can-you-push-the-dinner-ladies-before-they-snap.
17	CHARLIE (3 defs) - one of the many slang terms for cocaine, hence ‘it’s stimulating’.
22	BE(HE)ST
23	VOLUMETRIC; (LUMET + R) in VOIC[e] - I’m pretty poor on films, and didn’t know Sidney Lumet.
24	PRAT; P(R)AT
25	IDIOT; I + D(I)OT - because the letter ‘i’ has a dot over it.
26	DIPSTICK (2 defs) - I thought ‘Rod graduated’ was superb.

Down
1	CAMEL + LI[on] + A - this was my last entry and a guess because I didn’t know the flower Camellia, but I couldn’t think of any other feasible animal to fit ?A?E?.
2	BARD (rev. of DRAB) - not sure why the ’so’ was necessary here.
3	NITWIT; rev. of IN + TWIT
4	PILLOCK, from HILLOCK
5	A + CID + BATH - Haigh is John George Haigh, an English serial killer in the 1940s who dissolved his victims’ bodies in acid.
6	BU(R)ST + FORTH - a deceptive and very well-worded clue, which made me think the definition would be a two-word river.
7	APPEAL; “A PEAL”
13/20	ASK A STUPID QUESTION; A[la]SKA + (rev. of PUT, + Q in (DUTIES)*) in SION - a decent surface reading for such a long clue, and perhaps deliberately complex to avoid too early a solve, although ‘Jerusalem’ had to be SION and ‘question’ Q (or QU) so this fell out early on.
16	STILETTO; T[a]IL in SET-TO - very Private Eye!
18	IN + STANCE
19	INTRUDE; (TIN)* + RUDE
21	UTOPIA; (OUT)* + PI + A
22	BIC + EPS - ‘Company of writers’ as in ‘company that manufactures writing implements’.
24	PUTZ; PUT + Z - Yiddish for ‘penis’, apparently!

Solving time, 14 mins

* = anagram

ACROSS

1 DEad SO LATE

5 ST PAUL New Testament epistle writer and US city

9 REF ERR A L

10 C RUM B S

12 GUTTERSNIPE   (g up in street)*

15 LOC(k) UM

17 T (AIL)-ENDER    Cricket

18 TIGER MOTH  (Got hermit)*

19 S(CO)OP    &lit

20 ORA PRO NOBIS   O (nothing) in (I rob parson)*   Latin for ‘pray for us’

24 ROOK (chess) I E

25 HE AD BAN G

26 PH LEG M

27 ISLANDER   Isle of Man   (in Earl’s d)*

DOWN

1 DER (the in German) EG U LATE

2 SAFETY CAGE   (cafe say get)*

3 LARGE   Hidden

4 TRANSITIONAL    NS for d in traditional

6 T (ERSE N) ESS

7 ARMY LIST   (military’s)* less i

11 DIE IN HARNESS    Cryptic defintion

13 I D (I) OT  BOARD

14 G RAP E SUGAR  (argues)*

16 MAROON IN G

21 NAD (I) A    nada = nothing in Spanish

22 DROP G (O)AL    Rugby

There’s a Nina here which I spotted during solving but only just worked out what it’s about. From the top left-hand corner we have GABRIELLE, BREE, SUSAN, LYNETTE and EDIE (the first E is also the last E in LYNETTE), who are all 22/26. Maybe Merlin’s a fan of the show!

Across
8	GILL - double def. A GILL is a quarter of a pint.
9	(DUKE EARL)*,IE - AULD REEKIE. The Scots (affectionate) nickname for Edinburgh. New to me but got it from the wordplay.
10	DIME in (ENTOMB)* - EMBODIMENT. Spent some time thinking the wordplay was (ENTOMB COIN)*.
11	A,BAR (reversed) - ARAB.
12	(ASININ[-e],GIS)* - INSIGNIAS.
13	STEER - a cox is someone who steers a boat and an ox is a steer.
15	DRA[GG for BB]LE - Margaret DRABBLE (sister of AS Byatt I believe) is the author.
17	TAT in DICE
20	[-d]EARTH
22/26	(WHERE SPOUSES DEVIATE)* - DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES. I’ve never watched it myself but, if watch TV at all, you’ve probably seen a trailer for it at the very least.
25	A in TSR - TSAR, excellent &lit.
27	T,(MORE TO EAT)* - TREE TOMATO, rather than “tomato tree” as I hurriedly filled in at first.
28	LIE,U
Down
1	IRMA in AN - not sure IRMA is a “sweet” girl…
2	B,LOOMING
3	RATION,ALE
4	LEG,A in ILL - ILLEGAL
5	OT,ARE (going up) - ERATO. “Religious books” are usually NT or OT, for New and Old testament. ERATO was one of the Greek muses.
6	LE(V)ANT
7	GAME in LINT - LIGAMENT.
14	S,IMP,LET ON
16	S in [-t]REASURE - REASSURE
18	TORT,ILL,A
19	PERU,SAL
21	TUR,E,E,N
23	THE,BES[-t]
24	initial letters of “Yes, One Old Buddy Holly) arranged into OH BOY - which was a Buddy Holly song so this is practically an &lit.