This puzzle was published in the Observer on the first Sunday of October, so that means it is an Azed puzzle rather than a Gemelo puzzle.
As a result of the change in policy, with Azed setting just one puzzle a month, combined with the six-weekly cycle of Azed bloggers, I note that it is 10 months since I last blogged an Azed. It was good to have another opportunity.
I got a fair distance into the puzzle before reaching for Chambers, but as ever there was plenty of opportunity to learn new words amongst the entries and the components of wordplay.
The most interesting word to me was the six-letter entry at 11 across, EUOUAE, made up of six vowels and no consonants. An internet search tells me this is the longest word in the English language using vowels only, and also the English word with the most consecutive vowels. There are quite a few words with five consecutive vowels.
I have struggled a bit explaining the parsing of NAAN (Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi bread) and its relationship with ANNA (old Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi coin), in words, but I hope I have given a strong hint of how the parsing works.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 4 | What may have been wielded by shipmen, right? (9, 2 words)
SHRIMP NET (piece of equipment manipulated [wielded] by seamen [shipmen]) Anagram of (may have been wielded) SHIPMEN and RT (right) SHRIMP NET* |
| 11 | Dandy/rake, right to left, neither first, in Gregorian cadence (6)
EUOUAE (name for a Gregorian cadence, obtained from ‘seculorum Amen’ in the doxology ‘Gloria Patri’) (bEAU [fop or dandy] + rOUÉ [profligate or rake] with both words excluding the initial letters, B and R respectively [neither first]) all reversed (right to left) (EUO UAE)< |
| 12 | Procession, notice, in trim (6)
PARADE (procession) AD (advert; notice) contained in (in) PARE (trim) PAR (AD) E |
| 14 | See wanton opening fantastic legs to writhe (8)
SCRIGGLE (writhe) (C [see] + RIG [a wanton person]) contained in (opening) an anagram of (fantastic) LEGS S (C RIG) GLE* |
| 15 | Driver avoiding circling the majority of ridges (4)
TORI (ridges) MoTORIst (driver) excluding (avoiding) MOST (the majority of), which is the word circling TORI TORI |
| 16 | Declare singular turns relation left out (7)
ENOUNCE (proclaim; declare) ONE (singular) reversed (turns) + UNClE (a relation) excluding (out) L (left) ENO< UNCE |
| 17 | A copycat turns revealing personality’s innermost part (5)
ANIMA (the soul, the innermost part of the personality) (A + MINA [any of various related sturnoid Asiatic birds which can be taught to imitate human speech; copycat]) all reversed (turns) (ANIM A)< |
| 19 | Fairy or tube worm? Not so (7)
SANDMAN (a fairy who supposedly puts children to sleep at bedtime by sprinkling sand on their eyes) SAND–MAsoN (a tube worm) excluding (not) SO SANDMAN |
| 22 | Oilman abroad in foreign city (6)
MILANO (Italian spelling of the city of Milan; for UK people, a foreign city) Anagram of (abroad) OILMAN MILANO* |
| 24 | ‘Salve’, following a R, i.e. ‘scare off ’ (6)
AROINT (drive or frighten away; scare off) A + R + OINT (anoint;salve) A R OINT |
| 26 | Nautical cord e.g. twisted with open arm (7)
MANROPE (a ROPE railing on a gangway or ladder of a boat; nautical cord) Anagram of (twisted) OPEN ARM MANROPE* |
| 27 | Tipples one bottled? These ones are different (from E. India) (5)
NIPAS (alcoholic drinks made from the East-Indian NIPA palm; tipples from East India) NIPS (drams; drinks; tipples) containing (bottled) A (one) NIP (A) S |
| 29 | Stir uneasily in plot of a brownish hue (7)
BISTRED (descriptive of a colour of brownish hue) Anagram of (uneasily) STIR contained in (in) BED (a garden plot) B (ISTR*) ED |
| 32 | Measure luminous appearance, not gold (4)
METE (apportion; measure – often in the form METE out) METEor (luminous appearance) excluding (not) OR (a gold tincture) METE |
| 33 | Run isn’t common in the sea (8)
MAINTAIN (manage; run) AINT (a contracted form of, a common form of is not [isn’t]) contained in (in) MAIN (the sea) M (AINT) AIN |
| 34 | Story going about in Israel (6)
SERIAL (story) Anagram of (going about) ISRAEL SERIAL* |
| 35 | Behaves in accordance with son in stuffed jacket (6, 2 words)
ACTS ON (behaves in accordance with) S (son) contained in (in) ACTON (a stuffed jacket worn under a coat of mail) ACT (S) ON |
| 36 | Adolescent about staggerin’, like the avenue? (9)
TREE-LINED (many avenues are TREE-LINED) TED (Teddy boy; adolescent) containing (about) REELIN‘ (staggerin’) T (REELIN) ED |
| Down | |
| 1 | Holiday cheese includes opening for sandwich (5)
FESTA (a holiday, festival or saint’s day) FETA (type of cheese) containing (includes) S (first letter of [opening for] Sandwich FE (S) TA |
| 2 | Distinctive character including meeting with no act before anger – quite the opposite (11, 2 words)
AU CONTRAIRE (on the contrary; quite the opposite) (AURA [distinctive character] containing [including] CONTact [meeting] excluding [with no] ACT) + IRE (anger) AU (CONT) RA IRE |
| 3 | Scalp disease? Iris’s head has present involving it (7)
PORRIGO (scalp disease of various kinds) ORIGO (reference iris ORIGO [1902 – 1988], English-born biographer) with PR (present) containing the initial [head] O of Origo) to form PORRIGO P (O) R RIGO |
| 5 | Source of peat is removed from Jock’s dish (4)
HAGG (a place from which peat has been dug; source of peat) HAGGis (a Scottish meat dish) excluding (removed from) IS HAGG |
| 6 | Former record as retained in what’s left (6)
REGEST (Miltonian [old; former] term for a register [record]) EG (for example; as) contained in (retained in) REST (what’s left, after something has been removed) R (EG) EST |
| 7 | Long time I’ll be held in fellow’s grasp – Lydia’s alter ego? (8)
MAEONIAN (Lydian – Maiona is an old name for Lydia [an Iron Age civilisation of Western Anatolia) (AEON [a vast age; a long time] + I) contained in (be held in ‘s grasp) MAN (fellow) M (AEON I) AN |
| 8 | Prince you’d left restyled in stately fashion (7)
PROUDLY (in stately fashion) PR (Prince) + an anagram of (restyled) YOU’D and L (left_) PR OUDLY* |
| 9 | What’s a bit like roti – two halves thereof go for a little local cash (4)
NAAN (a type of slightly leavened bread as baked in India or Pakistan, similar to roti [unleavened bread ofCaribbean cookery]) ANNA (a former coin of India and Pakistan [local home of the NAAN] can be formed by a rearrangement of the two halves of NAAN [NA and AN]) NA AN |
| 10 | Number in sets once forming holy place (7)
TEMENOS (a place dedicated to a God; a holy place) NO (number) contained in (in) TEMES (obsolete [once] spelling of teams [sets]) TEME (NO) S |
| 13 | Pouring process, i.e. translation of ode in including most of choral work (11)
DECANTATION (a pouring process) Anagram of (translation of) ODE IN containing (including) CANTATa (choral work) excluding the final letter A (most of) DE (CANTAT) ION* |
| 18 | Eccentric baron, being ill and dysfunctional (8)
ABNORMAL (dysfunctional) Anagram of (eccentric) BARON + MAL (sickness; being ill) ABNOR* MAL |
| 20 | Big mat’s adjusted for viola player (7)
GAMBIST (a player of a viola da GAMBa; viola player) Anagram of (adjusted) BIG MAT’S GAMBIST* |
| 21 | What kids model with fell round messy pit (7)
DIRT-PIE (mud moulded by children in play) DIRE (one of the meanings of fell [see fell3 in Chambers] is ‘DIRE‘) containing (round) an anagram of (messy) PIT DIR (T PI*) E |
| 23 | Veg sewn in recess, calm (7)
APPEASE (pacify; calm) PEA (a vegetable) contained in (sewn in) APSE (a semicircular or polygonal recess, especially at the east end of a church choir) AP (PEA) SE |
| 25 | Chaps holding assistant up in the middle (6)
MEDIAN (in statistics, the middle value of a set of values) MEN (chaps) containing (holding) AID (helper; assistant) reversed (up; down entry) ME (DIA<) N |
| 28 | Names in blue for laxative drug (5)
SENNA (a laxative drug) (N [name] + N [name] giving names) contained in (in) SEA (blue) SE (N N) A |
| 30 | Runs short of century causing grief (4)
SORE (grief) ScORE (the total of a player’s runs in an innings in a game of cricket) excluding (short of) C (century) SORE |
| 31 | Once in Scotland forebear becomes free of stress (4)
ANCE (a Scottish form of ‘once’) ANCEstress (a female forebear) excluding (free of) STRESS ANCE |
I thought I was going pretty well until I got stuck in the top-left corner. I didn’t think ‘ridges’ was the most obvious definition of TORI and I couldn’t remember PORRIGO which I have seen before, but I didn’t know Iris Origo so it took me a while to explain it after finding the answer in Chambers. I didn’t know SCRIGGLE and wasn’t sure about RIG for ‘wanton’, so I definitely needed help with that one. I had also taken I while to get AU CONTRAIRE even after thinking it must involve AURA and IRE.
I spent some time trying to make the ‘luminous appearance’ in 32a be AURORA, which contains two potential golds. I’ve seen clues involving NAAN and ANNA before, but I don’t recall one that didn’t use ‘bread’ to mean ‘money’.
Thanks, duncanshiell and Azed.
Thanks for the blog , I agree with Matthew@1 that top right was the minefield . TORI was very neat and EUOUAE is a great word . I could not find MANROPE in Chambers93 but it seemed obvious .
The clue for AROINT seems a bit strange with the isolated R .
[Slightly off-topic and arguably against the rules.
I’ve printed today’s Gemelo (#50) but after struggling with a few clues and then getting a heavy hint from 19/21, I realised I was missing the preamble. WTF is the point?]
[ @Admin, today’s preamble is missing from the pdf! I can copy it here or in the general thread if you wish ]
I had a few question marks against the clues, so thanks for clearing up the ones I didn’t understand. In particular, I never understood PORRIGO, getting it from the definition and crossers. I agree with Roz about the clue for AROINT.
KenMac@3 you will not get anywhere without the preamble .
Jay@4 I see no problem if you copy it to here and/or to General Discussion .
It is clearly not a spoiler , more an unspoiler .
Thanks Roz@6 , Ken asked me to post it in the General discussion thread , so that’s where it can now be found .
A few quibbles from me. 15ac: I don’t think “circling” is necessary, especially as the grammar doesn’t work – it’s not “the majority” that is being circled. (I know grammar doesn’t have to be entirely normal in clues, but this is really strangulated.) 27ac: I don’t think “different” is required here – “These ones are from E. India” would work perfectly well. 23dn: should “sewn” actually be “sown”? It would make a better surface reading and would work equally well for the wordplay.
I found both TORI and PORRIGO difficult; re the latter, I’m never happy when one obscure word is clued with another (in this case obscure person). EUOUAE (more often written as EVOVAE) I was familiar with, although it doesn’t spring very immediately to mind!
I also struggled with parsing TORI and PORRIGO. They were guessable from the crossers, though. The rest seemed pretty clear.