Azed’s change to appearing only monthly and the vagaries of the schedule mean that I haven’t blogged one of his puzzles since January, so I feel rather out of practice. Quite a lot of unfamiliar in this one, I thought, but all fairly clued as ever, though there seems to be an error in 9 down, unless I’m misunderstanding (quite possible, of course). Thanks to Azed.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | BOWSPRIT | Piece round prow’s buckled strong spar (8) PROWS* in BIT (piece) |
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| 7 | BRUT | Dry cask containing minimum of rosé (4) R[osé] in BUT (variant of “butt”) |
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| 10 | ILLAQUEATE | Entangle a quill mostly damaged and mostly corroded (10) Anagram of A QUIL[L] + EATE[N] (corroded) |
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| 11 | MENTO | Tutor shortened Caribbean ballad (5) A shortened MENTO[R] |
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| 12 | MILLDAM | Lady, not one poorly inside, in pond (7) ILL (poorly) in M[A]DAM |
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| 14 | PREHNITE | Mineral, 3-pin plugged (8) (THREE PIN)* |
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| 15 | VAST | Large vessel going round sea (not river), immense tract (4) SEA less EA (river) in VAT (large vessel). Vast is most commonly an adjective, but it’s also a noun meaning “an immense tract” |
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| 17 | BHARAT | Hat and bra disposed of in large country (6) (HAT BRA)* – Bharat is the name of India in Hindi and other languages |
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| 18 | DIAPENTE | Writer involved in a diet, complicated – it consists of five ingredients (8) PEN in (A DIET)* |
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| 20 | REPETEND | Recurrent refrain – see second note before favourite finish (8) RE (second note, as in do-re-mi) + PET END |
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| 21 | ARTELS | Strike alerts Russian workers’ guilds (6) ALERTS* |
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| 24 | ERRS | Sins? Regular features in terrorism (4) Alternate letters of tErRoRiSm |
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| 25 | ATTENTAT | A bit of a kip, diffident, I’ve abandoned? Unsuccessful criminal effort (8) AT + TENTATIVE (diffident) less I’VE. An AT was 1/100 of a Kip, the monetary unit of Laos. No longer as use, not surprisingly as there are currently 30335 Kip to the pound sterling |
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| 27 | RAMENTA | Ferny scales chaps cut into NZ tree (7) MEN in RATA |
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| 28 | NEHRU | Style of jacket, male, kept in vessel coming back (5) Reverse of HE in URN |
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| 29 | UNISERIATE | Urinates, ie messily, in a row (10) (URINATES IE)* |
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| 30 | MOSS | Foreign sparrow that is lost in boggy ground (4) MOSSIE (a South African sparrow) less I.E. |
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| 31 | WALLERIA | Plant genus completely surrounded by a wire twisted (8) ALL (completely) in (A WIRE)* |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | BUMP | Dislodge family avoiding clown (4) BUMPKIN (clown) less KIN |
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| 2 | OPERA SERIA | Work with rubber, reverse of ideal, in Covent Garden stuff? (10, 2 words) OP (work) + ERASER (rubber) + reverse of A1 |
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| 3 | WINE-SAP | Deep-red apple from Spain we rushed, … (7) (SPAIN WE)* |
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| 4 | PLONK | …in cheap wine stink, litre bottled (5) L[itre] in PONK (smell, variant of “pong”) |
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| 5 | RAMILIES | China grass is leaning in cocked hat (8) RAMI (China grass) + LIES |
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| 6 | TULE | Bullrush in spa cut from flattened spoon (4) SPATULE less SPA |
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| 7 | BEL PAESE | Mild cheese pales when grated busy fellow swallows (8, 2 words) PALES* in BEE (busy person) |
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| 8 | RADAR | Sun before night shortened beacon? (5) RA (Egyptian sun god) + DAR[k] |
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| 9 | TEMPTERS | Such as Circe, inane and curt within similarly truncated (8) EMPT[y] (inane) in TERS[e] (curt) – the inclusion seems to be the wrong way round, though I see from another site that the printed version has “inane” and “curt” swapped |
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| 13 | A NATURA REI | One aunt, uncommon, I’ll follow, as the case indicates (10, 3 words) A + AUNT* + RARE + I |
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| 15 | VERATRUM | Hellebore plant HM placed in vessel, unusual (8) ER (the late Queen, Her Majesty) in VAT + RUM |
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| 16 | TREELESS | Grig found in lock, bare maybe (8) EEL (grig) in TRESS (lock of hair) |
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| 17 | BANG-TAIL | Gal, a bint with fringe dressed, cut square across (8) (GAL A BINT)*, with a long definition |
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| 19 | NORTHER | Wind that’s partly southern or thermal (7) Hidden in southerN OR THERmal |
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| 22 | TAMIS | Woollen material I included in circular caps (5) I in TAMS (Scottish caps, short for Tam o’ Shanter, from a Burns poem) |
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| 23 | VENAL | Meat maybe about noon, dark red in colour (5) N in VEAL. Venal is a synonym of venous, relating to veins, and can mean dark red, as deoxygenated blood (contrary to the incorrect belief that venous blood is blue) |
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| 25 | ANEW | Gradual decline, first to last, again (4) WANE (decline) with the first letter moved to the end |
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| 26 | TUNA | Fish for eel down under – it’s prickly (4) Three definitions: the well-known fish, a NZ eel and a prickly pear |
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In 10ac, in the paper edition, “mostly” appears only before “corroded”. Otherwise, not enough Ls.
I agree with Dormouse@1. I had that one marked “?”. I agree that the wordplay in 9D seems backwards. I could not find NEHRU or WALLERIA in Chambers.
I do not think A NATURA REI works , if uncommon=RARE there is no anagram indicaotor for aunt .
BANGTAIL no anagram indicator ?
TEMPTERS – curt and inane within – in the paper so fine .
ILLAQUEATE right in the paper , see Dormouse@1
What a mess , clearly no test solve or edit .
Thanks for the blog , mainly good clues , ATTENTAT is very neat , but there seem to be some mistakes in the paper and some online alterations making other clues not work .
I had the same problems with the clues mentioned by Dormouse@1 and Roz@3. I had A NATURA REI fresh in my mind from last week so had entered it in the grid before I noticed that the clue didn’t seem to work and, once I had enough checking letters, I was able to guess the others even if I was reluctant to enter answers to clues I didn’t understand. I originally had NEPHRITE at 14a which caused me problems with the first four down clues, and I needed to solve all of those clues before I could guess PREHNITE.
Like Cineraria@2, I couldn’t find NEHRU or WALLERIA in Chambers and was surprised that the former didn’t make the cut.
I noticed when I clicked on the More button in the top-right corner in the online version of this puzzle that top of the menu says ‘Azed No. 2,782 by Antony Lewis’, whatever that means.
Thanks, Azed and Andrew.
I did not check Nehru as it seemed so obvious but WALLERIA not in Chambers93 nor in any of my gardening books so must be pretty rare . The wordplay and grid made it pretty clear but we usually get a note about words not in Chambers16 .
Does anybody know if 10Ac and 9D were ever correct online ? It is rare for a correct clue in the paper to be altered online so that it does not work .
Agree with Roz@3 that there’s no anagram indicator for 13dn or 17dn. 17dn, in particular, seems to be a muddle – the meaning of “cut straight across” seems to refer to the tail of a horse or cow, rather than a fringe, while BANG can mean a fringe and “dressed” could indicate an anagram. The clue almost looks like a collection of different ideas that have ended up combined into nonsense!
Walleria, according to Wiki, is a rare African plant (so it’s not surprising if it’s not in your gardening books, Roz). VERATRUM is called “false hellebore”, but is apparently not closely related, so another slightly dodgy clue.
Matthew @5, Antony Lewis wrote the Crossword Compiler software, so probably an unnoticed default setting.
Had another thought about 17dn. Could it be “fringe” = BANG, “dressed, cut square across” = TAIL[S ON] (ie dressed up), with a kind of “free” anagram at the front and the whole thing being an &lit? It’s pretty clumsy, but makes a sort of sense.
Roz@6: I’ve just checked that those two clues have not been corrected online.
James@8: I suppose that’s a better explanation than someone else is setting under Azed’s name.
Thanks MunroMaiden@7 , pretty rare then , it is fair enough for Azed but there should have been a note saying not in Chambers16 .
Thanks Matthew@10 , I find it hard to see how two correct clues can be altered online to make them not work .
Not a good week for the Observer , at least the Gemelo is going very well .
Matthew@10, Jonathan Crowther always did his own grid filling, so I would take use of software as a sign that Azed is no longer exclusively his work, as well as the clueing. I would add 8D to the list of dubious clues, and 15D for HM = ER as well as the horticulture.
Roz@11, the Observer app shows every clue for Gemelo and Everyman as ‘-‘.