Notes for Azed 2,725

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Azed puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Azed 2,725 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

This was quite a tricky puzzle, I thought, with one or two playful clues that took a bit of unravelling. Overall, it seemed to be a little past the half way mark in terms of difficulty, and gave me the feeling that Azed had probably enjoyed setting it.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at a recent Mephisto clue that I saw on one of the forums, “Are Remain to rally no more? (5)”. The answer is RELIE [‘RE + LIE], the point of interest being the use of ‘are’ in the wordplay to indicate the short form ‘RE. I expressed unease about Azed using ‘Rhine’ in a clue from 2,713 (‘Modern trendy, joker in Rhine heading north’ for NEW AGER) to provide REEN, since these are not different words but two spellings of the same word. In the slip for competition 2,105, Azed notes:

…for some reason there were several instances of ‘a’ being used as a definition of ‘an’, which I can’t accept. Equivalent yes, definition no. 

Whilst I would view ‘a’ for ‘an’ as the worst of the lot, I think that both of the preceding examples similarly involve equivalents rather than definitions, and is something that I would advise setters to avoid where possible.

Across

11a The main idea, dull but lacking depth (4)
A five-letter word, one of the meanings of which is ‘to dull’, is deprived of (‘lacking’) the usual abbreviation for ‘depth’. The solution is a French word, only the figurative sense of which has entered the English language.

12a E.g. TV reporting, short of introduction as surplus (7)
An eight-letter word which might describe the TV reporting of an event has its first letter omitted (‘short of introduction’).

13a What’s qualified dad to appear in Telegraph? (7)
I thought there was going to be something complicated going on here, but the only deviousness is the deceptive capitalization of ‘Telegraph’, since it is the sense of ‘to send a telegram’ which leads to the five-letter word into which a two-letter word for ‘dad’ must be inserted.

16a Scene of siege? Richard’s leader involved in one (4)
The first letter (‘leader’) of ‘Richard’ is inserted into a word for the one in cards or dice, producing the name of an ancient city, now part of Israel, and one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements on Earth. It was of great importance during the Crusades, and has been the site of several battles and sieges, in particular the siege of 1291, which resulted in the Crusaders losing their last stronghold in the Holy Land. After months of preparation, the Mamluks began their action against the fortified city on 4 April, culminating in a successful attack on the entire length of the city wall on 18 May.

18a Monstrous pile in progress? I’ll go to making it (6)
An anagram (‘monstrous’) of PILE is followed by a word meaning ‘in progress’ (as an exhibition might be), the result being the name of a Greek mountain. Back in the day, the Aload twins Otus (‘instatiate’) and Ephialtes (‘nightmare’) were strong and aggressive lads. They were regular customers at the local H&M, since they were over fifty feet tall when aged nine. Otus had a bit of a thing for Artemis, so the pair took it upon themselves to storm Olympus, their plan being to reach the gods by piling Mount Ossa on Mount Olympus, and then Mount ?????? on top of that. There are different stories about what happened to the twins, but none of them ends well. Their sisters Elate and Platanus got so upset about it all that they were changed into trees, a fir and a plane.

20a Bar, worsted inside, is French (9)
The French word for ‘is’ has a six-letter word (of French origin) for a thin worsted fabric inside. To add even more Gallic flavour, the small bar or café is also French. 

25a SI unit indicating pressure on a graduated measure mostly (6)
This can be treated as a straight definition plus wordplay clue, although it has some &lit overtones. The usual abbreviation for ‘pressure’ is followed by the letter A (from the clue) and a five-letter word for a graduated measure without its last letter (‘mostly’).

26a Old Scottish coin to issue with former monarch on (6)
A four-letter word of which ‘to issue’ is not perhaps the most obvious of its 96 senses given by Chambers (‘to revolve’ would be close to the top of my list) is followed by the cipher of our previous monarch.

28a Disturbed when recipe is lacking wine (4)
The wine that is produced when a five-letter word for ‘disturbed’ lacks the usual abbreviation for ‘recipe’ is nowhere near as popular now with sparkling wine lovers as it was in the 1970s (prosecco having long ago claimed its crown), but it still goes down well with crossword setters.

Down

2d Composer’s wife maybe wearing coloured bands in black stuff (7)
The composer is Robert Schumann, whose wife was a highly skilled pianist and a composer. Her first name is followed by a two-letter word meaning ‘wearing’.

6d ‘Anatomical “viaduct”’? Joins together lecture for audience (9, 2 words)
A homophone (‘for audience’ ) of a word meaning ‘joins together’ is followed by a word for a lecture, the outcome being a (4,5) phrase. I did wonder whether the lecture part not being a homophone was acceptable, given that the ‘for audience’ must also apply to it, but I suppose that any word sounds very much like itself. Perhaps.

8d Re such application of flavour – could be sprinkling sugar, nice (7)
A composite anagram, where RE plus the solution (‘such application of flavour’) can be rearranged (‘could be sprinkling’) to form SUGAR NICE.

13d Tapering bloomers: cover end of tear one got on upended stone (10)
I was briefly puzzled by the apparent ‘end of tear’ here, but the cunningly-constructed wordplay resolves itself into a three-letter word meaning ‘cover end of’, a three-letter ‘tear’, a two-letter word for ‘one’, and a reversal (‘upended’) of the usual abbreviation for ‘stone’. The answer should be shown as (10, 2 words).

15d Oily treatment for heart portion trapped in foreign river (9)
A four-letter word for a portion is contained by (‘trapped in’) a famous French river.

23d Island group: what’ll be paid for ferry circling ring? (6)
The five-letter word which is ‘circling’ the letter representing a ring is nothing to do with obols or the like but describes the prices paid for any forms of passage, whether by trains, planes or automobiles…or ferries.

27d One calling from Canada shortly? (5)
The region of which Canada makes up a large part is abbreviated to (1,4) in order to produce the answer.

29d Last of vessels heading for north island (4)
I’m not entirely convinced about the mixing of a relative position and a compass direction to indicate that the last letter of a word for vessels of the Noachic kind must be moved to the beginning, but I’ll let it go just this once.

(definitions are underlined)