Notes for Azed 2,598

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.

While I – of course – believe that the views presented are valid, I realize that (i) I am not infallible, and (ii) in the world of the crossword there are many areas where opinions will differ. I say what I think, but I don’t intend thereby to stifle discussion – I would encourage readers who disagree with the views that I express, whether in the blog posts or in response to comments, to make their feelings known…I shall not be offended!

Azed 2,598 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

I thought this was quite tricky for a plain Azed – there were fewer ‘gimmes’ than usual (arguably none) and a very generous dollop of obscurities, both in wordplays and solutions. I didn’t think that it was one of Azed’s best puzzles, with a certain lack of sparkle evident. 

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to take a look at (among others) clue 29d, “Sailor heading east – what’s net weight of vessel? (4)”. The solution here is made up of a three-letter crossword staple for ‘sailor’ and the usual abbreviation for ‘east’, so what is the ‘heading’ doing there? Well, a juxtaposition indicator is what it is, but what it’s doing is absolutely nothing – ‘sailor east’ would produce exactly the same result. A number of juxtaposition indicators are listed in the clinical data section of this site, and they fall into two broad categories: the ones like ‘heading’ here, which serve no purpose except to improve the surface reading, and those like ‘under’ (24d) and ‘found at bottom of’ (26d), which reverse the natural sequence of wordplay elements. The former type are essentially superfluous text, which makes their role in the wordplay similar to that played by ‘link’ words between the wordplay and the definition, of which there are several in this puzzle ranging from ‘for’ (14a) and ‘in’ (15a) to ‘showing’ (5d) and ‘causing’ (16a/22d). I view ‘no effect’ juxtaposition indicators and link words very similarly – they should be avoided wherever possible, but on occasion they are necessary in order to produce a sensible surface reading. Out of 36 clues in this puzzle, 10 contain linking words or phrases, which seems to me rather a lot.

2a It’s endlessly fine imbibing spirit, then beer and type of pop (11, 3 words)
A five-letter word often linked with ‘fine’ missing its last letter (‘endlessly’) and containing (‘imbibing’) a three-letter alcoholic spirit is followed by the name of a brewery which was famous for its Pale Ale (and towards the end of the 19th century was the largest in the world), producing a (4,3,4) name for a type of pop in the musical rather than carbonated sense.

10a One with bit of cloth (plaid?), new in, ideal for non-seamstress? (6)
The Roman numeral representing the number one is followed by a four-letter Scottish (hence the ‘plaid?’) word for a piece of cloth, into which the normal abbreviation for ‘new’ has been inserted. The solution is an adjective, hyphenated (4-2).

15a Insect, one devouring case in furniture wood (7)
A three-letter term applied loosely to many types of insect together with a single-letter word for ‘one’ containing (‘devouring’) a three-letter word for a case, specifically the sort in which wine is stored. 

16a Mites causing opening of rind in purple fruit (5)
The wordplay involves the first letter (‘opening’) of ‘rind’ being put into the name of a South American palm (and of the blackish-purple berry which it bears) – the word (which can also be spelt with a double-ss rather than the c-cedilla here) appears to be a relative newcomer to dictionaries, receiving a draft OED entry in 2007.

17a Language replacing English in range of knowledge – for space travellers? (7)
This is a clue of the sort that Ximenes termed an ‘offshoot &lit’, where the whole clue stands as an indication of the solution, but only part of it serves as the wordplay. A five-letter term for a language (often poorly regarded) or the jargon of a particular group of people displaces the usual abbreviation for ‘English’ from a three-letter word for ‘range of knowledge’, part of the title of a radio comedy that starred the late, great Kenneth Horne. The last three words are there purely to enhance the definition, which would otherwise be very loose given that the language is fictitious and hasn’t yet made it into Chambers, although it does feature in the OED.

30a Race almost over? Bore (4)
The five-letter name of a famous race for three year olds (horses, not humans) has its last letter removed (‘almost’) before being reversed (‘over’) to produce the past tense of a word meaning to bear or bring forth.

32a It is roughly about summer’s end?
In contrast to 17a, this is a true &lit, where an anagram (‘roughly’) of IT IS contains (‘about’) the last letter of ‘summer’, the whole clue serving as both wordplay and definition. I see why Azed has put a question mark at the end (it is a rare &lit where the definition is so precise that one is not required), but I think I would then have been inclined to go with ‘Is it’ rather than ‘It is’, producing a more natural surface reading.

34a Hawkers’ spiel? Resist being misled about touching and so on (11, 2 words)
An anagram (‘misled’) of RESIST containing (‘about’) a two-letter bit of commercial jargon for ‘touching’ or ‘concerning’ (probably seen more often in crosswords these days than in correspondence) and a three-letter abbreviation for a term (much repeated by Yul Brynner during his period as an Asian head of state) meaning ‘and so on’. Note that the position of the apostrophe in the definition suggests multiple sales pitches , the (6,5) solution itself being a plural.

1d Bed sheet, what Mac’s in when heated? (7)
A three-letter word for a bed (also seen at 14a when indicated by ‘snooze’) is followed by a four-letter word for a sheet, specifically of paper, the whole being a Scottish (“Mac’s”) word for a state of excitement or irritation.

4d Member of OT people, once more getting somewhat beset? (7)
The wordplay here has an obsolete form (‘once’) of the word ‘more’ containing (‘getting…beset’) a two-word (1,3) phrase meaning ‘somewhat’.

5d Small swelling showing date in ancient dome (6)
If you solved this clue as I did, then you quickly identified that the single-character abbreviation for ‘date’ would need to be put inside an old (‘ancient’) word for a dome, and you then worked back from the familiar solution to identify that the ‘dome’ here is the top of the head, and the word for it is a ‘Spenser special’, the appearances of which seem to be limited to one outing in The Faerie Queene.

6d Laundryman in Berlin that is given foreign sash (5)
It’s not often that the German abbreviation for ‘that is’ (or ‘das heisst’) turns up in puzzles, but it does here, being followed by a three-letter word for a Japanese sash (and a form of witchcraft).

7d Follower of self-styled prophet one third of young ignored (4)
A six-letter word for ‘young’ in the offspring sense loses its last two letters (‘one third…ignored’) to produce the term applied to a follower of Bab, the name assumed by Mirza Ali Mohammed ibn Radhik, the founder of a sect originating in Persia, ‘whose doctrine and practice include Islamic, Christian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian elements’.

8d Capital making one a bargain invested in health resort? (6)
That Roman numeral for ‘one’ pops up again, followed by a two-letter (archaic) informal word for a bargain or deal, the pair being contained by (‘invested in’) a three-letter (old) informal term usually associated with a hospital for convalescents but also (according to Chambers) describing a ‘health farm, health resort or health station’ (I’m not even sure what the last of these is).

9d Area shifted in reception room gaining Jock’s reproof (5)
A five-letter reception room has the standard single-character abbreviation for ‘area’ moved internally (‘shifted’, from position 2 to position 4) resulting in a Scots word (“Jock’s” this time) for a snub or reproof.

19d ‘Fidgety Phil’ to scold, shuffling e.g. right and left (7)
The wordplay here involves a three-letter word meaning ‘to scold’ (perhaps the result of a failure to ‘keep your hair on’)  followed by an anagram (‘shuffling’) of EG plus the usual one-letter abbreviations for ‘right’ and ‘left’. The reference in the definition is to Heinrich Hoffmann’s Die Geschichte vom Zappel-Philipp (‘The Story of Fidgety Philip’) in his 1845 book Der Struwwelpeter (‘Shock-headed Peter’).

20d Mostly kind where Wellington is showing inclination (7)
A six-letter word for ‘kind’ (or ‘delicate’) without its last letter (‘Mostly’) is followed by the two-letter abbreviation for the name of the (or at least a) country ‘where Wellington is’ (the city not the Womble).

22d What’s pinched (by reiver?) causing his week in prison (6)
Both the solution and the three-letter word for a week which is enclosed by a three-letter word for a prison, especially one in a castle which is entered from above, are Scottish. The ‘by reiver?’ and subsequent ‘his’ indicate this, but I was a bit dubious about it given that the Border Reivers, as well as caring little about the  nationality of their victims, came from both sides of the border. However, further research makes it clear that the ‘reiver’ spelling owes its presence in dictionaries to Walter Scott, and you can’t get much more Caledonian than that.

(definitions are underlined)