Notes for Azed 2,669

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 2,669 Plain

Difficulty rating: (1.5 / 5)

There were several answers that I wasn’t familiar with, but such was the accuracy of the wordplays (and the absence of obscurities therein) that I was able to complete the puzzle without recourse to Chambers. Combined with the friendliness of the long entries at the top and bottom of the puzzle, this suggests a difficulty rating significantly below average.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at  a clue from a non-Azed puzzle, “Could be Nissan parking is Cherry, perhaps that can see to it itself? (8)”. The answer is AUTOCARP [AUTOCAR + P], being a term for a fruit produced by self-fertilization, and there are a few points of interest here. The first is the use of ‘Could be Nissan’ to indicate AUTOCAR – Azed reckons that “barks like a dog and is man’s best friend” is OK for DOG, and I wouldn’t disagree, so that’s alright in isolation, but since ‘could be Nissan’ isn’t a noun phrase, adding the ‘parking’ to it is highly questionable. The biggest issue, however, relates to the definition. it’s a pretty horrible word to define accurately, and the setter has tried to do something interesting, so I’m prepared to accept that an autocarp, the result of self-fertilization, could be said to ‘see to itself’. What I can’t accept is the lone comma between ‘Cherry’ and ‘perhaps’ – this clearly tells us that the answer is a Cherry (or cherry) which can perhaps see to itself. The clue needs a second comma, such that the definition reads ‘Cherry, perhaps, that can see to itself’ – then we are looking at something which can see to itself, perhaps a cherry. When writing clues, it is important to check that in the cryptic reading the punctuation does not unfairly mislead the solver.

Across

9a Accepted bishop’s mild exclamation:‘Bedad!’ (5)
A single-letter abbreviation, a two-letter abbreviation for a title given to an Anglican bishop, and an expression of ‘surprise, joy, pity, complaint, objection, etc.’ (something of an interjection for all seasons) combine to produce an expression, the Irishness of which is not explicitly stated but is implied by the use of ‘bedad’ as the definition.

14a Speedster to drive round, holding on (5)
A three-letter word meaning (among many other things) ‘to drive’ reversed (’round’) outside (‘holding’) ON (from the clue) produces a (3-2) hyphenated solution.

18a Names from the past I’m among shortly making comeback (6)
The letters IM (from the clue) are placed inside (‘among’) a word meaning ‘shortly’ and the whole lot reversed (‘making a comeback’). The names are the sort that Romans had between their praes and their cogs.

19a Maybe ironic address to friend year after sack? (4)
The usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘year’ follows a word for a sack of a particular, woven material ‘used to cover a chest of tea, coffee etc’. The definition doesn’t seem quite right – the word (a favourite of Jim Strange in Endeavour) could be used when addressing a friend, but in that instance there would be no irony; that would come when Jim was addressing not Morse but a miscreant.

21a Application for military uniform left in money kept in accounts (6)
The single-letter abbreviation for ‘left’ is put inside the term for the bank money of account (as opposed to currency), producing the nickname of the character played by David Jason in Porridge, and the name of a product first used by the British Army to whiten Slade (as in the fictional prison) Wallace buckskin leather equipment in the nineteenth century.

26a Dim northerner needing to grasp difference ultimately between right and left (7)
A four-letter word meaning ‘to grasp’ or ‘to hold’ is followed by the last letter of DIFFERENCE (‘difference ultimately’) in between the abbreviations for ‘right’ and ‘left’.

29a Love making flip in second fruit tonic? (8)
A three-letter word for ‘love’ (in the sporting sense) is reversed (‘making flip’) inside the abbreviation for ‘second’ plus the name of a fruit. The definition is by example, hence the question mark.

30a Pear yielding dry unit (not vin) (6)
More fruit, this one comprising a three-letter word for ‘dry’ and a six-letter unit (of temperature) from which the consecutive letters VIN have been removed (‘not vin’).

Down

3d One bit of carpeting taken up in flat for hermit (7)
The Roman numeral for one and a three-letter word for a ‘bit of carpeting’ are reversed (‘taken up’) within a word for a place of one’s own, whether large or small.

12d Crushing formerly hurt struggling clubs in grip of problem (10)
An anagram (‘struggling’) of HURT precedes the usual abbreviation for ‘clubs’ inside (‘in grip of’) a word for a problem (as in ‘the ????? is…’). The qualification of the definition is incorrect – Chambers gives the answer as ‘dialect’ rather than ‘obsolete’ or ‘archaic’, so ‘formerly’ should be something like ‘locally’.

16d Prop not yet solid admits bloody lifting inside (8)
A five-letter word meaning ‘not yet solid’, as runny blancmange might be, has a three-letter word meaning ‘bloody’ reversed (‘lifting’) inside.

17d Flowers showing trouble rising in leaf divisions (8)
A three-letter verb meaning ‘[to] trouble’ is reversed (‘rising’) within a word for leaf divisions.

22d Bug, obscure, appearing on opening of speedwell (literally) (6)
A three-letter abbreviation is followed by the name (hence the ‘literally’) of the first letter (‘opening’) of SPEEDWELL.

27d A rag banned from local benefice as depravity (4)
An eight-letter word for the residence or benefice of a parson has the consecutive letters A RAG omitted (‘banned’).

(definitions are underlined)