Notes for Azed 2,690

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 2,690 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

Although not explicitly stated in the title, this is a competition puzzle, confirmed by the presence of an asterisked clue and the (correct) instructions for entrants. It certainly wasn’t an easy one, and there were a couple of clues which I felt were slightly less than satisfactory.  There’s an enumeration error at 35a, which should be ‘(7, 2 words)’.

Clue Writers’ Corner: It’s not too often that Azed chooses a competition clue word which describes a person with a particular skill or interest, and when he does it presents competitors with a wealth of potential definitions which go well beyond anything found in a dictionary. This in turn inevitably means that many entrants will be aiming for &lit clues (such as 35a in the current puzzle), where the whole clue serves as both the wordplay and the definition. A brilliant &lit (eg Colin Dexter’s clue for MAGIC LANTERN in comp 1,648 – ‘Item gran arranged family slides in’) is likely to beat anything, but an &lit as good as that is extremely rare, and a good conventional definition + wordplay clue will do better than an unconvincing &lit. Another way of getting the judge’s attention is through an eye-catching definition, supported of course by a sound wordplay which completes a compelling story. If you have a look at the clue list for comp 1,641 (GADGETEER) you will see what I mean. The current word is one which also lends itself to ‘name-dropping’ definitions (eg ‘Aloysius does something for me’ for ARCTOPHILE) – the best example I can find is comp 1,814, which is almost too good an example, in that the word to be clued was very close to the current target, but it does illustrate my point well.

Across

4a Paper-making machine enveloping craftsman’s head in choking dust (7)
One of those ‘definition doing stuff in wordplay’ clues, here the first letter (‘head’) of CRAFTSMAN is contained by a six-letter word for choking dust or, more commonly nowadays, fuss.

13a Chinese house (in Sydney?) creating a stink beside magnolia cham removed (7)
In this wordplay, ‘A beside B’ equates to ‘A following B’, so a seven-letter word for an East Indian tree of the magnolia family with the consecutive letters CHAM omitted (‘cham removed’) precedes the letter A (from the clue) and a word for…well, something that might not smell too good, but is considerably more tangible than a ‘stink’.

16a Servile rustic to call up beforehand? (7)
The wordplay is a whimsical second definition, a (3-4) combination which could conceivably mean ‘to call up (on the telephone) beforehand’.

17a Piece of Venetian glass showing Latin citation, translated (9)
Nothing too complicated about this clue, an anagram (‘translated’) of the usual abbreviation for ‘Latin’ plus CITATION, but I was much taken by the answer, which I confidently expect to see any day now on the list of hybrid coffees available in our local Costa.

22a Unattractive expression one pulled? (4)
As Shania would say, this one don’t impress me much. A seven-letter ‘expression’ (there are many expressions, but the one here is ‘a distortion of the face, in fun, disgust, etc’) has a three-letter word often indicated in crosswords by ‘one’ removed in order to produce the answer.

25a Dodge, mostly half-hearted, taking king in (4)
A familiar eight-letter word for ‘half-hearted’ (often used to describe the reception received by something that isn’t particularly impressive) also exists in a four-letter form which Chambers shows as ‘dialect’. This latter form is deprived of its last letter (‘mostly’) before ‘taking in’ the monarchical abbreviation for ‘king’.

26a Singers rarely get beyond these shrines (5)
Not my area of expertise by any means, but I understand that true sopranos can reach the notes suggested by the answer here, while no-one else is going to get there without outside assistance and considerable discomfort.

29a Those working in capitals maybe give power to muscle? About right (9)
A three-letter word meaning ‘give [the] power to’ (or ‘allow’) is followed by a five-letter muscle (one of two in the shoulder blade) containing the usual abbreviation for ‘right’ (‘about right’). There’s no reason to believe that these people are working solely in capitals, and they might not be using them at all, so the ‘maybe’ is entirely appropriate.

33a Alas, having to miss final piece in such as the Albert Hall? (4)
There’s a familiar (2,4) expression (given by Chambers) which means ‘alas’, but I’m distinctly dubious about the validity of the (1,4) version which must lose its final letter (‘having to miss final piece’).

35a Runny organ’s bunged by one ultimately? (7)
An &lit, where the whole thing is both the wordplay – an anagram (‘runny’) of ORGANS containing (‘bunged by’) the last letter (‘ultimately’) of ONE – and a definition of the answer. Note that for &lit clues there is a general acceptance that the ‘definition’ can be somewhat looser than in conventional clues, much more along the lines of an indication of the answer, and there can be words (such as ‘ultimately’ here) which are required for the wordplay but not the definition, as long as they contribute to the latter in a broadly positive way. The solution is actually two words, (4,3).

Down

1d Dad called up boor, cheerful, for what’s afflicting orchard? (11)
A reversal (‘called up’) of a two-letter ‘childish or familiar’ word for a father, a four-letter ‘boor’, and a five-letter word meaning ‘cheerful’ combine to produce the (5-6) solution

2d Tailless lizard, variable length (4)
If you don’t know the lizard or the linear measure known as a ‘Spanish yard’ (usually around 33 inches, but probably depends whether you’re buying or selling), then a trawl through Chambers is likely to be required. Should you be using the paper version, I would advise starting the search at V.

3d Special girl? Bob may be attached to one in the US (5)
The usual abbreviation for ‘special’ is followed by the name of a girl that you might associate with a small insectivorous mammal. Bob ‘may be attached’ to the answer in the sense that Chambers has an entry for BOB ????? which is shown as ‘N Am‘.

5d Love film including shot of snake-worshippers (7)
The letter that often represents ‘love’ in crosswords is followed by a three-letter informal word that would generally be understood these days to refer to a photograph, but can also refer to a film (Esquire 1936: “Raft’s next ??? is Proud Rider“), containing a three-letter word for a shot, in particular a successful one. 

6d Floor lamp? Here goes – it’s made of twisted metal (4)
An eight-letter ornamental lampstand has the consecutive letters HERE omitted (‘here goes’).

7d Managing with old mirror that’s skew (11)
The quick way to solve this one is to look up skew² in Chambers; the wordplay has a six-letter word for ‘managing’ combining with a somewhat surprising five-letter Shakespearean word for a mirror – as Lear says:

Lend me a looking glass;
If that her breath will mist or stain the ?????,
Why, then she lives.

9d Further attempt to clear up that’s over (4)
I have never liked ‘has’ as a juxtaposition indicator, and I can’t see me warming to it any time soon. Here we have a three-letter word (a crossword regular) meaning ‘to clear up’ that is followed by (“that’s”, ie ‘that has’) the usual cricketing abbreviation for ‘over’.

19d Ne’er-do-well that is confined to jug having gone after Virginia (7)
The two-letter abbreviation of the Latin for ‘that is’ is contained by a three-letter ‘jug’ (or a container that could hold a lot of tea), the combination following the two-letter abbreviation for ‘Virginia’.

27d Trump’s last East will have to provide taking partner’s last lowish trump (5)
The last letter of TRUMP (“Trump’s last”) is followed by the usual abbreviation for ‘East’ and a two-letter word meaning ‘to provide’ containing (‘taking’) the last letter of PARTNER (“Partner’s last”), representing a convoluted route to the name given to the five of trumps in a number of American card games such as Cinch. The entry for the answer in Chambers is a stub which refers to another entry.

28d Here is dry in Rome without sun overhead (4)
The five-letter Italian word for ‘dry’ (which is given by Chambers without qualification, so could in isolation have been indicated just by ‘dry’) loses the usual abbreviation for ‘sun’ at its start (‘without sun overhead’) to produce an interjection meaning ‘see’ or ‘here is’ which Chambers does show as being Italian, hence the ‘in Rome’ is needed and applies to everything that precedes it in the clue.

30d Pawn, raising swag (4)
There’s no ambiguity here – ‘raise’ is a transitive-only verb, so it must be the ‘swag’ which is going upwards, but just as in 4a I don’t like the answer being the subject of the verb in the wordplay.

(definitions are underlined)