Notes for Azed 2,710

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 2,710 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2.5 / 5)

The recent numbering issue seems to have been sorted out on the Guardian website, which this week brings us a puzzle that I found hard to assess from a difficulty perspective. Very few ‘gimmes’, but nothing that took me too long to solve/parse either, so I’ve taken the easy way out and put it right in the middle of the range.

Incidentally, I see that in the solution notes for 2,707, Azed confirms that the ‘itchy’ word in 8d that was reduced by half was indeed PRURIENT; this always seemed more likely than the equally valid, but less familiar, PRURITIC.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 33a, “Club court (5)”. Clues consisting of just two words are likely to be of the ‘double definition’ sort, and so it proves here. The ‘club’ is a golf club, while the ‘court’ is a verb, having the the sense of ‘to woo’. This is a good example of a ‘2 defs’ clue, a type which when nicely executed will fulfil certain basic criteria. First and foremost, the definitions must lead either to two entirely different words or (as here) two completely  different senses of the same word – ‘Be careful to pay attention’ for MIND would be a very poor clue. Misdirection is important – suggesting different parts of speech in the surface reading is good (here ‘court’ appears to be a noun but is a verb in the cryptic reading), likewise (particularly if the two definitions relate to the same headword) the definitions being of different parts of speech. Glaringly obvious senses of the word(s) being defined should be avoided, and the clue as a whole should establish a misleading context (here, tennis). The word clued is almost certain to be relatively short, and at least one sense should be familiar to most, if not all, solvers. Double definition clues can add variety to a puzzle and be enjoyable to solve, but they should not be overused, and as much care should go into their construction as any other sort of clue.

So let’s pick a word with plenty of meanings, SPOT. Informal or slang senses can be a good place to start, and ‘spot’ has an informal meaning of ‘a small quantity’. A one-word synonym  is ‘little’, a noun which could appear to be an adjective in the surface reading. What about meanings of the verb ‘spot’? A familiar sense is ‘to notice’, and ‘notice’ can also serve as a noun. If we put the two together, we end up with ‘Little notice’. Before using the clue, we need to ask ourselves whether it could lead to more than one valid answer – a double definition clue for SPOT could easily lead also to MARK. This one looks ok, and while it’s not a great clue it shows how a respectable  double definition clue can be put together.

Across

1a Trip freely with disco music around – such as this? (7)
An anagram (‘freely’) of TRIP has a three-letter  informal word for a dance with pop music (‘disco music’ doesn’t quite hit the spot for me) put outside it (‘with … around’) to produce the name of a musical genre to which Damon Albarn and the Gallagher brothers made telling contributions. Which makes me think of Noel’s description of Liam, ‘a man with a fork in a world of soup’.

14a Dull shrub found around foreign state (8)
A four-letter shrub (which shares its name with the cupbearer of Olympus) contains (‘around’) the French word for a state, the result being one of those ‘formal’ words which largely remain captive in thesauri.

16a Lizard to pester losing tail, last character thereof? (6)
A five-letter word meaning ‘to pester’ is deprived of its last letter (‘losing tail’) and is followed by the name of the letter at the end of ‘tail’ (‘last character thereof’, ie of ‘tail’).

19a Convert a degree making switch – little new in that (8)
An anagram (‘making switch’) of A DEGREE includes the usual abbreviation for ‘new’ (‘little new in that’).

21a At a display, in being admitted (8)
The letter A (from the clue) and a five-letter word for ‘display’ (particularly of the ‘pomp and ceremonial dignity’ sort) contain the letters IN (again from the clue, ‘in being admitted’). The definition is not a word but a symbol.

27a Develop fondness, returning half of it (6)
A four-letter word for ‘fondness’ is reversed (‘returning’) ahead of the same word (in the normal direction) with half missing (‘half of it’, ‘it’ being the fondness word).

31a With duty performed, we hear, as directed (4)
I think Azed has been a bit naughty with this homophone clue. He is using ‘performed’ in the sense of ‘rendered’, but it’s a bit of a stretch. The answer sounds like a word meaning ‘with tax charged’.

32a Feature of wartime, castle holding on a bit, battered (10, 2 words)
The castle here is not in the air or Spain, but on the chessboard. It is seen containing (‘holding’) an anagram (‘battered’) of ON A BIT to produce a (6,4) solution.

Down

1d Little weak hush oddly retained by supporters, country-dwellers (12)
An anagram (‘oddly’) of the usual abbreviation for ‘weak’ (‘little weak’) and HUSH is contained (‘retained’) by a seven-letter word for supporters.

2d Rat tailed quivering mouse, spurred? (7)
The word RAT (from the clue) has its last letter removed (‘tailed’) and is followed by an anagram (‘quivering’) of MOUSE.

6d Those heartlessly after poet’s favour, keening for him (6)
I’m not too keen (no pun intended) on clues like this, where both the answer and an element of the wordplay are obscure words, albeit the latter here is a variant spelling of a more familiar word. The outside letters of THESE (‘these heartlessly’) come after a word for ‘favour’ given by Chambers as Spenserian. It had been around for a while before he used it, and it survived for a while longer, at least in the phrase ‘good ????’ or ‘goodly ????’.

8d Tree creature, passerine but not German (4)
A seven-letter word for ‘any passerine bird of the S American subfamily Thraupinae, closely related to the buntings’ has the three-letter letter abbreviation for ‘Germany’ omitted (‘not German’). The answer is confirmed by Chambers but perhaps erroneously, as it seems that the correct name of the critter in question is ‘Tupaia ????’.

9d Page with English lord, devious and pathetic, one laying claim to throne (12, 2 words)
An anagram (‘devious’) of the usual abbreviations for ‘page’ and ‘English’ together with LORD is followed by a word which has a meaning of ‘pathetic’ but is more familiar in its sense of ‘soft’ or ‘delicate’. I cannot see the (3,9) solution without thinking of Percy Warmneck.

12d Bucks, last in bank, stuff labelled ‘audit’ (4)
The last letter of ‘bank’ combines with the type of drink which was brewed for the day of audit at some Oxford and Cambridge colleges, producing a US slang word for money. The definition requires no geographical qualification, since ‘bucks’ in the sense of moolah is similarly North American.

15d Sedge plant yielding unpleasant smell, dry in Congo grown wild (9, 2 words)
A two-letter abbreviation for an unpleasant smell is followed by an abbreviation of similar length indicating abstinence from strong liquor contained by an anagram (‘grown wild’) of CONGO. The solution is (3,6).

20d Underrate fee, about to wash up (7)
A three-letter ‘fee’ or thing owed contains (‘about’) a reversal of an archaic word meaning ‘to wash’.

22d Men in the field dismissing bat for quid pro quo (6)
A nine-letter word meaning ‘a body of men drawn up in battle array’ has the consecutive letters BAT removed (‘dismissing bat’), the result being an old legal word meaning something along the lines of ‘tit for tat’.

28d Nick part of hiking kit, bed removed (4)
An eight-letter word for something that could well be carried on a hiking trip has a four-letter word for a bed (of the sort you might ‘hit’ when retiring) omitted (‘removed’).

(definitions are underlined)