Notes for Azed 2,733

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 2,733 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2.5 / 5)

Some of the clues in this one looked harder at first blush than they turned out to be, so overall I’ve given it a difficulty rating right in the middle of the spectrum. I didn’t spot any exceptionally fine clues (although 24d was neat), but the overall standard was pretty good.

Clue Writers’ Corner: Azed’s instructions for competition puzzles include a request for you to ‘include a brief explanation of your clue’. In the notes for comp 1,268, he answered the question ‘How concise does the explanation of clues have to be? Can we ramble or will that affect your final decision when it comes to printing VHCs?’ as follows: “Two things to say here: I often edit your explanations for the slip to make the style of these reasonably consistent, or add an explanation when none has been supplied by the competitor. I do like you to supply an explanation, even if you think it hardly needs spelling out, but prefer this to be as brief as absolute clarity will permit. It just helps to make the judging process quicker and easier. And, as I’ve said before, if a clue needs a paragraph or more to explain it, it may be over-complex, a weakness in itself.” In an earlier slip, he had made the telling remark, “A lengthy analysis of a clue’s structure can indicate that its author is not wholly confident of its acceptability.” Yes, that rings horribly true. I would suggest that the explanation of the clue’s cryptic structure should be kept to a few words, eg “B(oris) + anagram of CON HEAD”. However, where clues refer to people, places, events and such, and particularly where the intended references in the surface and cryptic readings are different, I would advise explaining them separately, albeit briefly, eg “Miranda = HART (actor/comedian) / Carmen (singer, dancer)”. If the people etc are so unsung that they require more than a quick ‘nudge to the judge’, then they are almost certainly too obscure for a successful clue.

Across

11a Beef or duck served in wild onion (5)
The usual single-character representation of ‘duck’ (as might be experienced at Lord’s) is contained by (‘served in’) a four-letter wild onion (Allium ????, from the magic herb given to Odysseus to ward off the spells of Circe), producing one spelling of a word for a hornless cow or, indeed, any sort of cow.

16a Traveller going to and fro in playsuit? (6)
Should the ‘traveller’ in the clue be ‘travellers’? Probably, since the traveller that is going forward is a different one from the commercial kind that is going backwards.

18a Drink knocked back, old poet’s addled (4)
A term for the sort of drink that might be described as ‘wee’ (but very likely wouldn’t be!) is reversed, producing a Spenserian past participle of a word meaning ‘to spoil’.

23a What rattles – look at price involved – varied shellfish (12) One of the two similar two-letter words for ‘behold!’ (ie ‘look’) and a four-letter word for ‘price’ are contained (‘involved’) in a word for something that rattles – normally found in pairs and often associated with Mick Jagger, who used his to good effect in the early days of the Rolling Stones.

24a Vagrant person, parasite avoided by CID (4)
A seven-letter parasitic insect loses the consecutive letters CID (‘avoided by CID’); the adjective ‘vagrant’ is used here in the sense of ‘travelling about’.

25a Henry’s included in derisive shout – it omits nothing (8)
The single-letter abbreviation for ‘henry’ is contained by the sort of derisive shout that might be directed at a ‘turn’ who is not going down well. The answer is hyphenated, 5-3, and is an adjective rather than a noun, so might better be defined at ‘omitting nothing’.

32a Rankers in army abroad going for foreign lady (6)
The ‘rankers’ are the non-commissioned members of the armed services, ie the ‘other ranks’, and their abbreviation is contained by an Indian word for an army, particularly the paramilitary sort.

33a Primer, once new, held in spoon? (5)
The obsolete name given to an ancient Latin primer (perhaps more familiar to some in the context of Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps) is produced by putting the usual abbreviation for ‘new’ inside a less common spelling of a word meaning ‘to show excessive love’ or ‘to be weakly affectionate’, ie ‘spoon’ in the sense of ‘to indulge in (esp sentimental) courtship’.

34a Founder of democracy (John), first in Seychelles, getting agent’s fee (8)
A three-letter surname and a three-letter word meaning ‘first’ or ‘single’ are contained by the IVR code for the Seychelles, resulting in a 3-5 hyphenated answer. The surname belongs to John (1584-1643), a key supporter of the Petition of Right who played a major part in drafting what was termed the Grand Remonstrance to the King, which didn’t go down well with Charles I. He was one of the five members of parliament whom the monarch arrived at the Commons to arrest on 4 January 1642. The Speaker, William Lenthall, refused to tell the King where they were, saying: ” I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as this house is pleased to direct me whose servant I am here.” The King replied that he had eyes too, and said: “I see the birds have flown”. The solution might suggest not John but Magnus of that ilk.

Down

3d Bomb work mounting: it’s armed at sea (5)
A three-letter slang term for a bomb or mine (reflecting the general shape of some examples thereof) and the usual two-letter abbreviation of the Latin word for ‘work’ are reversed (‘mounting’). The Chambers entry for the answer explains the definition nicely.

4d Weedy group, half crazy to get stuck into beer (5)
Which half of a four-letter word for ‘crazy’ is to be put inside (‘get stuck into’) a word for ‘beer’? Either, since they’re the same.

6d Lewd display? I buzz off following earlier probe (7)
The letter I (from the clue) and a two-letter word answering to ‘buzz off’ follow an obsolete (hence the ‘earlier’) word for a probe.

8d Lamb’s fur, reverse of dark – it lost value (7)
A four-letter word for ‘dark’ or ‘gloomy’ (probably not the spelling that one first thinks of) is followed by a five-letter word for ‘value’ deprived of the consecutive letters IT (‘it lost value’). The cryptic reading requires one of those ‘invisicommas’ to be inserted by the solver between ‘lost’ and ‘value’.

9d What’ll make Jack pack fine porcelain (4)
If you break the answer down into  a (1,2,1) expression, the word JACK with that expression applied will produce PACK.

20d Bad actor circling beach in precious antique? (7)
A three-letter overactor contains (‘circling’) a word for a bathing beach, or the sort of thing which Droitwich has since 1935 offered to those without ready access to the briny.

24d Peevish? Not what I am doffing topper (5)
‘Not what I am’ refers to the type of clue which this patently is not, the resulting six-letter word losing its first letter (‘doffing topper’) to produce the solution.

27d Poll’s associated with me? Poll led by adult maybe (5)
Almost certainly the toughest clue in the puzzle, particularly if you aren’t a G&S (Gilbert and Sullivan, not Gin and Soda) aficionado. The wordplay has a four-letter slang term for the head (as in the Australian expression off one’s ????, according to Chambers) following the usual abbreviation for ‘adult’. The definition references the central character in WS Gilbert’s Bab Ballad The Bumboat Woman’s Story, Pineapple Poll, which inspired the comic ballet Poll Pineapple, choreographed by John Cranko and arranged by Sir Charles Mackerras. It includes music from almost all the G&S operas, and has a happy ending in store for Poll, unlike the ballad:

It’s strange to think that I should ever have loved young men,
But I’m speaking of ten years past—I was barely sixty then;
And now my cheeks are furrowed with grief and age, I trow!
And poor Poll Pineapple’s eyes have lost their lustre now!

(definitions are underlined)