Notes for Azed 2,737

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 2,737 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

I felt that the high proportion of unfamiliar answers, when combined with the paucity of ‘gimmes’, put this one slightly above the halfway mark of difficulty, certainly for those solving it without the assistance of electronic aids. There were some nice clues in there, with several inventive, and at times playful, definitions.

Clue Writers’ Corner: There are certain conventions in the world of the cryptic crossword which appear, on inspection, to be somewhat arbitrary. One of these is the acceptance that a verb in its uninflected state (eg ‘eat’) can be indicated by another verb preceded by ‘to’, such as the infinitive ‘to consume’. The justification for this seems far from obvious, indeed a verb with an infinitive marker would seem more suited to indicating a gerundive, eg ‘to consume’ for EATING, since ‘To consume éclairs is a pleasure’ and ‘Eating éclairs is a pleasure’ come to pretty much the same thing (ie no éclairs). But the rule is the rule, and jolly handy for clue writers it is. We can get around problems with singular subjects and plural verbs, eg ‘Stokes to remove support’ for STAKE, and when the answer (or word to be indicated in wordplay) is a verb, and we have a synonym which can also be another part of speech, such as a noun, the marker ‘to’ can take on a different role in the surface reading – as in ‘Son rushed to house’ for STORE.

Across

1a Bairn’s worn out its bunny perhaps (6)
A child’s bunny could, I suppose, be described thus, but the individual whom I most associate with the ‘word’ is the consistently unfortunate Elmer J Fudd, not least because his catchphrase is “Shhh! Be vewy vewy quiet. I’m hunting ??????s”.

6a Church portico from source of gypsum – see inside (6)
The usual single letter abbreviation of the Latin word for ‘see’ is put inside the name of a city; a particularly useful substance which takes its name from that city was originally produced by heating gypsum from a large deposit found there.

11a Such as The Scotsman locally? Chairman has page within set aside (5)
A nine-letter term for someone who is chosen to control meetings of a society etc has a four-letter word for a page (of paper) removed from within. The presence of ‘The Scotsman’ in the definition serves not only as an example of the answer but also an indication that it is a Scots spelling that we are looking for. The choice of the last word in the clue seems less than ideal.

18a Call-girl with guy? One’ll be responsible for split (8)
A three-letter poule de luxe is followed by a word meaning ‘[to] guy’ or ‘make fun of’.

24a Garment of fibrous ‘grass’? It’s never taken off (4)
It took me a little while to spot that this was a double-definition clue, but it made me smile when I ‘got’ it. I’m not sure whether the second definition would be adequate in a single-definition clue, since there are more things that haven’t ever taken off than have, but it’s fine as a corroborating indication. For some reason I think I’d have put “One’s” rather than “It’s” at the start of the second sentence, perhaps because it seems less specific.

29a Extract from The Gondoliers? Shepherd’s pipes flanked by drumbeat (8)
A four-letter word for shepherd’s pipes (from the source of the straw out of which they were made) is contained (‘flanked’) by the sort of sound that I would associate with Big Ben rather a drum.

32a This rake, with gen, sorts out gardening (6)
A composite anagram, where the letters of the answer (‘this rake’) and GEN can be rearranged (‘sorts out’) to form GARDENING. Is the answer quite the same thing as ‘rake’? I leave that to the reader to decide.

33a Succeeded in ballet leap on one’s posterior, or butt (6)
The usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘succeeded’ is contained by a four-letter ballet leap and the last letter (‘posterior’) of ‘one’. The answer is shown by Chambers as being specifically a coinage of Laurence Sterne, which I feel ought to be indicated in some way (although I can see that it would have been detrimental to the surface reading). In Tristram Shandy, Sterne wrote:

The Mortgager and Mortgagee differ the one from the other, not more in length of purse, than the ????er and ????ee do, in that of memory.

Down

3d It may be deployed (by Scot) for boring, cutting in (4)
This is an &lit clue, in the sense that the whole thing stands as a definition of the answer, although the qualifying ‘(by Scot)’ plays no part in the wordplay, which involves an anagram (‘deployed’) of BORING from which the consecutive letters IN have been removed (‘cutting in’). Since Azed felt the need to indicate the Scottishness of this word, I’m surprised that he didn’t flag the Sterneness of 33a.

5d On the doorstep I’m leaving under control (6, 2 words)
A (2,6) Latin phase meaning ‘on the doorstep’ or ‘on the threshold’ has the consecutive letters IM deleted (“I’m leaving”) in order to produce the (2,4) solution.

7d Acknowledgement once, one on left-hand page to use as before (6)
A 1+2+3 charade of a word meaning ‘one’, an abbreviation for the left-hand page of an open book, and an obsolete word for ‘use’, with which it shares all but the central letter.

9d Fruit sections volunteers tucked into apace (6)
Since the Territorial Army is now known as the Army Reserve, most editors insist that if the term ‘volunteers’ is being used to indicate TA it must be qualified to indicate that today’s volunteers do not go under that name, so ‘volunteers formerly’ or suchlike; the direct indication ‘Territorial Army’ for TA is fine, just as ‘National Union of Teachers’ is fine for NUT, because the abbreviations live on even if the body which they represent does not. Here the TA is ‘tucked into’ a musical term taken directly from the French for ‘fast’.

14d E.g. pun going wrong in bar, showing inconsistency (10)
An anagram (‘going wrong’) of EG PUN is contained by a five-letter (chiefly Scottish, according to Chambers) word for a prop or bar; the answer is a familiar word, but the definition takes advantage of a less familiar sense.

21d Sheltering abroad in S. Italian region avoiding outsiders (6, 3 words,apostrophe)
The eight-letter name of the region that forms the ‘toe’ of Italy is deprived of its outer letters (‘avoiding outsiders’), the result being a (1,1,4) French phrase.

23d Jock’s special spade Paddy let out (6)
I’m not sure that there are any first names which can match the number of possible diminutives offered by ‘Elizabeth’, but here it is another form of the name ‘Patrick’ which must be followed by an anagram (‘out’) of LET.

28d Instruction to act? It’s worth little or nothing (4)
The instruction to act comprises a pair of two-letter words, and usually demands at least one exclamation mark.

(definitions are underlined)