Notes for Azed 2,739

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 2,739 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2.5 / 5)

This puzzle, which was probably somewhere close to the middle of the difficulty spectrum, had a few issues ranging from the minor (eg the misspelling of ‘bloodsucker’ in 13a) to the major problem with 28d. There were some nicely deceptive definitions, along with a couple of slightly iffy ones.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 32a, “Scottish millstream on the market? This’ll be included (8, 3 words, apostrophe)”. The wordplay involves a (1,3,4) phrase equating to ‘an offering of a Scottish millstream to potential buyers’ (although I would have preferred this to be suggested by something where the the subject was not the noun being used adjectivally, eg ‘A Scottish millstream auction?”), and the answer is (5,3) with a possessive apostrophe-s at the end of the first part. The real item of interest, though, is the enumeration. This was raised by a correspondent, who writes “I suggest that the ‘3 words’ should be ‘2 words’.”

I have always avoided answers including apostrophes in my own puzzles, simply because I don’t know whether to indicate them. In the slip for AZ 1,806, Azed wrote:

“I am less certain about the best way of indicating words and phrases that include apostrophes [than about hyphenated words], and my uncertainty may have led to some inconsistency. Is, for example, J’ADOUBE one word or two, KWOK’S DISEASE two words or three? Significantly, the old edition of Chambers Words, which excluded phrasal compounds, included J’ADOUBE among the 7-letter words. If I clue it, should I mark it ‘(7)’, ‘(7, apostrophe)’ or ‘(7, 2 words)’? I am inclined to go for the second of these options.”

The example of J’ADOUBE is a good one – clearly two words have been run together here to produce the contraction, so there could be an argument for any of Azed’s three suggested options. KWOK’S DISEASE is a different matter – there have only ever been two words here, as the apostrophe simply marks the omission of a letter or letters from a single word (almost certainly the ‘e’ from the old genitive suffix ‘-es’). There seems no doubt that this, and the answer to 32a in today’s puzzle, should be shown as ‘2 words’, as my correspondent suggests, not ‘3 words’; the answer FO’C’SLE would undoubtedly be shown as ‘6’ rather than ‘6, 3 words’. Incidentally, Chambers describes the apostrophe-s as a ‘sentence element’ – I’m not exactly sure what one of those is, but it’s not the same as a word. A  better example than KWOK’s DISEASE would have been THAT’S THAT – “that’s” is a contraction formed from two words, but I suspect that most solvers would see the expression as consisting of just two words rather than three, given that there is only one space separating the components.

Whether the apostrophe should be mentioned in the enumeration is a different matter, with Azed (despite his observations above) erring on the side of generosity to the solver. My personal view is that if the setter isn’t going to mention hyphens or diacritical marks (as in 24a), there seems little reason to make an exception for apostrophes. 

Across

1a Modernization rendering one strangely agog about international decoration (13)
An anagram (‘strangely’) of AGOG contains (‘about’) the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘international’ and an eight-letter term for decoration.

11a Old serviceman, in essence reverse of free but filled with energy (8)
A four-letter word for ‘essence’ is followed by a reversal of a three-letter verb, frequently indicated by ‘free’ in cryptic clues, containing (‘filled with’) the usual abbreviation for ‘energy’.

16a Forewings become reversed on Asiatic bird (7)
A three-letter word meaning ‘become’ is reversed ahead of a four-letter spelling for an Asiatic bird famed  as the Mike Yarwood/Rory Bremner/Alastair McGowan (select according to your age) of the avian world.

17a Peter keeping folio in cover? (4)
The single-letter abbreviation for ‘folio’ is kept in (ie contained by) a three-letter abbreviation for ‘stamped addressed envelope’. I think it’s reasonable to describe the latter as a ‘cover’, ie “an envelope, esp one with a stamp and postmark, as in first-day cover“, 

19a He’s freed from road accidents, insensitive (5)
The consecutive letters HE are removed (‘freed’) from a seven-letter word for ‘road accidents’.

22a Spot, in short, is endless contamination (5)
The single-letter shortened form (‘in short’) of ‘is’ combines with a word for contamination from which the last letter has been omitted (‘endless’) in order to produce the answer.

23a Reputation once made in battle (4)
A double-definition clue which struck me as somewhat unsatisfactory. The Spenserian (‘once’) reputation is fine, but ‘made in’ seems a rather cumbersome way of saying ‘and’, while ‘battle’ should surely be something more along the lines of ‘battleground’, since we are looking for the the site of a particular 1915 battle. I suppose you could argue that ‘battle’ alone would be acceptable for something like ‘Waterloo’, given that the name is pretty much synonymous with the engagement, but I don’t think it would work for ‘Britain’.

24a Waiters chatter about recipe to scan (7)
Here we have a three-letter word for ‘chatter’ containing (‘about’) both the standard abbreviation for ‘recipe’ and a three-letter word (shown by Chambers as ‘archaic’ but very much current when it comes to crosswords) meaning ‘to scan’.

31a Flow of mud? How surprising when it splits both sides (5)
A three-letter interjection expressing ‘exultation, pleasure, surprise or contempt’ (probably best not used in emails, then) is put inside (‘when it splits’) the single-letter abbreviations for the two sides.

Down

2d Walter’s wench regarding cheesy pastry (7)
Walter Scott’s five-letter word for a wench (Fair Maid of Perth: “The ????? knows her trade”), which shares its spelling with a verb meaning ‘to scoop out’, is followed by that ubiquitous bit of commercial jargon meaning ‘regarding’ or ‘with reference to’.

3d Advertisement boosted big mouthful (4)
Without a checker, there’s no way of knowing whether the advertisement should be reversed (‘boosted’) to produce the big mouthful or vice versa. It is in fact the piece of favourable publicity that undergoes manipulation.

12d A bit of Scotch, giving one good boost (5)
The usual abbreviation for ‘good’ is followed by a four-letter ‘boost’. The answer is shown by Chambers as being not just Scottish but also obsolete (the spelling here is not given at all by the OED); initially I was dubious about whether ‘bit’ was valid, but this example (courtesy of Sir Walter, albeit using the more common spelling) suggests that it is fine: “Where is Edith? Gone to her room‥.and laid down in her bed for a ?????”

18d Such as Brown Bess, girl tucking into strong drinks (7)
A three-letter dialect form of ‘girl’ is contained by (‘tucking into’, not a favourite of mine in the active form, except when it comes to food) the four-letter plural of a particular ‘strong drink’. Brown Bess (formerly ‘brown musket’) was the name given to the flint-lock musket used by the British Army, apparently due to the colour of its walnut stock (note: it’s always good to have a walnut stock at this time of year).

21d Trooper former monarch despatched, making money abroad (5)
Shades of 11a here, where a seven-letter ‘trooper’ has the two-letter cipher of the previous British monarch deleted (‘despatched’) to produce some old Italian coins.

27d College harem, wherewith story ends? (4)
The usual abbreviation for ‘college’ is followed by a three-letter word for a room in a harem; it seems that it can also be applied to the occupants of the room, so ‘harem’ alone is adequate.

28d Alternate bits of sphere on heraldic fur (4)
A perfectly sound wordplay, which involves taking alternate letters from (‘bits of’) SPHERE ON, leads to PEEN. A perfectly sound definition leads to PEAN, a heraldic fur “represented as Sable powdered with ‘spots’ of Or”. Which is the intended answer? I’d go for PEEN, on the basis that Azed thought it was an alternative spelling of PEAN (which it is, but only in relation to the end of a hammer).

29d Siamese twins in three pairs? (4)
The answer comprises two pairs of conjoined letters (ie ‘twins’) from ‘three pairs’.

(definitions are underlined)