Notes for Azed 2,742

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 2,742 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

This puzzle contained several very straightforward clues, but there were quite a few tricky ones as well; overall, taking into account the number of clues that I picked out as being potentially worthy of comment, I have placed it just above the middle of the difficulty range (my thanks to the correspondent who pointed out that the ‘blobs’ in the difficulty rating haven’t been displaying properly, and my apologies for not spotting it myself). I made the mistake of initially writing in the more common variant of the competition word (they are actually different words, with differing etymologies), but the resulting ‘U’ at the end of 17d made me immediately suspicious.

Clue Writers’ Corner: It is not uncommon for the word to be clued to have just one distinct (ie not separated by semicolons) definition in Chambers, perhaps comprising – as here – only a couple of single words. It is absolutely fine to use either of these in your clue; Azed will always try to give a definition straight from Chambers to avoid any ambiguity, but that is no reason not to use the same definition in your entry. That said, you should never think of the definition part of a clue as a necessary evil to support a bravura wordplay; rather, it is the definition that should come first, and on which a really good clue hinges – the number of potential wordplays for any given word is enormous, but the number of viable definitions is not. Spend plenty of time considering possible definitions, ranging from simple synonyms, perhaps with two or more meanings, ideally different parts of speech (eg ‘light’ for DELICATE), through negatives (TOUGH could be defined as ‘no piece of cake’) to comparisons (these are taken from successful entries) such as  ‘like the dormouse’ for ASLEEP (creating the context for an Alice-themed clue) and ‘like Micawber’ for UPBEAT (in a Dickensian setting). If you visit the Azed archive and pick a word of the same type as the word to be clued (an adjective, in this instance), you will see how an original definition can lead to a clue which stands out from the crowd.

Across

1a Attempt sale deviously, involving more than 50% flattery (3)
The answer comprises 60% of a slang term for flattery.

15a If once lacking vigour, put on hot old cloak (8)
The wordplay here needs the comma to appear immediately before ‘vigour’ rather than after it, since it is a nine-letter word for vigour, lacking an archaic, two-letter word meaning ‘if’, that is to be placed after (‘put on’) the usual abbreviation for ‘hot’.

16a Clergyman briefly has spoken of God as ruler (8)
A four-letter abbreviation for a clergyman having a particular role is followed by a word meaning ‘spoken’.

20a Lenten period was approaching – recipe with bit of excess limited (6)
The usual abbreviation for ‘recipe’ (in a medical rather than culinary sense) and the first letter (‘bit’) of ‘excess’ are contained (‘limited’) by a four-letter word meaning ‘was approaching’.

22a Pigment causing dash of eosin in earthenware pot (6)
The first letter (‘dash’) of ‘eosin’ is put inside a five-letter earthenware pot, producing a term for ‘white lead’, a complex lead salt formerly used as an ingredient in lead paint and a cosmetic called Venetian ??????, neither of which is – perhaps unsurprisingly – now available.

25a Doorkeeper is needed in both directions with lookout man around (8)
The two letters IS running forwards and then backwards (‘in both directions’) are contained by a term used in the Cornish pilchard fishing industry to describe a person who directs seine-fishers from high ground close to the sea, an agent noun related to a word now only commonly seen in the expression ‘??? and cry’.

29a Spear from a long time back, thrust into a monkey (8)
A four letter word for ‘a long time’ (as in “I haven’t seen you in a long time”) is reversed (‘back’) and contained by (‘thrust into’) the letter A (from the clue) and a three-letter monkey. The spear is more commonly found in a slightly shorter (though equally dangerous) form.

31a Complimentary quota not on when getting into G & S (6)
A six-letter word for a quota is deprived of the consecutive letters ON (‘not on’) and contained by (‘getting into’) the letters G and S.

32a Turn out former court star (5)
A double definition clue, the second referring to a three-time Wimbledon champion between 1974 and 1981, a player dubbed ‘The Ice Maiden’ who at first seemed a little too cool, calm and collected for the crowds over here (and who spent far too much time behind the baseline for the serve-and-volley fans), but whose popularity grew and grew over time.

33a Old measure reached in what’s associated with carpenter? (6)
A three-letter word meaning ‘reached’ or ‘encountered’ is contained by a three-letter word for an insect, some species of which are commonly referred to as carpenter-???s, ie they are ‘associated with carpenter’.

Down

1d Porpoise I’m surprised to see in leaping spells (6)
A two-letter interjection meaning “I’m surprised” (better if it were “I’m surprised to see”, but the verb ‘see’ would need some kind of object, such as ‘that’) is placed inside a reversal (‘leaping’) of a plural noun meaning ‘spells’ or ‘turns’.

4d Bird like a partridge can love having tail clipped (7)
A three-letter word for a can is followed by a five-letter word for love (ooh la la!) from which the last letter has been removed (‘having tail clipped’).

8d Fijian sarong, universal in water channel (though it’s slipped off) (4)
The usual abbreviation for ‘universal’ is contained by a five -letter South African word for a water channel lacking the consecutive letters IT from the end (ie “it’s slipped off”).

9d Lyric tenor? He departs, led astray (6)
HE (from the clue), the usual abbreviation for ‘departs’, and an anagram (‘astray’) of LED combine to produce the middle name of Mr Nash, an English lyric tenor; this was the name by which he was known throughout his career (rather than his first name, William), but I have to wonder whether this is a little bit too obscure, particularly given that the answer is a perfectly good Chambers word (albeit not an easy one to define). I didn’t know anything about him, but then again opera and oratorio are far from being my specialist subjects.

17d Old drummers err badly, in grip of wasting away (8)
An anagram (‘badly’) of ERR is put inside (‘in grip of’) a word from the world of pathology describing slow progressive emaciation of the body or its parts. That doesn’t sound good, but I don’t suppose many words in the pathologist’s dictionary describe anything very nice.

21d Moorland quarry in tale going round school (7, 2 words)
A four-letter archaic word for ‘advice’ (an old spelling of a much more familiar word whose meaning has changed over time) contains (‘going round’) a three-letter word for a school of large mammals often spotted in cruciverbal waters. The answer divides (3,4), with ‘quarry’ in the cryptic reading being quarry² in Chambers, not quarry¹. Note that the answer is to be found in Chambers under the entry for its second word, near the end of the subheads.

22d Holiday house, and what it often is after tea (6)
A three-letter word for tea, another crossword favourite, is followed by a word for what a holiday house (ie ‘it’) would probably be when it wasn’t vacant.

24d Foreign river in North Dakota? One often comes across this abroad (6)
A river of Belgium and France is contained by the standard abbreviation for ‘North Dakota’. The definition strikes me as somewhat inadequate, making no reference to the meaning of the answer, but simply to the fact that it is – or was – often seen compounded with ‘abroad’. In the Butcher-Lang translation of Homer’s Odyssey, Penelope says:

So dear a head do I long for in constant memory, namely, that man whose fame is ?????? abroad from Hellas to mid Argos.

26d Society misbehaved endlessly – press close in (5)
The usual abbreviation for ‘society’ is followed by a five-letter word meaning ‘misbehaved’ or ‘sinned’ missing its last letter (‘endlessly’).

(definitions are underlined)