Notes for Azed 2,745

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 2,745 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

Another puzzle which I felt pushed the difficulty meter through the orange and towards the red. A high proportion of relatively obscure words and some oblique definitions seemed to more than counterbalance the ‘gimmes’. There were some nice clues in there and, apart from the repetition of ‘page’ in 1a/17d and ‘mostly’ in 29a/22d, very little with which to take issue.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 31a, “One lives an austere life, being without a modicum of comfort (6)”. The wordplay here has a seven-letter word for ‘being’ or ‘distinctive nature’ losing (‘without’) the first letter of ‘comfort’, but the point of interest is the use of ‘modicum of comfort’ to indicate C. Setters use a variety of words and phrases to direct the solver to select the first letter of a word. Some of these, such as ‘start’, ‘leader’ and ‘opening’ (aka the ‘initials’) clearly refer to the first letter of the word. There is another group, which could be termed ‘the fragments’, which comprises phrases such as ‘a bit of’, ‘minimum of’ and ‘piece of’. These are often seen in cryptics as first letter selection indicators, but you could reasonably ask yourself why it should be the first letter that is to be extracted – why should ‘modicum of comfort’ not be O, M, F, R or T? I can’t answer that question, which is why I tend to avoid those indicators in my own puzzles, although I think it’s fair to say that when solvers see ‘a bit of cake’ in a clue they will immediately think ‘C’, so it’s hardly unfair. I am more kindly disposed to  the ‘glimpses’, such as ‘a hint of’ or ‘a suggestion of’, as they seem to evoke the start of something that is far from complete.

Across

7a After dinner, last of meal consumed ran (4)
A three-letter word that might describe a diner in their postprandial state has the last letter of ‘meal’ inserted (ie ‘last of meal consumed’). I can’t help feeling there’s a comma missing after ‘consumed’ – it isn’t needed by the cryptic reading, but it would surely improve the surface.

10a Bore, weak without money as introduction (5)
A six-letter word for ‘weak’ or ‘scanty’ is deprived of (‘without’) the usual abbreviation for ‘money’ at the start (‘as introduction’) . The ‘bore’ is the sort that I associate with the River Severn.

11a Pet has almost run in for a scratch? (6)
A four-letter informal word for a particular breed of dog (the most famous representative of which is surely the benefactor of ‘Uncle Herriot’ in All Creatures Great and Small, played in the Channel 5 series by Derek until his recent retirement, which has seen him replaced by Dora) contains the word RUN (from the clue) without its last letter (‘almost’). The definition requires the question mark, because a ‘scratch’ (see Chambers) is just one example of the answer.

13a Man leaving comfortable seat – it’s fragrant (4)
The consecutive letters MAN are omitted from (‘leaving’) a seven-letter ‘cushioned seat for several people’.

19a Crane maybe required to construct Greenwich abode (7)
A straightforward ‘hidden’, the reference in the definition being either to the main character in Washington Irving’s short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow or an American military officer (after whom the character is almost certainly named, since Irving and Crane met in 1814). I’m sure he would have remembered the name – I first came across it in A Funny Thing Happened by Anthony Buckeridge (the squire of Little Moulting being Sir ??????? Moulting), and I have never forgotten it! The biblical figure is given the name (in 1 Samuel) because, according to his mother  ‘the glory has departed’ from Israel, because of the loss of the Ark to the Philistines, although it seems rather unnecessary to saddle one’s offspring with such a moniker. Thankfully, events such as Andy Murray’s retirement don’t seem to have prompted widespread repetition.

21a Resinous stuff? Vehicle its association filled with one (7)
A three-letter vehicle is followed by the two letter abbreviation for an association to which its owner might belong, containing a two-letter dialectal form of the word ‘one’, which is often seen preceded by adjectives such as ‘good’ or ‘big’.

27a Prepare to get hitched? Liz accepting tease (7)
This clue raises a subtle (some might say ‘pedantic’) question – someone whose name is Margaret could certainly be called Maggie, but would someone known as Mags also be called Peggy? I suppose they might… Anyway, a four-letter diminutive of ‘Elizabeth’ contains (‘accepting’) a verb meaning ‘[to] tease’ (or ‘[to] cause to decay’).

29a Cattle food not applicable for feeding to dog mostly (6)
The usual abbreviation for ‘not applicable’ is contained by (‘for feeding to’) a five-letter informal term for a dog (typically one of dubious pedigree), from which the last letter has been dropped (‘mostly’).

33a Fungus like a sort of lozenge, not red (4)
One of those clues where – unless you are the Bluemantle Pursuivant or one of his College of Arms confederates – you are (like me) almost certain to have worked back from the solution (a fungus affecting plants) to the wordplay, which has a seven-letter word meaning ‘furnished with a charge having the form of a lozenge, with a round hole in the middle through which the field appears’ being stripped of the consecutive letters RED (‘not red’).

Down

5d What’s used in polish, unadulterated but with elements switched (7)
A seven-letter word meaning ‘unadulterated’ or ‘genuine’ has its first three letters exchanged with its last four (ie ‘with elements switched’).

7d Façade, fine blend of three? (7)
When setters refer to other answers in the grid, they generally use numerals to do so, but here Azed has somewhat sneakily chosen to give us the word ‘three’. The usual abbreviation for ‘fine’ must therefore be followed by an anagram (‘blend’) of the answer to 3d.

9d Like Carthage, according to old orator, consequence coming in endless deferral (7)
A three-letter word for a consequence is contained by (‘coming in’) a word for a deferral or pause lacking its last letter (‘endless’). Cato the Elder is said to have concluded each of a series of speeches with words along the lines of ‘Carthago ??????? est’, in other words just giving Carthage a bit of a going over wasn’t going to be enough – it had to be wiped from the face of the earth.

12d Ancient statue, with animals – it creates a buzz (5)
A term from ancient Egypt, not only for the spirit of a person which survived after death but also a statue in which it could reside, is followed by a word for a place where animals are kept (Gerald Durrell had such a thing in his luggage, according to the title of one of his books, which suggests that things were a bit lax at Heathrow in those days).

18d Boater maybe going round a fen, rippling – it can be full during ebb-tide (7)
A three-letter word for the sort of thing exemplified by a boater (of the straw variety) contains (‘going round’) an anagram (‘rippling’) of A FEN.

20d Garrison to house senior service, English (7)
The wordplay is a charade of a four-letter word meaning ‘to enclose in a container’, the two-letter abbreviation for the ‘senior service’, and the usual abbreviation for ‘English’.

22d The old king’s mostly laid up in postprandial periods in Perth (5)
A six-letter ‘archaic and poetic’ (‘old’) form of a familiar nine-letter word for a monarch missing its last letter (‘mostly’) is reversed (‘laid up’). The ‘in Perth’ could tell us either that the answer is Scottish or Australian; in this instance, it is the latter.

24d Paul’s correspondents out of gas, found in area round Rome? (6)
The ninth book of the New Testament is an epistle written by Paul the Apostle to a group of people identified by a nine-letter term, although exactly where they hung out seems to be open to scholarly debate (which rules out any contribution from myself). This term has the letters GAS removed from the outside (ie it is ‘out of gas’) to provide the answer.

26d One managing bovine stud (4)
Three definitions for the price of two, the relevant senses in Chambers coming under the first, third and second headwords, in that order.

28d No longer conceal nameless beauty (4)
The five-letter name of a famous beauty is shorn of the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘number’, producing a Spenserian (‘no longer’) word meaning ‘[to] conceal’. That the lady should be famed for lasting beauty is extraordinary, given that her face was involved in launching a large number of ships prior to the invention of champagne bottles.

(definitions are underlined)