Notes for Azed 2,747

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 2,747 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

Another plain puzzle that was quite tricky in places, particularly if you were trying to solve the version that first appeared on the Guardian web site. Yes, there were a couple of simple ‘hiddens’ and a ‘take every other letter’, but there were also a couple of clues where the wordplay for an uncommon word itself contained a word which is likely to have been unfamiliar, and neither could readily be deduced – I’m not keen on clues like this, because unless you know one of the words they can only be solved by brute force.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 7d, “Floppy disc I’m featured in (4)”. Nothing too difficult about the wordplay, the letters IM (from the clue) being contained by (‘featured in’) the two-letter abbreviation for a vinyl disc of the album variety, producing a word meaning ‘floppy’. I’m used to seeing clues in other puzzles where the cryptic reading is lacking a necessary pause, eg “I chucked out important chap” for MAN [MAIN – I], where the wordplay requires “I chucked out, important”. Similarly “Fellow general I chucked out” requires either a comma or the word ‘with’ after ‘general’ to indicate that the word MAIN needs to have the letter I ‘chucked out’. Azed has written in the past about the importance of respecting punctuation in clues; recently, though, he seems to have been producing a lot of ‘missing comma’ clues himself – 9d in the current puzzle is one, and this clue is another. For the cryptic reading to work without a comma after ‘disc’, the words following would need to be either “I’m is featured in” or “I’m features in”, neither of which makes sense in the surface reading. I don’t consider that punctuation which misleads the solver in this way constitutes acceptable misdirection, and it is something that I believe should be avoided by setters.

Across

1a Gremlin that diverts English prof’s little (12, 2 words)
The wordplay here tells us that the answer is an anagram of (‘diverts’) a combination of the usual abbreviation for ‘English’ plus PROFS LITTLE, but the answer may not immediately spring to mind. It is divided (6,6), and has come straight off the Eurostar, the first word being the French for ‘spirit’. I gather that it describes a household spirit or goblin in the north of France, which  can be heard but never seen, and cannot be expelled by water, exorcism or Trump. Incidentally, based on the meanings given by Chambers, ‘diverts’ seems a bit of a stretch as an anagram indicator.

10a Spore cases getting to soak mostly when penetrated by start of rain (5)
A five-letter word meaning ‘to soak’ (as one might do when pickling a herring) deprived of its last letter (‘mostly’) contains (‘is penetrated by’) the first letter (‘start’) of ‘rain’.

11a Projecting angle, one in vaulted passage north of the border (5)
Very tricky if you know neither the outward-pointing angle (applied especially to a fortification or a line of defences) or the Scots word for a vaulted passage, into which the Roman numeral for ‘one’ must be inserted. An alternative wordplay would be ‘pastry dish not dated’.

13a Bright green stone filled with luminance dad’s set before mum (6)
The apostrophe-s in the wordplay transfers into the answer, where three letters equating to “dad’s” are ‘filled with’ (ie contain) the single-letter abbreviation for ‘luminance’, and are followed by two letters for ‘mum’. The answer will be familiar, but this particular sense of it may not.

15a Couple formerly exhausted tea (4)
There’s a three-for-two offer on definitions here, the order of their appearance in the clue matching the sequence in which they can be found in Chambers. The answer could also be clued as “China tea”, but the problem with double definitions like that is that they will almost certainly have been used before. I remember reading a piece by Dean Mayer where he neatly summarized the problem facing setters these days, observing that the number of clues published are growing at a much faster rate than the number of words in the dictionary. Increasing repetition of clues, particularly succinct ones, is an inevitable consequence.

19a Directed round old bear bent over (6)
A three-letter word for ‘directed’ or ‘guided’ contains (’round’) a Shakespearean word meaning ‘to give birth to’ (ie ‘old bear’). The answer is a familiar word.

22a Star with jinx goes round unplaced after run here? (10)
This &lit, where the whole clue stands as an indication of the answer,  seems a little bit strained. A three-letter word for a ‘star’ or ‘expert’ is followed by a five-letter jinx, containing (‘goes round’) the single numeral which, in a racehorse’s form figures, indicates a race in which the horse was unplaced (as opposed to 1,2,3,F,U,P etc). It is the ‘here?’ in the clue that points to the answer.

24a It protects driver in the outback, and sounds like rumpus without breadth? (6, 2 words)
One for the antipodean solvers, and a slightly strange one at that. A homophone for a word which is slang for a rumpus (and can also mean ‘nonsense’) gives us the seven-letter name of a green dog that those of a certain age will associate with a pink cat called Custard and the narration of Richard Briers, which is otherwise a non-word. This is deprived of the usual abbreviation for ‘breadth’, the result being a (3,3) expression.

25a Skene-dhu may be stuck in here – and what results when one’s stuck in? (4)
A three-letter word that could describe what results when a skene-dhu is stuck into someone’s ankle (the meaning of the Scots word which forms the answer) itself has the Roman numeral for ‘one’ stuck inside it. I do not have accurate figures from NHS Highland, but I suspect that the number of clansmen who have suffered ankle injuries as a result of carrying a skene-dhu in the top of their sock (where it is normally ‘stuck in’) is on the low side. Although the laws around knives in the UK are strict, wearing a skene-dhu in public is legal as long as it is worn as part of a highland outfit. Those of you who would prefer not to carry a real stainless steel skene-dhu can purchase a plastic bladed variant, thus reducing further the likelihood of ankle trauma.

32a Plunge into trough – baconers do? O, this boar possibly (5)
A composite anagram, where the letters of BACONERS DO can be rearranged (‘possibly’) to form O plus the solution (‘this’) plus BOAR.

Down

2d Foreign cash I added to pay once (5)
The letter I (from the clue) is tacked onto the end of a four-letter Spenserian word for pay, which could also be indicated by ‘exchanged for money’.

3d Justice included in essential life force or understanding of Buddhism (6)
The single-letter abbreviation for ‘justice’ is contained by a five-letter word for the breath of life, producing another word derived from Sanskrit, this one meaning ‘an understanding of the truth achieved directly rather than through reasoning’. The ‘breath of life’ word could itself be indicated by ‘Prince managed answer’.

6d Cabbage climbing in branch? It’s for plucking! (8)
A four-letter cabbage (and an old king) is reversed (‘climbing’) inside the sort of branch that might be found in a road. The appendage that forms the answer can certainly be pulled, touched or tugged, but I think that plucking it would  generally be considered excessively obsequious (and painful).

8d Gets tips around end of dinner (6)
A five-letter word meaning ‘tips’ or ’tilts’ contains (‘around’) the last letter (‘end’) of ‘dinner’.

9d Sons going forward with a bit of learning, incessant (7)
Probably the trickiest wordplay in the puzzle, made harder by the lack of a comma between ‘going’ and ‘forward’. A four-letter word meaning ‘[to] forward’, with the usual abbreviation for ‘son’ (ie one of the ‘sons’) removed (‘going’), is followed by a seven-letter word for ‘portions of instruction’ (ie ‘a bit of learning’) from which the consecutive letters SON (the other ‘son’) have likewise been omitted.

18d Stone erected above US writer possibly, extremely rigorous (8)
The usual two-letter abbreviation for ‘stone’ is put above the first name of one of America’s most famous authors (A Farewell to Arms etc); it could equally well have been placed below the surname of an Irish novelist (Tristram Shandy etc).

26d Not a bad shot, something very impressive but missing wicket (5)
A six-letter word for something which is very impressive is missing the usual abbreviation for ‘wicket’. The answer relates to a pretty good shot in archery, and a very good one at darts (unless you were aiming for treble 20).

27d Part of hop, no good in a drinking session (4)
A five-letter drinking bout has the usual abbreviation for ‘good’ omitted (‘no good’).

(definitions are underlined)