Notes for Azed 2,750

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 2,750 ‘Mixed Foursomes’

Difficulty rating: (5.5 / 10)

First and foremost, huge congratulations to Azed on reaching yet another extraordinary landmark. A quite remarkable achievement.

To mark the occasion, we have a special, and it is one of those that looks rather more daunting at first blush than it really is. For starters, we can immediately identify all the Letters Latent clues, because the lengths of their grid entries don’t match the letter counts in the clues (I went through the puzzle and marked them as LL1 or LL2 depending on whether they would be losing one letter or two). Secondly, as soon as we can identify the ‘golden’ letter in any clue from a set of four, then we know that the letter for the other two special clues in that set will be the same – so if the DLM provides a superfluous N, then the letter to be omitted from the Letters Latent entry wherever it appears will be N, and the correct letter in the Misprint clue will be an N, eg ‘heat’ in the original definition could become ‘neat’.

I have included hints on selected clues, followed by a checklist of clue types. I’ll be happy to provide hints for other clues on request.

Clue Writers’ Corner: Our challenge is to write a DLM clue for the nine-letter word at 14d with an extra U in the mixture. There is no precedent when it comes to a competition DLM clue for a single word (with or without extra letter). In this puzzle, the DLM s are generally very concise, but as long as the ten-letter sequence starts or ends at the beginning or end of a word in the non-definition part of the clue, it is acceptable to include verbiage which contributes neither to definition or letter mixture (as in 2d and 16d, which look as though they might have started life as ‘wordplay delivers an extra letter’ clues). Ximenes’ DLMs were based on advertising slogans (and involved lots of cryptically redundant words), while the two Azed DLM comps have required multiple words to be clued, as in AZ comp 1810. I would suggest producing a definition which stands out from the crowd (and may consist of several words), keeping redundant words in the letter mixture part to a minimum, and remembering to include that extra letter. Although there was no ‘2,750’ theme to the puzzle, I wouldn’t be surprised to see clues being submitted which make reference of some sort to Azed’s cruciverbal longevity. Theoretically, the extra letter could come at one end of the string, eg in ‘IN VATs’ or TIN VAse’ for VAIN, extra letter T, but having it at the ‘open’ end (as in ‘in vats’) doesn’t strike me as being desirable, and you will note that in Azed’s DLM clues the extra letter is always to be found somewhere inside the mixture. I have never seen an ‘&lit’ DLM clue, although the description of the clue type as given in the preamble doesn’t preclude such a thing (this is an observation rather than an incitement).

Across

1a Islamite, a rake with bronzed skin (9)
The wordplay in this LL2 clue is a charade of A (from the clue), a three-letter garden implement akin to a rake (or a three-letter verb for what you do with such an implement) and a familiar three-letter word for bronzing of the skin.

7a Fronts of shirts pressed, usually dirty – one may end in wash (4)
In puzzles like this it’s easy to overlook a straightforward ‘take the first letters’ construction, here introduced by ‘Fronts of’.

10a Overly refined lady who’s complicated recipe to follow once (9)
An anagram (‘complicated’) of RECIPE is followed by a word with an archaic (‘once’) sense of ‘to follow’ but  a range of current meanings including ‘[to] employ’.

15a Add too much filling in extreme dentistry (5)
A three-letter informal word (all capitals) meaning ‘too much’ is contained by (‘filling’) the first and last letters of (‘extreme’) ‘dentistry’. I am surprised to see the adjective ‘extreme’ used in this way; it seems little different to ‘central’ on its own indicating that the middle letter of a word should be selected, which is very much a no-no. Noun forms  like ‘extreme parts of’ or ‘extremes of’ would be fine.

23a Astronomical unit accompanied by windy blast inspiring warship? (6)
A two-letter abbreviation for ‘astronomical unit’ is followed by a four-letter word for a windy blast.

25a To err yet have a second test (5)
The extra letter in this DLM clue is, technically speaking, ambiguous, but if Azed had wanted it to be an E he would simply have omitted the word ‘To’ from the beginning.

27a Piece of ballet, benefit including ten dancing (8)
A five-letter word meaning ‘[to] benefit’ or ‘[to] be of service’ contains (‘including’) an anagram (‘dancing’) of TEN. The corrected word in the definition describes an item of medieval armour; a regular correspondent tells me that in fact the piece in question didn’t form part of this item, its use being confined to earlier versions, but we won’t begrudge Azed a bit of anniversary licence.

Down

2d A submariner, ahoy, turned around (9)
The word ‘around’ plays no active part in this DLM clue.

3d Rendered slat, i.e. to pad out (7)
An anagram (‘out’) of IE TO PAD produces an adjective which can mean something along the lines of ‘dulled’.

5d Reduction to a fixed sum, deficient, always contained (10)
A term from the world of psychiatry for ‘a person who fails to develop mentally’ (ie [a] deficient) has a three-letter contraction of a four-letter word for ‘always’ inside (‘contained’). The answer is an archaic term which generally refers to the fixing of penalties or fines.

9d Run in wild speeds resulting in crash (7)
The usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘run’ is contained by an anagram (‘wild’) of SPEEDS. I had a brief concern that this group contained two normal clues (which would have made the competition interesting)  before I spotted how ‘crash’ could be modified to produce a much better definition of the answer.

17d Nice dish, reek strangely circling rim (8)
An anagram (‘strangely’) of REEK contains (‘circling’) a familiar four-letter word meaning ‘rim’. The word ‘Nice’ at the start of a clue would normally set the ‘French word coming up’ lights flashing, but the presence of misprints in the puzzle opens up another possibility (thankfully not involving lice or mice).

20d Papal officers filling terms with sloth (8)
A five-letter word for ‘terms of life’ or the times of particular events contains (‘filling…with’) the sloth of two letters and three toes with which all solvers should have at least a passing acquaintance.

28d Mist approaching, but not cold at first (4)
A five-letter word for ‘approaching’ or ‘near’ is deprived of the usual abbreviation for ‘cold’ at its beginning (‘not cold at first’).

(definitions are underlined)

Clue Types:

Across

1:Letters Latent, 7:Misprint, 10: Normal, 11: DLM, 12: DLM, 13: LL, 15:M, 17:N, 19:N, 21:LL, 23:M, 25:DLM, 27:M, 29:LL, 30:DLM, 31: N, 32:M, 33:N.

Down

 1:LL, 2:DLM, 3:M, 4:N, 5:LL, 6:DLM, 7:LL, 8:N, 9:M, 14:DLM, 16:DLM, 17:M, 18:N, 20:LL, 22:N, 24:DLM, 26:LL, 28:M.