Notes for Azed 2,756

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 2,756 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3.5 / 5)

Having landed on the Guardian website rather tardily, this proved to be pretty tricky for a plain puzzle – no hiddens, and just two anagram-only clues, a very low number by Azed standards. There were some nice, ‘tight’ clues, which seemed as though they’d had a bit more polishing than a few that have appeared in recent times. The number of clues which I had marked out as being worthy of comment far exceeded my normal ‘quota’ (I generally aim to cover around sixteen), so I have omitted several strong candidates. If there are any other clues on which you would like me to comment, just let me know.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 29d, “Old time tart lowering her head somewhat (5)”. A word for a tart or poule de luxe has its first letter (‘head’) moved down a couple of places  (ie lowered somewhat), the result being an obsolete form of a common word for ‘time’ (or a unit thereof). The point of interest is the word ‘her’ in the wordplay; the clue would have worked without it, so Azed has included it specifically to enhance the surface reading. But is it valid? The general principle in cryptic wordplays is that once we have translated an element, the result is treated as a string of letters rather than something with residual meaning. So the wordplay ‘chaps are in advertisement’ for AMEND [MEN in AD] is not allowable – first ‘chaps’ is translated to MEN and ‘advertisement’ to AD, which gives us ‘the string MEN are in the string AD’, which is clearly ungrammatical. Let’s say that in the current clue ‘tart’ gave us TRAMP; the wordplay would then be pre-processed to ‘the string TRAMP lowering her head somewhat’, which doesn’t make any sense. If ‘tart’ provided FLAN, the situation would be the neither better nor worse. If ‘her head’ were intended to indicate T, that would be very different, because, in this instance, at the point that we identify her ‘head’, the tart is still a tart, so ‘her head’ could perhaps reasonably be the first letter of ‘tart’.

I don’t think that many solvers, if any at all, would have a problem with a clue like this, but it does highlight an inconsistency in terms of how the grammar of cryptic wordplays is assessed.

Across

2a What supports springs? Pole holding belt in – right, possibly (11, 2 words)
A four-letter pole (which I tend to associate with boats) contains (‘holding’) an anagram (‘possibly’) of BELT IN and the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘right’.

10a Suicide? Not right – give ear, lilting air about one (8)
If you think that the ‘Not right’ is part of the wordplay, things are likely to get a bit sticky. A four-letter word meaning ‘give ear’ and an anagram (‘lilting’) of AIR are put about the Roman numeral representing ‘one’ to produce a 4-4 answer which Azed has qualified as being ‘not right’ because Chambers shows it as ‘an incorrect form’ of the anglicized version of a colloquial term from another language, the correct spelling of which has two letters swapped.

13a Hooded cape, capital when held by dancing girl (6)
The ‘capital’ which must be contained (‘held’) by a less familiar spelling of a word for an Egyptian dancing-girl is the two-letter abbreviation for ‘upper-case’.

15a Large part of inner hunger, not significant (5)
The answer constitutes all but one letter of the inner part (ie the middle six letters) of a familiar eight-letter word for ‘hunger’.

16a Tasteless water swallowed? It’s certainly not bitter (8, 2 words)
One of those ‘missing pause’ wordplays, where there needs to be either a comma or a word such as ‘with’ between the ‘Tasteless’ and the ‘water’. A five-letter word meaning ‘tasteless from age’ has a word for the sort of water that might be made by children contained within (‘swallowed’). “Your son’s been making water in the swimming baths.” “So what? Lots of children do that.” “Yes, but not from the top diving board.”

24a Crush middle of stomach in fine wool (5)
The middle letter of ‘stomach’ follows the sort of crush that some of her ‘special girls’ had for Miss Jean Brodie.

27a Sandal one’s in pained mostly, twice (8)
A single-letter word for ‘one’ is contained by a four-letter word meaning ‘pained’, deprived of its last letter…and a five-letter word meaning ‘pained’, deprived of its last letter.

30a School basics about over after English clanger (5)
The three letters representing the basics taught at school are put outside (‘about’) the usual abbreviation from the cricket scorebook for ‘over’, the whole lot following the standard abbreviation for ‘English’.

‘I couldn’t afford to learn it.’ said the Mock Turtle with a sigh. ‘I only took the regular course.’

‘What was that?’ inquired Alice.

‘Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with,’ the Mock Turtle replied; ‘and then the different branches of Arithmetic — Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.’

31a/32a Middle of round includes damaged gut and defeat in shooting, … (6)/ … Precluding need for one awkward ordeal? (6)
In Azed’s clues linked by ellipses there is usually a cryptic connection between them, rather than just a link between the surface readings. Here the first clue can be solved without reference to the second, the middle letters of ’round’ containing an anagram of GUT (with that ‘and’ joining wordplay and definition, I would have preferred ‘including’ to ‘includes’), but the second, an anagram (‘awkward’) of ORDEAL, needs to be read in a context where the shooting has been successfully completed.

33a Religious novice from part of the capital (not south-east) (5)
Solvers outside England may take issue with this one, where a seven-letter part of London (‘the capital’), famed for flowers and footy, is deprived of the usual abbreviation for ‘south-east’.

Down

1d Source of solar light, ardent in pop’s unwrapped present (11)
A three-letter word for ‘ardent’ is contained by an anagram (‘unwrapped’) of POPS, the combination being followed by a word meaning ‘present’. I’m not entirely convinced by ‘unwrapped’ as an anagrind, although I suppose that the sense of ‘unwound’ goes some way towards justifying it.

2d Showing taste, copy warm blanket (6)
A charade of a three-letter (Scots, but not flagged as such) form of the word ‘savour’ (‘taste’) and a word meaning ‘[to] copy’. The linking word ‘Showing’ sits a little uncomfortably at the start of the clue, particularly without any pause being indicated between the end of the wordplay and the beginning of the definition.

4d US footballers from eastern state clothed in e.g. cotton (7)
The two-letter abbreviation for the US state that I associate with Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote (not much help if you never watched it, I appreciate) is contained by a term which in modern usage is applied to articles which were originally made from a specific fabric, but may now be made from cotton or even artificial materials. The answer put me in mind of a Glen Campbell song, even though the person he was singing about had nothing to do with American football.

5d Wild root vegetable our lot shovel up (5)
A two-letter word for ‘our lot’ and a three-letter shovel, either for testing ore or for winnowing, are reversed (‘up’), the result being a name given to certain brassicas. The shovel could also be indicated by ‘commercial vehicle’.

9d Might one find Rome concealed with this, one miracle possibly (6)
A composite anagram &lit, where the letters of ROME and the solution (‘this’) could be rearranged (‘possibly’) to form ONE MIRACLE. The whole clue stands as an indication of the answer, the name for the small oval shield, curved inwards on either side, which was said to have fallen from heaven in the reign of Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome. In light of a prophecy that the stability of Rome was bound up with it, Numa had the workman Mamurius Veturius make eleven identical copies, to make it difficult for would-be thieves to nick the original (the assumption, presumably, being that they would only have brought a swag bag sufficient to hold a single shield, two tops). The care of the collection was entrusted to the twelve priests known as Salii, who paraded the shields (sacred to Mars) through the city during March every year.  They had a special song for the occasion (the Carmen Saliare), and they would beat with staves on a hide (or possibly on the shields themselves, though that would surely have invalidated the insurance) in imitation of a smith’s hammering, thus honouring Mamurius (who was, in fact, probably Mars himself).

11d Fixed engagement taking in East End, fashionable (11)
A four-letter engagement contains (‘taking in’) the usual abbreviation for ‘East’, a four-letter word for an end (now usually a portion of time having definite limits), and a two-letter word meaning ‘fashionable’.

20d Make round article of clay (7)
A nice compact clue, where a four-letter word meaning ‘make’ (or ‘bring in’) contains (’round’) an article in the grammatical sense.

23d Distinctive rabbit causing row with leaping mate (6)
A three-letter word meaning ‘[to] row’ (or the thing you would do it with) is followed by a reversal (‘leaping’) of a word for a mate.

(definitions are underlined)