Notes for Azed 2,757

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 2,757 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2 / 5)

This was Azed’s last puzzle for the Guardian before the Tortoise takes the Observer under its shell, and perhaps not one of his very best. I felt that it lacked the élan of his finest creations, and some of the surface readings were, at least by Azed’s high standards, a little on the clunky side. At first I thought it might prove quite tricky, but by the end I felt that it was below the halfway mark for difficulty, with a relatively low obscurity count and wordplays which in general were straightforward to unpick. Note that the enumeration for 31a, shown as ‘(7)’, should be ‘(6)’.  The file available on the Guardian site at the time of writing is a JPEG; for anyone having problems printing it, I have uploaded a PDF version to this site.

I must say a word or two of congratulation to regular correspondent Tim C, whose clue in the latest Round Robin puzzle on the Crossword Centre site was (rightly) voted best by solvers. I write this with gritted teeth, since my own clue failed to trouble the scorers, but I blame the word I was given rather than my skills…funny how that always seems to happen! Well done, Tim. For anyone who enjoys themed crosswords, I recommend the monthly puzzles on the CC site (http://www.crossword.org.uk/) – plenty of variety, and available free of charge.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clues 1d, 2d and 12a, specifically their use of ‘woman’, ‘female’ and ‘female’ to indicate SHE, SHE and…SHE. Individually, these clues are all perfectly sound and entirely acceptable. However, two general rules for the clues in a puzzle taken as a whole are (i) that the same word should not be used with the same cryptic meaning in more than one clue, and (ii) that the same wordplay element should not appear in more than one clue with the same sense. The first of these means that if, for instance, ‘about’ has been used in one clue as an anagram indicator, it should not appear again in the puzzle for that purpose; it can, though legitimately feature in different clues indicating containment, reversal, C/CA, A or RE (once only for each interpretation), although most setters and editors would aim to keep the number of such repetitions within reasonable bounds. As far as the second rule goes, if (say) ‘cape’ were used to provide NESS as part of a wordplay, ‘head’ should not be used in another clue to similarly give NESS; it could potentially be indicated elsewhere in the puzzle by ‘name of Scottish loch’, although even that would be less than ideal. Solvers tend to pick up on such duplications, and while editors are normally very diligent in removing them before publication, the best course for setters is to eliminate them before submission.

Across

9a I rest relaxing, having smuggled in means of clearing customs (8)
An anagram (‘relaxing’) of I REST contains (‘having…in’) a three-letter word meaning ‘smuggled’, as one might have done with rum in times past. Think “Watch the wall my darling while the Gentlemen go by”, or substitute ‘Bedstead-Men’ for ‘Gentlemen’ if you prefer the Flanders and Swann version to Mr Kipling’s original.

12a Head of government’s aid, female assistant given run in (6)
A three-letter word for a female and a two-letter abbreviation for an assistant, such as might be employed by a senior executive, contain the usual abbreviation for ‘run’ (‘given run in’). 

13a French wine the local tax has backed (5)
The combination of a French word for ‘the’ (‘the local’, referencing ‘French’ earlier in the clue) and a three-letter ‘colloquial acronym’ for a tax that is ubiquitous within the UK is reversed (‘has backed’).

14a Mock title for woman from Belfast area immersed in cooking ingredients (7, 2 words)
Would we accept ‘London area’ for ENGLAND? I don’t think I would, but here a two-letter abbreviation for the country wherein Belfast is located is contained by (‘immersed in’) a word for a group of aromatic plants used in cookery.

18a Henry tucking into beer that’s favoured draw (6)
The single-letter abbreviation for ‘henry’, the SI unit of inductance, is contained by (‘tucking into’) a (2,3) phrase which could perhaps describe beer that’s favoured or in fashion.

19a Company having left as a pair, given guidance towards the summit? (5)
A seven-letter word meaning ‘[joined together] as a pair’ is deprived of the usual abbreviation for ‘company’ (‘company having left’) to produce the past tense of one of those compound verbs  which Chambers ‘defines’ simply by reversing the order of the two parts. Well, duh! The good news for setters is that it gives them some latitude in terms of their own definitions, and the one that Azed has provided here seems as good as any.

25a Once scattered a short time, not cooked in tin (6)
The usual abbreviation for ‘time’ (‘a short time’) and a three-letter word meaning ‘not cooked’ are contained by  the chemical symbol for tin.

31a Brighten shortly, that is round island from the east (6)
The two-letter abbreviation (‘shortly’) of the Latin phrase meaning ‘that is’ is put round the reversed (‘from the east’) name of a Scottish island whose main town is named after a Womble. It has been suggested to me that the ‘shortly’ is part of the definition rather than the wordplay, since Chambers shows the answer as a shortened poetic form of another verb. I wrote the notes by necessity somewhat hastily this week, and didn’t check the answer in Chambers – had I done so, I would probably have favoured that interpretation.

Down

4d One’s horny on becoming split up in vineyard (5)
The letters of the word ON (from the clue) are separately (‘becoming split up’) inserted into a word taken directly from the French language for a vineyard or a vintage.

5d Bill overcome by dejection with matrimony leading to bad temper (11)
Probably the hardest wordplay in the puzzle to resolve, a four-letter word for a bill or headland follows (‘is overcome by’) a four-letter word meaning ‘dejection’ (and a cause thereof for rowers) and a three-letter term for ‘matrimony’ which Chambers barely supports, the closest being a somewhat metonymic sense of ‘matrimonial rights and duties’. The answer immediately makes me think of Lucy van Pelt.

8d The old assemble providing endless comfort for the poor? (5)
A six-letter word for ‘assistance to the poor’ loses its last letter (‘endless’) to produce an obsolete word meaning ‘to assemble’ or ‘to collect together’.

11d Perfume container, long, held by mum (6)
When you see ‘mum’ in a wordplay, it is probably going to lead either to MA or to one of a pair of two-letter interjections meaning ‘be quiet!’. One of them is ‘sh!’, but it is the other one wherein a four-letter word meaning ‘[to] long’ is held here.

17d I dispensed with trick in lesson, unlikely to be scratchy (8)
One of those ‘virtual commas’ is required between ‘with’ and ‘trick’, since the letter I is discarded (‘dispensed with’) by a four-letter word for a trick or ruse before it is put inside a term for a lesson or a group of students.

22d Queen, female sovereign, lacking in millions to subjugate (7)
The single-letter abbreviation for Queen in the monarchical sense is followed by a word for a female ruler missing (‘lacking in’) the standard abbreviation for ‘millions’.

29d Game making a row with second dropping (4)
A four-letter word meaning ‘noisy’ (ie ‘making a row’) has its second letter moved to the end (‘with second dropping’).

(definitions are underlined)