Notes for Azed 2,764

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 2,764 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2.5 / 5)

Overall, I felt that this one was somewhere around the middle of the difficulty range. It didn’t perhaps have the élan of Azed’s very best, with some undesirable repetitions (eg the same elements in the wordplays for 10a/12a and 13a/21d, ‘tons; in 19a/8d), but although a few of the surface readings seemed a bit weak, there were some nice ones in there as well.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clues 34a/3d/9d, where the definitions are (i) “house-warming”, (ii) “sound like cushats” and (iii) “Jock’s staggered”. In (iii), the Scottishness of the word meaning ‘bewildered’ or ‘staggered’ [a 5-letter word meaning ‘turn aside’, though perhaps not ‘turn off’, following the middle letter of ‘Aintree’] is indicated explicitly by the use of “Jock’s”. In (ii), another Scots word [an anagram of COLORED] is not explicitly qualified as such, but the use of the word ‘cushats’ – rather than ‘doves’ – provides the necessary implication. In (i), a ‘Scot and US’ word according to Chambers [an anagram of FAN in a word for ‘heat’] is not flagged in any way. The definitions in 3d and 9d are entirely acceptable, but the definition in 34a really ought to have either an explicit or an implicit indication that the word in this sense isn’t a fully-fledged element of the English language.

Across

10a How surprising, concert recalled an enormous butterfly! (6)
A 2-letter interjection of surprise (‘how surprising’) and a 4-letter word for the type of concert that doesn’t aim to put bums on seats are reversed (‘recalled’).

11a Sickly-looking child, in small poster (6, 2 words)
A 3-letter word meaning ‘pale and sickly’ is followed by an informal one for a young lad (or a small amount), producing the (4,2) answer. Chambers describes a poster as being ‘a large printed bill, notice, advertisement, picture or placard for displaying on a wall, etc.’, so I think that even a ‘small poster’ would be much bigger than the item here; something like ‘Sickly-looking child getting little notice’ would surely work better.

13a Work that stands out to be situated in surplus returned (7)
A 3-letter word meaning ‘to be situated’ is contained by a reversal (‘returned’) of a word (more often encountered as a preposition or an adverb) for anything that is surplus.

15a Old hamper revealing personal piece? (4)
The usual abbreviation for ‘old’ is followed by a dialect word for a pannier or hamper. The solution is hyphenated, 2-2.

17a I can’t wait for the denouement, fear opening 50% of powers? (9)
A 5-letter word for ‘fear’ is contained by (‘opening’) the first half of an 8-letter word for ‘powers’, of the sort that one might direct all of into a particular project. Again the answer is hyphenated, this time 3-6.

22a Translator translated English poet for the crown? (7)
The standard (if not exactly common) abbreviation for ‘translator’ precedes an anagram (‘translated’) of the usual abbreviation for ‘English’ and POET.

24a Dye incorporated in blue ribbon? (5)
An abbreviation for ‘incorporated’ is put inside a pair of letters that describe a person who abstains from strong drink. The blue ribbon was the badge of the North American temperance movement of the 19^th century, its use relating to verse 38 of Numbers 15: “Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue.” The ribbon was worn by those who had taken a pledge of abstinence from the consumption of alcoholic drink, as advocated by the badge’s creator, Francis Murphy. In 1880, the movement dispatched one Richard Booth to the UK,  where he held a number of mass meetings; in 1885, he  headed to Australia and New Zealand, his campaign there being described as ‘highly successful’ (I know – it seems very hard to believe, but that’s what Wikipedia says). I’m not sure that ‘blue ribbon’ and the abbreviation here quite come to the same thing, but I’m all in favour of inventive clueing.

29a Spread wherein nobleman throws rave (4)
An 8-letter title given to a German nobleman – originally the military governor of a border province, but subsequently a prince of certain states of the Holy Roman Empire – dispenses with (‘throws’) the consecutive letters RAVE.

Down

2d Church chandelier, straw one with ring within (6)
A 4-letter word for what straw comes from (though perhaps not for straw itself) and a single-letter word for ‘one’ have a letter shaped like a ring inside (‘with ring within’).

4d Lose control, strikes on the up (4)
An informal word meaning ‘to hit, strike, destroy, shoot, etc’, which I think I first came across in the title of a Philip K Dick novel, The ??? Gun, is reversed (‘on the up’).

5d Fine pasta, at being swallowed emphatically (7)
The usual abbreviation for ‘fine’ and a 4-letter word for ‘pasta in the form of small pieces like rice or barley’ (being the Italian for ‘barley’) are put around the letters AT (‘at being swallowed’) to produce a musical direction.

6d Rough cloth we’ll spread out to dry (5)
The letters WE (from the clue) are contained by (‘[wi]ll spread out’) a 3-letter word meaning ‘to dry’ or ‘to spread out for drying’ which was one of the first words to be inducted into the Cryptic Crossword Setters’ Hall of Fame.

7d Paddy with artist imbibing ales drunkenly in gym (9)
An alternative (3-letter) diminutive form of the name ‘Patrick’ containing (imbibing’) an anagram (‘drunkenly’) of ALES is followed by the abbreviation frequently indicated – rightly or wrongly – by ‘artist’. The answer describes a place devoted to the practice of wrestling or athletics.

8d Tons included in clan was staggering (5)
The usual abbreviation for ‘tons’ is contained by a word for a clan; the definition doesn’t refer to drunken movement but to alternate or various disposition, although the answer could certainly be used when describing Whitefriars ‘Drunken Bricklayer’ vase, which will be familiar to regular viewers of UK antiques programmes.

14d Cowboy maybe in group of three entering river abroad (9)
A 4-letter word for a set of three (or an aquatic bird) is contained by the name of a river in Lower Saxony.

20d Gentleman covering up heath plant (7)
A 3-letter term for a gentleman and a word for a covering for the shoulders are reversed (‘up’).

21d Insect suckers: one may be observed in e.g. emmet lair (7)
The single-letter word for ‘one’ is contained by a more common word for an emmet and a familiar word indicated by the verb ‘lair’ (“Vnder this herb a Snake full cold doth lear”). I don’t know why Azed has chosen to write the clue this way – “Insect suckers one observed in emmet lair” strikes me as being perfectly good. 

26d Mostly fine yarn in old pot (5)
A 6-letter word for a fine worsted yarn is deprived of its last letter (‘mostly’) to produce an archaic term for a pot, or the name of the railway town in which Marie Lloyd ended up when she wanted to go to Birmingham – given King George V’s famous observation about Bognor, one can only imagine what he might have had to say about this place.

(definitions are underlined)