Notes for Azed 2,687

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 2,687 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2 / 5)

The last plain puzzle before Christmas struck me as being significantly easier than its recent precursors – there were one or two tricky wordplays, and the long anagrams weren’t trivial, but there were quite a few straightforward clues to more than redress the balance.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 22d, “Its webs adorn the garden space bordering one (6)”. The wordplay here has a four-letter word for [a] space containing (‘bordering’)  a two-letter word meaning ‘one’, the definition being ‘Its webs  adorn the garden’. A few weeks ago I was writing a clue for the name of a particular genus – I can’t remember what it was, but let’s say for the sake of argument that it was ‘Rana’, the principal genus of frogs. It prompted me to consider what definitions might be valid, and my conclusion was that ‘group of frogs’ would be fine, ‘frogs’ would probably be ok, and ‘frog’ would definitely not be acceptable – there is no such animal as ‘a rana’. Something like ‘Oryx’ would be a different matter, because not only does Chambers show this as being a genus of antelopes, but also the name for any individual member of this genus. The problem with the answer here is that is only the name of the genus, and therefore I think at the very least this clue should begin with ‘Their webs adorn the garden…’. If the answer had been the similar seven-letter word ending in -id, there would have been no issue.

Across

14a What gives (Malay?) maiden shelter in shower? (5)
Not a spectacular &lit, but a reasonably neat one nonetheless. The cricketing abbreviation for ‘maiden’ is ‘sheltering in’ (ie contained by) a four-letter word for a shower of anything coming from above. The inclusion of ‘Malay?’ certainly clarifies the definition, but at the cost of rendering the wordplay slightly questionable, as the word plays no part in the cryptic reading.

16a Sugar pound short in a helping (6)
A single-letter abbreviation for ‘pound’ (‘pound short’) is contained by A and a word for a helping, usually of the sort of thing that a spoonful of sugar helps to go down.

20a Russia maybe? Not her race (4)
The word involved here that describes a particular sort of material would not normally have a capital letter, but Azed gets over that problem by putting it at the beginning of the clue. The general term for that material (the indication by example being signalled by ‘maybe’) has the consecutive letters HER omitted (‘not her’) to produce a word which is given by Chambers as ‘dialect’ but not flagged as such in the clue.

33a Shell getting good mark after exam (5)
A four-letter word for an exam is followed by the highest grade one can achieve therein, the result being the sort of shell which covers an animal or a seed. The lowest forms in my secondary school were called ‘shells’, followed by the ‘removes’ and the ‘upper middles’, after which the labels became rather more prosaic, but I had never realized that this ‘shell’ was originally named after the apsidal end of the school-room at Westminster School, so called from its conch-like shape. As Lord Chesterfield wrote in a letter to his son,

Observe, therefore, progressively, and with the greatest attention, what the best scholars in the form immediately above you do, and so on, until you get into the shell yourself.

Incidentally, I thought that my favourite Lord C quote, ‘Judgment is not upon all occasions required, but discretion always is’, was from one of those many letters, but it doesn’t seem to be.

35a Force one left disgracefully, caught in immorality (8)
An anagram (‘disgracefully’) of ONE and the usual abbreviation for ‘left’ is contained by (‘caught inside’) the sort of immorality that the police had squads to deal with.

36a Meat a bit off in Maxim’s? (4)
Perhaps not strictly a double definition clue, as the second answer is the French (ie “in Maxim’s [restaurant]?”) word for ‘far away’ or ‘distant’ (‘a bit off’), which since it is not in Chambers could not stand as the sole definition in a definition + wordplay clue.

Down

1d Highland crowd resounded after this is removed (6)
A four-letter word meaning ‘resounded’ goes after the word THIS from which the letters IS have been deleted (‘is removed’).

2d Pair like to get drunk, left in, showing avoidance of moral considerations (11)
For the second week in succession we have a string of words governing a singular verb in the cryptic reading of a clue, as it is PAIR LIKE TO which gets, or as written in the clue, ‘get’ drunk, the usual abbreviation for ‘left’ being inserted into the anagram (‘left in’). I think that the answer is perhaps more along the lines of a policy which takes no account of moral considerations, but it’s a tough word to define succinctly.

6d Sailors leaving navy to get lubricated (5)
The six-letter sailors are relinquishing (‘leaving’, in the way that I might seriously consider leaving my broccoli) the usual abbreviation for ‘navy’, producing a verb which almost certainly ought to be shown by Chambers as ‘obsolete’, but isn’t; the OED doesn’t even give this spelling.

7d Brewery stout I included in main course, not the last (6)
The letter I is included in a six-letter word deprived of its last letter (‘not the last’). Neither the OED nor I think of this word as referring to a main course, rather to something that comes between main courses, but Chambers says that it can be ‘also (esp N Am) a main course’. In The Picture of London (a correct guide to all the curiosities amusements exhibitions in and near London, 1802), John Feltham wrote:

The wholesome and excellent beverage of porter obtained its name about the year 1730 … [formerly] the malt-liquors in general use were ale, beer, and twopenny, and it was customary for the drinkers of malt-liquor to call for a pint or tankard of half-and-half, ie a half of ale and half of beer, a half of ale and half of twopenny, or a half of beer and half of twopenny. In course of time it also became the practice to call for a pint or tankard of three threads, meaning a third of ale, beer, and twopenny; and thus the publican had the trouble to go to three casks, and turn three cocks for a pint of liquor. To avoid this trouble and waste, a brewer, of the name of Harwood, conceived the idea of making a liquor which should partake of the united flavours of ale, beer, and twopenny. He did so and succeeded, calling it ?????? or ?????? butt, meaning that it was drawn entirely from one cask or butt; and as it was a very hearty nourishing liquor, it was very suitable for porters and other working people. Hence it obtained its name of porter.

The accuracy of this account seems highly debatable.

8d With shifting of time alarms minor cast players? (8)
An eight-letter word meaning ‘alarms’ or ‘astounds’ has the usual abbreviation for ‘time’ relocated within it to produce a term for those in the cast who may not be minor in terms of their billing but  are certainly so when it comes to their age.

17d Brassy alloy, ample in coal that’s mined (8)
A four-letter word meaning ‘ample’ or ‘abundantly supplied’ is contained by an anagram (‘mined’, in an explosive sense) of COAL.

24d Old coin (no shilling) that may still be found (6)
A seven-letter word for a Roman bronze coin worth a sixth of an as is shorn of the standard abbreviation for ‘shilling’ (‘no shilling’).

28d Sexiness revealed in article, quite a small part (5)
A two-letter word for sex appeal is contained by (‘revealed in’) the definite article. ‘It’ is that indefinable quality ascribed to certain female film stars, most famously Clara Bow. She starred in the 1927 film “It”, about which Variety said “You can’t get away from this Clara Bow girl. She certainly has that certain ‘It’…and she just runs away with the film”, and became known as ‘The It Girl’. Sadly it was not Clara but a character in Elinor Glyn’s novel ‘It’ that Dorothy Parker was referring to when she wrote in a review “And she had It. It, hell; she had Those”.

30d Small foreign coin? It’s fallen out of tunic (4)
One of those clues where you need to know either the Korean currency unit (and thence coin) or the six-letter loose tunic worn by ancient Greeks from which the consecutive letters IT must be removed, otherwise some checked letters and a dictionary trawl will be required.

34d Measure of cloth, length shown in two ways (3)
I’m not entirely sure that the wordplay quite works, but the idea is that the single letter which constitutes the standard abbreviation for ‘length’ appears as both its name and as itself.

(definitions are underlined)