Notes for Azed 2,606

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 2,606 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2 / 5)

The needle on my difficulty meter seemed to be hovering just below the middle of the scale with this one. There were only a couple of clues that stood out in terms of quality, but taken overall they were a pretty good set.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to take a look at clue 9a, “Duffer, one on a bike by the sound of it (7)”. The PEDALLER/PEDDLER homophone has been used by setters, as Nat King Cole might have put it,  ‘many times but not so many ways’. The best cluesmiths will either avoid these hackneyed wordplays entirely or look  to apply a fresh twist to them. Here Azed decides to bring something new to the party (nothing to see here, Sue Gray) by replacing the usual definition of ‘trader’ or the like by ‘duffer’, a word we usually expect to describe an unskilful person but which can also be applied to ‘a peddler of sham jewellery etc’. So far so good. But we have to ask ourselves whether ‘duffer’ is a definition of peddler: a ‘duffer’ is a sort of peddler, but not all peddlers are duffers, in the same way that a corgi is a type of dog, but not all dogs are corgis. So ‘duffer’ is a definition by example, and needs to be indicated as such. When the definition is at the end of the clue, a question mark is usually the ‘cheapest’ way to achieve this. It can also be an option if the definition is at the beginning, but only if the clue lends itself to being divided up. The more general solution is to include an exemplification indicator, such as ‘say’, ‘for instance’,  or ‘maybe’. Two possibilities for fixing this clue would be:

“Duffer? One on a bike by the sound of it” or “Duffer, perhaps one on a bike by the sound of it”

6a What actor hopes to get, dispensing art without hesitation (5)
A (4,4) phrase describing what any actor would hope to be offered is missing (‘dispensing’) the consecutive letters ART in order to produce a word which anyone who used to watch Call My Bluff on a regular basis might well, like myself, associate in perpetuity with the programme.

10a Mythical creatures going ‘Plop’, energy filled, in lake (9)
An anagram (‘going’ – take your pick from the possible meanings of ‘go’ in Chambers, although ‘to break down’ is probably the best) of PLOP containing the usual abbreviation for ‘energy’ (‘energy filled’) is itself contained by a four-letter word for a lake. It is debatable whether this clue constitutes an ‘offshoot &lit’, where part of the clue forms the wordplay and whole clue stands as the definition; I would prefer to classify it as a normal definition+wordplay clue with &lit overtones.

12a Reindeer, young male, galloped in harness (6)
A three-letter (originally and chiefly North American) word for a little lad (or a small amount) with a three-letter word meaning ‘galloped’ inside (‘in harness’) produces a word for a reindeer clearly shown by Chambers as obsolete. I can only think that Azed did not notice this or I’m sure that he would have indicated it, although it must be said that the standard qualifiers such as ‘worn-out’ or ‘ancient’ wouldn’t make any sense in the surface reading.

13a In court he managed suit following extremes of correctitude (6)
A nicely-disguised cæsura between definition and wordplay, the latter being an anagram (‘managed’) of SUIT following the first and last letters (‘extremes’) of ‘correctitude’. 

16a Hairline cracks, not i.e. to do with old gnomon (6)
An anagram (‘cracks’) of HAIRLINE without the letters IE (‘not i.e.’). If you didn’t need to refer to Chambers to check the obsolete (‘old’) jocular sense of ‘gnomon’ to which Azed is referring here then you get a bonus point (it makes sense, but I don’t recall coming across it before).

18a Pudding consumed? In place of second you’ll see I hold forth rarely (10)
A seven-letter word for ‘pudding’ and a three-letter word for ‘consumed’, with the second letter of the result being replaced by ‘I’ (from the clue).

28a Lewd arbitrator switching one character with another (6)
A six-letter term for an arbitrator has two letters swapped over in order to produce the solution. Did Azed intend that ‘characters’ would lead the solver to a particular pair of letters, which might represent specific individuals in, say, a text message? No, he would have been much more explicit if that had been his plan.

33a Transpose headword right to left, a hindrance (7)
A two-letter abbreviation for ‘transpose’ is followed by the reversal (‘right to left’) of a term for a headword, more familiar (to me, at least) when used to describe a mathematical proposition.

1d Nation lost being intrigued in political groups (5)
An eleven-letter word for ‘being intrigued’ (just about, anyway) without the letter sequence NATION (‘Nation lost’) produces an Italian term for groups of men organised politically.

2d You might find one I’d blown mustering herd on plain? Wrong (9)
A composite anagram &lit of the best sort as far as I’m concerned, with very little ‘padding’ being added to the equation. The letters of the solution (‘one’) and ID when rearranged (‘blown’) produce an anagram (‘mustering’) of HERD ON PLAIN. You could argue that the ‘Wrong’, while required by the definition, is superfluous to the wordplay and therefore this isn’t a true &lit. You’d probably be right.

3d I like getting between the sheets, showing predilection (6)
When you see ‘getting between the sheets’ or similar in an Azed puzzle you can be pretty sure that something is going to be inserted in BED, and here it is I (from the clue) and a two-letter word for ‘like’.

5d Rag treated entrails and parts of pelts rendered smooth (not 10 but 10, 2 words)
The wordplay is straightforward, an anagram (‘treated’) of RAG plus a word for ‘entrails’, but finding the solution in Chambers may be less so, particularly given that the solution is two words, (5,5), and not a single word as suggested by the enumeration. It can be found buried deep within the entry for the first word.

7d Act the tyrant loaded with flexed rod in grip (6, 2 words)
One of the many synonyms for ‘drunk’ (ie ‘loaded’) has an anagram (‘flexed’) of ROD in its grip, producing a (4,2) solution.

8d As a student attending university, at the right place (4, 2 words)
This clue strikes me as a bit messy, given that the three words in the middle could be read as the wordplay. It doesn’t help that it’s fallen victim to the old ‘missing comma’, here in the definition between ‘student’ and ‘attending’ (‘Attending as a student’ is the natural order). We then have the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘university’ plus a three-letter word meaning ‘at the right place’ (or time), but the appearance of ‘at’ both in the clue and the answer is unfortunate.

14d Thoroughly cleanse improper chat that’s come into view (9)
An anagram (‘improper’) of CHAT is followed by a five-letter verb meaning ‘[to] come into view’; I’m no fan of ‘has’ being used as a juxtaposition indicator, so I’m not keen on “that’s” (ie ‘that has’) being used to link the two wordplay elements here.

17d Dormitory for Scottish farm hands bird’s turned up in daily (7)
The bird that once famously attacked Michael Parkinson (no, not Grace Jones – that was Russell Harty) is reversed (‘turned up’)inside a four-letter word for a ‘daily’ which is seen more often in crosswords these days than anywhere else.

20d Varsity with delicacy excel in play (6)
An element of indirection in the wordplay here, with first element being not the name of a particular (rather fine) university, but a two-letter abbreviation of its name; the second part is a four-letter word for ‘delicacy’ in the diplomacy sense.

26d Private room set up, not the first, for the promotion of language study (5)
A six-letter word for a private room (or a cupboard off a room) has its first letter removed (‘not the first’) before being reversed (‘set up’), the result being an abbreviation for a specific branch of linguistic study. The way that the wordplay is phrased actually suggests that the word for the room is reversed prior to having its first letter removed; determining which is now the ‘first’ letter is, as they say, left to the reader as an exercise.

(definitions are underlined)