Notes for Azed 2,666

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 2,666 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3.5 / 5)

I had the luxury of solving this puzzle early, since it appeared on the Guardian site at the same time as 2,665. I thought this was a pretty tough one, particularly for anyone relatively new to Azed.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at a clue that I noticed recently on one of the help forums ‘Company retains large broken deck saw (7)’. The answer is CLOCKED, L (large) in CO (company) being followed by an anagram of DECK. On the face of it, assuming that you accept ‘large’ for L (which I do, although for some unknown reason it is not given by Chambers), the clue is sound. But look again – the wordplay consists of two discrete elements, the CO/L part and the DECK anagram, but a main verb such as ‘retains’ here only works if the wordplay can be interpreted as consisting of just a single element. So ‘College boy entertains female’ is fine for CLASHED, since this can be read as ‘(C LAD) contains SHE’, but  ‘Money enthrals liberal journalist’ would not, as this has to be read as (CASH around L) plus ED – this wordplay would only be valid for CASH around LED. The fix is almost always to use the present participle – ‘Company retaining large broken deck’ and ‘Money enthralling liberal journalist’ both work nicely.

Across

1a Jazzer rap, strong, was confused? Make do with inferior stuff (13, 3 words)
Quite a tricky wordplay to start with, a three-letter ‘Jazzer’ being followed by a four-letter word for ‘rap’ (or ‘informal discussion’), a three–letter abbreviation for ‘strong’, and an anagram (‘confused’) of WAS. The answer is divided (5,2,6).

11a Funeral ceremonies over, had a snack afterwards (4)
The abbreviation for ‘over’ (in a cricketing context) is uncontentious, but the word indicated by ‘had a snack’ which follows seems a bit of a stretch – I would have been much happier with ‘having snack afterwards’.

17a Islander finding odd bits to eat in freshly landed herring (6)
The odd letters from EAT are contained by the name of a measure of capacity for herrings freshly landed in port, set by the Fisheries Board at 37.5 gallons (the equivalent of around 750 fish, it seems), and the first ‘only in crosswords’ word that I remember learning.

24a Clay became this – a red blob fashioned with it is Della-Robbia (3)
A compound anagram involving a lot more chaff than wheat, a rearrangement  (‘fashioned’) of the answer plus A RED BLOB producing DELLA-ROBBIA. The ‘Clay’ is of course Cassius of that ilk.

25a The general population in Ireland wander round centre of Newtown willingly as before (11)
This is another long answer with a chewy wordplay, which has an Irish word meaning ‘[to] wander’ containing (’round’) the middle letter (‘centre’) of NEWTOWN and a rare spelling of an archaic (‘as before’) word for ‘willingly’. The solution is hyphenated, 6-5.

29a Fool, one interested in birds losing beloved in Paris (4)
An eight-letter term describing someone whose interest in birds is primarily spotting as many rare species as possible is deprived of (‘losing’) the French word for ‘beloved’.

32a Satellite, one inside – isn’t it wrong way round? (7)
A single-letter word for ‘one’ is put inside a (4,2) phrase which represents an informal was of saying “isn’t it”. Fans of Pink Floyd’s early recordings will recognise the solution as being astronomically linked to Oberon and Miranda, although Syd was seemingly unable to work in Ariel and Umbriel (the latter a malevolent spirit in Pope’s The Rape of the Lock).

33a Fondle a pretty shell (4)
The three-letter word for ‘fondle’ which precedes the letter A (from the clue) is perhaps closer to ‘grope’. It puts me in mind of Posy Simmonds’ description of a lecherous king – ‘He never reigns but he ???s’.

Down

1d Number entering crypt go dancing – that’s plenty (11, 3 words)
A specific cardinal number is contained by (‘entering’) an anagram (‘dancing’) of CRYPT GO, producing a (4,2,5) expression which refers to the aged Jacob’s instructions to his sons in Genesis 42:2

Behold, I have heard that there is ???? ?? ?????: get you down thither, and buy for us from thence.

5d Old pub sign cut up and put in a shelter (7)
A three-letter word meaning ‘[to] cut’ is reversed (‘up’) and put inside A (from the clue) and a word for ‘shelter’ which should be familiar to all solvers.

6d In this is matching kitchen feature by the sound of it (4)
A homophone for a feature of every kitchen, which when preceded by the word IN (ie ‘in this’) means ‘matching’ or ‘sharing a common rhythm’.

7d/8d Lecherous old expression he left out of the cable, … (5) / … Typical of this, right – right in a tone of voice? (6)
The wordplay in the first of the pair has THE with HE left out being followed by another word for a cable, whether flex or telegram. The definition in the second clue refers to its precursor, indicating that ‘typical of this’ (ie of the answer) would be a lecherous expression. In the wordplay, one instance of the usual abbreviation for ‘right’ is followed by another instance inside A (from the clue) plus a three-letter word for a tone of voice.

9d Trick I cast for a fish, not requiring a swim (7)
A four-letter word for a trick or ‘pleasing artifice’ has the letter I discarded (‘cast’) in favour of A (from the clue) and the three-letter name given to various flatfish.

10d What’s Scots rock containing within there? Sparkle (11)
I had to work back from the answer to decrypt the wordplay, where a six-letter Scots word for a sort of rock which the English spell without the C contains another Scots word, this one meaning ‘within’ or ‘into’ (‘within there’, ie in Scotland).

19d Mogul governor, one clothed in absurd frippery (7)
I can’t recall ever seeing ‘frippery’ used as anagram indicator (it’s a rare visitor to crosswords in any guise), but here we have a single-letter word for ‘one’ being contained by (‘clothed in’) an anagram of ABSURD.

28d Fleece? Mine’s got a bit of tar on (4)
It’s an old slang term for the sort of mine which presented a grave danger to shipping that must be placed underneath the first letter (‘bit of’) TAR.

30d What sounds briefly like a major dish on the menu? (4)
My musical education began and ended with the recorder at junior school, so I will leave it to those with greater knowledge than I (which means just about everyone) to accurately explain the homophonic bit.

(definitions are underlined)