Notes for Azed 2,738

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 2,738 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

This one was quite tricky in places, earning it a difficulty rating just a little above the halfway mark. Those of us who aren’t overkeen on repetitions will have noted two appearances each of the ‘tea word’, a word for ‘like this’ (indicated thus in both instances), and the abbreviation for ‘energy’, as well as different past tenses of the same verb featuring in a couple of wordplays. I believe that one of the clues is ambiguous (5d – see below), although I’m in little doubt about the intended answer.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 18a, “Heroin included in drug folded in surplice (5)”. Here the single letter representing heroin is contained by (‘included in’) a reversal (‘folded’) of a four-letter word for a drug (or, indeed, ‘to drug’).  I recently had an exchange of thoughts with a crossword editor regarding reversal indicators, perhaps the most contentious of all the elements to be found in cryptic crosswords. There are not very many which clearly indicate that the letters of a word must be placed in reverse order (whether horizontally or vertically), and I suspect that is why setters have cast their nets into somewhat murkier waters over the years. There are some reversal indicators to be seen in  published puzzles which I find unacceptable, and many others (a lot of them included in the list on this site) that strike me as questionable. I am inclined to cut setters (including myself!) some slack because of the paucity of options available, but ‘folded’ seems to me unjustifiable. When something is folded it might be ‘doubled over’, but that patently isn’t the same thing as it being reversed. I’m comfortable with the first question that setters ask themselves being “Will the indicator I’m proposing to use be understood by solvers?”, but I think that needs to be followed by “And could it conceivably suggest that the entire sequence of letters is reversed?”

Across

1a Tidy vehicle like this flipped tiny crustacean (8)
The answer is produced by the reversal (‘flipped’) of a three-element charade, made up of a two-letter verb meaning (inter alia) ‘tidy’, a four-letter vehicle, and a two-letter word meaning ‘like this’.

12a See e.g. Mexican measure his jacket (loose) – no use (4)
This one is far from easy. A seven-letter word for a loose jacket is deprived of the consecutive letters USE (‘no use’) to produce a variant spelling of a Spanish/Portuguese linear measure used in Spanish America and also known as a Spanish yard. The jacket is shown by Chambers as ‘Southern US’, although it’s a French word and I can’t find any corroborating evidence regarding its association with the America – perhaps a reader in that part of the world can advise. I also wonder whether Donald Trump has been told that Mexico is part of the US.

13a Female with energy curbing e.g. Louis, star player? (7)
The combination of a three-letter word for a female of various species and the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘energy’ contains a three-letter French word exemplified by eighteen or so specific individuals named Louis, although ‘Louis’ on its own seems slightly inadequate.

20a Player at table, upset about one of his opponents? (4)
A three-letter word meaning ‘[to] upset’ (as in “What’s upsetting you?”) contains the single-letter designation applied to one of the four players at the bridge table. The opponent on their right provides the answer.

23a Hammer cold locking spring for ice vehicle (11)
A six-letter type of hammer (not to be used on your nuts at Christmas) is followed by the usual abbreviation for ‘cold’ and a term for ‘a locking spring or other safety contrivance in a firearm’, or anything small and fine. The answer is hyphenated, 6-5. 

28a United no longer making huge sum, admitting little energy (5)
An old (‘no longer’) word for ‘united’ is the result of a four-letter word for the sort of huge sum that someone might make through a successful business being put around the usual abbreviation for ‘energy’, last seen in 13a. That huge sum reminds me of a piece of graffiti recorded by Nigel Rees in one of his books, where someone had embellished the road sign on the outskirts of Llantrisant with the addition of ‘…the hole with the ???? in it’. I’m sure it’s a very nice place really.

29a Topers? One of them retires with rash (8)
A reversal (‘retires’) of a three-letter word for a toper (‘one of them’) is followed by a five-letter plural which very much suggests a rash.

32a Therapist taking in foreign wood wind player (6)
A two-letter abbreviation for a particular sort of therapist contains (‘taking in’) a foreign word for ‘[a] wood’. If a cryptic clue includes a foreign word that isn’t in Chambers, the odds are extremely short on it being a French one, a knowledge of schoolboy/schoolgirl French being assumed of solvers.

33a Meteorologist experienced open country (6)
A three-letter word meaning ‘experienced’ or ‘suffered’ and a three-letter word for ‘open country’ (more often spelt with an ‘a’ as the last letter) combine to produce the surname of the eighteenth-century lawyer and amateur meteorologist known for his pioneering work in the field of atmospheric circulation. He gave his name to the Met Office’s centre for climate research and prediction, founded in 1990 and currently known as the ?????? Centre for Climate Science and Services. In 1973, a crater on Mars was named after him.

35a Bass denied, drunk becomes spooky (4)
A five-letter word  loosely meaning ‘drunk’ (specifically due to excessive consumption of a particular beverage) is deprived of the usual abbreviation for ‘bass’ (‘bass denied’).

Down

2d Colourful blanket skymen folded up on centre of bed (6)
A peek at ‘skyman’ in Chambers will confirm the five-letter word which needs to be reversed (‘folded up’) above the middle letter (‘centre’) of ‘bed’.

3d Rotating tea wagon less than half unloaded, containing its cargo? (7)
A seven-letter word for the type of ‘tea wagon’ that formerly made steady progress (its approach heralded by much rattling and clinking) at mid-morning and mid-afternoon around many an office, often under the direction of ‘ladies of a certain age’, loses slightly less than half of its letters (‘less than half unloaded’) before being put around (‘containing’) a three-letter word for the sort of thing that would be found in its urn.

5d Tucked up – that’s me with book replacing No. 2 (4)
I feel sure that the intended answer here is ABED, ie ‘ABED – that’s AZED with B replacing the second letter’. But an alternative interpretation would be ‘ABED – that’s me [AZED] with B replacing the second letter’. The use of ‘me’ is the problem, as it can stand for the answer in a clue like this; something like ‘your setter’ would leave no room for doubt.

6d What sounds like a mandolin resounded round after tea (8)
A four-letter word meaning ‘resounded’ and the single letter indicated by ’round’ follow the word for ‘tea’ previously served up in 3d.

8d Like a turtle recorded round a herd swimming on edge of lake (12)
A six-letter word meaning ‘recorded’  contains (’round’) an anagram (‘swimming’) of A HERD plus the last letter (‘edge’) of ‘lake’.

10d Cuts once? They may accompany snicks (5)
This clue is barely cryptic, the solution being an obsolete (‘once’) word for ‘cuts’ which can be found following ‘snicks and’ in an expression wherein the ‘snicks’ means ‘thrusts’ and the answer here means…’cuts’.

24d Unproductive, not lit up, no longer together (6)
A nine-letter word meaning ‘unproductive’ has the consecutive letters TIL (ie ‘lit up’) omitted.

30d Tasty sauce like this tops vessel? Not quite (4)
A two-letter word meaning ‘like this’ is followed by (‘tops’) a three-letter vessel (of the kind that might contain hunny) without its last letter (‘not quite’).

31d One monkey pinching bit of kernel for another (4)
A three-letter monkey is taking hold of (‘pinching’) the first letter (‘bit of’) ‘kernel’ in order to produce a four-letter monkey (ie ‘another’).

(definitions are underlined)