Notes for Azed 2,769

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 2,769 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

I am reliably informed that the number of entries for the first ‘online submission available to all’ competition in July showed a very substantial increase from the June comp, which is very encouraging. This was also the first comp where the clues were anonymized prior to being sent to the judge; as a correspondent pointed out, no names from the top 10 from the 2023/24 Honours List appeared, among the prize-winners or VHCs, although it would be premature to read anything into that. In any event, given the ease of submission, there has never been a better time to enter the clue writing competition.

As for today’s puzzle, it seemed to me perhaps just a little above the average difficulty for a plain Azed. The clues appeared slightly uninspired on the whole, and decidedly ‘loose’ in places. Apart from the points covered below, a regular correspondent has suggested that the definition in 8d is rather weak; I would agree with that.

Clue Writers’ Corner: The fact that Azed is now going to be presented with a list of clues in a single spreadsheet surely makes it all the more important that your clue should ‘speak’ (or even shout) to him. A clue that appears interesting at first read is likely to stand a better chance than one that needs to be read several times before its full subtlety is revealed. That doesn’t mean that the clue needs to be of a particular type, simply that it needs to have something that is likely to take the judge’s eye, whether that is a particular word like ‘Azed’ or ‘Corbyn’, an intriguing or amusing surface reading, or a lower-than-usual word count. Never forget, though, that soundness of clue is imperative -a clue which is grammatically flawed in the cryptic reading is almost certain to fail.

As for today’s competition word, perhaps the less said the better. I would say that while accuracy in the cryptic element of the clue remains paramount, a degree of latitude will have to be allowed when it comes to the definition; the most important thing is to ensure that your definition leads to a noun which in some way describes, or at least suggests, the condition or its result.

Across

11a Husband on stage in afternoon, displaying calmness (6)
The usual abbreviation for ‘husband’ and a word for a stage (perhaps of a race) are contained by two letters representing ‘after noon’ which are allowed for ‘afternoon’ in cryptics even if the two are not quite the same thing.

12a Nip power off edge (4)
The way that the clue is presented, it would appear that the single-letter abbreviation for ‘power’ should be removed from (‘off’) a word for ‘edge’, but in fact we have to assume a comma (or the word ‘with’) after ‘Nip’, so the starting point is a five-letter word for ‘nip’.

14a Accountants as a group gathering SA currency as capital (5)
A four-letter abbreviation for an association of accountants contains (‘gathering’) the abbreviation for the standard monetary unit of South Africa, producing the name of an African capital city. I’m not too keen on ‘gathering’ on its own to indicate containment (‘gathering in’ would be fine), and ‘SA currency’ should I think be ‘little SA currency’ or similar, since we being asked to use not the name of the currency but an abbreviation for it; I wouldn’t consider ‘old French currency’ acceptable for F.

17a Errand boy once pocketing two articles in lathe accessory (7)
An obsolete (‘once’) word for a person who runs errands (these days someone described thus would be a terrible rotter) contains (‘pocketing’) two articles, one definite and the other indefinite (in either order), the result being the name given to ‘an attachment to a lathe to assist in supporting long bars when they are being turned’.

18a Fabulous bird, tailless kind (4)
A five-letter word meaning ‘kind’ or, more commonly, ‘relating to people’ is stripped of its last letter (‘tailless’) to produce a fabulous bird, said to be a restless wanderer but to bring luck to anyone over whom it hovers. If you’ve concluded that the bird overhead is either one of these or a seagull, I would suggest that your luck will be greatly improved by taking cover sharpish.

24a S-sweet local chat? (4)
A rare sighting of a ‘stuttering’ clue, where the letter S (from the clue) is followed by a three-letter informal word for a sweet (Mmmm…dessert 😋). A look in Chambers will confirm that ‘chat’ is a dialect word for the sort of agricultural runt that Tom Kerridge would surely prevent from reaching the shelves of M&S.

28a Pipe I’ll fill a little? Reverse of that (5)
The letter I (from the clue) is inserted into a (1,3) expression meaning ‘a little’, and the whole lot is then reversed (‘Reverse of that’). The required sense of the answer may not be familiar, but in Latin the word means not only a shin-bone but also a flute or pipe.

31a Measure island denied land for island (5)
A slightly strange clue, where a three-letter measure (“Give him an inch and he’ll take an ???”) is followed by the word ISLAND from which the letters LAND have been removed (‘denied land’). The answer is not an island, rather it forms part of the name of a particular island in New York Harbo(u)r.

33a Guinness? One served by clubs (4)
Quite a nice clue, where the three-letter name for a type of alcoholic drink (‘one’, ie ‘Guinness’) is followed by the usual abbreviation for ‘clubs’, the answer being the first name of famous English actor perhaps best known to a somewhat younger audience for his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars. There is a slight problem with the clue, in that Guinness is an example of the three-letter drink (porter and IPA would be others), but this is not indicated – ‘One perhaps served by clubs’ would be fine.

Down

2d Ticked off youngster giving up Latin (4)
A five-letter word for a youngster surrenders the single-letter abbreviation for ‘Latin’.

3d Swell without a blemish (5)
I’m very surprised that this clue got into print. It requires that a four-letter word for a blemish should contain the letter A (from the clue), but there are two big problems. Firstly there needs to be a comma after ‘a’, otherwise it is the ‘swell’ that ought to contain the A. Worse, though, is the use of the preposition ‘without’ to indicate containment, requiring an archaic sense which Azed has historically not allowed.

5d Exchanging money, being absorbed by the Mona Lisa? (4)
The solver first has to ‘translate’ the Mona Lisa into its Italian name, and then extract four letters from within.

9d Scratch regional runner such as S.Ovett, black (6)
I could readily identify two possible ‘runners such as S. Ovett’, one being his arch-rival S COE and the other the ‘Jarrow Arrow’ who won a silver medal in the 1500m at the 1984 Olympics (or, as they would say these days, ‘he podiumed in LA’). The initial and surname of the latter are followed by the usual abbreviation for ‘black’.

11d Forced to fit vineyards in assuming various shapes (11)
A four-letter word for ‘vineyards’ or ‘vintages’ is contained by a word meaning ‘assuming various shapes’, from the name of a shapeshifting Greek sea-god. The definition isn’t quite right; it would be ok for the rather splendid past participle ???????????IZED, but the answer here demands something more along the lines of ‘forcing everything to fit’.

22d Is shed what may start a blaze? (6)
A well-disguised double definition, the first word being a verb in the third person singular and the second being a plural noun. As I wrote those last two words, I wondered whether ‘thorax’ could be described as a ‘pleural noun’…

27d Source of middle eastern verse, say, to continue once the sun goes in (5)
A three-letter archaic word meaning to endure or continue contains the more common spelling of the two-letter name of the Egyptian sun-god (ie ‘once the sun goes in’).

30d Scots ale making one sick, finishing off yard (4)
A rather convoluted wordplay, where a three-letter word for ‘sick’ follows (‘finishing off’) the single-letter abbreviation for ‘yard’.

(definitions are underlined)