Notes for Azed 2,774

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 2,774 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2.5 / 5)

This puzzle can be found at https://cdn.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/media/documents/obs.AZED.20251221.pdf.

After 53 consecutive Christmas Specials, our festive ‘treat’ from Azed is rather plain fare, and a bit of a “curate’s crossword”, with one or two neat clues and a couple of howlers, including the faulty anagram at 18a (surely someone is checking these puzzles?). I briefly entertained hopes that BALTHAZAR/BALTHASAR might be the king emerging at 1a, but I was to be disappointed. It would have been so easy to at least include a ‘Christmassy’ word for the competition – by replacing the entry at 7d with TURBOCAR and changing six other entries in the NE corner, I was able to make the entry at 17a NOEL, a word that has never been used for the comp.

For anyone who feels that after polishing this one off they’ve got room for a little something more, I have uploaded a copy of Azed 249, the Christmas Special from 1976 (“Double or Quits”) for dessert, to be taken with cream, custard or brandy butter according to taste (cream for me, please). I will add the solution at the end of the week (I’m happy to provide hints here if they are required).

May I take this opportunity to wish all readers a very happy Christmas indeed.

Clue Writers’ Corner: Even when the Christmas competition has not featured a festive word or phrase, I have tried to make my clue ‘seasonal’, but have then found myself in a minority of one, at least as far as the published clues were concerned. So I think it’s fair to say that an excellent non-festive clue is pretty sure to beat a less impressive clue that features Santa, the Grinch and three wise men. It is more important, I’d suggest, to focus on the judging process. Azed used to be looking at clues one at a time as they came out of envelopes, and probably giving most of them a fair amount of consideration; now he is presented with a single list of 100+ clues on a couple of sheets of paper. Your clue needs to catch his eye – the first ones that he picks out as being interesting are likely to remain on his shortlist, and while they may be overtaken by others,  they are unlikely to be ousted  (unless they are seriously flawed); less striking clues of broadly similar merit, however, may struggle to make the cut.

You might ask yourself whether, since the competition word is shown by Chambers as ‘historical’, there is a need for definitions in submitted clues to indicate this, particularly given that Azed has felt the need to qualify his definition of just such a word at 30a. In the Slip for 1,406 (CHASSEPOT), Azed helpfully wrote, “It’s one of those words that some dictionaries label ‘(hist)’ because although the word itself is not archaic it refers to an outdated object. This clearly left some clue-writers uncertain how or whether to indicate the historical nature of the word. In such cases I normally incline towards clues which attempt some indication of the fact that the article or word in question is not in current use.” That said, PALESTRA (1,733) is shown as ‘ancient hist‘, but a look at the published clues will reveal that a number of them suggest that the thing (not the word) existed in the past, but several clearly give no such indication. My advice would be to avoid if possible intimating that the title in question still exists, which might just mean using a past tense, as in ‘he farmed’ rather than ‘he farms’ for GEBUR (a tenant-farmer, historical).

Across

10a Dyers’ wood, name by law including a T (10)
A four-letter word meaning ‘[to] name’ is followed by a four-letter Latin word meaning ‘by law’ containing (‘including’) the letters A and T (from the clue). But the answer isn’t the name of a type of wood, it’s a term which can be used to qualify the word ‘wood’; it is no more ‘wood’ than SPROUTING is ‘broccoli’ or AFGHAN is ‘hound’.

17a Cold accommodation in zenana coming to an end? (4)
The usual abbreviation for ‘cold’ is followed by the three-letter word for a room in a harem (‘zenana’), the result being a term for a passage rounding off a piece of music.

18a Something to scare the kids we heard shivering (7)
An intended anagram (‘shivering’) of WE HEARD, and the easiest mistake for a setter to make, where the fodder contains two of one vowel and one of another, while the answer contains one of the former and two of the latter. The clue bears a considerable similarity to “Like shallow waters? Try swimming in Crete (7)” for NERITIC in 2,279.

24a A couple of buddies, ‘handy’ as one might imagine (7)
A three-letter ‘buddy’ is followed by a four-letter one, producing a word which might whimsically (hence the ‘as one might imagine’) be thought of as meaning ‘handy’

26a Lacking pressure, skins piglets (4)
A five-letter word for ‘skins’ (complete with fur) is deprived of the usual abbreviation for ‘pressure’ (‘lacking pressure’).

30a Old woman’s gown, cover for the head pair of characters exchanged (6)
A six-letter cover for the head has its first and third letters swapped (‘pair of characters exchanged’) to produce the answer, a type of loose-fitting gown. The answer is shown by Chambers as ‘historical’, indicated by the ‘old’ that qualifies the definition.

32a Foreign tongue – one included in what goes with memento (5)
A single-letter word for ‘one’ is contained by ‘included in’ a four-letter Latin verb which follows ‘memento’ in a well-known phrase literally meaning ‘remember to die’, which given the result of the third test, I’m sure many Oztraylians will, with considerable fondness (not to mention the four dies that preceded it).

Down

3d Case for alcohol (not wallop!)? It’s partly fortifying (5)
An eight-letter word for a case in which two, three or four decanters are on view but are secured by a central locking system (a great way to annoy your servants whilst showing off your expensive crystal to guests) is shorn of a three-letter word meaning ‘[to] wallop’ or ‘beat’. The answer is a word for a slope, in fortification specifically “the sloping side of a wall or earthwork, which gradually increases in thickness from above downwards.”

5d Substance in limestone possibly coagulates as deposits? (12, 2 words)
A four-letter word for ‘substance’ (or an informal term for a pound sterling) is contained by a four-letter word for a blue limestone rock occurring in SW England, the Chambers entry for which gives only the meaning ‘Lower Jurassic’, but the attached etymology confirms the association. The combination is followed by a four-letter word meaning ‘coagulates’, leading to a (6,6) answer which is defined by example, suggested by the question mark (not all of such things are deposits).

6d Rye-grass in patch the French reared (6)
A four-letter word meaning ‘[to] patch’, as one might a sock, precedes a reversal (‘reared’) of the masculine French word for ‘the’.

8d In ornamental lacework young girl we hear abandoned? One of seven possibly (5)
I’d like to think that Azed didn’t write this clue, which requires that a non-word homophone (‘we hear’) of an old informal term for a lively young girl be removed from a nine-letter word meaning ‘[decked] in ornamental lacework’; there’s an ‘invisicomma’ between ‘lacework’ and ‘young’. The most relevant of the ‘seven’ at this time of year is probably gluttony, closely followed (often within minutes) by sloth.

9d Feature of thoroughfare, especially for Italy (5)
A nice clue, albeit better not subjected to close scrutiny. A three-letter Latin (and modern Italian) word for a road or thoroughfare has the IVR code for Italy replaced by the three-letter abbreviation for ‘especially’ (‘especially for Italy’). The outcome is the name of an Italian brand which will celebrate its 80th birthday next year, with examples of the various ranges being frequently seen on Italian streets. A 1960s Mod favourite, in the film Quadrophenia, Ace Face (Sting) was frequently seen astride one, and Billy Idol rode a GS model on stage during the Who’s 1996 Quadrophenia tour.

11d One who penned songs endlessly in Everglades maybe (5)
The surname of the lyricist whom you might remember from such films as My Fair Lady and Gigi loses its last letter, yielding the name not of any old swamp but one near Argos which the Hydra called home. Unless the Everglades plays host to a many-headed creature with poisonous breath (no, he doesn’t live there), the definition by example makes little sense.

20d I’ll follow deviation, first to last, in France being foolish (7)
A six-letter word for a deviation, of the sort that one might take to avoid traffic jams, has its first letter moved to the end (‘first to last’) before having the letter I (from the clue) tacked on the end.

23d Whitefish in savoury dish replacing centre of skillet? (6)
The central letter of a common three-letter word answering to ‘skillet?’ is replaced by a word for a savoury medley, derived from the Latin word for a pot.

27d Chubby still? Pet lost outside, somewhat thickset (5)
A (5,3) phrase for ‘chubby still’ has the letters PET removed (‘lost’) from the outside.

(definitions are underlined)