Notes for Azed 2,775

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 2,775 Plain

This puzzle can be found at https://cdn.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/media/documents/obs.AZED.20260104.pdf

Difficulty rating: (2.5 / 5)

A plain competition puzzle which was tricky in places and contained a number of clues which I’m afraid did no credit to the Azed ‘brand’. Whether Azed actually wrote these clues or not is largely irrelevant, the sadness lying in the fact that they have appeared under his name. Those who tackled the 1976 Azed Christmas special that I made available here will have been reminded just how good Azed was for so many years; let us hope that he will shortly be allowed to draw down the curtain on his career and receive the magnificent send-off that he so richly deserves.

That said, in terms of difficulty it felt just about right, and the clues in general were accessible, even if some of the surface readings didn’t make much sense. I certainly enjoyed solving it more than last week’s Gemelo.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 10a, “Felony involving ethnicity, i.e. b––– racism in a way (9, 2 words)”. An anagram (‘in a way’) of IE B RACISM produces the (4,5) answer, but the point of interest here is the definition. The answer is shown by Chambers as ‘US’, but there is no indication of this in the clue. The term ‘felony’ is not an Americanism, so the definition should have been suitably qualified, whether directly (eg ‘US felony’) or by association (eg ‘Felony in Washington’). But how easy it would have been to replace ‘felony’ with ‘misdemeanor’ – the American spelling tells the solver everything they need to know.

Across

1a End of a lecture given prominence? It involves a mole (5)
A (1,4) expression meaning ‘a lecture’ has its last letter moved to the beginning (‘End…given prominence’), the result being the name of an SI unit for which ‘It involves a mole’ is a decidedly vague definition; that said, it’s a horrible word to define succinctly, particularly without using the noun or adjective to which it is directly related.

13a Sailor or his vessel – it’s in the market (6)
The letters IT (from the clue) are contained by the four-letter ‘chiefly Scottish’ word for a market-place (originally the word for a public weighing apparatus, then contextually applied to the place where it was set up). 

14a Wavy? Soak, not fashionable (6)
An eight-letter word meaning ‘[to] soak’ or ‘flood’ is deprived of (‘not’) a two-letter word which I should think accounts for over 90% of the occurrences of ‘fashionable’ in cryptic clues.

17a Spanish cash in property ownership, no small portion (6)
A (4,6) US term for property ownership loses a four-letter Scots word for a small portion. I would have liked to see the Spanish cash qualified by something like ‘formerly’.

24a Following fashion, regret backing dullness of hue (6)
A three-letter word for the sort of fashion that is in one minute and out the other is followed by a reversal (‘backing’) of a three-letter verb meaning ‘regret’.

28a Young girl maybe, Dolores, full of what she’s known for (6)
A weak clue, since the ‘model’ for the young girl in the answer is Dolores Haze, known variously in the novel wherein she appears as ‘Dolly’ and ‘Lo’, as the answer to the clue, and by a four-letter diminutive which here contains (‘full of’) the two-letter word for sex appeal associated originally with Clara Bow but, as far as Humbert Humbert is concerned, Dolores (ie “what she’s known for”). Having reappraised the clue, I wonder if it’s meant to be an &lit, the ‘Young girl maybe, Dolores’ yielding the four-letter diminutive which contains IT. This improves the indication of the wordplay components, but results in a definition which is simply a repeat of the first of them. Not for me.

31a A journey in a container – such as ticks! (9)
The letter A (from the clue) and a four-letter word for a journey (by horse, car, or the like) are contained by the letter A (again, from the clue) and a three-letter container which might hold beans or worms (in my opinion, neither should ever be opened, but I acknowledge that others may disagree…anglers, for instance).

33a Pierre’s love, including bit of sex given new life? (5)
The four-letter French (“Pierre’s”) word for ‘nothing’ contains (‘including’) the first letter (‘bit of’) ‘sex’; Chambers doesn’t give the resultant past participle as an adjective, but the OED does, so I think ‘given new life’ is ok as the definition. However, when the arbitre calls the scores at Roland Garros, the equivalent of ‘love’ is not the word here, it is ‘zéro’.

Down

2d Such as magnolias nameless champion fed with running water (9)
A four-letter abbreviation for ‘anonymous’ (‘nameless’) is followed  by a three-letter informal term meaning ‘excellent’ containing the two-letter dialect word for a river or running water. I don’t like ‘nameless’ here – an abbreviation like this should in my view be indicated by the word of which it is the shortened form (similarly the ‘government administrator’ in 5a).

6d Spy sparse beard trimmed (4)
A seven-letter word meaning ‘sparse’ or ‘unhealthily thin’ has a three-letter word for the beard of barley removed (‘trimmed’).

7d Racial, mostly mean after time (6)
A six-letter word for ‘mean’, more often used nowadays with the sense of ‘coarse’ or ‘smutty’, is shorn of its last letter (‘mostly’) and follows the usual abbreviation for ‘time’.

9d What sounds like understanding money (5)
An attempted homophone that should have blushed unseen. Chambers makes it clear that the answer does not sound like a five-letter word for understanding or feeling; if it did, the expression “He’s got more money than ?????” would be extremely confusing. But what’s wrong with “Money trails picked up by auditors” or “Reportedly sniffs out money”?

11d Party person with tons opening liquor store, we hear? He may not be trustworthy (11)
A four-letter term for a member of a particular British political party (‘party person’) and the usual abbreviation for ‘tons’ are contained by (‘opening’) a homophone for a place where liquor is stored.

19d Short tense argument? It may be petty (7)
The usual abbreviation for ‘tense’ (‘short tense’) is followed by a word meaning ‘argument’ or ‘logic’. The answer is shown by Chambers as ‘historical’, so the definition should have read ‘It may have been petty’.

21d Engineers put up with work on cylinder? (6)
The usual two-letter abbreviation answering to ‘engineers’ is followed by the past tense of a verb meaning ‘put up with’ or ‘suffer’.

24d Central point’s colt regarding pregnant mare? (5)
A nice idea that doesn’t really work. The usual abbreviation for ‘colt’ must be cryptically treated in line with the (2,4) expression that would describe a pregnant mare (in the same way that ‘having retired’ could indicate that it should be placed IN BED). Unfortunately, the word ‘regarding’ doesn’t give the necessary direction – something along the lines of ‘like’ is needed.

(definitions are underlined)