Notes for Azed 2,779

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 2,779 Plain

My difficulty rating: (2.5 / 5)

This puzzle can be found at https://content-api.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/api/mobile/v1/puzzle-data/196e6e2b-428c-452c-87e7-a9e47fdd0b1b/file/puzzle.pdf

This wasn’t a bad puzzle, and a few clues (eg 34a) showed glimpses of vintage Azed. On the other hand, quite a few of the surface readings didn’t make a great deal of sense, and several would surely have benefited from some polishing. In terms of difficulty when set against other recent Azeds, this one was probably about average.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 29a, “Ignoring ad Madam’s let out bright red underwear (7)”. An anagram (‘out’) of MADAMS LET without (‘ignoring’) the consecutive letters AD produces something which Chambers defines as “A kind of woollen cloth, usually dyed red, and used to make underclothes”. That’s not the same thing as ‘bright red underwear’, but when we consult the OED we get a further definition, “an under-garment of this material, worn by ascetics”. However, Chambers is the standard reference for this puzzle, which raises the question of whether a setter can legitimately embellish a definition in this way. I know of at least one editor of barred puzzles who wouldn’t approve, and would say that (for instance) ‘big fish’ was not a fair definition of BARRACUDA,  since no indication of its size is given by Chambers, despite other references describing it as ‘large’. My personal view is that if a definition in a clue relates directly to a definition in Chambers, but relies on detail not given there, then its presence must not make linking the answer to the definition harder that it would otherwise have been; on that basis the definition here fails.

Across

1a Put off about hot watch returning and rising current (9)
An anagram (‘off’) of PUT contains (‘about’) a reversal (‘returning’) of the usual abbreviation for ‘hot’ and  a five-letter word meaning ‘watch’ or ‘protect’.

11a It often accompanies Indian, one with office (4)
A single-letter word for ‘one’ is followed by the ‘U’ term for the smallest room. A few years ago Jenny McCartney wrote in the Spectator, “I blame Nancy Mitford: she made the English so frightened of saying ‘toilet’ that now they have hardly any left — of the public variety, that is, the sort that traditionally proved so useful to anyone who wanted to do a daring thing like leaving the house.” Chambers gives an informal meaning of ‘Indian’ as ‘an Indian restaurant or meal’.

12a Wily thief is capable in card game (7)
A four-letter word for a ‘sly thief’ and a three-letter word meaning ‘is capable’ combine to produce the name of a card game resembling rummy which originated in Mexico.

15a With which youth starts early, once resigned (4)
The first letter of ‘youth’ (ie ‘[that] with which youth starts’) is followed by a three-letter word for ‘early’, as in ‘??? English’. The answer is shown by Chambers as being an obsolete past tense, hence the ‘once’.

25a Left in French city we go fishing (7)
The usual abbreviation for ‘left’ is contained by the name of a city in Western France which was also the surname of the stand-up comedian and actor Avril, more than once described as Britain’s answer to Lucille Ball.

32a Edison’s short version? It may take a lot of getting through (4)
The (3,1) way in which Edison’s contemporaries such as Alex GB and Nik T might conceivably have referred to him (the question mark is well merited) yields the answer.

34a In e.g. juillet mineral’s seen to sparkle (7)
A four-letter mineral is contained by the French name for the season which contains the month of juillet. The mineral was commonly used in the early twentieth century as an electrical insulating material; when Daniel J. O’Conor and Herbert A. Faber (at that time working for the Westinghouse Corporation) developed an artificial laminate with similar insulating properties, they set up their own company to sell the product, with a name that left little doubt that it was a substitute ‘For ????’. They did quite well.

36a She likes to appear fastidious, and prim around European Union (9)
A seven-letter word meaning ‘prim’ or ‘free from vagueness’ contains the usual abbreviation for ‘European Union’. The term was popularized by Molière in his 1659 comedy Les ?????????? Ridicules, which targeted the ladies frequenting the literary salons of Paris in the 1650s. One of their ‘affectations’ seems to have been enjoying word games…

Down

6d Distasteful, smells awfully within, in vacant fashion (10)
A four-letter word meaning ‘distasteful’ or ‘bloody’ has an anagram (‘awfully’) of SMELLS within.

8d What may follow pound payments (5)
The ‘????? pound’ was a thing until 1707 and the Act of Union. Although banks north of the border still issue their own notes, they have the same value as their equivalents ‘down south’ and are backed (as I discovered today) by ‘Titans’, the £100,000,000 notes issued and held by the Bank of England.

9d Group of turtles making hoop by the sound of it (4)
A homophone (‘by the sound of it’)  of the sixth headword in Chambers for a particular group of four letters; the first entry refers to a surety and the third to a piece of cricketing equipment.

14d Brief editorial: unfinished missive including a wound of old (10)
A familiar six-letter word for a missive, without its last letter (‘unfinished’), contains (‘including’) A (from the clue) and a four-letter Spenserian (‘of old’) word for an injury or wound.

16d Coiled spongey thing tears up flower (9)
A reversal (‘up’) of a four-letter word meaning ‘tears’ precedes the five-letter name of a daisy-like perennial much cultivated by crossword setters.

27d Prohibition? No go – shut in (5)
A seven-letter word for a prohibition is deprived of the consecutive letters GO (ie ‘no go’).

31d Slow mover in university, being queasy after quitting sea (4)
The usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘university’ combines with a six-letter word for ‘being queasy’ or ‘a feeling of sickness’ from which the consecutive letters SEA have been lost (‘after quitting sea’). Although ‘quit’ is typically used as a departure indicator (with a sense of ‘to leave, part, or separate from’), it can also mean ‘to cease to have’, so is valid for expulsion in crosswords such as this.

(definitions are underlined)