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 you would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Azed 2,785 Plain

My difficulty rating: (2 / 5)

This puzzle can be found at https://content-api.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/api/mobile/v1/puzzle-data/7effe77f-6b3c-468f-9445-10371e04d0d7/file/puzzle.pdf

Not a bad puzzle, to be fair, but there were several clues (eg 28a, 31a) that could have been made better with a little ‘polishing’. 

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 13a, “Vintage product of vine, not new, from Scott’s pen (6)”. The wordplay has a three-letter word for a vintage being followed by an anagram (‘product’) of VINE without (‘not’) the single-letter abbreviation for ‘new’, the result being a Scots (‘Scott’ being Sir Walter of that ilk) word for a pen or sty. The point of interest is the word ‘from’, used here in a construction of the form ‘wordplay FROM definition’. On this site, we have ‘from’ as a link word, but only where the defined term comes FROM the wordplay. There are those who believe that link words such as ‘from’ can legitimately be bidirectional in situations where the wordplay side of the ‘equation’ requires little or no manipulation, as in the charades “Vintage one has from Scottish enclosure” for the word here and “Special container from study” for SCAN [S CAN], or the simple reversal clue “Head’s retiring from position” for SPOT [TOP’S<]. It’s possible in these examples to see how the answer could yield the elements which make up the wordplay, although they all strike me as rather unsatisfactory. But in the clue under discussion, it is surely too much of a stretch for the answer to provide a component which has been deprived of a letter and then rearranged. My advice to setters would be to avoid the counterintuitive use of a link word or phrase wherever possible in the interests of fairness to the solver.

Across

14a Right aboard Turkish boat, here’s a double-ended pickaxe (6)
I’m not keen on this type of clue where both the answer and a major element of the wordplay are unlikely to be familiar to most solvers. The single-letter abbreviation for ‘right’ is contained by (‘aboard’) a wooden Turkish sailing boat, the result being a pickaxe with a blade at one end and a point at the other. An alternative wordplay would be ‘obtain entertaining web address’.

16a Referring to listeners, bill is short of extremes (4)
A six-letter ‘bill’ as in ‘Bill Stickers Will Be Prosecuted’, ‘Bill Stickers Is Innocent’ etc is deprived (‘short’) of its first and last letters (‘extremes’).

19a Doll that is lacking wittily pointed remark (4)
Ken’s long-time girlfriend (65 years and counting) loses (‘lacking’) the two-letter abbreviation of the Latin for ‘that is’. There is an invisicomma after ‘Doll’.

22a Pill boxes? Number out of place in club (4)
The four-letter name of a particular class of [golf] club has the single-letter abbreviation for ‘number’ shifted to a different position (‘out of place’). The answer is a word whose plural and singular forms are the same.

28a This is alcoholic – soak lying back in the sun (6)
A three-letter word meaning ‘[to] soak’, a great favourite of setters, is reversed (‘lying back’) inside a term for the sun personified.

29a Carnivore, hybrid within, revealing strong concretion inside (6)
The sort of carnivore that is also very partial to a marmalade sandwich contains another setters’ nostrum, the two-letter spelling of the name given to a type of hybrid cattle found in the Himalayas.

32a Fresh visit to clothier I avoided, made to go without? (4)
A five-letter word that could describe the purpose of a ‘fresh visit to [a] clothier’ is, with the help of another invisicomma, shorn of the letter I (‘I avoided’). The definition (like the clothing, perhaps) seems a little on the loose side.

33a I’ll be accompanied by female in business transaction sunny-wise? (8)
The letter I (from the clue) and (‘accompanied by’) a generic three-letter term for a female are contained by a four-letter word for a business transaction of the sort which Noel Edmonds brokered in abundance during 2,985 episodes of a particular game show.

Down

1d One adept with racket and ball in town (5)
I imagine that even at the age of 70 the winner of five consecutive men’s singles titles at Wimbledon is still pretty nifty with racket in hand, and it is his surname which combines with the letter of the alphabet that resembles a ball in order to produce the answer.

5d Carve king from two master (4)
The chess-and-cards abbreviation for ‘king’ is removed from a small two-masted sailing vessel. I’m not sure that ‘A from B’ can reasonably indicate ‘B after A has been removed’.

7d Jock’s drumbeat, heading northward from western Europe? (4)
A (2,2) phrase meaning ‘in the direction of the country due north of the north-western tip of France (though not of Spain)’ is a Scots word for a beat of a drum.

8d 51 with king’s company in soft fabric, reddish brown (11)
The Roman numerals representing 51 are followed by the monarchical abbreviation for ‘king’ and the two-letter abbreviation for ‘company’ inside a six-letter fabric ‘with a velvet-like pile’. The answer is hyphenated, 5-6.

9d Bitter affront, not the first, placed over barrel (5)
A five-letter word for an affront, or an unexpected and not insignificant problem (“That’s a bit of a ?????”), lacking its first letter (‘not the first’), is followed by the single-letter abbreviation for ‘barrel’.

10d Button-hole? Fit one round strap from below (11)
A four-letter word for a fit or a wrestling contest and the letters ONE (from the clue) are put round a reversal (‘from below’) of a word for a strap used to control a horse.

15d Streamer, players with English part (9)
The wordplay here is a charade of a four-letter collective term for players of the musical kind, the single-letter abbreviation for ‘English’, and a word for a part of the theatrical kind.

18d Those in the tea business? Design cut short (8)
A four-letter design or scheme is followed by a five-letter word meaning ‘short’ missing its last letter (‘cut’).

(definitions are underlined)