{"id":2712,"date":"2022-04-03T12:28:32","date_gmt":"2022-04-03T11:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.clueclinic.com\/?p=2712"},"modified":"2022-04-17T12:26:07","modified_gmt":"2022-04-17T11:26:07","slug":"notes-for-azed-2599","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/2022\/04\/03\/notes-for-azed-2599\/","title":{"rendered":"Notes for Azed 2,599"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

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<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\r\n

While I \u2013 of course \u2013 believe that the views presented are valid, I realize that (i) I am not infallible, and (ii) in the world of the crossword there are many areas where opinions will differ. I say what I think, but I don\u2019t intend thereby to stifle discussion \u2013 I would encourage readers who disagree with the views that I express, whether in the blog posts or in response to comments, to make their feelings known\u2026I shall not be offended!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Azed 2,599 Plain<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Difficulty rating: \"2.5 (2.5 \/ 5)\r\n

Despite there being mention of misprints in the footnotes (a hangover from the 50th<\/sup> anniversary puzzle), this is a plain crossword of somewhere around average difficulty. I didn’t think it was one of Azed’s very best, but it contained some nicely deceptive clues along with a couple about which I was less enthusiastic.<\/p>\r\n

Setters’ Corner<\/em><\/strong>: This week I’m going to take a look at clue 6d, “Nashgab, smart, one supplanting English (6)”. The wordplay here involves the letter A (‘one’) replacing (‘supplanting’) E (‘English’) in a six-letter word meaning ‘smart’ or ‘intelligent’, but the point of interest is the definition. Chambers shows the solution as being a Scottish word, which would normally require the definition to be qualified accordingly (“Jock’s chatter”, “Prattle in Edinburgh” etc), but Azed here has used a ploy which I suspect is more often seen in his puzzles than any others, the use of one term with a specific classification in Chambers to indicate a solution with the same classification, ‘nashgab’ being similarly shown as ‘Scot<\/em>‘. In the same way, ‘jagged’, say, could be used for ‘crocked’, both being American words for ‘drunk’.<\/p>\r\n

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3a<\/strong> Quickly insert<\/span> something to repair tap after start of seepage (10)<\/span>
A five-letter word for something that would be used to make a repair and a four-letter word for a tap follow the first letter (‘start’) of ‘seepage’, the result being a verb meaning ‘to insert (words etc) hastily into a narrative’, more familiar to most of us, I suspect, as the noun from which it derives, describing a fowl dish. Incidentally, there is plenty of scope to define a word like this in a way which is grammatically unsound (eg ‘Hastily add words to’), but needless to say Azed has avoided the trap.<\/p>\r\n

11a<\/strong> My child<\/span>, a girl (not Di)coming after a boy (7)<\/span>
This clue is of a type I find deeply unsatisfactory and which has been outlawed in recent times by a number of crossword editors, involving the use of ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ (here we get both!) to indicate a random given name – there are just way too many of them. A five-letter girl’s name from which the letters DI have been removed (‘not Di’) follows a four-letter boy’s name. British move buffs will be reminded of Sheridan\/Bates, while those more disposed towards popular music may be thinking along the lines of Washington\/Price.<\/p>\r\n

15a<\/strong> Evil, devious foreigner mostly getting to conceal shameful deeds<\/span> (8, 3 words)<\/span>
A tricky wordplay, where an anagram (‘devious’) of EVIL is followed by a five-letter word for a foreigner (such as Sting in NY) from which the last letter has been removed (‘mostly’).<\/p>\r\n

18a<\/strong> Bother<\/span> keeps besetting head (6)<\/span>
A three-letter word meaning ‘keeps’ or ‘possesses’ is here containing (‘besetting’) a crossword favourite meaning a headland or an Ethiopian prince. Interestingly, the OED, while showing the word to be derived from the Arabic for a head or chief, does not give the former meaning – I wonder where Chambers got it from?<\/p>\r\n

28a<\/strong> One answer to air pollution<\/span> making mark, involving collaborative group? (8, 2 words)<\/span>
A four-letter word for a mark or blemish containing (‘involving’) a four-letter word for a group working together produces a (5,3) type of vehicle about which Wikipedia says “The search for renewable energy sources has led to an occasional resurgence of interest in [the technology which such a vehicle employs]”.<\/p>\r\n

30a<\/strong> Flock of ducks<\/span>, mute? Not one duck (4)<\/span>
A five-letter musical term meaning ‘muted’ or ‘damped’ loses one of its ‘ducks’ (the usual single-letter sort) to produce a term for a flight or flock of mallards.<\/p>\r\n

1d<\/strong> Aged catch, with head displaying aloof manner<\/span> (10)<\/span>
A charade of a two-letter word meaning ‘aged’ (as in ‘a boy aged fourteen’) , a four-letter word meaning ‘to catch and bring out of water’, and another (see 18a) word for a head or headland much beloved of crossword setters. ‘Displaying’ is simply there to link the wordplay to the definition, but it could be seen as suggesting that the answer is an adjective rather than a noun, which strikes me as bordering on the unfair.<\/p>\r\n

7d<\/strong> Suffer with relative whom locals regard as a fool<\/span> (7)<\/span>
A four-letter word for ‘suffer’, in the way that one might suffer from a particular medical condition, is followed by an abbreviation of ‘relative’. I would have preferred to see “, one whom locals regard as a fool” as the definition.<\/p>\r\n

9d<\/strong> 50% of state leaving for spiritual leader<\/span> (5)<\/span>
The letters that remain when five have been lost (‘50%…leaving’) from the ten-letter name of a US state form an abbreviation of that name given by Chambers, so they could have been indicated in the clue by ‘State’ on its own, although this leads to difficulties in combining wordplay and definition – ‘State title of religious ruler’, perhaps.<\/p>\r\n

17d<\/strong> He’s left among group having to hurry over leaflet<\/span> (8)<\/span>
The wordplay here has the letters HE (from the clue) placed (‘left’) inside (‘among’) a three-letter word for a group, with a three-letter word meaning ‘to hurry’ on top (‘having…over’).<\/p>\r\n

19d<\/strong> Grease applied to help old siren<\/span> (7)<\/span>
Although Chambers shows the four-letter word used here for ‘grease’ as Shakespearean in its noun form, it gives no classification to the verb form – I think this is an error, but if that’s what Chambers says then as far as barred crosswords go it’s correct. Anyway, this word (which also describes, rather more commonly, a sewn join) is followed by a much more familiar word meaning ‘to help[‘, the result being a Shakespearean word for a mythical creature of the aquatic kind.<\/p>\r\n

23d<\/strong> Former kick<\/span>, if delivered by Old Nick coming up on one’s rear end (6)<\/span>
A seven-letter word for the Devil (‘Old Nick’) has the letters IF removed (‘if delivered’) before being reversed and put on top of the last letter of ‘one’ (“one’s rear end”). The ‘Former’ is there to indicate that the spelling seen here is an obsolete one.<\/p>\r\n

24d<\/strong> Trader<\/span>, one invited in by late-lamented funny man? (6)<\/span>
A one-letter word for ‘one’ is contained (‘invited in’) by the surname of a funny man who sadly died in January of this year. A brilliant comedy performer, he was even more outstanding as a writer, his partnership with John Junkin in particular producing some memorable scripts. A true great of radio comedy in the second half of the 20th<\/sup> century, here’s one of his (many) jokes:<\/p>\r\n

You know about the guy who shot a golden eagle. He was in court in front of a magistrate. The magistrate said: “This is a dreadful thing”.
He said: “I never intended to. I was shooting pheasants and it flew into my line of fire.”
The magistrate said, “Okay. Out of interest, what did you do with it?”
He said: “I ate it.”
The magistrate said: “Good god, what did it taste like?”
He replied: “Rather like swan.”<\/p>\r\n

25d<\/strong> Ecclesiastic gown<\/span> moved gradually<\/span> and rustled<\/span> (5)<\/span>
I rather hoped that the wordplay here would involve the letters AND being removed from a word meaning ‘moved gradually’ to produce the gown. In the event it turned out to be a triple-definition clue, but the surface reading is still very satisfactory.<\/p>\r\n

26d<\/strong> Dry up after ten? Try a sherry<\/span> (5)<\/span>
The wordplay requires a poetic word meaning ‘dry’ to be reversed (‘up’) following the usual single-letter representation of ‘ten’. The drink may not be weak, but the definition is: the word ‘Try’ is redundant, while the indefinite article is worse than that – the solution is not a type of sherry, it is<\/em> sherry, being the name of the city whence the drink originated. The clue raises the question of whether Roman numerals can be used as ordinals as well as cardinals – I don’t see why they shouldn’t, so ‘Dry up after tenth sherry’ would have been a possibility here.<\/p>\r\n

(definitions are underlined<\/span>)<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/span> Post Views:<\/span> 777<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A plain puzzle with a few crafty wordplays<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1376,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-azednotes"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2712"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2718,"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2712\/revisions\/2718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}