For the benefit of solvers new to the rigours of the Advanced Cryptic, Dr Watson provides a monthly review of the Observer's Azed competition puzzle. Dr Watson is a regular Azed competitor. Please post any comments on this review to the Crossword Centre’s message board.
There's nothing worse than
cruising through a puzzle only to come unstuck on the last clue. That was Dr
Watson's experience this month, so if you struggled with 12 down, rest assured
you were not alone!
Notes to the clues:
1ac: Re former US president:
'limitlessly wretched, corrupt inside' (not for publication). OFF-THE-RECORD
(of + (w)retche(d) anag. in Ford). A clever clue alluding to… Gerald Ford's predecessor? or a
more recent candidate?
19ac: Entry for Kennedy maybe playing
Oistrakh's part. INGO (hidden) Not
another former president, but Nigel Kennedy and David Oistrakh,
classical violinists. This Kennedy is better known for his Cockney than
his Scots - the one in the cryptic reading could be LibDem
leader Charles.
26ac: Azed's
second after X in school do. CHIZ (chi + z) X in the literal reading refers to Ximenes, Azed's predecessor at
the Observer (a revered figure of whom much is written elsewhere in this site).
In the cryptic reading it's the Greek letter. The definition, like the solver,
is nicely done here.
29ac: Cut fine, going after
spinner's first over. SPARE (s + pare). Azed grasps
the opportunity to disguise the definition as a cryptic indicator.
33ac: Male mincing round
University College in furry hood. AMLUCE (UC in anag.)
Not the hardest of clues, but solvers without a pre-1998 Chambers would
struggle to find the solution, listed only under 'amice'.
9dn: Cats and dogs e.g. sir
trained DISGORGES (anag.) An obscure meaning of cats
neatly exploited.
11dn: Showing off old fashioned
amber round Indian thrones. BRAGADISME (gadis
in anag.) The omission of the hyphen from
'old-fashioned' gives away the break between definition and cryptic part, but
the trick is hard to spot.
12dn: Undine's ill after
swallowing this! UNINFLATED (flat in anag.)
The clue that floored Watson. Italics and an
exclamation alert the solver that something extra-cryptic is going on here. The
explanation is that the solution consists of a synonym of itself inside an
anagram; which means that you can only solve it after solving it, so to speak.
This would be less of a problem if the checked letters led unambiguously to the
answer - knowing the answer with certainty, one could see how it worked. But
there is another possibility - UNINFLAMED. Could an undine swallow a flam (a
sort of pancake), and become ill, and is that more or less likely than
swallowing a flat? And if a flam were by some stretch of the imagination uninflamed, would that answer be correct? UNIFLATED wins
easily on the balance of probabilities - after you decide that the synonym in
anagram explanation is the right one. So it's solvable, it’s
not unfair, but in Watson's view, it’s just too difficult. The penny
doesn't so much drop as sink slowly to the murky bottom. Others will doubtless
think it brilliant. Thanks to the correspondents on the message board who
offered help with this clue.
31dn: German twice held back.
HUNG (Hun + G) An original treatment for a colourless
word - again the definition masquerades as a cryptic indicator.
32dn: Given old wallop from
barrels in still. YBET (b in yet) Chambers lists a whole raft of obs pa p's (obsolete past
participles) formed like this one, as anyone who's yglaunced
through the Y's will know.
Other solutions
10ac: SOBRANYE (any in anag.); 13ac: FURY (U in fry); 14ac: BLINIS (nil rev. in bis); 16ac: GOATLING (O in Gatling); 17ac: MAGMA (g in mama); 20ac: PRAY (p ray); 21ac: DICOT (d. i' cot); 24ac: TACAN (Ac. in tan); 25ac: CLOG (l in cog); 30ac: CASHMERE (anag. in care); 34ac: BELT (b + anag. & lit.); 35ac: PROVEDOR (proved or); 36ac: TANGLE-NETTER (angle n in tetter); 2dn: FOUMART (anag.); 3dn: TRYP (try P); 4dn: HAGGADAH (Hagga(i) dah); 5dn: ENTOTIC (c(andl)e not it anag); 6dn: RYBAT (by rev. in (g)rat(e); 7dn: COIL (2 mngs); 8dn: RUING (ruin + g); 15dn: IMPECCANT (imp + cc in anag); 18dn: CONSERVE (cons + anag.); 22dn: CARRY-ON; 23dn: FORSLOE (for sloe); 27dn: HALMA (halm a); 28dn: DEERE (red e(y)e anag).