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From the puzzle’s instructions:
Clues are of two types. From the answer to each down clue one ‘C’ has been omitted before entry (even if the full
answer contains more than one ‘C’); definitions in each case lead to the
untreated word, and subsidiary indications are to the treated word as entered.
Each of the across clues, except 23,
has been doctored by the omission of one ‘C’ at some point; the full answer is
to be entered in each case.
In the explanations below the ‘doctored’ words of across clues are shown in Italics. The solutions of down clues are shown with the omitted ‘C’
in parentheses.
1. Lout seen in a rap Hamlet played with
open-air auditorium. AMPHITHEATRAL (Clout;
hit in anag.) Azed has not
included alternative candidates for the ‘doctored’ word in all of the across clues, but has done so here, provided that ‘crap’
may be understood in the modern fashion (not
yet in Chambers) as an adjective. The real candidate is ‘lout’ (for ‘clout’)
with ‘a rap Hamlet’ as the anagram.
11. Man-made resin, special one left by artist.
SARAN (cleft; S, RA in an)
This defied Watson’s comprehension until long
after the puzzle was completed. ‘One’ may be doctored as ‘cone’ or as ‘once’
and is the obvious candidate, but provides nothing remotely like a cryptic
indication for our solution.
12. Bishop’s hair with little left to list
suddenly. SEEL (chair; see, l) Watson, having failed to
notice ‘cleft’ in the previous clue, was drawn straight to ‘hair’ for ‘chair’. Much
later, he noticed the same pairing used in a down solution at 29.
14. Birds messed up loo with foreign snacks
passed round. TAPACOLOS (loco; anag. in tapas) Competitors
wondering whether Azed might accept an entry using a
doctored anagram received some
encouragement here. It is notable that ‘loo’ is not the only candidate for the doctored word since ‘with’ might be doctored
as ‘witch’ albeit making complete nonsense of the surface.
15. Number one rook almost in retreat, one of a
series. OLEFIN (crook; n, i, felo(n), all rev.) Here, only the second
of the two ‘ones’ could be doctored feasibly. However, it actually relates to
Chambers’ definition of OLEFIN at its entry for ‘oleate’:
‘n any hydrocarbon of the ethylene
series.’ ‘Rook’ is our ‘crook’, so to speak.
16. Sot typically almost always bottled? Illusion. MAYA (Scot;
ay in Ma(c)) The
first of only two of the across clues (with that for ROCK TAR) having only one
word capable of consideration as the doctored word.
19. Ma’s making more racket,
row that is curbed by bishop. ROARIER (Mac’s;
oar, i.e., all in RR) The
first of only three of the across clues (with those for AVOURE and CRAB-APPLE)
to feature doctored definitions.
33. No longer coupled? Time
for wining around end of union. MEINT (wincing; n in ‘Me, it!’) Azed
has hit upon a teasingly apt means of indicating our solution. Quite a few
solvers may have experienced some anxiety before accepting the playground
phrase from so long ago. The alternative and, perhaps, safer view is that
‘wincing’ serves to indicate an anagram of ‘time’, thus giving a parsing of ‘n
in anag.’
34. Among the stars, diner’s tie hanging, truly
Scottish. INTERSIDEREAL (changing; anag.,
real) At the time of writing, (2nd January, 2
days to get an entry in) the on-line version of the puzzle still has ‘diner’s’ misprinted as ‘dine’s’.
‘Changing’ is needed in more senses than one.
4. Archetypal bigot tucked into wine, in
intermediate position to shoot. HALF-(C)OCK (Alf in
hock) For the benefit of younger solvers, the
reference here is to the popular television character Alf Garnet played by Warren Mitchell. One
cannot imagine him deigning to drink German
wine, however.
5. Air navigation system cheers airmen in
extremis TA(C)AN (ta, a(irme)n)
Azed has devised an ‘extremely’ apt surface for this
solution: Tactical
air navigation system.
6. After imaginary illness the prior
worsened, unhealthily engorged. HYPERTROPHI(C) (hyp, anag.) The
entry in Chambers for this solution is curiously placed (with other adjectival
variants) before the substantive
‘hypertrophy’, amongst those words listed under ‘hyper-’.
9. Get tame thus ... male tiger when it’s
trained. RE(C)LAIM (composite anagram) The
composite is formed as our solution (minus the C) plus ‘Get’. This is found to
be an anagram of ‘male tiger’. The sense of ‘reclaim’ defined is listed as ‘to
win from wildness’ in Chambers. Viewed as an &lit,
the whole clue would define RECLAIM by way of example only.
10. Greek monk, see, immersed in English
philosopher. (C)ALOYER (lo! in Ayer) The
reference here is to Sir
Alfred Ayer, a frequent visitor to many crossword puzzles, especially cryptics.
11. Compound mineral shattered most of lorry in
violent impact. S(C)HORL-ROCK (anag.
less y in shock) Read about SCHORL and related minerals here.
20. US folk musician loves appearing in name on
cup? RY (C)OODER (o,o all in
Ryder) References
here to US musician Ry Cooder and the Ryder Cup ...
21. Rock and roll pioneer styled ‘Rancho’. CO(C)HRAN (anag.) ...
and here to Eddie Cochran.
Other solutions:
Across:
17. RADOME (Act;
do in anag.) 23. CENTURY (The Competition
Word) 24. ROCK TAR (Crack;
rock1, tar) 25. SHOLOM (cash;
(ca)sh, anag.)
28. OHOS (Call; soho!
(rev.)) 30. AVOURE (once; our in ave) 31. CRAB-APPLE
(acrid; bap in graple)
32. ASTI (Excited; asti(r))
Down: 2. MA(C)ULA (maul, a) 3. PRI(C)ED (pried)
7. EDA(C)IOUS (ou2 in anag.)
8. (C)ASCO (hidden) 13. ES(C)ARPMENT
(rase (rev.), men in PT; s.v.
raze1) 18. EN(C)ARPUS (supra, (fi)ne(ry), all
rev.) 22. A(C)COAST (as in ‘a cot’) 26. LU(C)KIE (I in luke) 27. (C)ORONA (or, on, a) 29. (C)HAIR (hair) 30.
(C)ALID (i.e. ‘a lid’)