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T |
HREE pieces of French and
three proper names feature in this month’s competition puzzle. In both cases
two should be familiar and the third maybe less so. But overall
it’s at the easy end of Azed’s offerings, with a higher
than usual anagram count, amongst which are the & lit. clues, also in a
threesome.
1. Mess
up wrong raw material for French bread? BUMBLE (bum + blé
(Fr.))
This looks like it’s going to be an anagram of ‘mess up’ and the
presence of U, M and E in the checked cells only reinforces that. However there’s no feasible anagram, and futher
thought and translation are needed to reveal a charade that includes the French
word for wheat.
6. Splash
pint? Pan’s needed with this all over the place SPILTH (comp. anag. & lit.) Taking an anagram
of ‘pan’s’ from the first sentence leaves an anagram
of ‘spilth’, and the clue as a whole points to the consequences of a spillage.
13. Villa,
maybe one with central heating in the middle of Napoli PANCHO (an CH in
(Na)po(li)) Not a Neapolitan villa or even Aston Villa,
but the celebrated leader
of the Mexican Revolution in the early 20c.
14. In
contact with the whole camp, virtually TO ALL INTENTS (i.e. to all in tents)
A new take on the old ‘loitering within tent’ gag.
17. Who is
fitted out with one? Hoplite was PELTA
(comp. anag. & lit.) Pretty much the same as
the SPILTH clue in structure, though with the elements reversed. ‘Hoplite was’
anagrams ‘who is pelta’. Chambers gives ‘hoplite’ as
a heavily-armed Greek soldier and ‘pelta’
as the shield of a lightly-armed peltate, but the two aren’t incompatible.
27. First
character to perform admits stiff dressage manoeuvre PESADE (sad in pee) ‘Sad’ describes a
stiff or doughy result of baking, and on this occasion the first character of ‘perform’
needs to be spelt out.
28. A lustiness
unbridled, I see – could be this SENSUALISTIC (anag.
+ I c, & lit.) Azed continues on his
& lit. roll with a straighter anagram-based clue.
7. Dolly,
say, one in cast performing
PARTON
(part on) ‘On’ in the sense of ‘on stage’. A link is
surely not required.
9. The endless beat (relating to the downbeat) THETIC (the tic(k)) A thesis can mean a downbeat in poetic metre or music,
and ‘thetic’ is the adjective describing it.
16. Mechanical
spinning machine FILATORY This month’s competition word appears to be a
very rare and specific term for a spinning machine in the cloth industry. Even
OED struggles to find a first-hand citation for it, relying instead on one taken
from Webster.
19. Plan to win nothing is admitted by
club MISÈRE (is in mere3) A very
nicely-done surface. A mere or meri is a Maori war-club.
24. What
means game’s up? Reverse of that for inventor EDISON (no-side, rev.) Rugby followers will be familiar with a no-side that ends
a match (as neither side has possession), and most will know of Thomas Edison.
Other solutions:
Across: 11. UNEASY (anag. in (p)uny); 13. HEARTPEA (hear + anag.); 15. UPLEAN (up + lean); 18. ANTICS (i.e. anti CS (Civil Service)); 19. MAIMED (aim in Med); 23. OILED (il (Fr.) in OED); 29. EMETICAL (metic
in anag.); 30.
RETENE (hidden); 31. STEROL (anag.); 32. ENURED (n
in EU + red); 33. HYDYNE (‘high’ + anag.).
Down: 1. BUST-UP (put sub, rev.); 2. UNROPE (anag. + ope(n));
3. METALLIC (anag.); 4. BALLET-MASTER (ball + anag.;
i.e. corps de ballet); 5. EYEING (anag. less H); 8. INTERTISSUED
(anag. + sued);
10. HOASTS (a in hosts); 20. APEMEN
(’em in a pen);
21. EQUINE ((s)equine(d)); 22. SPLASH
(2 mngs.); 28.
DECKLE (deck + le (Fr.)); 26. LACED
(decal, rev.).
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