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11. Scotsman’s
drive one from behind pouches (blind). CAECA (ca’ + ace
(rev.)) The first of two clues (with
16 Across) featuring Scots words suggested in quite explicit fashion. Perhaps Azed has hoped that, in this case, the golfing surface
would serve to disguise the hint to some extent. The blind pouches, the plural
of CAECUM (q.v.), are actually anatomical and caused by hernias. Golfers,
please note.
16. Most
squalid Glaswegian drunk to tend (old).
FOULEST (fou1 + lest2) The
interest here lies not in the Scottish FOU1, but in the connection
between ‘lest’ and ‘tend’. LEST2 is Spenser’s spelling of LIST4,
meaning ‘to listen (to)’. TEND1 means both ‘to care for’, as in the
clue’s surface, and ‘to be attentive’. The surface brilliantly conveys a sense of disgust.
19. Treacly
cookie? Wise up, this could be rendered yellower with sirup. RYE-ROLL (composite anagram) Azed has given this clue an entirely
American context and flavor, even down to the
spelling of ‘sirup’. ‘Wise up, rye-roll!’ is found to
be an anagram of ‘Yellower, sirup!’ Put like that,
baking sounds a gas.
21. Like
a flea or hopper (an ant is different). SIPHONAPTERAN (anag.) Azed has shown in
this clue that he is not too concerned about how punctuation marks may break up
an anagram or isolate parts of it from the the
anagram indicator, especially, one suspects, when the surface is so brilliantly
apt, as here. He has been much stricter in the case of definitions. In the slip
for Azed 1225 he made two competitors stand in the naughty
corner over entries concocted in this fashion, but also objected to subsidiaries being broken up, exactly as
he has done in this clue. Our solution is an anagram of ‘hopper (an ant is’ and
may mean ‘like a flea’.
29. Treat
for wedding bairns, grub after turning up with
nothing inside. POUR-OUT (o in up (rev.)
+ rout) The Scots connection here is
hinted at, in understated fashion, by reference to ‘bairns’.
The charming surface is one of the closest of many & lit. near misses in
this puzzle.
32. Nothing
jolly about a gun going off? Method of investigation required. ORGANUM (anag. in
0, RM; s.v. organ) The problem for Dr Watson here, perhaps not
for other solvers, is the connection between the two parts of the surface
reading – the second does not seem to follow from the first. Otherwise the clue
seems quite routine. The solution is an alternative
word for ORGANON (q.v.), both listed under ORGAN.
33. Hospital
dept? Some taken in, say, after a turn. GYNAE (any in e.g. (all
rev.)) The solution is listed
with variants GYNIE and GYNY as informal abbreviations of ‘gynaecology’ and ‘gynaecological’,
most likely used only by staff. One could imagine seeing it on a hospital sign
only where ‘cology’ has been obscured or obliterated
by some means, hence, perhaps, the witty surface of this clue.
34. In a hurry instals reserve fund, not reinforced. PRE-STRESSED (rest2 in pressed) The main references here are to reinforced and pre-stressed concrete.
By defining the solution as what it is not,
Azed has afforded solvers yet another variation in
his entertaining ‘mix’.
DOWN
1. Devours
seconds, and same again, having entered eaterie.
SCAFFS (caff in s, s) Experienced
Azed solvers will have been alerted by the use of ‘eaterie’ that an equally despised term, most likely ‘caff’, will be involved, and so it proved. The only
surprise is found to be that ‘ss’ has not ‘entered’
that word in the sense of squeezing inside it, but quite the reverse, in the
sense of writing it between the two as a clerk might do. Azed’s
note that SCAFF is listed in OED as a verb may not have been much use to the
majority of solvers on a Sunday morning. Dr Watson found it as an entry in his
SOED 6th Ed., but, more tellingly, in his Concise Oxford Dictionary 10th Ed. as
the origin of SCOFF2. Solvers not having acces
s to the more expensive dictionaries may benefit from a similar approach.
2. Game
I played with CO – not one for the men. CAMOGIE (anag.) New solvers should note that the solution
here is not a synonym of the definition given, but an instance of a game, even if one played by women only, as specified.
3. Detective
– were we lost with one, missing Yard?
REBUS ((we)re + bus(y)) In this
‘instance’ the solution is the name of a fictional detective, Inspector
John Rebus. What seems like a reference to another instance, ‘one’, is found to be a slang term, ‘busy’
(q.v.), and so is a real synonym.
5. Typical
of a flightless insect – hurts you badly, hospital admitted. THYSANUROUS (san in anag.) Many solvers may have remembered SAN being
used in the very last Azed puzzle at 23 Down
(SANIES), even if they didn’t know the word as the standard crossword synonym
it undoubtedly is. Nonetheless, this is an amusing and entertaining clue.
9. Where
punters enjoy themselves? Emergency if credit is denied. ISIS ((cr)isis) This very
witty clue was given a wider readership than usual when Dr Watson used it to
amuse friends whilst waiting for yet more disappointing news from York races. A
punt along the River Isis
seemed all the more appealing on a lovely Sunday afternoon.
18. Mousetrap play’s heroine in constant
run. CHEDDAR (Hedda
in c, r) Three
types of mousetrap (sort of, it must
be emphasised) are used in this seemingly curious clue. One’s first question
concerns the italics – the play in question is actually The Mousetrap,
so referring to it in the surface reading as ‘Mousetrap play’ seems odd, even though we soon discover that ‘play’s
heroine’ refers, in the subsidiary part, to a character in a completely
different play, Hedda
Gabler. Secondly, one might well question ‘mousetrap’
as a definition of CHEDDAR. Sure
enough, Chambers’ entry for ‘mousetrap’ includes the definitions: ‘any cheese
of indifferent quality; Cheddar cheese’. Ouch! – that
was the third. Very well sprung.
Azed may have teased solvers in a similar fashion when clueing CHEDDAR in Puzzle No. 1255. Sadly, his clue is not remembered, but his comments about this definition remain at the link above.
22. Teachers
with young trouble-maker given painful confrontation with head? NUTTED (NUT + Ted) Azed has resorted to
a rather commonplace indication of NUT, the abbreviation for National Union of Teachers,
but one cannot deny its suitability here in concert with his fine definition of
our solution. ‘Ted’ (or ‘ted’) is an abbreviation for a Teddy boy (or girl). Younger
solvers may read about this style of 1950’s youth culture here. Dr Watson does not
remember them throwing bread rolls around, but they certainly seemed to have a
lot of fun.
24. Spenser’s
to work at being a poet. DONNE (2
meanings) Our
old friend Edmund Spenser
certainly worked very hard at his craft, producing a vast output and supplying
many, many distinctive words for crossword setters and solvers to relish,
including ‘doen’, ‘done’ and ‘donne’,
all infinitive equivalents of ‘to do’, hence our first meaning: ‘to work at’. The
metaphysical poet John Donne
is the other.
28. What
limits human? It may be a bit of a dilemma.
HORN (i.e ‘h’ or ‘n’)
We close with a very sweet clue, yet another where the solution must
be grasped before the subsidiary part may be understood. The definition is ‘It
may be a bit of a dilemma’ which is a reference to ‘the horns of a dilemma’,
i.e. the two (or more) undesirable choices, one of which must be faced and
endured. The ‘horns’ here are the ‘h’ and ‘n’ at either end of ‘human’.
Other solutions:
Across: 1. SCREW-TOPPED (crew + t in sopped) 12. CARNOSE (i.e. ‘car
nose’) 13. AMBERY (e(olith) in ambry) 15. CHIV (chiv(alry))
TSOTSI (is tost
(all rev.)) 23. SEXED-UP (ex in anag.) 27. CHADOR (hidden) 30. ROAD
(homophone of ‘rowed’) 31. PLIANT (I in plant).
Down:
4. WARES (hidden) 6. PARTY-POOPER (the competition
word) 7. PRYSE
(anag. inc. r) 8. ENCORES
(or in anag.) 10. DEVIL (lived (rev.)) 14. STRAPPY (trap1 in spy) 20. LACUNAE (n/a in anag.) 23. SCROD (s + c +
rod) 25. BULGE (g(estation)
in anag.) 26. KOANS (OK (rev.) + ans.).
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