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ZED’S Christmas puzzles in
recent years have been mixture of tried and tested formulas, and new,
innovative grids and clue types. This one falls into the former category:
Letters Latent clues that supply, one way or another, a Playfair
codeword which in turn leads to the competition word or phrase. A variation
appeared two years ago, in which a Playfair phrase
was needed to decode the puzzle’s title. This time the code phrase ‘from a
familiar seasonal verse’ is obtained by rearranging the latent letters of
thirteen across clues, and a preceding word from the verse needs to be clued.
Four across solutions must be Playfair encoded before
entry in the grid. Their clues are italicised in the notes below.
In this comfortable setting
Azed produces a solid grid and a superb set of clues. For Dr Watson it was the
most entertaining competition Azed puzzle of the year. The code phrase fell out
late in the solving process, as it should, thanks in part to its unusually low
vowel count, with only I and O among the thirteen letters. A bit of
experimentation revealed it as the very familiar FLOCKS BY NIGHT from the
carollers’ favourite, and the competition word as SHEPHERDS: a welcome change from
words of recent months that have been anagram-friendly, but hard to define
inventively.
1. To get
moving, cart’s given shake in it (K)IC(K)START (anag.
in it).
7. Oddly unruffled, led off in cheap boa? SFSCZE (FUN FUR; anag.
less led) One of the easier pair of encoded solutions, providing at
least a hint of the Playfair square in the FU →
SF pair.
12. Work late
shifts, extra hour put in? Not him! (C)LO(C)K-WAT(C)HER
(h in anag.). A beauty of a semi-&lit. anagram. There’s
some debate in clue-writing circles as to whether the wordplay can be said to
lead to the defined solution in a LL clue, and joining words like ‘in’ are
generally frowned on, but the consensus is that & lit. and semi-& lit.
devices such as this are fair and acceptable.
14. Former
affliction of cows perhaps lost award (G)AR(G)ET (2 mngs.). ‘Aret’ is an obsolete word meaning adjudge or award, and garget
was a name for throat inflammation in cattle.
15. Pass
self-rule to Irishman, with cost PATR(I)ATE (Pat rate). Another cleverly
realised surface reading. Patriation is the form of home rule taken by Canada
in 1867.
16. Group
of soldiers I catch behind bed CO(N)TI(N)GE(N)T (cot + I get).
18. Flowering shrub’s name in label I affix HNMFND (ABELIA; hidden). Solvers might
feel at this point that the solutions to the encoded words are going to fall
out readily, but there are two more to go…
19. Bogged
down, is trapped – failed in one’s aim MIS(F)IRED (is in mired). The
grid entry is straightforward, but when it came to finding
the code phrase, with so few latent vowels, Dr Watson wondered if the full
solution here could really be providing an F.
20. Lacking
Latin A1 Latin class struggles making connections ASS(O)CIATI(O)NAL (anag.
less L).
Dr Watson was very pleased to solve this long grid entry on the first
pass through the clues.
24. Line
got scrambled booking NY desk
(H)OTELING (anag.). Dr Watson has participated
in any number of ruses to defeat pointless hot-desking policies at work, but hadn’t come across this term for advance booking
before.
25. Fish round river verge DPQSLA
(TRENCH; R in tench). It’s fairly clear what the wordplay requires – you just have to go
find the fish. Thanks partly to the uncommon definition, Dr Watson didn’t solve
the clue until the Playfair square was constructed.
28. Terrestrial
bear (old) nursing terrible harm EAR(T)HMAN (anag.
in ean). ‘Ean’ is a Shakesperian term for ‘give birth to’.
31. Harden
at being confined, being bad-tempered I(LL) NATURE (at in inure). A neat container clue. The definition doesn’t feel like a noun phrase, but ‘being’
can be read as a gerund.
32. Company
row brought to an end by Director (B)OARD (oar + D).
33. What
fossickers do, remain changing situation?
MINERALI(S)E (anag. + lie). The original
meaning of ‘fossick’ is to search for gold.
34. Rear moving forward sat composed GUGDGP
(SEDATE; d moved in seated). A remarkably difficult clue when there are no checked
letters to work with.
35. Sand
troubled cattle regularly having fused digits S(Y)NDACT(Y)L(Y) (anag.
+ alternate letters). ‘Syndatctyl’ would
equally fit the clue, but Azed deserves credit for the possibility at least
that the solution has triple latent Y’s.
5. A party with
free eats? Put on new dress
ALIGN (a lig + n). Lining up troops
on parade is known as ‘dressing’. There’s been some discussion recently over
whether ‘on’ is a valid indicator for attaching something after (i.e. below)
something else in a down clue. Azed has opposed this in the past, but now seems
to accept it on the basis that ‘on’ means ‘just after’. One could argue too that
here the instruction is to put ‘a lig’ on n.
8. Vessels for
liquids or oils FATS
(2 mngs.). With the first letter checked by an encoded
solution, this alternative spelling of ‘vats’ took a bit of finding.
13. Thickets
in the Broads? Deer wandering in margins REED-RANDS. (anag.
in rands).
Solvers who decided the solution must begin with ‘reed’ and perused Chambers should have got this quite
quickly. Those like Dr Watson who decided it must end with ‘lands’ will have
been more frustrated. ‘Deer wandering on
margins’ might have helped.
26. Had a
nose of various colours, including a bit of red PRIED (r in pied). Dr Watson’s
favourite of a sparkling set of normal down clues, with a great definition.
30. Polo finishing
early? Refuse MARC
(Marc(o)). It took Dr Watson longer than it should have
to realise that Polo was not a mint, a car, or a sport, but the explorer. Marc
is waste from a wine-making process.
Other solutions:
Down: 2. CORONATE (0 in corn + ate); 3. SHET (h in set); 4. TITI (tit + i(S)); 6. ROWED (‘road’); 7. SWAG IT (anag. +
git); 9. STRAIN
(2 mngs.); 10.
CHAKRA (K in chara);
11. MACHZORIM (anag. of alternate letters); 17. CELLARET (el
in claret); 19. MAG (2 mngs.); 21. SERANG ((c)re(w),
rev. in sang); 22. SLATED (deta(I)ls, rev.);
23. INWRAP (w in in rap); 25. DATIN (hidden; see Datuk); 27. BURG (grub, rev.); 29. HOYA (anag.
less lid).
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