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11. Viper’s
bugloss exuded sap - universal sheep tucked in.
BLUEWEED (U + ewe, all in bled) The solution
is an alternative name for Viper’s
Bugloss, unsurprisingly. Quite what a universal sheep is, or whether one
such would tuck in to blueweed, Dr Watson cannot find. He found many products
for the sheep-rearing industry branded ‘Universal’, but not a single sheep.
14. Bovril
precursor you may find to be still significant.
LIEBIG (lie2 + big1) You
may find some significant information about the inventor of this beef extract here.
17. E.g.
plainest music may be played by US giant thus.
SEMPLICE (comp. anag.
&lit.) The composite
anagram in this clue equates ‘e.g. plainest music’ with the solution: ‘semplice’ + ‘US giant’, or, put another way, the solution
is found to be an anagram of ‘e.g. plainest music’ with the letters of ‘US
giant’ removed. The whole clue serves to indicate this and also to give a
definition by example.
18. Poet’s
lost very little of Shakespeare’s density.
TYNED (tyne (s.v
tine5) + d; s.v. tine2) It has been mentioned
elsewhere that this is an extreme example of a typical Azed
clue, one in which (normally) either the solution or some part of the
indication is a word peculiar to the literature of a great writer. The point is
made that, in this case, where both parts are affected, there is
precious little help for the solver without cross-checking letters in place.
The solution is Spenser’s (poet’s) term for ‘lost’, listed under ‘tine2’,
and the indication involves Shakespeare’s term meaning ‘tiny’, listed under
‘tine5’. The conventional ‘density’ for the unchecked letter ‘d’ is Azed’s helping
hand - sweetly appropriate in the context of these generously cross-checked
puzzles.
20. Like some earls, hit hard.
BELTED (2 defs) An
Internet search for ‘belted earl’ reveals little of use to anyone needing an
explanation as to why some earls are
belted, on the assumption that others are not. Many results are little more
than the complaints of users frustrated by the lack of an authoritative
explanation.
By the 14th century, creating an earl included a special public ceremony where the king personally tied a sword belt around the waist of the new earl, emphasizing the fact that the earl's rights came from him.
At his local library, Dr
Watson found Debrett’s Peerage (1990 ed.) and, under its
section: THE SOVEREIGNS, TITLES AND DIGNITIES, this summary:-
Before Canute an ealdorman administered a shire or province for the King. In Latin documents he was styled Dux or Comes, taking a place between the royal Atheling and the thegn. Under Canute the Danish equivalent of Earl was introduced.
Under
the Normans the government of an earl was normally restricted to one county and
became hereditary, though losing the functions of the King’s representation in
the county to the sheriff. An earl was usually invested with the third penny
out of the sheriff’s court of the county, of Anglo-Saxon origin.
The
dignity was created by the girding on of the sword as
a symbol of temporal authority, but this lost some of its significance when in
1328 Roger Mortimer was created Earl of March, derived neither from a county
nor a city. The ceremony continued after earls were created by patent, and in
the reign of Edward VI a cape of dignity and a golden circlet
were added to the ceremony, but in 1615 such ceremonies ceased.
Dr
Watson has read elsewhere that although the ceremonies
were discontinued, the award of the belted sword (amongst others) was deemed to
remain and that this was confirmed in letters patent for each newly created
earl. However, this still begs the question whether the expression ‘belted
earl’ may mean this, or whether it is restricted to those earls created by
ceremony.
31. Regarding
site of the Taj, it opens late in the day. ONAGRA (on + Agra) A
simple clue, a ‘charade’, referring, of course, to the Taj
Mahal in Agra. It also includes a charming cryptic
definition of our solution, the evening
primrose, which is formally known as Oenothera,
and, in former times, as Onagra.
34. Simple
compounds concealed in notecase. ACETONES (anag.) This clue may be read in its entirety as an
immediate prompt to consider one-word
anagrams of ‘notecase’. Solvers who may question ‘concealed in’ as properly
indicating an anagram may have missed the point of this exquisite clue.
DOWN
3. Snails
etc a palm nut, ravaged, briefly has on inside.
PULMONATA (o’ in anag.) The interesting feature here is the indication of the inclusion of an abbreviated
‘on’ by the phrase ‘briefly has on inside’, which fits the chosen surface,
rather than one which qualified ‘on’ directly, which most probably would not.
5. Silken
textiles must include it. KENTE (hidden &lit?) If there is some reason why all textiles made
of silk must be made in the manner of the African method indicated here, then
the whole clue may be read as a valid definition of ‘Kente’. If not,
the clue has no valid definition, and
so Doctor Watson assumes that the valid reason must exist, but that it has eluded him.
10. Nigella gargled
wildly on broadcast day. RAGGED-LADY (anag. + anag.; s.v. rag1) First brought to mind by the brilliantly
witty surface may have been thoughts of confidences shared in the pantry by the
delightful Nigella Lawson. The clue is otherwise
notable as a sequence of two anagrams linked by ‘on’ as appropriate in a down
clue. Our solution is one of several common names for nigella damascena.
19. Young fish having nose round inverted
tin. FINNACK (can (rev.) in fink) The interest in this
clue is in discovering the equivalence between ‘nose’ and ‘fink’. Both are
derogatory slang terms for an informer. A finnack is
a young sea-trout.
23. Member of the brass section? ‘What a good
boy’. HORNER (2 defs,
ref. ‘Little Jack Horner’) Azed has resorted
here to two cryptic definitions, the
first referring to the brass section of an orchestra, and the second to the
famous nursery rhyme quoted in The Oxford
Dictionary of Quotations as:
Little Jack Horner sat in the corner,
Eating a Christmas pie:
He put in his thumb, and pulled out a plum,
And said, ‘What a good boy am I!’
25. After zero in French pupil topped Latin in
exam once. O level (0 + élève + L(atin); s.v. abbrev. ‘O’)
Azed has shown here that a French word may be correctly indicated by ‘in French ...’ as much as by ‘French
...’ so as to accommodate the desired surface reading.
29. Old church plate and at least four cups BRAS (2 defs, s.v. brass & brassière) More brass
sections. ‘Bras’, in our first meaning,
is yet another (old) word of Edmund Spenser’s, for ‘brass’, defined in Chambers
as ‘a memorial plate of brass in a church’.
Other
solutions:
Across: 1.
APPLE-KNOCKER (The competition word) 12. RIVA (hidden) 13.
SOLVE (‘V’ in sole3) 15. PIMENT (men in pit) 22. CHATTI (c + anag.; s.v. chatty2) 24. METOL (hidden) 26. HOT PANTS (pant in anag.)
30. OPINED (pin in OED) 32. PRIVY (iv in pry) 33. CEDE
(hidden) 35. KRISS KRINGLE (anag.
+ ring in elk (rev.))
Down: 2. PLOIDY
(I’d in ploy) 4. LEVERET (t(h)e + revel, (all rev.); s.v. puss1) 6. NELUMBO (anag.
less s,l in No.) 7. ODIC (0
+ dic(key))
8. CREEL (Cree + l) 9. EVINCE (n in (d)evice) 13. SPATCHCOCK
(s + patch1 + cock1) 16. KITTENING
(kit + anag.) 21. LEG-IRON (i.e. Le Giron, s.v. gyron) 27. PAGES (p + anag. less m) 28. TONER
(one in TR; s.v. tone1)