Azed 2507

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A quick start on this: after my first pass through the clues I found I’d solved 18. This would normally have been exactly half, but unusually this grid has 18 acrosses and 20 downs. Filling in the gaps didn’t take much longer, despite a couple of tricky moments, so this must have been one of my quickest Azed solves ever. All quality stuff as always, so thanks to Azed.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. SEANAD Upper house abroad, not happy about English one (6)
E AN in SAD – the Irish Senate
6. APPLES Signs of discord? International lost has relevance (6)
APPLIES less I, with a reference to the Apple of Discord
11. PLEONAST Panel irritated with sot, one who’s needlessly verbose (8)
(PANEL SOT)*
12. RIATA One dramatically educated to hold a lasso (5)
A in RITA – from Willy Russell’s play (and film) Educating Rita
13. THIRSTY Needing a drink, son gets stuck into Triple X? (7)
S in THIRTY (three times ten, or X)
15. ILL SEEN Silly Nellie’s poorly informed (7, 2 words)
NELLIES*
16. GILRAVAGER One carousing in Scotland, girl Reg led astray fed with narcotic stuff (10)
AVA in (GIRL REG)*
17. BROTH Book by US novelist, nourishing brew (5)
B + ROTH (Philip Roth, author of Portnoy’s Complaint among many others
19. VESTS Old clothes folded in chest severally (5)
Hidden in reverse of cheST SEVerally; “vests” is a current word, of course, but the “old” tells us that it has an obsolete meaning of clothes generally
21. LOTIC Like riverine creature seen in lake, quickly returning (5)
L + reverse of CITO (Latin “fast”)
24. ASTIS Wines and other alcoholic drink (not soft) (5)
PASTIS less P
25. TROPOPAUSE Time to get going, about to burst a boundary in space (10)
POP (burst) A in T (time) ROUSE (get going)
28. ALIASES Handles changed sail in sea changing (7)
SAIL* in SEA*
30. KIDSKIN I had lizard with tail brought right forward as glove material? (7)
I’D SKINK with last letter moved to the beginning
31. LOCUS Passage in book cut before point with page twice removed (5)
LOP (cut) + CUSP less both Ps
32. GREEN TEA Generate brews, not souchong or rooibos (8, 2 words)
GENERATE*; Souchong is a black tea, and rooibos is also known as red tea, so neither is green
33. RESETS Harbours once providing periods of calm sheltering core of fleet (6)
[fl]E[et] in RESTS – obsolete (Scots) word meaning to harbour, related to receive, receipt
34. TWEEDY Typical of country gent, tense and far from robust (6)
T + WEEDY; fun fact – the name of the material tweed is the probably result of a mistake, from a misreading of “tweel” (twill); no connection to the River Tweed
Down
1. SPRUG Birdie at Troon, first of several, putting initially secure as of old (5)
S[everal] P[utting] + RUG – Scots word for a sparrow
2. ELIXIR OF LIFE One or two files I mixed with unknown magic potion? (12, 3 words)
Anagram of I OR FILE FILE X (unknown) – although the answer is clear this seems to be dangerously close to being an indirect anagram
3. NOTER Observer missing maybe he lost here and there (5)
I think this is NOT HERE (missing) with the letters of HE removed from non-adjacent positions (hence “here and there”)
4. ANAL Obsessive shrink’s work half ignored? (4)
ANAL[ysis]
5. DATIVE Appointment? Four written in in case (6)
IV in DATE
6. ASHLAR Some potash largely fashioned masonry (6)
Hidden in potASH LARgely
7. PARSEES Large Indian minority in grammar classes involving English (7)
E in PARSES – Chambers only gives “parse” as a verb, so I’m not sure how “grammar classes” works
8. LOSER Model of ineptitude breaking off shutter’s opener? (5)
[C]LOSER
9. ENTERTISSUED Shakespeare’s woven together complex suits in what’s recorded (12)
SUITS* in ENTERED
10. SHYNESS Shot dominating point being withdrawn (7)
SHY + NESS
14. SLOT Niche that’s followed by deerstalker (4)
Double definition – the second is from the meaning a deer’s footprints
17. BLEAKER What’s left in cup becoming increasingly cold (7)
L in BEAKER
18. TIRASSE Ties being knotted round head creates link for pedallers (7)
RAS in TIES* – the pedallers here are organists
20. STUM It perks up old wine, substance including last in vat (4)
[va]T in SUM
22. SPEIRS Questions for the Scots about independence press for resolution (6)
I in PRESS*
23. POSNET Cooking pot not once found in place (6)
NE (archaic “not”) in POST
25. TIDES Rising deposit men dredged in coastal waters (5)
Reverse of SEDIMENT less MEN
26. AGONE Greek conflict with East in historical past (5)
AGON + E
27. ESSAY Drunken ‘aye aye’ (does one assume?) including sailor’s first attempt (5)
S[ailor] in AYES*

5 comments on “Azed 2507”

  1. Any idea what large is doing in 7d? The parsees are an extremely small (though influential) minority.

  2. 25a – I wouldn’t say that the tropopause is a boundary in space,it is a boundary within the Earth’s atmosphere (between the troposphere and the stratosphere)

  3. 7 down gave me pause for thought too. I concluded that there’s  an implied comma i.e. “…in grammar, classes…” which could be read as defining a verb. Not something Azed does often, admittedly.

  4. Thanks to Andrew and Azed

    Another implied comma here – Collins has “… in order to work out what grammatical type …”, but “large” remains a mystery (~0.05% apparently).-

    6a needs an implied “from” after “lost”, I think

    28a I saw the def as simply “handles”

    2d I had as OR FILE FILE I X

    9d Isn’t “what’s recorded”, “entry”?

  5. Ref. 7dn. If you had, say, three minority groups, one of them has to be the largest of the three!

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