Azed - Last Ones + Some Parsing Queries

[JJ109]

26d Scottish set creating stir locally on loch (4)
_ E _ L
(the third letter is probably also an E, giving _ EEL)
23d Pimple, what the most incompetent will fail to shift? (5)
W _ ELK
(I know that a whelk is a 'pimple" but can't parse the rest)

Parsing queries - I don't have Chambers

29a Old-fashioned pen starts to splash the ink everywhere (4)
(Is there a word "STIE" that means an old-fashioned pen ? It is the start letters of S(plash)
T(he) I(nk) E(verywhere), and I have _ TIE
9d Old vow – see me freed from the same when it’s broken (5)
(Is there a word "HEAST" that means vow. I have HEA _ T and "heast" is an anagram of "the sa(me)"
30a Fine quartz crystal suggesting Cupid’s dart (9) LO _ _ A _ RO _
Presumably "love arrow" re Cupid's dart - but is this something to do with quartz crystal?

Many thanks

[scorpiojo]

Yes to stie - alt spelling of sty

[mac44]

23d. whelk

[scorpiojo]

Yes to heast - alt spelling of hest

[scorpiojo]

Love-arrow - crystal of rutile enclosed in quartz

[JJ109]

Many thanks for all the confirmations. Can anybody parse whelk though, please! Next time I go back to the UK I must get a Chambers!

[scorpiojo]

26 Jee (set) l(och) - stir

[JJ109]

Many thanks

[scorpiojo]

Thank you, JJ. Still struggling with whelk :-(

[Spoffy]

...it refers to the expression 'he/she couldn't run a whelk stall' (of late 19th origin), describing a person who would also struggle to organise a riotous celebration in a brewery.

[scorpiojo]

..riotous celebration...lol

[JJ109]

Many thanks Spoffy!