AZED CROSSWORD 10

LINGERIE

1.  G. M. Hornby: Miss Greer, rejecting man, wears none up on top (nil rev + Germaine less man, & lit.; ref Women’s Lib activist).

2.  L. F. Leason: What could get one leering, if kinky? (anag. incl. I, & lit.).

3.  D. J. Hennings: Snow which conceals ravine on Eiger perhaps (lin + anag.; snow = linen).

VHC

C. Allen Baker: I’ll wear it, says Danny – in drag, that is (linger i.e.; ref. D. la Rue).

W. G. Arnott: It’s to slip a leg in and most of a raw hide (anag. + rie(m), & lit.).

E. A. Beaulah: To dawdle – that is perhaps a woman’s most cherished habit (linger i.e.).

T. E. Bell: Drag? That’s what Danny finds indispensable (linger i.e.; ref. D. la Rue).

E. J. Burge: ‘Go slow’ that is often exemplified in the tube (linger i.e.; ref. underwear ads).

D. A. H. Byatt: This may get one leering madly (anag. incl. I, & lit.).

A. H. P. Cardew: Cause of naughty one leering (anag. incl. I, & lit.).

D. L. L. Clarke: Girlie en deshabille can hardly fail to reveal it (anag. & lit.).

N. C. Dexter: Men lose their head with girlie flirting in this (anag. incl. (M)en, & lit.).

N. C. Goddard: Worn under dresses – in drag, that is (linger i.e.).

E. G. Illingworth: If improperly displayed it could result in one leering (anag. incl. I, & lit.).

L. W. Jenkinson: Girlie flirting with men (not married) may reveal this (anag. incl. (m)en, & lit.).

J. R. Kirby: Revealed by wriggling girl in final stages of striptease performance (anag. incl. last letters, & lit.).

D. F. Manley: Put down catch in deep before holding one in slips maybe (ling + I in ere; ling fish).

Mrs E. McFee: Slips, for instance, must become bigger fish before swallowing one (ling + I in ere; slip = small sole, undergarment).

T. W. Melluish: Heath upsetting Ireland touches, perhaps, Miss Devlin closely (ling + Eire (rev.); ref. Edward H., Bernadette D.).

Dr R. J. Palmer: It could produce depraved leering if I were removed (anag. incl. I, & lit.).

D. H. Smith: Danny’s deshabille – with drag on that is! (linger + i.e.; ref. D. la Rue).

F. B. Stubbs: Pause that is part of a stripper’s stock-in-trade (linger i.e.).

A. R. Wheatley: Inner covering that is enfolding a bit of glamour? (g in liner i.e., & lit.).

HC

R. H. Adey, P. Ames, J. W. Bates, C. O. Butcher, E. Chalkley, Mrs M. P. Craine, L. L. Dixon, P. Drummond, J. A. Fincken, R. P. C. Forman, A. L. Freeman, C. C. M. Giffin, R. J. Green, J. P. H. Hirst, E. M. Hornby, F. G. Illingworth, R. E. Kimmons, A. D. Legge, Mrs S. M. Macpherson, H. S. Mason, D. P. M. Michael, M. L. Perkins, E. J. Rackham, J. Revill, D. J. Thorpe, G. A. Tomlinson, D. H. Tompsett, B. J. Warren, N. E. Wheatley, P. B. G. Williams.
 

Comments
About 500 entries, quite a lot of mistakes, the most common being SLUSE for SLUSH, ELERON for ELEVON and TOPPED for TAPPIT, none of which can be made to fit the clues. NICKUMS also puzzled a few but ‘Scratchy-watchy’ is surely acceptable baby language for Scratch, Old Nick, the Devil. I was pleased to see a large mailbag again after the intractability of SCEUOPHYLAX and greatly enjoyed finding my way through the huge pile of smalls, frillies, slips, pants and furbelows which confronted my gaze. (Mr. Leason, and others, would probably disapprove!) I had to disqualify a number of solvers who were not accurate enough in defining LINGERIE as a generic noun. ‘Fish lake for slips’, which is almost a perfectly sound clue, needs a question mark or a ‘maybe’ at the end to indicate that slips are only one example of lingerie, not a straight definition. There were also very many variations on the stay/stays idea which depended upon an assumption that stay in the singular could mean corset, for which I could find no support (ouch!) in C. Let me add at once that plenty of clues which used this idea were quite sound but simply not original enough for inclusion in the lists.
 
Many of you have asked for my views on clue-writing and how far, if at all, they differ from those of Ximenes. In general, since I was most strongly influenced by X, I share his views on almost every aspect of the writing of clues, and I would urge solvers to read his book On the Art of the Crossword (Methuen) as the fullest and best treatment of the subject. To reiterate just one of his many precepts (with more to come in future months), let me pick on the indirect anagram, with two examples: ‘Petticoats etc. are shown when one is involved in disorderly Highland dancing’; ‘In Scotland they yearn with Eli to wear this’. In the first of these clues the clue-writer intends, but does not say, that the solver is to find a synonym for ‘Highland dancing’ (REELING) before mixing it up and including I (one). In other words two separate stages are involved, an unfair demand on the solver. The fact that this particular clue is not too difficult as it stands is beside the point. The second example is downright impossible. Apart from the fact that ‘they’ is superfluous, that no anagram indication is given and that there is no proper definition, the solver is expected to discover GREIN (not in C.) and form an anagram of it with ELI (Eli who?) to produce the answer. If you are using an anagram, the words or part-words to be jumbled must appear in your clue, not hints or clues to them.
My identity, which has intrigued some, is no secret. I am Jonathan Crowther, 29, ‘Gong’ of the Listener. My new pseudonym has likewise had people guessing. Apart from its comprehensively alphabetical connotations, it does maintain a certain twisted continuity. Don Diego de Deza was Spanish Grand Inquisitor from 1498 to 1507, between Torquemada and Ximenes. He was peculiarly beastly, burning 2,592 heretics alive, a further 892 in effigy, and ruining 34,952 more with crippling penances. By reversing his name (and history) I hope I am also reversing the less desirable aspects of his nature. I don’t want to torture, merely to perplex!
 
Finally, Mr. Tompsett, the last Ximenes first prizewinner, has kindly presented a cup to replace ‘Xim’s No. 1 Cup’ which was originally donated anonymously. This will pass, as before, to each successive first prizewinner. So far it is unadorned. Suggestions for suitable inscriptions would be welcome. I offer a simple couplet:

• ‘I am he, first and last, who’s contriving to daze,
• An Inquisitor-General in each of two ways.’