AZED CROSSWORD 1074

DEMIREP

1.  F. R. Palmer: With whom we see English MP’s involvement with dire results (anag. incl. E, & lit.).

2.  R. J. Hooper: In translation, I’m perdue, not accepted in good society? (anag. less U, & lit.).

3.  K. Thomas: A bloke’s all excited with one – like Pamella Bordes? (comp. anag. & lit.; ref. scandals involving P. B.).

VHC

E. J. Burge: Allowing for lift I’m acquiring runs in the outfield – I’m known as a hooker (I’m (rev. ) + r in deep).

B. Burton: I’m presumed ‘ruined’ – without substance? (anag. less sum, & lit.).

N. C. Dexter: Fergie, e.g., with secret spread over half the Mirror? (Mir(ror) in deep; ref. Duchess of York).

J. Dromey: From MP’s des. res. I suspectedly sold sex initially and was finally evicted (anag. less s, s, s, & lit.).

E. G. Fletcher: —— Sadie? When cast is deemed a rip (comp. anag. & lit.; ref. S. Maugham’s Sadie Thompson).

H. Freeman: Work per diem? My trade’s plied per noctem (anag.).

B. Greer: I may have sunk low, marginalized by community (mir in deep, & lit.).

C. R. Gumbrell: I’m presumed (without substance) wanton (anag. less sum, & lit.).

A. Hodgson: I may cause mud to stick in ministry (mire in DEP, & lit.; Dept. of Employment and Pensions).

K. W. Johnson: Baggage filled up, importing limit of wine (e in primed (rev.)).

R. E. Kimmons: Don is this in literature, a river quietly rounding a Russian village (mir in Dee p; ref. Don Juan and Sholokhov novel).

F. P. N. Lake: Plane’s wings have iced up – she may not go all way (p, e rimed (rev. )).

R. K. Lumsdon: Rip – me, dear? – half of it isn’t true (anag. incl. de(ar), & lit.).

Mrs J. Mackie: Piece to be kept by ‘uncle’ failing redemption short of a little time in advance? (anag. less t on).

D. F. Manley: One displayed red lamp naughtily? Lapsed —— no lady! (comp. anag. & lit.).

C. J. Morse: Gross woman with no name to lose pounds per diem (anag.).

R. J. Palmer: Woman of ill repute – one’s engaged by certain parties for Congress (I in Dem, Rep).

D. Price Jones: MP I’d e’er corrupt (anag. & lit.).

A. J. Wardrop: Drab media comic lacking adult material (anag. less a + rep).

J. M. H. Wright: Society sinner? Redemption moves me not (comp. anag.).

HC

D. Ashcroft, F. D. H. Atkinson, M. J. Barker, M. Barley, M. J. Bath, E. A. Beaulah, R. C. Bell, J. R. Beresford, B. W. Brook, C. J. Brougham, Rev Canon C. M. Broun, C. J. & M. P. Butler, E. Chalkley, C. A. Clarke, G. P. Conway, M. D. Cooke, D. B. Cross, E. Dawid, R. Dean, R. V. Dearden, V. Dixon, R. A. England, M. Freeman, P. D. Gaffey, S. Gaskell, D. A. Ginger, N. C. Goddard, S. Goldie, R. R. Greenfield, R. W. Hawes, A. W. Hill, P. Hulme, W. Jackson, J. E. Jesson, G. Johnstone, C. W. Laxton, J. C. Leyland, A. Logan, Ms J. Manthorp, H. W. Massingham, J. R. Michie, C. G. Millin, J. J. Moore, T. J. Moorey, I. Morgan, C. Pearson, R. Phillips, B. Pitt, D. R. Robinson, V. H. N. Roles, N. G. Shippobotham, W. K. Slimmings, I. C. Snell, J. B. Sweeting, J. R. Tozer, Mrs M. P. Webber, R. J. Whale, J. P. A. Wildey, G. H. Willett, D. O. Williams, D. Williamson, A. J. Young, Dr E. Young.
 

COMMENTS
489 entries, almost no mistakes. My apologies for the extreme lateness of this slip, a victim of pre- and post-Christmas activity of a more than usually frantic kind. In fact there is little to be said about the puzzle. One solver, a German lady, objected to my ignoring the umlaut in ‘Kümmel’s’ (a word in my clue to MUSK-MELON) in the diagram itself From a purist standpoint she is right – I am perfectly aware that such diacriticals change the nature of the letters they adorn in the languages they belong to. It is however a well-established and reasonable convention in English crosswords that unless setters explicitly instruct solvers to do otherwise, they can be ignored even when the entry-word itself normally carries one or more. It is traditional after all to enter crossword answers in capital letters and certain accents are often omitted from the words they belong to in other languages when they are printed in capitals. Another solver noted that this puzzle contained every letter except J. I’ve never deliberately set out to include every letter in a normal plain puzzle so this near miss was entirely fortuitous. Perhaps I should have a go at it one day.
 
A further comment concerns one of the prize-winning clues from the previous month (TANDOORI), viz.: ‘For ultimate in flavour, way in which a taste of India succeeds.’ Does this, my correspondent asks, contain ‘a clue to a clue’ in that ‘flavour’ is a clue to ‘tang’ and ‘tang’ is, in turn, an element in the clue to TANDOORI? The clue at issue is admittedly quite a difficult one, cleverly exploiting the possible ambiguity of certain English words and structures (‘for’, ‘in/which’, ‘succeeds’), but it is still a clue to a solution rather than a clue to a clue. The cryptic instruction to the solver is ‘think of a word meaning “flavour” and replace its last letter with a word meaning “way in” followed by the first letter of “India”’. This leads unmistakably to the solution, not a further clue which must be solved in turn to give the solution. The sort of ‘clue to a clue’ which typically I find unacceptable, but which less experienced solvers still submit without perhaps realizing how impossible to solve they can be, is the indirect anagram, in which the clue contains synonyms of the words to be jumbled, not the words themselves. Here an unfair two-stage decoding process is involved.
 
Finally, news that another old friend and long-time solver is no more. Alex Lawrie, who had been solving and competing in Ximenes and Azed competitions for forty years, with regular success, died just before Christmas. His widow wrote thoughtfully to tell me of his passing and to tell me of the pleasure he derived from crosswords. There will be many, I know, who like me will miss him and his witty, polished contributions.