AZED CROSSWORD 1128

CHRISTMAS PRESENT

1.  F. R. Palmer: Spectre, but not the last – miser hasn’t fully reformed (anag. less e, & lit.; ref. ‘A Christmas Carol’).

2.  C. J. Morse: A thin spectre? – Mr S’s turned out otherwise (anag. & lit.; ref. Scrooge in ‘A Christmas Carol’).

3.  R. C. Procter: Could be spectre or man’s shirt or a mixture of both (anag. & lit.; ref. ‘A Christmas Carol’).

VHC (extra prizes)

M. Barley: Is version of this given by the princes star leads to Savour’s manger? (anag. incl. S, m, & lit.).

M. J. Bath: Manchester’s strip taking spin – Such gets Boon given out in the ‘Australian’s summer’ (anag.; ref. cricketers Peter S., David B.).

J. R. Beresford: Charts misspent career with heartless Ebenezer (anag. incl. E, r, & lit.; ref. E. Scrooge).

C. J. Brougham: Merry sirs’ hamper encumbering saint all in red? (st in anag. in cent; ref ‘God rest you merry, gentlemen’).

B. Burton: Child, just before end of year, is rapt with me and is briefly excited – rendered ecstatic! (ch. + r + anag. incl. ’s + sent, & lit.).

R. A. England: A variety of scriptures and anthems could give this festive offering a touch of uplift (anag. less u, & lit.).

J. Gill: Seasonal product of priests and merchants in unholy alliance? (anag. & lit.).

G. Gregory: My god, mother’s here. Just what I need at this time of year! (Christ, ma’s present).

R. J. Hooper: Matchless sprinter staggered, losing lead to Linford, thus was not quite the first (anag. less L; thus = frankincense; ref. L. Christie).

E. C. Lance: ‘HM Treats Princess Disgracefully’ – the Mail may carry this gratuitous article some time in December (anag.; Royal / Daily Mail).

L. E. Lodge: Merchants and priests wrapping commerce in a cloak of sanctity! (anag.).

C. Loving: Hen-coop’s sitters roam abroad after laying trois oeufs. That could mean ‘three French hens’ (anag. less 0, 0, 0; ref. Christmas song).

D. F. Manley: Is Manchester’s esprit wavering with English being denied the five rings? (anag. less E; ref. Olympic bid and Christmas song).

T. J. Moorey: A box potentially protects man’s heirs with the ball flying? (anag. less O).

I. Morgan: Novel apparition exercising its serpent charms thus perhaps (anag., 2 defs.; thus = frankincense).

R. A. Mostyn: Seasonal gift from parents (chemistry set), not yet unwrapped (comp. anag.).

P. L. Stone: GIFT for nativity? Surgeon cleverly inserts a sperm at tube’s opening (Ch. + anag. + t; GIFT = Gamete Intra-Fallopian Transfer).

R. C. Teuton: This stems Prancer’s flying? (anag. & lit.; Santa’s reindeer).

Mrs J. E. Townsend: Isn’t schemer free with traps scattered throughout box? (anag.; ref. AZ puzzle).

Mrs M. P. Webber: Manchester’s strip (United variety) is one of the things that Santa is asked for (anag.).

R. J. Whale: Something thrilling in stockings? Naughty MPs can’t resist her (anag.).

G. T. Wilson: Seasonal offering which can excite child (small)/parent/mistress? (anag. incl. ch., & lit.).

HC

C. J. Anderson, M. J. Barker, M. Barnes, E. A. Beaulah, S. Berenato, Mrs F. A. Blanchard, H. J. Bradbury, G. C. Brown, E. J. Burge, P. Cargill, M. Coates, G. P. Conway, R. Dean, N. C. Dexter, C. F. H. Dorn, M. Errington, E. G. Fletcher, Dr I. S. Fletcher, T. Glyn, S. Goldie, G. I. L. Grafton, Ms H. Grayson, Mrs E. Greenaway, R. R. Greenfield, J. F. Grimshaw, C. R. Gumbrell, I. F. & L. M. Haines, P. Harrison, P. F. Henderson, A. W. Hill, C. Hopkins, R. E. Kimmons, Dr P. D. King, R. K. Lumsdon, Mrs J. Mackie, G. McStravick, C. G. Millin, R. S. Morse, R. F. Naish, M. Owen, R. J. Palmer, J. Pearce, M. L. Perkins, D. Price Jones, D. L. Roberts, D. J. Short, M. Small, B. L. Smith, I. C. Snell, R. Stocks, J. B. Sweeting, D. G. Tallis, J. L. Turner, R. Vaughan-Davies, A. A. Vinson, A. J. Wardrop, G. Webb, J. F. N. Wedge, R. S. A. Wyatt.
 

COMMENTS
An excellent Christmas entry 577 in all and almost no mistakes. Many of you remarked that the puzzle was enjoyable but not fiendish, with the Playfair element described by one regular as ‘more like the brandy sauce than the pudding itself’. All that is as it should be. I don’t regard Christmas as a time for extra-fiendishness, and using the Playfair code in this way actually helps to demystify it for those who normally find it impenetrable. Quite a lot of you asked how a puzzle like this is constructed, some even asking whether I use a computer. Perish the thought! The idea wasn’t new. I used it first four Christmases ago, with acknowledgements to the American crossword setters Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon (Hex), whose original idea I developed. Basically it’s not different from compiling a normal ‘Letters Latent’ puzzle, except that the latent letters include all the letters of the alphabet and may recur on the same column or row. In some ways it’s easier than a normal ‘L.L.’ in that the across letters latent can be shuffled around if things get awkward, their order being immaterial. The code-phrase has to be chosen at the start, of course, and there is clearly a limit to how many meaningful 13-letter phrases there are, in which no letter recurs, relevant to a particular occasion (in 1989 it was XMAS QUIZ BLOCK). One competitor complained that XWORD isn’t in Chambers, but it’s surely easy to interpret and I did say that the code-phrase was slightly artificial. Filling the grid was then just the usual process of trial and error. (Again, ‘Letters Latent’ is not as fiendish to construct as it might appear since the latent letter(s) may appear anywhere in the word concerned so there is greater flexibility than in a plain puzzle.) It isn’t easy, but it can be done. The title can be left till the end. Someone asked: ‘Why no XWORD YULE GIFT?’ The answer is that at the stage when I settled for YULE XWORD GIFT I had not considered the puzzle’s title and saw the puzzle itself merely as my seasonal offering to solvers. Even when I decided to call it ‘Christmas Present’ I did not immediately make the connection between this and the code-phrase (honestly!). I was more concerned to have identified a cluable, appropriate phrase with an even number of letters and no inconvenient letter pairs. The present/gift connection and the link with Dickens only occurred to me later – satisfyingly, as you can imagine.
 
One regular groaned at having to clue ‘Christmas…’ yet again. I sympathize, though in practice CHRISTMAS PRESENT (not in Chambers, oddly) is replete with possibilities (more than CHRISTMAS BOX, which I gave you some years ago), at least in terms of anagrams, and I had a wonderful array of ideas to assess, with agonisingly difficult judgements to make. Many very clever clues were reluctantly marked down because they indicated in their definition parts a ‘present’ but not specifically a Christmas present. I particularly liked, but finally demoted, the following: ‘It’s Mr S.C. (he’s parent dressed up) that gives this.’ This doesn’t quite work grammatically since another ‘it’s’ is required at the beginning to express what the writer is trying to say. Ironically this could be achieved by omitting ‘that’, thus forming an ellipsis which is acceptable in English and satisfies the ‘& lit.’ reading of the clue.
 
All in all, though, a lot of fun. Thank you all for your appreciative comments and multifarious clues.