AZED CROSSWORD 1190

DENARIUS

1.  C. J. Morse: Plautine piece, ten times as rude as in burlesque (anag.; d. = 10 asses).

2.  W. Anderson: Urinal stained – evidence of this (Latin) being spent (comp. anag. & lit.).

3.  C. J. Brougham: Un petit peu d’exercice, number penned by Milhaud, possibly a classic piece? (e n in Darius).

VHC

M. Barley: Fancy closure of Observer (i.e. Sunday without X’s successor) – I’d be a bit lost! (anag. of r i.e. Sunda(y)).

R. C. Bell: Under 1 as? That’s wrong (anag. & lit.; d. = 10 asses).

Mrs M. J. Cansfield: It’s translated as ‘penny’ or, in U.S.A., ‘red’ (anag.).

R. V. Dearden: Galloping diuresis is relieved by an old penny (anag. with an for is).

N. C. Dexter: Possibly Barings (bags lost!) used a fair number of asses? (anag. less bags; ref. collapse of B. Bank).

V. Dixon: Roman relic, ten times as ruined as ruined could be (anag.; d. = 10 asses).

Mrs E. Greenaway: A side run amok – price paid by Pompey for buying ten asses (anag.; ref. Portsmouth FC, nicknamed Pompey).

C. R. Gumbrell: Sum earned vineyard labouring amounts to this d every man? (comp. anag. & lit.; ref. Matthew 20, 1-10).

A. J. Guy: Nursemaid distraught, losing money and small charge in Coliseum (anag. less M).

F. P. N. Lake: In Rome, one was valid for putting up in settlement of dues (I ran (all rev.) in anag., & lit.).

H. W. Massingham: The smallest amount of LSD, and I sure hallucinated (anag.).

G. McStravick: Rendered unto Caesar, ‘dime’ – came to this! (comp. anag. & lit.).

T. J. Moorey: Some asses carrying Independent, covertly read Sun! (I in anag.).

A. Morgan-Richards: One penny taken from purse and rendered – unto Caesar? (anag. incl. I less p).

A. F. Pearse: New Testament daily wage unraised – must be changed! (anag.).

Rev E. H. Pyle: Coin, under 1 as? That’s wrong (anag.; d. = 10 asses).

D. R. Robinson: With a this Cato could render aid unto Caesar (comp. anag. & lit.).

A. Streatfield: Coin under a shilling, Roman one, originally (anag. incl. s, I, & lit.).

D. Williamson: What’s spent in making urine’s a d (anag. & lit.).

HC

E. A. Beaulah, Mrs F. A. Blanchard, L. W. Blott, B. W. Brook, E. J. Burge, C. J. & M. P. Butler, I. Carr, C. A. Clarke, F. H. Cripps, D. B. Cross, E. Cross, R. Dean, A. L. Dennis, C. M. Edmunds, R. A. England, C. J. Feetenby, Dr I. S. Fletcher, H. Freeman, P. D. Gaffey, Mrs C. George, P. R. Giaccone, C. P. Grant, D. R. Gregory, J. Grimes, P. F. Henderson, J. R. Hill, A. Hodgson, T. M. Hoggart, E. M. Holroyd, W. Jackson, T. W. Johnson, J. Kearney, Ms M. Kennedy, J. P. Lester, J. F. P. Levey, J. C. Leyland, J. D. Lockett, E. Looby, C. J. Lowe, D. J. MacKay, D. F. Manley, P. W. Marlow, A. R. N. Matthews, C. G. Millin, W. L. Miron, J. H. Moore, R. J. Palmer, S. L. Paton, G. Perry, A. J. Redstone, C. Robson, W. Rodgers, J. H. Russell, N. G. Shippobotham, J. B. Sweeting, A. J. Wardrop, M. J. E. Wareham, R. A. Wells, M. Whitmore, G. H. Willett, M. A. L. Willey.
 

Comments
443 entries, the only mistakes being a handful with HERO for ZERO, though several more who got it right couldn’t understand the clue (‘Chap gee’s left unplaced – time to go ? ‘). The explanation is GEEZER less GEE + 0 (= not in the first three finishers of a race), with ZERO = ‘zero hour’. I’m not sure why it caused such difficulty. That clue apart, it was a straightforward plain puzzle, I think. I was a bit worried that DENARIUS (‘horribly anagrammatisable’ according to one) would not offer sufficient scope for imaginative cluing. I needn’t have been. There were ideas aplenty (though variations on ‘used in ancient Rome initially’ and ‘is under a bob’ were rather thick on the ground). One problem that exercised me repeatedly was whether uncountable nouns like ‘change’ and ‘money’ were acceptable as definitions for DENARIUS. I accept that change could consist of a single coin, but to me the words ‘change’ and ‘money’ still imply coins generally, not a specific coin. Those who failed to acknowledge this tended therefore to score no higher than HC.
 
Two queries came up this month which I have dealt with before but which it does no harm to mention again. 1 What does ‘& lit.’ mean in notes to solutions? It is short for ‘and literally so’ or something of the sort (I think Ximenes coined the label), and describes a clue in which the definition part and the cryptic indication are one and the same, i.e. the whole clue can be read first as a definition of the answer and secondly as a cryptic indication of that answer. It does not mean a clue which happens to read as a statement of fact in the real world. A nice example of an ‘& lit.’ clue, treasured from a long-ago Ximenes puzzle, is ‘It can easily be got out of neutral’ for RENAULT. 2 Guidance, please, on the use of capital letters within clues. I have always maintained – and here again I follow the Ximenean line – that it is permissible to give a capital initial to a non-proper noun anywhere in a clue if it suits one’s purpose (e.g. to make it appear as if it were a name), but that it is not permissible to reduce a normal initial capital letter to lower case for similar reasons. The former seems to me (just) fair; the latter strikes me as unfairly misleading.
 
Plans are already afoot to celebrate the publication of Azed No. 1,250 with a dinner for solvers and friends at the Randolph Hotel in Oxford next spring. This is likely to be on Saturday 27 April 1996 so please pencil that in your forward planners if you are interested in coming. More details will be announced as and when they are known.
 
And finally, a correction to last month’s slip. In line 11 of the second comments paragraph, the sentence should read: ‘I have noticed a growing tendency among crossword setters to use “extremely” to indicate the first and last letters of the following (or preceding) word ... ’