AZED CROSSWORD 1220

CASSANDRA

1.  D. Ashcroft: Tragic scandals left axed King Agamemnon’s head: I saw it coming (anag. less l + R A).

2.  D. R. Robinson: See girl left ignored – and by Priam (dismissive of odd characters) (c (l)ass and (P)r(i)a(m), & lit.).

3.  C. J. Brougham: But I wasn’t caught by equine thing plus soldiers! (c ass and RA, & lit.).

VHC

D. Appleton: I —— fire the troops – truly a sister of Hector and Paris (comp. anag. & lit.).

W. G. Arnott: She was like a prophetess at the end, in a car and mad (as s in anag., & lit.; ref. Aeschylus: ‘Agamemnon’).

J. R. Beresford: Clairvoyant finds ‘Fool’ an inspiring playing card (ass an in anag.).

C. M. Edmunds: A girl who had vision, as saint D’Arc, but with it rejected, wasted (anag. less it).

S. Goldie: Warners have her on roll as a name performing with little credit – sad! (anag. incl. n, cr.).

C. R. Gumbrell: With horse, and heading for ruin, people came – ignoring me (ass and r in ca(me), & lit.; people vb).

A. Hall: Issuer of warnings, dismissed as canards (anag.).

P. F. Henderson: Fortune-teller with unbelievable skill giving new reading of cards as one cuts (an in anag.).

R. Jacks: She reveals first indication of ruin in store after earlier introduction of horse-like thing (ass, r separately in C and A, & lit.).

Mrs J. Mackie: One telling truths that were yet to be treated as canards (anag.).

D. F. Manley: The years pass and process – one’s clued this prophetess, yes?! (comp. anag. & lit.; ref. AZ No. 190 – see comments).

T. J. Moorey: Labour acting darn crass with recipe for unemployment: I predict more dole (anag. incl. a, less r).

C. J. Morse: Forecaster who spoke unbelievably about ‘sun, sun and sun again’ (ca. S S and Ra).

R. J. Palmer: I issued dire warnings misrepresented as canards (anag.).

H. R. Sanders: My prognostications are discounted, attacked as canards (anag.).

D. A. Simmons: Leading trebles in cast sang dramatically – but no one listened to her (cas san dra).

K. Thomas: Saga’s character telling woeful tale about ship and sun (ca. SS and Ra; misleading ref. to the Ancient Mariner).

J. R. Tozer: Fool spreading terrible canard? She appeared so (ass in anag.).

R. J. Whale: Girl first seen in Competition Azed some reviews ago – about a thousand, you forgot? ((thou)sand in first letters; ref. AZ 190 – see comments).

HC

W. Anderson, M. J. Balfour, M. J. Bath, S. Best, Mrs K. Bissett, R. E. Boot, Mrs A. Boyes, A. Brash, Rev Canon C. M. Broun, E. J. Burge, B. Burton, W. R. Chalmers, E. A. Clarke, M. Coates, Ms S. C. Cockburn, M. Cutter, E. Dawid, R. Dean, N. C. Dexter, W. E. Dillon, V. Dixon, J. L. Eaton, M. G. Elliott, P. S. Elliott, A. R. Esau, Mrs P. Fahy, Dr I. S. Fletcher, Dr J. Foster, H. Freeman, M. Freeman, N. C. Goddard, E. Gomersall, R. R. Greenfield, R. J. Hannam, I. A. Herbert, R. Hesketh, E. M. Holroyd, R. J. Hooper, N. Kessel, F. P. N. Lake, J. C. Leyland, C. Loving, C. J. Lowe, R. K. Lumsdon, R. M. Luty, J. May, K. McDermid, P. J. McWeeny, G. D. Meddings, C. G. Millin, W. Mitchell, J. H. Moore, C. J. Napier, F. R. Palmer, C. Pearson, G. Perry, Dr T. G. Powell, D. Price Jones, J. H. Russell, M. Sanderson, W. J. M. Scotland, D. P. Shenkin, N. G. Shippobotham, R. C. Teuton, S. V. Tiller, D. H. Tompsett, A. P. Vincent, M. H. E. Watson, Mrs M. P. Webber, J. S. Williams, D. Williamson, A. J. Willis.
 

Comments
Oh dear! I had a vague recollection of having given you Cassandra before and really thought I’d checked. Either I hadn’t or my check wasn’t thorough enough. It was emphatically not a deliberate experiment to see how cluing styles might have developed over a longish period. To all those (the great majority, I think) who were blissfully unaware of the fact, I should explain that CASSANDRA was the clue-word in Azed competition No. 190, almost exactly 20 years ago. How could I forget, and how could I have forgotten Mr C. O. Butcher’s brilliant first prizewinning clue on that occasion (see below)? Well, quite simply, I could and I had. This put me in a bit of a quandary. Should I, as one competitor suggested, declare this competition null and void ? After some thought I decided that this would disappoint many more people than it satisfied, and to proceed as normal, not looking at the earlier results until after making my judgement. But I’m still kicking myself, and I fully deserve such friendly jibes as e.g. Messrs Manley and Whale contrived. I wonder how many of you, like me, had forgotten that earlier competition.
 
There were 407 entries and very few mistakes. Most of you had KNUSLS (KNURLS) which was equally acceptable as, if not preferable to, KNASLS, ‘slank’ being a distinctly archaic past tense of ‘slink’ and not in Chambers. I have used ‘Cherchez la Femme’ once before, for a non-competition puzzle, the lady in question on that occasion being JACQUELYN. Most of you seem to have enjoyed the challenge. Since there must be relatively few girl’s names with special connotations like this one, it has limited scope as a competition puzzle type, but it can certainly take its place in the general repertoire.
 
The ‘as canards’ anagram turned up quite often this time, as last. It raised an interesting point in the following clue submitted: ‘Her prophecies were treated as canards.’ Here the last three words are the cyptic part, leaving the first three to do the defining job, which they clearly don’t do adequately on their own, rendering the clue flawed. The situation can be rescued by minor rejigging of the word order and punctuation, thus: ‘Treated as canards? Her prophecies were’, in which the first three words are understood again after the last three.
 
Finally, an important announcement. For unavoidable reasons connected with my publishing job, the dinner planned to celebrate Azed No. 1,250 can not now take place next April to coincide with the puzzle itself. A fresh date, probably in September, is being sought, and further details will be announced as soon as they’re definite. Apologies for the change of plan.
 
Oh, and Mr Butcher’s winning clue in November 1975 ? ‘One with prior dope and held in little credit’