AZED CROSSWORD 1229

GRUPPETTO

1.  N. C. Dexter: A turn from note F, say? E up to G and rpt start (anag.; start vb).

2.  A. J. Wardrop: What’s tremulously put together without the sustaining pedal? (p in anag. less the, & lit.).

3.  B. Burton: Poor trumpet goes wobbly – perhaps more so, this being played! (comp. anag. & lit.).

VHC

D. Appleton: Rattle got true pianissimo for decorative figure (anag. incl. pp; ref. Simon R.).

E. A. Beaulah: It’s Rocca’s turn: ergo pressure putt scrambled (anag. incl. p; ref. Costantino R., British Open Golf Championship).

H. J. Bradbury: A few brief notes, possibly introducing perplexed readers to the enormous Grove – perfectly useless otherwise (anag. of first letters; ref. G.’s Dictionary of Music).

Dr J. Burscough: Misleading ‘peg’ tot-up (Crowther’s latest) might give solver a turn! (anag. incl. r; ref. AZ’s error in clue to OCTOPOD).

M. Coates: Turn to play? Try holding putter out, gripping softly (p in anag. in go).

E. Cross: Grey overtaking favourite before turn (gr. up pet to).

E. G. Fletcher: It transforms a spiritless trumpet group into a musical turn (anag. less rum).

R. R. Greenfield: Roulade, perhaps, extravagantly got up with chunks of pineapple enhancing the richness (anag. incl. first letters).

C. R. Gumbrell: Grace Darling in forefront of rescue got up in a storm (pet in anag. incl. r).

E. M. Holroyd: Ornament opening bagatelle perhaps? (i.e. B, A, G, A).

P. Long: Rocca, it’s your turn. Make good putt, prego! (anag.; ref. Costantino R.).

D. F. Manley: Grace – GP to erupt when out? (anag.; ref. Dr W. G. G.).

G. D. Meddings: Grey leading favourite as far as turn (gr. up pet to).

C. G. Millin: Musical turn in cavern, mostly a stimulant for love (uppe(r) for 0 in grotto; ref. The Beatles, C. Club).

M. Moran: Turn up favourite tenor, included in Grove (up pet t in Gro.; ref. G.’s Dictionary of Music).

C. J. Morse: Italian crew turn up in port and get drunk (up in anag., 2 defs.).

F. R. Palmer: Old king rising to call for introduction of favourite turn? (pet in GR up to; ref. Old King Cole).

G. Perry: Turn up favourite tenor in Grove (up pet t in Gro.; ref. G.’s Dictionary of Music).

C. W. Thomas: Lacking in pure potting form, Davis could have played this (anag. less in; ref. Steve / Miles D.).

M. J. E. Wareham: Grey leading favourite at turn (gr. up pet to).

D. Williamson: Freely intoned appoggiatura could modulate into this, in an adagio (comp. anag. & lit.).

HC

M. Barley, G. D. Bates, Ms R. Box, Mrs A. Boyes, B. W. Brook, C. J. Brougham, E. J. Burge, C. J. & M. P. Butler, Mrs M. J. Cansfield, K. W. Crawford, Ms M. Cruickshank, R. A. England, M. Freeman, N. C. Goddard, I. F. & L. M. Haines, P. F. Henderson, A. Hill, R. Jacks, J. F. Jones, J. P. Lester, R. K. Lumsdon, Mrs J. Mackie, W. F. Main, P. W. Marlow, K. McDermid, T. J. Moorey, Mrs T. Morris, C. J. Napier, J. Pearce, J. T. Price, D. Price Jones, D. R. Robinson, J. B. Sweeting, Miss D. W. Taylor, R. C. Teuton, Mrs J. E. Townsend, A. P. Vincent, G. H. Willett, S. Woods, Dr E. Young.
 

Comments
A disappointingly small entry, only 324 in all. There were a few mistakes, mostly caused by inability to find ABORE, which is lurking at the entry for abear in Chambers. The 1993 edition is much better than its predecessor at giving ‘dummy entries’ for such irregular forms and other alternative spellings, but it is still not wholly reliable (witness the placing of NENNIGAI, which I used in a recent non-competition puzzle, having spotted it in Chambers Words, and then had a terrible job tracing it in the main dictionary!). I must also apologise for my idiotic slip in describing a squid as an octopod in my clue to the latter word. Very few of you commented on this (only three, I think), and only Dr Burscough attempted to do so by means of a clue. No one got it wrong.
 
There was much moaning and groaning about the clue-word this month, I’m not quite sure why. Though its meaning is pretty precise and specialized, it didn’t seem to he a particularly intractable word to exploit, and there were certainly plenty of good ideas. Two of these I could not accept, though. The first was treating GRUPPETTO as though it means ‘a musical turn’ in the sense of a performance by musicians. I am quite sure this is wrong. It means a small group of grace notes forming a turn or a trill (or even a roulade!). And although Chambers defines grace among other things as ‘a grace note’, I am equally sure, having looked into the matter quite thoroughly, that a gruppetto cannot be defined by ‘grace’ tout simple, as was done by a number of you, often in the context of W.G. or the heroic Miss Darling. A grace is one note; a gruppetto is several.
 
Having nothing more to say about the puzzle, I must close by mentioning an imminent rise in the subscription rate for the slip. Because of rising costs and the forthcoming rise in postal charges, Anthony Ellis, who handles the distribution and mailing list virtually on a break-even basis, feels the need to increase the subscription to £9 a year with effect from January 1996. Subscribers who renew at Christmas will be charged £5 for the period until next September. Those who renew subsequently for a shorter period will also be asked to pay £5, with the alternative of paying pro rata for the unexpired portion of 1996 and adding on the new sub for the twelve months thereafter. I hope you will not find this increase too excessive.
 
A very merry Christmas and happy new year to you all, and many thanks for all the cards and greetings so many of you have sent to me and my fami