AZED CROSSWORD 1363

MAVIN def. THONG

1.  R. J. Hooper: Bird having to strip is in the buff (strip; mav(is) + in).

2.  J. R. Beresford: Villain leaving hurtful marks with a whip crack (whip; anag. of v(ill)ain M).

3.  J. Pearce: Whip starts to interrogate new member about visiting a pro (whip; anag. of first letters).

VHC

M. Bath: Whip is from bird in the buff (whip; mav(is) in).

Mrs F. A. Blanchard: Guy possessing a lot of active strength – he must be a black belt (belt; vi(m) in man).

C. J. Brougham: Macon, strip show … wine and buff? (strip; Ma(con) + vin).

R. V. Dearden: One versed in lore has slim volume in the pipeline (lore; v in main).

V. Dixon: Bond, relocating, an MI5 advisor? (bond; anag. incl. V).

C. R. Gumbrell: Adept guitarist releases inmost character of G-string (G-string; (Hank) Ma(r)vin).

R. Heald: The ultimate in exhibitionism: Virginia performing flip-flop in the buff! (flip-flop; m + VA (rev.) + in).

L. M. Keet: Crop from a vinology expert (crop; hidden).

D. F. Manley: Connoisseur may lash contents of jeroboam – a ‘vinegar’? (lash; hidden; lash = bind, criticize).

T. J. Moorey: ‘Flip-flop’ in Vietnam and French surrendered authority (that’s familiar to Americans) (flip-flop; anag. less et).

C. J. Morse: Strip side-branches to trim a vinery? That’s for the expert (strip; hidden).

J. Mortleman: Master of lore, versed in understanding (lore; MA + v in; understanding = standing under).

R. Phillips: Jonathan’s someone versed in lore and versed in general! (lore; v in main).

R. W. Stephenson: Possibly I’m a Nevada pundit knowing The Strip? (strip; anag. incl. NV; ref. Las Vegas).

R. C. Teuton: Expert finale to strip from gyrating vamp I note (strip; anag. of vam(p) + I n).

G. H. Willett: In Jewish-American lore, am I well-regarded? Very, in general (lore; v in main).

W. Woodruff: Trace of vanity in leading expert (trace; v in main).

HC

M. Barley, P. M. Barton, E. A. Beaulah, Rev Canon C. M. Broun, Dr J. Burscough, B. Burton, C. J. & M. P. Butler, A. & J. Calder, D. A. Campbell, P. A. Cash, R. M. S. Cork, E. Cross, G. Cuthbert, N. C. Dexter, D. Durrance, C. M. Edmunds, H. Everett, Ms J. Gore, R. R. Greenfield, J. Harrington, P. F. Henderson, A. Hodgson, T. Jacobs, Mrs D. B. Jenkinson, F. P. N. Lake, J. C. Leyland, C. J. Lowe, R. K. Lumsdon, Mrs J. Mackie, W. F. Main, F. R. Palmer, D. R. Robinson, J. R. Tozer, A. J. Wardrop, I. J. Wilcock, Dr E. Young.
 

Comments
228 entries, a few mistakes, mostly in the NW corner (MAVIN being for many the last word to be filled in). As always with ‘Wrong Number’ competitions, there were several entries which clued the wrong word(s). The commonest fault in clues submitted was to include a definition of THONG which played no part in the cryptic clue to MAVIN. The whole object of the exercise in WN clues is to work the extra definition into your wording so that it performs an intrinsic role in the full clue to the other word and is not simply added to it at some point. So, for example, ‘Master – one versed in lore’ won’t do because ‘lore’ (the definition of THONG) is superfluous to the (supposedly ‘& lit.’) clue to MAVIN. (Incidentally, I think ‘versed’, given in the current edition of Chambers as one of the words that v stands for, must be a misprint for ‘verse’, which is noticeably absent.) A fair number of you also failed to spot the definition of ICICLE in my clue to PRUNED. Have a look at the entry for tangle³ in Chambers.
 
Numbers always tend to dip in WN competitions, which is one reason why I don’t give you them too often. (The last one was No. 1,056 in August 1992.) They are tough to solve (and to set!) and the solving doesn’t get any easier as the grid fills up. That said, the extra challenge was clearly relished by many. I was asked whether I approach the setting of a WN in any special way. Not really, though I try to use in the grid words with a range of meanings or with a fairly general meaning, to give myself a reasonable amount of choice when it comes to picking the one-word definitions. Also, as you’d expect, I write the clues to each set of the same length as a group, instead of the normal method of working through them in standard clue order. Contrary to what some of you may have thought, I did not give you the pair of clue words I liked the look of least. They were chosen at the start, i.e. before I embarked on the rest of the clues, because I thought MAVIN seemed to offer reasonable scope for cryptic treatment and THONG could be defined by quite a good range of single words. ‘Strip’, for fairly obvious reasons, was the one most often used in clues submitted, by quite a long way. A few of those chosen seemed too far from defining THONG to be acceptable. Otherwise good clues which included ‘string’ and ‘brief (a sort of flimsy garment) were marked down for this reason. ‘String’ is given in Chambers as one of the definitions for ‘strap’ (my one-word definition of THONG), but that doesn’t mean that ‘string’ and ‘thong’ are synonymous. And thongs and briefs seem to be quite different things.
 
A couple of administrative points. I shall be on holiday (Tuscany again) during the first half of August. This means, Itm afraid, that the results of next month’s competition will be announced a week late. Sorry about that. And Anthony Ellis has asked me to say that because of rising costs the annual subscription to the AZED slip will be going up next month to £11 (£12 for overseas subscribers). It would be most helpful to have the subscriber’s address on the back of the cheque.