AZED CROSSWORD 1385

PANTRIES

1.  R. J. Hooper: What maids must step into daily when apprehending dinner’s close? (r in panties, & lit.).

2.  Mrs J. Mackie: What a Spartan diet could make a tad superfluous (anag. less a tad, & lit.).

3.  D. H. Tompsett: Mug shots seen in offices of commissariat (pan tries).

VHC

J. M. Ballard: Slate tiers rearranged for food stores (pan + anag.).

M. Barley: Where cooks will store what’s not fully eaten (trie(d) in pans, & lit.).

J. R. Beresford: Pints are drunk as sources of cheer (anag.).

C. J. Brougham: Little rooms where linen’s about or cake goes (r in panties, pan tries, & lit.).

E. J. Burge: Places for supplies in loco parentis (anag.; ref. supply teachers).

C. A. Clarke: Alternatives to drawers containing what’s used for recipe? (r in panties, & lit.).

E. Cross: Little cakes, not square but new, more than one buttery (n for s in pastries).

C. R. Gumbrell: Spence and suchlike characters starting postwar architecture with new aims (p a + n tries; ref. Sir Basil S.).

A. Hall: Where butter-prints were looked after in loco parentis (anag.; butter-prints 2 mngs.).

R. Hesketh: Chambers where commons are and are not constrained by peers (an’t in pries).

T. H. Keeley: Where butlers are often found pints are pulled (anag.).

F. P. N. Lake: Mince Pies and no end of cold Turkey shortly to be found therein? (anag. of TR in pies an(d), & lit.).

D. F. Manley: Domestic situations that may need a maid in loco parentis (anag.).

T. J. Moorey: Potential traps in latest from Europe? Cook could walk right into them! (anag. incl. e; ref. Robin C.).

C. J. Morse: Cooking article examines where to find butlers (pan tries).

R. J. Palmer: Their contents could be cooked in repast (anag. & lit.).

J. H. Russell: These provisions are in loco parentis (anag.).

J. R. Tozer: Places you might find servants in loco parentis (anag.).

R. J. Whale: Napery sites? Yes, these possibly… (comp. anag. & lit.).

Ms B. J. Widger: Pints are pulled in stillrooms (anag.).

D. Williamson: Acting in Pinter’s cast, might they feed the dumb waiter? (a in anag.; ref. Pinter’s play ‘The Dumb Waiter’).

HC

S. Armstrong, D. Ashcroft, R. L. Baker, E. A. Beaulah, Mrs A. Boyes, Rev Canon C. M. Broun, B. Burton, G. Cuthbert, E. Dawid, R. Dean, A. J. Dorn, P. S. Elliott, C. D. S. Field, H. Freeman, E. Gomersall, B. Grabowski, G. I. L. Grafton, R. R. Greenfield, R. Heald, R. Jacks, W. Jackson, J. P. Lester, P. Long, R. K. Lumsdon, P. W. Marlow, Rev M. Metcalf, G. M. Neighbour, R. A. North, F. R. Palmer, J. Pearce, H. L. Rhodes, A. Roth, M. Sanderson, N. G. Shippobotham, R. G. Smith, P. L. Stone, P. Thacker, C. W. Thomas, Dr I. Torbe, Mrs J. E. Townsend, L. Ward, P. H. Watkin, G. H. Willett, M. A. L. Willey, K. Wilson.
 

Comments
370 entries, no mistakes, and perceptible sighs of relief all round at a relatively straightforward puzzle after the previous month’s stinker. There were however a couple of pleas begging me not to make my puzzles any easier. Have no fear - I have no intention of deliberately changing my style, and shall continue to strive to perplex and (I hope) entertain at the same sort of level of difficulty as always. In the nature of things there will be puzzles from time to time that some find too easy or too difficult, but I can’t really help that. All I can say is that I try to avoid undue difficulty for its own sake.
 
I don’t think there were any clues this month that were not understood. I was taken to task for defining up-over as ‘hinged at the top’. ‘Up-over’ apparently refers to garage-type doors, which are net hinged but run on tracks. Something hinged at the top would be described in the building trade as ‘top-hung’, like a small window, and would need a stay. I stand corrected. It was a horrid word to clue satisfactorily.
 
I can’t remember when I last gave you a plural to clue, and there is always a risk with quite common words like this one that it has been clued many times in daily crosswords, using all manner of ideas. That said, I don’t remember seeing it and was duly impressed by the many different ploys you came up with. There were almost limitless anagram possibilities. ‘In loco parentis’ was clearly very tempting but needed careful handling to link it with a convincing definition. R in panties was likewise very popular, with frequent reference to What the Butler Saw machines of yesteryear (how quaint they now seem in comparison with today’s obsession with explicit sex!), but Mr Hooper’s treatment was head and shoulders above the rest and an object lesson in how to add that extra dash of brilliant wording to a straightforward idea.
 
Four examples of unsoundness from quite experienced competitors: 1) ‘Botched repaints? Sounds like Ladas.’ This is an instance of ‘a clue to a clue’, as Ximenes would have called it, with no actual definition part at all. (The fact that it’s not difficult to solve is irrelevant.) 2) ‘Twist – near pits – presses for food.’ Nice idea, with its misleading reference to Oliver T., but the first dash spoils it for me. For the anagram to work you have to assume it isn’t there, but it is, and you can’t just wish it away. 3) ‘Where, each being shelved, peach tins are arranged.’ Again a promising idea, with the nice double meaning of ‘shelved’, but for it to work grammatically as an ‘& lit.’ it needs another ‘are’ or an ‘is’ after ‘are’. 4) ‘Cake goes in these.’ A similar attempt at an ‘& lit.’, similarly flawed but much more easily salvaged. The syntax doesn’t work in the cryptic reading, though ‘You’ll find cake goes in these’ would be fine and entirely acceptable.
 
My sincere thanks for all the cards and appreciative Christmas greetings so many of you have sent me and my family. They mean a great deal to me. I hope you all enjoy the Christmas competition, and that 1999 will be a good and peaceful year for us all.