AZED CROSSWORD 1389

ALL-OVERISH

1.  M. J. Bailey: Feeling the after-effects of Christmas hols, a liver out of sorts? (anag.).

2.  N. C. Dexter: What maiden perhaps is in nervy ‘Shall I …? ’ (over in anag., & lit.).

3.  T. J. Moorey: Off-colour comic Hill raves about bimbo’s derrière (o in anag.; ref. Benny H.).

VHC

M. Barley: Heart of sentimental lover is hopelessly afflicted with strange malaise (hidden).

C. J. Brougham: Rather wan, lacking in power … catching bug? (lover in (p)alish, & lit.).

D. Buxton: Second in Tripos? So I’ll have done somewhat poorly in each part (anag. incl. r).

Ms S. C. Cockburn: In part of sentimental lover, is Hopkins rather uncomfortable? (hidden; ref. Anthony H.).

G. P. Conway: I’m strangely uneasy in revolution: I have Rolls (anag.).

R. V. Dearden: Alcoholic’s liver could produce this kind of colic (comp. anag. & lit.).

V. Dixon: Queer beggar – but not a rogue, entirely (all for imp in impoverish).

C. M. Edmunds: Violers playing with lah fretted below high doh? (anag.; see ‘up to the high doh’).

A. G. Fleming: Having a funny feeling that makes you suffer endlessly and shiver uncontrollably (allo(w) + anag.).

Dr I. S. Fletcher: One up in hills going astray inexplicably far from A1 (a + over in anag.).

Mrs E. Greenaway: Feeling vaguely indisposed, also liver upset, and hot? (anag. + h).

J. D. Lockett: Dinner aloft is, first to last, below par (h moved in hall over is; ref. airline meals; hall = college dinner).

K. McDermid: Distracted, with no hint of cause, ashiver (coll.) (anag. less c, & lit.).

J. Mortleman: Indistinct ills hover, one anticipates (being this) (a + anag., & lit.).

S. L. Paton: A-tremble, hoarse, ill with a touch of virus? (anag. incl. v, & lit.).

J. H. Russell: Saville Rho tailoring felt to be not quite right somehow (anag.; cf. Savile Row).

R. G. Smith: Feeling you’re vaguely indisposed, or have ills various (anag.).

J. R. Tozer: ‘Collywobbles’ could be Villa’s hero going to pieces (anag.; ref. Stan Collymore, Aston Villa player).

A. J. Wardrop: Finished, anticipating expiry? Not that bad (all over ish (q.v.)).

G. H. Willett: Another way to describe ‘the head that wears a crown’, when silver halo slips? (anag.; ref. ‘uneasy lies …’).

HC

Ms E. Allen, D. Appleton, D. Ashcroft, M. J. Balfour, E. A. Beaulah, J. R. Beresford, Mrs F. A. Blanchard, G. C. Brown, E. J. Burge, C. J. & M. P. Butler, B. A. Clarke, C. A. Clarke, M. Coates, R. M. S. Cork, E. Dawid, R. Dean, P. S. Elliott, Mrs D. I. Fenter, C. D. S. Field, H. Freeman, P. D. Gaffey, D. A. Ginger, C. R. Gumbrell, D. A. Harris, J. Hastie, I. A. Herbert, R. Hesketh, R. J. Hooper, Mrs S. D. Johnson, G. Johnstone, F. P. N. Lake, M. D. Laws, Ms S. Leather, J. C. Leyland, E. Looby, D. F. Manley, P. W. Marlow, J. R. C. Michie, T. G. Powell, D. Price Jones, P. E. Radburn, H. L. Rhodes, D. R. Robinson, D. P. Shenkin, Mrs E. J. Shields, D. J. Short, P. L. Stone, P. Thacker, T. Traynor, D. White, D. Williamson, M. J. Wright, Dr E. Young, R. Zara.
 

Comments
305 entries, with few mistakes, most of them resulting from failure to understand the ASTRAY clue. I am largely to blame for this. ‘Joe’ should clearly have read ‘Joey’, meaning a threepenny bit (or tray). I’m afraid I failed to read the Joe entry carefully enough, and no amount of searching in the OED yielded a scrap of evidence that Joe can be used for Joey in this sense. Many apologies. I suppose I was just so pleased to come across will² meaning astray! UTOPIA also caused some perplexity, though nobody got it wrong. I hope the solution notes made it clear that what I had in mind was pi auto, cyclically (i.e. cycling), with pi as a verb, which Chambers seems to sanction.
 
‘What a waste of a good Printer’s Devilry word,’ was one comment on my choice of ALL-OVERISH this month. I take the point but have a sneaking feeling I clued it myself in a PD puzzle once. Can anyone confirm that? Anyway there were understandably a lot of hidden-type clues, few of which, I’m afraid, stood out as worthy of distinction. Another overworked idea was based on wording such as ‘a Latin Romeo is hot’, perfectly acceptable but just too popular, alas. There were also lots of nice anagrams, the commonest being ‘have ills or’ with variations in word order. One anagram-based clue that almost made it (because no one else used it) was ‘Orville has flown under the weather’, with the accompanying note ‘to fly = to burst quickly’. But in this sense fly is only intransitive, so the past participle won’t do Pity. There was a suitably wide range of definitions for a word that seems very imprecise in its application. The idiomatic phrase unearthed by Mr Edmunds was one I’d certainly never come across before. Incidentally, Mr Tompsett mentioned that W. S. Gilbert uses ‘all-overish’ in The Bab Ballads (The Story of Prince Agib, verse 11), and thought it might also be in one of the Savoy Operas.
 
A few of you offered humorous definitions from Chambers following my recent mention of them. Eclair is the one most often quoted (and is also mentioned in the Preface to the new edition). Others suggested include bafflegab and Jacquard loom, while a favourite of mine is perpetrate. Keep them coming if you stumble on some more, especially new ones.