AZED CROSSWORD 1450

PRETENDANT

1.  N. C. Dexter: He’s hanging round on true-love’s threshold, perhaps (re t in pendant, & lit.).

2.  M. Barley: Capturing dearest’s heart is cherished goal one takes time pursuing (r in pet + end an t, & lit.).

3.  C. M. Edmunds: One who presses suits (wrinkled pant tender) (anag.).

VHC

A. Barker: Romeo’s role: his initiation in love is followed by death shortly before Juliet’s end (r in pet + end an t).

C. J. Brougham: Penelope’s beginning web and unravelling it, inhibiting new suitor (P rete + n in anag. + ’t).

Rev Canon C. M. Broun: Maybe Prince Charles having lost a wife and queen (potentially) wanted partner badly (anag. less a w R; ref. Bonnie Prince Charlie).

C. A. Clarke: Not quite fair about Ken, polled ahead of Dobson and Norris initially, being a candidate ((K)en + D a N in prett(y); ref. London mayoralty).

N. Connaughton: Parent wandering about leads to this escort not dallying! (first letters in anag., & lit.).

V. Dixon: ‘… and repent at leisure’? That rot might make a this irresolute (comp. anag. & lit.; ref. ‘Marry in haste …’).

A. S. Everest: Ken’s now one in two minds about time to enter (re t in pendant; ref. K. Livingstone, London mayoral election).

C. R. Gumbrell: Charles Edward Stuart? Prince linked with giant alarm, historically (Pr. eten dant; ref. Bonnie Prince Charlie).

D. A. Harris: Treat this candidate warily: party-liner wanted (comp. anag.; ref. London mayoralty).

F. P. N. Lake: I want potential partner (Miss Right!) to go intimately for me (tend in anag. less r, & lit.).

J. C. Leyland: Defaulting tenant, only half rent paid, in short he’s going to court (anag. incl re(nt) pd).

Mrs J. Mackie: Biking twerp wanting wife with half tandem free to encompass aim? (end in anag. less w + anag.; ref. ‘Daisy’; bike² = swarm).

D. F. Manley: Potential encroacher Tony sees Ken as, long keeping left-winger outside No. 10? (ten in red in pant; ref. T. Blair, K. Livingstone).

C. J. Morse: Press release resurrected whopper to discourage old-style candidate (PR eten dant; ref. spin against Ken Livingstone).

R. J. Palmer: One soliciting: ‘Fancy ardent bit of nookie, pet?’ (anag. incl. n).

D. J. Short: I may get to yearn, with tender trembling inside (anag. in pant, & lit.).

P. L. Stone: Partner amazingly holds ten diamonds, right away I claim hand (ten D in anag. less r).

J. R. Tozer: Soft and tender you’ll find me, perchance, / If you’ve time for a spot of dalliance (p + anag. with t for d, & lit.).

HC

C. J. Anderson, D. Appleton, E. A. Beaulah, R. E. Boot, J. G. Booth, C. Boyd, C. J. & M. P. Butler, D. A. Campbell, Mrs M. J. Cansfield, W. R. Chalmers, C. Chapman, S. Collins, E. Cross, E. Dawid, H. F. Everett, C. D. S. & E. A. Field, R. R. Greenfield, M. D. Laws, J. P. Lester, P. R. Lloyd, C. J. Lowe, M. Martin, Rev M. R. Metcalf, C. G. Millin, T. J. Moorey, D. Newbery, C. Pearson, G. Perry, R. Perry, J. D. Plummer, Dr T. G. Powell, D. Price Jones, H. L. Rhodes, Mrs J. Shaw, R. G. Smith, R. Stocks, A. Streatfield, J. B. Sweeting, D. H. Tompsett, L. Ward, R. J. Whale, G. H. Willett, D. C. Williamson.
 

Comments
A smallish entry this month: only 272, though this may partly be due to the fact that, I gather, the Business section of The Observer was unavailable in certain areas. I don’t know the reason for this but am told that the paper sent photocopies of the puzzle to anyone who rang in (worth knowing in case it happens again). There were a few mistakes, mainly over LONIA and ANTIBES, for which some wanted to put BASINET. My ANTIBES clue was actually well received by many. I’ve clued the name before, though not in French, I think. Last time I had Bastien swimming there if memory serves. I do apologize about IONA and HAIGH. The former, whose clue was OK as a straight definition with no cryptic element, came about as the result of careless last-minute tinkering with the wording. It originally began ‘In tradition (ancient), …’, and I should have left well alone. And the First World War Field Marshal was of course Haig, as many of you pointed out. The best-known Haigh is probably John George, the acid-bath murderer. Would anyone care to suggest a clue for him (no prizes)? One or two commented on the above-average number of proper names in the puzzle, and some complained that I did not mention that these are not in Chambers. I’ve never made a practice of doing this, except when I’ve used particularly obscure names, and I don’t intend to start now. Chambers is only ‘recommended’, after all.
 
Another clue that puzzled some was that for PIANIST. The reference was to the catchphrase ‘Don’t shoot the pianist, he’s doing his best,’ which Oscar Wilde claimed to have seen on a notice pinned to the wall in a bar when he visited the Wild West of America. Truffaut modified it for the title of his 1960 film Tirez Sur Le Pianiste. There was also some muttering about my use of ‘shelf-life’ to define SPINSTERSHIP, on the grounds that it was a ‘clue to a clue’. I dispute this. The inverted commas were surely sufficient indication that I was using the term punningly, and the rest of the clue gave a more than adequate cryptic indication of the answer. Some setters would see nothing wrong in giving ‘Shelf-life?’ as the whole clue, but to me be incomplete, not least because it could lead equally to SPINSTERHOOD and other words with the same meaning.
 
A few miscellaneous comments. (a) A number of you included reference to the ‘Tichborne claimant’, an impostor in the 1860s who claimed to be the heir to a Hampshire baronetcy. The case is described in Brewer, but I felt it was just a bit too obscure to earn better than HC. (b) It was pointed out that with very minor reworking of the SE corner I could have replaced the unappealing word SCHNEIDERIAN with SCHNEIDERHAN, the distinguished Austrian violinist. It didn’t occur to me; had it done so I might have been tempted, but again, a bit obscure? And yet another non-dictionary proper name. (c) I’m not in favour of treating prefixes as if they were full words in the wording of clues, so I find ‘thrice rebuffed’ to indicate ter- (rev.) unacceptable. (d) There is, I’m told, at least one fish-and-chip-shop (in Bolton, Lancs) which uses the local newspaper (The Bolton Evening News) as the final wrapping for its wares. I find this curiously comforting.