AZED CROSSWORD 1476

LIGNIPERDOUS

1.  R. J. Heald: Devastating Woods – with fantastic round, Tiger slips clear of the leaders (anag. less first letters; ref. US golfer).

2.  T. J. Moorey: Is Unionist deploring reforms ruining a good deal? (anag. incl. U).

3.  C. M. Edmunds: A touch of rabies – is dog barking with lupine, menacing bay? (anag. incl. r; barking = mad).

VHC

M. Barley: Breaking up log inside with onset of rot (anag. incl. r, & lit.).

E. A. Beaulah: Erratic Sergio up in first and last stages of duel bringing down Woods (anag. incl d, l; ref. recent challenge match between S. Garcia and T. Woods).

J. R. Beresford: It’s harmful to deal, say police in drugs bust, removing cocaine (anag. less C).

H. J. Bradbury: Injured using old pier: rotting timbers (anag.).

C. J. Brougham: Mucking good lind and osier up? (anag. incl. g, & lit.; mucking vi.).

Dr J. Burscough: Despoiling spruce’s heart? It might be! (anag. incl ru, & lit.).

H. Casson: Destroying woods, as pines do when infested with lurgi (anag.).

S. Collins: Badly despoiling core of spruce? (anag. incl. ru).

N. Connaughton: Using old pier inordinately’s damaging wood (anag.).

R. G. Crosland: Descriptive of dry-rot in log: ‘Dries up, crumbling’ (anag.).

E. Cross: Destroying wood pigeons, I’d rule out obliterating the last (anag. less e).

D. J. Dare-Plumpton: ‘Dong’ is not completely puerile fancy describing conk? (anag. less e; ref. Lear poem; conk¹).

N. C. Dexter: Gore leads in latest polls in US: I’d fancy it’s destroying Bush, perhaps (anag. incl. l, p).

V. Dixon: Confused doping rule is damaging Oaks, etc (anag.; ref. horseracing).

A. S. Everest: For a description of Dutch elm disease remit postal order in guilders (anag. incl. PO).

C. R. Gumbrell: Evil is purged, lion bringing about destruction of witches (anag.; witch²; ref ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’).

D. F. Manley: A —— insect: could I eat pine’s rings possibly? (comp. anag. & lit.).

R. J. Mathers: Caterpillar in the forest could have this description: ‘Losing energy, diesel pouring out’ (anag. less E).

C. G. Millin: Like termites for example, not normally in idle groups (anag.).

C. J. Morse: It’s typical of active termite to wind up soldiering (anag.; ref. soldier-termites).

R. A. Norton: Awkward lie and grip sound disastrous for Woods (anag.; ref. Tiger W.).

G. Perry: Varying our leg spin I’d like to be attacking stumps (anag.).

M. Sanderson: Spoiling hearts of alders and kauris? Could be (anag. incl. de, ur, & lit.).

W. J. M. Scotland: Like Dutch elm disease? Spread purged in soil (anag.).

HC

F. D. H. Atkinson, K. M. Austin, Mrs F. A. Blanchard, C. Boyd, Rev Canon C. M. Broun, E. J. Burge, B. Burton, C. J. & M. P. Butler, D. A. Campbell, M. Casserley, C. W. Clenshaw, M. Coates, R. M. S. Cork, K. W. Crawford, G. Cuthbert, R. Dean, A. J. Dorn, A. G. Fleming, R. E. Ford, H. Freeman, D. Fricker, P. D. Gaffey, N. C. Goddard, G. I. L. Grafton, Mrs E. Greenaway, R. R. Greenfield, R. Haddock, R. B. Harling, J. Hastie, R. Hesketh, G. Higginbotham, R. Jacks, G. Johnstone, F. P. N. Lake, M. D. Laws, H. M. Lloyd, P. R. Lloyd, R. K. Lumsdon, W. F. Main, P. W. Marlow, G. T. McLean, I. Morgan, W. Murphy, G. M. Neighbour, D. Newbery, F. R. Palmer, R. J. Palmer, D. R. Robinson, H. R. Sanders, D. P. Shenkin, N. G. Shippobotham, D. A. Simmons, J. R. Tozer, L. Ward, A. J. Wardrop, G. H. Willett, P. B. G. Williams, D. C. Williamson, W. Woodruff, Dr E. Young.
 

Comments
285 entries, no mistakes, and no special problems, it seems. Favourite clue was the one for GOLIARD, with special mention for the word AVGOLEMONO with its deliciously unlikely spelling. (Mrs AZ does a very good one, incidentally, learnt during a summer spent on Crete in her youth.) A few of you complained that LIGNIPERDOUS was a brute to clue. Surely not? All those trees to play with and a marvellous set of letters for anagrams — I felt quite jealous letting you loose on it instead of bagging it myself. It’s clearly a pretty rare and specialized term and as far as I can discover used principally of insects, but there seems no special reason why it could not be applied to anything that destroys wood, e.g. forest fires and the like. Most clues submitted included anagrams, and this was hardly surprising. Other cryptic treatments of the word’s component letters tended to be uncomfortably contrived. Apart from the many good anagrams quoted above ‘dousing/peril’ proved popular (in the context of forest fires), while more fanciful ones included ‘lurid pigeons’ and ‘old pig’s urine’. The commonest fault overall was the failure to indicate an adjective, as in ‘US Open: Tiger lied about tee shot — could be end for Woods’. The last five words clearly indicate a noun, it seems to me. Many exploited the name Woods, and though some may balk at the capital initial when used within a sentence, I don’t find this unacceptable. (As I’ve said often enough before I don’t approve of the reverse process: using a proper name with the capital initial deliberately made lower-case to suit the rest of the clue.)
 
Another promising clue gave me pause for thought. It used ‘comic’ as an anagram indicator. I understand the train of thought here: ‘comic’ = ‘funny’ = ‘peculiar’. But it is a logical fallacy to conclude from this that ‘comic’ = ‘peculiar’, or that ‘funny ha-ha’ is an adequate anagram indicator. I know (because I’ve done it myself) that it’s tempting to search among the senses of a word for one which can be used to indicate an anagram when that is the word you really want to use in a clue. Considerable self-discipline is needed in making sure that you don’t bend the language unnaturally (or unfairly, from the solver’s point of view). Your comments are welcomed, on anagram indicators in general or on this one in particular.
 
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