AZED CROSSWORD 1641

GADGETEER

1.  Dr I. S. Fletcher: I, with love for a bit of gismology, could be eccentric to a degree (anag. with g for O, & lit.).

2.  C. J. Morse: Ragged tee shot leaves one with ‘gimmicky’ approach (anag.).

3.  V. Dixon: Eager eccentric, embracing what, in doodads, most appears to captivate (d get in anag., & lit.).

VHC

J. R. Beresford: Wandering the earth to distribute toys – that’s my obsession (gad Ge teer; ref. Father Christmas).

C. J. Brougham: Prod offspring perpetually (he wallows in jimjams) (gad get e’er).

E. J. Burge: Novel egg-timer idea? I’m one to get carried away! (anag. less I’m I, & lit.).

D. C. Clenshaw: Early English moulding with egg and dart contrivances delight him (anag. incl. EE).

N. C. Dexter: One’s excitedly greeted introduction of gismos around one (a in anag. incl. g, & lit.).

H. Freeman: See one who likes taking things apart get ‘E’ grade in Engineering (anag.).

C. R. Gumbrell: Read e.g. rave about hit in Q? (get in anag.; ref. music magazine and James Bond character).

R. Haddock: Gee! Grated bananas – I love new ideas! (anag.).

R. Hesketh: Totty agreed entertaining brat’s a toy boy (get in anag.; see totty¹).

G. Johnstone: One given to devices tagged ‘weird’ and ‘almost weird’? (anag. + eer(y)).

P. Lloyd: Clobber agreed and put on child – one who loves jimjams (get in anag.).

W. F. Main: I could be frightfully eager about introduction of device with baffle (d get in anag., & lit.).

D. F. Manley: Tagged criminal always being inseparable from his electronic thingamy? (anag. + e’er).

R. J. Palmer: Who could have contrived durable gear e.g. to save labour craftily? (comp. anag. & lit.).

R. Phillips: Nerd eternally after engineering’s latest promotion? (g + ad + get + e’er, & lit.).

D. R. Robinson: Ingenious geegaw adherent? Could be a —— when excited (comp. anag. & lit.).

M. Sanderson: New egg-beater (breadth sacrificed for depth) excites him? (anag. with d for b, & lit.).

L. Ward: Nut for widgets is ragged, loosely securing pin (tee in anag.).

A. J. Wardrop: Who’s greeted a bit of gismology excitedly? (anag. incl. g, & lit.).

R. J. Whale: Curse to hit Scrabble player, when you take last letters and get Q, say? (gad get + e, e, r; ref. James Bond character).

HC

W. G. Arnott, D. Arthur, M. Barley, M. Bath, E. A. Beaulah, R. E. Boot, C. Boyd, Rev Canon C. M. Broun, Dr J. Burscough, M. Casserley, B. Cheesman, C. A. Clarke, P. Coles, N. Connaughton, K. W. Crawford, E. Cross, D. J. Dare-Plumpton, A. J. Dorn, W. Duffin, R. R. Greenfield, J. Grimes, D. V. Harry, M. Hodgkin, W. Jackson, Mrs D. B. Jenkinson, N. H. Keir, J. P. Lester, J. C. Leyland, P. W. Marlow, J. McGregor, P. McKenna, C. G. Millin, J. Moore, T. J. Moorey, F. R. Palmer, M. L. Perkins, G. Perry, W. Ransome, G. C. Rosser, Mr & Mrs G. R. Scott, N. G. Shippobotham, D. J. Short, D. A. Simmons, P. L. Stone, J. B. Sweeting, C. W. Thomas, D. H. Tompsett, Mrs C. van Starkenburg, D. Ward, M. H. E. Watson, G. H. Willett, D. C. Williamson, J. S. Witte, K. Wright, Dr E. Young.
 

Comments
226 entries; no mistakes except for one entry I spotted with HUMP for HUMF. By general consensus a harder-than-average plain. Favourite clue: that for SINGLETON (‘Make disclosure in different ways one has no companion’), followed by those for AGENTIVES and SCISSOR-LEG (my own favourite), and nineteen getting at least one mention. (I’ve quoted the favourite clue in full in response to a specific request; I hope it will not be construed as immodesty.) Despite fears of a postal strike, local deliveries continued without a break, albeit somewhat erratically. I accepted all late entries, some of which appeared to have been posted well within the deadline.
 
Despite being a tough puzzle it did not seem to pose any really intractable problems, with the possible exception of ECUELLE (‘Bol à soupe? English query language we hear (briefly)’), which exploited the abbreviation ‘ql’, not previously known to me, I admit, and VIRENT (‘Flower is got rid of in yesterday’s market, no longer fresh’), i.e. ir(is) in vent³. I also erred, perhaps forgiveably, in placing Sale in Cheshire. One competitor kindly included an extract from the Sale website: ‘Historically it was part of the English county of Cheshire and, in fact, its postal address is still “Sale, Cheshire” although it is nowadays a dormitory suburb of the city of Manchester’, and therefore in Greater Manchester.
 
I thought that GADGETEER would offer fruitful possibilities and, broadly speaking, 1 was notdisappointed. though there was perhaps not quite the riot of invention I’d hoped for. There exists an interesting range of synonyms for ‘gadget’ (see above); of noted gadgeteers only William Heath Robinson and Q (more prominent, I suspect, in the James Bond films than in the books) were used. Some clues lost points by defining GADGETEER as ‘Heath (Robinson)’ or ‘Q’, rather than indicating that they are examples of gadgeteers. But I was grateful to be told that a new exhibition of Heath Robinson’s work has just opened in Dulwich and will be touring the country.
 
Two new crossword dictionaries have come my way in the last month. The first is the fifth edition of Anne Bradford’s Crossword Solver’s Dictionary, now published by Collins (ISBN 0 00 716922 1), and the second is, confusingly, Crossword Solver’s Dictionary from Bloomsbury (ISBN 0 7475 6642 9), in exactly the same livery as an earlier edition of Bradford published by Peter Collin. The latter seems to be a product of Market House Books and to be based, at least partly, on material from the Bloomsbury Thesaurus and the Bloomsbury Crossword Companion. I haven’t had time to assess its worth. And don’t forget that I’ll be recommending the new ninth edition of Chambers from January 2004.
 
A final apology for confusing my celluloid amnesi(a)cs last month. Gregory Peck forgot himself in Spellbound (1945) and Mirage (1965). It was Ronald Colman who did the same in Random Harvest (1942)