◀  No. 16853 Oct 2004 Clue list No. 1694  ▶

AZED CROSSWORD 1689

SYNOD

1.  T. J. Moorey: Setting date for ending in government, our PM’s overturned ministerial convention (d for t in Tony’s (rev.); ref. T. Blair’s announcement).

2.  R. J. Heald: Heresy meets with motion of approval? Not here! ((here)sy + nod, & lit.).

3.  Dr J. Burscough: See heresy given assent? Not here! ((here)sy + nod, & lit.; see, 2 mngs.).

VHC

M. Barley: Here heresy’s rejected and God carries the vote ((here)sy + no + D, & lit.).

J. R. Beresford: Second year wag played with Sony device at first assembly (s y nod, anag. + d).

C. J. Brougham: Sartorially vacuous number had the cloth bunched together (s, y + no. + ’d ).

B. Burton: Congress, its ending and conclusion in Whitby getting sign of assent? (s + y + nod, & lit.; ref. S. of Whitby, 664).

C. A. Clarke: Learned men set up to comprehend the ultimate in theology (y in dons (rev.), & lit.).

M. Coates: Sunday’s empty with no finishing of Azed, a convention religiously observed (S, y + no d).

N. Connaughton: The yen to consume too much underpinning special diet? (s Yn OD).

V. Dixon: One section of this says ‘evil’; the other, ‘different’ – if anyone’s listening! (‘sin’ + ‘odd’, & lit.; ref. church division on homosexuality).

W. Duffin: Where scholarly people get upset about either of the conclusions on gay clergy? (y in dons (rev.), & lit.).

M. Hodgkin: Do nylons want left leg pulling up where the cloth gathers? (do ny(l on)s (all rev.)).

G. Johnstone: The party is not past it: rising up the faithful will rally to it (do nys (all rev.)).

J. C. Leyland: Would it grasp a nettle such as gay parsons a little delicately? (comp. anag. incl. d, & lit.).

C. G. Millin: Where churchmen meet, evil’s not even spoken (‘sin odd’).

R. J. Palmer: It sets out terms for laymen and clergy to discuss (anag. of last letters, & lit.).

W. Ransome: Ancient meeting of two worlds – in part uneasy, no doubt (hidden).

M. Sanderson: Wherein those at the heart of gaydom wrestle with nos? (anag. incl. yd, & lit; see ‘Shorter Oxford’ for gaydom).

C. Weston: In Church meeting, those at ends of pews may begin to doze (s, y + nod).

J. S. Witte: Wimbledon going north, accepting opener at York, meeting at Whitby (Y in Dons (rev.); nickname of WFC, relocating to Milton Keynes; ref. S. of Whitby, 664).

HC

D. Arthur, M. Barker, M. Bath, P. F. Bauchop, E. A. Beaulah, Mrs F. A. Blanchard, C. Boyd, Rev Canon C. M. Broun, E. J. Burge, D. A. Campbell, B. Cheesman, A. Colston, K. W. Crawford, E. Cross, M. Cutter, R. Dean, N. C. Dexter, C. D. S. & E. A. Field, A. G. Fleming, Dr I. S. Fletcher, R. Gwilt, R. J. Hannam, J. Hastie, C. & C. Hinton, A. Hodgson, Mrs D. B. Jenkinson, J. R. H. Jones, Mrs J. Mackie, W. F. Main, D. F. Manley, P. W. Marlow, B. G. Midgley, C. J. Morse, R. Murdoch, W. Murphy, T. D. Nicholl, R. A. Norton, D. J. R. Ogilvie, D. Parfitt, A. Plumb, T. G. Powell, J. T. Price, D. R. Robinson, D. Roseveare, S. Sharples, D. P. Shenkin, N. G. Shippobotham, P. L. Stone, D. H. Tompsett, Mrs J. E. Townsend, J. R. Tozer, A. P. Vick, M. Wainwright, D. J. Ward, A. J. Wardrop, R. J. Whale, Dr M. C. Whelan, Dr E. Young.
 

Comments
242 entries, hardly any mistakes. TEAR and PONDS both caused some difficulty. The first had an ‘& lit.’ clue: ‘Tenor attracting attention?’ Robert Tear (born 1939) was one of the best British tenors of his generation, and therefore, I reckon, fair game. Though I believe his career ended some time ago, his recordings are still available and often played on Radio 3. PONDS was a bit cheeky, I admit. The ‘old skin salve’ referred to in the clue was Ponds Cold (or was it Vanishing?) Cream, a cosmetic for softening the skin and removing make-up that sold for years before disappearing from chemists’ shelves, I know not when. Not readily found in any current reference book, I dare say, but most mums would surely recognize the name immediately. Favourite clue of the month was the one for RAT-RHYME (‘Harry Met Dotty, a piece by MacGonagall’), followed by TRUE (‘Constant Lambert scored composition for luter’), with 25 getting at least one mention.
 
A nice varied entry. Homophone and hidden-type clues were especially popular. Although Chambers only gives the pronunciation of SYNOD with a schwa or neutral vowel in the second syllable, the Oxfords allow that it can also rhyme with ‘odd’, so I did likewise. Mr Moorey’s idea incorporating the PM’s recent extraordinary announcement was extremely nice, as was the use of ‘heresy’ without ‘here’ to deal with the first syllable of SYNOD, Mr Heald and Dr Burscough scoring over the others who exploited this by virtue of neater wording. Some ‘& lit.’ clues submitted (and there were many) failed to define SYNOD well enough, e.g. ‘Here you’ll find some heresy, no doubt’. Though heretical views may be expressed in synods, this is surely not indubitably the case, and heresies are certainly evident elsewhere than in synods from time to time.
 
This will be the last slip you receive from Anthony Ellis, and I can’t let the occasion pass without recording my heartfelt thanks to him, and to his wife Evelyn, for all their help over so many years. I have known Anthony since the day I first visited the Observer offices in Blackfriars in 1971 to be vetted for the job of Ximenes’s successor. He joined the then editor and me for lunch as the one on the paper’s staff with whom I would have most direct dealings, and we have been good friends ever since. When he retired, and the Observer lost interest in producing and mailing the slip – in those days competitors enclosed saes with their entries and these had to be separated from the entries themselves, to be stuffed and sent out later, before the entries were forwarded to me to be judged, a cumbersome procedure – Anthony nobly volunteered to take on the job of planning and running the new subscription service. I know he has greatly enjoyed corresponding over the years with ‘slippers’, as he calls you, and maintaining this link with the Observer he knew, but I entirely understand his decision to call it a day now and hand the baton on to Brian Head. I’m sure I speak for you all in saying how grateful I am for all he has done to keep the slip up and running for so long.
 

 

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