◀  No. 17195 Jun 2005 Clue list No. 1728  ▶

AZED CROSSWORD 1724

MONEYBAGS

1.  T. J. Moorey: I enjoy lots of mint sauce on my rump of lamb cooked with sage (anag. incl. b; mint sauce = money).

2.  J. R. H. Jones: Poor man’s bogey (anag. & lit.).

3.  R. J. Palmer: Revolutionary socialist’s foremost bogeyman (anag. incl. s, & lit.).

VHC

M. Barley: Obscure gnome, say, with billion banked? (b in anag., & lit.).

J. R. Beresford: Dives may start to gather bones in a wreck (anag. incl. g).

E. Cross: Five hundred pounds, not a thousand, I claim makes you a wealthy person (mon(K)ey bags).

R. Dean: ‘Ebony’ mag’s quite different – this one’s ‘Loaded’ (anag.; ref. adult magazines).

N. C. Dexter: My bank, e.g.? So composed when a thousand’s withdrawn (anag. less K, & lit.).

V. Dixon: Dives in which you’ll get a drink in gorblimey trousers (one in my! bags).

A. J. Dorn: Enigmatic gnome, say, with billions invested? (b in anag., & lit.).

C. M. Edmunds: Well-endowed one, divine, synonymous with boobs, could so characterise ‘Playboys’ (‘bunny mags’; ref. the Rev. Spooner).

G. I. L. Grafton: Flush one’s various bogs meanly, saving litres (anag. less l).

M. J. Hanley: Remixed song may be a great earner? (anag.).

D. V. Harry: Irish bay – One Thousand Guineas banker, perhaps (anag. incl. M + gs; Irish (offensive) = ludicrous).

R. J. Hooper: Gay after theatrical hit so went joke bygone Sam cracked (anag.; ref. S. Johnson: ‘[The Beggar’s Opera] had the effect … of making Gay rich, and Rich gay.’).

W. Jackson: So many beg for regulation I never want (anag.).

S. D. James: Billion hoarded by gnome, say, rolling he’s loaded (b in anag.).

M. A. Macdonald-Cooper: Gnome, say, with capital in Berne, rolling? (anag. incl. B, & lit.).

D. F. Manley: Loaded individual buys – one mag possibly not suitable for all to see! (anag. less U; ref adult magazine).

C. G. Millin: Person in a motor yacht a lot? (one in MY + bags, & lit.).

C. J. Morse: Drunken man goes by – he’s rolling (anag.).

F. R. Palmer: Dives, the root of all evil (disreputable women) (money + bags).

D. H. Tompsett: Doubled game by South – No Trump – that’s his style! (anag. incl. S; double = fold; ref. Donald Trump, US property billionaire).

Ms S. Wallace: Fat cat? Amazingly, moggy ate buns without bursting gut (anag. less anag.).

D. C. Williamson: Gnome, say, shifting around capital to Bern? (B in anag., & lit.).

HC

R. D. Anderson, T. Anderson, S. Anthony, D. Appleton, D. Arthur, A. Barker, P. Berridge, Mrs A. Boyes, C. J. Brougham, Rev Canon C. M. Broun, E. J. Burge, Dr J. Burscough, B. Burton, C. J. & M. P. Butler, A. Callaghan, D. A. Campbell, B. Cheesman, M. Coates, N. Connaughton, K. W. Crawford, G. Cuthbert, T. J. Donnelly, W. Drever, W. Duffin, A. J. Duncum, A. S. Everest, C. D. S. & E. A. Field, A. G. Fleming, Dr I. S. Fletcher, D. Fricker, Ms A. Galloway, J. Gillies, M. Goodliffe, Mrs E. Greenaway, R. R. Greenfield, G. Gregory, J. P. Guiver, M. C. Haughey, R. Hesketh, M. Hodgkin, J. Humpston, F. P. N. Lake, M. A. Lassman, J. P. Lester, J. C. Leyland, Mrs J. Mackie, G. Maker, P. W. Marlow, R. Mayled, P. McKenna, J. R. C. Michie, R. Murdoch, J. Pearce, M. L. Perkins, R. Perry, D. Price Jones, W. Ransome, D. R. Robinson, M. Sanderson, D. P. Shenkin, N. G. Shippobotham, P. L. Stone, J. R. Tozer, A. P. Vick, M. Wainwright, A. J. Wardrop, G. H. Willett, D. Willmott, Dr E. Young.
 

Comments
232 entries, no noticeable mistakes. A fair number, however, expressed puzzlement over ‘Service returned marks location (for Hewitt)’ for FARM. The clue was intended to suggest a tennis context, Lleyton. Hewitt being a leading Australian tennis player (and there was an earlier one called Bob Hewitt, as I recall). Chambers indicates That ‘location’ can mean ‘farm’ in Australia. I had earlier toyed with Mark (Philippoussis) but couldn’t get the wording to work satisfactorily. Joint favourite clues this month were ‘Chips, e.g., dear as accompaniment for meal?’ for TEACHER and ‘Honorific declared to include those pronounced wise’ for SAYYID, with twenty-one receiving one or more nominations. There were adverse comments on the clues for DIRE (a director need not be a CEO) and ENDITE (though for four this was their favourite).
 
The quality of clues submitted for MONEYBAGS, a popular choice, was generally very high, making my job correspondingly harder. The ‘gnome, say + B/b’ anagram produced a nice ‘& lit.’ but was (just) too popular to get its users into the top three It s curious that Chambers gives ‘m as an abbreviation for ‘million(s)’ but only ‘billion’ for ‘b’. I decided this must be a lexicographical slip and accepted Mr Dorn’s clue accordingly.
 
I’ve had a good and interesting response to my call for comments on whether or not it is necessary/desirable to indicate foreign, archaic, etc usage or register (slang, etc) in clues. Somewhat to my surprise, most who commented saw no particular need to signal such restrictions in usage. I have to say that I would feel uncomfortable abandoning them altogether and will probably carry on as at present, with perhaps a slightly less rigid stance on occasion when doing so would result in cumbersome wording. On a vaguely related theme, what do you think of ‘wordplay’ as the increasingly prevalent term for what we used to call ‘subsidiary indication’ in analysing cryptic clues? I used the term ‘wordplay’ somewhat tentatively in last month’s slip, and there were no howls of protest, but if you have strong views on the subject I’d like to hear them.
 
You may also like to know that the Chambers Book of Azed Crosswords, a selection of my puzzles which originally appeared between 1992 and 2001, will be published on 18 July at £7.99. Copies will be available at discounted prices both from The Observer and via the Chambers website. And numbers are steadily rising for the Azed 1,750 dinner at St Catherine’s College, Oxford, on Saturday 17 December (see regular announcements in The Observer). Do contact Tim Moorey (well done, Tim!) if you’re interested, as soon as possible please.
 

 

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