AZED CROSSWORD 1840

W(I)NN(I)E-THE-POOH

1.  P. L. Stone: Teddy boy loved hep toon when rocking ’n’ rolling (anag.; ref. Christopher Robin).

2.  N. C. Dexter: He won hearts of happy wee beginners, tho’ placing letters wobbly-wise (anag. incl. p e n, & lit.).

3.  E. C. Lance: Now the phone’s out of order, he hears a buzzing noise and he sometimes gets a hum (anag.; ref. Pooh stories).

VHC

M. Barley: Bear, happy when with honeypot containing no end of honey? (anag. less y).

E. J. Burge: Mobile phone now the popular present for children? (anag.).

E. Bushell: Honey-pot lover distraught when honey-pot loses last of honey (anag. less y).

Mrs M. J. Cansfield: Hope, now and then, for change in anencephalic character (anag.; ‘a Bear of Very Little Brain’).

M. Goodliffe: Suspect when honey-pot’s missing last of honey (anag. less y, & lit.).

J. F. Grimshaw: Who’s upset when honeypot devoid of honey’s close? (anag. less last letter, & lit.).

R. J. Heald: A pot when teeming with honey could satisfy me? Ay! (comp. anag. & lit.).

M. Hodgkin: Upset when honeypot’s spilt last of honey? I would be (anag. less y).

G. Johnstone: Bear, by name, won the open playing hard (anag. + h; ref. J. Nicklaus, nicknamed the ‘Golden Bear’).

J. C. Leyland: Oh no! new Peugeot’s big end rattling – ringing the AA’s favourite? (the in anag. incl P; ref. A. A. Milne).

D. F. Manley: Presenter of versatile honeypot when … last of honey has gone! (anag. less y, & lit; ref. ‘a Useful Pot … for putting things in’).

T. J. Moorey: No end of joy when honeypot licked, I’m animated for all to see (anag. less y; ref. Disney films).

R. S. Morse: Honey-lover, upset when honeypot’s out of honey finally (anag. less y).

V. Seth: Uncertain when to phone, I am advised from time to time to ‘Ples ring’ (anag.).

N. G. Shippobotham: Spots new honey … ‘Ah!’ says he excitedly (comp. anag. & lit.).

C. M. Steele: Mobile phone, now the children’s favourite (anag.).

J. R. Tozer: Honeypot when licked clear of last bit of honey makes me present (anag. less y, & lit.; ref. ‘a Useful Pot …’).

A. J. Wardrop: Lover of honey upset honeypot when extracting last of honey (anag. less y).

G. H. Willett: Could who finally won The Open become another Golden Bear? Possibly? (anag. incl. n; ref. J. Nicklaus).

D. C. Williamson: What a phenomenon – but lacking brain ultimately – has A.A.M. contrived with ——? (comp. anag. less n, & lit.).

Dr E. Young: With mobile phone on, the leaking in one’s brain is tiny (the in anag.).

HC

D. Appleton, D. Arthur, D. & N. Aspland, C. J. Brougham, Rev Canon C. M. Broun, D. Carter, A. G. Chamberlain, C. A. Clarke, M. Cooper, E. Cross, V. Dixon, T. J. Donnelly, W. Drever, C. M. Edmunds, J. Fairclough, C. D. S. & E. A. Field, G. I. L. Grafton, D. Grice, D. V. Harry, Dr S. B. Hart, P. F. Henderson, R. Hesketh, L. M. Inman, B. Jones, T. Kempster, P. R. Lloyd, M. A. Macdonald-Cooper, P. W. Marlow, L. F. Marzillier, N. Mayo, Rev M. Metcalf, A. J. Moore, C. J. Morse, R. A. Norton, D. J. R. Ogilvie, D. Parfitt, G. S. Parsons, Dr T. G. Powell, D. Price Jones, W. Ransome, D. R. Robinson, M. Sanderson, J. M. Sharman, D. P. Shenkin, D. J. Short, Ms S. Wallace, R. J. Whale, A. J. Young.
 

Comments
178 entries, no noticeable mistakes. Clearly a tough challenge, this one, not helped by the mysterious omission of one line in the preamble, which I failed to spot at proof stage, an instance, according to Colin Leach, of homoioteleuton, ‘the like ending of two or more clauses or verses’ according to my old Liddell & Scott. I think this type of special (which I have now given you eight times, five of them as competitions) is intrinsically stiffer to solve than most. The setter is tempted to go for multiple omissions in the acrosses (as in e.g. G(OO)DW(OO)D and GRO(SS)NE(SS)) which however satisfying make them correspondingly more difficult to solve, and I don’t think I gave you enough easy clues to give you ‘a toehold’, as one regular put it. I tried hard but in vain to get round using THER(G)ON, who caused some grumpiness among non-cinema-going solvers (though Charlize T. is now quite famous and did win an Oscar for best actress in Monster in 2003), and PY(A)CNA was also somewhat elusive. The plural form is attested on the Internet, though not given in Chambers. (Until I found it I had almost been forced into using the even more obscure PY(A)DNA, Pydna being a town in ancient Macedonia and the site in 168 BC of a decisive victory by the Romans that caused the overthrow of the Macedonian monarchy.) Favourite clue of the month was ‘“Skilled pilot” encapsulates one flying officer in this?’ for AI(R) FO(R)CE by a whisker from those for G(OO)DW(OO)D and GRO(SS)NE(SS), which came equal second.
 
I did not set out to produce a Winnie-the-Pooh puzzle, but having found the quote it seemed a nice idea to get you to clue him. I’m told that it has been dropped from recent editions of the ODQ, so I suppose I’ll have to invest in the current edition to add to the three earlier ones I already have, and in which it does appear! What I did not anticipate was the (entirely understandable) plethora of honeypots in clues submitted. Picking the best of these for special mention was a tricky (or sticky) business, and it explains why the three prizewinners all rely on different ideas. It’s intriguing to speculate how different things might have been if, say, ‘O’ had been the latent letter instead of ‘I’. Anyway, it clearly got many of you revisiting a childhood favourite which I suppose almost all of us have read (and loved?) at some stage.
 
The following from Cathy Van Starkenburg, who lives in Canada, forms a fitting tailpiece: ‘A wonderful theme! By sheer coincidence two years ago to the day (2 September 2005), we were driving home from a trip to Calgary and stopped to visit a museum in White River, Ontario. This was where Captain Harry Colebourn, a Canadian soldier (born in England) on his way to training camp during the First World War, purchased an orphaned bear cub from a local trapper for $20 – and named her Winnie after Winnipeg, his adopted home. She eventually became the inspiration for Winnie-the-Pooh and the rest is history.’