AZED CROSSWORD 1893

EARTHY

1.  C. Loving: The ‘Carry On’ cast could deliver such corn (comp. anag. & lit.).

2.  D. F. Manley: The Carry On cast could give you corn that raunchy! (comp. anag. & lit.).

3.  J. C. Leyland: Sack the charlady leaving every other piece unpolished (anag. of alternate letters).

VHC

D. Arthur: Vulgar man cultivated dropping aitch (he arty with h dropped).

T. C. Borland: Dropping aitch, sound unrefined (hearty with h dropped).

C. J. Brougham: What about paintings with Lowry’s tag? Primitive (art in eh? + y; tag = tail end).

Rev Canon C. M. Broun: Term for slave music, perhaps, with harmony but without heart: spiritual? No! (e art h(armon)y).

D. C. Clenshaw: In bedlam, without a spot of electrotherapy, they are lacking in refinement (anag. less e).

C. M. Edmunds: Describing Set, possibly Ra – they get muddled up (anag.; ref. badgers, Egyptian deities).

Dr I. S. Fletcher: Hard year with limit of credit, failing of some banks (H + anag. incl. t).

R. Gilbert: The world’s mighty short of energy. Crude’s what’s needed! (earth + (might)y).

G. I. L. Grafton: After taking drug, they are out of this world! (anag. less E).

R. J. Heald: Blunt, art history’s foremost character, feeding tips to enemy as a mole? (art h in e, y, 2 defs.; ref. Anthony B.).

E. C. Lance: Vulgar rhyme with adult content removed is disjointed, lacking metre (anag. incl. a(dul)t less m).

C. G. Millin: Like ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’, risqué yet with content of charm (anag. incl. (c)har(m)).

C. J. Morse: Having the substance needed for growing plants, they are pruned and then trained (anag. less e).

D. J. R. Ogilvie: ‘Crude’ starts to escalate as Russia trims her yield (first letters; ref. oil price).

D. J. Short: Primarily rough? Yes – as the ground (anag. of first letters and the, & lit.).

P. L. Stone: Clear the boundary sending long hop out of the ground (anag. less bound; clear = unscramble).

Ms C. Van Starkenburg: Lascivious Celt excited when scrubbed by wanton Chatterley (anag. less anag.; ref. Charles May, character in ‘LCL’ referred to as ‘the lascivious Celt’).

L. Ward: Inclining towards the blue, yachter steered clear of Cape (anag. less C).

R. J. Whale: Cut eye having absorbed a short right, Henry is containing Clay (a rt H in ey(e); ref. H. Cooper, Cassius C.).

D. C. Williamson: —— tuba? Could be jarring at Bayreuth (comp. anag. & lit.; see Wagner tuba in ‘Oxf. Comp. to Mus.’, etc.).

A. J. Young: Need to spend a penny? Yen goes after having visited bog, perhaps ((d)earth + Y).

HC

R. D. Anderson, T. Anderson, D. Appleton, D. & N. Aspland, M. Barker, M. Barley, P. Berridge, J. G. Booth, Dr J. Burscough, P. Cargill, D. Carter, B. Cheesman, C. A. Clarke, M. Coates, N. Connaughton, E. Cross, T. Crowther, N. Curwen, C. Daffern, R. Davies, R. Dean, N. C. Dexter, V. Dixon, W. Drever, W. P. Field, J. Glassonbury, B. Grabowski, J. F. Grimshaw, D. Harrison, D. V. Harry, P. F. Henderson, R. Hesketh, M. Hodgkin, R. Hooper, J. R. H. Jones, E. W. Kelly, W. F. Main, P. W. Marlow, K. McDermid, K. Milan, T. J. Moorey, R. A. Norton, A. O’Brien, F. R. Palmer, J. Pearce, M. L. Perkins, D. Price Jones, Mrs L. J. Roberts, N. G. Shippobotham, I. Simpson, R. C. Teuton, P. Thacker, D. H. Tompsett, J. R. Tozer, L. D. Urquhart, Ms S. Wallace, A. J. Wardrop, Dr M. C. Whelan, Dr E. Young, R. Zara.
 

Comments
193 entries, no mistakes. Most who commented thought it a slightly tougher competition puzzle than average, the top left-hand corner giving most trouble. EMILIA also proved elusive (‘Villain’s wife? See me switching sides’). The Emilia I had in mind is the wife of Iago in Othello, not too obscure surely. I concede that ‘sides’ for ‘ilia’ is a bit vague, but I’m sure it’s been used regularly before, in the sense of ‘haunches’. EMALANGENI gave trouble too; these currency words are difficult to clue convincingly, however colourful they may appear. And I was pleased to be told that MEME is a word coined by Richard Dawkins, one almost as omnipresent these days as the divinity he derides. Your favourite clue, by a very long way among the 15 mentioned, was my distinctly earthy offering for PISS-A-BED (‘Weed? That restricts beginnings of autumn blooms!’). On the debit side I was ticked off for ‘Behaves as in part of Bible after school scripture’ (REACTS): RE is not ‘Scripture’ any more, I’m informed – but does it have another general name on the curriculum, I wonder? The clue to SAPHENA received 9 votes: it was, as several of you remembered, a first prizewinner for Mr Connaughton from No. 1,650. I like to give such star clues a second airing when the opportunity presents itself.
 
EARTHY was not easy to deal with in that specially original way I’m always looking for. The first two prizewinners were the only ones to settle on the lovely ‘Carry On’ theme. Interestingly, Mr Manley said he’d gone for the slightly more wordy treatment because of the EARTHY/HEARTY ambiguity. I wouldn’t have minded this (‘hearty corn’ being in any case a less convincing collocation) and so the succinctness of Mr Loving’s clue just won the day. (A clue to boo: ‘Bawdy remake of Pickwick, perhaps’, referring to the 1952 film starring (James) Hayter: an ultra-indirect anagram, I’d say.)
 
You may like to know that access to the Guardian Unlimited website, which features Azed puzzles, slips and other things to do with this series, is now free and open to all via the Internet. And I hear that the new edition of The Chambers Dictionary, which I shall start recommending in the new year, is currently available in W. H. Smith at the special reduced price of £25.
 
My thanks, finally, to those who commented on the wording of the PD preamble and/or made suggestions for rendering it clearer. These were most useful and I shall do some tinkering before the next one comes along.