AZED CROSSWORD 1979

FAR-OUT

1.  P. W. Marlow: Term for modern expressed by a nut for jazzing? (anag. less n, & lit.).

2.  R. J. Heald: Amazing safari: taking such, you’ll see exotic species of monkey (i.e. safari with far out = sai).

3.  C. J. Morse: Unsociable, not revolutionary, and trad, not rad – I mean rad, not trad (farou(Che) + t(rad)).

VHC

D. & N. Aspland: Avant-garde panned as ‘art fou’ (anag.).

M. Barley: Of art done with element of unconventionality? (anag. incl. u, & lit.).

Ms S. Curran: Wonderful service returned – not in court (RAF (rev.) + out).

N. C. Dexter: After start of Feb. a change for our temperature: rather more than just ‘cool’! (F + a + anag. + t).

T. J. Donnelly: Grotesquely fat roué getting his end away? Weird! (anag. less e).

G. I. L. Grafton: Weird leader of Daleks is leaving Tardis, with UFO destroyed (anag. less D is; ref. ‘Dr Who’).

J. Grimes: Fab Four at work beginning to formulate a Magical Tour (anag., f + a + anag.).

R. Hesketh: Ace service returned? Impossible (RAF (rev.) + out).

J. Hood: Wonderful for hippy to waste time downing tab (far(t ab)out).

Mrs S. D. Johnson: Rum stout takes our fancy (anag. in fat).

J. C. Leyland: Who offers correspondence course in fine art? Taking this could make father the intellectual! (OU in f art, father with far out = the).

W. F. Main: Satisfying drop of Scotch taken with grub (fa’ + rout).

D. F. Manley: Following a way expressing eccentricity? (f a rout(e), & lit.).

T. J. Moorey: Mostly true of a freak (anag. less e, & lit.).

F. R. Palmer: Avant garde (of initially unconventional Art Nouveau)? (anag. incl. u, & lit.).

A. Plumb: Frequently securing first in AZED – completely satisfying (A in fr. + out).

P. L. Stone: Wizard! Harry at fourteen taking pains to be champion! (anag. less teen; ref. H. Potter, crowned Triwizard Champion).

J. R. Tozer: Stéphane and Django’s crazy talent overlapped in jazz style (fou overlapping art; ref. S. Grappelli, D. Reinhardt).

L. Ward: Avant-garde work of art you finally comprehended (u in anag.).

A. J. Wardrop: Intellectual newspaper contains leaders in Arabic, or in French (Ar ou in FT).

A. Whittaker: Dizzy or Fats on Blue Note – such noble tones (comp. anag. & lit.; ref. D. Gillespie, F. Navarro, jazz trumpeters, and record label).

HC

R. D. Anderson, D. Appleton, D. K. Arnott, M. J. Barker, J. & J. Barnes, J. Biggin, J. G. Booth, T. C. Borland, C. J. Brougham, D. A. Campbell, Mrs M. J. Cansfield, B. Cheesman, C. A. Clarke, M. Coates, P. Coles, E. Cross, T. Crowther, V. Dixon, W. Drever, A. S. Everest, R. Gilbert, N. C. Goddard, A. & R. Haden, A. H. Harker, P. F. Henderson, R. J. Hooper, Ms M. Irvine, Mrs S. G. Johnson, G. Johnstone, J. R. H. Jones, E. C. Lance, J. H. C. Leach, M. A. Macdonald-Cooper, P. McKenna, D. S. Miller, C. G. Millin, M. O’Hagan, D. Price Jones, W. Ransome, Mrs L. J. Roberts, B. Roe, L. Shannon, D. P. Shenkin, I. Simpson, R. C. Teuton, D. H. Tompsett, L. D. Urquhart, Dr A. J. Varney, R. J. Whale, P. O. G. White, G. H. Willett, D. C. Williamson, Dr E. Young.
 

Comments
252 entries, no noticeable mistakes (except for one competitor’s inadvertently cluing FAT CAT by mistake). I wonder if the recent upturn in the numbers of competition entries is the result of the puzzle’s relocation. It is heartening whatever the reason. Favourite clue (of 20 mentioned at least once) was ‘Caribbean fruit – West maybe imports some? Not so’ for MAMEE, with twice the number of votes received by the runner-up (‘What may be squeezed to good effect lay within fruit’ for MELODEON).
 
With its range of definitions, FAR-OUT proved susceptible to a wide variety of treatments and was to most a popular choice. A smallish number remembered and exploited Stevie Smith’s poem ‘Not Waving but Drowning’ which includes the lines ‘I was much too far out all my life/And not waving but drowning.’ I eventually decided that these required a little too much specialized literary knowledge from the solver, but it was a nice idea.
 
An interesting point arose in connection with a VHC clue from last month’s competition; ‘This line’s a rotten piece of public transport’ for SEPTENTRIONAL. Some of you pointed out that though the cryptic part is fine the definition here indicates NORTHERN, not the clue word but a ‘definition of a definition’, and that the clue is flawed as a result. They are right, and I should have been more on the ball than I clearly was when picking it out for specific mention. I am grateful for having this pointed out.
 
I’ve been meaning for some time to mention approvingly the loyal contingent of regular competitors based overseas, some of them in very distant lands. I suppose the online version of the puzzle makes geographical location less significant than it used to be, but I am still gratified that Azed is truly global in its appeal. I plan in future (unless anyone objects) to mention in the slip where entries from beyond these shores originate. Years ago (while I was working in India in the 1960s, in fact) Ximenes did this for a time but then discontinued the practice – I never knew why.