AZED CROSSWORD 2161

FARRAGO

1.  Dr S. J. Shaw: Term for clutter encapsulated by jumbled contents of garage and loft (r in anag. less outer letters, & lit.).

2.  Dr I. S. Fletcher: What contents of garage or contents of loft could be, discarding nothing? (anag. less outer letters incl. (0)r, & lit.).

3.  J. R. Tozer: Off daily on a Horlicks (far rag o’; off to sleep).

VHC

D. & N. Aspland: Scramble return of service before bit of rally and a pass? It could be Rafa and Rog playing! (RAF (rev.) + r, a go, anag.; ref. Nadal/Federer).

M. Barley: Scraps from roast are cut off and go to make dog’s breakfast (r, a in far go).

T. C. Borland: Ancient mob desperate for Viagra (missing sex) (anag. less VI; sex (L.) = six).

G. Borooah (USA): Faith and begorra! Drunk shows behind at this chaotic mass (comp. anag.).

C. J. Brougham: Dog’s breakfast Tommy (the old boxer) accepted with vigour (Farr a + go; ref. Tommy F., former British heavyweight).

P. Cargill: A good recipe for a stray dog’s breakfast (anag. incl. g, r).

P. T. Crow: Head of fennel with aromatic herb (topped and tailed) giving a confused mixture (f + (t)arrago(n)).

R. J. Heald: A tip for Fido: contents of marrow bone are good for a dog’s dinner (a, g in F (m)arro(w); bone = seize).

J. C. Leyland: Suggestions of fling – Andy and Rebekah’s paper providing cover for love nest? (first letters + rag + 0; ref. A. Coulson, R. Brooks; down clue).

M. A. Macdonald-Cooper: Irregular collection? Hoggish litter dropping West German company admitted (AG in farrow less W).

A. Morgan-Richards: Disorganised set painter is introduced to principal of old stage company (RA in Fargo; ref. Wells F.).

C. J. Morse: Rout (that’s dropped out in distant past) (r(out) in far ago, & lit.).

J. Nicholson (Spain): Dog’s breakfast for a mongrel to eat daily perhaps (rag in anag.).

M. Owen: Boil bit of adder and frog: a recipe for witches’ brew (anag. incl. a, r).

N. G. Shippobotham: Here’s Fido with the same as a rule tiny portion for his breakfast (Fido with a r rag for id).

P. A. Stephenson: A throng confused with fear? Could be this then (comp. anag. & lit.).

P. Taylor: Removing piece of filo from this pie shows herb’s inside (i.e. farrago less f = (t)arrago(n); pie²).

R. C. Teuton: Hash tag Ring! – start of flotation arrives releasing capital for Twitter (tag O with f arr for T; ref. flotation of Twitter).

J. Vincent & R. Porter: Coen Brothers’ film about two leading characters in ransom mix-up (ra in ‘Fargo’; ref. plot of film).

K. J. Williams: Mixture results from explosion of organic farming after suspect mincing is withdrawn (anag. less anag.).

HC

T. Anderson, D. Appleton, D. J. Bexson, Dr J. Burscough, C. J. Butler, D. A. Campbell, I. Carr, Ms U. Carter, M. Coates, N. Connaughton, C. Daffern, M. Davies, V. Dixon (Ireland), T. J. Donnelly, W. Drever, D. Freund (USA), G. I. L. Grafton, Mrs E. Greenaway, J. Grimes, J. R. H. Jones, T. Locke, Ms R. MacGillivray, G. Maker, D. F. Manley, A. H. Marland, P. W. Marlow, L. F. Marzillier (USA), K. Milan, C. G. Millin, T. J. Moorey, A. Plumb, D. Price Jones, G. Raven, C. Short, P. L. Stone, Mrs A. Terrill, A. J. Varney, A. Vick, Mrs A. M. Walden, Ms S. Wallace, A. J. Wardrop, R. J. Whale, A. Whittaker, G. H. Willett, A. J. Young.
 

Comments
211 entries, no noticeable mistakes. A relatively straightforward competition plain after all the unwelcome hitches of last month. The greater-than-average number of long entries seems to have helped. Favourite clue, by a long way (with 16 votes), was ‘Last character you’ll see in divine heaven (no Saint)’ for EBLIS; second equal (with 5 votes each) were the clues to LEAGUER LASS and STAMNOS. The latter (‘So Greek —— could indefinitely offer more songs, Keats?’) wasn’t in fact one of mine but a first prize-winner for DFM some years ago (No. 1,117). I like to give such gems a second airing when the opportunity presents itself.
 
There was a generally high standard of clues submitted this month. FARRAGO isn’t terribly accommodating as a set of letters, but its meaning offers quite a wide range of synonyms or near-synonyms, which the best clues exploited imaginatively. The two doctors at the head of the lists above were the only competitors to spot the possibilities of garage and loft contents, which I found very pleasing, Dr Shaw just gaining the edge over Dr Fletcher by virtue of marginally smoother wording. And Mr Tozer alone found Horlicks to his (and my) liking.
 
I have received very few requests for elucidation of any of the less obvious conventions I use in clues and (especially) solution notes. One concerned my use of the long dash in clues, which is easily explained. This will always represent the answer to the clue – I can think of no exceptions. (See the STAMNOS clue quoted above.) It is important to distinguish, as I try to do in print, between this (double-em) dash and the single en-dash, which simply indicates a pause in the flow of the wording, somewhat longer in effect than a comma or a semi-colon. Lynne Truss is very good on these punctuation marks in her Eats, Shoots and Leaves (2003), though I see she says that ‘the dash is nowadays seen as the enemy of grammar’! Then there are those two neologisms that belong exclusively to the world of crosswords and may never make it into serious dictionaries, ‘unch’ (unchecked letter) and the more recent ‘anagrind’, which puzzled me for a while until I realized that it (presumably) rhymes with ‘wind’, not ‘wined’, and stands for ‘anagram indicator’. I don’t know who coined either of these short forms. For reasons I can’t explain I like the first but not the second. Some setters use the asterisk to indicate an anagram in solution notes; being set in my ways, I shall continue to use the more self-explanatory ‘anag.’. I also find the use of singular quotation marks handy as a way of indicating a homophone, though it isn’t exactly transparent.
 
No time or space for more now, except to apologize to Mr A. J. Wardrop, whose name was mistakenly dropped from the list of HCs last month. The relevant records have been corrected.