AZED CROSSWORD 2178

PARISON

1.  T. Rudd: Botched, this must turn up in Murano’s tips (comp. anag. & lit.; ref. Murano glass).

2.  L. Ward: Whence can bottles start to appear? (a in prison, & lit.).

3.  Dr E. Young: Can bottles start off as being this? (a in prison, & lit.).

VHC

D. Appleton: An unfinished prism, blob to be moulded? (anag. less m, incl. 0, & lit.).

D. & N. Aspland: Two incomplete vocal works by P. Glass about to be finished (P + ari(a) + son(g); ref. Philip G.).

M. Barker: Require this be moulded for opera ‘bins’? (comp. anag. & lit.; bins = binoculars).

Mrs S. Brown: Source of slipper lost in an old romantic Perrault story originally? (anag. of first letters incl. in; ref.‘Cinderella’).

D. Carter: Proa is transformed with new material, capable of becoming a schooner perhaps (anag. + n).

C. A. Clarke: Egotistical character interrupting minister on inflation could produce a fiasco (I in parson; f. = bottle).

R. Gilbert: A satisfactory round’s achievable. As I speak, it’s evenly balanced (i.e. par is on).

J. Glassonbury: One’s wearing cooler material modelling see-through products (a in prison).

R. J. Heald: See article blown from this in glasshouse? (i.e. p. less a = prison, & lit.).

R. Hesketh: American in brig – gob showing some bottle after series of blows? (A in prison; see gob^1,2).

E. C. Lance: Bottles may be produced from this – put one in the cooler (a in prison).

D. F. Manley: Stir, with Russia finally intervening, could turn into a fiasco (a in prison; ref. Ukraine crisis).

T. J. Moorey: Initially, Andy Roberts is bowling with power, preparation for a bumper or two? (p + AR is on; bumper glasses, former WI bowler).

C. J. Morse: Each one could make a glass – and a siphon if moulded with care (comp. anag. & lit.).

S. Randall: Blob for blowing, it may not be a bogey (par is on; ref. golf).

P. Taylor: I’m not in shape, yet a decent score’s not out of the question (par is on).

R. C. Teuton: Soprani going high? Glass could get blown from this (anag.).

Mrs A. M. Walden: Something needed to make a coupe? You’ll find it in cooler (a² in prison).

A. J. Wardrop: One in glasshouse fashions this (a in prison, & lit.).

F. J. B. Wheen: In this unfinished glass guy is pouring, say, rum (comp. anag.).

HC

T. Anderson, D. K. Arnott, M. Barley, T. C. Borland, C. J. Brougham, J. M. Brown, Dr J. Burscough, C. J. Butler, M. Coates, N. Connaughton, T. Crowther, W. Drever, J. Fairclough, J. Grimes, R. B. Harling, R. J. Hooper, J. R. Howlett, Mrs D. B. Jenkinson, G. Johnstone, J. C. Leyland, M. A. Macdonald-Cooper, P. W. Marlow, L. F. Marzillier (USA), J. McCabe, Rev Prebendary M. R. Metcalf, C. G. Millin, M. Owen, W. Ransome, Dr S. J. Shaw, C. M. Steele, P. A. Stephenson, M. Taylor, J. R. Tozer, Ms S. Wallace, A. Whittaker, G. H. Willett, K. & J. Wolff, J. Woodall (France).
 

Comments
187 entries, a few mistakes (mainly CLOT for COOT). As I hope most of you discovered sooner or later, the Observer let me down in a big way this month by printing the uncorrected version of the puzzle in place of the final corrected version, which I had approved and which appeared on the Guardian website (now used by many of you). Apart from some fine tuning, I had changed the clue to PILUM, having realized that my original homophone clue reflected pronunciation more Ciceronian than contemporary, and the one for EERIEST which implied wrongly that ‘Est’ was German for ‘east’, not French. I posted messages about this error wherever I thought they might be seen, but I’m sure there will have been some who remained unaware of the whole fiasco, and can only apologize. I keep telling the Observer to make sure such mistakes are not repeated, but I’ve learnt over the years that cast-iron promises are not possible. In all honesty I should add that almost no one even mentioned it this time.
 
Favourite clue of the month, of 20 mentioned at least once, was ‘Like the Carpenter, or his mate, swallowing first of oysters?’ for MOROSE, well ahead of ‘Their womenfolk will appear leaderless, burying father?’ (QUAPAWS). PARISON, though on the face of it an unpromising word to clue because of its highly specific definition, actually offered a good range of possible treatments. Many of you unearthed useful words from the vocabulary of glassmaking such as ‘gaffer’, ‘gob’, ‘glasshouse’ and ‘punty’ (plus variant spellings). And lateral thinking (always worth exercising in such cases) suggests a plethora of things that could be fashioned from a parison. A few of you, such as Mr Gilbert above, also found another meaning for PARISON altogether (and with a different etymology) from the language of rhetoric, viz ‘an even balance of clauses, syllables, etc., in a sentence’ (SOED). I’d never come across the word in either sense before. Apparently it’s just as likely to be unmoulded plastic these days, ‘as all water/soft drink bottles are produced by blow moulding’. My thanks to the competitor who provided this bit of technical information, which does not seem to have reached the lexicographers yet.
 
I’m grateful also to those who submitted comments and suggestions in connection with the planned get-together to mark Azed No 2,250 in July next year. Do please keep them coming.