AZED CROSSWORD 2300

MISHMASH

1.  J. Grimes: Confused mass Hamish expresses as ‘guddle’ (anag. less as, & lit.).

2.  D. F. Manley: What emerges from referendum is – h’m – a shambolic mess (hidden).

3.  G. H. Willett: Duffed overhead – it’s out! A failure of coordination? (mish(it s)mash).

VHC

M. Barley: Potpourri, when deployed, heads off horrible household miasms (anag. incl. h, h).

T. C. Borland: No bad term for Hammersmith’s intertwining? (anag. less anag., & lit.).

Dr J. Burscough: Providing —— is ‘hash’ (i.e. providing ‘m’ is ‘h’, ‘mash’ is ‘hash’; & lit.).

P. Cargill: Is ham not a filling for mince pie? (anag. less a in mash).

D. Clay (Egypt): To make cocktail, firstly mix ice with two parts sherry, then crush (m, i + sh + mash).

E. Dawid: A motorway pile-up has hospital in chaos (h in M1 smash).

W. Drever: Working lunch ultimately is M&S ham salad (anag. incl. h).

Dr I. S. Fletcher: Confused assemblage? Maybe duff referendum’s conclusion has done for it (mishit with m + anag. for it).

D. V. Harry: Referendum’s end comes with an issue for Scots, pound down and allied group in disarray (m ism mash).

R. J. Heald: ‘Macaroni’ comprises term for such, in practice (h in ism in mash² (= masher), & lit.; macaroni = dandy).

R. J. Hooper: Salad contains e.g. sliced potato – it must be tossed (mish(it) + mash).

J. C. Leyland: Salad? It doesn’t feature in e.g. sliced ham starter for slimmer being naughty (mish(it) + anag. incl. s).

T. J. Moorey: Mess created by Gove finally running, shame his manoeuvring brought about end of chum (m in anag. less e; ref. EU referendum).

C. Ogilvie: Confusion when horse is involved in pile-up on motorway (h (= heroin) in M1 smash).

S. Randall: Leaving university, has his mum to tidy up clutter (anag. less u).

C. Short: Melange – i.e. salmagundi, hotchpotch, miscellany and scrambled hash, a little bit of each (first letters & lit.).

P. L. Stone: Players’ mix-up? It comes from mishit with Marsh run out (mish(it) + Ma(r)sh).

R. C. Teuton: Comic lead in movies has his chum in fine mess (anag. incl. m, m; in fine = finally; ref. Laurel & Hardy).

J. R. Tozer: A mix-up, a botched overhead, and it’s out (mish(it s)mash).

A. J. Varney: A little accident, spending a penny – the result of lots of water with meal (pie) (mish(a p) + mash).

L. Ward: Going by moppet’s face, I’m assuming mum has prepared macaroni (m + sh in I’m + anag.).

A. J. Young: A drop of malt is grand in a mince pie (m is + M in hash).

HC

T. Anderson, D. Appleton, D. K. Arnott, D. & N. Aspland, M. Barker, J. & J. Barnes, Dr P. M. J. Bennett, Ms K. Bolton, H. Bradbury, C. J. Brougham, Mrs S. Brown, D. Carter, B. Cheesman, P. T. Crow, P. Dacre, P. A. Davies, V. Dixon (Ireland), C. M. Edmunds, P. Evans, J. Fairclough, R. Gilbert, G. I. L. Grafton, M. Hodgkin, G. Johnstone, J. R. H. Jones (Mexico), T. Locke, M. Lunan, W. F. Main, P. W. Marlow, P. McKenna, J. R. C. Michie, K. Parekh (USA), J. Parke, J. & A. Price, M. Price, W. Ransome, G. Raven, T. Rudd, A. D. Scott, Dr S. J. Shaw, N. G. Shippobotham, I. Simpson, Dr G. Simpson (Australia), A. J. Smith (USA), J. Vincent & Ms R. Porter, W. B. Wendt, R. Whale, A. Whittaker, Dr E. Young.
 

Comments
Another mini-milestone passed, and a plain competition puzzle that was relatively plain sailing, I think: 203 entries, largely error-free except for a handful with PUTTEE for PUTTIE. 13 clues were voted favourite, the clear winner being ‘Mosque officer? Don’t give —— for ’is supper!’ for IMAM, with 20 votes (not, I hope, deserving of a fatwah). Joint runners-up, with 9 votes each, were the clues for CHAMBERPOT and IN ON. One vote against went to my clue to RÉSUMÉ, and with reason. The clue was ‘One practising turns in front of the author produces CV’ where ‘produces ‘ should be ‘to produce’ or ‘producing’ to work syntactically. A careless lapse, for which I apologize.
 
Another miscellany for you to clue. Typically I had forgotten that you’ve had in the past both SALMAGUNDY (No. 750) and FARRAGO (No, 2,161). This was perhaps the most tricky of the three to deal with, with its three doubled consonants and two vowels. The most popular idea involved a drunken or Connery-style slurring of ‘miss mass’ but few of these achieved wording that struck me as above average. I don’t often spend time thinking how I’d approach the challenge myself, but on this occasion I toyed with the idea of mishit less it and mashie less i.e., with ‘medley’ as the definition and the whole clue having a golfing flavour. A few of you tried something along these lines but not many. More than a few spoiled their chances by making a definition of the answer do double duty as an anagram indicator in the cryptic reading. In general, though, the quality of clues submitted was well up to standard.
 
The annual honours list will appear next month, one month later than last year because I decided to exclude No. 2,270 (FENESTRA) from the annual calculations, having set the same clue word on a previous occasion. The list of consolation prizewinners appeared prematurely in The Observer on 24 July, so some adjustment may be necessary when the August results are known.