AZED CROSSWORD 238

CRAMBOJINGLE

1.  W. L. Miron: Demonstrated by lie, guy, fly (cram bo jingle, & lit.).

2.  A. J. Bulman: Stap, chap, trap. There’s rhyming for you! (cram bo jingle).

3.  D. V. Harry: MacRob blended whisky – it adds glee to your spree (anag. + jingle; whisky²).

VHC

R. H. Adey: Pickwick as literature? See the chapter ‘Tupman and the strolling actor’ (c. ram-bo + Jingle; ref. characters Tracy T., Alfred J.).

C. Allen Baker: Doggerel stuff – a trifling effort reflected in short laughter (cram + job (rev.) + in gle(e)).

C. O. Butcher: A composition following Cowper in outline in which The Task is mirrored? – Nothing so inspired (C, r + job (rev.) in a mingle; ref. poem by William C.).

E. Chalkley: Stuff a fellow put over in a short sort of song? (cram bo jingle, & lit.).

P. R. Clemow: Right and left jab coming with energy – mix it. Ali is famous for it (anag. incl. r, l, e; ref. Mohammad A.’s rhymes).

J. Coleby: Rhyming stuff, in short clipped style, the reverse of the one beloved of McGonagall (cram + jo (rev.) in bingle; ref. William McG.).

R. J. Hooper: As demonstration: ‘Make gamble, join ramble, and head it with credit.’ (cr + anag., & lit.).

R. Jacks: Pack, black, ring, ting constitute it (cram B O jingle, & lit.).

W. Jackson: Putting Pickwick, say, in trouble? Mr. J can oblige (anag.; ref. character Alfred Jingle).

J. R. Kirby: Acquire prior tire fire retire hire and inspire? Could be! (cram + job (rev.) + ingle, & lit.; tire⁵).

M. D. Laws: Blimey, without its ending, jargon will be obscure, after Cockney’s initial rhyming! (C + anag. less y).

D. F. Manley: Imbecile jargon in a fit might constitute this: i.e. —— (comp. anag. & lit.; fit³).

J. D. Moore: E.g., ‘pack/black/ring/ting.’ (cram B O jingle, & lit.).

R. S. Morse: Conjugation of ‘lie’, ‘guy’, ‘consonantal I’, and ‘where Jock’ll fry’? (cram bo J ingle, & lit.).

A. J. K. Moult: New deal for L.B.J., G-men or C.I.A. It’s rhyming! (anag.).

F. R. Palmer: Get full employment back – individual with no opening is prescription for ‘trouble and strife’ (cram + job (rev.) + (s)ingle; example of rhyming slang).

M. L. Perkins: Press man with thin correspondence – getting better with letter, perhaps? (cram bo jingle; thin = tinkling).

A. J. Redstone: I’ve flat feet and get con man to clink (cram bo jingle; cram, con = study).

R. C. Reeves: Boring ol’ C. James composes this? Not so! (anag. less so, & lit.; ref. Clive J., Observer columnist).

Rear Adm W. T. C. Ridley: With small French coin, rough gambler join – voilà, c’est ça (deux fois!) (c + anag., & lit.).

W. K. M. Slimmings: Versed work … stuff fire should consume? (job (rev.) in cram ingle, & lit.; versed = reversed).

R. J. Whale: For poets this may be essential in competing for Lear’s job (comp. anag. & lit.; Edward L.).

D. C. Williamson: Overture of Lehar’s in C major being travestied – it’s often heard in singsong (L in anag.).

HC

M. Adams, A. G. Bogie, C. S. Bradshaw, E. J. Burge, P. Cargill, P. A. Cash, M. Coates, R. M. S. Cork, Mrs M. P. Craine, P. Drummond, A. G. Fleming, J. D. Foster, B. Franco, E. A. Free, F. D. Gardiner, H. J. Godwin, S. Goldie, G. B. Greer, M. R. Griffith, A. H. Harker, J. M. Houghton, R. H. F. Isham, P. J. Izod, A. B. Jones, A. H. Jones, G. Jones, A. Lawrie, C. W. Laxton, A. D. Legge, C. Loving, R. A. Main, L. K. Maltby, T. A. Martin, H. W. Massingham, L. May, Dr E. J. Miller, A. Mylward, D. S. Nagle, R. J. Palmer, C. Quin, C. P. Rea, H. L. Rhodes, D. R. Robinson, W. Rodgers, N. E. Sharp, M. D. Speigel, F. B. Stubbs, J. G. Stubbs, D. H. Tompsett, M. A. Vernon, M. H. E. Watson, Mrs M. P. Webber, Dr R. L. Wynne.
 

COMMENTS
Exactly 300 entries, all correct except one failure to spot the code-word. Those who failed to read the rules (carefully amended to allow for a word containing an I and a J and probably more easy to discover for that reason) gave themselves unnecessary extra labour until the light dawned.The moral is too obvious even to be stated. And I don’t feel that it was wrong of me not to announce the change more prominently, as one or two suggested. After all, I might not even have used bold type.
 
There was, however, a word (‘round’) missing in the KNIGHT clue – Ralph at work again, I fear. I would not accept that ponder = think over = kniht and don’t therefore deserve the plaudits of those who thought the clue as printed an example of my extra-brilliant subtlety!
 
In general it seems to have been an unusually enjoyable puzzle with an especially succulent clue-word which was much relished. I was reminded again of what versatile poetasters, if not poets. Azed competitors are. Many clues were in verse, though rather too often the verse itself was left to stand as the definition of CRAMBOJINGLE instead of being presented as an example of it. It also tended to make for very long clues, to which I am innately averse in a mild way. But thank you all for the fun. I haven’t taken so long to pick my winners for months.
 
A word or two, as promised, about anagram indication. This arises from my remarks in the slip for No. 229 about Mr. Baker’s clue, which elicited from him a long and thoughtful, not to say thought-provoking, letter on the subject. He makes the good point that a number of words or phrases have come to be used to indicate an anagram which strictly speaking do not imply a disturbance of the existing order of letters, merely in the widest sense a deviation from the norm. ‘Bent’ and ‘wound’ and ‘reeling’ and ‘dancing’ are examples of this. Rereading Ximenes on the subject (always an instructive exercise) I find that all he says is that anagram clues should contain ‘some reasonable sign that the letters are to be disordered’. What would be unreasonable he doesn’t vouchsafe to suggest. Alec Robins, in his excellent Teach Yourself Crosswords, writes that ‘the solver must be given some indication that the letters of given words have to be rearranged’, but adds that ‘there is an almost infinite variety of ways in which an anagram may be indicated’. I grant that it is difficult and potentially dangerous to try to be more precise than that, though I would stress the importance of the word ‘almost’ in the quoted extract, and urge competitors to ask themselves whether their anagram indicators are fair to the solver and grammatically sound (see my remarks on unsoundness in slip No. 27). If the anagram indicator requires a lengthy explanatory note or resorts to an obsolete or otherwise far-fetched meaning of a word, I venture to suggest that it will probably be treated, by me at any rate, as unfair.
 
I’ve left no time or space for the promised note on connecting words. To be brought forward, therefore. For those who may be wondering the U.S. edition of The Azed Book of Crosswords, retitled The World’s Most Difficult Crossword Puzzles, was published in July. The Pan Books edition will not now appear until autumn 1977. A public announcement about the Azed 250 Dinner will appear in the Observer Magazine shortly.