AZED CROSSWORD 2430

CLERIHEW

1.  M. Barley: Quirky couplets of rhyme celebrating well-known life (anag. of initial letter pairs, & lit.).

2.  J. R. C. Michie: Quirky wee lyric not unknown to contain a dash of humour (h in anag. less y, & lit.).

3.  J. Vincent & Ms R. Porter: Vehicle heading off west colliding with rear of car, making short work of Bentley (anag. less v incl. w, r; ref. Edmund C. Bentley).

VHC

T. C. Borland: Hail Crewe’s styling that delivers a Bentley’s lines (anag. less a; Bentley cars designed and built in Crewe).

M. Coates: Rhyme whose content is going to be funny, while facet of character is involved (anag. incl. r(hym)e, c, & lit.).

W. Drever: Diminutive lay minister fell for head of choir (cleric with hew for c).

C. & E. A. Field: Warden Spooner/Would much sooner/Toast ‘our queer Dean’s’ health at dinner/Than rate this ‘hairy clue’ a winner (spoonerism of c.).

H. Freeman: Form which Lear (Ed) had missed? (anag. less had, & lit.).

A. H. Harker: His poetic pictures/Ignored scansional strictures:/Bet he contrived/To make celeb writhe (comp. anag. & lit.).

R. J. Heald: Michael Winner/In a/Shocking display/Chucks main and starter in Nobu away? (anag. less main N, & lit.; ref. former restaurant critic and top Japanese restaurant).

J. R. H. Jones: Twirl wheel and half circle a Bentley (anag. incl. cir(cle)).

D. F. Manley: Casually, car is ‘wheels’ – striking as foremost of suchlike, Bentley’s product? (anag. less a, s).

Rev Prebendary M. R. Metcalf: Curate, say, mostly has bits of his egg well-cooked in pithy vignette (cleri(c) + first letters; ref. classic ‘Punch’ cartoon).

C. G. Millin: A rhyme that’s funny here with irregular length couplets primarily (anag. incl. initial letters, & lit.).

T. J. Moorey: Wanting what’s original in anthology, plainly one looks for Edmund —— (cle(a)r (adv) + I + hew (Spenser), & lit.; see hue¹).

T. Rudd: What Ed —— B/Effervescently/ Could create is instanced here:/With a little biog., idle cheer (comp. anag. incl. w, b, & lit.).

Dr S. J. Shaw: Whimsical verse (not massive, irregular in format) composed about personage ultimately (comp. anag. incl. e, & lit.).

P. Tharby: In which Bentley specialised while heads of rival engineering companies diversified (anag. incl. r, e, c).

Mrs A. M. Walden: Rhyme originally penned by EC while working (r in anag. & lit.).

K. J. Williams: Alloy car wheel I exchanged for a creation of Bentley (anag. with I for a).

K. & J. Wolff: Said Reverend Spooner,/‘My ball of vicuña/Is one of the very few/Ways to say ——’ (i.e. ‘hairy clew’, & lit.).

HC

D. Appleton, D. & N. Aspland, G. Borooah (USA), A. Brash, C. J. Brougham, Dr J. Burscough, J. A. Butler, S. L. Claughton, N. Connaughton (Ireland), M. Davies, E. Dawid, J. Doylend, J. Emms, P. Finan, Dr I. S. Fletcher, R. Gilbert, R. Griffiths, J. Grimes, D. Harris, M. Hodgkin, J. C. Leyland, M. Lloyd-Jones, B. Lovering, P. W. Marlow, L. F. Marzillier (USA), P. McKenna (China), R. Perry, A. Plumb, A. & J. Price, W. Ransome, S. Saunders, D. P. Shenkin, N. G. Shippobotham, C. Short, I. Simpson, Dr G. Simpson (Australia), J. Smailes, P. A. Stephenson, P. L. Stone, R. C. Teuton, D. & J. Thomson, J. R. Tozer, N. Walker, Ms S. Wallace, A. J. Wardrop, T. West-Taylor.
 

Comments
221 entries, no mistakes. Favourite clue: ‘Weathered Ring? You’d need a good seat for that’ for RODEO (chosen perhaps with feeling by those who have endured seemingly interminable performances of Wagner).
 
A clearly popular clue word produced an enthusiastic response. Many essayed clerihew-style clues, but this was not an easy task. In his The Ode Less Travelled Stephen Fry writes, ‘The rules state that clerihews be non-metrically written in two couplets, the first of which is to be a proper name and nothing else … Metrical clumsiness is very much a desideratum; indeed it is considered very bad form for a clerihew to scan.’ Many entries submitted ignored one or more of these ‘rules’, e.g. by offering a metrically sound four-line poem with various rhyme schemes. Not too heinous, perhaps, but less acceptable were clues in the form of clerihews with no indication that they were examples of the clue word rather than definitions thereof. Incorporating a cryptic indication of CLERIHEW in wording that formed a clerihew, without superfluous verbiage was a stiff challenge indeed, and many fell at the hurdle of structural accuracy (while still affording me much amusement). I applaud all those who had a go at producing a clue in verse, even if it was not strictly required. Is there, I wonder, a complete record still in print of all ECB’s own clerihews? The better-known ones (e.g. Wren, Davy, Stuart Mill) are often quoted as examples, but there must be many more for his name to have been given to the form. Other practitioners of the clerihew, according to Wikipedia, have included G. K. Chesterton (a friend of Bentley’s), W. H. Auden and, among contemporary writers, Craig Brown.
 
With John Tozer’s generous agreement, I’ve decided to post for your enjoyment a list of the poetic offerings not quoted above on his andlit.org.uk website, as an appendix to this slip.
 

 
Other clerihews and rhyming clues
 
This is an appendix to the slip for the above competition puzzle. It consists of entries submitted in verse which failed to make the published list but which Azed hopes may amuse competitors and other solvers of his puzzles. The authors’ names have been withheld.
 
‘——’/Where’s clue/I composed? No use being sorry, though it/Could be &/lit.
 
A Jonathan Crowther request,/An Azed clue of the best./A clergyman’s ending he lacks,/Cut with blows from an axe.
 
A life in verse,/Witty and terse,/Relic to crack./written by hack.
 
A minister out of college fell –/college, lukewarm, held back wages;/One writer in this form did tell/ Of worthy personages.
 
A suggestive ode/With a message bestowed/From a vicar all but/The last bit is cut.
 
‘Azed’/I said,/‘Here’s a comical relic/Penned by hack, not well’ (sic).
 
Baffled while Crowther/Throws out yet another,/But with the greatest relief I say/This is twenty-nine A.
 
Coleridge,/Who’s no good, used to leverage/A sort of ——/(Like this clue).
 
Dissolute heir/Can be seen there;/He’s held by guide,/That you’ve just eyed.
 
E. C. Bentley/Quite urgently/Gave the chop to a priest/Or the greater part of him at least.
 
E. C. Bentley/Wrote such a verse presciently/Knowing that, with a twirl,/His middle name could be EEC whirl.
 
Edmund Bentley/Evidently/How celebrity shot to –/By ‘——’.
 
Edmund Bentley/Sapiently/Wrote about the famous but/Did not finish the Bishop: the end is cut.
 
Edmund Bentley/Wrote verse like this aplenty/Brief, cheerily flimsy/With the introduction of whimsy.
 
Edmund C. Bentley/Wrote poems irreverently/Mixed rice chew/Could reveal you-know-who.
 
Independent hack/Following large Conservative back/With time/To scratch a whimsical rhyme.
 
John Bercow/Odds on to go/‘I left her with amendment’/This captures the sentiment?
 
Lech Walesa,/Just the commencer,/On the rampage,/Harnessing revolutionary rage?
 
Quirky while brief record, notable/Life portrayed in couplets quotable.
 
Rachel Weisz/May disguise/Such a metre,/As may Zeta.
 
This crossword clue/Might seem difficult to you/Where I see a line confusing/You get a verse amusing.
 
Verse quoting name/Someone of fame/Whimsy lit. that’s clear/Absurd it will cheer.