AZED CROSSWORD 249

RUDOLPH THE REINDEER

1.  J. B. Sweeting: I draw the red Noel rider – hup! (anag. & lit; draw = pull away).

2.  W. H. Pegram: Tined helper our herd teased? (anag. & lit.).

3.  A. J. K. Moult: Dancer’s company’s leading light tumbled on derrière – thud! Help! (anag.; D., one of Santa’s reindeer).

VHC (extra prizes)

F. D. H. Atkinson: At the present time he draws helter-skelter the open hurdle rider (anag.).

R. M. A. Bourne: Naughty nude let heir prod her; perhaps he’d a seasonal ‘thing’ for her behind (anag.; Santa’s sleigh).

D. A. H. Byatt: Dancer’s florid partner helped to ruin her tailor-made (anag.; D, one of Santa’s reindeer).

Mrs M. J. Cansfield: No ruddier helper there is in a fog (anag. & lit.).

C. A. Clarke: There’s an animal of the Northern sky about, with redness always round (there in dolphin in rud e’er, & lit.; ref. Delphinus).

P. R. Clemow: As Blitzen, for instance, might say: ‘He lent our herd pride’ (with a bit of a shine) (anag.; shine = polish; B, one of Santa’s reindeer).

B. Franco: Eh? Red under lip? Rot! He is quite different (anag. & lit.).

E. A. Free: Hero, he lit up redder’n stove (anag. & lit.; stove²).

A. L. Freeman: He draws Santa Claus in red, entwined with the hurdle rope (anag. & lit.).

P. D. Gaffey: Red, he led per horrid tune (anag. & lit.; red = put in order).

G. B. Greer: Character making Noel hit – he’d pure red conk? Right (anag.; conk = break down).

H. Hancock: Strangely red-hued and leptorrhine, he’s the brightest member in the team (anag.).

R. J. Hooper: Christmas song character in need ; ‘Hither, Page!’ louder ordered king (anag. incl. p + R; ref. Wenceslas).

A. H. Jones: Effulgent his hooter, lit red, hereupon herd chuckle (anag.; chuckle adj.).

A. D. Legge: ‘Pride o’ the herd’ unreal but for a feverish child’s Christmas fantasy? (anag. less a).

C. Loving: Red lit nose in the herd or up flying? Maybe it’s on ——! (comp. anag. & lit.).

L. May: With nose of red, hurried to render help in a fog (r + anag. & lit.).

C. J. Morse: The peril under Herod spoilt Christmas’s friendly character for children (anag.; ref. slaughter of the innocents).

F. E. Newlove: Stag party in the air? Office boss besieged by Deirdre, Ruth, Helen and little Penny, all furious (o in anag. incl. p; party = individual).

T. E. Sanders: Presents he helped rider to run all over the place (anag. & lit.; presents, 2 mngs.).

M. H. E. Watson: Originally butt of mean herd, hero with red end of nose lit up (anag. incl. n, & lit.; originally = innovatively).

D. B. Williams: Case of rhinitis? Dr. hurried – telephone out of order (anag.).

Dr E. Young: In fog, he erred? No, lit up herd! (anag. & lit.).

HC

M. Adams, C. Allen Baker, D. B. J. Ambler, M. J. Balfour, R. Blake, A. G. Bogie, N. M. Brown, C. O. Butcher, P. Cargill, D. L. L. Clarke, E. A. Clarke, C. Collins, Mrs M. P. Craine, D. A. Crossland, A. E. Crow, A. L. Dennis, J. H. Doran, J. A. Fincken, A. G. Fleming, S. Goldie, J. E. Green, G. K. Grigg, A. H. Harker, D. V. Harry, S. Holgate, C. H. Hudson, W. Jackson, C. L. Jones, R. E. Kimmons, J. R. Kirby, Capt G. Langham, A. Lawrie, D. J. Mackay, D. F. Manley, S. M. Mansell, T. A. Martin, D. W. Mason, H. S. Mason, D. J. Meadows, Dr E. J. Miller, C. G. Millin, J. D. Moore, R. S. Morse, F. Moss, T. N. Nesbitt, F. R. Palmer, R. J. Palmer, J. Phillipson, G. S. Prentice, A. J. Redstone, D. R. Robinson, N. Roles, H. R. Sanders, W. J. M. Scotland, A. D. Scott, W. K. M. Slimmings, Brig R. F. E. Stoney, F. B. Stubbs, J. C. P. Taylor, G. A. Tomlinson, J. R. Tozer, Mrs P. Tunnadine, R. D. Vaughan Davies, J. Walton, P. J. Woods, S. E. Woods, G. M. Young.
 

COMMENTS
A marvellous Christmas entry, 588 all told with no detectable mistakes and many appreciative comments. To be honest ‘Rudolph’ was rather a rush job since I’d been confident the Observer would appear on the day after Christmas and had prepared the 250th puzzle as a ‘special special’ – the title Xmisquotagram was even intended to suggest Xmas. So when I found that No. 249 would also have to be a competition I had to cast around anxiously for a new theme. Luckily for me Rudolph had a convenient number of letters for latency.
 
I expected mainly anagrams and got them. The main problem facing competitors was to compose something which both gave an adequate definition and at the same time was not crashingly obvious. Quite why the song is as universally and enduringly popular as it is is beyond me. It’s sickly sentimentality is positively glutinous and I heartily concur with Mr. Gaffey’s curt epithet for it. But to those who perhaps consciously strove to disguise Rudolph’s identity somewhat in their clues and do not appear above I would say that I did think hard about the respective merits of vagueness and precision of definition in this particular case and came down in favour of the latter. No apologies for that.
 
The large majority of anagramniatists also attempted ‘& lit. clues, with varying degrees of success. Take the following (anonymous) example: ‘Santa’s helper hurried to end chaos’. Apart from the fact that the noun ‘chaos’ cannot grammatically indicate an anagram of the four words preceding it, as it is intended to do, I think this still fails as an ‘& lit.’ clue. Let us change ‘chaos’ to ‘dithering’. We now have a fair anagram indication and the clue as a whole is approaching a fair literal definition of the luminous ungulate in question. But in a cryptic reading of the clue, ‘Santa’s’ is out on a limb, with no function to perform, and a comma is urgently required after ‘helper to indicate that a noun is required. With very little doctoring a moderately respectable clue can now be produced, thus: ‘Helper, hurried to end dithering – Santa’s (i.e. Santa’s dithering, or possibly Santa’s helper, or conceivably both). ‘Santa’s’ is now outside the cryptic part of the clue, but a reinforcing element of the literal definition. At the beginning of the clue, unseparated from the other words by any punctuation, it cannot be regarded as performing that function.
 
No time for more now, though I may well return to this (quite common) type of unsoundness in future slips.