AZED CROSSWORD 2556

TOERAG

1.  D. F. Manley: Tinker’s no. 1, tailor’s no. 2 – ergo, in organised sequence, I’m no. 7 (anag. incl. t, a; ref. beggar man in nursery rhyme).

2.  Ms J. Merchant: Heel bar mostly for footgear needing repair (anag. less fo(r)).

3.  J. C. Leyland: Given regular cancellations, travelling Algarve route could be a snip (anag. of alternate letters).

VHC

M. Barley: Rogue gets a very long stretch, being locked up inside for good (era in to g).

T. C. Borland: Unframed Hogarth works capturing English lowlife (E in anag. less H, h).

C. J. Brougham: Snot at end of nose needs hankie (to e + rag).

Dr J. Burscough: Gogo, Estragon – ——’s name (comp. anag. incl. s, n, & lit.; ref. ‘Waiting for Godot’).

E. Dawid: Rogue – e.g. love rat? (anag. incl 0, & lit.).

W. Drever: Conclusions drawn from jaunt to castle annoy Dominic Cummings perhaps (last letters + rag).

Dr I. S. Fletcher: Catching tip of stiletto grate ruined heel (o in anag.).

H. Freeman: Hooligan at Euros embarrassed Government, getting us expelled (anag. incl. G less us).

R. J. Heald: Guitars come alive with rendition of stirring music for ‘Apache’ (anag. less anag.; ref. 1960 Shadows No. 1 hit).

M. Hodgkin: Clochard near Gare de l’Est (to + gare (rev., i.e. from the east)).

D. C. Jones: To the monarch, absent grandson’s heading to become a miserable wretch (to ER + a + g; ref. Prince Harry).

P. W. Marlow: A sort eg in a dishevelled state wanting a bob? (anag. less s, & lit.).

J. R. C. Michie: Rogue, eg love rat (anag. incl. 0, & lit.).

C. G. Millin: Tramp primarily, a rogue possibly, but not upper-class (t + anag. less U, & lit.).

W. Ransome: Bastard, a ——? One heartless ratbag, horrible (comp. anag. incl. b, o(n)e, & lit.).

T. Rudd: Do a Roget’s riffle – you’ll see this alongside ‘sod’ (comp. anag. & lit.).

Dr S. J. Shaw: Scrap of textile on hobo’s extremity originally expressing really abominable geezer (t + o + first letters, & lit.).

A. J. Shields: Presenter initially axed from Top Gear after disturbance, contemptible fellow (anag. less p; ref. J. Clarkson, sacked after fracas with producer).

P. L. Stone: Halting to beg at roadside – maybe tabid —— does (comp. anag.).

R. C. Teuton: Entry for ‘arsehole’ in revised version of Roget? (a in anag., & lit.).

J. R. Tozer: Tatty footgear’s revealing of me (comp. anag. & lit.).

A. J. Varney: Term for beggar wanting for footgear originally (anag. incl. r less for, & lit.).

K. & J. Wolff: Originally ‘gentleman of the road’ and latterly ‘contemptible rogue’ (anag. of first letters and last letter, & lit.).

HC

T. Anderson, D. Ashby (Canada), D. & N. Aspland, S. J. L. Ball, M. Barker, A. Brash, J. M. Brown, Mrs S. Brown, A. & J. Calder, D. Carter, A. G. Chamberlain, C. A. Clarke, M. Coates, P. Coles (Ireland), J. Davenport, C. M. Edmunds, J. Fairclough, M. Freeman, R. Gilbert, J. Grimes, S. Hicks, J. Hood, G. Johnstone, M. Jordan, J. P. Lester, M. Lloyd-Jones, M. Lunan, P. McKenna, K. Milan, T. J. Moorey, C. Ogilvie, J. Pearce, A. Plumb, J. Vincent & Ms R. Porter, S. Randall, Dr J. B. Reid, D. Sandground, J. Smailes, P. A. Stephenson, Mrs A. M. Walden, Ms S. Wallace, J. D. Walsh, L. Ward (USA), A. J. Wardrop, T. West-Taylor, R. J. Whale, D. Whyte (Ireland), G. H. Willett, A. J. Young, R. Zara.
 

Comments
142 entries (about average these days), and no mistakes that I spotted. As so often some found the puzzle more difficult than average and a roughly equal number found it easier than normal. As I’ve often observed, I never set out deliberately to produce an extra-tough puzzle or the opposite. Such factors are usually determined by particular themes, or possibly by an over-abundance of obscure words in the grid. This month 15 clues received one or more votes as your favourite, the winner (by one vote) being ‘Face mostly disfigured with boils? They can change the way one looks’ for BIFOCALS, with the clues for GATOR and LO(-)CAL coming second equal. A few entries exploited the fact that the letters in GATOR appear also in TOERAG by including the number of the GATOR clue in their clue to TOERAG and no other indication of the word referred to. I’m afraid I’m not keen on this device, preferring that the clue word be seen in isolation from the rest of the puzzle. I exempt myself from this limitation when one of my clues can be worded to include an oblique reference to another. I don’t see this as unreasonable (and it doesn’t happen very often).
 
There were plenty of excellent clues to TOERAG for me to relish, helped by the plethora of synonyms for ‘despicable fellow’ (always male, it seems) and ‘tramp’. A few of you drew my attention to the fact that the word was set at the same time for an on-line clue-writing competition. The odds against such a thing happening must be great, but I didn’t look to see if regular Azed competitors had entered both competitions and if so whether they had produced different clues in each case. I know of only one who produced a different clue for this comp (with signal success!). I’ll say no more. There are now plenty of crossword-related websites, competitive and otherwise, but I rarely consult them. My principal way of keeping au fait with current trends in clue-writing is to look at the puzzles in a limited number of periodicals. I have to say that I don’t always approve of what I see, but I think my views are largely familiar to regular Azed solvers, and often discussed in these slips. Ours is an inexact science, but I’m always interested to hear from solvers, especially about new trends which they take exception to.