AZED CROSSWORD 294

HUMECT

1.  P. Machin: Help to make air rheumatic? (comp. anag. & lit.).

2.  R. J. Hooper: What tears etc. do primarily? (hum + anag. & lit.; do, hum vi).

3.  C. J. and R. S. Morse: Those that open holed umbrellas must expect clothes to get wet (first letters).

VHC

P. Best: Wet the heads of heirs unless mothers embrace complete teetotalism (first letters).

E. J. Burge: Hull’s prop shows up in not inconsiderable list – boat’s stern only slightly wet (Emu (rev.) in HC + t; ref. puppet partner of Rod H. and Azed slip lists).

C. O. Butcher: Humble dwelling with mortar therein half missing and rising damp (cem(ent) (rev.) in hut).

R. S. Caffyn: Touch me without love, unkindly, and you’ll see what tears can do (anag. less 0).

C. A. Clarke: A small house with interior cement half crumbled away and rising damp (cem(ent) (rev.) in hut).

R. V. Dearden: Rate generator sound, with high voltage flows relieving (hum + ECT; rate³, see ret).

J. D. Foster: Air ——s: rheumatics aggravated, as a result? (comp. anag. & lit.).

A. L. Freeman: Jagged cut hem shows what tears do (anag.).

Dr R. E. Gillson: Well! A shocking way to treat hydrophobia? (hum³ ECT).

Mrs N. Jarman: Small pad that’s pinned about, after mite’s top and tail – this’ll do it (m, e + c., all in hut, & lit.).

C. L. Jones: Relieve dryness with much tea, endlessly stirred (anag. incl. te(a)).

M. D. Laws: Dutchmen, saving outlying parts, diverted water (anag. less D, n).

C. W. Laxton: Touch me not o falling dew! (anag. less o).

D. F. Manley: Damp air somehow leaves rheumatic with a twinge (anag. less anag.).

H. W. Massingham: Dab, cod, smelt etc. (hum² + anag.; cod⁴ = hoax).

C. S. F. Oliver: Even dry gin can do this: upset Dutchmen’s guts (anag. of (D)utchme(n)).

R. F. Pardoe: Redeem the soul of a catechumen? Baptise, perhaps (anag. of (ca)techum(en)).

H. R. Sanders: Damp air this, could make one rheumatic (comp. anag.).

Mrs I. G. Smith: Half humble, half abject – totally wet! (hum(ble), (abj)ect).

K. Stewart: What priest will do in baptism troubles catechumen’s heart ( anag. of (ca)techum(en)).

Brig R. F. E. Stoney: The gum I’m wetting scantily sticks, taking seconds only. Do as I do (second letters).

F. B. Stubbs: What may give you nasty tummy-ache? This water may (comp. anag.).

R. A. Wells: Hovel with interior plaster half off and rising damp (cem(ent) (rev.) in hut).

HC

Miss M. R. Adcock, T. Anderson, R. L. Baker, P. Cargill, M. Coates, M. A. Cooper, Mrs M. P. Craine, A. J. Crow, E. Davies, Cdr H. H. L. Dickson, Miss J. Doe, P. Drummond, C. J. Feetenby, S. Goldie, J. F. Grimshaw, A. H. Harker, W. Islip, V. Jennings, G. Johnstone, Mrs J. Knight, A. Lawrie, J. P. Lester, C. J. Lowe, L. K. Maltby, H. B. Morton, J. L. Moss, D. S. Nagle, F. E. Newlove, G. E. Pallant-Sidaway, Mrs E. M. Phair, J. Phillipson, Miss I. M. Raab, C. P. Rea, Rear Adm W. T. C. Ridley, A. Rivlin, W. J. M. Scotland, A. D. Scott, J. G. Stubbs, T. Wightman.
 

COMMENTS
A mysteriously small entry – only about 230, with practically no mistakes and no complaints about the difficulty of the puzzle. I’m told that the number of entries for the Everyman puzzle also plunged dramatically so I’m left wondering whether the Observer suffered delivery problems or there were hiccups in postal deliveries from some parts of the country. With no definite facts to go on, however, all I could do was proceed as normal and keep my fingers crossed that all entries posted were in fact received and passed on to me for judging. I doubt whether ALHUAMPA was to blame because although some of you were unable to trace it no one got it wrong. I was forced to fall back on my atlas (the New Oxford Atlas) for a 9-letter word beginning -LH since ALHAMBRA presented insoluble problems elsewhere. I apologise and promise not to do that sort of thing unless I’m really stuck. I think the clue was sufficiently helpful in the event.
 
I thought HUMECT likely to offer a good range of cluing possibilities but the consensus seems to have been that it was tougher than usual. Someone pointed out that it’s the first non-noun I’ve given you since OLYMPIC about a year ago and sure enough there was a sizeable number of clues which failed to indicate that it is only used as a verb. Do watch that error. It spoils what are often quite passable clues otherwise. And this is a suitable moment to remind you all that I follow Ximenes in treating clues to down words as though the words are written vertically not horizontally, even though the clues are not. Thus I prefer ‘up’, ‘climbing’, ‘heavenward’ etc. to ‘back’ and its variants.
 
The non-competition ‘Red Herrings’ puzzle some weeks ago clearly gave a lot of trouble and I must confess that I had some misgivings about it. I deliberately bunched the unclued words in one corner of the diagram as a way of forcing solvers to identify the superfluous words in clues and actually working out the words formed by their first and last letters. But perhaps I overdid it. If such an exercise becomes just a wearisome shuffling round of letters it must swiftly lose its appeal. Next time I must think of another way of varying the formula so as to challenge and amuse. It’s a tall order, sometimes.
 
For those who like to know these things well in advance, the Christmas competition will be No. 300, the Sunday before Christmas itself. There will be no Observer on the 25th.