AZED CROSSWORD 358

UPSTART def. NON-TERM

1.  N. C. Dexter: One outshining the rest, newly put in orbit (rest; star in anag., & lit.).

2.  Mrs K. Bissett: Jerk after break? (break; up + start, & lit.).

3.  R. J. Palmer: Leader of pop-group making break in America, punk, is vulgar and pretentious (break; p in US + tart).

VHC

C. Allen Baker: I may break into a strut, fraught with power (break; anag. incl. P, & lit.).

E. J. Burge: Such as puts ‘getting a break’ before ‘application of skill’? (break; anag. + art, & lit.).

Mrs M. J. Cansfield: New-fangled parts break – do without them (break; anag. in ut; do⁴).

E. Chalkley: Pup, perhaps, a tailless one about to leave a trap (leave; pu(p) (rev.) + start; ref. greyhound racing).

H. Davidson: New-fangled parts break – the old do without them (break; anag. in ut; do⁴).

R. V. Dearden: Pretentious fellow returned from college holiday to institute (holiday; up start).

B. Franco: I suddenly find cash getting short after vacation in high-class area (vacation; s(hor)t in U part).

J. Gill: Proper fraction, divided by half rest, becomes vulgar (rest; (re)st in U part).

S. Goldie: One who’ll affect a strut, assuming leading part in play (play; p in anag., & lit.; play = holiday (Shak.)).

D. V. Harry: Above the rest, and flash with it (rest; up start, & lit.; flash, start = outburst).

V. G. Henderson: Trust one’ll grab power, given a break (break; P in anag. incl. a, & lit.).

R. J. Hooper: Actively put end to idleness and shift (idleness; anag. incl. s + art, & lit.).

E. M. Hornby: Ill-bred chap at Oxbridge has to leave (leave; up start).

V. Jennings: Rise and shine, end of rest – get cracking! (rest; up star + t).

M. D. Laws: Break a trust, seizing power? He might (break; P in anag., & lit.).

J. D. Moore: Social climber who’s got out of rut, made break with past (break; anag.).

C. J. Morse: Upper-class leave when street goes in for nouveau-riche (leave; U + St in part).

P. G. O’Gorman: I may break into a strut with power (break; anag. incl. P, & lit.).

N. O’Neill: R and A putts break badly for surprise late challenger (break; anag.; ref. golf, Royal and Ancient).

K. Reed: Freshman at Oxford seen on Sabbath on the Broad (Sabbath; up + S + tart; Sabbath = time of rest).

Rear Adm W. T. C. Ridley: Spring out of bed to end inactivity (inactivity; up start).

T. E. Sanders: On horseback at the off he’s suddenly left the rest standing (rest; up start).

G. H. Willett: Risen too fast, young man? Take time off – you’ll find top people thank you (time; i.e. ups ta + r t).

HC

R. H. Adey, T. Anderson, D. W. Arthur, M. Barnes, P. F. Bauchop, R. M. A. Bourne, Miss P. A. Boyington, Rev C. M. Broun, P. Cargill, C. A. Clarke, Mrs D. M. Colley, Mrs M. P. Craine, D. A. Crossland, A. E. Crow, A. J. Crow, R. Dean, A. L. Dennis, Dr V. G. Deshmukh, G. M. Emberson, A. G. Fleming, A. D. Foote, N. C. Goddard, Dr J. F. Grimshaw, A. Hodgson, A. H. Jones, B. K. Kelly, J. Lawrence, A. Lawrie, C. W. Laxton, J. G. Levack, M. A. Macdonald-Cooper, W. F. Main, D. F. Manley, C. G. Millin, R. S. Morse, F. E. Newlove, Dr P. Owen, F. R. Palmer, R. F. Pardoe, S. L. Paton, M. L. Perkins, G. Perry, B. A. Pike, R. G. Rae, C. P. Rea, Dr A. H. Seville, W. K. M. Slimmings, J. G. Stubbs, M. J. Suckling, R. I. Sutherland, D. H. Tompsett, J. Walton, Mrs M. P. Webber, Dr E. Young, G. D. Young.
 

COMMENTS
390 entries. Few noticeable mistakes in completing the diagram, though quite a number submitted clues to the wrong word or words. Whether this was the result of failure to understand the instructions or of genuinely believing that UPSTART had been adequately clued elsewhere I cannot tell. My preamble was pretty verbose (necessarily, I felt), but equally I can’t see which other clue could have accounted for UPSTART. The most popular alternative choice was GINGALL (possibly because 1 down, at which position in the puzzle GINGALL appeared, had as its clue the clue to NON-TERM) but GINGALL was clued elsewhere (at 20 down actually) thus: ‘Shooter accounts for one of the old teams completely’. It all tends to emphasise the need to have your wits about you when solving ‘Wrong Number’ puzzles. They’re the devil to compose, as many of you surmised. About half the words one uses can be disguised easily enough by innocuous one-word definitions planted unobtrusively in the clues to other words. The other half can be real brutes, especially if they have very specific or technical meanings – something one should think of before using them in the puzzle at all, of course. This tends to result in clues that are longer and more stilted than usual, which in turn produce a more difficult puzzle overall than the average. Many of you confirmed that this was the case, but added that they were not complaining on that score – rather the opposite, if anything. It seemed reasonable, I must say, to ask you to work out the word(s) to be clued rather than my giving you them on a plate, as one or two suggested I might have done.
 
I took some care with the clue-word(s) to ensure that you had a reasonably wide range of possible approaches. Break (understandably) topped the list of synonyms for NON-TERM by a wide margin, with rest and leave jostling for second place. One or two of you (e.g. Mr. Goldie above) nobly tried to find a one-word synonym which was also archaic or obsolete, though given the special constraints of this type of puzzle I was prepared to ignore the need for such meticulous exactness. I must, however, confess to what may be an unworthy suspicion of Mr. Willett’s clue. Impressed as I was by its ingenious wording it was only when writing this slip that it occurred to me that his synonym for NON-TERM is ‘time off’ not ‘time’ (in the sense of leisure time), which as two words would fail to comply with the rules. If my suspicions are well-founded, he may regard his VHC as somewhat fortuitously won. If not, no more need be said.
 
Three unsuccessful clues submitted seemed to me worth examining not for the usual reasons but because of their over-sophistication. In others they were almost very good but failed by being just a bit too clever. All are from previous prize winners so I hope their authors will not find this bit of dissection too demeaning. First: ‘One counting on rising’ (start (one, when counting, is the start) on up, & lit.; and rising – recess (courts etc.)). A near-brilliant & lit. attempt which, to me, fails on three counts (of ascending gravity): (i) though the ‘& lit.’ element is clear the cryptic element offers a very tough challenge to the solver; (ii) ‘counting’ is, though clear enough, an uncomfortably dangling participle, what my old English master used to refer to as a nominativus pendens; and (iii) ‘rising’ will hardly do as a synonym for ‘recess’ and even less for ‘non-term’. Courts etc. surely rise before going into recess. Secondly: ‘Naked Lady on horseback, a symbol of productiveness having to leave off clothing?’ (up + (A)start(e); upstart meadow saffron = naked lady). Nothing technically wrong here – all I feel is that it is too difficult. Even if the solver finds that ‘upstart’ is one of the names for meadow-saffron (in the O.E.D. or S.O.E.D.) he has still to deduce Astarte and remove her outer integument. With the answer in front of him he would find that hard – starting from scratch he’d find it well nigh impossible. Or do I impugn the skill of Azed solvers? Thirdly: ‘One appearing rich and gaudy? Trust a principle of Polonius’s to be distorted’ (anag.; ref. Hamlet I. iii; gaudy = college festival). Very neat, using a fairly familiar quotation to excellent effect. I can’t, however, accept ‘gaudy’ as synonymous with ‘non-term’. A gaudy may be an occasion celebrated by a college out of term (though I’m not even sure that it is an exclusively vacational festivity) but it surely cannot be the same as a vacation. It’s not even ‘a period of inactivity’ – in my (admittedly limited) experience a gaudy is usually the excuse for riotous and often childish exuberance.