AZED CROSSWORD 36

CRUSADER

1.  M. L. Perkins: Campaigner in old company holding steadfast to right (sad in crue + r, & lit.; to = beside).

2.  S. Goldie: Palmer and I made same pilgrimage: cursed Royal and Ancient rough (anag. incl. R(&)A; ref. Arnold P., golfer; palmer = pilgrim to Holy Land).

3.  F. B. Stubbs: Rud Acre’s ground – perchaunce I did! (anag.).

VHC

C. O. Butcher: Has fought in modern sophisticated wars and longer ago in less sophisticated it appears (SA (= it) in cruder; ref. C. tank).

A. E. Crow: Having lost top of umbriere he might be scarred abominably (anag. incl. u & lit.).

N. C. Dexter: Without me and others like me barbarian’d take Acre (us in anag. incl. r & lit.).

N. Gambier: Might he have cursed Ra? Allah, more likely (anag.).

F. D. Gardiner: Car’s due for overhaul – start replacing tank (anag. + r).

A. B. Gardner: He hadn’t the same disposition as the Curé d’Ars (anag.; ref. Fr. patron of parish priests).

G. F. K. Grant: Once steadfast in company with king – Richard I perhaps (sad in crue + R).

R. H. F. Isham: Fracture curer sad he fell below Red Cross standards (anag.; ref. flag of St George).

K. W. Johnson: Chichester’s heading to rougher going round South America exemplifies one (C + SA in ruder, & lit.; ref. yachtsman Francis C.).

A. H. Jones: Lion-hearted one reduced Acre, durst endlessly (anag. less t; ref. Richard I).

A. Lawrie: I might prevail in fight against Saracens (double mng.; Christians v. Turks, tanks v. armoured cars).

J. H. C. Leach: Marx, perhaps, in a way caused beginnings of Russian revolution (anag. incl. R, r).

D. F. Manley: Disruption of sacred travelling round biblical city brought about my appearance (Ur (rev.) in anag., & lit.).

D. W. Mason: I was steadfast in an early company of men, procuring the end of an unbeliever (sad in crue + r, & lit.).

C. J. Morse: For someone like Mrs Whitehouse, sex-appeal’s getting more blatant all round (SA in cruder; ref. campaigner Mary W.).

A. M’Intyre: J’étais sur d’Acre après la capitulation (anag. & lit.).

Dr R. J. Palmer: Terribly scared in pursuit of Saracens? I’m the opposite (RU in anag., & lit.; ref. rugby team).

T. E. Sanders: Transport the Royal Armoured Corps used before the end of the war (anag. incl. RAC + r, & lit.; transport vb.).

J. F. N. Wedge: With just cause, I belted my wife! (cryptic def.; i.e. chastity belt).

S. E. Woods: Roving Ricardus – English, not Roman one – for instance (anag. incl. E less I, & lit.; ref. Richard I).

HC

E. Akenhead, C. Allen Baker, A. J. Allsworth, F. D. H. Atkinson, Mrs K. Bissett, Mrs A. R. Bradford, D. A. H. Byatt, R. S. Caffyn, E. Chalkley, D. Chatfield, G. Cuthbert, Cdr H. H. L. Dickson, J. R. Du Parcq, Mrs W. Fearon, J. A. Fincken, A. G. Fleming, B. Franco, S. C. Gilchrist, E. Gomersall, D. V. Harry, E. M. Hornby, C. H. Hudson, H. W. Jenkins, Sir S. Kaye, R. E. Kimmons, L. F. Leason, A. D. Legge, J. P. Lester, Mrs B. Lewis, H. R. Lockhart, D. J. Mackay, H. MacRae, S. M. Mansell, H. S. Mason, L. May, Mrs E. McFee, W. L. Miron, W. H. Pegram, H. Rainger, A. Reed, A. Rivlin, J. Steele, J. G. Stubbs, J. B. Sweeting, D. H. Tompsett, Dr R. L. Wynne.
 

COMMENTS
About 430 entries and virtually no mistakes. I’m glad that most of you seem to have enjoyed this new idea. To tell the truth I was a little nervous of including it in the Azed repertoire, having originally intended it for inclusion in the now defunct Crossword magazine, but your comments reassured me. Its only obvious defects are the shortage of unches throughout and the three consecutive unches in each of the four corner words, that and the fact that some letters are checked four times, an unwonted luxury for the solver. The diagram itself is not so difficult to compose as you might imagine. The secret is to begin in the middle or thereabouts, and work outwards in a spiral fashion, while keeping a careful eye open to see that you’re not going to get into an impossible situation which would mean unravelling everything. As a matter of interest I tried composing another ‘Eightsome Reels’ diagram as a break from judging this competition and it took me just two hours. This compares very favourably with the average ‘plain’. As a first shot it contained too many plurals and too many similarly derived words placed adjacently, which in any future repeats I’ll try to avoid.
 
DEIANIRA was a bit obscure and I apologise to non-classicists who were flummoxed by her. I was actually very grateful to have her since she and PERINAEA between them got me out of what looked like an impossible situation in that part of the diagram. I don’t like to overdo the use of proper names, especially the more abstruse ones, but I try to make up for it by giving easier clues than usual to them. (She wasn’t really a naiad, actually, merely a wretched maiden, but I couldn’t resist the anagram.)
 
The standard of cluing was high this month, very few immediate disqualifications. S.A. in CRUDER was somewhat overworked, usually in association with Mrs Whitehouse and Lord Longford. Another much used idea was the homophony of ‘crew’s aider’ or ‘cruise aider’, This I couldn’t accept, on the grounds that the ‘s’ of crusader is not pronounced as a ‘z’. If you use the homophone type of clue, which can be very neat, the similarity in sound must be identical or, if not, some indication should be given to that effect.
 
No time for more now. Thank you for your interesting comments and notes (which certainly do not invite disqualification, as one solver feared). As an amusing footnote I was reminded that Lord Longford was nominated ‘Crusader Extraordinary’ at the Men of the Year luncheon at the Savoy Hotel just the week before this puzzle appeared. Pure coincidence, I assure you!