AZED CROSSWORD 727

WELL-TO-DO

1.  N. C. Dexter: It’s this Littlewoods could make you (comp. anag. & lit.).

2.  M. S. Taylor & N. C. Johns: Fox, generously endowed on top, has nothing on – like many with a place in the Sun (well + tod¹ + 0; ref. Samantha F., page 3 pin-up).

3.  M. A. Macdonald-Cooper: Flutter not allowed with starters off? You’ll find most bookies the same! (anag. less first letters).

VHC

D. Ashcroft: Fit close and render flush (well to do).

H. J. Bradbury: Spring breeze – d’you call this warm? (well to-do; breeze = disturbance; warm colloq.).

C. J. & M. P. Butler: Eddy introduces Today without agreement – nothing’s properly set up (well Tod(ay) 0; ref. E. Shah’s newspaper).

Dr I. S. Fletcher: I could be so with dust (well + to-do, & lit.; dust = money, disturbance).

M. Freeman: Clearly having a load of necessary (well tod² o’, & lit.; n. = money).

P. F. Henderson: ‘Low-looted, expending nothing’ would clue this badly (anag. less 0, & lit.; clue²).

R. J. Hooper: With plenty of tin available, shaft sunk near Land’s End comes to nothing (well to d 0; ref. crisis in tin industry).

R. Jacks: Flush nothing away from old wet loo that’s out of order (anag. less 0).

J. I. James: Liberally endowed model’s rear too lewd in kinky pose (anag. incl. l).

C. W. Laxton: It’s from Littlewoods … I’ve done it! I’m rich! (anag. less it’s).

H. W. Massingham: Sitting on nest-eggs produces a fluttering after spring? (well + to-do).

W. L. Miron: Getting on a Grand National winner (2 mngs.; Well-To-Do won G. N. in 1972).

C. J. Morse: Spring to finish warm? So people say (well to do; warm colloq.).

F. E. Newlove: With bags not strapped, old towel falls out (anag., 2 defs.).

J. B. Sweeting: Working on wealthy old pop may make you so rich and happy (comp. anag. & lit.).

D. H. Tompsett: Kindly explain dust on velvet! (Well? + to-do; dust = disturbance).

Mrs J. Waldren: Very new newspaper, always unobtainable – O, that’s rich! (well Tod(ay) O; ref. new daily paper).

F. N. Wedge: Thoroughly stir in the gravy (well to-do).

HC

C. Allen Baker, W. G. Amott, F. D. H. Atkinson, Mrs G. M. Barker, M. Barley, Mrs F. A. Blanchard, D. G. Bousfield, Mrs A. R. Bradford, Rev Canon C. M. Broun, E. J. Burge, Dr J. Burscough, P. Cargill, J. Cartmel, E. S. Clark, Mrs J. M. Critchley, A. E. Crow, R. V. Dearden, A. L. Dennis, P. Drummond, D. S. Fielker, O. H. Frazer, H. Freeman, S. Goldie, J. F. Grimshaw, T. K. Harrison, E. L. Hayward, A. W. Hill, P. Hudspeth, A. H. Jones, J. F. Jones, R. E. Kimmons, F. P. N. Lake, A. Lawrie, P. W. W. Leach, H. R. Lockhart, D. F. Manley, H. W. Mason, Rev M. R. Metcalf, D. P. M. Michael, T. J. Moorey, T. W. Mortimer, J. J. Murtha, D. S. Nagle, R. F. Naish, F. R. Palmer, L. Paterson, W. H. Pegram, R. F. Ray, D. Riley, G. C. Rosser, T. E. Sanders, A. D. Scott, W. K. M. Slimmings, D. M. Stanford, Dr I. Torbe, V. C. D. Vowles, A. J. Wardrop, M. Woolf, Dr E. Young.
 

COMMENTS
369 entries, no noticeable mistakes, except a minor slip of mine. I failed to notice that ARTAL is a plural form of ROTL, a point that my clue did not adequately indicate. Otherwise relatively plain sailing, with the ‘Dollar’ penny (or cent?) being perhaps the slowest one to drop. One or two queried ‘session’ as a definition for ‘sit’ in the subsidiary part of my clue to STOIT, but the noun sense of ‘sit’ as defined in Chambers (‘a mode or spell of sitting’) seems to me acceptably close to one or more of those of ‘session’ (‘an act of sitting,’ ‘a time of sitting’) and therefore perfectly defensible. One last query: I was asked how I found the synonym ‘dink’ for JIMPY, neither of which is part of the average sassenach’s idiolect. The answer is with the help of a splendid little book called The Scots Word Book by William Graham (published by the Ramsay Head Press, Edinburgh) whose existence was brought to my notice some years ago by a solver and which I find an invaluable supplementary reference book to have alongside Chambers (though they frequently disagree over spelling and the Scottishness of individual terms).
 
I was a bit disappointed at the size of entry for a competition puzzle that most seemed to agree was less than averagely testing. Cluing was generally sounder than is normal when the clue-word is an adjective. A few submitted clues indicating a noun on the grounds that ‘the well-to-do’ constitutes a (noun) group. I can’t accept this; in such usage (which is possible for virtually all descriptive adjectives) the definite article is obligatory. One would never talk of someone being ‘one of well-to-do’ or even of ‘some well-to-do living next door’. Fortunately, as the quoted clues show, there are plenty of potentially ambiguous word or phrase synonyms of WELL-TO-DO to offer good scope for the cryptic clue-writer, some of them new to me (I’d never encountered ‘warm’ with this sense before). And if anyone queries Mr Macdonald-Cooper’s suggestion that hard-up bookies are a rarity, he cites the quotation in the OED entry for ‘bookmaker’ describing his as a ‘lucrative trade’.
 
A final word of apology to Mr S. Armstrong whose name was carelessly omitted in front of his V .H .C. clue to FLO(GG)IN(G), the first in the list (and his first!) on the last slip but one.