AZED CROSSWORD 753

SHEEPDOG

1.  R. H. Adey: I can make or mar Hodge’s penning record (EP in anag., & lit.).

2.  A. Lawrie: I restrain extended play between female and male (EP in she dog, & lit.).

3.  F. D. H. Atkinson: I respond to pastor’s intonation (congregations follow) (sheep dog).

VHC

C. J. Brougham: Am a thorough dampener, inhibiting hearts deep in passion (H + anag., all in sog, & lit.).

E. Chalkley: SDP go potty about explosive ending of defence – one will have to watch that assembly of mugs (HE e in anag., mug⁶).

M. Coates: What might be unsettled by hog speed (anag. & lit.).

E. Dawid: Gosh! Deep in trouble, but not a worrier even when on trial (anag.).

N. C. Dexter: With hops, e.g., one’s tailed deb around (anag. incl. de(b), & lit.).

Dr I. S. Fletcher: Escort driver? (2 mngs.; ref. car model).

N. C. Goddard: What could turn hog with speed? (anag. & lit.).

M. Goodyear: What may get hogs deep in folds? (anag. & lit.).

R. J. Hooper: What may a. appear in trials, b. sell paint, c. collect hogs, d. pee indiscriminately? (anag.; ref. Dulux ad, etc.).

R. Jacks: Whistler gets him to sit in field – oddly he posed first for Gauguin (anag. + G; ref. painters).

R. E. Kimmons: Leicester stars will score points with skilful handling in trials (sheep dog; ref. rugby, L. sheep, Dog constellation).

R. K. Lumsdon: Cause of no gel in jam, e.g. heps do not set properly (anag.; gel²).

M. A. Macdonald-Cooper: Female, 45 maybe, having to trail after one accustomed to whistles (she EP dog).

H. W. Massingham: Such as never leads on a gallant? (sheep + dog, & lit.; see dog in OED).

T. J. Moorey: With time I could become Hodge’s pet (anag. less t, & lit.).

C. J. Morse: Timid type’s male, protective type usually female (sheep dog).

F. R. Palmer: Elder person (allowing introductions only) keeping girl and boy apart? (e p in she dog, & lit.).

A. J. Redstone: Could become Hodge’s pet, if it’s first in trials (anag. less t, & lit.).

T. E. Sanders: I might make the hog speed when disposed to saunter (anag. & lit.).

W. K. M. Slimmings: Cast go back without recording a guide to the Cotswolds (EP in shed + go (rev.); Cotswold sheep).

D. M. Stanford: A griffin is two different animals joined together (sheep dog; g. = chaperon).

A. Turner: Perhaps with time I could become Hodge’s pet (anag. less t, & lit.).

HC

S. Armstrong, E. A. Beaulah, Rev Canon C. M. Broun, E. J. Burge, J. Campbell, F. H. Cripps, Mrs J. M. Critchley, A. L. Dennis, J. H. Dingwall, C. M. Edmunds, B. Franco, S. Goldie, J. F. Grimshaw, P. F. Henderson, Mrs D. B. Jenkinson, G. Johnstone, A. H. Jones, F. P. N. Lake, A. N. Macdougall, Dr R. A. Main, L. K. Maltby, Rev W. P. Manahan, D. F. Manley, L. May, T. W. Mortimer, R. F. Naish, R. J. Palmer, S. L. Paton, J. T. Price, D. Price Jones, D. R. Robinson, W. J. M. Scotland, C. I. Semeonoff, B. D. Smith, Ms M. Stokes, F. B. Stubbs, D. H. Tompsett, A. J. Wardrop, J. F. N. Wedge, R. J. Whale, M. R. Whiteoak, W. Woodruff, M. Woolf.
 

COMMENTS
About 295 entries, rather disappointing for a plain competition puzzle. I’m not sure what the reason for the low entry was, though one or two of you commented that the puzzle was harder than usual. In particular OGADEN seems to have given trouble, though why I can’t imagine. It features in standard atlases and has been in and out of the news for several years. I consider it perfectly fair occasionally to include proper names, especially ones taken from current affairs, without specifically signalling the fact.
 
A few of you noticed (as I had failed to do) that the printer had omitted the word ‘replace’ from the phrase ‘clue to replace definition asterisked’ in the Rules and Requests paragraph. About half a dozen competitors, mostly new ones, submitted clues to CHAPERON, reasonably enough. None of them were of a standard to warrant mention in the lists but I apologise for this oversight.
 
There were some nice clues this month, despite the low entry, making judging quite tricky. Some use was made of Phil Drabble with his convenient initials, but never wholly satisfactorily. And I wasn’t much impressed by clues that broke down SHEEPDOG into SHE-DOG with EP in (even when the ambiguous ‘bitch’ was used as a definition of SHE-DOG). The point is that SHEEPDOG and SHE-DOG are morphologically and semantically close, both being essentially types of dog, so using one as part of a cryptic indication of the other is rather weak, particularly when there were plenty of clues with more cleverly disguised wording to choose from (vide supra passim).
 
One regular solver raised a query about the number of unchecked letters (unches) in the puzzle. Had I, he wondered, consciously included fewer of these in the diagram construction than normal. Well, certainly not consciously, though I notice that the 12-letter words contain only three each and no other word has more than two. I checked to see what Ximenes recommended and found that he regarded anything between 40 and 70 as permissible, with 52 or 54 as ‘ideal.’ Then I counted the number in my diagram. There were 54!