AZED CROSSWORD 868

ROLAND (2 clues + def. of contents)

1.  Dr I. S. Fletcher: Letters? Arranging all I’d end as champion for a Scrabble game (landladies, faro; anag.; anag.).

2.  R. J. Palmer: Name held by dashing fellow certainly not gay, noble champion who gets the woman’s love? (landgrave, hero; n in lad + grave; her 0).

3.  F. P. N. Lake: Alcohol abuse leads to some establishments refusing to open before league match; also the club bar! (sterol, andiron; anag. of initial letters + l; and iron).

VHC (extra prizes)

M. Barley: Trio that’s gone west for baby Messiah arrives in Israel, and Saviour is found (tiro, lands; anag.; hidden).

E. J. Burge: Council put dog on to catch rat – restaurant orbit’s devastated (landtag, bistro; land + tag; anag.).

C. A. Clarke: Innkeeper turning funny about extra lodging, ideal wife brought about cry of wonder in sort of pen (landlord, biro; and in droll (rev.); rib (rev.) + O!).

F. H. Cripps: For a thrown game, champ weaved, led and went down (faro, landed; anag.; anag.).

N. C. Dexter: Watch, from portal, tragic Hero part from Leander – so nearly getting back (patrol, Anderson; anag.; hidden; ref. Viv A., England full-back).

C. M. Edmunds: Steroid Ben, stripped of first, trod shakily with reason – hero Lewis, with nothing injected, gets praise (and timely praise too) (androsterone, carol; anag. less B; Car(o)l; ref. B. Johnson, Carl L., sprinters).

N. Gambier: Dance, cheer little brother’s boxing match v Large Dan – out for the count (bolero, landgrave; ole in bro; anag.).

B. Greer: NT book covers arrival to praise child maiden delivered, object of star-gazers’ interest (carol, Andromeda; ar. in Col.; 2 meanings).

P. F. Henderson: Legendary ‘fiery’ player in one Roses match to strike a blow with three from Lancashire going down (Nero, land; hidden; Lan + d; ref. Fred Trueman).

V. G. Henderson: Father, infinite God reflected by Word: champion treating men’s ills though yielding glory, filled with love (parol, andrology; pa + Lor(d) (rev.); and + 0 in anag.).

Dr J. M. Hutchinson: Reserve left and right hooks to cut back hero spoiling for a game (landwehr, faro; l and + r hew (rev.); anag.).

J. C. Leyland: Wise old travellers all spot first sign of divinity in stange star, ferry gold and such from east (land-pilots, ro-ro; anag. incl. d; or² or (rev.)).

D. F. Manley: To have good fortune and love Shakespearean character Hero ends by being rescued from scandal and shame (Prospero, lands; prosper 0; hidden; ref. ‘Much Ado About Nothing’).

H. W. Massingham: Some tar outraged Master Hornblower, RN lead swinging lad who went ashore (maestro, lander; anag.; anag.).

D. P. Miller: Dressed for away match, and led out on the ground (fro, landed; anag.; anag.).

T. E. Sanders: The game for a sporting hero to secure gold for a coach (faro, landau; anag.; land Au).

W. J. M. Scotland: Solid stuff! From the grip of monster, old hero, adored man, liberated Greek maiden (sterol, Andromeda; hidden; anag.).

Dr A. H. Seville: Streamer waving near bold hero with strength that is seen under fire (banderol, andiron; anag.; and iron).

W. K. M. Slimmings: For one so expert, swimming stream to love Hero, Leander’s losing energy would be a heavy blow (maestro, lander; anag.; L(E)ander).

G. P. Stroulger: Novice brings about destruction of Tory hero; massive election victory spoilt in deal with SLD (tyro, landslide; anag.; anag.).

Dr I. Torbe: Making for a rumbustious game, match Liverpool and Everton. It’s plain they’d be gripping (faro, lande; anag.; hidden).

HC

Mrs K. Bissett, H. J. Bradbury, C. J. Brougham, B. Burton, D. A. Campbell, G. P. Conway, R. M. S. Cork, R. V. Dearden, Dr V. G. I. Deshmukh, R. A. England, C. J. Feetenby, S. C. Ford, H. Freeman, P. D. Gaffey, D. Giles, N. C. Goddard, S. Goldie, R. R. Greenfield, J. F. Grimshaw, D. J. Hennings, A. W. Hill, P. D. Hinchliffe, J. Horwood, R. Jacks, M. S. Taylor & N. C. Johns, J. Knowler, C. W. Laxton, J. D. Lockett, R. K. Lumsdon, P. W. Marlow, J. R. C. Michie, C. G. Millin, R. S. Morse, K. Moult, I. Munro, D. S. Nagle, F. R. Palmer, G. Perry, B. A. Pike, D. Price Jones, H. L. Rhodes, P. Rhodes, M. C. C. Rich, H. R. Sanders, A. D. Scott, D. J. Short, Dr N. Smith, F. Stevens, A. W. Taylor, M. J. Tomkinson, G. A. Tomlinson, R. J. Whale, S. Williams, D. Williamson, M. G. Wilson, Dr E. Young.
 

COMMENTS
491 entries, very few mistakes. The ‘parcel’ clue idea seems to have gone down quite well, though it has its drawbacks. I’ve been wanting to try something based on hidden words for a long time and spent quite a while deciding on an acceptable formula after constructing the diagram. The main problems are inordinate length and the fact that solvers can arrive at the answers without necessarily solving or even attempting to solve the full clues to parcel words. Writing such clues is also tricky as many of you clearly found, mainly because of the difficulty of working three words into any sort of coherent and meaningful whole. In the end this became a critical factor in my choice of winners, other things being equal. I preferred clues which made clear and unstrained sense, in which the answer word didn’t immediately leap out of the surrounding text. One the plus side, it was a fresh idea (I think) and gave you the Christmas bonus of, in each case, three (well, 2½) for the price of one. It’s surprising how many words are treatable in this way. Looking through the downs for this puzzle I could find only one which would have defied such treatment (SIDEROLITES – or am I wrong?), so it’s conceivable one could construct a whole puxzle of parcel clues. But perhaps this would be overdoing it. Many of you remarked how difficult the acrosses were to get started on and were grateful for the relative simplicity of the DLM clues as a way in. (And no, GERMAINE wasn’t meant as a red herring for GISARMES, believe it or not!). So the variety of clue types was probably a good thing.
 
ROLAND wasn’t as friendly as he might have been. He only breaks in two possible places (offering a wide if not particularly interesting range of parcel words), and is not that easy to define in one word. Indeed, quite a large number of competitors spoiled their chances by forgetting or ignoring the ‘one word’ stipulation, including ‘a’ or ‘the’ or a longer phrase definition. I was inclined to be lenient in accepting borderline synonyms of ‘hero’ such as Mr. Barley’s, for this reason. ‘Match’, ‘hero’ and ‘rat’ (whatever happened to RR?) were the commonest choices. ‘Carol’ was a favourite parcel word, predictably.
 
All in all, not a bad idea for a Christmas special and one that could bear repeating, possibly with some fine tuning. Thank you all for your kind comments and seasonal greetings. Here we go into yet another year.