◀  No. 7356 Jul 1986 Clue list No. 744  ▶

AZED CROSSWORD 740

ESCADRILLE

1.  T. J. Moorey: Fleet Street I’d call chaotic – slipping time and time again (anag. less t, t; ref. printing of solution with puzzle, due to error ‘at the Observer end’).

2.  D. F. Paling: Learner in diesel car damaged part of a wing (L in anag.).

3.  S. Goldie: Jet-set? Celles d’air sans souci (anag.).

VHC

M. Barley: French flight l’escalier’d inaccurately render (anag.; ref. ambiguity of ‘flight’).

E. A. Beaulah: Mirage formation? That’s to say stream seen in inner tract of desert (c-à-d + rill, all in (d)ese(rt); M. jet).

H. J. Bradbury: French unit deploying aces high, endlessly trained (anag. + drille(d)).

C. J. Brougham: Most of desert alive with lilac Mirages? (anag. incl. deser(t); M. jets).

E. J. Burge: Quite a few high-fliers cease to be excited about what is purely routine (drill in anag.).

C. J. Feetenby: Flying ace after art that’s essentially French must accept training here (es (Fr.) + drill in anag., & lit.).

N. C. Goddard: In which flying aces of French frames stream (anag. + rill in de, & lit.).

R. J. Hooper: Flying Circus? Cleese, Idle are endlessly funny (anag. less final letters; ref. Monty Python, John C., Eric I.).

W. Jackson: What could recoup ‘de caelis’, landing left and right? (anag. incl. l, r, & lit.; de caelis (L.) = from the heavens).

J. I. & B. C. James: Flying officer entering this in the wars serves allied forces (anag. less FO, & lit.).

G. Johnstone: Où se trouvent les Mirages en bloc? Ciel d’Arles orageux (anag.; orageux (Fr.) = stormy; M. jets).

F. P. N. Lake: Crazed by endless desert, all I see is … mirages? (anag. of deser(t) all I C; M. jets).

J. H. C. Leach: French high-fliers get het up re cedillas (anag.).

J. J. Moore: French fleet caught in stormy sea on exercise near Spain (c in anag. + drill + E).

C. J. Morse: Squadron using correct procedure for power in flight (escape with drill for P).

T. W. Mortimer: Weak one could be undoing of Allied crews (anag. less w).

F. R. Palmer: What’ll stage exercise representing power in flight? (escape with drill for P).

W. H. Pegram: Aircraft involved in Celle raids? (anag. & lit.; German town).

Mrs E. J. Shields: Ciel d’Arles could reveal it in formation (anag. & lit.).

R. J. Whale: It’s produced by service training for power in flight (escape with drill for P).

Dr E. Young: Lightnings? Maybe French equivalent led ‘éclairs’ to be coined (anag.; éclair (Fr.) = lightning; ref. RAF L. jet).

HC

E. Akenhead, D. W. Arthur, J. D. D. Blaikie, Mrs A. R. Bradford, J. M. Brown, M. Coates, B. Cozens, E. Dawid, Dr V. G. I. Deshmukh, M. Earle, H. Freeman, F. D. Gardiner, Mrs K. M. Harre, P. F. Henderson, A. W. Hill, N. Kemmer, A. Lawrie, C. J. Lowe, L. K. Maltby, D. F. Manley, H. S. Mason, L. May, R. F. Naish, S. J. O’Boyle, R. J. Palmer, Mrs A. G. Phillips, D. Price Jones, G. E. Rawlings, C. P. Rea, H. L. Rhodes, D. R. Robinson, T. E. Sanders, G. Schlesinger, W. J. M. Scotland, W. K. M. Slimmings, B. D. Smith, G. Snowden-Davies, F. B. Stubbs, J. Waterman, M. H. E. Watson, M. Woolf.
 

COMMENTS
240 entries and (surprise, surprise) no mistakes, with a number, reasonably enough, not bothering to submit a finished diagram. In case there are still a few who never noticed, the solutions to the puzzle were printed beneath it, the first time this blunder has occurred in the Azed service, though it is not unprecedented elsewhere. The error, for which I am blameless, happened as the result of a late decision to squeeze an extra advertisement onto the competitions page (a trend that is irritatingly on the increase). When this happens I am asked to replace the solution diagram with a complete list of printed answers, with notes added where necessary, but I am not shown the remade-up page, and on this occasion the wrong set got slotted in. Result: minor disaster. It was spotted in time to print a note about the competition near the announcement of Azed prizewinners in the paper (always the place to look if a cock-up is suspected) but I imagine that many would-be competitors assumed the thing would be cancelled and didn’t bother to compete. I decided that it was reasonable to proceed with the competition and that those of you who enjoy the solving process would try not to cheat once they saw what had happened. At least what I feared most—a deluge of entries from newcomers enjoying a buckshee ride—didn’t happen. But the whole thing was most regrettable and a spur to yet greater vigilance at The Observer end. And my thanks to all those who commiserated over what they saw as wasted effort on my part.
 
The clues themselves were of average difficulty, I think. ELIDE was objected to by some (‘Do this to duck grabbing end of tail?’) and I admit in retrospect that it’s no masterpiece, being too ‘self-referential’ (as one competitor described it) for its own good. SPRUG too puzzled a few (‘Sandy’s birdie, his first and last to drop, his share’), but though a bit long for a short word it seems fair enough (S(andy) + (dro)p + rug2, and references to S. Lyle). The competition word proved quite hard to clue originally. There were many anagrams of ‘is recalled’ and ESCAPE with DRILL replacing P. The latter could be manipulated to create a nice ‘& lit.’ effect and those who achieved this best are quoted above. Surprisingly few of you had a go at guying me or The Observer for its gaffe so I had no difficulty in choosing Mr. Moorey’s fine effort as the winner. And in case I am thought to favour ‘& lit.’ clues in preference to all other types, please note that this month none of the top three is ‘& lit.’ yet each contains a definition that is anything but obvious.
 

 

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Solution