AZED CROSSWORD 1039

TOLERABLE

1.  D. F. Manley: Being otherwise, Albert’s swallowed ’ole (’ole in anag., ref. M. Edgar: The Lion and Albert).

2.  R. F. Naish: Moderate elements on both sides of electorate ballot for change, squeezing right (r in anag. incl. e, e).

3.  V. Dixon: Hell to bear? Contrariwise, not hard (anag. less H & lit.).

VHC

C. A. Clarke: Indifferent Ballesteros, losing heart, drops second shot (anag. less s, s).

B. Costin: Fair damsel bare Lothario beds (lying back?) (hidden rev.).

D. M. Duckworth: Castaway’s choice of luxury might make desert island this – atoll flowing with beer! (anag.).

R. A. England: Not exactly ’ell to bear (anag. & lit.).

C. J. Feetenby: Fair balloteer could make this debate roll on after polling day (anag. & anag. less d).

G. I. L. Grafton: Not to be endured? Possibly, when constable (lacking in studies) adopts role in Much Ado (anag. in (cons)table; ref. ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ III, iii, 36).

J. F. Grimshaw: Free beer to all ere ballot’s done? Not out of the question! (anag., anag.).

P. F. Henderson: Left are to be working with Liberal – finding coalition that’s this? (anag. incl. l, L).

R. J. Hooper: Fair representation demanded by balloteer (anag.).

J. F. P. Levey: Confused, a lot rebelled, led astray ere ballot done – result fair though (anag. less led, anag.).

P. W. Marlow: Roll of long, plain group with the end of ‘Widdicombe Fair’ (l bare lot (all rev.) + e).

C. G. Millin: Moderate represents 30% of electorate, half Labour and half Tories (ele, Lab, Tor anag.).

C. J. Morse: To entice the mob with just one bit of bribery is fair – Liberal balloteer (tole rab(b)le & anag.).

G. M. Neighbour: How can rigged ballot e’er be fair? (anag.).

S. J. O’Boyle: Fair shots, not hot, from out of form Ballesteros? (anag. less s(hot)s).

Rev E. H. Pyle: Hell to bear? Otherwise if less hot (anag. less h).

Mrs E. J. Shields: Hell to bear? Less hot, it could be (anag. less h).

W. K. M. Slimmings: Moderate unready for change when polled, clinching cry of triumph by right (ole r in (s)table).

C. W. Thomas: Bear dancing in ring at English fair (anag. in toll + e).

A. J. Wardrop: Hell to bear? Not hard – easy (anag. less h).

D. Williamson: How all beer to drunk appears? (anag. & lit.).

HC

F. D. H. Atkinson, M. Barley, J. R. Beresford, Mrs K. Bissett, Ms F. A. Blanchard, M. J. Bland, C. J. Brougham, Rev Canon C. M. Broun, E. J. Burge, C. J. & M. P. Butler, Mrs M. J. Cansfield, B. E. Chamberlain, D. H. Clayton, R. M. S. Cork, P. Crozier, N. C. Dexter, Mrs C. Firmin, Dr I. S. Fletcher, B. Franco, H. Freeman, S. Goldie, J. Hetherington, E. M. Holroyd, D. J. Ibbetson, Mrs D. B. Jenkinson, M. C. Jones, R. E. Kimmons, F. P. N. Lake, A. Lawrie, J. W. Leonard, R. K. Lumsdon, M. A. Macdonald-Cooper, Mrs J. Mackie, H. S. Mason, H. W. Massingham, C. T. Milner, T. J. Moorey, K. Moult, F. R. Palmer, R. Phillips, D. Price Jones, D. R. Robinson, W. J. M. Scotland, A. D. Scott, A. J. Shields, P. L. Stone, Dr I. Torbe, P. J. Watkins, R. J. Whale, M. G. Wilson, Dr E. Young.
 

COMMENTS
382 entries, no mistakes, not even in my clue to NIHILITY which provoked a certain amount of verbal finger-wagging. Those who thought I’d produced a duff anagram failed to see that my ‘height, being short’ was HIL(L), not the abbreviation h. And surprisingly (to me) there was widespread puzzlement over my clue to FIVE (`Following I have that’s slightly mad about me!’), which is self-referential in that ‘me’ refers to V (Roman numeral) which itself defines the answer. Not too outrageous, surely, and there was that exclamation mark to warn of something a little unusual. Those two clues apart you mostly found the puzzle on the easy side, so the entry seemed rather low for a plain competition. Some said it was nice to have an adjective for a change but there was the usual crop of clues which failed to indicate part of speech in the definition – ‘cannot be borne’ can only indicate ‘is tolerable’, and (worse) ‘he (or it) cannot be borne’ can only indicate a noun subject of the verb.
 
For the second month running I was deluged with election clues and certainly anagrams including BALLOT, BALLOTEE or BALLOTEER must have been hard to resist. BALLOTEER is in the OED (with but one citation dated 1867) so was permissible if only just. I suppose it would be an acceptable coinage (in inverted commas, say) in any case. Many of you who sent off your entries before the election result was known tried to predict it in your clues, not always successfully. I sympathize. Referring to remarks I made in the BURLAP slip, one competitor commented: ‘I feel it’s unfair to penalize a good idea simply because other people have thought of it.. May the best clue win.’ I agree with this but would add that it’s the treatment of an idea, not the idea itself, which determines the quality of a clue, and when a large number of competitors submit similarly well phrased versions of the same clue idea it is often difficult or even impossible to pick out one of them as prima inter pares. The VHC and HC lists are there to acknowledge such efforts. That said Mr Manley’s due, which used an idea shared by only a handful of others, is a real cracker – he seems unstoppable at the moment. I guess that most people are familiar with the Marriott Edgar verses, popularized by Stanley Holloway, but to remind you of the intolerableness of Albert (Ramsbotham) at the relevant point in the narrative, the following extract may be quoted:

• You could see that the Lion didn’t like it,
• For giving a kind of a roll,
• He pulled Albert inside the cage with ’im
• And swallowed the little lad ’ole.

A query from a seasoned competitor is worth airing publicly. Her clue was ‘All to be re-arranged? Fair enough!’, and she asks about my attitude to that hyphen. My unequivocal view is that it invalidates the clue completely. The form ‘re-arranged’ is no more acceptable than ‘rearranged’ would be – you cannot, it seems to me, simply ignore the hyphen for the purposes of showing where the anagram ends and the anagram indicator begins. It’s another manifestation of the Ximenean dictum (to which I fully subscribe) that ‘indeed’ cannot mean ‘in deed’ and that ‘Gateshead’ cannot mean ‘gate’s head’, etc.
 
Thank you, finally, for your comments on the solution notes. Most would prefer to maintain the status quo. One solver, quoting the old saying ‘Good wine needs no bush,’ concludes that ‘if a clue is good, no explication of the solution is necessary.’ Fair enough, but even if I abide by this maxim I hope you will not. Don’t worry about insulting my intelligence and all that – a note explaining your clue is always better than none.