AZED CROSSWORD 1078

KIRBEH

1.  C. J. Brougham: Hide impermeable? If so, fakir’s one up on me! (i.e. fakir is fah if kir be h).

2.  C. G. Millin: Arab sheik uses fancy —— as a water carrier (comp. anag.).

3.  G. I. L. Grafton: Recourse when drinking’s a problem to desert Arab (hike’s ruined without this)? (Arab less AA in anag., & lit.).

VHC

D. Ashcroft: Flask Ruth maybe filled, winding up her kibble (the alien corn being cut) (anag. less blé).

B. W. Brook: Nomadic tribe’s answer to khors is so – ——-water snorts (comp. anag. & lit.).

E. J. Burge: Drink charge not established. What needs to be watertight possibly stretched? (kir beh(est); ref. overstated evidence).

E. Dawid: Hide bottle and be admitted into drink hospital (be in kir H).

V. Dixon: Arab sheik might use this as a rummer – or potty! (comp. anag. & lit.).

N. C. Goddard: Refreshed biker is breaking off from his water-bottle (anag. + h(is)).

R. R. Greenfield: Fiasco for biker on first stage of hadj? (anag. + h, & lit.; fiasco 2 mngs.).

C. R. Gumbrell: What carries drink man extracted from brook? (kir b(rook) eh?, & lit.).

F. P. N. Lake: Hard drink that is switched to be in soft drink container (be for sc in kirsch).

Mrs J. Mackie: You can see Arabs hike with this as a must (comp anag. & lit.; must⁴ adj.).

D. F. Manley: Sand enters a ——? That could disconcert the Sabean drinkers (comp. anag. & lit.).

P. W. Marlow: Leads to essential relief in blistering Kuwaiti heat, when overturned? (anag. of first letters, & lit.).

H. W. Massingham: Moorish source of water, bit of bogland, with hiker plashing about (b in anag.).

I. D. McDonald: Source of Bedouin hiker’s refreshment? (anag. incl. B, & lit.).

F. R. Palmer: Unjustified BR hike, a recommendation to travellers to desert (anag.).

D. Price Jones: Leaving balmy Birkenhead is ‘Inebriate Edna’, a hag that regularly takes a skinful! (comp. anag.; ref. TV film).

W. J. M. Scotland: Take little barrel into sakieh without it? (r b in (SA)kieh, & lit.).

D. Stanford: Drink to live – it’s drunk from this (kir be + this less anag., & lit.).

G. T. Wilson: With beers in —— Berber sheik gets squiffy! (comp. anag. & lit.).

HC

M. J. Balfour, M. Barley, M. J. Bath, J. R. Beresford, S. J. Best, Rev Canon C. M. Broun, M. J. Brown, B. Burton, D. A. Campbell, Mrs M. J. Cansfield, P. Cargill, E. Chalkley, N. A. Cooley, K. W. Crawford, F. H. Cripps, D. J. Dare-Plumpton, N. C. Dexter, M. Earle, M. G. Elliott, P. S. Elliott, G. & J. Ferris, Dr I. S. Fletcher, H. Freeman, M. Freeman, P. D. Gaffey, J. F. Grimshaw, R. Haddock, P. F. Henderson, A. W. Hill, A. Hodgson, R. J. Hooper, J. Horwood, W. Jackson, G. Johnstone, M. D. Jones, J. P. Lester, J. C. Leyland, R. M. Luty, W. F. Main, J. R. C. Michie, T. J. Moorey, C. J. Morse, R. S. Morse, R. A. Mostyn, S. J. O’Boyle, R. J. Palmer, G. Perry, R. Phillips, Mrs A. Price, M. C. C. Rich, D. R. Robinson, N. G. Shippobotham, D. J. Short, W. K. M. Slimmings, R. A. Wells, I. J. Wilcock.
 

COMMENTS
440 entries, no mistakes spotted. Two sporting references proved troublesome. Miroslav Mecir is not the force in professional tennis he was (hence ‘fading’) but only a few years ago he was among the top ten players and (as they say) much feared on the circuit for his magically deceptive ground-strokes. Stade Roland-Garros is the Parisian equivalent of Wimbledon, the home of French Tennis. My clue to ROUSTER was also, I admit, somewhat elusively allusive. Jack London, nowadays perhaps an unfashionable author, derived the inspiration for many of his stories from his early experience on the Oakland waterfront near his birthplace San Francisco. I’m sure he would have classed as a rouster.
 
I think I knew KIRBEH would be tough but for once I decided to let you sweat it out. (What the word’s even doing in Chambers I’ve no idea - it’s not in the O.E.D.) The result was (I guess) a real struggle for you, and much the same for me in judging, if that’s any consolation. Hikers and bikers were predictably much in evidence and doing something distinctively original with them was correspondingly hard. Composite anagrams were also popular, on the principle: if the letters of the clue-word look unpromising, borrow a few more and see if you can come up with a nice ‘& lit.’ effect. Nothing wrong with this provided you don’t overdo it and borrow too many extra letters, submerging the original word in verbiage. One almost brilliant such clue was marred by a fault that came up rather a lot this month: ‘Arab sheikh, far from well, has a —— ?’ The use of ‘far from well’ as an anagram indicator is lovely here, but there is far too much strain on that second comma, which in the cryptic reading is meant to stand for ‘is’ or a longer pause such as a colon, neither of which will do for the literal reading, so alternative wording needs to be found. Mr Millin’s clue abandons the ‘& lit.’ effect by specifying the word’s definition but his clue is grammatically sound as well as neat.
 
And while we’re on grammar, a couple of you queried the grammatical structure of my clue to VANE: ‘With an outing I’d see sight.’ This is VIDE (= see) with AN outing (= knocking out) I’D – fair, I think.
 
I’m also asked whether you need to write your name and address on the clue sheet as well as the new coupon we now have, or indeed whether the coupon couldn’t be expanded to make room for your clue, doing away with the need for a clue sheet altogether. Since many of you like writing extended explanations and/or comments with your entries (which I welcome), even an enlarged coupon would be unnaturally restricting, so please continue with the clue sheet for the monthly competitions – they’re of course unnecessary with prize entries for other puzzles – and please also put your name and address on it as well as on the coupon. If you omit to do this on one of the two I’d rather it was the coupon.