◀  No. 1234 Aug 1974 Clue list No. 130  ▶

AZED CROSSWORD 127

FRITHSOKEN

1.  C. O. Butcher: It must have reduced the risk of ending in prison (anag. + n, & lit.).

2.  J. A. Fincken: A place of preservation for Kentish hops (anag.).

3.  A. J. Bulman: A hovel sufficed Kent for his, in a storm (anag.; ref. King Lear, III).

VHC

T. Anderson: Retreat of thinkers (anag. & lit.).

B. P. Biggin: Underwood’s on at the top end; thereafter his county’s three parts home (frith3 so Ken(t); ref. Derek U.).

Mrs A. Boyes: Initially hunchback swung in a French one – with many a pull! (h s in Fr I token, & lit.; ref. Notre Dame; token = 250 pulls of a hand-press).

E. Chalkley: The hallowed ground. Underwood provided with treacherous ridge almost the end of Pakistan (frith3 so ke(y) n; ref. Derek U.).

C. A. Clarke: Underwood’s right on top of last pair of batsmen – the pavilion might provide this (frith’s OK en; ref. Derek U.; frith3).

J. Coleby: Free of risk, then, installed here (anag. & lit.).

A. J. Crow: Refuge of thinkers – bedlam? (anag.; bedlam adj.).

D. M. Duckworth: An old-style asylum here; risk, then, of its members being disturbed (anag.).

C. C. M. Giffin: Asylum, resort of thinkers (anag.).

P. R. L. Heath: Out of date asylum deranged often shirk (anag.).

S. Holgate: Resort of thinkers? (anag. & lit.).

K. W. Johnson: Underwood, in such form, should get his county almost home (frith3 so Ken(t); ref. Derek U.).

R. E. Kimmons: Deal for Kentish harbour associated with history (anag.).

J. R. Kirby: When in trouble, could make for this direct in times gone by (anag. + ken, & lit.).

A. D. Legge: Underwood, in high degree, and Kent’s openers contribute to a safe position (frith3 so Ken(t); ref. Derek U.).

Mrs S. M. Macpherson: Spurn bit of cake in kitchens for reduced girth (anag. less c; girth2).

C. G. Millin: Undergrowth, perhaps – fine when surrounded by coppers (frith3 + OK in sen, & lit.).

C. J. Morse: What’s this for, roughly? A place for criminals to resort to (anag. + ken2, & lit.).

R. D. Newman: Underwood’s all right. The end of Pakistan follows. Do they seek this in the dressing room? (frith’s oke2 + n; ref. Derek U., cricket; frith3).

W. H. Pegram: Sanctuary’s needed badly for this recurrent depression (anag. + nek (rev.)).

H. L. Rhodes: Cure for the skin means retreat for the chaps (anag.; chap1).

L. G. D. Sanders: Underwood’s on top; so Kent, with no tail, get home – at Canterbury? (frith3 so Ken(t); ref. Derek U.).

J. H. Scott-Wilson: The Lord’s pitch needs Underwood, so his county is one short (frith3 so Ken(t); ref. Derek U.).

M. H. E. Watson: Could be Kentish for what Becket sought at Canterbury (anag.).

Rev C. D. Westbrook: Underwood’s got most from unusually drenched Lord’s ground – covering wanted (frith3 so(a)ken; covering vb.; ref. Derek U.).

HC

F. D. H. Atkinson, M. J. Ball, E. A. Beaulah, Mrs K. Bissett, G. Blunden, J. M. Brown, M. M. Coates, J. V. S. A. Davies, P. S. Elliott, M. B. Fisher, J. Gill, S. Goldie, R. R. Greenfield, Mrs M. Kissen, A. Lawrie, J. H. C. Leach, R. H. D. Lean, R. Lunn, Lieut-Col D. Macfie, D. J. Mackay, B. Manvell, H. W. Massingham, L. May, Rev M. R. Metcalf, F. E. Newlove, R. H. N. Osmond, L. W. G. Oxley, F. R. Palmer, Dr R. J. Palmer, S. R. Parsons, W. J. M. Scotland, J. A. Sefton, P. J. Simpson, Brig R. F. E. Stoney, F. B. Stubbs, J. G. Stubbs, J. B. Sweeting, R. H. Tillcock, H. Tillier, G. A. Tomlinson, Mrs M. E. Tompkins, M. A. Vernon, J. F. N. Wedge, Dr R. L. Wynne, W. J. Youngson.
 

Comments
370 entries, with quite a few mistakes, the commonest being ESNES for ESSES. Esnes are slaves all right but they don’t fit the rest of the clue (‘Collar limiting...?’). Chambers gives a ‘collar of esses’ under ‘ess’ as what I take to be a sort of mayor’s chain of office, but the question mark at the end of the clue suggests that the word required may not be an ‘& lit.’ definition. ‘Slaves’ begins and ends with s so the word is ‘limited’ by esses.
 
Quite a lot of you also had trouble with UPHURLING and LASSES, on the grounds that the clues contain inadequate definition parts. I admit that the somewhat elliptical reference to UPHURLING in the form of a pun almost amounted to a second cryptic part in the clue, but the chukker/chucker connection and the idea of polo as hockey on horseback was irresistible to me and surely clear enough when the penny dropped. Likewise lasses who’ve been cut (snubbed) can take their revenge in very wounding ways, and no one would deny the wounding power of cutlasses. A fair ‘& lit.’ clue, I’d have thought.
 
Anagrams aplenty again this month. ‘For the skin’, ‘short knife’, ‘then risk of’, ‘For Kentish’ were all well represented. And Underwood had a field day on tricky wickets. One or two of those who used him may feel aggrieved that they aren’t higher up in the averages. The commonest reason for this was his being brought on in the middle of a sentence where his capital letter would be a little uncomfortable. He must be ‘capped’, whereas a synonym for frith normally wouldn’t be.
 
Not much room left for remarks on compiling an Azed puzzle, but here goes. For me there are three distinct stages to compiling a plain puzzle: pattern, words, clues. These stages are progressively more difficult, time-consuming and enjoyable. The whole thing from start to finish (which I never do at one sitting for fear of brain damage!) takes anything over ten hours and sometimes much more. With practise pattern-making becomes easy and can take as little as ten minutes. I do not start, as Ximenes did, with a few previously chosen long words and build around them, preferring to fit the words to the pattern and not vice versa. As a rule a 12 × 12 puzzle contains 36 words (or lights) and the pattern is symmetrical either from top and bottom or from all four sides. The number of unchecked letters should be neither too great (unfair to solvers in this type of puzzle) nor too small (unfair to Azed in stage 2!) and should correspond to the individual word-lengths. As a rough guide: 3-letter words, no unches; 4-, 5- and 6-letter words, 1 unch; 7- and 8-letter words, 2 unches; 9-, 10- and 11-letter words, 3 unches; 12-letter words, 4 unches. And the pattern should allow for a good selection of word-lengths. As I say, after a time this becomes second nature though the inexperienced might regard it as the hardest part of all. Anyway, it must come first.
 
For stage 2, I am armed with Chambers and a rhyming dictionary (the best, if not the only one available being Walker’s, now very out-of-date and sorely in need of revision to include all words in C, if anyone’s feeling energetic). Within easy reach I also have the O.E.D. and Webster in case of difficulty, plus a whole range of reference books for specialized words and proper names, all fair game in moderation. Then I quite simply start at the top left corner and build from there, or from where I foresee most difficulty (a group of long words close together or an area of few unches) taking care before entering any word that my options are pretty open for the next one and the one after that. One learns to avoid certain letters or combinations of letters at different points in a word. N is a nasty letter to begin with often, for instance, since it almost invariably requires a vowel after it. J, V and Q are awkward terminal letters and one has probably already used HADJ, SLAV and IRAQ in previous puzzles. Short words beginning with vowels are also relatively few, and who wants to clue ENNUI yet again?
 
I must pause here and leave further remarks on words and clues to a later slip.
 

 

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Solution