AZED CROSSWORD 1284

STALE (3 defs. + sub. ind. of wrapping)

1.  C. J. Morse: Unique gift from God, centre of Christmas story, is housed in a stall (STA(BLES SING)LE; s + tale).

2.  R. J. Hooper: Heart of Christmas story: unique gift from God abides in animals’ dwelling (STA(BLES SING)LE; S + tale).

3.  P. F. Henderson: View light in the sky – origin of Saviour’s the story proclaimed (STA(R ANG)LE; S + tale).

VHC (extra prizes)

M. Barley: Long ago, noble trio of stargazers left East in wonder to behold the Lord (STA(RE GENT)LE; anag. incl. l).

E. A. Beaulah: Bleak scene of Christ’s birth: part of just a legendary account? (STA(BLE TA)LE; hidden).

J. R. Beresford: Kind Ratty, pompous Toad (initially), in a willowy setting (STA(TE STY)LE; T in sale²).

G. C. Brown: Conservative endless stall on European policy, dramatically wrong, perhaps (STA(ID EA)LE; stal(l) + E).

Dr J. Burscough: Christmas mystery has all men’s hearts throbbing – / ‘Here Jesus was born,’ the little lamb’s sobbing (STA(BLE ATING)LE; middle letters).

C. A. Clarke: Joseph, for example, is associated with a story: what was radiant material used to make a garment? (STA(LIN ING)LE; ’s + tale).

R. M. S. Cork: Least liberal communist dictator suffers denunciation (STAL(IN CURS)E; anag.).

C. R. Gumbrell: What introduces Scrooge? Story, short one specifying season (STA(TER SE)LE; S + tale).

R. Hesketh: Reasons doctor lets a surgical procedure cut into vein (ST(OPE RATION)ALE; anag.).

A. Hodgson: Least prepared outbuildings determined cause of joy (STA(BLES SING)LE; anag.).

E. C. Lance: Lustrous babe initially emerges from stable (foul-smelling joint) (STA(R ANK)LE; sta(b)le).

J. H. C. Leach: Equip virile leading performer, tenor in demand (ST(AR M)ALE; t in sale).

D. F. Manley: Bleak animal shed – luminance in east – wondrous story! (ST(ABLE T)ALE; l in anag.).

R. J. Palmer: Holy man’s festival as of old sheds unique message of good will (STA(BLES SING)LE; St + ale).

Ms J. Parsons: Centre of Christmas story – guiding light signalled direction? (STA(R ANG)LE; s + tale).

D. Rainford: Shock! End of Crufts tradition. Yorkshire terrier not shown (ST(UN AIRED)ALE; s + tale).

J. R. Tozer: Where animals shelter you’ll see Son’s head lie, unique gift from God (STA(BLES SING)LE; S + tale).

A. J. Wardrop: Spot least disciplined type of bowling – it’s essential if you want to flail (STA(IN SWING)LE; anag.).

HC

D. Ashcroft, M. J. Bath, Mrs F. A. Blanchard, C. J. Brougham, E. J. Burge, B. Burton, D. B. Cross, E. Cross, G. Cumming, E. Dawid, R. V. Dearden, N. C. Dexter, V. Dixon, C. M. Edmunds, R. A. England, H. Freeman, P. Giaccone, H. J. Godwin, G. I. L. Grafton, J. E. Green, R. R. Greenfield, P. Lamford, M. D. Laws, J. P. Lester, P. R. Lloyd, J. D. Lockett, C. J. Lowe, R. K. Lumsdon, M. A. Macdonald-Cooper, Mrs J. Mackie, A. McBride, T. J. Moorey, S. O’Boyle, F. R. Palmer, C. Pearson, D. Pendrey, D. Price Jones, D. R. Robinson, J. H. Russell, H. R. & P. J. Sanders, N. G. Shippobotham, P. L. Stone, Miss D. W. Taylor, C. W. Thomas, D. H. Tompsett, Dr I. Torbe, Mrs M. P. Webber, A. West, R. J. Whale, I. J. Wilcock, G. H. Willett, M. A. L. Willey.
 

Comments
306 entries, with very few errors in the diagram. This was clearly a very hard puzzle, though most of you seemed to relish the extra challenge. I apologize to those who found they just couldn’t get to grips with the thing, and to everyone for the faulty clues, for which I’m still kicking myself and which threatened to ruin my whole Christmas! It was some consolation that I was able to issue corrections before the closing date, but many of you must have had a lot of needless frustration before that. The irony was that the duff clues (and preamble instruction) resulted from late tinkering by me with text that had been OK but which I thought I could improve on. These clue types require extra concentration in the writing, as many of you doubtless found, and in my eagerness to improve on my earlier wording I overlooked certain essential elements. As usual you were wonderfully tolerant of these lapses.
 
The puzzle was tough to construct, but actually very satisfying. I recognized that the Down clues would be more difficult to solve than the Acrosses, but couldn’t think of a satisfactory way of modifying their structure so as to avoid this. Any suggestions for when I repeat the exercise (if I do!)? What I did consciously aim to do was to make the discarded contents in the Downs longer than the discarded wrappings in the Acrosses. Very long letter mixtures would, I thought, be unfairly difficult, and longish contents (their length indicated) might make identifying them that bit easier to identify. Interestingly though, in most of the clues submitted the discarded contents tended to be on the short side, 6 letters or less.
 
A fair number of competitors spoiled their chances by writing the wrong type of clue or getting a bit muddled about the essential elements to include. I sympathize. When writing (or miswriting) my own clues I often had to reread my own instructions to make sure I’d got things right! I also disqualified all clues which contained superfluous verbiage, which I avoided in my own clues. It seemed to me that if I allowed even one superfluous word in a clue this was carte blanche to allowing any number, rendering clues both unwieldy and more difficult to solve. I was also not well-disposed to clues which included a definition of STALE instead of a cryptic indication of its component letters. Although several of the Down answers were real words, I avoided cluing them by definition. Clues consisting simply of four definitions struck me as uninspired and, again, that bit unkinder to the solver. One competitor asked whether it would be possible to construct a puzzle in which all the discarded contents answers were real words. I have no idea, frankly, but am not about to have a go! Puzzles like this are all right once in a while, but should not, I think, be repeated too often.
 
I had great difficulty picking the prizewinners and congratulate all those named above for producing some excellent efforts. The first prizewinner just pipped the second by being (to my mind) marginally better phrased, though their ideas were identical. STAR and STABLE were predictably very popular as the first element in the parcel, but there were plenty of fine clues which made no reference to Christmas – not something I insisted on. I must stop now, but not without offering many congratulations to Mr Harvey Freeman, a regular AZ competitor, on becoming the supreme champion of the television Countdown competition just before Christmas, I’m sure he received a few nice Christmas parcels as a result!