◀  No. 131614 Sep 1997 Clue list No. 1325  ▶

AZED CROSSWORD 1322

CARPET

1.  F. P. N. Lake: Such as beetle gets to spoil? (car + pet, & lit.; ref. VW and carpet beetle).

2.  C. J. Morse: Consider jute practical backing for this (hidden rev., & lit.).

3.  R. J. Whale: Odds of ‘threes’ at Cup clash? (anag. of alternate letters, & lit.).

VHC

D. Ashcroft: Rover, Rover, what’s this pile on the floor?! (car pet).

C. J. Brougham: Cricket’s top insect (it used to be a bee) (3 mngs.; B = 300).

B. Burton: In Shaw’s play, a present from Caesar – Cleopatra’s wrapped up in it also! (comp. anag.; ref. Shaw, ‘Caesar and Cleopatra’).

D. A. Campbell: What seems mild road rage can mean three months in jail (car pet).

E. Cross: Three-to-one favourite following Arc upset (anag. + pet; ref. Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe).

N. C. Dexter: What’s starting price? See odds of three/one fixed (anag. of p c tre a, & lit.).

Dr I. S. Fletcher: Short stretch limousine a ‘Rover’? (car pet).

J. Grimes: This may be Persian, as in it hides Persian cat (comp. anag.).

R. J. Hooper: Possible hanging matter fabricated? Marshal Earp in court (anag. in ct; matter = mat-maker (OED)).

J. Horwood: What do you get for road rage? Three months in the slammer (car pet).

C. J. Lowe: Short stretch limo? 50% saving in gas! (car pet(rol)).

T. J. Moorey: Surface to dishearten and defeat tap-dancer! (anag. less dan, & lit.).

R. J. Palmer: Part leaders of European Commission played in Brussels, say (anag. incl. EC; B., type of carpet).

H. L. Rhodes: Dress down for three months in a cooler environment (2 mngs.).

N. G. Shippobotham: Gavotte practice involves rolling this back (hidden rev. & lit.).

L. Ward: 3-1 favourite trails colt (Arabian) (c Ar. + pet).

M. J. E. Wareham: Colt, Arab, favourite, three-to-one (c Ar. pet).

G. H. Willett: Playing surface which may mask foul committed by sweeper (2 mngs.; sweeping something under the c.).

M. A. L. Willey: Reprimand one with cold getting out of gymnastic practice (anag. less I c).

HC

F. Anstis, S. Armstrong, W. G. Arnott, Mrs F. A. Blanchard, Mrs A. Boyes, Mrs M. J. Cansfield, R. M. S. Cork, P. Dacre, E. Dawid, A. J. Dorn, E. G. Fletcher, H. Freeman, M. Freeman, C. R. Gumbrell, J. Harrington, Mrs B. E. Henderson, R. Hesketh, J. G. Hull, W. Jackson, J. C. Leyland, J. D. Lockett, R. K. Lumsdon, M. A. Macdonald-Cooper, Mrs J. Mackie, W. F. Main, J. McDermott, J. R. C. Michie, G. Perry, P. Radburn, D. R. Robinson, V. Seth, P. L. Stone, D. H. Tompsett, J. R. Tozer, A. P. Vick, A. J. Wardrop, Dr M. C. Whelan, W. Wynne Williams, Dr E. Young.
 

Comments
317 entries, with perhaps 30 containing one or more mistakes, mostly THREAP for THREEP (through failure to spot the ‘comp. anag.’ clue) and SETTER for LETTER among the unclued answers (failure to check the letters in the superfluous words). Oddly enough, RED SETTER doesn’t seem to appear in Chambers, a fact which should perhaps have sounded warning bells. The whole competition was something of a comedy of errors on my part. I had miscalculated the number of Sundays in August and realized my mistake too late to convert September’s first puzzle into the competition it should have been. ‘Red Herrings’ was not planned as a competition puzzle (I wouldn’t normally give you two specials in a row) so I had to make last-minute adjustments to it, principally in the matter of deciding what to ask you to clue. I had CABBAGE all lined up until (at the eleventh hour) I discovered that Ximenes had used it as a clue word (in April 1951!) so hastily switched to CARPET. All was well in the end. Most of you seem to have enjoyed the puzzle (tough to get started but relatively easy once the penny dropped) and the clue word offered lots of possibilities. I have in fact given you ‘Red Herrings’ before - this was the sixth - but it’s a long time since the last (No. 823) and on each occasion there has been a different version of the basic theme. From a setting point of view the grid can be tough to construct (all those thematic answers) but this is compensated for by having to write fewer clues. The aim, as always, is to present a fair challenge. (One regular asked whether the choice of 15 ‘reds’ was deliberate (ref. snooker). I confess that it never occurred to me.) It was a fiendish competition to judge. There were lots of good ideas and the top clues failed to leap out at me as they often do. I liked the ‘road rage’ idea but had to tell myself that a pet isn’t really a rage. CJM’s use of ‘backing’ worried me a bit in a down word, but I think it’s OK to ‘consider’ a string of letters before entering them, if you see what I mean. And I pondered long and hard over Mr Ashcroft’s ‘Rover, Rover’ (examples, not definitions, of CAR and PET respectively) before deciding that the ‘!?’ excused its outrageousness and yielding to its undoubted charms. Mr Burton’s VHC clue also seems to require a further ‘is’ after ‘Cleopatra’s’, unless the last six words of the clue can be regarded as a sort of self-contained participial clause, with ‘being’ understood before ‘wrapped’ – just possible, I guess, if stretching syntax somewhat.
 
As a footnote, it was nice to receive an entry from a Mr L. Harris (new to AZ competitions, I think), whose clue was written on a compliments slip from the Crime Writers’ Association and described him at the bottom as ‘Editor, Red Herrings’, a periodical I have never come across, though it is doubtless well known to NCD.
 

 

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