AZED CROSSWORD 1380

RAPPORT (Misprints)

1.  C. J. Brougham: The buffet carriage (tie; rap port).

2.  E. Cross: Criminal charge – or, in past, delation (relation; rap + or in pt).

3.  C. J. Morse: With right blend of art and pop, this band’s a sensation (bond; r + anag.).

VHC

D. Appleton: Lead in Premiership is between Gunners and Borough; United kind of reeling (feeling; P in RA port).

E. A. Beaulah: A ‘friendly’ line will give a boost to Aussies opening (link; rap⁵ + port⁵).

Rev Canon C. M. Broun: A touch of tedium? Blame life-style (medium; rap port).

Mrs M. J. Cansfield: Charge penny a piece for confection (connection; rap p ort).

C. A. Clarke: Close the gate after rebuke (tie; rap port).

T. J. Cowin: Fellow reeling having hit the wine (feeling; rap port).

D. J. Dare-Plumpton: Good teams in Australia boost gate (terms; rap port).

R. V. Dearden: Fellow reeling – blame bagpipe music (feeling; rap port).

N. C. Dexter: Bill’s finding such sympathy with Tory Right and Left apparently accommodated (Tony; ap. in r port; ref. Clinton / Blair).

Dr I. S. Fletcher: Basis of betting on Gunners – power in air? (getting; RA + p in port).

R. R. Greenfield: Criminal charge leads to Pinochet’s opponents rejoicing – ‘tickled pink’ (link; rap + first letters).

C. R. Gumbrell: Confection soft and yellow in spongy part (connection; p or in anag.; spongy = drunken).

A. Hall: Mellow feeling? Blame the wine (fellow; rap port).

R. Heald: Sharp blow left fellow reeling (feeling; rap port).

R. J. Hooper: Header’s gone in net – Seaman’s left an emotional kind of pink (link; (t)rap port; ref. England goalkeeper).

E. Looby: Delation: criminal charge over demeanour (relation; rapport).

D. F. Manley: Good vines make supposedly passable wine (vibes; rap³ + port; make²).

R. J. Palmer: Blow left fellow reeling (feeling; rap port).

J. Pearce: Bono starts to perform ‘The Refugee’ – provoking rapturous ovation and dancing (bond; anag. of initial letters; ref. U2 song).

D. Price Jones: Pink salmon served up with wine (link; par (rev.) + port).

A. J. Wardrop: Good vines boost Australian wine (vibes; rap port).

HC

M. Barley, J. R. Beresford, E. J. Burge, T. J. O. Clarke, M. Coates, Mrs J. M. Critchley, V. Dixon, A. J. Dorn, A. S. Everest, R. P. C. Forman, P. D. Gaffey, R. Hesketh, G. Hobbs, A. Hodgson, T. Jacobs, Mrs D. B. Jenkinson, F. P. N. Lake, M. D. Laws, J. H. C. Leach, P. R. Lloyd, R. K. Lumsdon, Mrs J. Mackie, B. MacReamoinn, Mrs M. D. Maitland, J. R. C. Michie, C. G. Millin, W. L. Miron, T. J. Moorey, J. Mortleman, F. R. Palmer, M. Sanderson, N. G. Shippobotham, Ms M. Stokes, J. R. Tozer, J. Turner, L. Ward, R. J. Whale, P. O. G. White.
 

Comments
A very difficult puzzle this month. Only 138 entries, several of them with mistakes. This is much too small a postbag for a competition, and I must clearly take the blame for it. It’s ages since I gave you a Misprints puzzle (No. 1,006 in September 1991 being the last if my records are correct), and I’d forgotten just how tricky they can be to solve, especially if the setter is careless in failing to avoid an unfair proliferation of effective unches in certain words (as I was with UNDONA (UNDONE), for example). The satisfaction of just finishing such a brute must have been quite high because many were very complimentary about the puzzle and said how difficult it must have been to set. Well, not really. If you think about it, the setter has more room for manoeuvre in constructing the grid than usual, not -less, the- main limiting factor being the need to ensure that there are the same number of misprinted answers among the acrosses and the downs. I have to confess that this type of Ximenean special has never been a favourite of mine, and I think that if I ever give you one again I should make the misprints spell something out or have some added significance, and not be simply random. Such variations on the original idea are now quite commonly introduced by other setters. I did raise this as an idea in a slip years ago and got rather a lukewarm response, but after this month’s experience I’m sure it needs looking at again. All I can say to those who slaved over the puzzle for many hours is thank you for persevering, and sorry if it was an awful slog.
 
Once the grid was complete, RAPPORT proved a friendly word to clue, as I hoped it would. The most popular misprint, by quite a way, was ‘band’ for ‘bond’, and given the musical connotations of ‘rap’ and ‘port’ this was hardly surprising, though it did produce a lot of sound but uninspired clues with very similar wording. Mr Brougham’s first prizewinner was a cracker. Despite its obvious appeal, I hesitated over it at first since to me a rap and a buffet are not identical types of blow, but the Chambers definitions are sufficiently broad to allow of their being roughly synonymous, and I think ‘tie’ will also do for ‘rapport’. And talking of Chambers I notice that the editors of the new edition say they have added some more ‘uniquely witty definitions’ like the famous one for éclair. I haven’t yet spotted any of the new ones but shall keep looking. Meanwhile CJM notes that the misordering of oblong before Oblomovism has continued uncorrected since the last edition, despite the widespread availability of computer programs to ensure automatic alphabetical ordering. As a professional lexicographer myself, I welcome having such errors pointed out. We all make mistakes, and like to be given the opportunity to correct them.
 
Roy Dean, a regular Azed competitor and an old friend, has kindly sent me a copy of his Mainly in Fun, a ‘collection of a lifetime’s writing, in which wordplay is a constant theme’. If anyone would like to buy a copy, the price is £10 including postage and packing, and cheques should be sent to Roy.