AZED CROSSWORD 1428

CRICETID

1.  D. Price Jones: Mention this rodent and you’ll hear scream on chair (‘cry seated’, & lit.?).

2.  D. F. Manley: Comedian’s original food – one revealed in vacuous tabloid! (c + rice + I in t(abloi)d, & lit.; ref. ‘Sun’ headline, ‘Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster’).

3.  C. R. Gumbrell: You’ll find this one’s done in once rodenticide’s worked (comp. anag. & lit.).

VHC

M. Barley: Sprinkle rodenticide about to have done with this? (comp. anag. incl. c, & lit.).

C. J. Brougham: Colt on cereal three times a day – a small animal needing loads to stuff its face? (c rice tid).

C. A. Clarke: Conservative right in charge – upset veteran saying, ‘It’s lemming-like’ (C r i/c + dite (rev.)).

V. Dixon: Pet you might think to call ‘Baggy’? That’d be sound (‘cry seated’; see seat vb).

H. Freeman: Object of Freddie Starr headline maybe is help to expedite circulation going up (hidden rev.; ref. ‘F. S. Ate My Hamster’).

G. I. L. Grafton: I ride with Cyclists’ Touring Club, worrying that my cheeks will carry big load (anag. incl. CTC).

R. Heald: I’ll have scurried round putting away odd morsels, pouching nuts etc? (I in alternate letters round anag., & lit.).

J. C. Leyland: Busy, endlessly busy I run inside wheel (tec I r in dic(k) (all rev.), & lit.).

R. K. Lumsdon: I’m being ratty – paddy got into about three times a day (rice in c tid; being noun).

T. J. Moorey: Knight off his game told to forget South Africa – rotten perhaps (cric(k)et + (SA)id; ref. Nick K.; rotten²).

R. A. Norton: Hamster perhaps leads to creative reportage involving comic’s atrocious diet (first letters + anag.; ref. ‘Sun’ headline, ‘Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster’).

R. J. Palmer: One’s partial to expedite circles, given a wheel (hidden rev., & lit.).

J. Pearce: Rodent desperate bosses of TV channel introduced, eventually revived declining consumer interest (anag. of first letters; ref. Roland Rat).

R. Stocks: Hamster? It’d circle crazily having lost end of treadmill (anag. less l).

A. Streatfield: Work criticised is taken off; some call it ‘Hammy’ (anag. less is; ref. H. the Hamster).

J. R. Tozer: Scatter rodenticide about and have done with me? (comp. anag. incl. c, & lit.).

R. J. Whale: I’m largely content to expedite circular wheeling (hidden rev., & lit.).

HC

D. Appleton, E. A. Beaulah, Rev Canon C. M. Broun, E. J. Burge, Dr J. Burscough, Mrs M. J. Cansfield, J. & B. Chennells, N. Connaughton, E. Crook, K. J. Crook, D. J. Dare-Plumpton, A. J. Dorn, W. Duffin, C. M. Edmunds, E. G. Fletcher, M. Freeman, P. D. Gaffey, N. C. Goddard, S. Gould, B. Grabowski, Mrs E. Greenaway, R. R. Greenfield, J. Grimes, D. Harris, Mrs B. E. Henderson, R. Hesketh, B. C. Howlett, G. Johnstone, F. P. N. Lake, M. D. Laws, J. P. Lester, J. A. Liddle, Mrs J. Mackie, Mrs M. D. Maitland, P. W. Marlow, C. G. Millin, C. J. Morse, J. Mortleman, G. Netley, M. A. O’Hagan, F. R. Palmer, C. Pearson, D. Pendrey, J. & E. J. Phillips, A. J. Pinel, D. R. Robinson, M. Sanderson, C. M. Steele, R. E. R. Thomas, L. Ward, A. J. Wardrop, G. H. Willett, M. A. L. Willey, D. Williamson, W. Wynne Willson.
 

Comments
316 entries, very few mistakes. No real complaints either, though a couple objected to ‘shrivelled’ as an anagram indicator in my RAGDUST clue, and a few queried ‘Lane maybe’ to indicate Lois, either through ignorance of Superman’s love-life or because they thought I should be ashamed of descending to such trivia. Well, I’m not! I would only hesitate to use a reference to popular culture if I regarded it as too obscure or specialized. And I don’t regard Lois Lane, or Tales of the Riverbank, or the Freddie Starr headline, as that, though I’m sure they’re not all familiar to absolutely everyone. Crossword clues would be a lot duller if they restricted themselves to what was verifiable in the dictionary – one reason I suspect that computers will never be programmed to produce really good clues as distinct from merely serviceable ones.
 
CRICETID was a tricky word to deal with effectively (as well as being a pretty rare one which hasn’t even made it into the OED), and this was one of those competitions when I found myself picking holes in clues submitted far more often than usual, even among those quoted above though they were still the best of the bunch. Too often ‘hamster’ was used to define CRICETID when it is only an example of this type of rodent. (A hamster is a cricetid but a cricetid is not necessarily a hamster.) Many produced ‘hidden reversal’ clues, often with ‘erudite circles’ in the wording – nice in view of the technical nature of the word, but too popular as an idea to gain special mention and sometimes spoilt by implying that it was an across word, not a down one (e.g. by using ‘back’ rather than ‘up’). Another observation: I’ve noticed in other crosswords and in clues entered for these competitions a growing use of ‘oddly’ to mean ‘taking the odd letters only’, on the analogy of ‘initially’, I suppose. I’m not at all keen on this (and would feel the same about ‘evenly’ if it were used) since I can’t conceive of its being used in this sense in normal language. Be warned. (‘Initially’ is different and quite acceptable in my view.)
 
You will have noticed that the announcements of the results of the last two competitions have been delayed. This has nothing to do with holidays or laziness on the part of your setter, but because the repositioning of the puzzle in the Review section (on which I was, typically, not consulted beforehand) has brought with it a demand for copy even earlier than previously, which was itself a very tight deadline for me. I have therefore reluctantly decided to change to a three-week period between the competition puzzles and the announcement of results for them, with effect from next month (November). I dare say there will be groans of disapproval about this, and I’m very sorry, but there seems to be no satisfactory alternative. To bring back the deadline for entries would be unfair on the small but enthusiastic overseas contingent.
 
Finally, warmest congratulations to Sir Jeremy Morse (CJM) who last month passed the extraordinary milestone of 500 points in Ximenes (242) and Azed (258) competitions. His first success was a VHC in Ximenes No. 103 (May 1949). I don’t know who his nearest rival is (NCD?). Perhaps the statisticians among you can help.