AZED CROSSWORD 1519

CARRY-ON

1.  C. J. Morse: Wild love affair like this could give you coronary (anag. incl. 0, & lit.).

2.  D. F. Manley: Untrue Archer: he concealed that (anag. less he + yon, & lit.; ref. Lord A.’s affair with Andrina Colquhoun).

3.  D. Arthur: A cloned Harry Potter to be held a ——? (comp. anag. & lit.; potter verb).

VHC

Mrs F. A. Blanchard: Ripping yarn cor! This does succeed like success! (anag.; like adj.).

C. J. Brougham: Song and dance study covers Van Dyke’s role in Mary Poppins (’Arry in con; jovial vulgar cockney).

E. J. Burge: Grant acting to secure run for ‘Much ado about nothing’? (r in Cary on).

B. Burton: Sequel to bestseller, confection of racy corn but lacking touch of Cartland (anag. less C).

C. J. & M. P. Butler: Publishing stunt involving racy Ron (anag.; ref. ‘Sun’ and Ronnie Biggs).

C. A. Clarke: Clamour surrounding the Gunners rising just after A Visit to Highbury perhaps? (RA (rev.) in cry + on; ref. sequel to ‘Emma’ by Joan Austen-Leigh).

D. C. Clenshaw: Complaint’s in progress after goods go missing on railway (car(go) + ry + on).

A. Cox: Rostand’s principal piece, Cyrano, in novel form? (anag. incl. R, & lit.; ref. play ‘C. de Bergerac’).

N. C. Dexter: Dodgy printing of any sequels to ‘Q’ & Co? (anag. incl. RR, & lit.; ref. Quiller-Couch).

V. Dixon: Degraded stuff, in which the writer’s succeeded by an unknown (y for I in carrion, & lit.; succeed = take the place of).

J. S. Ellis: Rip-off introducing one such as Potter or Bond, but not the originals ((H)arry or (m)arry in con, & lit.).

R. J. Heald: Corny novel given a plug by another’s reputation primarily (a, r in anag., & lit.).

Mrs J. Mackie: Bond that’s neither original or fine, following racy recipe in pastiche (anag. incl. r + (B)on(d), & lit.; ref. James Bond novels written by Raymond Benson; fine = end).

P. W. Marlow: That appears in the wake of Morris, say, and King (car R + yon, & lit.; ref. Desmond M. and Stephen K.).

T. J. Moorey: Dreadful —— with her man gets composed Mary Archer no end of admiration (comp. anag. incl. n, & lit.; ref. Jeffery A.’s affair).

I. Simpson: This hound tale could be Arthur Conan Doyle pastiche (comp. anag.; ref. ‘Hound of the Baskervilles’).

L. Ward: Rip-off involving Rowling ’ero? (’Arry in con; ref. J. K. R.).

HC

D. Appleton, M. Bath, E. A. Beaulah, J. R. Beresford, Dr J. Burscough, E. Cross, D. J. Dare-Plumpton, L. K. Edkins, H. Freeman, P. D. Gaffey, R. R. Greenfield, J. Grimes, C. R. Gumbrell, J. G. Hull, F. P. N. Lake, R. K. Lumsdon, J. Pearce, D. Pendrey, H. L. Rhodes, P. L. Stone, A. Streatfield, R. C. Teuton, C. W. Thomas, Dr I. Torbe, A. J. Wardrop, G. H. Willett, A. J. Young, Dr E. Young.
 

Comments
A very disappointing entry, only 192 in all. A few of you thought it a more difficult puzzle than usual, and it was clear that the clue to UNINFLATED (‘Undine’s ill after swallowing this!’) caused a lot of problems, with quite a number in desperation guessing at UNINFLAMED (presumably on the basis of a flam being something edible). I am still rather puzzled myself as to why it gave so much trouble. Such self-referential clues are not that common and not everyone’s cup of tea, but I still regard this one as sound. To the argument that it contains no definition of the answer I would say that this is implicit in the word ‘this’, and that the unusual nature of the clue is signalled by the use of italics and the exclamation mark at the end. To take another example, would not a clue like ‘Glad net becomes this here’ for TANGLED be regarded as fair and sound? I can see no reason why not, but would welcome further comments, especially if you’re still unhappy about this type of clue? On the plus side there were appreciative comments for a number of my other clues (especially the one for BELT), and even some complimentary remarks about UNINFLATED! Some thought that OFF-THE-RECORD should have been shown as three words but it is given as a hyphenated compound adjective at record in Chambers.
 
A further cause of trouble this month was the clue word itself, and the fact that it appears with different meanings in two separate places within the carry entry in Chambers, something I think some of you failed to spot. This may have been the reason behind the fact that a few entries had CARRION instead, clearly desperation again. When it came to clues submitted I preferred those which treated it as a hyphenated compound to those which dealt with it as a two-word phrasal verb (though there was no harm in referring to this, and the film series to which it is attached as a label) in a subsidiary part of the clue. You may remember that I expressed similar views in the slip when I gave you LET-OFF some time ago. I don’t think this is nit-picking. If I’d been ready to accept clues to the two-word phrase I’d have said so. That said, my attention was drawn to a further meaning of CARRY-ON (as a noun or an adjective) not given in C., applied to airline cabin baggage. This is given in the New Shorter Oxford but I haven’t spotted it anywhere else.
 
Despite all the anguish and pitfalls there were some outstanding clues to savour, and I’m only sorry I unwittingly made things so hard for you all. Perhaps I just had an off day. One suggestion I received was that I produce a ‘model answer clue’ of my own in the slip each month, which ‘would no doubt increase the correspondence and also possibly the number of entrants’. I’m not, I confess, too keen on this. The top clues submitted are always at least as good as and often better than anything I could concoct after scanning all the ideas used by you, and I would not want to encourage the idea that there is one perfect clue to any word beside which all others may be seen as imperfect. I would much prefer to continue making regular comments on clues submitted which seem to me flawed in some way or capable of improvement, with explanations where appropriate.
 
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