AZED CROSSWORD 1596

GENISTA (Definition of Anagram)

1.  N. Connaughton: Is bagged by the chap first to arrive? (seating; is in gent + a, & lit.).

2.  C. J. Brougham: Reeling at function after good food and drink (ingesta; g + at sine (all rev.)).

3.  R. J. Hooper: Dope – taking it’s a crazy course, opposite of wise men’s (easting; gen + anag.).

VHC (extra prizes)

D. Appleton: Acquire a box brownie, moving from Ilford to Fuji? (easting; nis in get a; ref. makes of camera film).

D. Arthur: Joshing is primarily tongue in cheek (teasing; is t in gena).

Mrs M. J. Cansfield: Geats fashioned to admit metal (ingates; Ni in anag., & lit.).

A. G. Fleming: More than one way in which dominic may use information is a little lacking in depth (ingates; gen is ta(d)).

Dr I. S. Fletcher: Itinerant isn’t out of place in New Age (tsigane; anag. in anag.).

H. Freeman: Implant of collagen is tarty act of titillation (teasing; hidden).

Dr J. Gillies: Sexual arousal – for this, some androgen is taken (teasing; hidden).

C. R. Gumbrell: Core of Lavengro? It’s provided, in substance, by a gypsy (tsigane; en in gist + a; ref. book by George Borrow).

P. F. Henderson: Chap travelling round is a gypsy (tsigane; is in gent + a).

J. C. Leyland: Foundation garment short of room – bust is pinched (seating; is in anag. less rm).

P. W. Marlow: Good tennis (not one sign of nerves) played by one such as Davenport (seating; g + anag. less n + a; ref. Lindsay D., US tennis player).

C. G. Millin: In panto, spirit and leading man appear endlessly bantering (teasing; geni(e) + sta(r)).

C. J. Morse: The way Magi went home with information is half legend (easting; gen is ta(le)).

R. Phillips: Spirits singularly active round heart of Orkneys? (tangies; n in geist a, & lit.).

Mrs V. M. Riley: Places dope on palm, inhaling bit of smoke (seating; gen + s in ita).

A. Roth: Some pathogen is taking nourishment from the alimentary canal (ingesta; hidden).

D. M. Stanford: Chap with good instincts one gathers is not going west (easting; is in gent a).

C. W. Thomas: Is a bit of ‘tongue in cheek’ annoying? (teasing; is t in gena).

D. H. Tompsett: ‘From the East’, carol about origin of Epiphany, cheers spirits (tangies; E in sing (rev.) + ta; ref. ‘We Three Kings’).

R. J. Whale: First book – it’s a must for the Euro-traveller (tsigane; Gen. + anag.; must⁴).

HC

D. Ashcroft, M. Barley, J. R. Beresford, Rev Canon C. M. Broun, E. J. Burge, B. Burton, C. J. & M. P. Butler, D. Campbell, H. Casson, B. Cheesman, C. A. Clarke, E. Cross, G. Cuthbert, L. J. Davenport, E. V. Defley, V. Dixon, W. Duffin, R. Fishleigh, E. G. Fletcher, N. C. Goddard, R. Griffin, J. P. Guiver, R. J. Heald, R. Hesketh, Mrs D. B. Jenkinson, B. Jones, E. C. Lance, C. Loving, W. F. Main, D. F. Manley, J. McGhee, R. Murdoch, R. J. Palmer, J. Pearce, D. Pendrey, J. T. Price, H. R. Sanders, M. Sanderson, D. P. Shenkin, Mrs E. J. Shields, N. G. Shippobotham, R. Stagles, Mrs J. E. Townsend, A. P. Vick, P. J. Wagstaffe, B. Webb, W. B. Wendt, Dr M. C. Whelan, Ms B. J. Widger, D. C. Williamson, M. P. Young.
 

Comments
314 entries: mistakes included a fair number with TACHOMETRIC for TACHYMETRIC, and a smaller number (but including some ‘big’names) with ILIAC for ILEAC. The first of these errors must have resulted from guesswork (i.e. failure to spot the anagram McCARTHYITE), but the second must have been inadvertence, the five-letter anagram ALICE (as distinct from CILIA) being a lot easier to spot and more readily arrived at from the rest of the clue.
 
This seems to have offered about the right level of difficulty for a Christmas puzzle. The theme was an idea I’d used once before (‘Easter Teaser’, No. 1,402) but I was anxious to see whether I could make every clue a one-word anagram this time, and duly satisfied to have achieved this (albeit with the slight fudges at CONTEH and ILL MET). The grid was built round the four long anagrams, for which, as for the puzzle as a whole, I was indebted to Chambers Anagrams, though it still took quite a time to construct. Its weakness as a format is of course that the puzzle can be completed without solving the anagrams. This was where TACHOMETRIC proved to be an awkward (and unintentional) red herring. Quite a few of you also commented that the downs were generally more difficult to solve than the acrosses. I also may have inadvertently confused some of you by adding to the preamble the sentence about the direction in the grid assumed by the wording relating to non-entered words. This I included to cover myself against the possible charge that a word or part of a word was described as going ‘up’, say, not ‘back’, when it never actually appeared in the grid at all. Unnecessary, perhaps, and certainly irrelevant to your task.
 
I gave you GENISTA because-of its wide range of anagrams. It was incidentally a Printers Devilry clue word in Ximenes competition No. 239 in July 1953, for those with long memories.) I’ve spotted eleven of these so far, including two proper names and an archaism: EASTING, EATINGS, ESTAING (French town), GAINEST, GITANES (cigarettes), INGATES, INGESTA, SEATING, TANGIES, TEASING, TSIGANE. Any others? Not all of these were used, though most were, at least once. In constructing your clue, it was important not to make the cryptic indication of GENISTA a straight anagram, since this could equally refer to the defined word, effectively negating the whole point of this clue type. Linking words implying that the cryptic part and the definition part referred to the same word were also unacceptable. A fair number of competitors fell foul of one or other of these weaknesses, or both. That said, there were lots of beauties to admire. Many included references to Christmas (there being none in the puzzle itself, aside from its title). One or two used EASTING to indicate the journey of the Magi to the manger, but surely they travelled westward from the Orient, only following easterly course on their way home?
 
I was picked up by a couple of you for apparently coining the word ‘appropriacy’in last month’s slip. Sure enough, I can’t find it in any of my dictionaries, though I could swear that it’s in use in the specialized field of linguistics, of which I have had some experience. Can anyone support this? Anyway, if it doesnl exist, perhaps it should! Many of you will also he interested to know that Times Books have published a paperback collection of sixty Listener crosswords from The Times, edited and introduced by Ross Beresford (ISBN 0-00-714632-9, price £7.99).
 
Finally, a sad farewell to Sidney (S. L.) Paton, of whose death in October I have only just learnt. He was a keen Azed and Ximenes solver. for many years, and first prizewinner in the very first Azed competition, with ‘Before the heart ensnares one, one likes to go on a binge’ for ORGIAST. The regular comments accompanying his competition entries were always cheerful, by no means always about crosswords, and revealed a man devoted to his family, who will greatly miss him, as do we all.