◀  No. 16547 Mar 2004 Clue list No. 1663  ▶

AZED CROSSWORD 1659

SCAREDY-CAT

1.  R. R. Greenfield: I show indecently ready compliance in order to retreat (anag. + C in scat!, & lit.).

2.  Dr I. S. Fletcher: Child without guts, say, re act that’s dodgy (anag. incl. c(hil)d, & lit.).

3.  R. K. Lumsdon: One yellow card? Yes, for doing a heavy tackle (anag. + cat).

VHC

E. J. Burge: Coward? Start of career traced, say, in The Vortex (anag. incl. c; ref. Noel C.).

B. Burton: With this epithet, harshly decry one consumed by urge to run away? (anag. + a in scat, & lit.).

B. Butler: A local drink served up during spell in west country – one with no bottle (a + cyder (rev.), all in scat).

C. J. & M. P. Butler: Craven at Crecy, sad, trembling (anag.; craven noun).

C. A. Clarke: Craven ‘A’ and popular tipple suffering a rise in tax – that’s traditional (A + cyder (rev.), all in scat; ref. cigarettes).

N. C. Dexter: One shaking at Crecy as danger’s beginning? (anag. incl. d, & lit.).

V. Dixon: Cissy, lacking guts: dares act? Contrariwise (anag. incl. c(iss)y, & lit.).

A. G. Fleming: Chicken: after carving it I can make tidy stew with carcase (comp. anag.; carve = distribute).

H. Freeman: Act coward? Yes – I’d do that, emitting cry of anguish (anag. less ow, & lit.).

J. P. Guiver: Chicken dish ready after self-catering? About time (s/c + anag. + ca. t).

C. R. Gumbrell: In raddled decay, star gets chop – no spring chicken (c(hop) in anag.).

D. Harris: Craven aimed especially at kids, namely, ready to broadcast around start of teatime (sc. + anag. + ca. t; ref. John C.’s ‘Newsround’).

R. Hesketh: Giving out cry acted as baby without bottle (anag.).

D. F. Manley: Chicken ready cooked in Tesco can somehow save one being bothered (anag. in anag. less anag.).

C. G. Millin: Dicey acts are out of order, for me that is (comp. anag. incl. i.e., & lit.).

T. J. Moorey: Street shopping arcade loaded with latest in Arabic jewellery is a sook (anag. incl. c, y, all in St; shop = imprison; sook1,2).

R. J. Palmer: Maybe worried character at Dorothy’s rear bursting into sort of singing (cared + y in scat, & lit.; ref. the Cowardly Lion in ‘The Wizard of Oz’).

R. Phillips: I’ve no Ginger – I’ll leave Astaire dancing with Cyd C. (anag. less I; ref. G. Rogers, Fred A., C. Charisse).

A. Plumb: Jazz singing embodying clubs ready to play funk (C + anag., all in scat).

N. G. Shippobotham: See ‘cowardy custard’ trembling? Use this word! (comp. anag. & lit.).

D. H. Tompsett: Was worried in the outskirts of Sydney about first sign of the dingo (cared in S, y + ca. t).

J. R. Tozer: Hybrid cycads are primarily the spineless type (anag. + t).

Dr E. Young: Is he worried in plane without more opening of tots? (cared in syca(more) + t, & lit.).

HC

W. G. Arnott, D. Arthur, D. & N. Aspland, B. Balfour, M. Barley, E. A. Beaulah, J. R. Beresford, D. J. Bexson, L. W. Blott, Mrs A. Boyes, C. J. Brougham, Rev Canon C. M. Broun, Dr J. Burscough, A. & J. Calder, Mrs M. J. Cansfield, P. Cargill, B. Cheesman, D. C. Clenshaw, M. Coates, E. Cross, G. Cuthbert, D. J. Dare-Plumpton, H. Davidson, Dr R. W. Grant, J. Grimes, D. V. Harry, M. Hider, A. Hodgson, Mrs S. G. Johnson, J. P. Lester, J. C. Leyland, P. R. Lloyd, C. Loving, Mrs J. Mackie, W. F. Main, P. McKenna, K. Milan, C. J. Morse, W. Murphy, T. D. Nicholl, D. J. R. Ogilvie, F. R. Palmer, D. Pendrey, M. L. Perkins, G. Perry, Ms F. Plumb, J. T. Price, D. Price Jones, W. Ransome, D. R. Robinson, D. P. Shenkin, D. J. Short, R. W. Stephenson, P. L. Stone, P. Thacker, K. Thomas, Mrs J. E. Townsend, Dr A. J. Varney, M. Wainwright, L. Ward, A. J. Wardrop, R. J. Whale, M. D. Whitaker, Ms B. Widger, G. H. Willett, D. C. Williamson.
 

Comments
284 entries, no mistakes. Favourite clue of the month: that for TOPEK (‘I’m less shivery with this? It’s made from eskimo pelts’) with 17 mentions, followed by those for MACAWS, RACY and STEP-IN, all with 10; 24 clues were mentioned at least once. (My own favourite was SCHOLAR’S MATE.) The popularity of my TOPEK clue is interesting, as I myself had a twinge of unease about it; as a ‘comp. anag. & lit.’ it is clearly pleasing, but being ultra-self-critical I think the second anagram indicator (‘made from’) is redundant, though required for the literal reading of the clue. None of you expressed similar reservations, so perhaps I worry unduly, though these small details can sometimes make a difference when I’m judging your clues. Here, for example, is a nearly excellent ‘& lit.’ clue submitted this month: ‘This case’d cry at trifles’. Very neat, except that in the cryptic reading ‘trifles’ has to operate as a transitive verb meaning ‘plays around with’. Chambers acknowledges the use of ‘trifle’ as a transitive verb, but neither of the two senses given (one of them Shakespearian) justifies its use as an anagram indicator. What is required is ‘trifles with’ but this would destroy the literal reading of the clue.
 
In general you seem to have found the puzzle a bit easier than average, offering no special problems. Hope Lange in the ELAN clue is an American TV actress (no relation, I think, of the film actress Jessica Lange) and not very well known, I grant you, but that didn’t matter for solving the clue. I could even have invented her. Her name was vaguely familiar to me and I was able to check on her in a US reference book I sometimes use, called Crossword Proper Name Finder, compiled by one John C. Plankinton and published by Creative Arts Book Company of Berkeley, California. Its emphasis is heavily American; there is a a real need for a good modem international dictionary of proper names, though such a thing would have to be very large and would require regular updating. The nearest thing to what I have in mind is the 3-volume New Century Cyclopedia of Names, edited by the great US lexicographer Clarence Barnhart and published in America in 1958 by Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc. It’s been out of print for some time, I think, but can be found in secondhand book shops if you’re lucky.
 
I’ve been asked to explain why I dislike ‘perhaps’ but accept ‘possibly’ as anagram indicators (see my comments in last month’s slip). I’ll try to deal with this next time, though I have a distinct recollection of having set out my reasons in a slip some years ago. I’ll look back in my records but if anyone can point me to the relevant issue I’d be grateful.
 
A final footnote on SAPHENA: it was Dr Young, not Mr Harry, who told me about the surgeon with the yacht called Saphena, and he was a general surgeon (not a neurosurgeon), who became wealthy from stripping varicose (saphenous) veins.
 

 

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Solution