AZED CROSSWORD 281

DINOCERAS

1.  C. O. Butcher: A monster long ago dead I once stuck out on the head (d. + anag. + ras).

2.  F. R. Palmer: Once I’d bumps on head, now not wholly visible in bones on right geological formation (anag. + ras, no(w) in dice + r ås, & lit.).

3.  E. A. Beaulah: Old fossil in a state: in love and scared silly about it! (in 0 in anag.).

VHC

J. C. Barnes: Cairn does possibly provide a fossil (anag.).

M. A. Cooper: Wrecking Wyoming homesteads I could have caused scare amongst weedy hominoids (comp. anag. & lit.).

R. M. S. Cork: Strange red coin found on subglacial sandbank: primitive rhino? (anag. + ås).

J. H. Dingwall: Had six bumps up front ages ago – does in car in crash (anag.).

J. A. Fincken: Reissued coin’s a red, a form of rhino spent in America (anag.).

R. J. Hooper: Amiss and I score? With my stumps on the ground I walked long ago (anag.; ref. Dennis A.).

R. Jacks: This animal’s lain in American soil and decayed (comp. anag. & lit.).

W. Jackson: Row over rewriting of a score – something primitive with three horns (din + anag.).

R. E. Kimmons: ‘A son!’ cried out the first of ancient zoological Eocene denizens (anag.; ref. birth of Azed’s son).

C. Loving: Hollywood’s last scenario torn up – giant of the Wild West now fossilized (d + anag.).

H. W. Massingham: Rhino sort of from U S rocks – coins read loosely (anag.).

J. D. Moore: I’d cone complex on head (anag. + ras, & lit.).

M. L. Perkins: Red’s a coin possibly found in a lot of old rhino? (anag.).

D. R. Robinson: ‘Credos in A’ conjure up an old fossil with two horn trios (anag.).

W. K. M. Slimmings: Scared off investing in Ohio I became stony in Wyoming (in O in anag.).

J. F. N. Wedge: Lousy score and I was stumped – delighted diggers! (anag.; archaeologists, Australians).

D. C. Williamson: A sexicorn possibly whereof sign of multiplying should be dead (anag. with d. for x, & lit.).

HC

C. Allen Baker, M. J. Ball, E. J. Burge, D. P. Chappell, Mrs M. P. Craine, A. L. Dennis, C. Eagle, S. F. Edwardson, A. L. Freeman, Mrs J. O. Fuller, F. D. Gardiner, C. P. Grant, J. E. Green, B. Grimshaw, Mrs M. Grinling, C. Havill, Mrs R. Herbert, Dr I. G. Higginbotham, E. M. Hornby, Mrs R. B. Hunt, Capt G. Langham, A. Lawrie, M. D. Laws, A. D. Legge, C. J. Lowe, Dr W. A. Maclure, R. A. Main, L. K. Maltby, D. F. Manley, R. A. Megan, J. P. Mernagh, D. P. M. Michael, C. G. Millin, W. L. Miron, C. J. and R. S. Morse, F. E. Newlove, P. J. Oddy, R. J. Palmer, R. C. Reeves, T. E. Sanders, W. J. M. Scotland, Mrs E. J. Shields, Brig R. F. E. Stoney, F. B. Stubbs, J. C. P. Taylor, D. H. Tompsett, J. R. Tozer, Mrs J. Welford.
 

COMMENTS
About 390 entries for a competition generally agreed to be on the easy side; not so easy however that quite a number weren’t so careless as to enter HASWELL instead of HESWALL. I’ve had to apologise for my rocky geography in the past admittedly but this time I was certain of my location. For one thing my parents happen to live in Heswall! For the record Haswell is in Co. Durham, not in Merseyside. TSOTSIS (lovely word, especially when you look at its derivation) also foiled a few, I don’t know why. TSETSES, the only other possibility, just won’t do, and TSOTSES must have been just carelessness.
 
DINOCERAS gave anagram-fans a field day. I hope I’ll be pardoned for deciding on Mr. Kimmons’s as my favourite in the circumstances, even though the rest of his clue is a little weak and not totally accurate. My wife and I are most grateful for all the kind messages and cards we received on the birth of our son. As one well-wisher remarked he may be the only child to be trained on Chambers from birth!
 
A special word of congratulation to Mr. Butcher for taking first place for the second time in a row I don t think this has happened to anyone else in the Azed series though I think I remember Mr. Michael achieving it with Ximenes. It is not intended to detract from C O B’s achievement if I say that clues on the whole this month were a bit pedestrian. Despite its anagram possibilities the wretched beast was difficult to define wittily (often the key to a really satisfying clue). But there were many new names among the entries and I’m always pleased to welcome newcomers to the fold. By the way, Mr. Butcher’s clue would have won even had it not rhymed. I chose to regard the rhyme as incidental if not coincidental.
 
A brief postscript to my comments last month on expatriates having to go without their Azed. A number of solvers at home hastened to assure me that they far prefer the puzzle being in the Magazine whose arrival is more dependable than that of the paper itself, it seems. The only (and considerable) difference from my point of view of course is that copy is required from me for the magazine at least three months before publication date.