AZED CROSSWORD 362

SEA-SOLDIER

1.  F. P. N. Lake: Do liars see fool in me? (anag. & lit.; “Tell it to the marines”).

2.  C. Allen Baker: I’m jolly well disciplined: I do what’s said – or else (anag.).

3.  C. J. Morse: I’m jolly worn out, society slacker admits (old in S easier).

VHC

Mrs A. R. Bradford: I’ll be needed in the main to combine two units (I in sea solder, & lit.).

M. Coates: Blue, an alternative to red and white (for workers), is jolly (sea soldier; ref. types of ant).

Mrs D. Colley: ’E’s a giddy harumfrodite, an’ ’e’s giddy Rose’s ideal (anag.; ref. Kipling, ‘Seven Seas’: “soldier an’ sailor too”).

A. J. Crow: Is Lear (Ed.) so funny? Jolly! (anag.).

J. H. Dingwall: Ideal to be lost to sight amid rambler roses? ’Twould be jolly! (anag.).

J. D. Foster: Jolly boating? Water’s spiffing – head off from the jetty (sea’s old + (p)ier; old = wonderful).

B. Franco: Does ’e sail when mobilised? Right! (anag. + r, & lit.).

S. Goldie: Mer-man? See this one slide ashore with craft, not with fish’s tail (sea soldier, anag. less h, & lit.).

I. F. Haines: Marine water gets ranker (sea + soldier).

Mrs R. Herbert: Sea-lord! Is ’e drunk? No, just jolly (anag.).

D. J. Macleod: Fighting tar and water amidships with red oil everywhere! (ea in SS + anag.).

H. W. Massingham: Oils mixed with reseda – what Old Masters called green? (anag.; shipmasters; green = inexperienced etc.).

M. Metcalf: Sailor? See him with foot on land in the wars (anag. of sailor see d, & lit.).

N. O’Neill: Eros, ladies? Giddy harumfrodite! (anag.; ref. Kipling, ‘Seven Seas’).

F. R. Palmer: Who’s easier fooled, tricked, taken in? You can tell his lot anything (sold in anag.; “Tell it to the marines”).

R. J. Palmer: Who could be easier to have made to believe something, being taken in? (sold in anag., & lit.; “Tell it to the marines”).

R. F. Pardoe: Pseudo sailor, see, with the heart of a swaddy (anag. incl. d, & lit.).

L. Paton: One of old Prince of Denmark’s swell fantastic Lords, that is (sea + anag. incl. i.e.; P. of D.’s regiment early equivalent of R.M.).

W. H. Pegram: What makes one jolly? Light ale does sir! (anag.).

W. Rodgers: Sir, ale does make one jolly, if properly brewed (anag.).

W. K. M. Slimmings: I’m jolly well tricked – i.e. taken in by catch. (A swell red herring.) (sold i.e. in sear).

A. J. Spencer: Both Tommy and Jack as orderlies lacking heart for promotion (anag. less o).

Mrs W. M. Sunney: Reputedly credulous serviceman sailors deem no end lubberly (anag. less m; “Tell it to the marines”).

D. H. Tompsett: Whose indication might be the blue ensign? (sea soldier, & lit.).

Mrs J. W. Welford: Do sails ever unsettle him around start of voyage? (anag. less v, & lit.).

HC

Rev R. Bamford, Rev C. M. Broun, J. M. Brown, E. J. Burge, R. S. Caffyn, Mrs M. J. Cansfield, E. Chalkley, Mrs M. P. Craine, R. V. Dearden, A. L. Dennis, D. M. Duckworth, R. P. C. Forman, I. Gilmore, A. Golds, C. R. Gumbrell, P. F. Henderson, S. Holgate, R. J. Hooper, E. M. Hornby, J. G. Hull, M. Humpage, B. K. Kelly, P. M. Kelly, N. Kemmer, M. Kissen, Dr D. R. Laney, M. D. Laws, A. D. Legge, J. P. Lester, P. Machin, W. F. Main, C. G. Millin, T. J. Moorey, H. B. Morton, F. E. Newlove, P. Nicolson, B. A. Pike, M. Postlethwaite, K. Reed, A. Renwick, Rear Adm W. T. C. Ridley, L. G. D. Sanders, T. E. Sanders, W. J. M. Scotland, Mrs E. J. Shields, Mrs B. Simmonds, E. W. Steel, F. B. Stubbs, L. E. Thomas, R. Vanlangen, N. W. Ward, A. J. Wardrop, Dr R. L. Wynne.
 

COMMENTS
About 440 entries, but much the biggest crop of mistakes for some time, with many competitors stumbling over one or more of the clues to WHACKY, COOKIE, and NOGS. These were, respectively, ‘Bats likely to hit hard?’, ‘U.S. person that is under doctor’, and ‘Stumps were drawn once’. All the errors for the first had WHACKS, which does all right for ‘bats’ but not the rest of the clue if it’s to be seen as a normal cryptic one. ‘Bats’ of course is here an adjective and the rest of the clue suggests that the word WHACKY might mean ‘likely to whack’, which it doesn’t, hence the question mark. The only variant I had for COOKIE was MOONIE, which mystified me unless it means a devotee of the (to me) somewhat sinister Korean gentleman whose followers proliferate in America. But again my clue can only have been read as a straight definition to lead anyone to MOONIE (which isn’t in Chambers, incidentally). But it was NOGS that claimed the most victims, mostly entering LOGS but with a smattering of DOGS and even FOGS. What I intended was a play on the word ‘stumps’ to suggest the end of a game of cricket. Nog (2) = stump; nog (1) = Norwich strong ale (obs. ) which would presumably have been drawn from the wood. Log-merchants may (questionably) maintain that a log is a stump. They won’t however convince me that Hebrew logs could be talked of as being ‘drawn’ like pints. (‘Two logs of bitter, Solly, and one for yourself’? Surely not!).
 
I think it was a harder-than-average plain, though as always there were those who solved it at a canter and said so. A few wondered if I’d omitted a letter from the anagram in my clue to UPHILLWARD (laboriously hard I pull and pull like this’) thinking that I’d meant an anagram of the three words after laboriously’. Not so. H = hard, and the last two words of the clue are doing double duty, defining the answer and indicating the direction in which the synonym for the second ‘pull’ is to go. As to the clues submitted I again found myself being extra-finicky. I didn’t care for definitions which failed to indicate the distinction between a sea-soldier and any other serviceman (or even man) at sea, and although ‘jolly’ predictably turned up often I preferred it to vaguenesses like ‘man on board’. I again have fault to find with some of the quoted clues too. Mr. Foster’s ‘spiffing’ (= old) is borderline, I’d say; Mr. Goldie’s (very clever) composite anagram requires an ugly hiatus after ‘one’ to make sense; Mr. Massingham’s ‘what’ should really be ‘whom’; Mr. Metcalf’s ‘foot’ is a bit forced even in a down word; Mr. Pardoe’s ‘heart’ is only one of two middle letters (a more serious fault this); and Mr. Spencer’s ‘promotion’ is a slightly unnatural anagram indicator. I mention these blemishes in detail to show that I am aware of them and to warn all competitors to beware of slipshod wording of clues. Mr. Lake’s neat anagram & lit. is a delightful example of simplicity, wit and accuracy in cluing a not very promising word.
 
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