◀  No. 3713 Jun 1979 Clue list No. 379  ▶

AZED CROSSWORD 375

SPREATHE

1.  N. C. Dexter: To chap ’ee wi’ t’ sharp wind (anag.; wind = twist).

2.  R. J. Hooper: ‘Asperate’ gives one this, not ‘aspirate’, silly! (i.e. anag. incl. H less a, & lit.).

3.  F. R. Palmer: What sun and wind will make you (get out west for a bit of patois!) (s + wreathe with p for w, & lit.).

VHC

R. H. Adey: Get into rough from the tee and par’s hard, you’ll find (anag. incl. h; rough n. = rough state).

C. Allen Baker: There’s Pa with a switch; rough for some! (anag.; rough v.).

W. Barrow: Chap, broadcaster, translating the German to English (spreader with the for der).

D. P. Chappell: Cornish chap must have yen for well cooked pasty here (anag. less y).

Mrs D. Colley: A hepster is incorrect term for ‘country’ chap (anag.; ref. country music).

J. H. Dingwall: Chap starts to sweat and pants. Heater requires adjustment (s p + anag.).

Dr J. F. Grimshaw: Local chap spelling for bee in whisper (breathe with sp. for b).

G. B. Higgins: Blown peter has chap in Dartmoor (anag.).

M. D. Laws: Somerset chap? Arguably, he set par for puzzling (anag.; ref. Ximenes’s middle name).

A. D. Legge: What can thicky icy blast do? Rasp thee cruelly (anag.).

D. F. Manley: Chap in Devon? Rapt, he burst out with: ‘End of bowls first; Spain afterwards!’ (s + anag. + E; ref. Sir F. Drake at Plymouth).

H. W. Massingham: What a petersham inside out might do? (anag. of (a) petersha(m), & lit.).

L. May: Chap with no children has not begun to live (s.p. + (b)reathe).

D. P. M. Michael: Hideous past and here is chap en route for Dartmoor (anag.).

C. G. Millin: Somerset chap? That’s me disguised with abbreviated smock (comp. anag. incl. smoc(k)).

J. J. Moore: Pier that is cast in sea by the rough south-westerly (p(i.e.)r in sea + the).

C. J. Morse: Chap from Devon mixed with dissolute company in Thorpe case (comp. anag. incl. co.; ref. Jeremy T., Norman Scott).

F. E. Newlove: What’ll do this? The asper winds (anag. & lit.).

Miss I. M. Raab: Thee’ll ’ave ter wraxle wi’ rasp ter doen thicky (anag.).

W. J. M. Scotland: Make rash – with pee around tot’s rear? (t in anag., & lit.).

T. A. J. Spencer: Chap, if nursing broken cuit, needs therapeutics badly (comp. anag.).

F. B. Stubbs: With outlying villages neglected, Dorset, perhaps, cut up rough (anag. less dorps).

HC

Miss M. R. Adcock, C. J. Anderson, T. Anderson, F. D. H. Atkinson, R. L. Baker, A. Bottoms, Mrs A. Boyes, Mrs M. J. Cansfield, D. Clark, A. J. Crow, R. P. Dowling, P. Drummond, P. S. Elliott, C. J. Feetenby, A. D. Foote, R. P. C. Forman, I. D. Foster, B. Franco, O. H. Frazer, A. L. Freeman, H. Frost, F. D. Gardiner, R. Garnett, C. C. M. Giffin, N. C. Goddard, S. Goldie, M. Goodyear, J. Grainge, Dr R. A. Hardman, D. V. Harry, S. Holgate, E. M. Holroyd, Mrs W. Hulme, A. H. Jones, Miss F. S. Kemp, R. E. Kimmons, F. P. N. Lake, R. J. Lawrence, C. W. Laxton, J. Lindsay, C. Loving, L. K. Maltby, W. L. Miron, J. D. Moore, R. A. Mostyn, R. J. Palmer, B. A. Pike, Mrs A. Price, T. Proctor, Dr A. I. Rees, Rear Adm W. T. C. Ridley, E. G. Riley, N. Roles, H. R. Sanders, T. E. Sanders, Miss B. Skevington, W. K. M. Slimmings, J. J. Ward, D. C. Williamson.
 

COMMENTS
532 entries and scarcely any mistakes that I spotted. My clue to LEAPDAY had a number of you fooled, thinking I had intended but failed to indicate an anagram of ‘pedal’, whereas I did intend an abbreviation thereof inside LEAD + AY (‘March may follow one – pedal in front, always). Should one always indicate an abbreviation as such? Difficult to say, categorically. Many are so well known as scarcely to need such extra help for the solver. As often in such cases I use as my yardstick the degree of difficulty I can reasonably expect solvers to cope with. As an example of the dilemma I sometimes face in this context, I was much taken with Mr. Forman’s H.C. clue: ‘Chap with no kids must take wife off coil’ (s.p. + (w)reathe). w = wife isn’t in Chambers but it is in the COD, and in Webster’s, and it’s probably just as common as w women(’s). What finally persuaded me to make the clue H.C. rather than V.H.C. was actually nothing to do with the acceptability or otherwise of its use of an abbreviation not in C, but the feeling that one doesn’t say ‘off the coil’ as one says ‘off the pill’, for instance. The two methods of contraception are fundamentally different. Anyway, enough about birth control. A similar question arises, however, when a word like SPREATHE is to be clued. ‘(S. W. dial.)’ says Chambers. Where in the SW., one asks oneself, and does that mean it’s not found elsewhere? And, most importantly, how far should the clue-writer go to indicate this restricted usage? The only place I’d ever encountered the word in print was in Peter Nichols’s play A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (not a noticeably west country play though the author I think comes from Bristol), where it is used in the sense of Mr. Scotland’s clue above. (There seems no doubt, incidentally, that ‘to spreathe’ is invariably used in connection with skin.) And whereas dialect dictionaries point to its use in counties as far east as Berkshire and Hampshire (specifically excluding Devon and Cornwall) I am reasonably confident that its use will have spread even further and consequently was prepared to be tolerant to those who gave it no regional label in their clues.
 
Predictably enough, about seventy per cent of clues used the word ‘chap’ as part of the definition. This made judging difficult, but it’s noticeable that in a big entry it was by and large the experienced regulars who came out on top, by managing to inject their clues with that extra bit of wit and precision that makes the difference between passable clues and good ones.
 
I’m glad to hear that the tie has been well received. Fresh supplies are still expected as I write but I should have enough and to spare before long. It was very pleasant to see so many on show at the recent dinner to celebrate the Listener crossword No. 2,500 where my wife and I enjoyed meeting a number of old friends.
 

 

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