AZED CROSSWORD 443

STEEPLECROWN

1.  N. C. Dexter: Enter low space carelessly – and you’ll knock one off! (anag. less a, & lit.).

2.  N. C. Goddard: Cone of beans when ground won’t perc. lees! (anag.).

3.  D. Ashcroft: La Bretonne wears it to church to confess after having let crepes crumble (anag. + own).

VHC

C. Allen Baker: What’s high and possibly worn on the head of a lad bottom of the Remove and a bit of a clot? (steep + l e c + anag., & lit.; dunce’s cap).

E. J. Burge: Truncated Welsh cornet in fashion round top of eisteddfod participant’s head? (e p in anag. incl. Wels(h), & lit.).

S. Caffyn: Might make person’s head swelter, cone like this (anag. incl. p, & lit.).

G. H. Clarke: Piece spelt with two E’s at first? Wrong! Wear this hat! (anag. + crown).

A. J. Crow: See pert clown mock in pointed fashion (anag.).

A. L. Freeman: See pert clown got up – in this? (anag. & lit.).

E. J. and S. D. Griew: Absurdly high exotic article on conjuror’s head, worn with magical effect (steep + le + c + anag., & lit.).

V. G. Henderson: What cornered simpleton is sporting – could be this hat with ‘D’ on rim (comp. anag. & lit.; dunce’s hat).

J. G. Hull: Sort of conical chimney pot? Take sweep to clean one out if fouled up (anag. incl. r less a).

R. Jacks: Note Peel wound in county up north is what soars over brow (te + anag., all in Worcs (rev.) + N).

R. E. Kimmons: High, loftily extended cone initially worn religiously (steep + l e c + anag., & lit; religious = very exact).

F. P. N. Lake: Whateffer makes we Celts prone to be represented in this? (anag. & lit.; Welsh pron.).

M. D. Laws: Let new poser struggle with the acme in crosswords – Ximenes’ victims had to wear it! (anag. incl. c; Inquisition victims wore s., see hat in Brewer).

J. C. Leyland: See pert clown perform in this? (anag. & lit.).

W. F. Main: Dunce’s cap, for example, is difficult to suffer interminably with honour (steep le(t) crown).

D. F. Manley: We respect no learner sporting this (anag. incl. L, & lit.; dunce’s cap).

C. G. Millin: Pointed cap a pupil holding English in poor respect needs to have (L E in anag. + own).

R. A. Mostyn: In the crew, one slept uneasily – definitely not a boater (anag.).

F. R. Palmer: What’s adorned Welsh crone’s pate? This has (comp. anag. & lit.).

R. J. Palmer: Disgraceful ‘twerp’s cone’ covering heads of lazers erstwhile? (l e in anag., & lit.).

E. W. Richart: Crept low and seen anyhow! It’s that tall hat (anag.).

T. E. Sanders: Capital investment for the not so bright acquired by false pretences combined with low cunning (anag.).

A. D. Scott: Might I be high on the heads of little educated chaps and worn in disgrace? (steep + l e c + anag., & lit.).

W. K. M. Slimmings: This, with nary a halo worn, would do for a crone’s Hallowe’en party (comp. anag. & lit.).

M. H. E. Watson: Witchcraft makes crone sweep ends of rat tail into it (anag. incl. t l, & lit.).

Dr E. Young: I’ll go on head of party – up to a point! (Bluff Jim giving T.U.C. boss heart?) (steep + Crow in Len; ref. J. Crow, J. Callaghan, L. Murray).

HC

W. Anderson, D. W. Arthur, Miss C. Bessex, A. J. Bulman, E. Chalkley, C. A. Clarke, M. Coates, J. H. Dingwall, M. G. Elliott, Dr I. S. Fletcher, C. Frean, S. Goldie, Mrs K. Goodwin, M. Greenwood, G. Gregory, B. Hancock, R. B. Harling, B. Harvey, J. Henderson, G. Johnstone, A. H. Jones, N. Kemmer, J. Lawrence, C. J. Lowe, M. A. Macdonald-Cooper, Rev W. P. Manahan, T. J. Moorey, W. Murphy, J. J. Murtha, Dr P. Owen, S. L. Paton, W. H. Pegram, J. T. Price, C. P. Rea, A. Renwick, C. W. Robins, W. J. M. Scotland, Mrs E. J. Shields, F. B. Stubbs, J. B. Sweeting, D. H. Tompsett, D. V. B. Unwin, Mrs M. P. Webber, R. J. Whale, D. C. Williamson, R. G. Wilson.
 

COMMENTS
417 entries, of which quite a number (40 or so) contained the odd mistake of WRYES for WRIES. Doubtless the former might have been found as an obsolete spelling before spelling became standardized but that seems no reason to ignore the standard modern formation. A few of you didn’t understand my clues to SORROW and UNDERNEATH. In case the notes were not sufficiently revealing the first was based on the old rhyme about magpies (see magpie in Brewer) beginning ‘One’s sorrow, two’s mirth,’ or sometimes ‘One for sorrow, two for joy’. UNDERNEATH is DERN inside UNEATH, an unlikely-looking word of some antiquity (but not apparently obsolete) in C. under UN-. Apologies, by the way, about the missing bar. This was corrected in proof and then religiously uncorrected by the printer. O ichabod!
 
What to make of STEEPLE-CROWN? Hats such as those worn by Inquisition victims (see Brewer again, under hat), witches, dunces, Welsh ladies, Breton ladies etc. all seemed fair game. Policemen’s helmets 1 couldn’t accept. I doubt whether one would ever compare one to a steeple, or vice versa. It was important to emphasize the extra height or special shape of steeple-crowns in cluing the word. Definitions which used simply ‘hat’, ‘headgear’ or the like struck me as vague and unadventurous. Here are a few other examples of unsuccessful clues, with notes which some may find helpful. ‘Worn by one with lowest Marks & Spencer towel – negligee.’ ‘Worn... etc.’ does not to me suggest a noun. ‘Negligee’ is made feminine purely to suggest a garment. And what is a low towel? ‘High hat will select power point.’ Pretty meaningless, really. No anagram indicator. And I’ve never liked ‘point’ to mean one of the (many) compass-points. ‘Expensive the French bird, no? Nothing less than highest fashion for her.’ ‘Than’ becomes superfluous in the cryptic reading of the clue: and ‘for her’ is unnecessarily prescriptive. There is nothing exclusively feminine about the STEEPLE-CROWN. ‘Headgear, of soft English steel, worn on top of head.’ See my comment about ‘headgear’ above. And ‘top of head’ for CROWN is too close to the literal meaning to be effective as a cryptic indication. ‘Clown’s mid-performance tepee shaped hat.’ I don’t care for ‘mid-performance’ = R (any more than I would for midnight = G, or even, God help us, middle = L). Otherwise this is a reasonable clue. ‘Hat’ will do of course, since the rest of the clue adds the supplementary ‘& lit.’ definition. ‘What’s high on a flier before the onset of November?’ Very clever attempted ‘& lit.’ A bit too clever, alas. The reference is to a witch at Hallowe’en. But ‘what’s high’ really is too vague a definition of STEEPLE, and ‘flier’ only marginally less so for CROW. A good try, though.