AZED CROSSWORD 57

MINARET (Printer’s Devilry)

1.  Mrs N. J. Jarman: Bunter-whine starts with ja/w open: “Cease – condone – Wharton, please!” (tarts, jam, twopence).

2.  N. C. Dexter: I ran into a tree first time; examiner expressed hope I’d run into for/est.

3.  S. Goldie: With those legs, the things to get mad – a/rousers!

VHC

C. Allen Baker: We must support our tea/-urn fixture – it’s very shaky.

T. Anderson: I/re at solving Azed’s joke clues.

G. Aspin: For lack of sta/iring runners were pulled up.

C. O. Butcher: Like the coat? I’ve r/obes, hot at all times (coati).

Mrs M. P. Craine: Electorate saw the/ories proving inadequate.

P. Drummond: I fi/re at enemy advance.

Mrs J. O. Fuller: Mad, a/iring robe with bloody spots, Lady Macbeth!

D. V. Harry: Honest folk deserve respect; such men as a/re, get ours (Amin, tregetours).

C. H. Hudson: April devilry calls for sta/r acting of month essential.

F. G. Illingworth: P/rospective lecture surveys history, past and present.

G. Johnstone: One tortured with tor/ches (tormina = gripes).

R. E. Kimmons: Considering the conditions, they maintain the/ories fair to the underprivileged.

I. M. K. Lowe: I fi/re at my foes, gaining ground.

M. Newman: Those with religious thoughts may ponder the/reat.

F. R. Palmer: Greek expert’s research in se/a – so rig in; some gas will follow (eta’s, omega’s).

M. L. Perkins: Can you see – these a/re adjoining parts of the tyre.

J. Revill: Shadow Cabinet ousted those who did the/ories.

Brig R. F. E. Stoney: It’s pretty cool for students to demand se/cond rugs.

F. B. Stubbs: No vices? Take vows and keep the/reat.

D. J. Thorpe: What man now finds mad a/rousers.

B. J. Warren: I’ll miss company I fi/re at.

Rev C. D. Westbrook: Soldiers with drums used to beat the/reat.

Dr R. L. Wynne: Should the Romans attack, the Parthians will weaken the/reat.

HC

G. G. Arthur, Col P. S. Baines, M. J. Balfour, R. T. Baxter, T. E. Bell, M. J. Bevan, Dr R. F. Bishop, E. Chalkley, J. Coleby, A. J. Duncum, T. H. East, B. Franco, Dr E. Gallagher, A. B. Gardner, J. Gill, J. A. M. Graham, R. B. Harling, E. M. Hornby, G. M. Hornby, J. Horwood, Dr E. B. Kraus, L. F. Leason, Mrs B. Lewis, C. J. Lowe, Mrs S. M. Macpherson, D. F. Manley, H. S. Mason, H. W. Massingham, L. May, Mrs E. McFee, P. Moreland, C. J. Morse, A. M’Intyre, T. N. Nesbitt, F. E. Newlove, Dr R. J. Palmer, S. L. Paton, W. H. Pegram, Mrs E. M. Phair, D. G. Putnam, E. G. Riley, T. E. Sanders, Dr W. I. D. Scott, J. Smith, J. R. Stocks, G. A. Tomlinson, J. Treleaven, M. A. Vernon, E. F. Watling, J. R. Whitelegg, T. Wightman.
 

Comments
220 entries, 40 incorrect, mostly through failure to spot the leg-pull. X’s famous April fool a number of years ago foxed all but forty entrants and I was certainly hoping for more than that. Those of you who tumbled to it seem to have appreciated it as legitimate if extra-devilish. I nearly called the puzzle ‘Poisson d’Avrilerie’ but decided that might give the game away too soon. Also I was careful in the preamble to talk of ‘answers to the clues’ rather than ‘words to be entered’ to avoid charges of misrepresentation. For those who suspected that those two clues were purely ornamental red herrings, their answers were MONTH and CLOT (hint, hint!). Some of you fancied APRIL was the genuine answer to 11 across, but what an unsuccessful fiery, soggy Capri lake might be challenges the imagination. Also CONE will fit 13, but not as well as CLOT, I feel.
 
For my part composing diagram and clues proved less difficult than I’d feared, merely time-consuming. The least tractable words by far were SIRIASIS and BIOTIN. If anyone can think of better alternatives for my rather contrived clues I’d love to hear them. (Incidentally there wasn’t an S missing in the former – it has to be read ‘a quasi-ria’s [flood] isn’t’.) I could think of no other way of dividing them.
 
As for your entries, ideas therein were nicely varied. Vermin abounded and a certain Vera King figured prominently. There were fallers at all of the three hazards which lie in wait for unwary PD clue-writers: (i) constructing sentences in which the word to be clued, when inserted and/or extracted, begins and/or ends at a word-break; (ii) sacrificing the sense of the undevilled to that of the devilled clue; and (iii) over-use of devilry in long, often irrelevant persiflage, which can be fun but contributes nothing to the clue. Some of you also contrived to produce P.D. clues which defined MINARET. Clever, but not really necessary. No extra marks, I fear.
 
After the Christmas puzzle and now this I must clearly behave myself for a while. By my reckoning 1 April next falls on a Sunday in 1979, which gives me plenty of time to dream up some new tomfoolery, though I dare say the temptation to tantalize in some other way before then may well prove too strong!
 
Two small apologies. Misprints occasionally creep into the announcement of prize-winners in the Observer because these details have to be read over the phone. Please forgive any unintentional mutilation of names. Secondly, my clue to MORIGEROUS the other week assumed a hard g. According to C. it is soft. I grovel.