◀  No. 6707 Apr 1985 Clue list No. 679  ▶

AZED CROSSWORD 675

CONSTERNATE

1.  Dr I. S. Fletcher: Cannot steer when sick render low (anag.).

2.  M. A. Macdonald-Cooper: What flag day will do to Aberdonian (embarrass Scot with a tenner)? (anag.).

3.  P. J. Halse: Being beheaded concentrates wonderfully; but may —— you! (anag. less c).

VHC

C. Allen Baker: Cat – one mewing and lashing tail gets put out (stern in anag.).

W. G. Arnott: Pound Cantos: ‘Enter here, wreak hope’s abandonment’ (anag.; ref. Ezra P. and Dante).

R. L. Baker: Dreadfully scare one with TNT? (anag. & lit.).

Dr J. Burscough: So upset one can’t rest? (anag. & lit.).

P. Cargill: Steer cannot? Poor cow! (anag.).

M. Coates: Take aback to the core and at once upset (stern in anag., & lit.; stern2 vb.).

Mrs D. Foster: To dismay one, scare with T.N.T. exploding (anag.).

O. H. Frazer: Those speaking against the Trinity at start of Easter cause dismay (cons tern at E).

N. C. Goddard: One can’t rest – blasted alarm! (anag.).

J. F. Grimshaw: ‘Appal’? Here you’ll see apple seller’s penning name new to English! (n in coster + n at E).

R. J. Hooper: Prisoner’s on trial in connection with leaflets creating alarm (con’s ternate; trial2).

J. P. Lester: Swerving? Can steer: not to worry (anag.).

R. K. Lumsdon: Put out, put on, put back, put away (con stern ate; stern2 vb.).

Rev W. P. Manahan: To disconcert those serving behind bars soak up neat rum (cons + ret (rev.) + anag.).

D. McKie: Rest? One can’t possibly for dismay (anag.).

C. G. Millin: Make one jittery with TNT scare? (anag. & lit.).

J. D. Moore: The effect of people having a taste of porridge on such as fairy-tale bears? To —— (cons ternate; ref. ‘Goldilocks’, 3 Bears; porridge = prison life).

A. C. Morrison: There being no entr’actes in play will cause dismay (anag.).

C. J. Morse: Fitful rest one can’t disturb (anag.).

F. E. Newlove: Badly upset, one can’t rest properly (anag.).

R. J. Palmer: Upset – one can’t rest being so (anag.).

A. J. Redstone: Entrances to works: and what pickets do to scabs there (anag.).

L. Rogers: Alarm fitted to entrances (anag.).

H. R. Sanders: Alarm – off course – cannot steer! (anag.).

W. K. M. Slimmings: Mess on street can make chaps fall (anag.; see chapfallen).

M. H. E. Watson: Navratilova’s first heavy slices cover England’s No. 1 in dismay (N stern in coat E; Martina N.).

W. F. N. Wedge: So upset, one can’t rest (anag. & lit.).

HC

D. W. Arthur, M. Barley, E. A. Beaulah, Mrs A. Blanchard, Mrs A. R. Bradford, Rev C. M. Broun, M. D. Cooke, M. Earle, C. J. Feetenby, D. S. Fielker, H. Freeman, F. D. Gardiner, G. Gargan, A. K. Gregory, T. K. Harrison, D. V. Harry, P. F. Henderson, J. Hicks, Dr I. G. Higginbotham, W. Jackson, Mrs D. B. Jenkinson, C. W. Laxton, J. H. C. Leach, J. C. Leyland, C. J. Lowe, D. F. Manley, H. S. Mason, H. W. Massingham, L. May, T. J. Moorey, D. S. Nagle, S. H. Olorenshaw, W. H. Pegram, Mrs E. M. Phair, D. Price Jones, A. Rivlin, C. E. Rogers, L. G. D. Sanders, T. E. Sanders, A. D. Scott, B. D. Smith, J. G. Stubbs, J. B. Sweeting, R. C. Teuton, M. Woolf, Dr E. Young.
 

COMMENTS
377 entries, no noticeable mistakes. I am much pressed for time this month so must be brief. The clue-word offered many possibilities – perhaps too many – especially for anagrams, and its meaning was also sufficiently general to allow much freedom in the definition parts of clues. (The sense of ‘cow’, ‘subdue’, ‘cast down’ worried me a bit at first since my gut-feeling about consternation is that it implies mental disturbance and turmoil rather than dejection. However the various synonym dictionaries I consulted persuaded me of the acceptability of the broader interpretation.) As always, cluing a verb created its own problems: a fair number also overlooked or ignored the fact that this one is transitive. Near-synonyms like ‘dismay’ and ‘alarm’ are useful here in that they can be both transitive verbs and abstract nouns. This actually raises an interesting question about general principles of clue-writing: to what extent is it fair to disguise the grammatical function of the word clued? Can the defining word in a clue be viewed as an isolated element capable of belonging to any of the grammatical classes covered by its dictionary entry, or should its syntactic function in the clue as a whole be a pointer to the part of speech required by the answer? It is certainly a well-established convention for cryptic clue-writers to exploit the convenient grammatical ambiguity of many English words, and I do it myself as much as anyone, though I admit to occasional worries that it can be taken too far. I shall return to this question in future slips, but for now it might be worth pondering again on what Afrit actually meant by his often-quoted dictum: ‘I need not mean what I say, but I must say what I mean.’ Can meaning exist independently of syntax?
 
There were a few justified grumbles about my recent non-competition Misprints puzzle which had an unfair preponderance of misprinted letters in one word. This was pure carelessness on my part and I shall make sure they are evenly spread throughout the grid in similar puzzles in future.
 

 

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