AZED CROSSWORD 908

INDIGO (Printer’s Devilry)

1.  V. G. Henderson: Captain’s rum deal: I’m used to occasional short, pitching ro/wer might say (ref. David (D.I.) Gower).

2.  J. M. Brown: Playboy’s head hurts through drinking – g/uts ache – twit has pro! (Aspro).

3.  F. R. Palmer: Enthusiast flies to mal/es on games afar – ‘I must see Lions’ (Malindi).

VHC

F. B. Atkins: At night, sh/ut door (Scandinavian’s lumber).

Dr J. Burscough: Strictly speaking, one can’t gatecrash sh/ut doors.

E. Chalkley: Severe aches. The green Sandy and Nick, who used backs, p/ut balls in bunkers (Seve Ballesteros, S. Lyle, N. Faldo).

M. Clarke: Before broadcasting gra/ver news: ‘Oil well to increase yield’

C. J. Feetenby: Cryptic word meant ‘Inca bles/t’ (Sind; ref. Napier’s ‘Peccavi’ telegram).

M. Freeman: Surfers may hold a party at seaside in Nora’s h/ut on the beach.

P. Graystone: Expecting now/t? A shock win! Disgusting!

R. R. Greenfield: Invited up Everest I said no, wish/ing to help in Nepal.

E. J. Griew: ‘Thef/t from the Minoan site is just as hard.

Dr R. A. Hardman: ‘A sh/ut door’ – Scandinavian song.

D. V. Harry: ‘With lash to be h/ad, oxen pull harder,’ I cry.

Mrs B. E. Henderson: Birds gotta fly, snakes w/anna crawl (goanna).

J. D. Lockett: Seeing your rose so, so lovely be – h/osed it – confessed bold young gardener.

D. F. Manley: The swa/t is the fellow most likely to succeed (ref. Princess Diana).

Miss G. M. May: Study Azed’s frame. The re/nal symmetry is apparent (digonal).

A. C. Morrison: Looking for t/reat? Mine’s here.

R. S. Morse: Beh/est? That spells it out!

R. F. Naish: Regarding grids, you’ll normally find a pla/n, although some ‘special’ puzzles lack symmetry (digonal).

R. J. Palmer: One needs only put an accent onto ru/nal character of ‘S’ (digonal).

C. P. Rea: Bowlers? W. Indies have the K/O champ – lucky enough to survive! (G. Gooch).

M. C. C. Rich: With the sh/ove Ron, ere tiring, feels tight-head going round.

H. Rutley: ‘Do you like Russian music?’ ‘I don’t, M/r Stravinsky!’

R. J. Whale: A smattering of h/ing, abroad in India, made meal most sound, authentic.

Dr E. Young: Rose is playing patchily, so with a long p/utt he holes.

HC

C. J. Anderson, D. Ashcroft, G. E. Baker, M. J. Balfour, M. Barley, H. A. Barrington, W. Bauer, Dr A. M. Beattie, Mrs F. A. Blanchard, H. J. Bradbury, Mrs A. R. Bradford, C. J. Brougham, E. J. Burge, M. Clarke, M. O. Cockram, Mrs M. P. Craine, P. M. A. Crozier, G. Cuthbert, J. V. S. A. Davies, E. Dawid, R. Dean, R. V. Dearden, N. C. Dexter, L. L. Dixon, P. Drummond, M. A. Elder, Dr I. S. Fletcher, H. Freeman, F. D. Gardiner, Mrs P. Gerrard, P. G. W. Glare, H. J. Godwin, S. Goldie, J. F. Grimshaw, K. H. Grose, W. R. Guite, P. Heap, A. W. Hill, E. M. Holroyd, R. J. Hooper, B. Iliffe, R. Jacks, Mrs D. B. Jenkinson, A. H. Jones, E. Jones, J. F. Jones, R. E. Kimmons, F. P. N. Lake, E. C. Lance, A. Lawrie, R. Lawther, J. C. Leyland, A. Logan, C. J. Lowe, S. G. G. MacDonald, Dr R. MacGillivray, H. S. Mason, Dr B. N. McQuade, J. R. C. Michie, T. J. Moorey, I. Morgan, C. J. Morse, T. W. Mortimer, T. Ormanroyd, Mrs J. M. Pattenden, G. Perry, P. J. Peters, Mrs E. M. Phair, Mrs A. G. Phillips, R. Phillips, P. G. Raison, A. Rivlin, M. G. Rupp, J. H. Russell, T. E. Sanders, R. N. Cuff & J. M. Spencer, F. W. R. Stocks, P. L. Stone, J. B. Sweeting, R. J. Terry, Dr I. Torbe, Mrs O. Tyrrell, R. Vaughan-Davies, G. H. Willett, D. Williamson, M. G. Wilson.
 

COMMENTS
379 entries, virtually no mistakes – apart. that is, from my idiotic gaffe over DETENTE. Some of you may perhaps not have noticed but the clue should have read ‘caring staff college’ not ‘catering staff college’. One generous-minded solver claimed to have tumbled to my crafty double-bluff by arriving at some sort of sense with the use of ‘entêté’ but I cannot take refuge behind this solution or blame wayward typesetters. The fault was entirely my own and I’m very sorry about it. I wasn’t at fault in the HELMINTHIC clue, where quite a number accused me of using a non-existent spelling of ‘wych-elm’. The undevilled version was meant to read ‘Clumps of willow sandwich elm in thickets’, not too far-fetched an image. I think. The other clue that gave particular trouble was the HALIDE one, with its reference to ‘lethal Ides do’, the ill-fated visit to the Capitol which his wife Calpurnia urged J. Caesar in vain not to make. I hope that the ‘above suspicion’ bit would make the point of reference pretty clear, but perhaps I miscalculated.
 
‘Printer’s Devilry’ has its detractors, but they are, it seems, heavily outnumbered by its fans. The competition lured many old competitors (one from over 30 years ago!) out of retirement, and I was delighted to welcome them. I’ll try to give you a P.D. puzzle yearly but they do take me almost twice as long as usual to construct and since the repertoire is now quite wide I like to give each type of ‘special’ a regular airing. INDIGO wasn’t as friendly as all that (the vowel at each end being tricky) and by far the commonest ploy turned out to be ‘shindig out’ with a variety of wording to do with noisy neighbours and the like. Only the very best of these got into the lists, I’m afraid. but the H.C. list is correspondingly longer. A few, as always happens, spoiled their chances by ignoring the advice in the preamble about where breaks should come. Not all P.D. exponents are so particular on this point. but allowing a break to occur at a natural word break in the undevilled form (whether or not this is then closed up in the devilled form) seems a genuine weakness and requires less ingenuity of wording.
 
The overall standard was very high though, further evidence of the popularity of P.D. as a type. and my task of selecting the winners proved very hard. Originality tended to count high in the final analysis. Anyway thank you for all the fun and I’m sorry the results were so delayed – unavoidable business commitments overseas, I fear.