Dave Hennings’ Crossword Database tells us that Vagans’ crosswords have appeared in the EV, IQ, Magpie and Listener series and I know that he has also written some for the Church Times. If you have solved the others, you will have recognised why he has adopted the pseudonym Vagans (Wiki tells me: Clerici vagantes or vagabundi (singular clericus vagans or vagabundus) is a medieval Latin term meaning “wandering clergy” applied in early canon law to those clergy who led a wandering life either because they had no benefice or because they had deserted the church to which they had been attached). Many Listener setters are familiar with Vagans, our retired Bishop setter who gave us a delightful grace at the last two Listener Setters’ Dinners in York and Bristol. Those seven crosswords on Dave’s site reveal a gently humorous approach to church matters and a profound interest in language.

Now I’m faced with a real dilemma. How do I go about checking whether Vagans retains his position among the Listener Setters Oenophiles without verging on disrespect? Especially as my preliminary scan through the clues reveals a shameful misuse of alcohol … You can’t accuse a Bishop of being a drunkard, can you? ‘Grain taken by the handful in Holyrood from King and Emperor, very quietly (4)’ gave us RIPP and I was hoping that grain would be producing a classic malt – but it was not to be!

‘East London hooligan is returning after end of night drunk (6)’ gave us, of course, TSOTSI. We returned the IS and that followed (nigh)T SOT. Chambers tells me that’s ‘a habitual drunkard/ someone stupefied by alcohol. Then we had ‘I and I aboard Santa’s transport drunk (6)’. We put WE into SLED to produce SLEWED. Oh dear, oh dear! I’d better say “Cheers, Vagans!” and hide.

Of course, the other Numpty was speedily grid-filling and the extra letters in those generous across clues revealed the message that the four members of a group we must highlight were OBSOLETE ENGLISH LETTERS. We could see AESC, YOGH, WYN and ETH in our grid and they gave us the shape of a THORN – lovely!

Naturally, with Beth, Omicron, Dad, Sad, Jim and a couple of oddities like ‘For e(MU) very questionable behaviour consumes police chiefs (6)’, the identity of those three groups of six was evident but I needed Chambers to confirm that I had six each of Arabic, Hebrew and Greek letters (JIM, THA, DAL, SAD, DAD and BA – LAMED, BETH, DALETH, AYIN, YOD, and HEH – ETA, PHI, OMICRON, PI, BETA and MU) What an ingenious crossword.

The nicest clue of all, for me, was ‘Plan in Yorkshire dale that last appears (6)’ I grew up speaking our Dales dialect in my little Yorkshire Dales village and when we removed DALETH from that clue, we had ‘In t’ end’ which is how we say ‘at last’. Magic, Vagans!