XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 106

HELIOTROPE

1.  T. E. Sanders (Walsall): I laid into the slave with a rope end for making a bloomer (I in helot + rope).

2.  A. H. Taylor (Peterborough): I’m covered with red spots and my head turns—due to the sun—or cherry pie? (cryptic defs; cherry-pie = the common garden heliotrope).

3.  R. Postill (Jersey): The poor lie ill—but surely not in an apple-pie bed? (anag.; flower bed; h. thought to smell of apple pie).

H.C.

D. Ambler (Harrow): Ambassador leads labour rising—cable in Mirror; (or is it just a plant?) (HE, toil (rev.), rope; 2 defs., heliograph and plant).

T. E. Caton (Barrow-in-Furness): The poor lie may be caused by a stone (anag.; ref. bad lie in golf).

F. L. Constable (Bridgnorth): This is hard work, going up 20 feet of quartz! (h.e. (hoc est), + toil (rev.) + rope).

J. H. Dingwall (N12): You tell me they report oil, eh? We can use some of that for turning into scent (hidden (rev.)).

H. C. Hills (W. Drayton): Jasper spots the mineral, but he has to work back twenty feet to get it! (he + toil (rev.) + rope; see bloodstone).

L. F. Johnson (Stafford): Almost all report oil, eh? Then get the plant fixed up (hidden (rev.)).

C. Koop (Ferring): A signaller in peril, he too can make a bloomer mixing up red with blue (anag. of peril he too; 2 defs., see heliograph).

G. G. Lawrance (Harrow): Signalling device salvaged from a small observation post on the Loire (anag. of OP the Loire; see heliograph).

T. W. Melluish (SE24): Hue and cry after Persephone of the North, if you get the figure of speech (io following Hel + trope).

A. P. O’Leary (Rugby): Pica Cerasina: variety of Ohio petrel: green with red spots (anag.; Pica Cerasina jocularly = cherry pie; pica = magpie = pie, cerasus (L.) = cherry tree).

P. H. Taylor (Newbold-on-Stour): The poor lie, in the rough, may give cause for momentary reflection (anag.; ref. bad lie in golf; see heliograph).

COMMENTS.—It must have been too hot! The smallest entry for a long time—quite a lot of mistakes—only 182 correct—standard of clues, though there were some good ones, lower as a whole than usual. There were some reappearances of the ungrammatical “I am” where “I” means ‘ the letter “I”: this cannot be condoned. Another old point—“back” should be restricted to across words, “up” to downs: Mr. Hills’s clue was too good otherwise to be excluded for this fault, but it may well have cost him a prize.
 
It seems that the clue to 1 ac. should have been more guarded; even shorter forms are, apparently, found and there is some authority for the unfamiliar “Shakspur” given by three solvers, which is therefore passed as correct. My encyclopaedia gives SOLIMAN, as well as Solyman and Suleiman, as a spelling of S. the Magnificent: there is, however, no authority for “keelye,” and this fact excludes “Solyman.” I can make nothing of “egas” except an anag. of “ages,” nor of “aces” except the sound of “a sis”: ERAS(mus) and ACIS (crushed with a stone by the giant Polyphemus) are required in order to fit the whole of their clues.
 
Runners-up.—M. Anderson, C. Allen Baker, E. A. C. Bennett, D. L. L. Clarke, G. H. Clarke, E. G. Durham, L. E. Eyres, J. A. Flood, A. B. Gardner, S. B. Green, P. Gross, P. A. Harrow, G. A. Hornsby, D. M. James, Mrs L. Jarman, E. A. G. Junks, Mrs F. Laing, R. Leslie, R. Lumley, T. A. Martin, J. G. Milner, D. G. C. Mockridge, W. K. M. Slimmings, O. Carlton Smith, Rev H. M. Springbett, W. H. Thorne, H. S. Tribe, J. Walton, L. C. Wright, J. S. Young.