XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 162

TITANESS

1.  D. P. M. Michael: Seat isn’t made to hold her! (anag. & lit.).

2.  E. S. Ainley: You may consider 10 ATS is her rough equivalent (anag. of ten ATS is, & lit.; ATS = female soldiers).

3.  Mrs M. G. Porter: Heavenly X.O.S. shot satin set (anag.; extra outsize).

H.C.

D. Connell: Find a monster bird a monster’s home (tit, a (Loch) Ness).

W. J. Crowe: Make up a satin set for an O.S. figure (anag.).

Cdr H. H. L. Dickson: Of outstanding size and strength, it should be planted with an edging of character (it, an in Tess; ref. T. of the d’Urbervilles).

Maj A. H. Giles: Very great lady of yore, sporting a high cape set off by a small bundle of feathers (a ness following tit).

J. H. Grummitt: You’ll find even an extraordinary seat isn’t big enough for her (anag.).

J. P. Lloyd: “Miss Phoebe,” perhaps, but not “Dear” to the gods. They clapped her in the pit! (cryptic def.; ref. 1950 musical ‘Dear Miss Phoebe’; P., Titan in Greek myth).

C. J. Morse: Point gets the bird with a woman like Phoebe (ness following tit, a; ref. P. Meryll in ‘The Yeomen of the Guard’; P., Titan in Greek myth).

F. E. Newlove: Maud Runkens Tate? A truly great woman: she’s reformed the nastiest characters! (anag.; homophone of ‘more drunken state’, i.e. ‘tighterness’).

R. Postill: For the O.S. woman a more close fitting cape doesn’t look right. (but sounds right!) (i.e. ‘tighter ness’).

W. Rennie: Ain’t to be confused wiv Tess (’Ardy or Two Ton) she being bigger ’n older than either (anag.; ref. T. of the d’Urbervilles, and ‘Two Ton’ Tessie O’Shea).

A. Robins: Two-ton Tess in “Ain’t Misbehavin’?” On the contrary! (i.e. anag. of ain’t in Tess; ref. ‘Two Ton’ Tessie O’Shea).

O. Carlton Smith: She must have a gigantic appetite: the nastiest hotchpot does for her (anag.).

J. Thompson: Moving about in a Test’s a feminine enormity (anag.).

L. C. Wright: O.S. woman’s embroidered satin set (anag.).

RUNNERS-UP

H. G. Anderson, C. A. Baker, E. C. Bingham, J. A. Blair, J. C. Chavasse, F. L. Constable, H. Ebden, M. G. Ellis, Dr J. N. Fell, R. Finlayson, Mrs N. Fisher, Mrs J. O. Fuller, Mrs E. Gibson, Rev J. G. Graham, H. A. Hayes, A. R. M. Hooper, C. H. Hudson, F. G. Illingworth, F. Jackson, L. W. Jenkinson, G. G. Lawrance, B. J. McCann, E. L. Mellersh, M. Newman, D. A. Nicholls, G. H. Podmore, E. J. Rackham, H. B. Ridley, T. E. Sanders, E. O. Seymour, Mrs F. Shepherd, E. T. Smith, L. E. Thomas, H. S. Tribe, J. F. N. Wedge, J. S. Young.
 

COMMENTS—263 correct and few errors. Many said the puzzle was much easier, but the entry was not a very big one—an uninspiring word, perhaps. With nothing in particular calling for comment, I will take the opportunity of trying to help would-be prizewinners by pointing out the faults of some of the rejected clues, as I did once before. They are not taken quite at random this time, my purpose being to illustrate different kinds of common faults.
 
“Sat with gallery‚ ever so large, and chucked out—satin set in disarray!” “With gallery” = “among gods”—a clue to a clue: as I have often said, I consider it unfair to give the solver some solving to do before he reaches the clue to the actual word.— “One can count it an essential ingredient in the make up of this ogress of ancient mythology.” Hidden, but it doesn’t say what it means: “titaness” is there, but the writer hasn’t said so.—“Nastiest variety of Outsize girl.” The same fault as the last, though the clue is much nearer to being a good one: what the writer means is “Nastiest [is a] variety of [this] outsize girl,” but those words cannot reasonably be supplied. “Outsize girl—nastiest variety” would be a passable form of it.—“A lady can, thanks to her heart, be numbered among the great.” “Tin-ess” = “a lady (fem.) can” is a nice conceit, but the syntax of the clue won’t work: if “can” is to be taken as a noun, “be” won’t do for the verb: a very common type of fault.—“A hardy girl to go against a goddess!” Unsound in many ways! It is meant for “Tess anti” anag., but no anag. is indicated, the wording being vague and unhelpful: this is particularly unfair in an indirect anag., the actual anag. words not being given: on top of that, Hardy loses his capital—this is definitely unfair, as it cannot be a true clue; the converse process is allowable—a writer may give a word a capital for his own purposes without incorrectness.—“I burn within the ageless stone of stones, as burns my ageless forebear in his course.” Tess-era and Uranus: the first part is much too difficult. Incidentally verse clues don’t acquire any merit as such: there is no point in verse in a puzzle where all the other clues are in prose.—“I recommend pleated satinets for the outsize woman.” Who is “I?” The setter, apparently. This is contrary to normal practice: “I” is either the answer or the letter: in the latter case care is needed over syntax. On the other hand “you” is normally the solver, never the answer. This may be arbitrary but could have been deduced by observation of my practice, and we must be consistent.—No room for more.