XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 166

RACHIDES

1.  C. J. Morse: You can’t strip the skin from them without showing a sign of a sore back (i.e. r. less hide = scar (rev.), & lit.).

2.  T. E. Sanders: Not all the skeletons can be concealed in families (hid in races).

3.  J. A. Blair: Personal columns had cries in agony! (anag.).

H.C.

C. A. Baker: Beginning to delight in rocking-chairs … we bow to old age (de(light) in anag.).

J. F. Dow: Rickety chairs of Louis Quatorze style make spinal column very evident! (de (Fr.) in anag.).

J. Duffill: The Head’s about to reprove us; we shall probably have to bow to his judgment (chide in ras (= headland)).

W. M. Easther: If you get endless hidings in track events, the answer is spikes (hid(ings) in races).

S. Goldie: Tail-enders depend on such mainstays as Edrich being out of form (anag.; ref. Geoff E., cricketer).

Dr D. S. M. Imrie: A dog with a “date” leaves bones behind (rach Ides).

L. Johnson: The dog has his day, and that means bones! (rach Ides).

C. Koop: These blooming branch lines! Always behind, they hold everybody up (2 mngs.).

E. L. Mellersh: “Are these axes or floral receptacles?” Munnings murmurs disapprovingly (RA chides, 2 defs.; ref. Battersea Park sculptures for Festival of Britain, and Sir Alfred M.).

T. W. Melluish: The artist finds fault with these supporting columns. They shouldn’t be with fillets (RA chides; fillets, archit. and fish).

J. W. Parr: The Academy rebukes members that exhibit almost straight lines (RA chides).

Mrs J. Robertson: Converts Eric’s had, but they do put our backs up when met in the flesh! (anag.).

Miss R. E. Speight: English painter found fault with French art—backs English! (RA chid es (Fr.); tu es).

P. H. Taylor: I’d search all over the place to find what hold the bloomers up! (anag.).

RUNNERS-UP

Cdr A. S. Birt, Maj H. L. Carter, J. C. R. Clapham, F. E. Dixon, E. C. Double, N. E. Dunnett, Dr J. N. Fell, Mrs N. Fisher, S. B. Green, L. R. Huxtable, F. G. Illingworth, F. P. N. Lake, J. P. Lloyd, D. P. M. Michael, Miss H. Milvain, Cpl L. W. G. Oxley, J. D. P. O’Leary, R. Postill, E. R. Prentice, A. R. Read, M. C. T. Reilly, J. L. Ruddle, G. A. Shoobridge, W. K. M. Slimmings, Miss D. Tennant, J. Thomas, H. D. Wakely, J. F. N. Wedge, J. B. Widdowson, M. Woolf, J. S. Young.
 

COMMENTS—288 correct and a large number of scattered mistakes, the commonest being bad shots at TINEA (the moth-er joke is deplorable but not new!), “head-rope” for DEAD-ROPE (gone = dead) and the non-existent “Ho-sage-r” for HO-MAGE-R. The anag. clue to seldom was far ahead of all rivals as first solved, rose-pink being a bad second. There was much more variety among those solved last, tinea, oboes, hist, H. Cochet, solen, enrage, tuber and rachides itself being the rough order of those most often mentioned. Cochet’s clue seems to have been the most popular one for some time. I welcome an unusual number of new competitors and the return of some old ones.
 
“Thorns” would not do as a definition: R. = the spine, not a spine = a thorn. “Spikes” on the other hand is sound (= inflorescences). “Backs” is a bit questionable but just got through—for the sake of “French art”! Mr. Duffill’s “us” and Dr Imrie’s “leaves” are slight weaknesses in otherwise very good clues. I didn’t pass “dog-days,” preferring “Ides” to be treated as a single day, though it could, I suppose, be defended. I was sorely tried by users of “So so”! It is paralleled by my own “Wolf, wolf!” as a clue to “ebbs”; but that was 3 years ago, and not long after that I cut out the “clue to a clue” and have referred to this point often in coy comments; so regretfully I decided that “So so” must be regarded as an unwarrantable archaism!
 
A few solvers asked for the extra days for solving and writing a clue to become permanent. I’m afraid this wouldn’t work, unless the results were always to appear 3 weeks after the puzzle: I don’t think this would be desirable. Don’t forget to put a threehalfpenny stamp on your envelope for the slip in future—these prices!