XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 170

GUINEA

1.  H. Rainger: The rhino from West Equatorial Africa (2 mngs.).

2.  Maj H. L. Carter: Pill-box value displayed by sanguine advertiser (hidden; ref. Beecham’s slogan “Worth a g. a box”).

3.  T. W. Melluish: There’d be some change from this if you had gin and a splash in France (anag. incl. eau (Fr.)).

H.C.

J. A. Blair: I’m as sanguine as can be without wanting the first prize (sanguine as less sans; ref. 21s. first prize in Ximenes comps).

B. C. Cubbon: It might be charged for a visit at home in the middle of a fiendish ague (in in anag.; doctor’s fee).

J. H. Dingwall: What may be said to go with pig? That’s the question! Pickles may supply the answer (2 mngs.; ref. radio show ‘Have a Go’ with Wilfred P., offering 21s. for letters read out).

J. Duffill: The value claimed for a pillbox with a gun that is revolutionary in design? (anag. incl. i.e.; ref. Beecham’s slogan “Worth a g. a box”).

M. G. Ellis: Quite yellow from a nasty turn of ague in some part of Africa (anag., 2 defs.; gold coin).

P. G. W. Glare: L. & S., singular composition of two classics (cryptic def.; i.e. £1 + 1s.; ref. Greek/Latin dictionaries by Liddell & Scott or Lewis & Short, and 1,000 and 2,000 Guineas ‘classic’ races).

Rev J. G. Graham: One piece of land’s divided into three parts (i.e. L and S, 2 defs.; £1 + 1s.; g. coin; French, Portuguese and Spanish G.).

W. Jenkinson: What was roughly the value of 26 drachmas? L. & S. will give it (i.e. £1 + 1s.; ref. Greek dictionary by Liddell & Scott).

Mrs M. Kidner: Recognized unit of payment for making you sound in broken down age. (U (= ‘you’ sound) in in anag., & lit.; ref. doctor’s fee).

A. F. Lerrigo: An old-fashioned or dated piece perhaps, but its producers achieved striking results (cryptic def.; ref. coin; or = gold, strike = mint).

O. Carlton Smith: A courtly tip for a presentation:—“bob” to the sovereign (cryptic def.; i.e. £1 + 1s.; tip = gratuity; bob = curtsey, shilling).

L. E. Thomas: Gin and Vichy water cocktail for the feed? (anag. incl. eau (Fr.); feed = receivers of fee).

RUNNERS-UP

J. Buist, Mrs W. A. Clegg, T. Dwyer, A. J. Entwistle, Mrs N. Fisher, J. P. Ford, Mrs Goll, C. P. Grant, J. A. Harrow, T. O. Hughes, L. R. Huxtable, Mrs L. Jarman, J. P. Lloyd, E. L. Mellersh, W. L. Miron, F. E. Newlove, M. Newman, D. A. Nicholls, R. Partridge, E. G. Phillips, H. J. Phillips, E. R. Prentice, E. J. Rackham, A. Robins, A. J. C. Saunders, E. O. Seymour, W. K. M. Slimmings, E. T. Smith, P. H. Taylor, J. Thompson, D. R. Tivy, H. S. Tribe, E. W. Tulloch, E. Wagstaff.
 

COMMENTS—232 correct and many failures to find ANOA: remember that Chambers’s has a supplement at the end. I was surprised that A-Noa(h) didn’t stick out a mile even without that help. There were very few other mistakes.
 
It is time I tried again to help—not discourage!—unsuccessful competitors by analysing a few of their clues. First I must repeat Afrit’s dictum:—” You need not mean what you say, but you must say what you mean.”
 
(1) “Penguin eats pig.” It’s useless to “hide” the word unless you say or hint that you have done so. Nor is “pig” a definition of “guinea”: one part of a hyphened word does not equal the other. (“Fowl” was similarly misused).
 
(2) “Among the most sanguine ambitions of competitors.” Far better than (1)—a “portmanteau” clue, using the same words both to define and to hide: but it has one flaw. A hiding-place ideally as no word (except perhaps an article) which does not contribute. Here “most” and “of competitors” are redundant for the hiding sense. To succeed, a “portmanteau” clue must work fully in both ways. (Among the runners-up).
 
(3) “Coin for example in gold.” (anag. e.g.-in-Au., & lit.) Anag. not indicated—cf. (I) In any case as an indirect anag. it’s rather hard. “Au.” is hardly as familiar as “op.” (my 3 dn.) or “Reau.” Indirect anags., which are not held to violate the rule that a clue to a clue is unsound, are justifiable when a direct anag. would be too easy, but their definitions must leave practically no choice and should be easy to solve.
 
(4) “A sovereign with a short haircut going around in a fitful fever.” “Short haircut” = “bob” is a clue to a clue: also “ague” is on the hard side for an indirect anag. (“gue” = “fiddle,” used elsewhere, was worse).
 
(5) “Bob’s twenty-one” was much used. This converse of “wont” in an H.C. clue last week is unsound. The writer of that meant “wont” = “use” and he said it: the writers of this meant “Bobs twenty-one” and they didn’t say it. On the other hand, if “Bobs twenty-one” is used, the absence of apostrophe seems to me to give the game away too obviously—more so than in “wont.”
 
(6) “Lands.” This isn’t fair, with no hint of the split into “L.-and-S.”
 
No room for more. I haven’t quoted any over-elaborate, much-too-long or dull-or-unsatisfying-sense clues, of which there were many. I have gone rather for unsound ones. And remember that your clue is not necessarily unsound because you aren’t mentioned in the lists: heaps of sound ones don’t get in, simply because they lack the attractions of those that do.