XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 196

SHAMAN / SERIAN

1.  W. K. M. Slimmings (New Malden): Keep Mum! A bloke has to be a wizard—wants all I earns, roughly, would describe the old China! (sh! a man; anag.).

2.  Miss D. W. Taylor (New Malden): Chinese, made tipsy by a siren—the charmer’s a false one! (He’s a wise man who keeps off spirits in Asia) (anag.; a sham an).

3.  J. A. Blair (NW9): A siren in Oriental attire—believed to be an absolute charmer out East—has stirred the English male (anag.; anag. + man).

H.C.

C. Allen Baker (Wishaw): Ah Sin! Thy realm is a baited snare, drawing one in: a medium of enchantment in which a man has become enmeshed! (I in anag.; anag.; ref. A.S. in Bret Harte’s “Heathen Chinee”).

D. B. J. Ambler (Bristol): It’s merely deception, if the conjuror is near producing the celestial (sham an²; anag.).

J. W. Bates (Westcliff): Charmer has man bewitched—content is near celestial! (anag.; anag.).

J. W. Duffin (Hull): Trouble is near for Chinese Priest who poses as a magician: he’s obviously not a real one (anag.; i.e. a sham an).

C. E. Gates (Kettering): Out of the orient has arisen mysteriously a sort of witch doctor—not the genuine article! (anag.; i.e. a sham an).

R. J. Hall (Redbourn): Give me a small helping of sandwiches with ham to tuck into—wizard! But kidneys with a grilling—that’s celestial! (ham in san(dwiches); anag. of reins, a [see comments]).

L. Johnson (N. Harrow): Quiet please! An individual, Asiatic version of The Sorcerer, composed by A. S. (Erin), completely orientalised (sh!, a man; anag.; Arthur Sullivan, Irish).

Mrs Lawlor (Derrylin): A siren, temperamental, oriental has bewitched man, the dusky charmer (anag.; anag. + man).

A. E. North (Nottingham): Priest using magic to impose upon an Oriental is near being beaten up (sham, an; anag.).

R. Postill (Jersey): Warlock, a fellow after the English audience’s heart, is near torture to a Chinese ((the Engli)sh (audience) + a man; anag.; ref. Peter W., English composer).

E. R. Prentice (Clifton): This wizard makes the deceptive one rise the wrong way to one—indicating a Chinaman (sham an; anag. + an; C. = left-hander’s googly (cricket)).

E. J. Rackham (Totton): Enchanting person, quiet! A fellow easily goes astray to a siren from the East (sh! a man; anag.).

T. E. Sanders (Walsall): He does his stuff with a spell employing a wrong ’un like a Chinaman and is near achieving a total collapse (sham, an; anag.; C. = left-hander’s googly (cricket)).

F. B. Stubbs (Marple): Artfully a siren of eastern origin uses magic to deceive an adherent (anag.; sham an; adherent, adj.).

RUNNERS-UP

Mrs F. Begg, H. Bernard, T. Bilsborough, A. J. Bisset, R. N. Chignell, D. L. L. Clarke, R. M. S. Cork, J. H. Dingwall, W. M. Easther, L. E. Eyres, J. A. Fincken, D. J. Furley, H. J. Godwin, S. B. Green, S. Haycraft, J. J. Holloway, C. H. Hudson, T. O. Hughes, H. W. Jenkins, L. W. Jenkinson, C. Kauffman, J. P. Lloyd, R. Lumley, H. Lyon, T. W. Melluish, C. J. Morse, F. E. Newlove, J. W. Parr, S. L. Paton, Maj J. N. Purdon, C. P. Rea, E. W. Richart, L. J. Sears, L. T. Stokes, J. Vallely, Rev E. J. Warner, A. J. Young.
 

COMMENTS—270 correct and few mistakes, those there were being mostly “ramals” for ROMALS. I was astounded by one entry which reversed the whole issue and had “houghtmerryt” at 1ac.!
 
The reception was enthusiastic: thanks for kind remarks. The making of a double clue makes extra demands, and I’m not surprised that there wasn’t a great response to my request for early posting—I quite understand! But strange as it may seem, I did not choose the pair I myself had found most awkward for you to clue!—this in reply to one bleat and a few minor murmurs! As usual, I chose it before writing a single clue, and I still think I chose one of the easiest: a pair, unless so planned, is never likely to be easy in the nature of things. Some competitors missed the idea by joining the two halves with “and,” “or,” “before,” etc., or by referring in the second half to the first half. Others were much too long. But there were plenty of good ones. Mr Baker’s might have won a prize but for “I = one,” which I don’t think I normally use and I don’t much like. I suppose the Roman numeral justifies it, as much as “O = nought,” but for some reason I have never cared for it, perhaps because the pronoun offers an alternative: sheer prejudice, but the second and third I chose are very good, too, and it tipped the scale. Mr Hall’s clue is also very good; but I thought the indirect anag., with the other possibility “renes,” a little hard for a “pair” clue. I liked the winner’s clue easily best. Congratulations to New Malden on owning the first two: a civic reception seems indicated!
 
Reverting to TALPA in No. 195—the general opinion of those who referred to it seems to be that I was innocent! Thank you, but I still think I was guilty—not of an unfair clue, but of one that was just as unhelpful as some of those I had ruled out. There it is!