XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 206

PIEPOWDER

1.  L. C. Wright: Pasty? Then use make-up! It’s an old remedy for disorders of the fair (pie¹ powder).

2.  J. Thompson: A fair cop here? Half pint on top of wee drop—hopelessly intoxicated! (pi(nt) + anag.).

3.  D. P. M. Michael: Where once was fair payment for dirty work, here’s money and food to do a little dusting (pie⁵ and pie¹ + powder).

H.C.

E. S. Ainley: Here a miscellany of types might take the consequences of petty infractions (pie² powder & lit.; i.e. small particles).

J. W. Bates: Antique bench—“period pew” as a wag might style it (anag.).

J. A. Blair: It provided a fair hearing for a lot of mixed types having some matter to settle quickly (pie² powder & lit.).

V. E. Brooke: Period pew, antique form or mediaeval bench (anag.; i.e. antique form = old/worn appearance).

Mrs N. Fisher: A course on make-up is advisable, in place of crude trials (pie¹ powder).

R. M. Grace: Riotous types on a charge find fair justice here (pie² powder & lit.).

R. R. Greenfield: Disorderly types with explosive used to settle trade disputes in the old days (pie² powder; ref. Luddites).

Mrs J. H. C. Lawlor: Suggesting make-up to the pasty? It was rude trying! (pie¹ powder).

P. W. W. Leach: Used to settle a shine for the fair types before (pie² powder & lit; shine = shindy (old sl.)).

J. P. Lloyd: Court that could give a copper authority to take loose characters into custody—and vice versa? (i.e. d. in pie² power, & lit.).

C. J. Lowe: Is it fair justice when only one copper in the force goes after disorderly types? (pie² + d. in power).

D. A. Nicholls: Court where givers of short measure were tried—and wiped, perhaps, with a knotted rope! (anag. of wiped, rope).

M. G. Powell-Davies: Fair referee awarding Rovers penalty on the spot, Orient bit the dust (pie⁵, powder; ref. football).

E. J. Rackham: Disorderly type, having had a wee drop, tipsy, appears in ancient court (pi² + anag).

C. P. Rea: One got a fair trial here. Certainly no suggestion of “hard”—pound fine, perhaps (pie¹ (= easy thing) + powder).

E. W. Richart: Pasty cosmetic resorted to by the fair for soothing inflamed chaps (pie¹ + powder).

Mrs E. M. Simmonds: Old rustic bench, where disorderly types might confront the copper in authority (pie² + d. in power).

J. A. L. Sturrock: Pound fine to a lot of types is no longer a fair way of punishing people, for traffic offences (pie² powder; traffic = passing to and fro).

Miss D. W. Taylor: Here, one just tried to keep the mop clean—that is dust under the piano! (p + i.e. + powder; m. = fair).

RUNNERS-UP

C. Allen Baker, Mrs F. Begg, T. E. Bell, H. Bernard, Rev L. Blackburn, L. G. Chastey, R. N. Chignell, J. C. R. Clapham, C. P. Dearnley, P. A. Drillien, W. M. Easther, Dr J. N. Fell, J. A. Fincken, T. W. Finnett, Mrs J. O. Fuller, C. E. Gates, S. Goldie, R. J. Hall, E. W. Handley, J. J. Holloway, E. Irving, Very Rev N. M. Kennaby, C. Koop, E. L. Mellersh, C. J. Morse, Mrs A. M. Osmond, Maj J. N. Purdon, R. Sellers, Mrs E. Shackleton, F. N. Shimmin, E. T. Smith, O. Carlton Smith, Miss R. E. Speight, L. T. Stokes, F. B. Stubbs, E. Thomas, H. S. Tribe, Capt C. Tyers, J. Vallely, J. A. Watson, C. E. Williams, ? Williams (Nottingham), S. E. Wilson, M. Woolf, M. Yellow, A. J. Young, H. T. Young.
 

HONOURS LIST—Youth will be served this time: two of our younger solvers stand well ahead—C. J. Morse, with 2 prizes and 6 H.C.s., and J. A. Blair, 3-3. Next come S. B. Green and F. B. Stubbs, (1-4). S. Goldie and R. R. Greenfield (2-1) with R. J. Hall and D. P. M. Michael (1-3). D. B. J. Ambler, Mrs L. Jarman, C. J. Lowe, Maj. J. N. Purdon, T. E. Saunders, W. K. M. Slimmings, L. C. Wright (1-2). Consolation prizes go to E. J. Rackham (7), who should rank after the two leaders in the Honours List, and C. E. Gates (6), equal with Messrs. Green and Stubbs. They are followed by C. Allen Baker and L. W. Jenkinson (5), equal with the next batch, and R. N. Chignell, Mrs N. Fisher, R. Postill, and M. Woolf (4), equal with the batch of seven. Nine competitors had 3. The lists as a whole during this period have been longer than ever before and Mr. Rackham’s total of 7 H.C.s is a record among Consolation Prize Winners. The total number of competitors who have won a prize or an H.C. since we started has now reached 924.
 
COMMENTS—354 correct and many more mistakes than in recent puzzles, though no one cause of trouble stood out: PARLE, TAGHAIRM, OSHEA, GANGSTERS, OGDEN and WEDGE all claimed several victims. I gather that the 1949 reprint of Chambers, which I do not possess, gives “Odgen” in its supplement under “basic English”: this, other works of reference show to be a misprint. My clue, and RHODEUS, should have been, and in most cases were, enough to save trouble from this cause. The “New Mid Century Version” does not appear, from a cursory investigation, to give the name at all. I got it from The Reader’s Encyclopedia. No room for more.
 
[Archive note on clues: The contemporary ed. of Chambers defined ‘piepowder’ as “an ancient court held in fairs and markets to administer justice in a rough-and-ready way to all comers”. In the modern dictionary this def. applies to ‘Court of Piepowder’, and ‘piepowder’ itself is defined as a vagabond or itinerant.]