XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 21

BODEGA

1.  W. Rennie (Newcastle-on-Tyne): Good pull-up for Carmen (cryptic def.; i.e. car men, roadside tavern).

2.  C. R. Malcolm (SW7): Old Obadiah gets the Hispano saloon into reverse (aged Ob (rev.); make of car).

3.  T. E. Sanders (Walsall): When the temperature’s zero in Buenos Aires it’s a draughty place (0 deg in BA; draught = drink).

H.C.

R. R. Broome (Cambridge): Here you may find Bacchus and be a god (anag.).

Mrs M. B. Caithness (Ambleside): The seaman feeling an inward chill turns back into the pub (0 deg in AB (rev.)).

Mrs L. Jarman (Brough): Shall we close up the port end of the wine-shop? Let’s put it to the General Assembly (bode GA).

R. C. Macfarlane (Edinburgh): Confused swine hop it from abode Gadarene (hidden; i.e. wine-shop).

Mrs Magruder (Perth): Begad! Nothing’s to be found here, as the customer said, surveying his wine-merchant’s blitzed premises (anag. incl. 0).

D. S. Milford (Marlborough): When it’s vintry, aged bodies are out of sorts (dies non!) (anag. less dies; pun on ‘wintry’).

F. E. Newlove (Barnehurst): Half the bodies that start a wine-shop finish penniless, egad! (bod(ies) ega(d)).

F. H. Oliver (Goring-by-Sea): Where’s George? Gone to the bad! You’ll find him in the wine-shop, very sozzled! (anag. of Geo. bad).

W. O. Robertson (Marlow): An old Old Boy comes back, but the Tuck Shop is not the same (aged OB (rev.)).

C. Hammond Smith (Cambridge): It sounds like an attempt to frighten a French painter out of a pub (‘bo! Degas’).

J. C. W. Springbett (SE21): A vintry perhaps that sounds as though the bounce has been taken out of Franco’s bodyguard (i.e. ‘bodygua’(R/D); bounce = dud cheque).

R. W. E. Stickings (Brentwood): Where would you find the old, old Blue on Boat Race Night? Back in the wine-shop, of course (aged OB (rev.)).

Lt Col N. H. L. Watts (Fleet): Mr. Agate’s reminiscences get badly mixed in the wine-shop (anag. of Ego bad; ref. J. E. Agate’s “Ego”).

COMMENTS:—The general standard was not quite so high as usual: the short list from which the winners and commendations were selected was shorter than it generally is. Mr. Rennie set an example of brevity: ceteris paribus, a good short one will usually beat a good long one. Abed(ne)go, strongly represented. did not quite get a place: the use of an anag. with extra letters has to be very attractive if it is to justify itself: Mr. Milford just beat the Abednegators.