XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 451

MEGAPODE

1.  S. B. Green: I put out the clutch on a hill, and a small boy in the way beats a retreat! (page² (rev.) in mode).

2.  N. C. Dexter: Having big feet, I’m an upholder of long dresses coming back into fashion (page² (rev.) in mode).

3.  Mrs N. Fisher: I lay down under being labelled a backward boy in form (page² (rev.) in mode).

H.C.

F. AyImer: In this game dope is freely used: it should get the bird from the Mound (anag.; ref. stand at Lord’s).

C. Allen Baker: Get me sitting on a loaded shell in a mass of earth? Not this bird! (me + a pod in Ge, & lit.; m. does not sit on eggs).

P. C. Barclay: I make myself a crevice in a hill, and then lay (me gap ode, & lit.).

C. O. Butcher: Cause (and effect) of a mouldy dome incorporating a modicum of egg-space (e(gg) gap in anag., & lit.).

C. E. Gates: I may be found making a rough dome round a vacant spot—the start of an eggery (gap in anag. + e, & lit.).

Dr T. O. Hughes: English dollar deficit is in a state. I’ve got my nest-egg in the Bank of Australia (E gap in mode).

Dr T. J. R. Maguire: Mo.-ped., crazy with age, gets a flying start from Shell (anag.; m. can fly from moment of hatching).

E. L. Mellersh: Indigenous Australian with distant relations in Surrey thinks the Mound ought to be on the Oval (cryptic def.; m. lays eggs in a mound, related to grouse, etc.; ref. stand at Lord’s).

J. J. Moore: At a Victorian hen-party it would not be unusual to see me break into song (me gap ode; gap vb.).

C. J. Morse: You’ll find me with a fabricated hatching-place in the earth (Greek form of name) (me + a pod in Ge, & lit.; pod = silk cocoon).

M. Rich: A device for holding one’s skirts back in fashion—to show what big feet one’s got? (page² (rev.) in mode).

T. E. Sanders: May, one that’s full of beans perhaps and leader of England, is sure to make a pile in Australia (Meg a pod E; Meg = May, see Names in C.).

Mrs E. M. Simmonds: I give the undeveloped egg a parking-place in a queerly-constructed dome (eg(g) a P in anag., & lit.).

K. C. Slater: Layer who makes a pile from backing perfect specimen against animal without feet (gem (rev.) + apode).

F. B. Stubbs: This bird’s egg’s beginning to crack inside a sort of dome (e(gg) gap in anag., & lit.).

J. B. Sykes: You’ll find a shell, perhaps, amid old earth assembled by me (me + a pod in Ge, & lit.).

Miss D. W. Taylor: One of the sort you see down under, making a pile in the dope game (anag.; 2 mngs. of down under).

RUNNERS-UP

D. Ashcroft, J. W. Bates, E. A. Beaulah, T. E. Bell, A. S. Birt, G. Bolton, Mrs G. Bonsall, R. N. Chignell, P. M. Coombs, Mrs C. Crawford, A. E. Crow, A. E. Danher, C. R. Dean, L. Dean, F. E. Dixon, H. Emmett, J. H. Eyre, J. A. Flood, S. Goldie, E. Gomersall, C. P. Grant, W. E. Green, His Hon F. Kingsley Griffith, D. Hawson, J. Hardie Keir, B. K. Kelly, Capt G. Langham, A. Lawrie, R. K. Lumsdon, J. Mann, B. J. McCann, Mrs E. McFee, D. P. M. Michael, P. H. Morgan, G. M. Neighbour, F. E. Newlove, Dr S. L. Paton, W. H. Pegram, T. J. Pemberley, W. J. Plumb, R. Postill, Maj J. N. Purdon, E. J. Rackham, A. Robins, P. D. Robinson, E. Schafran, W. K. M. Slimmings, R. Stephenson, L. E. Thomas, D. H. Tompsett, J. Ward, T. G. Wellman, C. E. Williams, Miss K. Wooldridge, M. Woolf, A. H. Wright, J. S. Young.
 

COMMENTS—320 entries, 291 correct, most of the errors being “orbs” for ORBY. An accurate and ingenious entry for a puzzle which seems to have been found by many more difficult than usual. Please excuse lack of further criticism this time, as I have only just finished in time to go away for a week. (Note: there are so many “& lit.” clues that I have not indicated them [indicated in Archive notes]).