XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 473

LISSOME (Printer’s Devilry)

1.  E. L. Hayward: If Adam se/ek, eternal Eve merely waits to be revealed.

2.  R. Postill: Displaying a woolly brain, am I? Stra/w hat, no nude poses … a nice girl! (mistral, non-U; Riviera).

3.  F. E. Newlove: James, Sid, o/r Seth (’e’s the favourite)? No—Wal! As for Cecil … (Somerset; ref. James I).

H.C.

R. S. Allen: Hel/p his top? He leans: he tries to avoid falling (Mephistophelean).

C. Allen Baker: Whatever is a stra/w hat veiled for? Plain folk!

C. M. Broun: A dea/th in gin—which no party should be without! Bar gains!

O. B. Chedzoy: Cooking eggs on freeze tab/lets cheap in half a second (bliss! Omelets; ZETA fusion reactor, 1957).

D. L. L. Clarke: No-one cal/m or able has be the subject of a post-mortem! (ref. bridge).

T. E. Faber: Do be careful with the wine-stoup—set a glass. Fu/ssy!

J. Gill: Ach! A pe/w here for one to rest awhile and pray.

B. J. Iliffe: Although I love custard tarts—topping! A face, fu/ssy!

F. G. Illingworth: Hel/p! Arson! Sex! Plain unadulterated horror!

Capt G. Langham: An unlawful dea/th in Ganymede’s pots (Mede).

M. B. Mellroy: A far/thing for a Scotsman’s tea (farl).

H. Morgan: Anybody that’s a stra/w-hat—like Hamlet’s father! (astral = ethereal).

C. J. Morse: Winnie there be/llowed, “Now he’s less Puck than Prospero!” (ref. Winston Churchill).

G. M. Neighbour: I love reading romances—so far, no/body after my own heart! (Jeffrey Farnol, romantic novelist).

D. A. Nicholls: Explorer’s signa/l—odious to us people—sears (ref. Explorer 1, USA’s first satellite).

H. C. S. Perry: This new ear/thing of a live wire—Hell!—Wake the house up! (House of Lords).

E. J. Rackham: Don’t consider marriage! B/lanch! ’oly matrimony, as the misogynist might address it (“O melancholy …”).

A. Robins: Take a spoon for the M.O., lass; ’e’s junior—ah—and fu/ssy.

G. J. S. Ross: Isn’t the Maj/or a Tory, promoting institution! (Majlis … oratory).

E. O. Seymour: You may find (wearing no five inch) a ne/w hat expensive, but how alluring! (Chanel No. 5).

J. G. Stubbs: She’s a shady sports girl, a Mary, l/onely. C.I.D. ask news lightly (Amaryllis; ref. ‘Lycidas’ by Milton).

R. I. Sutherland: A good bal/m or a bled ear encourages unwilling deb’s mother.

Miss D. W. Taylor: Forgiving one stumb/le, ’tis divine! (omelet).

B. C. Wedgbury: “If you want to, get Pa into department ho/use,” suggested the pharmacist (menthol).

S. G. Weston: You call him Lucifer. i.e. B/old Nick (Eblis).

J. B. Widdowson: Calling a sputnik a stra/w hat—misleading!

RUNNERS-UP

Dr E. A. J. Alment, M. Anderson, Mrs H. M. Barclay, A. J. Barnard, E. A. Beaulah, Rev S. Ben-Zev, V. E. Brooke, C. O. Butcher, R. S. Caffyn, H. Chignell, R. N. Chignell, D. L. W. Collins, C. N. Collis, H. W. Dancy, T. Davies, C. R. Dean, E. W. Demer, Miss E. J. Deutsch, Cdr H. H. L. Dickson, Miss S. Dorrington, Brig W. E. Duncan, Mrs D. M. D’Eath, W. Eite, Mrs N. Fisher, F. D. Gardiner, E. Gomersall, J. A. Maxtone Graham, S. B. Green, R. R. Greenfield, J. H. Grummitt, Dr G. P. Hartigan, J. Hatherley, F. H. W. Hawes, D. Henderson, J. E. Hobson, E. M. Hornby, C. H. C. Jennings, V. Jennings, C. Koop, R. W. Lerrigo, A. W. Maddocks, C. R. S. McCallum, D. P. M. Michael, Capt D. D. Miller, W. L. Miron, W. E. Mitchell, J. J. Moore, Dr S. L. Morrison, A. P. O’Leary, K. H. Palmer, G. R. F. Park, R. Perkins, G. Perry, B. G. Quin, H. Rainger, T. E. Sanders, C. A. Sears, J. Shaw, Mrs E. M. Simmonds, J. A. Sinclair, W. K. M. Slimmings, J. Sparrow, F. B. Stubbs, H. G. Tattersall, D. R. Taunt, H. Thwaite, D. H. Tompsett, R. Vaughan, G. Vindstock, J. Walton, J. Ward.
 

COMMENTS:—639 entries, 509 correct: SYNTERESIS, with its elusive L. Assynt, caused most of the errors. The long lists above reflect my genuine opinion that this was the best entry ever. Choice was appallingly difficult, and there were at least four others that I thought well worth prizes. Messrs. Chedzoy, Illingworth, Seymour and J. G. Stubbs were the unlucky ones. it is particularly hard to compare neatness with brilliance in assessing merit in this type of clue. You will probably all have your different favourite threes, in all sorts of orders: but at least my decision is the result of much cerebration. Congratulations to all.
 
Two ideas were so popular that they had no chance of reaching mention without some very special twist, namely “Harry—Hal is so merry” and “…l odious—…l is so melodious.” Among the unsuccessful entries many again failed through concentrating too much on the devilled version at the expense of the naturalness of the sense and wording of the undevilled. An extreme example was “Larvae make a chrysanthemum, while imitated by embalming” (“Larvae make a chrysalis: so men them umwhile imitated by embalming”). It is the final result that matters, to give the solver a kick when the penny drops: some achievement in the devilled version is an added grace, but it is definitely of secondary importance. Several clues had their gaps between words: it must be clear from my own practice that I don’t like this. Extreme difficulty of solution may be obtained by it, but not, to my mind, interesting difficulty, and many such clues are too difficult to be fair, e.g. “From Peking Marco Polo travelled six hundred (? two hundred) miles before turning W for home” (“… six hundred lis—some two hundred miles …”), lis being plural of li. This method can also produce a kind of neatness which to me is just dull. e.g. “We know the sea animal by its fur” (“… seal is some animal …”). This is not so difficult as the other, but I can see no entertainment value in it, Nor do I like a tremendous amount of re-division of words for its own sake, in which some competitors indulged. Incidentally this tends to make solution too easy: the redivision is seldom hard to penetrate. It is, of course, entirely justified when the idea demands it, but it can be much overdone, and unless it has real point I seek to avoid it. These points may be worth remembering for next time.
 
This type of puzzle certainly seems to retain its popularity, and we owe much, for this as for all crossword technique, to its lamented inventor, “Afrit”.