| ◀ No. 500 | Clue list | 7 Sep 1958 | Slip image | No. 508 ▶ |
XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 504
LEAD-LINE
1. C. J. Morse (SW10): Here’s this ice-bound water system—and the plumber has to let me down! (lead line; lead = channel among ice, line = system).
2. W. K. M. Slimmings (New Malden): It’s a feature of the pencil styling of skirts. etc., useful for coping with the more obtrusive bottoms! (lead line; line = styling, etc.).
3. Mrs E. McFee (Rhos-on-Sea): The first curler needs to be wound up by a fraction of an inch—it’ll give depth under the waves (lead line; lead in curling; line = twelfth of an inch; wind up = bring to conclusion).
H.C.
E. S. Ainley (SW15): Following precedent, I leave stuff behind: I sound like a plumber! (lead line2 (vb.= stuff); sound3).
C. Allen Baker (Milnathort): I can’t resist earthy attractions: all I need is to be vamped, and I’m sunk (anag., 2 defs.).
C. O. Butcher (E4): Something for the plumber to leave behind—which has to be left of course! (lead line; i.e. line (= course) to the left of lead (= leave behind)).
R. N. Chignell (SW19): I get hauled in from the deep to reinforce the covers after hard shot (lead2 + line2; ref. cricket).
F. E. Dixon (Dublin): It sounds a marine term—and is (double mng.; sound3; m.t. = sea’s limit).
Mrs J. O. Fuller (Southsea): Played out I plump for bed: all I need is to curl up (anag.; plump2).
A. B. Gardner (Tanganyika): Surely a primitive sounding apparatus for go ahead shipping firm to make (lead line, & lit.; sound3).
P. Graystone (Harrow): I’m a star performer with a gimmick; I make lots of sound-recordings—my version of “How deep is the Ocean?” is the most! (lead line, 2 defs.; sound3; ref. I. Berlin song).
V. Jennings (Reading): See that there’s a limit to what you put on a dog, and if it goes down then you won’t be completely sunk (lead + line).
Dr T. J. R. Maguire (Dublin): Ocean Accident Insurance, fully paid and unencumbered guarantees security: all I need is to have an accident! (anag.; paid = allowed to run out (naut)).
F. E. Newlove (SE9): Oddly (for I’m a plumber) I’ve all I need to go ahead with the job! (anag.; lead line).
M. Newman (Hove): Sailor in deep water may swing one end and shoot the other, hoping it sounds right (i.e. swing the lead, shoot a line, & lit.; sound3).
D. A. Nicholls (Chester): Government policy is made up to sound all right—but it flops! (lead line, 2 defs.; sound3).
R. Postill (Jersey): All I need at sea … one heave—and I’m off to bed! (anag. & lit.; ref. seasickness).
E. R. Prentice (Clifton): For protection when compassing land at sea, I should be cast in (I in anag. of land, all in lee1, & lit.).
B. G. Quin (Whitley Bay): Put play first, business afterwards: that doesn’t sound right—but it ought to! (lead line; sound3).
A. Robins (Manchester): Put a bob on it and it’ll go down the straight and win by a length (lead line; plumbing bob; straight3).
L. T. Stokes (Walsall): I slack at the bottom: all I need is to be transferred to another form (anag.).
J. B. Widdowson (Worcester): I’m heading for a low dive—all I need is my make-up! (anag.).
M. Woolf (W9): I give guidance to the route—all I need is to be cast (lead line, anag., & lit.).
RUNNERS-UP
Lt Col P. S. Baines, J. W. Bates, E. A. Beaulah, T. E. Bell, Miss R. L. Benn, J. M. Bennett, R. F. S. Chignell, D. Connell, A. E. Danher, L. Dean, J. H. Dingwall, W. J. Duffin, J. H. Eyre, Miss M. W. Fielden, J. A. Fincken, Mrs N. Fisher, J. A. Flood, A. L. Freeman, P. A. L. Freeman, K. Gibson, S. Goldie, E. Gomersall, R. McD. Graham, S. B. Green, Mrs B. M. Halpern, Miss S. M. Hartigan, J. J. Holloway, F. G. Illingworth, T. E. S. Jobson, A. Lawrie, A. F. Lerrigo, R. K. Lumsdon, T. W. Melluish, D. P. M. Michael, W. L. Miron, J. J. Moore, F. E. Morgan, W. H. Pegram, E. G. Phillips, S. Plumb, W. J. Plumb, H. Rainger, Rev E. G. Riley, H. R. Sanders, E. O. Seymour, Mrs E. M. Simmonds, J. A. Skehan, E. B. Stevens, H. G. Tattersall, Miss D. W. Taylor, H. S. Tribe, R. Unwin, J. F. N. Wedge, M. Winterbottom, C. P. Wroth, J. S. Young.
COMMENTS:—324 entries and (unless I have slipped in my checking) only 9 incorrect. The puzzle seems, all the same, to have been found harder than usual. I have no time for more comments, as I have been late in judging the entry after getting back from a most enjoyable week at Deal—which leads me to offer you the clue “Rough and tricky Deal course enables one to get one’s weight down!”
To all those who were at the Café Royal on the 5th, thank you once again very much indeed for a really splendid evening and a magnificent present—my wife asks me to include her in this. We both enjoyed it immensely—though not the not the state of our greenhouse on our return! But we are proud of our local hailstones: we didn’t, thanks to the Dinner, see them, but I am assured that they were as big as any kind of ball you fancy. We hope Dr Maguire’s clue above will prove to be topical!
P.S.—I have just noticed the appropriateness of the appearance of the Messrs. Plumb in the above list: what a pity they didn’t get the first two prizes!