XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 57

THEORBOS

1.  T. E. Sanders (Walsall): Got the ball on the bony part of the nose, but pluckily played on (the orb (n)os(e); os = bone).

2.  C. Koop (Ferring): Rare plucked ’uns, they had the guts for these neck and neck affairs (cryptic def.; gut strings).

3.  Cdr H. H. L. Dickson (Fareham): Double-necked, not treble; just as well, as they might be both sore (anag.; bass instruments).

H.C.

C. Allen Baker (Wishaw): Such music-makers should be strung up or be shot to pieces (anag. of or be shot).

W. H. Ballantyne (Walkerburn): The rubber’s in a mess; we have a low score (the + anag. of sorbo).

C. B. Daish (Swindon): They produce music for the ball (old style) (the orb OS).

R. A. Davies (Gifford): “She shall have music wherever she goes”—Lutes in her boots? (anag.; “rings on her fingers…”).

A. R. Fraser (Hampton): They give Orpheus his big opportunity to produce the music of the spheres and nothing more (the orb o (sing.); big lutes; ref. Hen. VIII, III.1.3, “Orpheus with his lute…”).

C. B. Joyner (Ringwood): Can they have a pain in both necks? They may be both sore, anyhow (anag.).

R. W. Killick (Streetly): We’ve got two necks, both sore, dislocated and one above the other (anag.).

E. E. A. Kilner (Mirfield): The alternative to what one says to geese with two necks (the or bos; “say bo! to a goose”).

Mrs D. M. Kissen (Lanark): Instruments which guide the sailor round the globe (orb in the OS).

Mrs F. Laing (SW2): Kind of Kit’s big brothers to make her boots! (anag.; kit = small violin).

A. McIntyre (Edinburgh): Katherine’s wench sang that Orpheus made trees with one of them; but it would take more than one to fill her boots (anag.; ref. Hen. VIII, III.1.3).

A. P. O’Leary (Rugby): The ball bounces and takes spin, but the sound player keeps them down (the + anag. of sorbo).

Rev E. B. Peel (Bournemouth): Her boots have come undone; string needed to make them sound (anag).

R. Postill (Jersey): They needed pluck to play low. Now they can make the rubber (the + anag. of sorbo).

W. K. M. Slimmings (SW15): They provided the Bass in Pepys’s soirées, and were possibly not cold sober themselves (anag. of hot sober; Bass beer).

Mrs E. B. Stevens (Morden): Orpheus probably had one of these in the underworld, being a change from hot robes (anag. ; ref. Hen. VIII, III.1.3, “Orpheus with his lute…”).

A. H. Taylor (Newark): These have strings tightened at two necks and they make both sore (anag.).

Comments—Only 173 correct. Some didn’t know their Dr. Slop (Tristram Shandy): others didn’t know either Sir Christopher Hatton (the Elizabethan Chancellor and a character in The Critic) or Bishop Hatto (devoured by rats)—it was only necessary to know one of them: almost as many failed at strophanthin (strop at one end, thin at the other) or gossypium or elogium or has-ped (ped = basket)—perhaps they hadn’t taken their Chambers’s Dictionaries on their holidays; and there was a fair sprinkling of other mistakes.
 
There is still a tendency among some competitors to include no definition or hint of meaning in their clues—e.g. Quite muzzy, tho’ sober—or to fail to indicate anags. e.g. They used to be very low, but both rose. These two examples are neat and their Ideas are excellent, but—unfortunately they are unsound and would be unfair to solvers. One letter wrong in solution kept the following from threatening the prizewinners:—They’re stringy, have two necks and need plucking, but nevertheless make good hot brose.
 
Welcome to a pleasant number of new competitors, and also to some old ones who have returned to the attack after longish absences.