XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 58

ECLIPSE

1.  L. E. Thomas (Bangor): In abnormal English September 151 in the shade! (CLI in anag. of E Sep).

2.  A. P. O’Leary (Rugby): Oval. Fifty added in bad light (C for L in ellipse; i.e. 50 added to L = C).

3.  E. S. Clark (Cockburnspath): The Established Church utters its fifth Dominical letter and the ignorant take it for a sign from Heaven (EC lips E).

H.C.

E. S. Ainley (S. Harrow): Facile princeps, or could be, with Carp Fin (like the rest) nowhere (anag. minus anag. of Carp Fin.; “E. first and the rest nowhere”; E. was an unbeaten racehorse painted by Stubbs).

F. A. Clark (Croydon): Cap—a jockey’s pride once (2 mngs.; ref. unbeaten racehorse).

B. Donne-Smith (Hitchin): Hiding for a horse that exhibited insubordination in the City and Suburban (lip in EC SE; 2 mngs.; unbeaten racehorse).

E. H. Evans (Newport): Sensation of the Day! England’s Stars out at Oval with only fifty added (C for L in ellipse; i.e. 50 added to L = C).

G. A. Hornsby (Guisborough): Sleep, I see, is disturbed; hence, rest nowhere (anag. incl. C; unbeaten racehorse; “E. first and the rest nowhere”).

A. S. King (Gravesend): Scene: The Oval. An early century is needed to surpass the total. Fifty’s not enough! (C for first L in ellipse).

C. Koop (Ferring): Diana naturally takes umbrage when she comes across another body in the passage! (cryptic def.; Goddess of moon; umbrage = shadow).

A. McIntyre (Edinburgh): The black-out we can understand, but cuts in next quota’s clothing coupons (yellow)! (clips in E E; ref. ‘E’ coupons).

Maj D. P. M. Michael (Newport): Where the sun first shone, cut off some brief seconds, the sun there reappears (E clip s E, & lit.; sun rises in east).

Mrs M. G. Porter (SW13): Is this the horse to surpass Midday Sun and Hyperion? The answer’s obscure (2 defs., one cryptic; ref. unbeaten racehorse and 1937 and 1933 Derby winners).

J. H. Quincey (Lincoln): Won the Triple Crown—starting-price returned, 150-1 against, and with extreme ease! (CL I, SP (rev.) all in e(as)e; ref. unbeaten racehorse).

T. E. Sanders (Walsall): Better has stakes on for the race—may make a pile with just a second (better vb.; anag. of pile sec; ref. unbeaten racehorse).

Miss N. Shooter (SE24): The Oval: a mere half century gained—Heavens! how dull! (C for L in ellipse; i.e. 50 added to L = C).

W. K. M. Slimmings (New Malden): The darkness gathers: evidently Conservatives. Liberals, Independents—pinker Socialists even—must put their heads together (initial letters).

E. H. Thompson (Broadstairs): 50 more required at the Oval to beat The Rest (C for L in ellipse; i.e. 50 added to L = C).

W. R. Throssell (Cambridge): A fine horse this—puts Hyperion into the shade (2 mngs.; ref. unbeaten racehorse and 1933 Derby winner).

H. T. R. Twyford (Sheffield): Cut out a jig-saw of fifty pieces (anag. incl. L).

F. L. Usher (Leeds): Bewailed poetically by one whose hair was removed in fifty pieces after a brush-up (ref. Samson Agonistes, I. 61; “Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse”).

W. D. Weston (SW16): An extra fifty at the Oval—Then bad light stopped play (C for L in ellipse; i.e. 50 added to L = C).

Comments:—232 correct—a rather small entry with few errors in solutions. Cricketers, encouraged by last time’s winner, were well to the fore and so were racing men. The first prize clue is on the tortuous side but pleasingly topical: the second prize goes to the neatest of the cricketers, and the third—I believe—to a new comer at his first attempt—a rare achievement. The standard was very even and these came near to HCs:—C. Allen Baker, D. L. L. Clarke, S. B. Green, J. P. Lee, T. W. Melluish, D. G. C. Mockridge, F. E. Newlove, J. D. P. O’Leary, A. B. Scott, A. H. Taylor.