XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 617

COLOPHONY

1.  M. Woolf (W9): The finishing touch to Yehudi’s bow (colophon Y, & lit.; ref. Y. Menuhin; bow³ = forepart).

2.  Mrs E. Shackleton (Newbury): Gives the final touch before Yehudi starts? (colophon Y, & lit.; ref. Y. Menuhin).

3.  V. Jennings (Reading): Put on a bow and crash hop in West End restaurant (anag. in ‘Colony’).

H.C.

C. Allen Baker (Milnathort): A fiddler’s essential when there’s an informal hop in the Community Centre (anag. in colony).

A. W. Aspinall (Liverpool): Pass nothing dubious? That’s the stuff that grips, and the players, taking their bows, are thankful for it! (col O phony).

A. N. Clark (Portsmouth): Try grilled chop only—nothing more. Good for the gums (anag. incl. O).

J. Coleby (Buckley, Flint): Nearly all hope is abandoned in the settlement; running out of the wood I am prepared for the finish (anag. of hop(e) in colony; finish = varnish).

Mrs W. J. Dennison (Isleworth): When the spirit hath departed, an inscription is just too short fully to designate the remains (colophon(y); i.e. C. remains once turpentine is evaporated).

E. Gomersall (Fulford): Still remains after making the household solvent— half the coin, a pound, and a ring of doubtful value! (co(in) L O phony; i.e. C. remains once turpentine is evaporated).

S. B. Green (NW10): Cool, corrupt, sophisticated—the fiddler’s friend (anag. + phony).

J. M. Hendrie (SW2): Having split intestine, apply hypo, well shaken, inside and out: this will help to make the gut sound (anag., inside and outside of colon).

A. Lawrie (Cheltenham): You’ll find inscription of name, etc., at front end of yacht—it should be on bows (colophon + y(acht).

A. D. Legge (Walsall): The residue may have a golden look; pass nothing spurious (col O phony).

Mrs E. McFee (Rhos-on-Sea):: Out of print—oh no! Lady C. (no small advertisement) is cleared—by gum! (anag. of op³ oh no, L(ad)y C.; first unexpurgated edition of Lady C.’s Lover published in UK 1960).

T. W. Melluish (SE24): Behead a titled personage? I’m shy about it resulting in “something lingering—in boiling oil” (lop Hon in coy: ref. “Mikado”).

F. E. Newlove (SE9): Quiet residence in satellite town, just right for size (p + ho. in colony; size²).

R. Postill (Jersey): Rush on “L—y C.”? Pooh! Fiddlesticks! You’ll get it if you’re slippy! (anag.; rush = force out of place; fiddlestick = violin bow; slippy = quick (sl.); first unexpurgated edition of Lady C.’s Lover published in UK 1960).

E. J. Rackham (Totton): Americans would think it a shade suspect if Russian capital were brought into this industrial product (i.e. colo(R) phony).

L. E. Thomas (Bangor): Company bogus? Look into it! It’s probably on the fiddle (lo in Co. phony).

Capt C. Tyers (Farnham): It’s not right having the neck with nothing on in front. Put on a bow—it’ll be better (col O phony; phony = not right).

RUNNERS-UP

D. A. Arnott, R. J. Atkin, C. J. E. Ball, Capt A. S. Birt, A. J. Bisset, C. O. Butcher, R. S. Caffyn, P. R. Clemow, P. M. Coombs, T. Davies, G. H. Dickson, J. H. Dingwall, L. A. T. Duthie, Mrs D. M. D’Eath, J. H. Eyre, J. H. Gawler, R. R. Greenfield, Mrs H. J. Heald, A. J. Hughes, R. W. Jakeman, Mrs L. Jarman, R. A. Kitson, C. Koop, A. A. Malcolm, L. F. Marzillier, C. J. Morse, H. B. Morton, T. C. Perks, B. G. Quin, W. G. Roberts, W. Rodgers, E. O. Seymour, J. T. Shepherd, W. K. M. Slimmings, Miss B. Smoker, E. B. Stevens, J. Thompson, Mrs J. E. Townsend, H. S. Tribe, C. T. Tulloch, M. A. Vernon, J. F. N. Wedge, C. E. Williams, P. G. Williams.
 

Comments:—276 entries, 243 correct: the errors consisted almost entirely of the non-existent verb (?) “lauwined” and “analogic,” which seems to me to come nowhere near the clue—rather odd mistakes, I thought, unless Chambers wasn’t available. The word, perhaps a bit uninspiring at first with only one, technical, meaning and no vowels but 3 O’s, produced a really remarkable variety of good clues, though there were also rather a lot of dull ones: not many were unsound. There were several of the pleasant type of which I thought Mr. Aspinall’s and Mr. Legge’s the best. I thought Lady C. was bound to come in, even if she had to be dragged in, in two cases with much skill, by the scruff of her neck! Once again, for the sake of newer solvers, I must issue a warning that unhelpful indirect anagrams will never qualify for a mention. Quite a number of competitors used this device with “loco”—e.g. “mad, quite mad,” and there was at least one really (with all due respect) frightful one: “Gum! The flower of the East is broken—there must be a rabbit about!”, with the note “Phool (Urdu) = flower.” How many of us could make use of that bit of “help” to the solution? The offer of an anagram, if made at all, is surely an offer of help: if the actual word anagrammatised is not given, it is almost certain that there will be no help, unless the solution of the definition given leaps to the eye. Reverting to “loco,” even if one divined that 4 letters are anagrammatised, there are far more familiar words meaning mad with 4 letters, e.g. wild, daft, bats: a solver wouldn’t dream of trying the letters of “loco.” So that part of the clue is to all intents and purposes useless. Finally, congratulations to the senders of the brilliant clues which won the first two prizes: I had a job to separate them: Mr. Woolf just won because of his use of “bow,” but I should like his clue better still with Mrs Shackleton’s “gives” at the beginning of it.