XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 712

RHEUMATICKY

1.  Mrs J. Thomas (Wilmslow): Shifting mucky earth I get painfully stiff (anag.).

2.  W. K. M. Slimmings (Worcester Park): Far from athletic, yet makes a mark in running (a tick in rheumy).

3.  J. D. H. Mackintosh (W. Wickham): Externally free from cramp, we hear, but internally there’s a throbbing. Muscle-bound, perhaps? (a tick in ‘roomy’).

H.C.

F. D. H. Atkinson (Claygate): Characteristic of most second-rate joints—getting snotty about a deferred payment (a tick in rheumy).

C. O. Butcher (E4): Semi-humans will get with it and do the twist with creaky and painfully stiff results (anag. of hum(ans) it creaky).

Dr J. W. Crowther (Kirkby Lonsdale): Sounds spacious in the top room? On the contrary, it’s painfully cramped (i.e. ‘attic’ in ‘roomy’).

Brig W. E. Duncan (Montrose): A never-ending cold with a moment in my suffering when every limb aches (rheu(m) + a tick in my).

J. H. Eyre (Enfield): It’s the booze, what! back inside a second year and in trouble with the screws (eh! (rev.) in rum + a tick y; screw = broken-winded horse).

K. Gibson (Hucknall): Liable to suffer from the cold and dampness swirling in the mucky air (anag.).

S. Goldie (Enfield): Stiff hiker may cut rambling (anag.).

E. Gomersall (York): With joints that ache and creak with humidity, I’d cut out swimming (anag. less I’d).

S. B. Green (NW10): Attic room sounds preposterous—a year on end of it could make you this! (‘room attic’ + y, & lit.).

A. J. Hughes (Sutton Coldfield): With catarrh the throb inside certainly is painful (rheum + tick in ay).

F. G. Illingworth (Worcester): Rhubarb, a second year? That’s not what the keen gardener wants to grow! (Rheum a tick y).

A. H. Jones (Manchester): Be I once free of thicky uremia, dang it, then I be stiff in the joints! (anag. less one I).

A. Lawrie (Cheltenham): Hiker may cut rambling—wanting easy movement in a motor? (anag.; motor = muscle).

Mrs E. McFee (Rhos-on-Sea): Having stiffness in limbs? Achy? Um—trike could provide the answer (anag.).

T. W. Melluish (SE24): Having a stiff peg to disperse the mucky air? (anag.; peg = leg).

C. J. Morse (SW10): What’s uncomfortable about the joint? It sounds positively spacious with the top storey included (‘attic’ in ‘roomy’).

A. Robins (Manchester): What makes the air mucky? The sort of weather we so often get! (anag.).

R. J. Steel (SE6): Having painfully affected articulation—class symbol in word-forming—swanky too; but doesn’t get the bird (U in rhematic + (swan)ky).

J. W. Taylor (Stoke-on-Trent): This kind of joint isn’t healthy—the mucky air needs changing (anag.).

L. E. Thomas (Bangor): It’s true I’m achy, out of sorts. Knee’s beginning to get involved too! (k in anag).

RUNNERS-UP

C. Allen Baker, S. Barnett, A. O. Baxter, H. Bernard, N. H. Brown, W. Charlton, D. L. L. Clarke, Cdr H. H. L. Dickson, L. L. Dixon, E. C. Double, T. N. Dowse, Mrs B. Eskell, Mrs W. Fearon, H. W. Flewett, M. C. Foakes, J. Foster, Miss J. Fry, F. D. Gardiner, C. E. Gates, J. H. Gawler, D. Hawson, N. L. Hindley, H. T. E. Hone, J. G. Hull, R. W. Jakeman, B. K. Kelly, R. W. Killick, J. Leece, Mrs W. J. Mahood, D. P. M. Michael, W. L. Miron, M. Newman, A. E. North, A. C. Okell, C. S. F. Oliver, S. L. Paton, Miss M. J. Patrick, R. V. Penycate, E. J. Rackham, Rev E. G. Riley, Mrs J. Robertson, H. Rotter, T. E. Sanders, J. A. Sefton, L. T. Stokes, F. B. Stubbs, J. B. Sweeting, Miss D. W. Taylor, J. Thompson, D. H. Tompsett, G. H. Willett, R. G. Wilson, C. P. Wroth.
 

COMMENTS:—282 entries, 265 correct—still no major solving disaster this year (apart from April 1st!), which is gratifying. It was an excellent entry, as the long lists show. “The mucky air” and “room-attic-y” were the most popular ideas: I have chosen for H.C.s those whose wording I liked best. To illustrate the importance of wording, I will analyse the other clues (I hope I haven’t missed any) which contained the idea so perfectly worded by the winner. “Mucky earth I cultivated—now I’m ——.” (R.U.). I don’t quite like “cultivated” as an indication of an anagram; it doesn’t suggest mixture definitely enough: and “now” is pointless. “Endlessly earthy and mucky I may easily end up this way.” (R.U.). Suggestion of anagram too tenuous: “this way” a bit suspect as indication of adj.; and, other things being equal, I prefer to avoid a subtracted letter. “Mucky earth, blast it, and I in it! No wonder I’m stiff.” (R.U.). I’m left too much in two minds as to what this means: am I rolling about in it, or am I a corpse? The picture, to me, isn’t clear enough. “What all-weather gardeners get? Covered with blasted mucky earth, like I am!” Sound enough except for the fatal “I am” for “the letter I is”: this is a major crime! “The mucky, mucky earth—I get twinges when it’s wet!” A gratuitous misleading comma in the indication of the anagram, and “get … wet” is certainly no definition of an adjective. I hope these comments, and comparison of these clues with the winner’s, may be helpful.
 
I am taken to task by four scientists (and no doubt many others felt likewise) for my clue to “acetal,” which they assure me is not an alcoholic liquid. I know my ignorance of science is abysmal, and I’m afraid I’m liable to err in this way: I have a colleague-solver whom I sometimes consult to keep me straight, but this happened in the holidays. I can only bow and scrape, but I would plead that C. gives “due to alcohol” as a definition of “alcoholic”: if “acetal” is formed by oxidation of alcohol, can’t it be said, cruciverbally if not scientifically, to be due to alcohol and therefore alcoholic? I shall pitifully maintain that it can, but I will remember not to try an acetal and tonic when in need of stimulation. I can’t resist adding that one of the scientists wrote “I enjoyed the puzzle but, as a chemist, your definition clue to acetal made me shudder!” To which I reply that, as a student of language, his syntax makes me shudder! I deny absolutely that my definition clue is a chemist, any more than I am.