XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 83

BUDAPEST

1.  J. D. P. O’Leary (Thames Ditton): City partners, using different banks, begin to grow a nuisance (bud a pest; ref. Buda and Pest on Danube).

2.  Mrs L. Jarman (Brough): Shares close at varying levels in the city—B.A.T.s up, E. Rand extremely irregular (anag. incl. (Ran)d; ref. Buda (hilly) and Pest (flat); ref. Brit. Am. Tobacco, E. Rand mining co.).

3.  D. C. Shute (SE3): Presidential intervention in U.S.A. debt agitation provides capital for Europe (P in anag.; ref. Marshall Plan, etc.).

H.C.

Mrs F. Begg (Aberdeen): It is quite in order to shoot an undesirable with base designs on the banks (bud a pest; banks of Danube).

A. E. Brookes (Sutton Coldfield): Is big this? Yes, but the current on which it appears is not, we think, exclusively red (cryptic def.; ref. big-bud, a pest of currants; Blue Danube; communist rule in Hungary).

F. L. Constable (Diss): City youngster gets copy for The Street (bud ape St; Fleet St.).

P. M. Coombs (Burgess Hill): I should make the spade but my bridge, Elizabeth, is not the sort you play in Hungary (anag.; ref. Elisabeth (Erzsébet) bridge in B.).

C. Higham (SW1): It’s capital on a river to shoot the mingled flood-rapids! (bud + anag. of spate).

J. P. Lloyd (Swansea): Where people are familiar with hammer and sickle, but apt to mishandle a spade (anag. in but; ref. communist rule in Hungary).

R. C. Macfarlane (Edinburgh): Capital spot, but colonised by hundreds of monkeys (D apes in but).

A. R. McInroy (Edinburgh): You might make it by finessing a spade but guard against the Vienna Coup: East is well protected! (anag.; ref. tactic in bridge; Austro-Hungarian Empire).

B. Murray (Stoke-on-Trent): Badly damaged in the war, but spade-work may restore it (anag.).

P. M. Newey (Reading): Document lately obsolete, ends a da—— nuisance, but altogether leaves one in a more than hungry state (BU (bread unit coupon) da pest; a in hungry = Hungary; ref. end of bread rationing, July 1948).

Rev E. B. Peel (Fleetwood): A plague on the Budget! Get going! Capital seized by Communists! (bud(get) + a pest; ref. communist rule in Hungary and socialist Govt. in UK).

G. H. Podmore (Altrincham): Hungry? If you can get a fill, capital! (cryptic def.; a in hungry = Hungary).

R. Postill (Jersey): City connected with blue flower. You may find flower to be a nuisance! (bud (flower-to-be) + a pest; ref. Blue Danube; flow-er).

P. H. Taylor (Bromley): Capital ingredients can make a superlatively good “pud”! (anag. of a best pud).

J. Walton (Dunfermline): On the Danube, drop the bait gently in the bluest part. Out comes a pound but not necessarily of fish! (dap¹ in bluest less L).

Comments.—257 correct and rather more mistakes than usual. It was unfortunate—and unforeseen—that for the end of 7 ras as well as res is a point. The intention, as usual with names which may be unfamiliar, was to make the subsidiary part of the clue definitive; but it unhappily wasn’t, and the sufferers deserve commiseration. But not so those who wrote “ne’er-do-weel” in spite of the clue to “dowel” and the final hint to avoid “weel.” And neither “sick” nor “sack” satisfies the clue to 1 dn. “K.C.” as abbr. for “knockabout comedy” is a bit too much to swallow; nor does “s-lapst-ick” help much.
 
“Hyperaemia” seems to have had the most popular clue.
 
Many thanks for a number of reassuring notes about decisions, including a very friendly one from one of the critics quoted. I always knew that no offence was meant.
 
Some runners up:—W. K. Angus, Maj P. S. Baines, Rev L. Blackburn, C. B. Daish, F. S. Danks, Cdr H. H. L. Dickson, B. d’Arcy, P. G. W. Glare, P. A. Harrow, H. C. Hills, R. N. H. Hughman, AC1 P. D. Johnson, G. G. Lawrance, B. J. McCann, G. M. McNeil, D. P. M. Michael, Mrs M. J. Mortimer, F. E. Newlove, A. P. O’Leary, Mrs M. G. Porter, S. Rundle, A. J. C. Saunders, W. K. M. Slimmings, A. E. Smith, C. Randolph Smith, O. Carlton Smith, Mrs A. L. Stevenson, A. H. Taylor, L. E. Thomas, H. S. Tribe, Capt C. Tyers, E. Wainwright, J. E. Ward, W. R. Watson-Smyth, C. E. Williams.