XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 85

SERGEANT

1.  E. S. Ainley (S. Harrow): Sort of reagents most sensitive to inert forces (anag.; i.e. lazy soldiers).

2.  F. L. Usher (Leeds): Striped, and infests barracks; to get him worsted apply insecticide (i.e. serge(ant); ref. insignia).

3.  E. L. Mellersh (Enfield): He would make a saint shrivel and turn green: yet, having received stripes, he seeks a crown above (anag. of a St green; i.e. insignia of Staff Sgt.).

H.C.

H. G. Butters (Ipswich): Sent away—kit left untidy—his heart turns to anger (i.e. anag. of gear or rage in sent, & lit.).

A. E. Clayton (Weymouth): Fabricant? Well, he dresses the raw material (i.e. serge (fabric) + ant; dress = align troops in parade).

P. M. Coombs (Burgess Hill): Textile worker gives private instruction in stripe effects (serge ant; private soldier; ref. insignia).

T. E. Faber (Cambridge): Rate germanium-tin alloy superior to copper (anag. incl. Ge, Sn; ref. police ranks).

T. C. Fitzpatrick (Glasgow): We see more than corporal punishment in this stern age (anag.).

J. L. Hall (Wells): Gents are—As you were!—Officers and gents are my superiors (anag.).

G. A. Hornsby (Guisborough): His coat-of-arms (in vert) bearing three chevrons or a chief fretty rampant (cryptic def.; i.e. invert into ‘arms-of-coat’; ref. insignia).

C. Koop (Ferring): The way to ruin gets near—the constable and the inspector between them have got me! (anag.; ref. police ranks).

A. F. Lerrigo (Pinner): Carries on as Regent after Restoration; (hoping yet to wear the crown, perhaps) (anag.; i.e. crown insignia of Staff Sgt.).

J. Montgomerie (Haddington): Striped drilling: the fabric has not shrunk (serge an’t; ref. insignia, drill Sgt.).

R. Postill (Jersey): Twill trousers (extremely short)—with a striped coat! He does dress loudly (serge (p)ant(s); ref. insignia; dress = align troops in parade).

E. O. Seymour (Gerrard’s Cross): Strange ’e should be in a mess? Not at all (anag. & lit.; mess = canteen).

Mrs E. Shackleton (W. Wickham): He, with his remarks on private enterprise, can cause a gent’s ear to split (anag.; i.e. private soldiers).

Miss D. W. Taylor (Sidcup): Fell to declaiming Hamlet, making his mother less rude about joining ENSA (anag. of Gert(rude) ENSA; ref. mother of H. and Hamlet V.2.350, “fell sergeant”).

Capt C. Tyers (Elstead): Compound of reagents exerting reflex action on uniform lines (anag.; ref. parade drill).

Comments.—361 correct: the commonest error was “empark”: surely Mungo would rather say “I’m Park”—the only spelling given by Chambers. There was, of course, no objection whatever to the spelling SERJEANT: not many used it—a few of them are among the runners up.
 
Perhaps the best thing in the entry was the second half of Mr Mellersh’s clue, which by Itself forms a perfect “straight” clue. To my mind he gilded the lily by adding the anagram, and he gets third prize instead of first.
 
It was interesting to be reminded by a solver of Torquemada’s clue—“Twilled fabric pismire with triple stripe.”
 
Some runners-up.—Mrs Adam, C. Anderson, D. Ashcroft, C. Allen Baker, R. Brain, P. S. C. Brisbourne, Rev B. Chapman, F. A. Clark, J. H. Dingwall, E. E. Evans, L. E. Eyres, W. V. Farrar, I. C. Gilchrist, M. W. A. Gover, W. C. Hayward, H. C. Hills, Miss Horner, H. T. Jenner, R. Lumley, J. Martin, B. J. McCann, A. R. McInroy, A. C. Norfolk, Dr W. D. Oliver, Miss Pritchard, P. H. Rowley, T. E. Sanders, R. F. Sellers, W. K. M. Slimmings, J. Templeton, H. S. Tribe, Capt R. F. Tyers, E. Ward, J. E. Ward.