XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 87

SISKIN

1.  A. R. Fraser (Cambridge): Among St. Francis of Assisi’s kindred (hidden, & lit.).

2.  Miss E. Pritchard (High Wycombe): Peel is used for stuffing the rooster (is in skin).

3.  L. W. Jenkinson (Skipton): Bob’s your uncle, maybe, Dicky (s is kin; s = shilling; dicky bird).

H.C.

E. S. Ainley (S. Harrow): Sliced? Bob’s your uncle, perhaps—with a close run-up—you’ll get a birdie (s is kin; s = shilling).

D. Ashcroft (Fleetwood): I wingéd? I hide on Sunday, while my family sings loudly in church! (S I skin; f in Ch = finch).

F. A. Clark (Croydon): A little brother of St. Francis in Assisi’s kindergarten (hidden).

F. L. Constable (Diss): Sinks one (not very calmly) for a birdie! (anag. incl. I).

F. S. Danks (York): Tragedy for an actor; misses the bus; little sister goes on instead and gets the bird (sis for bus in buskin).

T. J. Dinan (Newcastle, Galway): Travel swiftly downhill in direct violation of the law, and get the bird! (ski in sin).

Mrs D. M. D’Eath (Haywards Heath): A diminutive connection, relatively speaking, of Assisi’s kindhearted Saint (hidden).

Mrs N. Fisher (Stroud): If the bird shows itself on Sunday I must be in the hide (I S in skin; S.=Sunday).

C. C. M. Giffin (Gravesend): Occupied a place in S. Francis of Assisi’s kind heart—a bird divine, we hear! (hidden; ‘aberdevine’).

S. B. Green (NW10): A layer of bark is grafted in (is in skin).

C. B. Joyner (Ringwood): In this crisis kindness “gets the bird” from Russia (hidden; winter migrant; ref. Berlin blockade).

A. F. Lerrigo (Pinner): Relations at the end of a crisis rest on a firm footing ((cri)sis + kin; perching birds).

Mrs J. Morris (Newcastle-on-Tyne): Planner changes his pounds into shillings and perches (s for L in Silkin; Lewis S., Min. of Town and Country Planning in 1948).

Rev E. B. Peel (Fleetwood): Bird is breaking cover—a bird divine? (is in skin; ‘aberdevine’).

G. H. Podmore (Altrincham): Girl-friend gives you the bird in front of the family: sounds like she’s in the wrong (sis + kin, ‘ski’ (pron. ‘she’) in sin).

T. E. Sanders (Walsall): My sister has got the “King’s Head” in the main part of Finchley and is often seen behind the bars (sis K in; Finch(ley); caged bird).

J. A. Stafford (Sheffield): Part of the charm of hedgerows is kin to brambling (hidden; charm= flock of finches).

W. H. Victory (Newport): Noted denizen of St. Francis of Assisi’s kingdom (hidden, & lit.).

L. C. Wright (Selby): Being airworthy, is about to take off (is (rev.) + skin).

Comments.—308 correct: scattered trouble, chiefly with the last letters of NEMESIAS and ONDING and the last but one of HOUYHNHNM. “Hote-£-s” seems to have caused some perplexity.
 
Standard of clues not quite so high as last time. I got terribly tired of Mr. Silkin changing his pounds to shillings, and of sweethearts being introduced to the family, and getting the bird! The best of these have received mentions, to show that there is no ill-feeling! I did not quite like the clues which included anags. of “aberdevine,” clever as some of them were: when a solver has spotted and unravelled an anag. he may reasonably expect to have the answer, not a clue to it (albeit an easy one—v. Chambers). I hope senders of such clues will not be able to find authority for what they did in Ximenes!
 
Some runners-up.—J. E. Adams, D. Ambler, D. Connell, H. J. Connell, J. H. Dingwall, F. E. Dixon, G. W. H. Edgcomb, L. E. Eyres, C. E. Gates, D. Hawson, J. J. Hilary, A. Hodgkinson, Miss S. J. Homer, L. R. Huxtable, Mrs Kissen, J. P. Lloyd, J. Marshall, J. J. McCormick, A. R. McInroy, A. McIntyre, T. W. Melluish, D. P. M. Michael, Miss H. Milvain, Mrs Mumford, R. Postill, S. Rundle, J. C. Saunders, E. O. Seymour, S. P. Shanahan, D. W. Snow, J. Sutton, C. M. Tatham, A. H. Taylor, J. Thomas, J. Walton, J. A. Watson, F Lt E. I. Williams.