XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 93

BUMBLE-PUPPY

1.  F. E. Newlove (SE9): Rookies’ irregular use of pack, frowned on by Battle School (cryptic def.; pack of cards; recruits, tyros; ref. Charles Lamb essay ‘Mrs. Battle’s Opinions on Whist’).

2.  L. E. Thomas (Bangor): Game rounded up by inexperienced dog may spoil drive (bumble puppy, 2 defs.; whist drive).

3.  C. Allen Baker (Wishaw): “The law is a ass,” he said, joining the youth contemptuously in unruly game (Bumble puppy; ref. Mr B. in Oliver Twist, ch. 51).

H.C.

R. D. Binnie (Glasgow): Whist! Here’s a B.E.P. pump; buy fifty regardless of the rules (anag. of B.E.P. pump, buy, L; British Empire Petroleum Co.; petrol rationing).

F. S. Danks (Oxford): First called “Twist!”; then uppish because 21 and under. But the game’s not vingt-et-un (Bumble + puppy; Mr B. gave Oliver Twist his name).

C. P. Grant (Harrow): It’s a poor sort of game to set the petty tyrant on the under-dog (Bumble + puppy; ref. Mr B. in Oliver Twist).

S. B. Green (NW10): Battle doubtless fought strenuously; clubs, etc., employed ad lib (cryptic def.; ref. Charles Lamb essay ‘Mrs. Battle’s Opinions on Whist’; disorganised game).

Mrs L. Jarman (Brough): The unruly rabbit’s tricky game: get the full pack out! (cryptic def.; rabbit = inferior golfer; ref. whist (game of tricks); pack of cards).

Mrs F. Laing (SW2): It’s a silly game running my two pubs with only one cockney help! (anag. of my, pub, pub, ’elp).

T. W. Melluish (SE24): If baby’s bread and butter sandwiches be plum jam, I suggest only half a round (anag. of be plum inside ‘buppy’; game of 9 holes).

Rev E. B. Peel (Fleetwood): Just the game, Alice might have thought, for the busy bee that delights to bark and bite (i.e. bumble (bee) puppy; ref. flamingo croquet in ‘A. in Wonderland’).

A. H. Taylor (Peterborough): Game laws suspended:—the work of a petty, dogged Jack-in-office (i.e. Bumble, followed by a dog; ref. Mr B. in Oliver Twist).

P. H. Taylor (Stratford-on-Avon): Unruly behaviour at table might spoil one’s best suit! (cryptic def.).

F. L. Usher (Leeds): One who wished for a clear fire would surely have preferred poker to this game! (cryptic def.; ref. Mrs Bumble in Oliver Twist).

J. S. Young (SE21): Born humble (says Heep—a conceited fellow none the less), I’m not allowed in the best clubs (b, ’umble, puppy; ref. Uriah H.; bridge clubs, etc.).

COMMENTS.—264 correct. Most of the errors were at 32 or 33—PRI-MI-EST, PA-WED. The puzzle was evidently hard enough to extend and satisfy even the fiercest wolves this time.
 
The word set was rather a nasty one, but a teaser for the anagrammatist is not out of place from time to time. The prize-winners seem to me to have triumphed over the difficulties, but there are fewer H.C.s than usual; real inspiration was elusive.
 
The New Look seems to have taxed some people’s eyesight: they will welcome the return to larger print—a shortah and widah model is being worn now, moddom!
 
Some runners-up:—R. H. Allen, S. Bell, H. Chown, F. A. Clark, F. L. Constable, F. Cropper, G. E. Denyer, Mrs M. E. Duncan, F. W. Edwards, Mrs Fisher, Mrs Fuller, D. Hawson, C. B. Joyner, A. F. Lerrigo, P. H. Mabey, A. D. Merson, B. A. Newman, D. A. Nicholls, A. C. Norfolk, H. C. Pilley, H. Ingram Rees, M. R. Sampford, J. C. W. Springbett, Mrs Stevenson, R. H. Taylor, J. Thompson, L. D. Wakely, J. M. Wolstenhulme, P. G. Woodcock.