XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 1119

RONDE (Printer’s Devilry)

1.  J. B. Sweeting: Court serving—King attacks—see the f/ur fly (frondeur; Louis XIV and Margaret C., Billie-Jean K.).

2.  K. C. Slater: Robin’s friends all sighed to get He/ath (who killed Cock R.; R. Day, Edward H.).

3.  B. W. Brook: Ban go/es on the marches; there’s another in Ireland (Bangor).

V.H.C.

D. B. J. Ambler: Did boatman cha/fe at attempts by infernal gate-crashers?

C. J. Anderson: In tribute to Pe/lé, gates rose (Peron).

C. Allen Baker: Man! That Scrubs—a ni/ck in Great Britain—must be tough! (Brunel, SS Gt. Britain).

E. Chalkley: Mourners who come to get He/ath watch and see a miraculous recovery (1970 election).

N. C. Dexter: Say! Those who bet on Wilson o/we! Your pollsters misled us (Harold W., 1970 election, T.E. Dewey, US Pres. election, 1948).

B. Franco: Cabinet ministers consult to get He/ath duties.

S. C. Gilchrist: I/s pot a menace to the community? (ref. poss. Franco, EEC).

Mrs S. Hewitt: After row, cha/p ended on spirits, paying for many a drachm.

F. G. Illingworth: To escape, the prisoner needed his leg. I/t ached.

R. E. Kimmons: Santa Claus once delivered the goods for fathe/r by day! (1964 Derby winner).

Mrs B. Lewis: If you see an ant le/er, it’s probably a male.

C. J. Morse: First-class ba/ck won’t admit “hands.”

F. E. Newlove: With mat/ador dying, sister stops here.

R. Postill: Unless you have a ba/ck seat, Ravel can be very boring.

J. K. Rickard: Does smut get all clea/n? Marks bookstalls! (Denmark).

Mrs A. Rivlin: Did the Judge go too fa/t, err? Entitled to criticism (deterrent).

T. E. Sanders: Vi ca/vils doing sex poses—seven ways of sinning!

M. C. Souster: How a turn of fortune can uplift us or b/light us! (John F. & Eleanor B. in ‘Not so much a Programme, More a Way of Life’, BBC 2 satire, 1964/5).

Rev L. M. Styler: Would that headlines read:—Violence Demo Demur De/cline (démodé).

J. D. Walsh: A talk by Reverend Fat-he/ad:—“Religions of the world.”

G. H. Willett: For games gae tae brae, Ma/e (Highland games).

M. Woolf: Young Louis recognised the Cardinal’s hat—red, of f/urs (frondeurs; Louis XIV, Mazarin).

H.C.

R. H. Adey, J. K. Anderson, W. G. Arnott, Col P. S. Baines, P. F. Bauchop, T. E. Bell, J. A. Blair, C. O. Butcher, D. P. Chappell, D. L. L. Clarke, J. H. Cleary, Mrs M. P. Craine, R. N. Cuff, S. Goldie, W. F. Goodman, R. B. Harling, D. V. Harry, J. E. Hobson, E. M. Hornby, C. H. Hudson, K. E. James, L. W. Jenkinson, R. S. Johnson, A. H. Jones, Sir S. Kaye, S. G. Kirsch, Capt G. Langham, A. D. Legge, J. P. Lester, S. M. Mansell, T. A. Martin, H. S. Mason, Mrs E. McFee, T. W. Melluish, D. G. C. Mockridge, P. Moreland, T. N. Nesbitt, S. L. Paton, W. H. Pegram, Mrs N. Perry, Miss I. M. Raab, E. J. Rackham, A. Redstone, A. Rivlin, G. J. S. Ross, L. J. Sears, E. O. Seymour, D. J. Short, Mrs E. M. Simmonds, Sir W. Slimmings, J. F. Smith, J. Sparrow, L. H. Stewart, J. R. Stocks, M. F. Thorogood, D. H. Tompsett, Rev C. D. Westbrook, R. W. Whitfield.
 

COMMENTS:—Just under 400 entries, all, I think, correct except for about 25, who gave MINIVER for MINEVER. This produces “Tories are vermin—I, very red, must agree, said Bevan.” This is very inferior sense to the intended “. . . every red must. . .”; in fact it is hardly sense at all to say that the author of a statement agrees with it—so I couldn’t accept this version. A very good entry produced excellent variety; I haven’t indicated the gaps above, so that you can enjoy working them out. The prizewinners are all neat and brief and have the outstanding merit of a complete and unexpected change of subject between devilled and undevilled versions. The commonest idea was Derby Day, followed by matron, tar on deck, Charon and frondeurs. These are all represented above by the clues I liked best; it was impossible to include more, especially of the Derby Day and matron ideas, since there wasn’t enough to make any others stand out. Note that it is possible to be too neat, with the devilled sense almost superior to the undevilled, e.g. “The tack changed the vessel’s course”; this kind gives no kick when the penny drops. And too much tinkering with word-division can be a weakness, producing too obvious a result, e.g. “Mini-stealing cur a-teasing? Let on—could soon be overt-rumped!” Here singleton and overtrumped stick out a mile.
 
I’m afraid the S.E. corner caused almost too much trouble and some defeats. ATTONCE (s.v. atone—C. at fault again!) and GRASTE crossing each other were to blame. I thought an Agra (carpet) was reasonably familiar, but evidently to many it wasn’t; I’m sorry. Tilburina (Sheridan’s The Critic) and Ethel LeNeve were also unfamiliar to some: I had been delighted to hit on the latter, after finding HELLENE impossible to devil until I thought of her. At first I wasn’t sure that my memory of her Christian name was correct, but I was reassured and eventually came across a reference to her in rereading an old Agatha Christie. I was glad to read again that P.D. is so popular, especially as it is such a brute to compose; one has to beware all the time, when filling the diagram, of words (and there are many) that simply won’t be devilled. I’ll continue to keep the appearances of P. D. more frequent than those of other non-plain types—about once every eight months rather than once a year.