XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 179

CADRE

1.  D. P. M. Michael (Whitchurch): Establishment of peace could be crazy crusade without us (anag. less us & lit.).

2.  J. F. N. Wedge (Sutton): Heedfulness about the pence gives a firm basis for building up the nation’s armed strength (d in care).

3.  D. G. Knights (Redcar): Worry about pence can make one a permanent skeleton (d in care).

H.C.

C. A. Baker (Wishaw): Having a die-hard leader in charge will be the foundation of strength (d in care; ref. return of Winston Churchill as PM).

F. L. Constable (Ludlow): Towny has about enough of officers and N.C.O.s! (cad re; cad = Eton, Oxford jargon for a townsman).

P. M. Coombs (Burgess Hill): Concern about reduction in small expenditure: these leaders set an example! (d in care).

W. Darby (SE21): A poor specimen by the “Sapper”—not “The Final Count” (cad RE; ref. book in Bulldog Drummond series by H.C. McNeile (“Sapper”)).

T. O. Hughes (Maidenhead): A dreadful start by the Chancellor. An extension of it may produce a division (C a dre(adful); C., legal abbrev.; ref. increase in Bank Rate after 1951 Gen. Election [see comments]).

Very Rev N. M. Kennaby (Newcastle): Death of a cat! Inquest verdict—it swallowed a coin. Now it’s a skeleton (d. in care; ref. proverb, “care killed the cat”).

F. P. N. Lake (Manchester): Core. Pips may be carried within OR formed around it (cryptic def.; OR = other ranks; pip⁴ [see comments]).

E. W. Lee (Gidea Park): Car exporter, just started, requires limited cash investment: small company, ready to expand (d in car e(xporter)).

R. Postill (Jersey): Troops soon gather around a barrel with liquid in it (R in cade¹; i.e. liquid consonant).

A. Robins (Manchester): The potential force of a large battery is a piece of copper placed in the charge (d. in care).

E. B. Stevens (Morden): A bus conductor must accept half fare for this skeleton (cad + (fa)re; cad = bus conductor, in contemporary ed. of C.).

H. G. Tattersall (N21): Key men are anxious about the start of denationalisation (d in care; ref. plans to denationalise steel, 1951).

P. H. Taylor (Peterborough): A mob gathers round me, led by a bus conductor! (i.e. starts with cad; cad = bus conductor, in contemporary ed. of C.; the mob = the army).

RUNNERS-UP

E. S. Ainley, J. W. Bates, M. L. Booker, G. Bowness, Maj H. L. Carter, F. A. Clark, A. E. Clayton, W. J. Duffin, W. M. Easther, Mrs N. Fisher, A. R. Fraser, Mrs J. O. Fuller, F. D. Gardiner, S. B. Green, R. J. Hall, C. Koop, Capt G. Langham, G. G. Lawrance, J. P. Lloyd, F. E. Newlove, D. A. Nicholls, Mrs A. M. Osmond, A. P. O’Leary, J. W. Parr, Rev E. B. Peel, E. J. Rackham, H. Rainger, R. J. Rea, D. W. Reeds, E. W. Richart, T. E. Sanders, O. Carlton Smith, H. S. Tribe, Capt C. Tyers, J. Vallely, R. Wells.
 

COMMENTS—254 correct: few errors, apart from a fair crop of failures to see the Linnaean Society in hue. This led to “Hulme”—as a guess, presumably—instead of HULSE: perhaps people were thinking of Hume. Thank you for the large number of kindly commendations: solvers seem to have found the puzzle stiff but enjoyable, which is as it should be. PERAMBULATOR evidently was especially popular!
 
In view of your kindness, it is perhaps churlish to say that the clues submitted were, as a whole, rather below average; but I’m afraid that was my view. The entry was marred by more examples than usual of the “clue to a clue.” CADRE may mean a “skeleton” or “nucleus”: “skeleton means “bones,” but CADRE doesn’t; “nucleus” has many scientific meanings, but CADRE hasn’t. The idea was to write a clue to CADRE, not to “skeleton” or “nucleus.” I hope this is really clear now: if A can mean B and B can mean C, but A cannot mean C, then C must not be used to define A.
 
If Mr Hughes had written “A dreadful beginning” instead of “A dreadful start” he would certainly have won a prize: I thought the second sentence of his clue the best thing in the entry. It will be a good exercise in the study of soundness in clues to notice the difference that “beginning” makes. I also thought that Mr Lake spoilt a lovely idea by the last four words: OR without full stops was very questionable, and there was plenty there to make a good clue without that idea. Both these clues receive H.C.s because of their merits in spite of their weaknesses. Mr Michael’s clue stood out well: after that it was a close-run thing.
 
You are again urged to post early: every time there is a batch of late arrivals, which are perforce excluded from the competition.