XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 191

DENIGRATE

1.  C. Allen Baker (Wishaw): Smut—a blight of grain with deterioration beginning on the outside (anag. in dete(rioration); smut, vb.).

2.  E. O. Seymour (Gerrards Cross): Dine with the Great informally if you want to talk scandal in the old way (anag. of dine great).

3.  M. Winterbottom (SE25): Do what the pot did to the kettle—enraged it by character distortion (anag.; the p. calling the k. black).

H.C.

E. S. Ainley (Harrow): The C in C.’s retired—ordered rest—run down (anag. of (C)entigrade).

J. A. Flood (Leyton): Get a red in having gone to pot black (anag.; black, vb.).

C. E. Gates (Kettering): Thoroughly run down; and I mayn’t move out of the wretched garden before term begins (i.e. ‘I’ must stay in anag. of garden + te(rm)).

L. W. Jenkinson (Stoke-on-Trent): I’m run down; I need a place to retire to and get air of exceptional quality (den + anag. of get air).

L. Johnson (N. Harrow): It’s the dreadful diet range that makes you run down (anag.; ref. rationing).

T. W. Melluish (SE24): Run down? Diet range should be altered (anag.).

G. H. Podmore (Altrincham): Geraint and Enid involved in uncalled for abuse (anag. of Gera(in)t & Enid; ref. Tennyson poem, G. & E.).

E. R. Prentice (Clifton): Treading carelessly onto the top of the escalator is enough to degrade any man (anag. + e).

Maj J. N. Purdon (Cloverhill, Co. Cavan): Confounded rag, need it blacken a man’s reputation? (anag.).

W. K. M. Slimmings (New Malden): To give cause for a libel action gets the editor tearing mad (anag. incl. ed.).

L. E. Thomas (Bangor): Let’s have a good evening, and after one go on to where the bars are open and one may get some poker! Damn the consequence! (den² + I + grate).

RUNNERS-UP

T. Bolton, J. M. Bradshaw, Mrs D. M. D’Eath, L. E. Eyres, J. A. Fincken, Mrs D. Fuller, S. R. Gibbs, R. McD. Graham, S. B. Green, R. J. Hall, J. G. Hull, F. G. Illingworth, Mrs L. Jarman, J. Hardie Keir, P. W. W. Leach, C. J. Morse, F. E. Newlove, E. G. Phillips, G. W. Pugh, E. J. Rackham, A. Rivlin, A. Robins, T. E. Sanders, Mrs E. M. Simmonds, L. R. Smith, J. A. L. Sturrock, G. H. Willett, M. Woolf, J. T. Young.
 

COMMENTS—174 correct and the highest proportion incorrect since Serb and Sorb caused disaster in No. 102. This time it was STAR and STIR. My immediate reaction on these fairly rare occasions is to say “Is it my fault? Is the alternative justifiable?” I have honestly done my best for “stir,” but I cannot justify it as a solution of the whole clue, which was “Insists on working up a big noise, to attract attention.” A stir is a big noise, and to stir is to attract attention: so far so good. But what about “insists on working up?” To rit is to strike, which is hardly to insist on working. If one takes those words as part of the definition, one is faced with the idea of a stir insisting on working up a big noise. A stir cannot insist on anything: it is too far-fetched an idea to personify a stir in this way, and anyhow what would be the point of such a clumsy definition? It achieves nothing. One could maintain that to stir is to insist on working up a big noise, but that would require “insist” in the clue instead of “insists.” Star, on the other hand, at once explains those first four words: to rat is to refuse to join a strike, i.e., to insist on working. And a star is a big noise and to star is to attract attention. It was an unfortunate coincidence that “stir” so nearly fitted: the moral is to make sure that your solution fits the whole clue.
 
THUS (= frankincense, used as a preserve for mummies) also caused some trouble: it will be found in Chambers’s under “thurible,” [now thus²]. There were also other scattered mistakes in a difficult puzzle. The effort of solution may have reduced inspiration for writing a clue: the entry was, I thought, a little undistinguished and there were many cases of loose wording. Among the H.C.s Mr. Ainley’s clue might have been considered too difficult and Mr. Thomas’s clue too long for inclusion in an entry of normal strength. On the whole a rather disappointing result, but ups and downs are inevitable and there have been several definite ups lately!
 
Finally I would commiserate especially with the following, who would probably have achieved mentions but for “stir”:—J. A. Blair, M. Fowler, Mrs J. O. Fuller, J. A. Maxtone Graham, B. J. McCann, H. Walsham.