XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 27

MEANDRIAN

1.  W. K. M. Slimmings (SW15): Not the course a bull takes, to the discomfiture of a man in red! (anag.).

2.  Miss J. Fry (Oxford): Quite loopy of course (cryptic def.).

3.  Sqn Ldr H. M. Jamieson (Duns): Loopy? Near mad in one way certainly (anag.).

H.C.

L. P. Cook (Sheffield): A crooked mandarine is not straight of course (anag.).

C. B. Daish (Peterborough): Amend rain to read “windy” (anag.).

F. E. Dixon (Dublin): Twist and remain twisting (anag.).

Mrs C. E. Duff (Arbroath): Mazy Chinese puzzle: find the mandarine! (anag.).

Rev B. Foley (Liverpool): “The wild thing went” this way to a dream inn (anag.; ref. ‘The Rolling English Road’ in G. K. Chesterton, ‘The Flying Inn’).

Maj A. H. Giles (Leamington): Doctor Ian’s got a bad name for not going straight (mean Dr Ian).

S. B. Green (NW10): Undress and remain in Serpentine, ignoring propriety (anag.).

M. L. Herzig (Enfield): A nine-dram shake might give you such a walk home! (anag.).

C. R. Malcolm (SW7): Who’s writhing in bed? An Aberdonian doctor? (i.e. mean Dr Ian; river-bed).

Maj D. P. M. Michael (Newport): Of course I am winding—I damn near got lost! (anag.).

F. H. Oliver (Goring): All of a twist, with the lowest point twisted in the middle! (anag. of nadir in mean).

J. I. Perrett (Lewes): Liable to twist and remain twisted (anag.).

R. C. Reeves (EC4): Zigzagging like a Cockney couple doing the Lambeth Walk (i.e. like me and ’er (meander)).

W. Rennie (Newcastle): Highland John, under a poor little doctor, is twisting and turning in bed (mean Dr Ian; river-bed).

J. F. Smith (Nottingham): Scramble, airmen, and get weaving! (anag).

J. E. Smith Wright (SW7): Unwind and remain winding (anag).

D. L. Toseland (Birmingham): Describes the classic curves on one side of Lydia (crptic def.: ref. River Meander, southern boundary of the Kingdom of L.).

E. F. Watling (Sheffield): Crooked, and I damn’ near got mixed up in it! (anag.).

COMMENTS:—269 correct solutions. ‘Phenyl’ for ‘phenol’ was the commonest error, the anag. of ‘holpen’ being elusive, evidently.
 
The “Flying Inn” clue was perhaps the cleverest of those sent in; its difficulty alone robbed it of a prize. There were other clues very like some of the commended ones, notably those which used ‘I damn near,’ ‘and remain’ and ‘mean Dr. Ian.’ In case their senders think the choice was capricious, they can rest assured that the wordings of the clues commended were preferred for definite reasons. Nor are previous winners and “commendees” handicapped in any way in order that new or hitherto unsuccessful entrants may be “encouraged”: all start square every time!