XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 287

MANCHESTER

1.  C. R. Haigh: What is indicated by three short legs in a ring in front of the umpire? A pitch good for ducks? (Man Chester; ref. Isle of M. triskelion, Frank C., Test umpire, rain-interrupted cricket at Old Trafford).

2.  J. Hardie Keir: An “urbanity” of bustling English merchants, and a “despondency” of cricketers (anag. incl. E; ‘nouns of multitude’; ref. rain-interrupted cricket at Old Trafford).

3.  F. E. Newlove: Rocket transport reached this stage long ago: thence Mars has become the objective (anag.; ref. Liverpool-M. railway, Stephenson’s ‘Rocket’).

H.C.

E. S. Ainley (Harrow): You need macs there badly (place in the north). (N in anag., & lit.).

C. Allen Baker: One source of supply for English merchants (anag. incl. E, & lit.).

Miss A. W. Baldy: Northern Territory—here macs are badly needed (anag. incl. NT, & lit.).

P. Holtby: Being bust, about to return home of free will—having liberal Guardian (man chest + re (rev.); ref. M. Guardian newspaper).

E. G. Illingworth: Damage can ruin these in Mr. Chuzzlewit’s kind of merchandise (anag. + anag. in Mr; ref. Anthony C., M. warehouseman in ‘Martin C.’).

Mrs L. Jarman: Where bits of fluff from abroad go for our cops in a big way (cryptic def.; cop on spindle; ref. cotton mills).

J. Jones: The place for stone-walling—especially if a man short! (i.e. (man)Chester; ref. Old Trafford (tactic in rain-interrupted cricket), and Chester city walls).

T. W. Melluish: You’d better give a new order for macs there—an indefinite number (anag. incl. n, & lit.).

W. L. Miron: Merchants are perturbed about importation of Eastern cotton goods here! (E in anag.; ref. textile industry).

C. J. Morse (SW1): Can this be the place to make a chap umpire whose name is linked with the next county? (man Chester, & lit.; ref. Frank C., Test umpire, and C. in Cheshire).

D. A. Nicholls: The East has contracted and merchants must take it—but there’s a rumpus here! (E in anag., & lit.).

R. Postill: Here many unfinished matches (except a dull finish) get ruined by rain up North (man(y) + (mat)ches + ret (rev.), & lit.; ref. rain-interrupted cricket at Old Trafford).

E. R. Prentice: Here almost an inch may fall, with Test Start abandoned: pages and pages written up about it ((i)nch (t)est in ream (rev.), & lit.; ref. rain-interrupted 1953 Ashes Test at Old Trafford).

A. Robins: An apt motto for this school of potential English merchants might be Honour Bright! (anag. incl. E; ref. novel ‘David Chester’s motto: “H. B.”’ by H. E. Inman).

Mrs E. M. Simmonds: You’ll see an infinite number in wet macs there! (anag. incl. n; wet = crazy).

D. Slater: You’ll find any number of macs there: the cloth’s capital! (anag. incl. n; ref. textile industry).

F. B. Stubbs: Where spinners and weavers may find their merchants’ English capital (anag. incl. E, & lit,; ref. textile industry).

I. Young: You’ll need macs there, the North being altogether very unsettled (anag. incl. N, & lit.).

RUNNERS-UP

A. Bristow, Rev H.D. Owen Brown, P. B. Chapman, R. M. S. Cork, C. R. Dean, Miss B. J. Dix, W. J. Duffin, Brig W. E. Duncan, A. L. Freeman, C. C. M. Giffin, C. P. Grant, S. B. Green, T. J. Guffick, D. Hawson, L. Johnson, C. Koop, Mrs F. Laing, A. F. Lerrigo, E. L. Mellersh, J. G. Milner, P. H. Morgan, J. S. Pyett, D. T. Rowland, T. E. Sanders, J. M. Sharman, Mrs F. H. Shepherd, Mrs A. L. Stevenson, L. T. Stokes, Brig R. F. E. Stoney, Miss D. M. Thorne, D. H. Tompsett, A. L. Vann.
 

COMMENTS:—290 entries, 150 correct. Of the 140 incorrect, 80 had no mistake apart from “line” for LUNE; 43 had some other mistake (most commonly “Metemme”) or mistakes, with LUNE correct; 17 had “line” plus some other mistake or mistakes. The ‘E’ theme-word and variations were plane figures—OVAL, RHOMB, LUNE: The hint in clue 32 leaves no doubt of this. “Its relative describes E’s figures,” and C. tells us that hamamelis is “akin to the planes.” By no stretch can a line be called a plane figure, so I could not accept it. I saw the danger of this error: that was why I took the opportunity to give a direction by that hint, without which “line” could be defended on the ground that the variations were merely geometrical terms. I feared, however, that hasty people would still err, and they did. But it wasn’t a trap so much as a test of thoroughness.
 
I deliberately made this puzzle much easier than the last of its type, which had proved, I thought, too elusive. This, I am still sure, was right, though some of the tigers said it was too easy; however, non-tigers deserve consideration! There was this time only one set of variations of the puzzling “literal-resemblance” type—the girl‘s name ending to Manc-Hester. Nev-Ada and Met-Emma. (This ruled out alternative spellings of Metemma: the spelling I used is that of the Everyman Encyclopaedia Atlas and of Philip’s Universal Atlas, and it also appeared often in the Press during the War). Usunada is also in both these atlases.
 
I wish LUNE hadn’t caused so much trouble, and I hope those who wrote “line” will kick themselses and not me! It occurs to me that it really may have been a nasty trap for those who still haven’t got the new Chambers; but I really can’t cater for them after this length of time. The handicap of not having it can often he survived by ingenuity, but occasions when survival is very difficult are bound to arise from time to time.
 
No. 255—I forgot in the last slip to apologise for my carelessness in assuming that GAUR is pronounced like Laura: I do so now. It was quite as bad as writing “line” in this puzzle, though luckily for me not so disastrous!