XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 369

BERET

1.  Mrs J. O. Fuller: Remember ether masks what is usually felt! (hidden).

2.  C. J. Morse: Small round object eaten by overconfident Frenchmen? Sounds like wild fruit! (‘berry’; “I’ll eat my hat”).

3.  Miss D. W. Taylor: A matter of capital investment not usually raised at meetings (cryptic def.; investments = clothes (arch.)).

H.C.

Mrs R. M. Blake: Basque top fashion looks like a pillow case fitting to a T! (bere T).

C. R. Dean: Headlines may be made by this item in the Honours List getting about beforehand (ere in Bt).

Mrs N. Fisher: An education authority has several times upheld protection for the Head against rough elements (BE + ter (rev.); Board of Education).

W. Hough: What does a Viscount wear in place of a coronet before coming into the title? (cryptic def.; ref. Montgomery of Alamein).

A. W. Maddocks: This liaison between Jean and Monty sounds rather fruity (‘berry’; ref. J. Borotra, Basque tennis player and Montgomery of Alamein).

T. W. Melluish: That which plunges into obscurity the French crown tortures the heart of Debrett (anag. of (D)ebret(t); crown = head; ref. ‘Debretts Peerage’).

D. P. M. Michael: Cap d’Antibes? (cryptic def.).

Sgt L. W. G. Oxley: An all-round top dressing for onions from a compost of mid-winter bents! (anag. of (win)ter be(nts); onion = head).

F. J. Philbrick: Oddly shaped British tree, difficult to raise: top-dressing required! (anag. incl. B, 2 defs.).

R. Postill: Born shortly before the end of the 1914-18 conflict, now at the head of the British Army (b ere t, & lit.; black beret of the Tank Regt. conceived May 1918).

W. K. M. Slimmings: Though orphaned, without a farthing, I became a famous general (bere(f)t; ref. Montgomery of Alamein; became = suited).

Brig R. F. E. Stoney: Look out for a shock when this flat round lid is lifted, it covers the switches! (cryptic def.; shock, switch = hair).

F. L. Usher: Lanate tegument of certain nuts, occurring to a considerable extent in the Filberts (cryptic def.; 3 consecutive letters in Filbert).

J. S. Young: Born to be misgoverned—the French! Be it on their own heads! (b + anag. of être (Fr.)).

RUNNERS-UP

P. Allon, D. B. J. Ambler, C. Allen Baker, A. J. Barnard, J. W. Bates, E. A. Beaulah, E. C. Bingham, C. O. Butcher, R. F. S. Chignell, P. R. Clemow, R. M. S. Cork, C. P. Dearnley, Cdr H. H. L. Dickson, J. A. Fincken, M. S. Y. Fowler, E. Gomersall, J. H. Grummitt, L. Johnson, L. W. Macpherson, C. R. Malcolm, J. G. Milner, P. H. Morgan, E. G. Phillips, G. W. Pugh, K. Reed, J. B. Sykes, H. T. R. Twyford, J. F. N. Wedge, M. Woolf.
 

COMMENTS—250 entries, 189 correct. This proved difficult, and it is nearly a year since there were so many incorrect solutions; but many “tigers” evidently enjoyed the battle. The biggest cause of trouble was SEND: but you really oughtn’t, so many of you, to have been satisfied with “sens”! If “sens” were the answer, why on earth should the clue speak of “two coppers”? IATRIC also defeated a good many, in spite of “I should have …”, which surely was a fair indication of the first letter. But the N.W. corner, as I now see, was difficult, and perhaps I should offer a further explanation of STRINGINESS. “In [the word] stress no-modern-genius [i.e. ingine] is a substitute for English [E.].” This leads to “str-ingine-ss” instead of “str-E.-ss.” The “sticking power” is, I think, implied in the definition of “stringy” in C., “capable of being drawn into strings”: Webster gives she same definition and adds to it “as a glutinous substance” and I feel sure that is what C. also means. But it was a hard clue.
 
The best of the entry was very good indeed, but I didn’t think the general standard was as high as in recent months. It was only after judging that I discovered I had written a clue myself to this word, back in January, 1950: an unbiassed view of that clue now would put it, with a shove, among the runners-up—certainly not higher! The winner achieved the rare distinction of winning with a “hidden” clue, a type which has to be very good to be attractive, I think: it is, especially for a short word, such an easy way out. For the sake of newcomers I will repeat here that a “hidden” clue loses nearly all its merit, in my view, if there are redundant words, in the hiding place—e.g. “Among the tribe returning from the regimental barber …” This knocks out all the neatness of the idea. One other hint:—“& lit.” clues run the risk of being, though neat, much too easy. “What you might see on Borotra’s head before the start of the tennis” is attractive at first sight and sound: but it would be solved too instantaneously to give the solver much “kick.”