XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 390

HESITATE (Printer’s Devilry)

1.  C. O. Butcher: Any M.P. has, we’re told, hopes for immortality after tribulations here—a c/ross in vocation? (Eros’s).

2.  Mrs N. Fisher: After a rival body? La! unc/le, visors need adjustment (ITA, broadcasting authority).

3.  A. J. Entwistle: What’s Ascot’s pace? Egg-stained and hard-boiled, one dis/aster each year! (pace egg; see Pace in C.).

H.C.

C. Allen Baker: Face dirty still! Whow! A s/ight, years old!

F. Barron-Sullivan: Mrs. Newlywed sets about preparing Christmas dinner—dis/aster!

T. E. Bell: Famous M.O. uses dental Operation to get rascallion out of mes/s. Trap’s pinning him down (ref. Aesop).

W. C. Cartner: The things my cat cat c/at a meowl last night.

R. N. Chignell: The monkey likes cherries judging by the bun: c/at feeding time in the afternoon.

J. Cordery: Would A. Sim ple/ase at a mothers’ meeting? (simple he; Alastair S., actor).

Cdr H. H. L. Dickson: Poor old dear can’t s/ight your legs: don’t like standing.

F. E. Dixon: Father wis/e to tale: vent now his key, please.

J. A. Fincken: A Boeotian housed Weller, finding enough straws in the best hat-c/ase (Thebes).

S. Goldie: Having an egg (gull). I’ve ran on party-member’s Ma. S/it her end! (Gulliver, Big- and Little-endians).

Dr T. J. R. Maguire: “One-solo-at/-a time” programmes? (ITA, broadcasting authority).

Dr B. N. McQuade: We can see the treble sing/le—vision’s new turn! (ITA, broadcasting authority).

C. J. Morse: After one catc/all Ike, it’s related, ducks—soon grows tame.

G. H. Podmore: Likes his ale at night but lo! a t/ight in the morning.

R. Postill: Empty church dis/aster for poor parson. What Hell! Collect for the Day offers little hope.

A. Robins: Shew ears, hero new! Hit ebon net annually—and B. Lanc/aster! (B. L., film actor).

T. E. Sanders: Take a bat: /a seat (south end!) to get a tanning (Southend-on-Sea).

E. O. Seymour: I admired all the glamour girls, but one W. Is/le vision had more uplift (ITA, broadcasting authority).

Mrs E. M. Simmonds: Should Father shoot a March Hare, Mother? Dis/aster!

Miss D. W. Taylor: The R.A. dis/played “Old Harry, with Baby.”

W. D. Wigley: Straight, though one wis/e shot is often crooked (golf).

RUNNERS-UP

C. D. Allen, J. W. Bates, Mrs E. M. Blakeborough, A. Borshell, P. Carah, Mrs F. Castle-Knight, A. H. Clough, D. L. W. Collins, P. M. Coombs, R. M. S. Cork, J. H. Dingwall, Brig W. E. Duncan, Dr W. M. Easther, Rev D. Ford, M. S. Y. Fowler, C. E. Gates, S. R. Gibbs, J. F. Grady, Mrs G. E. Graham, S. B. Green, H. Greenberg, Mrs B. E. Henderson, D. A. Holt, F. G. Illingworth, R. P. Irving, J. W. Jenkins, P. W. W. Leach, G. Lewis, J. D. Lockett, C. J. Lowe, D. M. MacKinnon, W. R. Malvern, T. W. Melluish, H. C. Munnings, F. E. Newlove, A. P. O’Leary, S. L. Paton, R. D. Prior, Maj J. N. Purdon, C. Quin, C. M. Reeve, Mrs D. A. Reid, Capt W. H. W. Ridley, N. Roles, H. Rotter, A. G. Rowlinson, G. A. Shoobridge, W. K. M. Slimmings, W. Steinberg, L. T. Stokes, R. G. Tate, Miss D. M. Thorne, Capt C. Tyers, Dr K. Urwin, J. F. N. Wedge, R. A. Wells, K. R. R. Wilson, S. E. Woods, F. W. Wyeth, FIt Lt N. D. Young.
 

COMMENTS—430 entries, 381 correct: most of the errors were caused by failures to find “victor’S PITy.” The P.D. puzzle evidently proved very popular again (many thanks for comments), and the standard of the entry was very high indeed. There was a fierce struggle for the prizes and for places in both the other lists: I consider S. Goldie, E. O. Seymour and Miss Taylor particularly unlucky to miss prizes. Many failures to gain mentions were again due to sacrificing the sense of the final version to that of the devilled version. The essential thing is the sense of the final version: in this type of clue the amusing “kick” should come when one reaches the solution rather than when one reads the clue. (This is true, I suppose, of all clues, but I think it applies most emphatically here.) One brilliant idea, relegated for this reason to the runners-up, was “Doesn’t like Stalin’s Life Story—Sore!—Dis/aster!—No ration of crosswords!” (“re-dishes it at Eastern oration of cross words” is barely English, much less natural sense: can one do anything at an oration?). A more blatant example, typical of many others, was “Will/ a seal, one among many wild animals, perform?” Incidentally this illustrates what I consider another weakness—the gap coming between words in the clue. Mr. Sanders’s clue was too good in other respects to fall down on this one flaw, but it is a flaw, none the less, I think. Finally, many thanks for an exceptional amount of amusement in reading the clues.