◀ No. 456 | Clue list | 3 Nov 1957 | Slip image | No. 464 ▶ |
XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 460
ASTONISHMENT (Misprints)
1. H. S. Tribe: Open winder? Then no mats is shaken (wonder; anag.).
2. Rev E. G. Riley: In confusion the man sits on a sarong feeling that the unexpected has happened (strong; anag.).
3. Mrs E. McFee: Misdirected stone hits man—it may well be the cause of a gash (gasp; anag.).
H.C.
Mrs R. M. Barclay: Ate mints on Sat.—he’s rather upset! (awe; anag.).
V. E. Brooke: This Eton man’s degenerate; a kind of ape! (awe; anag.).
P. R. Clemow: I am fonder of men that sin so wantonly (wonder; anag.).
Cdr H. H. L. Dickson: The fog encircling us produces it in many though possibly not in the mass (dog; anag.).
J. A. Flood: Wanderer’s experience holds the Villa players in this rough-and-tumble (wonderer’s; Aston + men in anag.; ref. football, Aston V., Bolton W.s).
C. E. Gates: Villa-like, maybe, and antique semi-detached kind of shack (shock; i.e. Aston-ish + ment (ming. vb.); ref. Aston Villa FC).
E. Gomersall: Society and fashionable people are wrapped up in terrier’s lot, rising above yonder! (wonder; S tonish men in TA (rev.)).
W. Hough: Moths in a nest that crows are raised in—very tatty-looking (brows; anag.).
V. Jennings: Take a street full of stylish males, and see the effect of a stocking! (shocking; a + tonish men in St).
W. L. Miron: What Wanderers show the Villa is of horrifying significance for old United! (wonderers; Aston is H ment (ming, vb.); H = horrific, old film classification; ref. football, Aston V., Bolton W.).
R. Postill: One needn’t show it when one’s wife casually mentions hats! (wise, i.e. having foreknowledge; anag.).
T. E. Sanders: Chaps like the Villa need a leader for the team—that’s what makes Wanderers what they are (wonderers; i.e. Aston-ish men + t; ref. football, Aston V., Bolton W.).
T. A. J. Spencer: This means not drunken, though often whistled in ale (awe; anag.; to w. one’s astonishment; whistled = drunk).
F. B. Stubbs: It comes naturally to the Wanderers to smash ten in willy-nilly (wonderers; anag.; ref. Bolton W. FC).
J. Thompson: Reading, oddly enough, isn’t on Thames—makes one ponder! (wonder; anag.; i.e. reading oddly).
RUNNERS-UP
C. Allen Baker, E. A. Beaulah, T. E. Bell, C. M. Broun, C. O. Butcher, R. F. S. Chignell, R. N. Chignell, A. N. Clark, D. L. L. Clarke, J. Cordery, C. R. Dean, Mrs N. Dean, L. E. Eyres, S. Goldie, S. B. Green, Mrs L. Jarman, C. Kauffman, B. K. Kelly, G. L. Kennaby, A. W. Maddocks, D. P. M. Michael, C. J. Morse, G. Perry, S. Plumb, M. G. Powell-Davies, Miss D. W. Taylor, Mrs E. Trythall, Capt C. Tyers, J. F. N. Wedge, Mrs M. Wishart, C. P. Wroth.
Others whose solutions were correct:—D. A. Andrews, P. C. Barclay, H. Bernard, A. J. Bisset, M. Cassel, A. G. Callely, A. H. Clough, K. Gibson, H. J. Godwin, D. Hawson, T. E. S. Jobson, J. Hardie Keir, A. Lawrie, Miss J. S. Lumsdon, A. J. McLean, E. L. Mellersh, G. M. Neighbour, D. A. Nicholls, Miss O. B. Parks, H. C. S. Perry, E. G. Phillips, Mrs D. A. Reid, A. Robins, H. Rotter, H. R. Sanders, E. O. Seymour, H. G. Tattersall, L. E. Thomas, K. I. Torrance, C. T. Tulloch, F. C. Unwin, H. D. Wakely. H. F. C. Williams.
COMMENTS:—117 entries, 82 correct—and hearty congratulations to them all! It really was tough, and, in spite of many comments welcoming the toughness, I think now that I ought to have made the clues to AUGMENT and FREMD really easy ones: they seem to me now too hard, in view of the lack of certain checks in those two places. But I am more than ever convinced that Ximenes solvers are invincible!
In making the awards I have gone for simplicity rather than I extreme ingenuity: some of the clues struck me as too difficult for this type. By the way, my wife assures me that Mr. Tribe’s delightfully neat clue presents a sound household hint! Our present champion, Mr. Morse, set me a nasty problem in judging which I think should be recorded here. His clue was:—“For instance, French fashion gets husbands involved in this wandering.” This gives “as, ton, men in anag. of this” in the misprint version. ! and a straight clue in the corrected version (i.e. “& lit.”). My conclusion, after some thought, was:—The solver is entitled to assume that the misprint does not occur in the clue’s subsidiary indications but only in its definition. This one occurs in the indication of an anagram. It is true that, once the misprint is corrected, it proves to have occurred in what has now become the definition; but I doubt if this is enough, and I am sure I shouldn’t have allowed myself to do this, if I had thought of such an idea. So I decided against it, though a case can be made out for it on the ground that it isn’t expressly forbidden in the rules. The Runners-up often include senders of clues which are especially attractive apart from what seems to me one unsound feature: Mr. Morse’s clue is certainly that, so there he has gone.
Three points in brief:—(1) Punctuation. I allow its omission, but I don’t like its addition for effect when it is blatantly redundant. (2) Indication of anagrams. There were a good many which I couldn’t accept as sound. e.g., “fraught,” “separation of,” “critical,” “it appears.” (3) Again, check your solutions! There were at least two slips, “carfica” and “guarenteeing”—especially tragic this time! .
Finally, I hope the many writers of kindly notes will accept this collective expression of my sincere thanks.
[P.S. In numbers given above no account is taken of entries received late: there were about a dozen of these.]