XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 495

PARTISAN

1.  T. W. Melluish: Among ardent Rightists and Leftists a crab is included (is in partan).

2.  C. J. Morse: What one inevitably becomes when following exciting matches! (partis + an, & lit.).

3.  J. R. Scarr: I’m an all-weather supporter; I follows the Gunners—on Sunday—in the piper! (art. + I + S, all in Pan).

H.C.

T. E. Bell: Usually a keen supporter of a club is one—his side comes first! (part + is + an. & lit.).

Miss E. Deutsch: Is not just a member, but is one born to follow (part + is + a + n. & lit.).

F. E. Dixon: Each aspirant for power needs men like this, yet one may be his ruin (anag.).

J. H. Eyre: Eligible spinster’s an old battle-axe. Aspirant shaken! (parti’s an, anag.).

E. Gomersall: Many are the places I made uncomfortable for the occupier. Split is one! (part is an: S. in Yugoslavia: split (vb.) = part).

E. J. Griew: Being a pretty keen supporter, I almost waxed lyrical with the side coming top (part + I + san(g)).

E. L. Hayward: Underground striker would have given his head to be a worker (i.e. (p)artisan).

Mrs L. Jarman: A type very liable to espouse—not quite balanced! (parti san(e), & lit.).

J. J. Moore: Amid the extremes of privation, with little artillery, I’d have the storm-troopers in pursuit (art. + I + SA, all in p,n, & lit.).

R. Postill: You can have the quiet workmanlike chap: I’m all for a player using the old-fashioned long handle! (p artisan, 2 defs.; all for = p. (adj.) ; player = wielder of weapon; ref. cricket bat).

B. G. Quin: Marriageable Frenchwoman, abandoned character, flourished in the Middle Ages (parti + san²).

A. Robins: What constitutes the “fan”? There’s the smaller, noisy section, and the larger ——! (i.e. part is ‘an’, & lit.; fan = f + an).

H. R. Sanders: Form of saint bearing the standard, or one in an unruly band? It depends which way you look at it (par + anag., I in an (rev.) + strap (all rev.), & lit.).

H. G. Tattersall: “Debs’ delights” perhaps, if ancient, could be described as old, keen and having a handle (partis an²).

D. H. Tompsett: A Pristina irregular, but I ain’t there any longer! (anag. less I, & lit.; P. in Yugoslavia).

A. F. Toms: Ian’s crab is in Ian’s trap madly making for one side. (is in partan, anag.).

RUNNERS-UP

C. Allen Baker, G. F. Bamford, J. W. Bates, E. A. Beaulah, Mrs F. Begg, Mrs A. R. Bradford, J. C. Brash, C. M. Broun, P. Brown, C. O. Butcher, A. N. Clark, J. E. Dorrington, Dr W. M. Easther, R. Exton, J. A. Flood, E. Gabbitas, C. E. Gates, Maj A. H. Giles, J. Gill, S. Goldie, P. Graystone, S. B. Green, F. H. W. Hawes, Mrs E. J. Holmes, G. A. Holmes, Lt Cdr E. S. Irvine, H. Lyon, Dr T. J. R. Maguire, D. P. M. Michael, W. L. Miron, P. H. Morgan, M. Newman, G. Perry, E. J. Rackham, K. Reed, W. G. Roberts, W. Rodgers, S. G. Rose, C. Rosebourne, H. Rotter, Mrs E. Shackleton, F. G. Smith, D. Stelling, F. B. Stubbs, Miss D. W. Taylor, J. Thompson, H. S. Tribe, A. D. Walker, W. Watts, M. Woolf, J. S. Young.
 

COMMENTS:—298 entries. 257 correct—a fairly stiff puzzle coinciding with a brief spell of hot weather to produce a rather smaller entry than usual. The commonest errors were “jesseminine” a guess which is not in C. and surely involves an impossible spelling—and I don’t use rare words not in C. without a note: anyway I had hoped the “gel” was indicated—“loothe” also not in C—it was perhaps a little obtuse of solvers to insist on “love = O” instead of including “a” in the anagram—and unsuccessful guesses at the fifth letters of FINGAN and VELLON, presumably by solvers who struggle without the “New Mid-century Version”. The clues sent included some very good ones, but not so many very good ones as we sometimes get. I stretched a point in allowing among the H.C.s clues which attributed a definite sex to “parti”: this is, I think, strictly not quite sound. It was surely unwise for some competitors to use my anagram in the clue to 4 across: one hopes for more originality than that! Violations of principle were happily scarce but there are still a few who insist on using much too difficult indirect anagrams: and the entry included what I think I can fairly describe as the vaguest clue I have ever received:—“The end ——”!
 
Will you please note that the next competition will he one week later than usual, on Aug. 10, to coincide with No. 500. This will be a rather special puzzle: I hope you will not he going too far afield on holidays to partake. There will be extra prizes for H.C.s as at Christmas, and an extra week-end allowed for solving to make up for possible postal (and other?) difficulties, It will probably seem a formidable-looking object but I fancy its contents when tackled will prove less difficult than they look. (After this we shall return to the first Sunday of the month.)
 
I have had several enquiries about the projected Ximenes Dinner. The last I heard was that it was hoped to hold it in the first week of September: beyond that I am as much in the dark as you are. Maybe there will an announcement in the paper soon.