XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 51

LLANELLY

1.  Mrs B. A. Mallett (Lowestoft): All back Orange Girl for the Welsh Town Selling Plate (all (rev.) + Nelly; ref. Nell Gwyn, tin plate manufacture).

2.  D. Ashcroft (Fleetwood): Every one’s backed the royal favourite for a place. Welsh! (all (rev.) + Nelly; ref. Nell Gwyn; welsh, vb.).

3.  A. G. Taylor (Croydon): Ellish town—but Evans there? (cryptic def.; i.e. town with L’s, Welsh surname).

H.C.

A. H. Ashcroft (Bath): The Welsh Sparta? The town’s all taken aback when deprived of Helen’s familiar form (all (rev.) + Nelly; known for metalwork).

Dr G. R. Aspinwall (Huddersfield): £2 a yard and a quarter in any Welsh market-town (L, L + ell in any).

C. B. Daish (Swindon): Miss Gwynn met Mr. Sloper at the seaside, and the consequence was —— (anag. of Nell, Ally; ref. Nell G., Ally S., comic strip character).

J. Duffill (W2): Where Helen lies after all is over?—but not in Kirkconnel Lea; that’s over the wrong border (all (rev.) + Nelly; ref. Scottish ballad ‘Helen of K.’).

C. E. Gates (Kettering): It’s all up with Helen: it must be the port! (all (rev.) + Nelly).

Maj A. H. Giles (Leamington): The town is all taken aback with the carrying on of the King’s mistress—look you! (all (rev.) + Nelly; ref. Nell Gwyn, Welsh expression).

J. A. Hyde (Dover): What’ll make the Plate? Nelly, by Rebel Lal out of Welsh Wales (anag. + Nelly; ref. tin plate manufacture).

Mrs L. Jarman (Brough): It’s a long lane that has no turning—hundred-yard limit in Wales (L + lane + LL + y; 100 = L + L).

Mrs D. M. Kissen (Lanark): It’s all up with little Nell: port the cause of her downfall (all (rev.) + Nelly; down clue).

T. W. Melluish (SE24): Welsh town shows what English king’s last words were all about (all (rev.) + Nelly; ref. Charles II, “let not poor Nelly starve”).

F. E. Newlove (SE9): Un-English rugger club, surely?—all backs and one girl forward! (all (rev.) + Nelly).

R. C. Payn (Irvine): Two pounds each way on the French donkey. Why, after that, you’ll never find a Welsher (âne (Fr.) in LL, LL + y (‘why’); i.e. more Welsh; welsh, vb.).

Rev E. B. Peel (Fleetwood): If pounds are put on a successful favourite from the King’s establishment, there will be Welshers all over the place (L, L + a + Nelly; ref. Nell Gwyn; welsh, vb.).

T. E. Sanders (Walsall): A small port and everything’s topsy-turvy and dim for Helen (all (rev.) + Nelly; dim. = diminutive).

E. D. Tuthill (Cambridge): Nell and an ally compose a deathly rhyme (anag.; i.e. Llanelly rhymes with deathly).

Comments—263 correct. The commonest error, surprisingly, was Caeserea (sic)! Even a pillar of the Church was among the guilty: come, come! Several missed dura: Chambers, as usual, would have saved them. There were very few mistakes elsewhere.
 
Racing was a popular motif and figures prominently in the Honours List. More clues than usual had to be rejected at once for failing to allude to the whole word. Such things as “All’s up with Helen” and “Poor little orange girl! Everybody’s upset over her” are, with all due respect, not clues to “Llanelly” at all but to “Lla” and “Nelly.” This sort of thing is perpetrated in many crosswords, but it is not admitted here unless very exceptional circumstances seem to condone it. Normally we regard it—again, of course, with all due respect—as slovenliness or cowardice or both! You may go now, as A. P. H. [Herbert] would say.