XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 56

SHEEP-RUN

1.  W. K. M. Slimmings (SW15): It might suggest a Bach chorale, or a baa corral! (Puns here are out of place!) (2 defs., anag.; ref. “Sheep may safely graze”).

2.  O. Carlton Smith (Potters Bar): A fully developed and fast version of the “Lambeth Walk,” omitting the complicated middle part? (i.e. Lamb(eth) Walk, anag. of the in middle).

3.  Maj D. P. M. Michael (Newport): Idyllic prospect of troubled sphere when United Nations succeed (anag. + UN).

H.C.

Mrs F. Castle-Knight (SE20): A sphere of Aries? Its changed course is defined by the formula Remove from its sphere (anag. of unsphere; Aries, ram).

F. A. Clark (Croydon): Where timid sillies ruminate: “Both hemispheres are crazy—United Nations is at an end” (anag. of sphere + UN).

P. M. Coombs (Burgess Hill): Quick queue for getting mutton fat (cryptic def.; ref. rationing).

Cdr H. H. L. Dickson (Fareham): If one may use puns here, this is where to find “12’s 47s” (anag.; Lamb’s Tales, tails; ref. puzzle solutions).

D. H. Elphick (East Stour): Might one perpetrate puns here? Lamb, for one, would revel in it (anag.; Charles L.; see Chambers def. of perpetrate).

S. B. Green (NW10): Tract on which timid followers are urged to ruminate (cryptic def.; sermon).

W. Lambert (Oswestry): What comes within the sphere of the United Nations is set out in a tract (anag. incl. UN).

R. H. Lemon (Cheltenham): 12’s namesakes eat here; but there’s explosive in the compote of prunes, so they don’t wait for it (HE in anag.; i.e. sheep run (away); solution 12 in puzzle is Lamb).

Mrs B. A. Mallett (Lowestoft): Wool Producers Speed Up: Australian Pastures’ Product Can Be Spun Here (sheep run, anag.).

J. I. Mason (SW16): They don’t often when they’re in it, unless the wether’s unsettled (cryptic def.).

T. W. Melluish (SE24): Once you get the range, the Hun on the Spree will be in pieces (anag.; ref. R. Spree, Berlin).

Rev E. B. Peel (Bournemouth): Woolley gets a single in the long field—after having a dip? (Shocking puns here!) (sheep + run, anag.; ref. Frank W., Kent and England cricketer).

E. G. Phillips (Bangor): A pasture in Goshen—there’s nothing against this grazing land anyhow, thought Jacob (comp. anag. incl. 0; ref. Gen. 47. 1, Jacob sheep).

R. Postill (Jersey): Sounds as if you might get fed up with the weather here (cryptic def.; i.e. ‘ewe’, ‘wether’).

S. E. Quincey (Lincoln): “Global disorder should be laid before United Nations”—Pastoral Tract (anag. of sphere + UN).

Mrs Shackleton (W. Wickham): Ground (probably at Canterbury!) where Woolley made a single? (sheep + run; canter-bury; ref. Frank W., Kent and England cricketer).

P. H. Taylor (Bromley): “Where’er you walk”’s interpreted by ear (cryptic def.; i.e. ‘ewe’ walk).

A. H. Taylor (Newark): Something to chew the cud over? The re-organisation of the United Nations and their sphere (anag. of UN sphere).

L. E. Thomas (Bangor): A tract to ruminate on: it favours something very much like gambling (cryptic def.; ‘gamboling’; sermon).

H. L. Tinkler (N2): Board and lodging for 12? A good field for puns here anyway! (anag.; solution 12 in puzzle is Lamb).

W. K. Ward (SW16): Tract to browse over—congregation rushes for it (sheep run).

W. Watts (Westcliff-on-Sea): She cut up dried fruit, providing a vegetarian diet (she + anag. of prune).

Comments:—A big holiday entry, with 461 correct. The commonest mistake was PLY for FLY. An attempt vas made to give a warning against this in he clue to URVA—an ichneumon but not a fly of that ilk—for the benefit of those who failed to find the passage in Don Juan, but quite a number failed to heed it. By far the commonest type of clue was Wool is raised here and might also be spun here—too common for commendation, unless all other ideas were to be excluded. Its senders may regard themselves as runners-up to the H.C.s, together with D. Connell, J. H. Dingwall, Maj H. B. Drake, E. H. Evans, W. V. Farrar, T. C. Fitzpatrick, Miss J. Fry, Pte J. Gibbon, P. G. W. Glare, C. H. Hudson, P. Irving, Mrs D. M. Kissen, R. C. Macfarlane, R. Macleod, C. J. Morse, F. L. Usher.