◀  No. 79 Clue list 4 Jul 1948 Slip image No. 81  ▶

XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 80

GONERIL

1.  T. W. Melluish (SE24): Ignore fifty being disbanded? Father couldn’t; she was (anag. incl. L; Lear I.4.291 “fifty of my followers at a clap”).

2.  Cdr H. H. L. Dickson (Fareham): Bedevilled girl with half a throne (anag. incl. (thr)one, and Lit.).

3.  H. J. Howells (Westcliffe-on-Sea): She offers her royal father nothing, in a disturbed reign, but a following of fifty (0 in anag. + L; Lear I.4.291 “fifty of my followers at a clap”).

H.C.

D. L. Clements (Cheadle Hulme): Here’s the mad king with forty-nine followers—I offered him fifty! (gone R IL; Lear I.4.291 “fifty of my followers at a clap”).

R. H. Cobb (Malvern): One girl’s make-up made another girl’s poison (anag.).

F. L. Constable (Diss): Unnatural hag: A complete ruin and only 49! (goner IL; Lear II.4.305).

E. Finlay (Leeds): One girl has a new look—her sister looked after the old (anag.).

L. G. Fluke (Liverpool): Return to her—I, King—and fifty men dismist? (anag. of I R L gone; Lear I.4.291 “fifty of my followers at a clap”).

C. E. Gates (Kettering): She had been “worth the whistle”: apparently the poor girl had swallowed one (one in anag.; Lear IV.2.33).

J. L. Hogg (Louth): Hated British aeroplane! (cryptic def.; Lear I.4.258 “detested kite”; RAF slang).

Capt H. G. Jackson (Weymouth): Her father said that she had kicked him—with an iron leg? (anag.; Lear III.6.50 “she kicked the poor king”).

Mrs F. Laing (SW2): “Only she comes too short” said my sister, but I’ll get longer somehow! (anag. incl. I; Lear I.1.74).

R. C. Macfarlane (Edinburgh): “One o’ the parings”—the gin and the French (or mixed) (anag. of gin le or; Lear I.4.180).

D. P. M. Michael (Newport): The fool compared me to a cuckoo, but I’m gone before the end of April (gone (Ap)ril; Lear I.4.209 “The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo”).

F. E. Newlove (SE9): I made Father lose his train; he got in a rage and a stormy scene followed (cryptic def.; Lear I.4.241 “disquantity your train” and III.1-2).

R. Postill (Jersey): One Girl’s Muddle Threatens Wholesale Train Cuts. King’s Cross Meeting (anag.; Lear I.4.241 “disquantity your train” and III.1-2).

W. O. Robertson (Marlow): One girl in the New Look thought herself worth the whistle (anag.; Lear IV.2.33).

H. L. Sheehan (Liverpool): She kicked the poor king, so she has been put in a leg iron (anag.; Lear III.6.50).

O. Carlton Smith (Potters Bar): She objected to trains, but could be made to go on a liner (go + anag.; Lear I.4.241 “disquantity your train”).

G. Stanhope-Lovell (Chessington): The confounded girl takes one in—look how she deceived her father (one in anag.).

P. H. Taylor (Bromley): Did France contribute nothing, even indirectly, to her retrograde record? (anag. of rien in log (rev.) and lit.).

A. H. Taylor (Peterborough): “Not so hot” she said—in fact ’er lingo’s wicked (anag.; Lear V.3.75).

C. Theobald (NW3): She sabotaged the ship of state and we see her go down with the wreck (go + anag. of liner).

E. Ward (Sale): One girl messed about—made her father miss his train (anag.; Lear I.4.241 “disquantity your train”).

 

Comments: 381 correct: some missed NEWT, others wrote “Dian” for DION (but demi-god doesn’t mean four-fifths-goddess!): few erred elsewhere.
 
Many good clues, but for the sake of newcomers we repeat that an anag. must be indicated: “one girl who …”, with no indication of the anag. is unsound. So is “I forsake religion” for “religion minus I”: the grammatical inaccuracy can be remedied by something like “I’ll forsake …” Mr. G. H. Hunter’s clue was a tragedy:—“One girl whose lackey would have incurred the referee’s censure. (She too was with the whistle).” This cleverly unites two allusions, to i. 4. 92 “base football player” and iv. 3. 29. But the initial unsoundness ruins it, nor, indeed, was there any need for an anag. as well as a double allusion. Unlucky, but he must be only a runner-up. Mr. A. P. O’Leary’s Latin hexameter (“for amusement only”) may please classics—“Regna Soror, turbat: nil ergo Albania fiat.”
 
Some runners-up:—E. S. Ainley, D. A. Anderson, A. H. Ashcroft, C. Allen Baker, Mrs Castle-Knight, Mrs Castle-Knight, E. F. Clayton, Lady G. Coleridge, J. H. Dingwall, H. C. Duffin, Brig W. E. Duncan, G. Durham, Miss Ekins, A. R. Fraser, S. B. Green, D. D. Hannigan, Mrs Hartley, Mrs Hartley, P. H. Hoy, G. H. Hunter, Miss King, J. L. Langton, A. F. Lerrigo, J. P. Lloyd, Brig A. B. McPherson, J. Montgomerie, Rev A. C. Morris, J. D. P. O’Leary, C. Pease, Mrs Porter, E. H. Pyle, H. Rainger, M. R. Sampford, T. E. Sanders, Mrs Stevenson, R. Taylor, Capt C. Tyers, F. L. Usher, E. Wagstaff, Mrs Wainwright, Mrs Wainwright, J. T. Young.
 

 
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