◀  No. 834 Clue list 7 Feb 1965 Slip image No. 843  ▶

XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 839

GINGER (Printer’s Devilry)

1.  R. Brain: Butler’s wider—a n/ew honour—choice for irony! (‘Erewhon’).

2.  R. E. Kimmons: Needing a larger profit? Mar/ry a pop singer! Cut a disc! (Gerry and the Pacemakers, pop group).

3.  Mrs N. Fisher: Dramatically sob, Ag/nes! ’T’was Prism’s early lapse (ref. The Importance of Being Earnest; Miss P. left Jack (Ernest) in a handbag at Victoria Station).

V.H.C.

T. Anderson: I was raging as “Tin/y”, the magot, my monkey, upset me, scratching (stinging erythema).

T. E. Bell: Are those birds dod/os in the circus? Impossible! (Piccadilly C.).

J. M. Bennett: It was Keats on Ben Nevis beg/at ode so, lately (ref. Keats, “Read me a lesson, Muse, …”; begging Erato).

C. O. Butcher: We’ll have our tots, being soused, to Pop’s win/e.— They can talk!

R. F. S. Chignell: I don’t order fro/m a nylon donor in Rome—Paris is the only place (frog in Germany).

P. Crozier: Marlene shows a le/man’s trips. How? (M. Dietrich in “The Blue Angel”).

D. Ellwand: If scared of an arrow, mar/ry, man. (Derby arranging seats to accommodate your party) (gerrymander).

G. P. Goddard: The TV craze is “disc”: our a/udition among our children.

J. E. Hobson: Many would keep the cat for pur/ring: you thought it to be so (erring youth).

E. M. Hornby: A brid/e who none would think needs the butler’s consent (‘Erewhon’).

Miss R. A. Illingworth: When Elsie and Doris be/t and Daisy acts funny (E. and D. Waters played Gert and Daisy in film and radio).

T. P. Kelly: What does “bein” mean? The answer’s a “le/man”, Orwell found, in Scotland (leg in German or well in Scotland).

A. Lawrie: My garden’s abo/mination—time every plant was drowned at birth!

G. D. Meddings: The bells, Rin/go wed. Better Beatles’ sons? (… be at lessons).

E. L. Mellersh: The la/mination may be due to dis-eased layers.

N. A. Morley: Photographs—the origin. Albu/m research with a microscope?

C. J. Morse: To whom does it fall to comb the bookstalls? Cave! N/ot I,—Cato the Censor! (scavenging erotica).

A. E. North: It’s a kind of ra/y—the main effect a reddening of the skin (raging erythema).

M. B. Shaw: Hasn’t a brid/e, now, often made a hash of meaty bits?

D. J. Short: The male dodo wasted his time: dod/os hence no more exist.

H.C.

Miss V. K. Abrahams, J. N. A. Armitage-Smith, F. D. H. Atkinson, C. P. Auger, P. F. Bauchop, F. H. Bernard, Mrs K. Bissett, Sir T. Brinton, Rev C. M. Broun, Miss M. P. Butler, Mrs J. Chalkley, P. R. Clemow, P. M. Coombs, A. E. Crow, J. McI. Cruickshank, E. Davies, N. C. Dexter, J. H. Dingwall, E. R. Evans, A. Fairhead, S. A. Fenlaugh, J. A. Fincken, H. W. Flewett, B. H. Ford, A. B. Gardner, L. H. Garrett, J. Gillbanks, S. Goldie, C. R. Haigh, D. Hawson, T. Heaney, Miss M. E. R. Henderson, E. G. Illingworth, Mrs L. Jarman, Mrs D. B. Jenkinson, T. E. S. Jobson, A. H. Jones, B. K. Kelly, J. R. Kelly, F. P. N. Lake, L. F. Leason, Mrs B. Lewis, G. A. Linsley, H. Lyon, Dr T. J. R. Maguire, A. A. Malcolm, Mrs E. McFee, N. McQuade, T. W. Melluish, D. P. M. Michael, V. R. S. Mott, D. Murphy, F. E. Newlove, M. Newman, J. D. P. O’Leary, B. G. Palmer, S. L. Paton, H. C. S. Perry, Mrs N. Perry, B. A. Pike, R. Postill, N. A. F. Pritchard, Mrs A. Rivlin, A. G. Rowlinson, C. A. F. Russell, T. E. Sanders, E. O. Seymour, R. E. Shepperd, Mrs E. M. Simmonds, W. K. M. Slimmings, S. A. Smith, M. C. Souster, A. J. Souter, J. G. Stubbs, D. H. Tompsett, Mrs S. K. Utting, M. A. Vernon, A. D. Walker, J. Walton, R. Whitaker, C. W. Willink, S. H. Willink, A. J. Young, P. Young.
 

COMMENTS:—Nearly 700 entries: P. D. is clearly still very popular, and another one before the end of the year seems indicated. There were 7 or 8 mistakes in the solutions I scrutinised—about 140—so one may guess there were about 40 altogether. It was a terrible job this time to classify the entry: very many were sound but comparatively few, I thought, brilliant. I was saved a certain amount of trouble (though I regret it, and it seems a pity) by those who took no notice of my recommendations: there are always quite a number of these—I can’t think why. First there are those who will sacrifice the sense of the final version to that of the devilled, e.g. “Put my bat on top of my cricket gear.” This would be absurdly difficult: there is no earthly reason why Gert should be asked to do this! Again, “Catch a rector on his hind legs”. Has anyone ever seen a cat charge erect? Then there are those who will fit the required word into a gap between words: this I have always thought inartistic, and the warning is always there. It does pay to read preambles. Talking of reading things, I can’t persuade some competitors to use a normal-sized piece of writing paper: surely this is not an unreasonable request? The very large and very small bits are a perfect nuisance to handle, especially in putting the H.C.s into alphabetical order. I’m mentioning it this month, when there’s a large entry, in hopes! But enough of carping: it was, as a whole, an excellent entry. Many of the ideas used in the clues selected to be printed above were also used by many others: I hope I have chosen the neatest ones. Finally, a solver asks if I can’t let the boiler go out permanently! I dare say you’re all getting tired of that example: I’ll use another one next time.
 
P.S. One point I nearly forgot. In 27 across (undevilled version) I used “lam” as a noun. One or two purists—and I like purists!— pointed out that there is no dictionary authority for this. Another solver, who noticed it, said he thought slang usage was a reasonable excuse for what I did. That is what I think, and plead, myself: it wasn’t a slip—I did it with my eyes open; but I can’t deny that the purists are strictly correct.
 

 
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