Cryptic food and drink

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SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
That depends on who is still playing. I look in occasionally but with no answers to even work on, it's HARD!
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Sorry. I think we gave up posting the answers because no-one joined in. A sort of catch 22, I suppose. Here is the answer to the one posted by @Duck59
Herb inhaled by Raymond Illingworth? (4)
Dill (the answer is 'inhaled' as a run of letters within 'Raymond Illingsworth')
 
morning glory said:
Sorry. I think we gave up posting the answers because no-one joined in. A sort of catch 22, I suppose. Here is the answer to the one posted by @Duck59
Herb inhaled by Raymond Illingworth? (4)
Dill (the answer is 'inhaled' as a run of letters within 'Raymond Illingsworth')
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I try, but without answers I don't stand a chance of ever sussing out where the answer is in the first place to learn from them in the future if that makes any sense!
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
I try, but without answers I don't stand a chance of ever sussing out where the answer is in the first place to learn from them in the future if that makes any sense!
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In future I'll endeavour to post answers with explanations. Have you had any luck with my last one? Here's a few clues:

There is another spice inside this spice

The anagram indicator is 'pickled', so you are looking for a word meaning 'very best' which, when rearranged spells out a spice

There aren't many spices with only four letters!
 
I trust I'm not being overly pedantic, but I'd say that an anagram of an unspecified word is outside Ximenian principles. Just a personal view, not a criticism.
 
Duck59 said:
I trust I'm not being overly pedantic, but I'd say that an anagram of an unspecified word is outside Ximenian principles. Just a personal view, not a criticism.
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You may be correct. But you got the answer, did you not? I really don't know. I think I thought it OK because its only four letters and there aren't many spices with 4 letters, nor many words meaning 'very best'.

Who rules on these things?
 
I quote from Hugh Stephenson's Secrets of the Setters:

The modern conventions only began to gain currency in 1949 and were only codified in 1966.

As Stephenson points out, the conventions were not carved in stone and crosswords, like everything else, evolve. My guess is that if you were submitting a crossword to an editor, their approval would rest on how wedded they were to the Ximenes conventions or whether they were a bit more disposed towards the free-form. Personally, I'm not too bothered either way as long as I can understand the compiler's style and more importantly, actually solve the thing.
 
morning glory said:
In future I'll endeavour to post answers with explanations. Have you had any luck with my last one? Here's a few clues:

There is another spice inside this spice
There was only 1 spice I could come up with that meet this requirement

The anagram indicator is 'pickled', so you are looking for a word meaning 'very best' which, when rearranged spells out a spice
But I can not make a would means this that gives me that spice!

There aren't many spices with only four letters!
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I only came up with 1 slice. The other 4 I came up with were herbs.

mace
Balm, mint, dill and sage are all herbs.
 
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