Monday 13 September 2010

Limericks For M Manna

One for The Hindu Crossword solvers. Limericks dedicated to our Jekyll and Hyde setter. [In case you missed this: Limericks for NJ]

  Amid his dodgy clues there sit
A gem or two shining with wit
We say that's rum
And wonder how come
His brilliant clues are so Brit.

Our 'captain' is not DHONI, instead
It's LAMB - so Manna said.
And LEH you thought
was 'in the north'?
Think again - it's GATESHEAD.

AYAHs are African in a Manna clue
And his pack of POLICEMEN too
Defy the norm
Of khaki uniform
They're rather 'men in blue'.

His anagrams may miss a letter
Or worse, skip the indicator
Cryptic definitions
Defy explanations
And most charades are no better.

But here's what's truly funny
You can bet a pile of money
The clue'll be all right
If the word's STALACTITE,
SELF-ASSURED or TEN A PENNY.

How about TAR? TINKLE? TORE?
There you can't be sure.
For a fine clue you see,
The word length must be
Nine characters or more.

That good-bad hangs on factors so tenuous
Raises niggling doubts in us
The question rings emphatic:
Is his genius erratic,
Or is the reality of his duality more ominous?

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9 comments

Chaturvasi said...

Give him a long word or phrase,
He will clue it with great ease.
But if the word is short,
He's sure to be caught:
Its treatment won't always please.

Chaturvasi said...

Sometimes his clues might be no-no;
For, lurking within may be a typo.
Did we see 'booking'?
It ought to be 'backing'!
The words are not always à propos.

Deepak Gopinath said...

Excellent Shuchi,
You will now need to start a third blog for your poetic musings in addition to 'CROSSWORD UNCLUED' and 'Drama Dose'

Richard said...

Under the crossword blogs' banner
The setters are put under the scanner
With precision and care
Clues are split threadbare
After NJ, now the target is Manna.

L N Srinivasakrishnan said...

Awesome limericks, Shuchi.

Balaji said...

Excellent one Shuchi and Chaturvasi too.

SandhyaP said...

Great one Shuchi!

Shuchi said...

Thanks everyone! Glad you all liked this.

Enjoyed your limericks, CVasi Sir and Richard.

Manna is maddening! This clue from #9948 for e.g. 'To teach a student that Tipu pilfered is incorrect (5)' can't even be explained away as carelessness - it looks more like wilful badness!

Shuchi said...

While on the subject of rhymes, one from 2008 on my blog: Acrostics.