Daily Telegraph

[08012006]

Not a clue for you to reply to, but I would like to share my appreciation of this amusing crossword clue; it appears in today's Daily Telegraph obituary of Ruth Crisp, one of their compilers, who has just died..
Read the obit for the answer if you are stumped:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?vie w=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/news/2007/01/27/db2702.xm l

Her favourite of her own clues was:

"Men's my one failing, (mother of nine)" (9)

[Tenter]

Just been for my paper none available as inserts have not arrived !!!!!!!

[Aquagility]

To put you out of your misery, Tenter, it's an anogram.

[geo0939]

Anagram.

[Dinkypuzzled]

very aMUSEing !

[shaneystar2]

Bless her ..she was a really good compiler and a very clever lady .One of the old school .She was still compiling into her early eighties and had set over a thousand crosswords for the DT.

[geo0939]

To be brutally frank, I wonder how good a compiler she was, if this was her favourite. The grammar in her clue (mens my one) would indicate to even an average crossword fan that it was an anagram, and 'failing ' merely reinforces this. Or am I being too cruel?

[Aquagility]

A bit cruel, geo. But when you correct my obvious typo, thats really cruel.

[shaneystar2]

Well she has been giving me a run for my money over the years in which I have been doing the DT cryptic and I am up for my free bus pass next year. And started doing them when I was at school !
So to be really frank ...I think that if you haven't anything kind to say about her than it's better to say nothing.
Buy yourself ..Eighty Years of the DT Cryptic Crossword ...that will show you how good she was.

[MacSmith]

I'm sorry to learn this. In addition to her Telegraph role, she was also CRISPA of the Grauniad.

[Brooksy]

Another sad loss.