29 OCTOBER 1988, Page 53

No. 1549: Tricky ten

You are invited to write" a plausible piece of prose (maximum 150 words) containing the following words in any order: top- quality, dabchick, hymnology, defiant, erst- while, canopy, sighing, hijack, calmness, stud. Entries to 'Competition No. 1549' by 11 November. 1 shall award a fiver to the sender of the first envelope I open contain- ing the answer to: what common factor do these words share?

Solution to 879: Poetry?

HANTOLOVEEVEN HR7 S T I N G P LI A7 E

Winners: A.M. Sutherland, Glasgow (£20); Brenda Holroyd, Holbrook, Suffolk; 1.D. Davies, Cheltenham.

1A, 21D 5, 23, 40, 9 and 12 form a quotation from Edgar Allan Poe's 'Annabel Lee' at 18. 'T H21 "S 3M A41 D E514' S6FISV R71 N 33A N TEA 0 N I S E 01 N1113 Y M9 El NE 01) L E R 15 DEUMI7SMELTIVIAND + 1132NEPS2rACHARNE

EGATOR T EIRLIN1 R

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