loonapick had to admit defeat on this puzzle. This was partly because the theme of the puzzle mainly affected England rather than Scotland. It was Michael Fish and his quote about the telephoned hurricane warning – the puzzle appeared on the 20th anniversary of the 1987 storms (I saw repeats of the quote three or four times on the TV that day – so I think loonapick also struggled as he didn’t start on the day of publication). The ‘eye’ in the centre of the grid was presumably a visual hint.
The quotation is: A woman rang to say she heard there was a hurricane on the way. Well don’t worry, there isn’t. [Hurricane being anagrammed to ‘raunchier’.] The extra letters in wordplay for other answers gave: “Twelve examples of who said it”. So you had to find twelve fish in the grid and highlight them. With careful consultation of Chambers and counting of cells, my 12 are (in the order they’d be listed as clues): SOLE, RUFF, BASS, RUDD, ORFE, CHUB, SPRAT, SKATE, BAR, TROUT, SMELT, DAB. The biggest problem for the setter was probably ensuring that there are no alternative fish elsewhere in the grid.
For me, spotting the quote was pretty easy, but fairly tough clues meant that the rest of the puzzle still took quite a while – maybe three or four hours in total.
In the clue explanations below, the clues with extra letters in wordplay start with “
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | CYTONS+T – ONST = once (dialect) replaces E in CYTE – a rare word for a cell, though obvious enough from words like lymphocyte and leukocyte (at least if you live in the same house as a hospital lab scientist) |
| 13 | LOOK-UP+E – LOOE,K,UP |
| 14 | V(I)ET,NAM = man = servant, rev. |
| 17 | SUTRA+L – S-short,ULTRA |
| 18 | ETON+V – ETO(N)V = N(new) in vote, all rev. |
| 20 | TAGETES+E – T(AGE)ETES or TE(AGE)TES |
| 21 | RAGEE+E = RE,A,GEE – ragi/ragee/raggee/raggy is a kind of millet |
| 23 | THROE+X – THRO’,EX. |
| 30 | GALAH – GAL,kAtHy |
| 32 | TRAUMA+A – anag of AMATAUR = amateur with A=America for base=E (natural logarithm base) |
| 33 | RUDDERS = redd rev. in Rus. – a budget is a kind of rudder, and red(d) is to put in order |
| 35 | NA=not avilable,T=to,HAN=Chinese People – T=to is a new trick to me – it’s in C as “t- or t’ an obsolete shortened form of to before a vowel, as in tadvance (Spenser)” |
| 36 | NAUTILI – compound anag. of jubilation less ‘job’ |
| 37 | BETA-TEST+M – anag. of (team, best, t) |
| 39 | LENTEN+P – hidden in “benevolent pension” – not too surprisingly, ‘Lenten’ means ‘meagre’ |
| Down | |
| 1 | COUNTERAGENTS+L – (cotangent rules)* |
| 2 | TOLU+E – TO=for,ELU=ule (=rubber) rev. |
| 3 | OLEFIN+E – (s)OLE FINE |
| 4 | NEAFE+O – ONE,A,FE |
| 5 | INTIMA+F – (in fat I’m)* – intima = an organ’s innnermost membrane |
| 6 | ALLERGIST+W – WALLER=builder,G(IS)T. |
| 7 | ECONUT+H – ECHO=E,NUT=head |
| 8 | DRUM – 2 mngs, one = ridge or drumlin – I remember drumlin (a ridge formed under an ice-sheet) from A-level Geog. |
| 10 | S,P,RAT – a Shak. term of contempt |
| 11 | SKATER+S – S(KAT,ER)S – k(h)at = leaves from a shrub of the same name, chewed as a stimulant |
| 17 | SET,T=the – set(t) = a paving stone = flag |
| 19 | NE,SH = susceptible to cold or otherwise delicate (dialect from OE hnesce) |
| 22 | GALUTH+I – (ha(d) guil)* – a galut(h) is a forced exile of Jews |
| 24 | HE(ART)E.N.=Enrolled Nurse |
| 26 | SADH=dash*,US=me (colloq.) |
| 27 | TURN=go,TO=until |
| 29 | SMELT+D – S(MEL)TD. |
| 32 | ROUTE+I – routi(n)e |
| 34 | FIST+T – (its)* in FT – fist = an index (printing) |
…. and just to ram home the theme even more, the twelve fishes, when highlighted, display the four letters F I S H in a rigid angular font
F (sole ruff sprat)
I (skate)
S (bass rudd chub bar dab)
H (orfe trout smelt)
I got the theme fairly quickly, but took a bit of time to find the 12 fishes. Indeed it was by highlighting a few of them that the rest, particularly the final two three letter fishes, fell into place.
Duncan Shiell