An Araucaria-style alphabetical jigsaw with a serious twist! No clue numbers, but the normal clues were presented in alphabetical order of their solutions and answers were to be fitted in where they would go.
There was also a set of clues which were wordplay only, yielding two solutions, and the grid entry was to be “produced” by the two in combinaton. These were also presented in alphabetical order of the grid entry and were to be fitted into the white squares in the grid where they would go. These turned out to be CROSSES (see below), and this was the final UNCLUED element to be highlighted in the grid. Not an easy task at all, but very entertaining.
Fortunately the “normal” clues were not too abstruse, and there were enough easy ones to give you a reasonable start. I started with AVATAR (but see comment) and AUDREY which should have made the previous two clues easy (both answers began with A), but they eluded me until almost the end! One was hyphenated and the other had alternative spellings.
The CROSSES were all crossbreeds, the offspring of the male of one species and the female of another, the most common example being tiger and lion giving TIGON and LIGER – both of which figured in the list. My first indication of a cross was DONKEY + STALLION, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember what it was called (the opposite of a mule!) and had to search for it. This led me to thinking about the cow varieties and to JERSEY + FRESIAN (not INFARES as I originally thought!!) and hence to the idea of crossbreeds in general.
MULE in this crossword was the avian version. I knew this as my Grandma had one in the 1950s when they were popular. A number of the answers were alternative spellings, one of which (FR(I)ESIAN) does not appear in Chambers, and is pretty dubious, though Google gives lots of hits. There is also a problem with MOOLY which I have noted in my comment in the table below.
Below I have included numbers for clarity, the order being the listed order of the clues. I think all the wordplay is straightforward but have commented on one or two and am willing to answer any questions if there are any.
Time to solve – four sessions of at least an hour and a half!
| No | Animal 1 | Animal 2 | Cross | Comment |
| 1 | MASTIFF | PIT BULL TERRIER | BANDOG | |
| 2 | BISON | COW | CATALO | Liked Bi’s for AC/DC’s! |
| 3 | SHEASS | HORSE | FUNNEL | Last one I found, hors = outside + base e |
| 4 | DONKEY | STALLION | HINNY | |
| 5 | JERSEY | FRESIAN | JERSIAN | Is this fair or is it a foul? Welcome your comments. |
| 6 | YAUD | BULL | JUMART | Bully is the miner’s hammer |
| 7 | TIGRESS | LION | LIGER | |
| 8 | COLLIE | GREYHOUND | LURCHER | |
| 9 | FINCH | CANARY | MULE | |
| 10 | PARTRIDGE | QUAIL | PERCOLIN | |
| 11 | TIGER | LIONESS | TIGON | |
| 12 | GREW | TERRIER | WHIPPET | Grew is an alternative to greyhound I had SPANIEL as an anagram of [Alpes in] rather than TERRIER (whippet can be either) but was corrected. Tier is a Tasmanian mountain range! |
| 13 | MARE | ZEBRA | ZEBRULA | |
| 14 | MOOLY | YAK | ZHOMO | Zhomo is Yak + horned cow. MOOLY specifically states hornless cow in Chambers, followed by “any cow“, so off-putting at least! |
The normal clues, with explanations of wordplay only (mostly), were:
| 1 | ALDER-FLY | [DIED EARLY F]* |
| 2 | ATOCS | AS round (s)TOC(k) |
| 3 | AUDREY | [A RUDE]* +(sh)Y |
| 4 | AVATAR | Actually an incarnation, rather than a reincarnation! The clue would have been fine without the re. A V(ice) A(dmiral) + TAR |
| 5 | CULOTTES | LOT in CUTE S(quare) |
| 6 | DREGGY | EGG in D(eserted) R(ailwa)Y |
| 7 | EFFORTFUL | OF in [TRUFFLE(s)]* |
| 8 | EONS | are supernatural powers! N in EOS |
| 9 | HUSOS | O in HUSS |
| 10 | JIBE | JIB + E |
| 11 | MARC | CRAM reversed |
| 12 | MIEN | M + IE + N |
| 13 | MONETH | Spenserian month; M + [ON THE]* |
| 14 | NATALIE | [ITALIAN]* with I replaced by E |
| 15 | NEOTERISE | [ E TRIES ONE]* |
| 16 | OF A MIND | OF + AMIN + D(uke) |
| 17 | ORDAINER | A(merica) + IN in ORDER |
| 18 | PINEAL | PIN + EA(ch) + L(ine) |
| 19 | POISSON | S in POISON |
| 20 | REGROWN | [ON WRONG]* |
| 21 | REYNARD | Charley is a fox; RE + ANY rev. + RD |
| 22 | RIME | RIM + E |
| 23 | RUELLIA | a plant; RUE + ILL rev. + A |
| 24 | SESAME | [SEEMS + A(bout)]* |
| 25 | SNATH | [HASN’T]* |
| 26 | SOUTER | Scottish cobbler; (i)s + OUT + ER |
| 27 | STEER | SR round TEE |
| 28 | TOYMEN | [MY NOTE]* |
| 29 | ULITIS | Oral problem; [STI(m)ULI]* |
| 30 | VERGIL | V(ersatil)E + [GIRL]* |
So the total grid was as below with the crosses in red.
| Z | E | B | R | U | L | A | A | V | A | T | A | R |
| H | F | B | I | L | M | U | L | E | J | I | B | E |
| O | F | A | M | I | N | D | D | R | E | G | G | Y |
| M | O | N | E | T | H | R | E | G | R | O | W | N |
| O | R | D | A | I | N | E | R | I | S | N | N | A |
| A | T | O | C | S | P | Y | F | L | I | G | E | R |
| W | F | G | R | U | E | L | L | I | A | C | O | D |
| H | U | S | O | S | R | F | Y | S | N | A | T | H |
| I | L | H | S | E | C | U | L | O | T | T | E | S |
| P | O | I | S | S | O | N | J | U | M | A | R | T |
| P | I | N | E | A | L | N | A | T | A | L | I | E |
| E | O | N | S | M | I | E | N | E | R | O | S | E |
| T | O | Y | M | E | N | L | U | R | C | H | E | R |
Very tough and enjoyable puzzle with great clueing as always from Schadenfreude. It was the reverse of the usual sequence as I found the theme almost immediately but it still took ages to finish. Congrats to the setter on finding so many crosses and then fitting them all into the grid.
We also got the theme quite quickly, although we had YAKOW for the MOOLY/YAK cross at first.
The thematic entries were described as a pair of answers (A;B) producing a grid entry (X) which was a useful hint.
I too had YAKOW at first, which caused me a problem since 1A (7 letters) and 1D (5 letters) share their initial letter.
Also I assumed incorrectly that a setter such as Scadenfreude would have located the unclued CROSSES in the central “odd” across slot. And maybe XXXXXXX would have been an appropriate title (but possibly too much of a hint)?