I am most grateful to Warbler for this delightfully appropriate EV for my debut blog. Not only did it use two of my favourite mechanisms – corrected letters to spell out a message and a hidden grid entry – but the ‘helpful pointer’ of the title (to which I perhaps should have paid more attention at an early stage of solving) chimes most conveniently with my own soubriquet.
I found the clues to be consistent in difficulty and fair in that trickier grid entries were balanced by more accessible cluing. There were some lovely touches – the definitions in 5dn and 24dn were nicely hidden, and there was a tie-in, intentional or otherwise, with Island Records in 18ac. The surface readings were very enjoyable while not relying on tortured wordplay. Perhaps I am a simple soul, but I find a lot of pleasure in a clue such as 10dn.
The grid filled up gradually, so I took the path of least resistance towards the theme. The better half spotted that Butch Cassidy/Sundance Kid would fit the letters that we had, which rather strongly hinted at Paul Newman as the ‘artist’. ‘Cool Hand Luke’ is, unfortunately, almost the limit of my Paul Newman knowledge, but this was augmented by a quick (lazy?) imdb search, which brought various potential contenders for the other films. Ultimately they turned out to be ‘(The) Verdict’, ‘Absence (of) Malice’ and ‘Road (to) Perdition’.
The letters PAUL NEWMAN were written diagonally from right to left. And the title’s helpful pointer? ‘Tightens’ is, of course, an anagram of ‘The Sting’.
I have just a few small niggles.
In 12ac, there seems to be a spare ‘I’. Any claimants?
16ac, 21ac I am not wholly convinced by the synonyms flight=fly and being=sense
35ac, I have ou (sing.)/ouens (plu.), rather than ‘ous’, but my Afrikaans is, shall we say, limited.
39ac I would be grateful if someone would confirm my reading.
Thanks to Gaufrid for clearing these up.
XXX* = anagram
{xxx} = anagram indicator
< = reversal
(x) = unused letter(s)
xxx = excised letter(s)
[bull] = corrected word/letter
ROAD= clue to be highlighted
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | VAE | Very, very Scottish bay (3) | Scottish bay (Scots "bay", variant of voe): V (very) + AE (very) | |
| 3 | ACCRETION | Anorectic, when treated, shows continued growth (9) | continued growth: ANORECTIC* {treated} | |
| B | 3 | MOO | Sound from gull [bull]’s mate is mostly fine in Cape Town (3) | sound from bull’s mate: MOO(i) (Afrikaans "nice, pretty") |
| U | 12 | TEMPI | Note mass and power in mesic [music] rates | music rates: TE (note) + M (mass) + P (power) + I (in?) |
| 14 | ROAD | Travelling sailor deserts overseas (4) | travelling (adj. as in ‘road show’): abROAD (sailor deserts = no ‘ab’) (see 21ac for ‘AB’) | |
| T | 15 | NEGATE | Refuse [refute] dodgy agent introduction to establishment (6) | refute: AGENT* {dodgy} + E (‘introduction’ to Establishment) |
| 16 | DUNGFLY | Insect plague’s close to grounding flight (7, hyphenated) | insect: DUN (plague, harrass for repayment) + G (‘close’ to groundinG) + FLY (flight) | |
| 17 | AULIC | When dancing Lucia is courtly (5) | courtly: LUCIA* {dancing} | |
| C | 18 | INDIES | Diss [disc] companies from island group lacking women (6) | disc companies: [W.] Indies (island group) |
| 21 | ABSENCE | Inattention of sailor is being reported (7) | inattention: AB (sailor – ‘able seaman’) + SENCE (homophone of ‘sense’ = being) ? ABS (sailor is) + ENS (homophone of ‘ens’ = being) | |
| H | 23 | CWM | Welsh follow [hollow] finalists in Cymric snow slalom (3) | Welsh hollow (Welsh "valley"): ‘finalists’ in cymriC snoW slaloM |
| C | 25 | TEN | The one regularly playing hard [card] (3) | playing card: ThEoNe (‘regular’ = 1st, 3rd, etc.) |
| A | 26 | ITERATE | I treat European badly and repent [repeat] (7) | repeat: [I TREAT + E (European)]* {badly} |
| 32 | OVIBOS | Musk ox may be obvious but not universal (6) | musk ox: OBVIOuS* (not universal = no ‘u’) {may be} | |
| S | 34 | COMMA | Infect [insect] mark amid tuft of hairs (5) | insect (a butterfly): M (mark) in COMA (tuft of hairs) |
| 35 | ONEROUS | Oppressive Afrikaner men seize emperor (7) | oppressive: OUS (Afrikaans, "men") including (‘seize’) NERO (emperor) | |
| S | 37 | TRAGIC | Parts of ear start to crinkle. That’s bad [sad]. (6) | sad: TRAGI (plural of tragus = part of ear) + C (‘start’ to Crinkle) |
| 39 | LUKE | Locally half-hearted evangelist (4) | evangelist: a local variant of lukewarm = half-hearted | |
| I | 40 | UNLIT | Dam [dim] lake in university town originally (5) | dim: L (lake) in UNI (university) + T (Town ‘originally’) |
| D | 41 | STY | Old larder [ladder] is smelly after removal of dark liquid (3) | old ladder (old variant of ‘style’): ST(ink)Y |
| Y | 42 | PERDITION | Intrepid leader of old ruined misers [misery] after death (9) | misery after death: [INTREPID + O (‘leader’ of Old)]* {ruined} |
| 43 | ITS | It is computer technology and a bit of science (3) | It is: IT (computer technology) + S (a bit of Science) | |
| Down | ||||
| 1 | VERDICT | Decision that’s very direct or could be (7) | decision: V (very) + DIRECT* {could be} | |
| S | 2 | AMOUNT | Australian horse is a total bum [sum] (6) | total sum: A (Australian) + MOUNT (horse) |
| 4 | CONFEST | Admitted prisoner to party (7) | admitted (confessed): CON (prisoner) + FEST (party, often in combination) | |
| 5 | COOL | In depression nothing is excellent (4) | excellent: O (nothing) in COL (depression) | |
| U | 6 | RUNYON | Is [US] author’s journey over there? (6) | US author: RUN (journey) YON (over there) |
| 7 | TEG | Acquire climbing sheep (3) | (a two-year-old) sheep: < GET (acquire ‘climbing’) | |
| N | 8 | OPTIC | Choose current carbon alcohol disperser [dispenser] (5) | alcohol dispenser: OPT (choose) + I (current) + C (carbon) |
| D | 9 | NIECE | Sister’s laughter [daughter] is near unused church (5) | sister’s daughter: NIE (obsolete = ‘unused’ variant of ‘nigh’) + CE (Church of England) |
| 10 | HAND | Round of applause as Chinese start to dance (4) | round of applause: HAN (Chinese) + D (‘start’ to Dance) | |
| 12 | TEAL | Colour is drastically altered after communist’s defection (4) | colour: ALTEred* (communist’s defection = no ‘red’) {drastically} | |
| 13 | MALICE | Exclaim wildly. Not without spite. (6) | spite: ExCLAIM* (not without = no ‘x’) {wildly} | |
| A | 19 | IBID | I put in an offer in some [same] place (4) | in same place: I BID (I put in an offer) |
| 20 | YETI | Without a smidgin of doubt deity transmuted mythical being (4) | mythical being: dEITY* (without a smidgeon of Doubt = no ‘d’) {transmuted} | |
| N | 21 | ANIMAL | Bird sickness is a fag [nag] for example (6) | a nag for example (slang for horse): ANI (bird) + MAL (sickness) |
| C | 22 | CAVETTO | In Edinburgh call experienced soldier to see furling [curling] architectural feature (7) | curling architectural feature: CA (Scots = In Edinburgh "call") + VET (experienced soldier) + TO |
| E | 24 | MUSSELS | Food from spa [sea], in smaller quantity, turning up in museum (7) | food from sea: < LESS (smaller quantity, ‘turning up’) in MUS (museum) |
| K | 27 | EXOCET | Officer commanding in East Texas dressed in rochet [rocket] (6) | rocket: OC (officer commanding) in [E (east) TX (Texas)]* {dressed} |
| 28 | POUKIT | Jock’s pinched out tips of kale in paddock in a random way (6) | Jock’s pinched (Scots = Jock’s "plucked, tugged"): [OUT + K I P (‘tips’ of Kale In Paddock)]* {in a random way} | |
| 29 | ACT UP | Losing altitude catapult’s designed to malfunction (5, two words) | malfunction: CaTAPUlt* (losing altitude = no ‘alt’) {designed} | |
| 30 | BORNE | Supported borough with new energy (5) | supported: BOR (borough) + N (new) + E (energy) | |
| 31 | WAIT | Watch leader of army involved in intelligence (4) | watch: A (‘leader’ of Army) in WIT (intelligence) | |
| I | 33 | BOUT | Ian’s kitchen houses zero fat [fit] (4) | fit: BUT (Scots = Ian’s "kitchen" including (‘houses’) O (zero) |
| 36 | NISI | Condition that’s somewhat patronising (4) | condition (as in ‘a degree nisi’): patroNISIng | |
| D | 38 | GID | Upsetting taunt brings misease [disease] (3) | disease (of sheep and cattle): < DIG (‘upsetting’ taunt) |
Hi Mister Sting
Good first blog! Regarding your queries, i=in can be confirmed in Chambers which also gives the plural of ou as ous or ouens. The same source gives luke as a dialect version of lukewarm and flight as one of the definitions of fly (noun).
For 21ac I had AB (sailor) S (is) ENCE homophone of ‘ens’ (being). I am not too happy with the homophone but it makes more sense to me than being=sense.
Ah! Thank you, Mister G.
The perils of being sans Chambers!