Stunning puzzle with lots of elements from Lato. First the rubric: long and complex but, once understood, entirly fair and correct.
We had eight clues with two consecutive redundant words which clued “pairs”.
We had Thematic clues which clued a) anagrams of one of the paired items and b) a word or phrase which clued another item by including the pair member as part of the answer. Ths is easy to write now, after solving the puzzle, but at first it was very unclear which you had to enter in the grid, the pair member or the anagram/rest of the phrase or word.
One answer, clued without definition, gave the “link” between the items in each pair.
The rest of the clues were “normal” thank goodness, and not over-complex at that. So it was possible to get a good start on the grid without worrying too much about the theme.
So for a start, let’s fill those in:
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 16 | EISENSTEIN | Film director: EINSTEIN round SE(t) |
| 19 | SANSEI | Descendant of immigrants: [ENA IS S]* |
| 21 | LITANY | Boring catalogue: LIT (settled on) + ANY (some) |
| 27 | EAT OUT | Visit restaurant: EA(ch) + TOUT |
| 36 | TAHINI | Oily paste: TIN (can) + I round A H(ot) |
| 38 | MYTH | It’s not true: sounds like “miss” lisping |
| Down | ||
| 1 | LASHERS | Ropes: [R HASSLE]* (both Ba and I had HALSERS for this at first = hawsers) |
| 2 | ELEMI | Resin: [LIME (tre)E]* |
| 3 | ALNUS | Tree genus: LA (Nice article – beware pronunciation) reversed + N(orth) + US |
| 4 | OARS | Blades: (b)OARS |
| 5 | LAYS | Double meaning |
| 6 | ARCH | Chief: (se)ARCH |
| 7 | TALENT | Special gift: TALE + NT |
| 8 | VEST | Garment: VET round S(on) |
| 9 | ENTITY | Being: [TINY T(h)E]* |
| 12 | ECHT | Genuine: TECH with T moved to end |
| 14 | RENO | Nevada city: ONER (lie) reversed |
| 17 | ELM | Tree: L in EM |
| 18 | RAHU | Demon: RAH (cheer) + U(nited) |
| 20 | ARES | God: hidden in ChelseA REServes |
| 22 | NOH | Drama: NO (not) + H(ard) |
| 23 | TOAD | Hall dweller (Toad of Toad Hall – I enjoyed this!): TO + A(nswer) + D(uke) |
| 24 | RISKIER | Not so certain: (f)RISKIER |
| 25 | PREFAB | House: R (king) in PE(ru) + FAB (fantastic) |
| 26 | TOILET | John: TOIL + E(uropean) + (righ)T |
| 29 | NAIAD | Future fly (a larva): [ADA IN]* |
| 30 | KENTE | Silk cloth: KENT (known) + E(nglish) |
| 32 | RIVO | Drinking cry: RO(mania) round IV (sounds like ivy) |
| 34 | HA-HA | Barrier: (c)HA-(c)HA |
This leaves nine clues:
One is the clue with no definition at 28A
| 28A | OTHER RANKS | No definition: SO (provided) reversed (backing) round HERR (lord) in TANK (US prison) |
So the link must be OR – confirmed by the title “Middlemen” (= OR in the middle).
This leaves the eight “definition” clues. I didn’t get these immediately, but by a process of elimination!
| Clue | Answer | Extra words | Explanation |
| 10A | AREA | sensible explanation | Region: A + RE + A(ustralian) |
| 13A | ADEN | last desperate | Port: A(nticipate) + DEN |
| 15A | HEAT | children’s request | Animation: EH? (what) reversed + AT |
| 25A | PIETRO | in time | Italian: [PORT]* round IE |
| 35A | FILLIES | game show | Girls: FILL (stuff) + I(n) + E(l) S(alvador) |
| 37A | ANNE | final offer | Princess: ANNE(x) |
| 11D | RAISE | play question | Institute: RAE round IS |
| 33D | NEMN | quite ordinary | Old name: N(ew) MEN reversed |
And the Thematic clues. In the Partial clues I have indicated the grid entry in Blue, and the remaining words (which form half of a pair) in black:
| Clue 1 | Grid Entry | Clue2 | Grid Entry |
| Look | GANDER | relax | TAKE IT EASY |
| Case | ELATIVE | one’s expecting | MOTHER TO BE |
| Doggerel | RAT-RHYME | award | ARETT |
| Fish | IDE | from the side | LATERALLY |
| County | ROSCOMMON | lady | SENORA |
| Hamper | SEROON | psychiatrist | TRICK CYCLIST |
| Operatic tenor | BOTTONE | turned white | DEALBATE |
| Deceive | LEAD ON | eccentric | WEIRDO |
This left the anagrams to find, and the paired words, and the matching of the pairs with their definitions: This took quite a while! The first one I got was ARETT which had to be an anagram of TREAT. This led to TRICK and I realised that TRICK OR TREAT matched with “childrens request”.
| Grid | Anagram | With | Pair | Definition |
| GANDER | GARDEN | COMMON | Common or garden | Quite ordinary |
| ELATIVE | LEAVE IT | TAKE IT | Take it or leave it | Final offer |
| ARETT | TREAT | TRICK | Trick or treat | Children’s request |
| IDE | DIE | DO | Do or die | Last desperate |
| SENORA | REASON | RHYME | Rhyme or reason | Sensible explanation |
| SEROON | SOONER | LATER | Sooner or later | In time |
| BOTTONE | NOT TO BE | TO BE | To be or not to be | Play question |
| LEAD ON | NO DEAL | DEAL | Deal or No Deal | Game show |
I (Hi) found it pretty difficult and would probably not have finished without a few jogs from Ba. We exchanged quite a number of emails before the final solution was reached! On and off it took two days! I also found it difficult to blog, so I hope that this is comprehensible. Finally the grid!
Thanks for the blog, Hihoba. I agree this was an ingenious puzzle, and also that it was extremely hard but totally fair, with excellent clues.
Yes, another fine, fun and fair puzzle from Lato. I also found it pretty tough, although I suspect it took you longer to blog the puzzle, Hi, than it took me to solve! It was interesting to see how the preamble progressed from utter gobbledygook on first reading through to total clarity by the end … I think! And I too had HALSERS at 1dn to start with, which stymied me in that corner for far too long.
Thanks Hihoba for a very good blog. I usually finish 1Qs, although sometimes its a skin of the teeth job with me running to the pillarbox late on a Tuesday. This one defeated me however, and your blog has shown me why I missed out on rhyme or reason and so could not complete the grid.
Well done Hi, I didn’t finish this one I was just glad it wasn’t my week to blog. I discovered OTHER RANKS reasonably early but had no idea what to do with it 🙁
A rubric that could’ve been tighter, but all clear by the end.
I got the entry CYCLIST fairly early, coming from “psychiatrist”, but didn’t know what to do with TRICK. Some time later, with most of the non-thematic clues solved, I simultaneously noted the “otherwise redundant” “play question” and saw that “one’s expecting” was MOTHER-TO-BE, entered as MOTHER. So that had come from TO BE OR NOT TO BE – and BOTTONE emerged as the “operatic tenor” and anagram of NOT TO BE.
So the theme was unveiled, and the rest was rather a doddle, apart from “game show” (should I stay in more? no!), never having come across DEALBATE.
And, yes Hihoba, a tricky one to blog. Well done.
Thanks Hihoba.
I take my hat off to you for blogging this one,I didn’t even manage to complete the puzzle.As usual the rubric didn’t make any sense at first but unfortunately even after solving the normal clues no penny dropped for me.
Thanks to your blog,I can now see how clever the puzzle was,but I think there were just too many elements for my poor old brain to cope with!
Thank you for your comments everyone. It’s nice to know that I wasn’t the only one to find this one difficult!
Hats off to Lato, though. How our setters come up with such amazingly tortuous and entertaining ideas is a source of continuous wonder to me.
Thanks to Hihoba for the excellent blog and to everyone else who commented.