Having just finished spending far too long tearing my hair out on Sabre’s latest Listener, it was a pleasant relief to tackle Chalicea’s first EV puzzle.
Correct letters of misprints spelt out a ‘suitably abbreviated’ quotation. I assumed that it would include a lot of shortened forms of words. There were also twelve clashes to resolve by entering the name of the ‘survivor’ … intriguing.
The quotation seemed to start RBET…, which looked like it could be ROBERT. Eventually the ‘full’ quotation emerged as (It is a far, fa)r better thing that I do than I have ever done. Charles Dickens from A Tale of Two Cities, and it looked as though the whole quotation needed to be shortened. The clashes gave either SYDNEY CARTON or CHARLES DARNAY in the main NW-SE diagonal (the final Y of Donnay wasn’t a clash). Carton was the alcoholic lawyer who finally passes himself off as Darnay and is guillotined in his place. Thus the quotation has also been guillotined by having its ‘head’ cut off, a novel device, I think (if you’ll pardon the pun).
A good puzzle from Chalicea. It is a shame that 17ac had sign instead of sighs (the deliberate misprint for sight). Another minor point is that ECHINI, the plural of ECHINUS, isn’t mentioned as such in Chambers (although, surprisingly, it’s acknowledged in the online version).
Solving time: 1¼ hours.
Legend:
ABC* = anagram
ABC< = reversal
X = misprints
| ACROSS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | R | STAMNOS | Sons around rug returning for a jaw in Ancient Greece (7) SS (sons, ie two Ss) around [ON (for) MAT (rug)]< |
| 6 | B | SAFARI | Adult female in Indian dress in group on the lookout for feasts (6) A (adult) F (female) in SARI (Indian dress) |
| 11 | E | HYDE | Stevenson’s villain’s name for green arba in London (4) 2 meanings: Stephenson’s villain & area in London |
| 12 | T | ACADEMIC | A canine amateur medic possibly one reaching for university (8) A C (canine) A (amateur) + medic* |
| 13 | T | REACTS | Revealing each ace card too soon initially produces aces in return (6) initials of Revealing Each Ace Card Too Soon |
| 14 | E | TORERO | Rushed round circuit to follow on foot in the arena (6) TORE (rushed) + OR< [(logic) circuit] |
| 15 | R | INAPT | Stirred paint — not light for the occasion (5) PAINT* |
| 17 | T | EEN | Even when contracted as they enable Mac’s sighs (3) 2 meanings |
| 19 | H | MAT | Little Matthew’s fair tangled mass on top (3) 2 meanings |
| 21 | I | ECHINI | English impertinently tackle independent prickly creatures loving in the sea (6) E (English) CHIN (impertinently tackle) I (independent) |
| 22 | N | ERITREA | Mostly tired running about with Associate, laid down by the Red Sea (7) TIRE(D)* + RE (about) + A (associate) |
| 25 | G | DAFT | Formless department near the stern of a ship (4) D (department) + AFT (near stern of ship) |
| 27 | T | EYESORE | Nasty sighs — Eeyore’s distressed (7) EEYORES* |
| 30 | H | EYED | In a state of tension wasted thousand saving organ (4) KEYED (in a state of tension) – K (thousand) |
| 33 | A | EATABLE | Endless meat and supply of food — fit for a merl (7) (M)EA(T) + TABLE (supply of food) |
| 36 | T | INLIER | Leaderless airline struggled and shone standing out from the rest (6) (A)IRLINE* |
| 39 | I | IDE | 30 reported one laving in freshwater (3) sounds like EYED (clue 30ac) |
| 40 | D | LEE | Spenser’s river’s sheltered site (3) 2 meanings |
| 41 | O | MURRE | Tailless eel for diver from our shires (5) MURRE(Y) (tailless eel) |
| 43 | T | ABROAD | A woman of doubtful morals, now in this country (6) A + BROAD (woman of doubtful morals) |
| 44 | H | ASPOUT | Snake in the open gusting (6) ASP (snake) OUT (in the open) |
| 45 | A | REDESIGN | Plan knew energids are faulty (8) ENERGIDS* |
| 46 | N | SCAR | Blemish on skid from cars crashing (4) CARS* |
| 47 | I | TEASEL | Twisted stelae in prickly thong that produces nap (6) STELAE* |
| 48 | H | OMNIETY | Switching money it is a condition of saving the lot, occasionally (7) (MONEY IT)* |
| DOWN | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | CHROMES | Church with Rome’s costs using metal (7) CH (church) + ROME |
| 2 | V | THEE | Bard’s thrice including man in heart of octett (4) HE (man) in TE (heart of ocTEtt) |
| 3 | E | ADDITIVE | Advertisement finally produced one SE Nigerian leader of exploration — an extra to enhance patrol (8) AD (advertisement) + D (finally produceD) + I (one) + TIV (SE Nigerian) + E (leader of Exploration) |
| 4 | E | NATAL | Native adult lion — primarily related to one’s roar (5) NAT (native) + A (adult) + L (Lion, primarily) |
| 5 | V | SCATH | Scare away Henry as poet’s hurt with herbal abuse (5) SCAT (scare away) + H (henry) |
| 7 | E | ADORNS | Difficulties surrounding navy docks (6) ADOS (difficulties) around RN (navy) |
| 8 | R | FERVID | Torpid French dive poorly (6) [FR (French) DIVE]* |
| 9 | D | AMEER | Prince, say, in Rubai active and pure earlier (5) A (active) + MEER (old word for pure) |
| 10 | O | ICONS | Meuse may activate these international swindles (5) I (international) CONS (swindles) |
| 14 | N | TRIPOD | Staid drug experience before overdose (6) TRIP (drug experience) + OD (overdose) |
| 16 | E | RATE | Spend last half of old Italian currency note (4) RA (last half of liRA) + TE (note) |
| 18 | C | ENFOLD | Embrave following when death surrounds (6) FOL (following) surrounded by END (death) |
| 20 | H | ARGYLE | Rose in Scottish design largely created without one hint of love (6) (LARGELY)* – one L (hint of Love) |
| 23 | A | YELLED | Bowled — brought to the ground with opener replaced by unknown (6) FELLED (brought to the ground) with Y for its first letter |
| 24 | R | ACE | A chief engineer’s first mate (3) A + CE (chief engineer) |
| 26 | L | AMBIENCE | Accessories in art paid out money well to French when expert’s around (8) ACE (expert) around M (money) BIEN (French for well) |
| 28 | E | EAST | In the direction of sun risk experiencing abnormally scorching temperatures initially (4) first letters of Experiencing Abnormally Scorching Temperatures; unlike this year!! |
| 29 | S | RE-ENTRY | Concerning space attempt and spaceship’s return to earthy atmosphere (7, hyphenated) RE (concerning) EN (space) TRY (attempt) |
| 31 | D | DIDOES | Days including party and capers one toes for fun (6) DIES (days) including DO (party) |
| 32 | I | ENCASE | Lone network computer in a state of rest (6) NC (network computer) in EASE (state of rest) |
| 34 | C | CLART | Murk up north, cloudy latitude including a bit of rain (5) C (cloudy) + LAT (latitude) including R (bit of Rain) |
| 35 | K | ZERDA | Beast not normally a pacy animal found in leaderless group of animals in South Africa (5) (H)ERD (group of animals) in ZA (South Africa) |
| 37 | E | IMAGO | Final stage for e.g. lousy character in tragedy about Malta (5) IAGO (character in tragedy) about M (Malta) |
| 38 | N | ARSON | Maliciously burying headless priest (5) (P)ARSON (priest) |
| 42 | S | AUNT | Pleasure trips without limits for parent’s sitter (4) (J)AUNT(S) (pleasure trips) |
Thanks for the blog, I agree, this was rather welcoming and just the right level for Sunday. Nice one Chalicea!
It wouldn’t be Enigmatic Variations without a typo in the clues. A good puzzle and the clash of the two names with one taking the place of the other was very neat.
Thank you for the generous comments here and elsewhere! Onus is ultimately on the setter to check the final proofs so I was both guilty and distressed about the error that had crept into this, my very first EV, and thought solvers were very kind to ignore or tolerate it.