Enigmatic Variations 1018 Self-Evident by Kruger

Well quite complicated in the preamble stakes this week. Single letter omissions from definitions in some clues spell out a phrase and 4 down clues have missing letters in their wordplay. There’s also an unclued answer. Then there’s some highlighting to do – Sounds like an interesting cruciverbal safari?

As ever the starting point is the clues themselves and then try to figure out the crypticism of the preamble. the majority of the clues turned out to be normal, the amended down clues were clues 1,2,3 and 4 (K,R,G and E respectively) , whilst the definitions with missing letters spelt out THE BIG FIVE.

so K,R,G and E were already present in the unclued 9 across and with the title being SELF-EVIDENT then 9 across had to be KRUGER (the compiler) and also the KRUGER NATIONAL PARK with all words visible in the completed grid.

So what of the big five, well hidden in the grid were hidden five large animals BUFFALO, LEOPARD, ELEPHANT, RHINO and LION, to be found in the South African national park.

 

Simple as that – all in all a good fun crossword only requiring some dictionary thumbing but no googling or looking up quotations for the end game to fall into place.

Only one gremlin a spelling mistake in 30ac to prove it was a genuine EV. 27ac to yield oils was a little tenuous too, in my opinion. Though 16 down has to rank as one of my favourite clues of the year so far. Thanks Kruger.

Key:

Underline – definition

DD Double definition

* Anagram

Rev. Reverse

Capital (missing) letters have been added to the definitions where required

ACROSS

		1 One hundred tiyin is the whole amount (3) DD SUM
		4 Finch is brown (and dead unfortunately) (8) (is + brown + d)* = SNOWBIRD
		10 Large fish from Australia exhibited in gallery in France, but not Spain (6) Louvre (French gallery – e) around a (Australia) = LOUVAR
		11 Scientist’s tedious course to county town – not easy to begin with (10) Rut (tedious course) + Hereford (county town) – e (easy to begin with) = RUTHERFORD
T		13 RabbiT and cat perhaps eats sea bream? On the contrary (6) Tai (Sea bream) around pet (cat perhaps) = TAPETI
		14 Releaseleader of renegades in recompense (4) Fee (recompense) around r (leader of renegades) = FREE
H		15 THreadsfrom heel of shoe finally shown to detective sergeant (4) E (heel of shoe) + n (finally shown) + DS (Detective sergeant) = ENDS
		17 Romanypresident runs away (4) Chair (president) – r (runs) = CHAI
		18 Don’t includecollapse of unionist vote after misuse of ale (8, 2 words) (ale)* + (u + vote)* = LEAVE OUT
E		20 LobEsfail mostly(4) Lapse (fail) – e (mostly) = LAPS
		22 Said to deserve bird(4) Homonym Earn (To deserve) = ERNE
		23 Race, born on island, start to leave (8) Nat (Born) + iona (island) + l (start to leave) = NATIONAL
		26 Post-war societyin touchwith Chinese (4, 2 words) To (in touch) + ch (chines) = T Och
B		28 BRanch in America –a big hit in recession (4) A + Rev. (six(big hit)) = AXIS
		30 Cover handle of axe Viking orinally lost (4) Helve (axe handle) – V (Viking originally) = HELE
		32 Burning forest’s out at last (6) Arden (forest) + t (out at last) = ARDENT
I		33 FIend off fiance (almost stifling an expression of triumph) in trouble (10) Io (expression of triumph) in (fiancé – e)* + ado (trouble) = AFICINADO
G		34 Musically improvise Git (6) DD NOODLE
		35 He diverts an escape route in Arabia (6) Muse (escape route) in Ar (arabia) = AMUSER
		36 Teens affected by back problem – a painful condition(8) (Teens)* + Rev(sum (problem)) = TENESMUS
		37 Big ship from island lacking source of steam (3) Sark – s (source of steam) = ARK

DOWN

 

	K	1 Locate braggart in Perth (5) Site (Locate) + skite (braggart (Scot.)) = SKITE
	R	2 More civilisedusurer not certain about cause of misery (7) Usurer – sure (certain) around bane (cause of misery) = URBANER
	G	3 Subaqua club’s most frequent participant enters sea suffering bouts of shivering(5) (u (most frequent letter in subaqua club) + sea)* = AGUES
	E	4 CompactAmerican city has no running water (6) Seattle – ea (running water) = SETTLE
		5 Colour printof constellation (4) O (of) + leo (constellation) = OLEO
F		6 Elaborate throw is Face value (5) (throw)* = WORTH
		7 Africanplaces short tusk in front of leaders of Igbo (aka Nigerians) (7) Ivory (tusk) – y (short) + I + a + n (leaders of Igbo (aka Nigerians)) = IVORIAN
		8 Reduction of floor space in posh car is not so common(5) Area (floor space) – a (reduction)in RR (rolls Royce) = RARER
		12 Scout Groups from LAmostly very stupid (4) Dense (very stupid) – e (mostly) = DENS
		16 Old sailor– like Hook with hookah (4) Loved this clue Hook has No ah compared with Hookah = NOAH
		17 Astute (as in church) (4) Ut (as) in ce(church) = CUTE
		19 He overlooked white spot in insect (7) Anthelion (white spot) – he = ANTLION
I		21 TitIanpossibly moved Earth, in part (7) (pt(part) + earth)* = PAINTER
		22 Contribution to upkeep : handy quantity of dry goods(4) Hidden upkeep Handy = EPHA
		24 Shamir destroyed Muslim garments(6) (shamir)* = IHRAMS
		25 Writer’s fed up with old English (5) Rev (fed) + oe (old English) = DEFOE
V		27 Cold greasy liquid – they incorporate very severe curVes (5) C(cold) + oils (greasy liquid in plural?) = COILS
		28 Be consistent with a direct debit at college (5, 2 words) A + Dd (direct debit) + up (at college) = ADD UP
E		29 BarE son touching tailless otter (5) S (son) + tarka (otter) – a = STARK
		31 American author’s First of May is a very beautiful composition(4) Poe (American author) + m (first of May) = POEM