Enigmatic Variations 1069: Greetings … and Farewell from Rustic

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Little did I realise when I wrote my last fifteensquared blog that I would be blogging another Rustic puzzle this month as well … for all the wrong reasons.

Sadly, James Leonard, Rustic in Enigmatic Variations and Mr Lemon in The Listener, died on 20th April after a short illness. He was the instigator of the EV series, and had been its editor for more than twenty years. James was a giant in the crossword world, and those of you who met him know that he was a giant in real life as well.

I had the privilege of sitting next to him at this year’s Listener Crossword Setters’ Dinner in March and we chatted about crosswords and bird-watching and a lot in between. Half way through the main course, James casually leant across and, without asking, helped himself to a glass of red wine from the bottle that I had bought for the meal. I suspect James thought it was included in the price of the dinner and I didn’t disabuse him of that — indeed, I just felt it was the least I could do as a thank you for the many years of entertainment he had given me.

I had no idea that his craftsmanship would soon come to a premature end. He will be sadly missed.

I offer this week’s blog without comment and as a matter of record. Below that is a list of all the Listener and Enigmatic Variations puzzles that James entertained us with over the years.

EV 1069Legend:
Definition in clue
ABC* = anagram
ABC< = reversal
abCDef = hidden

ACROSS
No Entry Clue and Explanation
7 DATA Digital audio tape with a lot of information (4)
DAT (digital audio tape, abbr) + A; ‘audiotape’ two words in Chambers (1988)
9 ELATION Pride in cousin, perhaps, suppressed initially (7)
[R]ELATION (cousin, perhaps)
11 TRANSE First of tankers nears awkward Scottish passage (6)
T (first of Tankers) + NEARS*
12 OLDEN One worried about lethal dosage getting past (5)
ONE* about LD (lethal dosage, abbr)
13 RENEW Begin again during spell of serene weather (5)
hidden in seRENE Weather
15 SANGRIA Simon starts to get wilder, we hear, with drink (7)
S (start of Simon) + ANGRIA (sounds like ‘angrier’)
17 SORREL Dock chestnut horse (6)
2 meanings
18 SAMSHU Chinese drink mash prepared in Soviet Union (6)
MASH* in SU (Soviet Union); SU in Chambers (1988)
20 SMELLS Senses mingle on board (6)
MELL (mingle) in SS (ie on board)
22 ALPEEN A record even for this club! (6)
A + LP (record) EEN (even)
23 SESSILE Diocese installs second heraldic flower, regardant and stalkless (7)
SEE (diocese) holding (S (second) LIS< (heraldic flower; regardant=backwards))
26 REPLA Put back all but the last two fruity bits? (5)
REPLA[CE] (put back, without last two letters)
28 ALDEA Hamlet — a lead to play (5)
(A LEAD)*
29 PRATIE Talk foolishly about one name for a potato (6)
PRATE (talk foolishly) about I (one))
30 EURONET Link route constructed round Tyneside (7)
ROUTE* around NE (Tyneside)
31 NEAT Elegant old ox (4)
2 meanings
DOWN
No Entry Clue and Explanation
1 EARLDOM Model dancing around artist upset noble’s dignity (7)
MODEL* about RA< (artist)
2 CARET Mark shows what’s missing in small area in Connecticut (5)
ARE (small area) in CT (Connecticut)
3 MENIAL Servile employees mostly laid off (6)
MEN (employees) + LAI[D]*
4 ELSINS They’re used in repairing heels in Scotland (6)
in heELS IN Scotland &lit
5 OTTER ’Arry’s more passionate fish-eater (5)
2 meanings (Eastender’s ‘otter, more passionate)
6 HOVE Mac’s swell town (4)
2 meanings
8 HANSELS German league starts to limit sponsors’ gifts (7)
HANSE (German league of cities in 14c) + LS (first letters of Limits Sponsors)
10 IONISER One needs oxygen to rinse out air-freshener? (7)
I (one) + O (oxygen) + RINSE*
14 CREEPER A soft-soled shoe for Virginia, perhaps (7)
2 meanings (Virginia creeper)
16 GALEATE Bog-myrtle — one to note that’s helmet-shaped (7)
GALE (bog-myrtle) + A (one) + TE (note)
19 HEDERAL Just like Ivy to amend putting colour back inside (7)
HEAL (amend) holding RED< (colour)
21 SITREP Priest misrepresented the military position (6)
PRIEST*; = situation report
22 ALBATA German silver — a pound gets a third of a talent (6)
A LB (pound) + A + TA (third of TAlent)
24 SLOOP Policeman takes nothing aboard ship (5)
O (nothing) in SLOP (policeman)
25 FLING Cast’s disappointing, no first class members (5)
FAILING (disappointing) – AI (first class)
27 ETUI One Indian turns up for the case (4)
(I (one) UTE (Indian))<

Index of Listener Puzzles as Mr Lemon

1989–2011

Number Title Theme
3012 Rock Ride Roderick Random and Tobias Smollett
3066 Blandy and Benedictine Thomas More and the dissolution of the monasteries
3082 Chir Brun Richmal Crompton and the William books
3106 The Golbyd’s Toes The Ingoldsby Legends by RH Barham
3134 Seeds Mathematical symbols and ‘gammadion’
3147 A Six Decker for the Admiralty? Fourth Earl of Sandwich, bread and fillings
3179 Crossmot Magic squares
3220 A Supplementary Problem Letters advanced by clue number
3235 Unplaced Erewhon by Samuel Butler
3295 A Short Tale The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin by Beatrix Potter
3352 The Downy Bear The theorem of Pappus of Alexandria
3384 14 v 31 The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan
3431 Three Writers “The Pickwick, the Owl and the Waverley pen”
3473 Chip Ruftoc Sir Charles Wheatstone and the Wheatstone Bridge
3524 Half and Half Letters advanced by position in word
3564 Punch Line Punch and the curate’s egg
3623 Times Letter values are squared
3686 Act The 11 missing days when England adopted the Gregorian calendar
3743 Bonxie Auks, Guillemot, Puffin and Razorbill
3936 Convert JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books, Gringotts and Diagon Alley
3972 Unusual The red flanked bluetail and other birds
3999 Tobacco Tobacco is snout and Sn tin; SN out and T in
4077 Forced Entry Extra letters in wordplay must be added to a letter of the answer
4152 Inn Joke It takes seven years to become a solicitor

Index of EV Puzzles as Rustic

1992–2012

EV 1

Number Title Theme
1 Greetings Welcome message
8 Anybody Tom, Dick and Harry
13 This Time Next Year Abbreviated months added to words
21 Classic Fillies Girls’ names in Latin quotations
27 Wrong Numbers Classic Wrong Number puzzle
38 Position Endwis(e) Cricket grounds
48 ——— First, ——— Afterwards Hang First, Try Afterwards; words prefixed by ‘hang’ or suffixed by ‘try’
65 Stormy Weather Trees destroyed, bits knocked off rooves, rivers filled up
81 Walpurgis Night Witches, Satan and the Brocken
94 Scrapped & Replaced Letters of ‘scrapped’ replaced by ampersand
112 The • The black spot in Treasure Island
124 Apiary Misprinted birds
139 Word World Letters added to asnwers spell LEXICOGRAPHY
149 A Close Match Vitai Lampada by Sir Henry Newbolt
182 Centre Villages and districts around Oxford
195 Colours Pirates and the Skull & Crossbones
210 Heaviside Layer Sir John Vanbrugh
229 Beadle’s Rule The Beadle from Oliver Twist — “The law is an ass”
247 Lewis & Short Pairs of words
266 Flight Types of apple and pear
294 O—(O—O) Chessboard
318 Clerical Wear Dogs, especially the one given to Frederick, Prince of Wales by Alexander Pope
336 About…? About Sin; AB removed and replaced by S
356 Malpractice Words defined by ‘mal’, fish entered backwards (‘prac’), anagrams of words meaning ‘cite’
378 Halm The Pied Piper of Ham-el-in
396 The Two Brownings Browning over-and-under & under-and-over shotguns
414 Gardening Tips Anagrams of flowers
433 Prolonged Absence ‘Long time no see’ — Cs replaced by LTs
451 Summer Holiday Playfair puzzle — codeword ‘Ilfracombe’
473 Last Gasp Sir Walter Raleigh’s last words — first two letters in some answers switched
500 Invasion All Ds give shape of a D
520 Woes FW Harvey “I turn to ducks” — all Is become OOs
550 Homophone The Importance of Being Earnest and Ernest Hemingway
569 High Hopes Samuel Johnson and claret
592 Elocution My Fair Lady — Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire
621 Squiffy Getting home from the pub
643 A Hybrid Bloodsucker Smectymnuus and B for bishop dropped from answers
695 Wrong Numbers Classic Wrong Numbers puzzle and anaesthetics
715 Two Drinks Stout and Gin — ST out and G in
734 Journey Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas
756 Lights Proverb “What a neighbour gets is not lost”
775 A Glimpse of Mercury The Time Machine by HG Wells
808 Haselrig It takes two to tango by Hoffman and Manning
827 Naughty Nighties Cos, sec, sin and tan
831 Recent Injury The beast of Bodmin Moor
852 Growth Word chains, each word one longer than previous
877 Adjustment Procrustes and his bed
909 Three Graces ‘Callipygean’
928 Leonard’s Puzzled “Procrastination is the thief of time” — all Ts removed
946 Message Happy Christmas message
951 Half and Half Half the answers have one letter changed
966 Uncomplimentary Remark Howard Hughes’s comment about Clark Gables’s ears
990 Whimsy Billy Connolly’s comment about marriage and a bicycle repair kit
1000 Dollars Also Gs, Ks and Ms missing from wordplay
1013 Essentials The game of Battledore and Shuttlecock
1030 Swimming Aid Troutfin — TR out and F in
1047 X Marks the ???? ‘Change is inevitable except from a vending machine.’
1065 Hotiuhtw Playfair puzzle — codeword Pratincole: birds
1069 Greetings … and Farewell Back where he started. RIP James.

 

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