The preamble says ‘In the definition of every clue a letter has been MORPHED and must be changed back before solving. In clue order, alternating between correct and morphed letters in each set of across and down clues will inform the solver how to highlight the grid (A=1, B=2, etc). Three words will then become apparent, and must be shaded in pencil; the remaining cells in the grid must be highlighted in green.’
This is one of those puzzles that leaves me going ‘what the…’ and ‘how the…’ and occasionally ‘why the…?’! My memory of the solving process is a little hazy as it is nearly three weeks since I did the original puzzle, and I have been writing up the clue parsing below on a two-week family trip around Myanmar (Burma) in 35-40-degree heat…
I managed to get a reasonable amount of the grid filled in and gradually started to get the morphed/corrected letters coming out – but it took a while to work out the alternation to get the instructions:
‘EVENS IN GREEN; ODDS FIFTEEN TO TWENTY THREE IN BLUE”
At this point, I have to admit I resorted to typing the whole thing into Excel and doing some conditional formatting to get the colouring. Even letters, B, D, F etc. in green, odds from 15 to 23 (O, Q, S, U, W) in blue. This left the three words ‘MAGIC EYE IMAGE’ in the 3rd, 5th and 7th rows, plus a few odds to mop up down at the bottom, in green, as per the preamble:
I can’t quite make out what the image is supposed to be – but then again I am colour-blind, which doesn’t help! Is it a space invader?
There were also two unclued entries which didn’t seem to be mentioned in the preamble – AUTO and STEREOGRAM at 28D and 38A respectively – which I assume is another name for a ‘magic eye’ image?
So whilst being in awe of the composition/imagination behind creating something like this, I think at the time I found it a bit of a slog to complete – lots of interesting words like FLOUR BOLTS and VOLOSTS, plus two non-Chambers words in DOB ON and TOCHUS, both of which were flagged up in the preamble, and I’m sure I remember ‘dobbing on’ from my late 70s/early 80s school playgrounds…
Lastly, I’m not sure if the MORPHing has anything to do with the setter Morph – maybe one of Shark’s other setting names, or maybe some kind of tribute – or just a coincidence.
Apologies for any errors below – there were a couple of morphed letters I guessed at, but luckily they didn’t impact on getting to the end result – assuming I got to the right one!…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Length | Correct/ morphed letters | Solution | Clue (definition in bold) / Logic/Parsing |
| 2 | (10, two words) | E / A | FLOUR BOLTS | Number (about fifty) to run special devices for isolating F_OUR (number) around L (fifty) + BOLT (to run) + S (special) |
| 10 | (7) | J? / V | OUTPOUR | OUT (in the open air) + PO (Pilot Officer) + UR (hesitation) |
| 12 | (5) | E / O | BOONS | Ordinary snob broke old anag (i.e. broke) of O (ordinary) + SNOB |
| 13 | (5) | L / N | OMRAH | O (Oxygen) initially, before MRAH (harm, or hurt, all over) |
| 14 | (6) | S / R | DISCOS | Record old style DISC (record) + OS (Old Style) |
| 16 | (7) | A / I | BOWSHOT | Kick around with scrum half at first – distance BO__OT (kick) around W (with) + SH (first letters of Scrum Half) |
| 17 | (6) | N / H | RUDERY | (P)RUDERY – priggishness, missing first, or original, letter |
| 18 | (5) | V? / G | ERUPT | ERUP (pure, unsoiled, around) + T (Thailand, IVR) |
| 20 | (3) | R / L | UDO | (L)UDO – game, failing to start |
| 21 | (7) | S / E | VOLOSTS | VO (verso, printing, left hand page of a book) + LOST (ruined) + S (society) |
| 22 | (7, two words) | E / D | FILM FAN | Perhaps, fantasy FIL__AN (anag, i.e. novel, of FINAL) around MF (Middle French) |
| 24 | (3) | Y / N | GUE | Cameron used to (A)GUE – fit, topless, i.e. missing first letter. ‘Cameron’ being a generic Scottish name, rather than the current British PM) |
| 27 | (5) | O / N | FAUNS | Deities (part gnat goat) from Jaffa unsurprisingly (5) / hidden word in ‘JafFA UNSurprisingly’ |
| 29 | (6) | R / D | DONNOT | Spaniard with close-cut hair DON (Spanish gentleman) + NOT (adjective – with close cut hair) |
| 31 | (7) | D / K | TUT-TUTS | Two short skirts starting to solicit TUT(U) + TUT(U) – two skirts, ‘short’ of their last letters) + S (start to Solicit) |
| 33 | (6) | T / S | OTIOSE | anag (i.e. compound) of ISOTO(P)E without P – power |
| 35 | (5) | F / O | COYPU | Source of COY (abbreviation – company) + PU (UP, pulled back) |
| 36 | (5) | O / I | FOSSA | Foot bones feature opposite to F (foot) + OSSA (bones) |
| 37 | (7) | F / L | IMBOSOM | Make I + M (money) + BO_OM (increase in value) around S (succeeded) |
| 38 | (10) | STEREOGRAM | Unclued (10) / Thematic deduction – not mentioned in preamble?) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Length | Correct/ morphed letters | Solution | Clue (definition in bold) / Logic/Parsing |
| 1 | (8) | T / E | WOODRUFF | WOOD (Shakespeare/Scottish – fierce, furious) + RUFF (low vibrating beat of a drum) |
| 2 | (6) | Y / E | FUMOUS | F (following) + UM (intermittent letters of stUntMen + O (over) + US (America) |
| 3 | (6) | E / U | OPALED | O (old) + PA (fater, old man) + LED (lived, as in ‘led a life of…’) |
| 4 | (5) | G / N | RUGBY | Limited dope’s past (D)RUG(S), dopes, limited at both ends? + BY (past) |
| 5 | (3) | T / N | OBI | German released from desert (G)OBI – desert without (releasng) G (German) |
| 6 | (4) | E / O | LOSS | External show scrapped its prime (G)LOSS – external show, scrapping its prime letter |
| 7 | (6) | T / S | TOCHUS | Touch plastic and initially shapely TOCHU anag (i.e. plastic) of TOUCH, plus S (initial letter of Shapely) |
| 8 | (5) | P / W | SNOOP | SPOON (simpleton) ‘cycling’ first letter to last = POONS, then reversed |
| 9 | (4) | E / A | PSST | Alternative to hidden word in ‘BishoPS STortford’ |
| 11 | (4) | A / N | TROD | anag (i.e. riotous) or D(E)TRO(IT) without E, I, T – tie ‘criminal’ |
| 14 | (5, two words) | T / Y | DOB ON | DO (perform) + BON (NOB, or head, up) |
| 15 | (5) | F / Y | PROFS | Bright PRO (for) + FS (first and last letters of Fried eggS) |
| 18 | (5) | T / D | ELGON | The Spanish run alongside North African EL (‘the’ in Spanish) + GO (run) + N (North) |
| 19 | (8) | W / H | TSUTSUMU | Japanese U (universal) + MUST (M)UST (wine, twice, second one losing M – money) – all turned over |
| 21 | (5) | R / H | VAWTE | See a dreadfully wet and old curved V (vide, see) + A + WTE (anag, i.e. dreadfully, of WET) |
| 23 | (6) | A / E | LUTIST | Desire to hold note, he may play the LU_ST (desire) around (holding) TI (noe, in sol-fa notation) |
| 25 | (6) | E / I | UNMOOR | In parts a space retracted – loose from UN (a, dialect) + MOOR (room, or space, retracted) |
| 26 | (6) | A / I | POM-POM | Dog twice ending up with POM (Pomeranian, dog) twice |
| 28 | (5) | AUTO(S) | Unclued (5) / Thematic deduction – not mentioned in preamble?) |
|
| 29 | (5) | N / H | DSOMO | D_O (ditto, again) around SOM (Somerset) |
| 30 | (4) | N / B | NOYS | Early NOY (alternate letters, now and again, from NoOkY) + S (soprano) |
| 31 | (4) | L / R | TOFU | TO (before) + FU(N) (entertainment, cut) |
| 32 | (4) | A / U | TOSE | TO SE(LL) – for sale, without Ls (lines) |
| 34 | (3) | E / A | SAR | double def’n – SAR is short for ‘sargus’, a type of fish; and also SAR is a Scottish form of ‘savour’, or smell) |
Thanks for the puzzle, Shark, and for the blog, mc. I didn’t find it too much of a slog like you, but I was a bit unsure about the endgame. I wondered why the remaining squares were shaded in green, not blue like all the other ‘odd’ letters. It made me think that there was some sort of magic eye image lurking in the grid that I couldn’t see. I did string three of the images together in Paint to see if that produced anything, and was surprised to find that, with some magic eye staring, two would seem to stand out from the background… nothing noteworthy though. Strange how the brain works!
I came to the conclusion that this was an April fool joke and there was nothing to see. Someone no doubt will enlighten us. I am surprised that dob on isn’t in Chambers although it does seem to be a phrase that isn’t heard so often these days. My thanks to Shark and MC rapper.
Certainly one of the most colourful final grids we’ll see. I don’t think there are enough pixels to expect any actual image to be produced, but certainly the mix of colours is pleasant enough, and the cluing was sharp as per usual for Shark.