The preamble to ‘HARD GRAFT’ tells us that a ‘6A by 11D’ (both unclued) will appear in the grid (five words) and explain said ‘graft’. In addition, each clue’s wordplay will lead to an extra letter, and in clue order these will indicate something to be highlighted in the grid. So, has Chalicea sentenced us to some hard labour?…
Only one way to find out – roll sleeves up and press on…and hope for those extra letters, and answers crossing the unclued words, to bring enlightenment. 11D gets a mention in three consecutive across clues, so solving those might help as well. (Or, vice versa, finding 11D might help solve them!)
After some steady solving I had 6A as D?CT?M – so probably DICTUM, which would explain why ODQ was recommended – we are looking for a pithy quote, or saying. 11D started to look like: M??T?A???ER, and once I had 28A as DEWAN (Indian politician, clued as ‘Eastern equivalent of 11D’) and 32A as POLITICS (clued as ’11D’s career’) I worked out that 11D was actually two words: MRS THATCHER.
Well, she said quite a few things in her time, and I spent some time trying to work out if those extra letters were going to be one of Maggie’s pearls of wisdom, but if I’d concentrated on the preamble I should have remembered that there were going to be five words in the grid. And three of them make up most of the bottom-left to top-right diagonal: ‘DON’T FALL FROM’. Which didn’t help immediately! Is that an instruction? ‘Don’t fall from…’ what, or where? GRACE? POWER?
Enlightenment finally came through a combination of that third reference to 11D at 29A – TESTERN being an old sixpence, clued as ‘Six of 11Ds theme’ – and some general Wiki-oogling of Mrs T’s sayings. Was she having a dig at Dennis Potter’s 1978 series when, in 1979, she said ‘PENNIES DON’T FALL FROM HEAVEN…’? With PENNIE(S) and HEAVEN in parallel diagonals.
And the extra letters spell out ‘cryptic representation of what she said they have to be‘, which was ‘…they have to be earned here on earth’. And this is shown by EARNED on EARTH in the bottom two rows:
(I realise now that the S of ‘pennies’ is probably the first letter of that diagonal, rather than the S I have highlighted, but hopefully that hasn’t scuppered my prize entry – the only specific requirement for solvers is to highlight the ‘cryptic representation’.)
Without getting into any sort of political discourse (she was the most ‘marmitey’ of politicians, you either loved her or hated her!), I found this an enjoyable puzzle and challenge in its own right. Nicely constructed and a fairly accessible solve, despite initial misgivings at the ‘hard graft’ of the title.
A generous sprinkling of interesting/archaic words like EPOPEES, SBIRRO, PAHOEHOE, SPHEAR, EIRACKS and TERSION (not TORSION, as I lazily put in at first), meant several trips to Chambers for confirmation of definitions – although they could all be got from their respective wordplay, and crossing letters.
I have gradually come to learn that Chalicea often brings a feminine perspective to her EVs/Inquisitors – Mrs T here, EV 1102 with the Victoria Wood Christmas special and EV 1084, which I also blogged, on the theme of the artist Georgia O’Keefe. I also enjoyed her Inquisitor 1324 – Baby Talk. This isn’t a complaint or a criticism, just an observation – in much the same way as when you see a Raich thematic puzzle you are usually in for something educational with a European history/Cold War slant!
So thanks to Chalicea for another interesting puzzle, which I have enjoyed solving and blogging. Hopefully my fellow solvers enjoyed it too…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Length | Extra Letter | Entry | Clue (definition in bold) / Logic/Parsing |
| 1 | (7) | C | EPOPEES | Elevated heroic poems regularly keep to epic levels (7) / regular/alternate letters of ‘kEeP tO ePi(C) lEvElS’ |
| 6 | (6) | DICTUM | Unclued (6) / Thematic deduction |
|
| 10 | (7) | R | AIRMAIL | First class river, motorway and rail system of conveying letters (7) / AI (A1 – first class) + R (river) + M (motorway) + (R)AIL |
| 13 | (7) | Y | CHANTOR | Singer hiding gold in northern chamberpot! (7) / CHANT(Y) – Scottish slang for chamber pot – around (hiding) OR (heraldry, gold tincture) |
| 14 | (6) | P | SBIRRO | Peculiarly irresponsible, but not hopelessly senile Italian policeman (6) / anag (i.e. peculiarly) of IRR(E)S(P)O(NSI)B(LE) without the letters of SENILE |
| 15 | (4) | T | NEFS | Sent back fine boxed table decorations (4) / (T)NE_S (sent, back) around (boxing) F (fine) |
| 18 | (3) | I | SEC | Dry, frozen desserts making a comeback (3) / SEC(I) – ICES, or frozen desserts, back |
| 19 | (3) | C | MEL | Honey returned to starve (3) / (C)LEM (to starve) returned |
| 20 | (8) | R | STILTISH | Rather laboured and pompous version of shirt list (8) / anag (i.e. version of) SHI(R)T LIST |
| 21 | (7) | E | PHARAOH | Try acting during dance that’s sent up ruler (7) / P_OH (hop, or dance, ‘sent up’) around H(E)AR (try, in the legal sense) + A (acting) |
| 23 | (5) | P | AROSE | A translation passage came into being (5) / A + (P)ROSE (passage for translation into/from another language) |
| 27 | (7) | R | KUWAITI | Native of Gulf, deadly snake hedging upper class woman in (7) / K(R)_AIT (deadly snake) around (hedging in) U (upper-class) + W (woman), plus I (in) |
| 28 | (5) | E | DEWAN | Organised new deal mostly and eastern equivalent of 11 (5) / anag (i.e. organised) NEW D(E)A(L) – mostly, i.e. losing last letter |
| 29 | (7) | S | TESTERN | Six of 11’s theme and problematic interests (not the foremost) (7) / anag (i.e. problematic) of (I)NTEREST(S) – without the ‘foremost’ letter. Testern being an old sixpence. |
| 32 | (8) | E | POLITICS | 11’s career, putting time into revolutionary policies (8) / T (time) in anag (i.e. revolutionary) of POLICI(E)S |
| 35 | (3) | N | GEO | Creek in the far north gone awry (3) / anag (i.e. awry) of GO(N)E |
| 36 | (3) | T | RUM | Sport team lacking heart and spirit (3) / RU (sport, Rugby Union) + (T)(EA)M – lacking ‘heart’ |
| 38 | (4) | A | SHIV | Hindu god’s weapon, it’s said colloquially (4) / Double defn. of sorts – SHIV(A) – Hindu god – SHIV, or CHIV, being slang for a knife |
| 39 | (6) | T | ELOGES | Funeral orations ultimate end involving earth (6) / (T)ELO_S (ultimate end) around (involving) GE (Gaia, or Ge, earth goddess) |
| 40 | (7) | I | EIRACKS | Perth’s young birds horribly airsick following end of dive (7) / E (end of dive) + anag (i.e. horribly) of AIRS(I)CK |
| 42 | (7) | O | LEARNED | Knowledgeable eccentric old ranee (7) / anag (i.e. eccentric) of (O)LD RANEE |
| 43 | (6) | N | SPHEAR | Special hospital close to one-time field of activity (6) / SP (special) + H (hospital) + (N)EAR (close to) |
| 44 | (7, two words) | O | THE SERE | Those in a bad way before Shakespeare’s autumn of life (7, two words) / THE S (anag, i.e. in a bad way, of TH(O)SE) + ERE (before) |
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Length | Extra Letter | Entry | Clue (definition in bold) / Logic/Parsing |
| 1 | (6) | F | ENCAMP | To pitch tents – historic struggle on boggy area (6) / (F)EN (boggy area) + CAMP (obsolete for fight, struggle) |
| 2 | (8) | W | PAHOEHOE | Hardened lava to handle clumsily and scrape twice (8) / PA(W) (handle clumsily) + HOE + HOE (scrape, twice) |
| 3 | (3) | H | ODA | Where to find female companions? Hiding in a good harem (3) / hidden word in ‘goOD (H)Arem’ |
| 4 | (6) | A | PANEER | Look closely round banal trimmed crumbly cheese (6) / P_EER (look closely) around AN(A) – (b)ana(l) ‘trimmed’ at the edges |
| 5 | (4) | T | EROS | Asteroid mostly sorted out (4) / anag (i.e. out) of SOR(T)E(D) – mostly, again |
| 6 | (4) | S | DASH | After extremes of diseases, 60% of ashes collapse (4) / D(S) (extreme letters of DiseaeS) + ASH (60%, three letters, of ASHes) |
| 7 | (5) | H | CLIFT | Chief mechanism for carrying people up steep rock face (5)/ C(H) (chief) + LIFT (mechanism for carrying people) |
| 8 | (7) | E | TERSION | Wiping muddied irons on tee (7) / TE(E) + anag (i.e. muddied) of IRONS |
| 9 | (7) | S | MOOCHED | Loitered and casually kissed (7) / double defn-ish – (S)MOOCHED |
| 11 | (3, 8) | MRS THATCHER | Unclued (3, 8) / Thematic deduction |
|
| 12 | (4) | A | ORES | Main upset pursuing yellow mineral aggregates (4) / OR (yellow or gold, heraldic) + (A)ES (main, or SEA, ‘upset’) |
| 16 | (7) | I | FLAUNTS | Ostentatiously displays riotous A-list fun (7) / anag (i.e. riotous) of A-L(I)ST FUN |
| 17 | (7) | D | KLATSCH | King’s boy tense before school social occasion (7) / K (king) + LA(D) (boy) + T (tense) + SCH (school) |
| 20 | (4) | T | SOWF | Wife entertained by sympathetic whistle in Glasgow (4) / SO_F(T) (sympathetic) around (entertaining) W (wife) |
| 22 | (4) | H | LIES | Untruths move fast, it used to be said, circled by leader of law society (4) / L (leader of Law) + S (society), circling (H)IE (move fast) |
| 24 | (8) | E | STREAKER | Bizarre arrestee, essentially naked, running in a public place (8) / &lit-ish – anag (i.e. bizarre) of ARRESTE(E) + K (essence, or central part, of naKed). The whole clue evoking the image of a streaker being arrested mid-streak. |
| 25 | (7) | Y | ADPRESS | Thrust together journalists after day is over (7) / (Y)AD (DAY, over) + PRESS (journalists) |
| 26 | (7) | H | OWL-MOTH | Left word with husband after greeting American fly-by-night (7) / (H)OW (greeting, stereotypically used by American Indians) + L (left) + MOT (word, French) + H (husband) |
| 30 | (6) | A | TRIADS | Sorrowful melody taken up after opening of thematic three-note chords (6) / T (opening letter of thematic) + RIA D(A)S (SAD AIR, or sorrowful melody, taken up) |
| 31 | (6) | V | NOUSLE | Worryingly unsolved, lacking department to investigate, nose to ground (6) / anag (i.e. worryingly) of UNSOL(V)E(D) without (lacking) D (department) |
| 33 | (4) | E | OULD | Early Scottish Open University was among the first (4) / OU (Open University) + L(E)D (was among the first) |
| 34 | (5) | T | INGLE | Ring old boyfriend (5) / double defn. of sorts – TINGLE = to ring, INGLE = obsolete for catamite, or boyfriend |
| 37 | (4) | O | TSAR | Severely criticise returned Russian leader (4) / TSAR = R(O)AST, severely criticise, returned |
| 38 | (4) | B | SINH | Mathematical term to reject in silence (4) / S_H (silence!) around (B)IN (reject) |
| 41 | (3) | E | CUE | Five franc piece, European hit! (3) / (E)CU (five-franc piece) + E (European) |
Wasn’t the Xmas special about Victoria Wood?
Yes, this was a nice puzzle and thankfully quite easy after a run of a couple of tough puzzles earlier — and the usual Chalicea trait of hiding a lot of theme into the grid in an elegant way.
Thanks, Jaguar – of course it was Victoria Wood – although I’m sure Julie Walters was involved as well!
mc_rapper67 Your invariably enjoyable and encouraging blogs deserve more responses. You know, of course, that the setters always come here immediately and appreciate what you do and say. Indeed, I set a whole string of ‘feminist’ puzzles at the same time as this one, which was the last one to go to James Leonard before he died. I felt that being a rare female voice in this male-dominated hobby required that gesture. Your comment about highlighting was amusing as the new editor has twice picked me up about highlighting requirements that could be ambiguous, but, in fact, only the ‘EARNED’ on ‘EARTH’ was required on this occasion. I think you are right that there was some Julie Walters link to the Christmas quotation about the ‘big dead thing in the middle’. Many thanks.