Enigmatic Variations No. 1145: Rank Outsiders by Ifor

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An interesting clueing device this week, with one word in the definition being an anagram of the true word plus an extra letter. The message given by the extra letters (read thematically) would define the title of a work, one line of which would indicate what grid modifications would be required.

Tackling the two long down entries, I managed to unscramble ‘mens pleasures’ to give 1dn SUPERSALESMEN. 11dn proved trickier, especially as I was unsure whether I was looking for an anagram of ‘EEC integrally’ or ‘intertwined EU’! (It was the former.) Turning my attention to the acrosses, I was pleasantly surprised (by which I mean ‘pleased with myself’) that my initial scan was reasonably encouraging. 8 CASE, 12 URN, 14 TANTALATE and 16 GHEE started me off, the true words in the definitions being fairly easy to disentangle. Mind you, the same couldn’t be said for ‘Michigan’ at 25ac.

EV 1145The down clues weren’t quite as straightforward as the acrosses, but with the basic framework in place, the grid was a relatively easy solve, coming in at well over two hours… OK, a bit trickier than average.

It wasn’t rocket science to realise that the extra letters had to be read in reverse to give A hymn sung during retirement of clergy after a service. A quick scan of Mrs Bradford, and RECESSIONAL was the obvious hymn in question. This meant nothing to me, so I scanned the grid to see if I could identify the four characters that needed to be withdrawn from the grid. PUGWASH in column 2 was the first and, together with the title, I assumed that we had to identify the members of the crew of The Black Pig in the children’s TV show from my childhood, such as Master Thingie and Seaman Whatsit.

However, seeing HUSSEIN in column 7 dashed that idea, and I needed to google to get the correct theme which was a poem by Rudyard Kipling composed for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897. The relevant line of the poem was “The Captains and the Kings depart” from the second verse, and so far I had one of each. I eventually located the other captain, HORNBLOWER, and this in turn revealed the large letter R. Thus I could stop looking for Kipling’s full name in the grid, but could see King STEPHEN forming a large K with HUSSEIN. The title just referred to the outside letters of RanK, Kipling’s initials.

And so, another satisfying puzzle from Ifor bit the dust… thanks.

Solving time: three hours.

Legend:
Incorrect Corrected Definition in clue
X = Withdrawn letter
ABC* = anagram
ABC< = reversal
abCDef = hidden

ACROSS
No Entry Withdrawn
Letter		 Clue and Explanation
1 STACK E Deluge Glued on Skye rock pillar (5)
2 meanings
8 CASE C Hatches Sheath lawsuit (4)
2 meanings
12 URN I What held Soviet votes Union’s Russian nationals originally? (3)
first letters of Union’s Russian Nationals
13 HAYRIDE V Prevalues Pleasure trip of a year, getting in cover (7)
A YR (year) in HIDE (cover)
14 TANTALATE R Art’s Ta’s derivative — so much from France recently (9)
TANT (French for ‘so much’) + ALATE (recently); Ta being the chemical symbol for tantalum
15 EPHOR E No-hoper weeping on about rigged magistrates’ scales class (5)
(NO-HOPER – ON<)*; weeping = leaking and rigged is anagram indicator
16 GHEE S Shields Delhi’s fat coatings from gluttonish eye (4)
outside letters of GluttonisH EyE; at first, I thought the definition was ‘delish butter’!
18 RUDD A Fish found in state Test, perhaps – regularly under rocks, dead (4)
UDR* (regular letters of UnDeR) + D (dead); rocks is anagram indicator
20 NOUS R Sneers Sense upset leaders in responsibility (4)
ONUS (responsibility) with first two letters (leaders) swapped
21 STAG E Firearms backing up knife fink used casually once (4)
GATS< (firearms); fink and stag words for informer
22 GREBES T Mere trifles fliers in conclusion to having beers drunk (6)
G (last letter of havinG) + BEERS*; ‘mere’ is in the sense of lake
24 EERIE F Engrafts Strange tree losing leader that is damaged (5)
([t]REE IE (that is))*
25 AWOL A Head of army with second in command left Michigan miching (4)
A (first letter of Army) + W (with) + O (second letter of cOmmand) + L (left); ‘miching’ is a word for playing truant
28 MILT Y Poet missing out on variety of yore roe (4)
MILTON (poet) – ON
29 LAWKS G Local cry of wronged wonder maid cut short when given work inside (5)
LAS[s] (maid, cut short) containing WK (work)
30 HEEHAW R Braying senior noise, he cherishes eccentricity, half affectedly superior (6)
HE containing (cherishing) E (eccentricity) + HAW[-haw] (affectedly superior, half)
32 ESSE E Seen Ens clues setter concealed? (4)
in cluES SEtter; ens and esse mean philosophical existence
33 TEIL L Il est sans coeur, désolé pour mille lime (4)
(IL + ET (EsT without heart))*; anagram indicator is désolé (sorry)
34 AESC C Curtilage Ligature mistakenly recast without boundaries (4)
[r]ECAS[t]*
35 BRAN F Fetwas Waste originally bad for one in Iran (4)
B (first letter of Bad) replacing I (one) in IRAN
36 ASANA O Position holed held has first shot an ace (5)
[h]AS (hAS losing first letter) + AN A (ace)
39 MEMOIRIST T Writer of latest tales reminder tense, gripping flag (9)
MEMO (reminder) T (tense) containing IRIS (flag)
41 RODDING N Renews Sewer cleaning, doing verges of road when littered (7)
(DOING + RD (verges of RoaD))*
42 ALL E One’s best ethos shot could be a liberal line (3)
A L (liberal) L (line)
43 NYES M Locations for pathnames pheasant formerly barred by many establishments (4)
in maNY EStablishments
44 INLAY E Entries Insert by way of deposit (5)
IN (by way of) + LAY (deposit)
DOWN
No Entry Withdrawn
Letter		 Clue and Explanation
1 SUPERSALESMEN R Modern Demon peddlers of wicked men’s pleasures (13)
(MENS PLEASURES)*
2 TRAP I Part lifted, arisen snare (4)
PART<
3 ANKH T Embarrassed thanks after unwrapping old tinsel Nile’s cross (4)
[t]HANK[s]* ([t]HANKS[s] unwrapped)
4 CYTODE E Cell with one no nucleus, yet empty in volume (6)
YT (YeT empty) in CODE (volume)
5 TANGOED R Had craned dance and got base into position (7)
(AND GOT E (base))*
6 MYTHUS G Enacting Ancient legend of Ifor accordingly (6)
MY (of Ifor) + THUS (accordingly); by convention, setter = I/me
7 PRAESEPE N Enslaver Several stars before guards organised escape without compliance (8)
PRE (before) containing (ESCAPE – C (compliancce))*
9 ADA I Acting block cut short language of Briony’s Byron’s daughter (3)
A (acting) + DA[m] (block, cut short)
10 SET SAIL R Raised Orange genoa, perhaps, as line site failed (7, two words)
(AS L (line) SITE)*; genoa is a sail
11 ENERGETICALLY U EEC integrally intertwined with EU E, maybe (13)
(EEC INTEGRALLY); with E = with energy
17 STRIAE D Fiend Fine streaks by, in sections cut from fabulous bestiary (6)
BESTIARY – B and Y (BY in two parts)
19 DROWSE G Pang Nap of ecstasy after blade’s withdrawn (6)
E (ecstasy) after SWORD< (blade)
23 BESTRIDE N Spent Step over one’s limit on dodgems, say (8)
BEST (one’s limit) + RIDE (dodgems, say)
26 WASHERY U Where Theseus sheets might lose marks, perhaps — because he enters with line (7)
AS (because) HE in W (with) RY (lines, ie railway)
27 SEINING S Drawing sent net in twice — GCSE caught out badly (7)
(IN IN (in twice) + (GCSE – C (caught))*
30 HEARIE N Light gas ram not finished with pile in Severn verse (6)
HE (helium, light gas) + ARIE[s] (ram, not finished)
31 HASTEN M Cream Race playing Athens (6)
ATHENS*
37 ANAL Y End of denial following recollections of years arse (4)
L (last letter of deniaL) after ANA (recollections)
38 NALA H Hamster Stream, an animal running round losing main supply (4)
(AN ANIMAL – MAIN*)*
40 MOE A Some cruises — less sun, more ocean once (3)
SOME* – S (sun)

 

2 comments on “Enigmatic Variations No. 1145: <em>Rank Outsiders</em> by Ifor”

  1. After completing the grid, I blanked out the R and K so that the kings and captains departed. Is that what we were supposed to do?

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