This is Ranunculus’s second EV, and I blogged the first whch was published in December last year. It was No. 1153 and had corner new corner squares to change obscure words into more common ones… a really nice idea.
Here we had a sequence of consecutive letters (nine words and two abbreviations) that needed to be removed from eleven answers. The remaining entries were defined in a sentence in the preamble: The head (smart) knew an action to pierce boxes; to express pleasure to count; to check an obsession to express verbally. These eleven, and one more that required highlighting in the final grid, were principal roles in a famous oevre.
Most of the clues were fairly straightforward, but there were a few tricky ones thrown in for good measure (you know who you are!). And who couldn’t delight in the image of a naked Nora Batty?!
Even the clues that required letters removed from the answer were straightforward… except 11ac. I had a real mental block on what that could be, failing to see the word in Chambers. Moreover, looking up Vessels in Mrs B, and even Glass (!) meant that I was flummoxed for nearly and hour on that one clue.
Luckily, it hadn’t taken me too long to see the theme: CROSS, DENSE and then MO gave it away. They were all charcaters in Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Sadly I needed Google to remind me of them. The full list of characters was as follows:
| Clue | Answer | Letters removed |
Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7ac | CROSSWORD | CROSS | Grumpy |
| 11ac | LOG-GLASSES | GLASS | Magic Mirror |
| 17ac | CONDENSED | DENSE | Dopey |
| 25ac | RETIREDLY | TIRED | Sleepy |
| 31ac | CHORIONIC | ORION | Hunter |
| 38ac | LANCEGAY | GAY | Happy |
| 39ac | TESTER | ER | Queen |
| 4dn | BEMOAN | MO | Doc |
| 18dn | PURPURE | PURE | Snow White |
| 30dn | TRASHING | RAS | Prince |
| 34dn | DECOYED | COY | Bashful |
All that was required was to highlight ATISHOO for Sneezy in column 7 of the final grid. He was the remaining One Short dwarf.
Thanks Ranunculus, for an enjoyable, if at times frustrating, second puzzle.
A quick word of thanks also to all at EV for my prize last Sunday (Artix’s The Big Picture). For the forseeable future, I’ll only submit for puzzles that I will be blogging. A win for one of those would be nicely coincidental. (Has anyone done that yet?) As it happens, I submitted an entry for this week’s puzzle, but, as I wrote this blog, I realised that I’d made a right Horlicks of the endgame. Definitely no prize this week!
Legend:
Definition in clue
[removed letters]ENTRY
ABC* = anagram
ABC< = reversal
abCDef = hidden
| ACROSS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Entry | Clue and Explanation | |
| 1 | ICEBOATS | Reserve front three for Bath keeping ball – at first, Saracens’ pack can’t stop them (8) ICE (reserve) + BAT (front three for BATh) holding O (ball) + S (first for Saracens) |
|
| 7 | [CROSS]WORD | What you’re doing is OK, keeping clear of criminal’s weapon (9) CROOKS (criminal’s) -OK + SWORD (weapon) WORD defined by to express verbally in the preamble |
|
| 11 | LOG[GLASS]ES | Old timers set down drinking vessels (10) LOG (set down) + GLASSES (drinking vessels) LOGES defined by boxes in the preamble |
|
| 12 | NAPHTHA | Getting hold of hot tip that almost makes one solvent (7) NAP (tip) getting hold of H (hot) + THA[t] (THAt almost) |
|
| 13 | ERRATIC | Vagrant tucked into hamster? Rat, I conclude (7) in hamstER RAT I Conclude |
|
| 15 | EAT IN | With pounds being cleared out, Battersea can choose not to take chow away (5, two words) BATTERSEA _ BATTERS (pounds) + TIN (can) |
|
| 17 | CON[DENSE]D | Suspect once sodden nothing comes out reduced in volume (9) ((ONCE SODDEN) – O (nothing))* COND defined by knew in the preamble |
|
| 18 | POTENTATE | Monarch, perhaps King Edward, abruptly imprisoning cardinal and earl (9) POTAT[o] (perhaps King Edward abruptly) holding TEN (cardinal) + E (earl) |
|
| 20 | PASTA | Make spy stay with this dough? (5) P AS TA (what turns SPY into STAY) |
|
| 22 | PASS | Old man has special ticket (4) PA (old man) + S (has) + S (special) |
|
| 25 | RE[TIRED]LY | Dirty leer’s out of place in a secluded way (9) (DIRTY LEER)* RELY defined by to count in the preamble |
|
| 26 | DOITS | Limps, clutching one’s pins (5) DOTS (limps) holding I (one); DOIT = PIN = thing of little value |
|
| 29 | CONSORTIA | Conservative type initially is against coalitions (9) CON (Conservative) SORT (type) + IA (Is Against, initially) |
|
| 31 | CH[ORION]IC | Heartless vamp appearing in section of a film for the very young (9) HO[u]RI (heartless vamp) in CONIC (section); film is in the sense of membrane around an embryo CHIC defined by smart in the preamble |
|
| 35 | LINEN | Right to keep penning new material (5) LIEN (right) containing N (new) |
|
| 36 | ROUTINE | Brawl and booze, not having women round (7) ROUT (brawl) + WINE (booze) – W (women) |
|
| 37 | ART DECO | Redcoat’s wacky style (7, two words) REDCOAT* |
|
| 38 | [GAY]LANCE | When batting, can Gayle hurt someone with this? Not any more (8) (CAN GAYLE)* LANCE defined by to pierce in the preamble |
|
| 39 | TEST[ER] | One demonstrating hides for old tanner (6) PROTESTER (one demonstrating) – PRO (for) TEST defined by to check in the preamble |
|
| 40 | DETERGED | Made cleaner very tired, throwing one out and bringing three back in (8) DEAD (very tired) – A (one) containing EGRET< (answer to 3dn) |
|
| DOWN | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Entry | Clue and Explanation | |
| 1 | ILEX | Holly is girl men regularly kiss (4) ILE (gIrL mEn regularly) + X (kiss) |
|
| 2 | CORRODE | Fret about old order changing (7) C (about) + O (old) + ORDER* |
|
| 3 | EGRET | Feel bad about rook’s missing feather (5) REGRET (feel bad about) – R (rook) |
|
| 4 | BE[MO]AN | Pity to live with fellow that has limited love (6) BE (to live) + MAN (fellow) containing O (love) BEAN defined by the head in the preamble |
|
| 5 | ANIS | Jennifer perhaps dismissing fashion for American birds (4) ANISTON (actress Jennifer) – TON (fashion; I’m not sure she’s really that big a star to be in an EV! |
|
| 6 | SPECTATOR | One absorbed by rousing sport, etc? (9) A (one) in (SPORT ETC)*; &lit. |
|
| 8 | OTTOMAN | With backside lacking breadth, one’s given cushioned seat (7) BOTTOM (backside) – B (breadth) + AN (one) |
|
| 9 | RHINO | Animal horn in short supply (5) (HORN I[n] (In short))* |
|
| 10 | DANDY | Result of taking spot away from seedy comic? (5) D AND Y (what you’re left with when SEEDY has SEE (spot) removed) |
|
| 14 | COATI | Mammal’s fur is concealing tail (5) COAT (fur) + I (Is with no tail) |
|
| 16 | UNADORNED | Nude, Nora Batty departs thus? (9) (NUDE NORA)* + D (departs) |
|
| 18 | PUR[PURE] | Bluey-red colour on arms? Cheer up, rupia’s covering it over! (7) reversed in cheER UP RUPia; reference to coat of arms PUR defined by to express pleasure in the preamble |
|
| 19 | PLAINTS | Laments having put one in the middle of the garden? (7) I (one) in PLANTS (garden?) |
|
| 21 | SONAR | Detective unit in the main works on art-related cases (5) in workS ON ARt-related; cases is used to mean contains |
|
| 23 | SCIENCE | Discipline son caught with brother’s girl (lesson finally taken to heart) (7) S (son) + C (caught) + NIECE with N (lessoN finally) moved to middle |
|
| 24 | SEA | Tide has Cnut ultimately leaping from throne (3) T (cnuT finally) removed from SEAT (throne) |
|
| 27 | ECLAT | Acclaim ‘Pillar of the Community’? (5) EC (European Community) LAT (pillar) |
|
| 28 | SHIRE | Division of country leads to Scots hurrying into rural England (5) first letters of Scots Hurrying Into Rural England |
|
| 30 | T[RAS]HING | Wasting little time, rang his mobile (8) (T (little time) RANG HIS)* THING defined by an obsession in the preamble |
|
| 32 | HOOT | Got up extremely close to Munch’s Scream (4) (TOO (extremely) H (close (ie end) of muncH))< |
|
| 33 | STAR | Rodent sandwich originally all over The Sun? (4) (RAT (rodent) + S (first letter of Sandwich<) |
|
| 34 | DE[COY]ED | Exposed to temptation, bad adult giving way to love (7) DECAYED (bad) with A (adult) replaced by O (love) DEED defined by an action in the preamble |
|
Thanks, Dave. It was quite something to include other characters and not just the seven dwarfs. Maybe I take things too literally but I think the close to “Munch’s” should be s.