Shark’s last offering in the series was number 1370, yielding a picture of a hand, which I much enjoyed, so I had high hopes for this one. I remember that we found the clues difficult, and that Ho and I had to share information to get the puzzle completed. This was rather less difficult, but some wordplay still required consultation. As last time, there were a lot of words I hadn’t come across, requiring dictionary searches, both in the answers and the wordplay.
The rubric read:
Each clue contains an extra word; the final letter of these words in clue order will lead to an instruction to be carried out in the grid. This reveals a mysterious word (8 letters); however, a different and perhaps more appropriate thematic word must be highlighted (9 letters). The final grid contains only real words or proper nouns, including those formed when blank cells are ignored.
We were going to remove some letters and relocate them in the grid by the looks of it.
A very slow start (almost panic!). Only one answer on the first pass and slow progress thereafter.
The last letters of the extra words began to appear. I had F?N?LL?T . . . which looked as if FINAL LETTER might emerge then F?UR???ORD – FOURTH WORD? The phrase eventually resolved itself (after some reverse engineering) into FINAL LETTER FROM THE FOURTH WORD IN EACH CLUE. I duly found these and they spell MOVE LAST LETTER OF ACROSS ENTRY TO END COLUMN.
But which entries? Some were already in the last column! Let’s ignore those and just move the last letters of the across clues which don’t end in the last column. The word to be revealed is only 8 letters, so we can probably ignore PY and HD – the barred off letters in the last column, so move T from SAFEST, L from CARRELL, E from UNITE, S from RAPIDS, I from SAMITI and C from TORC. The word revealed in the place of SECRETLY (appropriate!) is TELESTIC, meaning “relating to the mysteries” – the title word Mysterious indicates this. So far so appropriate. I checked all the resulting words after removal/replacement of letters, and sure enough they were all proper words. (Well done Shark, that is really helpful!!)
Now the nine letter word to highlight. As I wrote this blog, I had no idea where or what it would be, but had to create the diagram in Excel, and had hopes that as I did this the required information would jump out at me. Well it didn’t, but on checking the entry for TELESTIC in the dictionary, I noticed that the next word down was TELESTICH and Chambers has this as “a poem or block of words in which the final letters of each line spell a name or word” – perhaps more thematic as the rubric says and indicated quite nicely by the word Ending in the title. A pretty stunning PDM!
A lot of new/unfamiliar words; quite apart from telestic(h), there were carrell, cohoe, usucapt, samiti, ataman, and paolo in the grid amongst others (e.g. ripe) where the meaning had to be investigated and tamanu, dunite and hunk (US) among many others in the clues. What a construction, Shark! An arcane tour de force!
The initial and final grids are shown below.
In the tables below X is the last letter of the extra word and Y is the last letter of the fourth word.
Across |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue, definition, extra word. | Answer | Wordplay | X | Y |
| 1 | An underhand tactic from Potter: Harry Potter primarily mismanages mischief in disguise (12) | GAMESMANSHIP | First Potter reference is to Stephen Potter who wrote about gamesmanship; [H(arry) P(otter) MISMANAGES]* | F | M |
| 9 | Alone surrounding tenor to voice Pavarotti with a stammer (12) | STUTTERINGLY | SINGLY (alone) round T(enor) + UTTER (voice) | I | O |
| 11 | Hen party chasing Slav intermittently (the utmost hunk in Hollywood) (6) | SAFEST | Hunk means safe or secure in US; S(l)A(v) + FEST (party) | N | V |
| 13 | God Ra, the same as a sun? (4) | ARES | Thanks to OPatrick (comment 1) for the explanation: a is the abbreviation for are (area measure), so “The same as a” = ARE + S(un) | A | E |
| 15 | Bring in accountant — financial regret (6) | ACCRUE | ACC(ountant) + RUE (regret) | L | L |
| 16 | Book stolen from a revolving drum after college girl left library desk (7) | CARRELL | C(ollege) + (B)ARREL with B(ook) removed + L(eft) | L | A |
| 20 | Rock at first is missing! Marry bride? (5) | UNITE | DUNITE (rock) with first letter removed | E | S |
| 21 | Croc’s closer abandoning desert island (6) | MUGGER | MUGG(I)ER (closer) minus I(sland) | T | T |
| 22 | Power in descents? Waterfall may lead to this aqueduct (6) | RAPIDS | P(ower) in RAIDS (descents) | T | L |
| 25 | Fish or clam edible if tail is removed with energy (5) | COHOE | COHO(G) (clam) minus G (tail) + E(nergy) | E | E |
| 29 | Acquire property? Usually let her take over before start of trading (7) | USUCAPT | USU(ally) + CAP (let him/her take) + T(rading) | R | T |
| 30 | Worker’s committee in Gujarat once together with endless independent staff (6) | SAMITI | SAM (Spenser, together) + (w)IT(h) + I(ndependent) | F | T |
| 33 | Cut silver link necklace (4) | TORC | A link is a TORC(H) cut | R | E |
| 35 | Prostitute and backward loafer to romp (6) | TOMBOY | TOM (prostitute) + YOB (loafer) reversed | O | R |
| 36 | He’s born after yo-yo bustling activity — cleaner pram results (12) | CLOTHES-BRUSH | CLOT (= idiot = yo-yo) + HE’S + B(orn) + RUSH (bustling activity) | M | O |
| 37 | Stabilised dislocated joint off and on (internally) (12) | CONSOLIDATED | [DISLOCATED]* round ON | T | F |
Down |
|||||
| No. | Clue, definition, extra word. | Answer | Wordplay | X | Y |
| 2 | Russian general truncated a Pacific ash tree (6) | ATAMAN | A + TAMAN(U) (truncated Pacific tree) | H | A |
| 3 | Miss thick warm fabric fleece (4) | MUFF | Double definition, though I think a muff is a cylinder made of warm fabric rather than the fabric itself | E | C |
| 4 | Antiquated Patagonian number lower than base half (4) | ETEN | Patagonian = giant and eten is an old word for giant; TEN (number) below E (base) | F | R |
| 5 | Perhaps Al and Mo got together; likewise Jo previously (6) | METALS | Al(uminium) and Mo(lybdenum) are metals; MET (got together) + ALS (old version of also) | O | O |
| 6 | Cancel Lulu acoustic hits with precision (3) | NIX | Sounds like NICKS (hits with precision – cricket) | U | S |
| 7 | Eat up four tins (1000g) (5) | SNACK | CANS reversed (up) + K(ilogram) | R | S |
| 8 | Almost sick! Nuts use Senokot for bowel trouble (5) | ILEUS | IL(l) + [USE]* | T | E |
| 10 | Pages containing each Latin field of study (5) | REALM | REAM (pages) round L(atin) | H | N |
| 11 | Separate us interrupting occult fellow (the utmost hunk in Hollywood) (8) | SECUREST | Hunk means safe or secure in US; U and S (separate us) in SECRET (occult) | W | T |
| 12 | Missing start of tour, Bono detests mobile chargers (6) | STEEDS | [DE(t)ESTS]* | O | R |
| 14 | In confidence select – railway for ground (8) | SECRETLY | [SELECT + RY]* | R | Y |
| 17 | Search for Mac‘s excellent food (4) | RIPE | Double definition, Scots search and excellent | D | T |
| 18 | An Italian prince who finally pursues liberal unionist with Sbirri (6) | LUCUMO | L(iberal) + U(nionist) + CUM (with) + (wh)O | I | O |
| 19 | A Colombian hired vehicle – first 50% only for officer (4) | AGHA | A + GHA(rri) (wheeled vehicle for hire) | N | E |
| 23 | Chambers sentence from section entirely without question (5) | SUITE | S(ection) + (Q)UITE (entirely without Q) | E | N |
| 24 | Xhosa sit awkwardly around drunk Soweto thug (6) | TSOTSI | [SIT]* round SOT (drunk) | A | D |
| 26 | Face work with stoic attitude (6) | OPPOSE | OP (work) + POSE (attitude) | C | C |
| 27 | Old coin from aficionado originally in rich game (5) | PAOLO | A(ficionado) in POLO (game) | H | O |
| 28 | Ancient Scots lost initial logic after dead, obsolete sayings (5) | DICTS | D(ead) + (P)ICTS (ancient Scots) minus P | C | L |
| 31 | Power returning after you at last call Muslim pilgrimage (4) | UMRA | (yo)U + ARM (power) reversed | L | U |
| 32 | Border an outer room in Hamilton chateau (4) | ABUT | A + BUT ( = outer room in Scots) | U | M |
| 34 | Aborigine letter shapes in half (3) | RHO | RHO(mbi) (shapes | E | N |
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I agree with your assessment, a remarkable construction and a challenging, but reasonable, set of clues. Like the best puzzles, this had the theme and clues working together all the way through the solving experience.
I think for 13A the parsing is ‘the same as a’ = ARE (as in the unit of area, an are, for which the abbreviation is a).
That seems a much better explanation. Thank you OPatrick. I will update the blog.
Yes, a cunningly laid trail to a good satisfying payoff. I was pleased to infer the final H in TELESTICH without having solved 36A (where assuming H as the last letter then helped a lot: more reverse engineering). Thanks for the write-up! And to Shark for the puzzle.
I enjoyed this one and completed it up to the last step. I did not spot the entry following TELESTIC in Chambers and so spent ages trying to find something which I recognised and eventually gave up. I am afraid I have never come across the word TELESTICH and I am sure this is so for a great many INQUISTEES (I don’t think I have come across this word either!) So I felt rather cheated when I read Hi’s blog. Thanks to both anyway.
One of the best for a while – very impressive to have two constraints in the cluing and still get them to read well. I also missed the final stage, but never worry too much about it. Having said that, it does seem slightly vague / potentially frustrating, so let’s say it was a 4.5 star puzzle!
Yes, a really satisfying puzzle that, for me anyway, left the PDM right to the end. Some really good clues too e.g. 5D had me trying to recall the names of the 3 Stooges (Curly, Larry and Moe if you’re wondering)/ I’m guessing the whole puzzle was constructed round the juxtaposition of TELESTIC(H) in the dictionary so wonder if there are other such potential constructions waiting to be discovered via a trawl through ? Whatever, thanks Shark and Hi for the blog.
I sympathise with DaveW@4. The reason he did not spot TELESTICH in Chambers is that it is not in the latest (2014) edition, which I assume he was using. Fortunately we were finishing this puzzle off in the car, where we have an earlier, very battered, edition in which this entry does indeed follow the one for TELESTIC, as it does in the 2-volume Shorter OED. Our bloggers must also have been using an earlier edition of Chambers – or has the latest one been reprinted with TELESTICH (and perhaps other dropped words) reinstated? It would have saved DaveW (and probably others) a lot of time and effort if the setter had stated in the preamble that the word to be highlighted is not in the latest Chambers.
I use the CDROM version from 2003/4 and the Android app (12th edition – the latest version), so rarely use the paper version (mine is the 12th edition too) and certainly didn’t know that telestic/h were no longer together. Just shows – don’t be in too much of a hurry to update! Also applies to Operating Systems from Microsoft and Apple!!
Certainly in my top 5 for the year so far.
Very neat how the message from the final letters of the extra words led to an instruction regarding the final letters of other words, telling us to move final letters of some words which then produces TELESTICH meaning “a block of words in which the final letters of each line spell a name or word” – brilliant.
(And I was vaguely reminded of Loda’s Listener puzzle “On and on”, a good puzzle which was more convoluted than this but less slick in my opinion.)
Strange that 11a & 11d had exactly the same definition (“the utmost hunk in Hollywood”).
Thanks go to Shark & to Hi for the blog.
Unfortunately I simply could not make sense of the final instruction; should have tried harder. Should also have looked up hunk in the dictionary.
Every week I come to this blog for explanations of the parsing of clues I’ve solved but don’t understand: this crossword contained not a single such example, which I intend as praise.
Thanks to Shark and Hi.
Like others above, I completed the grid, decoded the two instructions, but didn’t manage to find the nine letter word to highlight. It does follow “telestic” in my battered edition of Chambers (have just checked!). I thought the puzzle construction was ingenious – very impressive all round