I was a little apprehensive on seeing this puzzle as I had forgotten it was my turn to blog and so had to solve and explain all in a hurry. Fortunately the puzzle was not as difficult as it appeared to be from reading the instructions. Thank you Azed.
The instructions state:
All clues are normal. At ten intersections (squares at which across and down answers meet or cross each other) it will be found that the relevant letters of the two answers do not tally. In each case solvers should enter the letter midway between the two non-matching letters alphabetically (treating the alphabet as cyclical), the two answers affected becoming non-words. The letter entered may be up to six letters away from the non-matching letters in each case, e.g. X might represent W/Y, V/Z, U/A, T/B, S/C or R/D. The ten letters thus entered, read row by row from top to bottom of the diagram, form a female forename
The woman hidden in the grid is CLEMENTINE. Cells with content interpolated between the clashing letters are shown in orange.
| Across | ||
| 1 | FAZENDA | Large estate? Worried about name given to one (7) |
| FAZED (worried) contains N (name) then A (one) | ||
| 6 | ALLIS | Fish, quite long, head and tail removed (5) |
| tALLISh (quite long) missing head and tail | ||
| 10 | ORGANPOINT | Ear and head maybe revealing musical tones? (10) |
| ORGAN (ear) and POINT (head) | ||
| 13 | GROO-GROO | Edible grub: duck in beer given to local marsupial (8) |
| O (duck) in GROG (beer) with ROO (marsupial, coll) | ||
| 14 | WIDDY | Outlaw’s end – did wrong, with yen for hangman’s rope (5) |
| outlaW (end letter of) DID* anag=wrong then Y (yen) | ||
| 15 | GREED | Piggery, rank, old, deserted (5) |
| GREE (rank, arch) and D (deserted) | ||
| 16 | DYSPATHY | Periods without a dad leading to your old-fashioned repugnance (8) |
| DaYS (periods) missing A then PA (dad) with Your (leading letter of) | ||
| 18 | SPENT | What’s this in Estonia, including little pence? (5) |
| SENT (Estonian coin, what is spent in Estonia) including P (pence, little=abbr) – I don’t think this clue has an explicit definition. The definition and and subsidiary are intertwined, but not as a traditional &lit. | ||
| 20 | ERRING | What trawlermen ’aul in? Wrong (6) |
| hERRING is what they catch | ||
| 22 | PUDENT | Subject taken round private office, rarely modest (6) |
| PUT (subject to) contains DEN (private office) | ||
| 24 | HYPER | Over-excited pushy person must contain this (5) |
| foud in pusHY PERson | ||
| 26 | SCARLESS | Special loving touch that’s left inside unmarked (8) |
| S (special) CARESS (loving touch) contains L (left) | ||
| 28 | SCLIM | Highland mountaineers do, constant in diet? (5) |
| C (constant) in SLIM (diet) – to climb, Scots | ||
| 30 | DERIG | Stage director strangely makes actor —— set (5) |
| STAGE DIRECTOR is an anagram of ACTOR DERIG SET – definition is in the context of the clue rather than explicitly stated | ||
| 31 | SCOLDING | Reprimand, unfriendly – tell about it (8) |
| COLD (unfriendly) in SING (tell) | ||
| 32 | ANOINTMENT | Chaps going in not anti being slathered in embrocation (10) |
| MEN (chaps) inside (NOT ANTI)* anagram=being slathered | ||
| 33 | CONCH | Unconventional trumpet? Concentrated hard (5) |
| CONC (concentrated) and H (hard) | ||
| 34 | TANYARD | Leather processing plant: some immersed in salt added to density (7) |
| ANY (some) inside TAR (salt, sailor) then D (density) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | FIG WASP | Its eggs are laid in flowers – female, I am astonished about weight (7, 2 words) |
| F (female) I GASP (am astonished) contains W (weight) | ||
| 2 | FOODIE | Gourmet that is following cook by turning up (6) |
| IE (that is) following DO (cook) and OF (by) reversed (turning up) | ||
| 3 | ERODE | Stick in middle of speech, making one fret ? (5) |
| ROD (stick) in spEEch (middle of) | ||
| 4 | DARBYITE | Religious Brother, beardy excited about it (8) |
| BEARDY* anagram=excited contains IT | ||
| 5 | ANON | Churchmen releasing cry about ‘coming’? (4) |
| cANONry (churchmen) missing CRY (about=on the outside) – said in response to a summons | ||
| 7 | LIBRARY | Sign on railway? It can be circulating (7) |
| LIBRA (sign, of zodiac) then RY (railway) | ||
| 8 | LIGETI | Composer I understand to be occupying Delius’s heart (6) |
| I GET (understand) inside deLIus (heart of) | ||
| 9 | INTERNECINE | Deadly hospital worker caught in viewers once (11) |
| INTERN (hospital worker) then C (caught) in EINE (eyes, obs) | ||
| 10 | STUDY | Part of the weekend one RA separately set aside for reverie (5) |
| SaTUrDaY (part of the weekend) missing A (one) R and A | ||
| 11 | FRAPPUCCINO | After parking composer I dropped in for a whipped café ‘special’ (11) |
| PUCCINi (composer, missing I) follows P (parking) inside (FOR A)* anagram=whipped | ||
| 17 | SEMICOMA | State without all feeling? Commies organized one (8) |
| COMMIES* anagram=organised and A (one) | ||
| 19 | NERITIC | Like shallow waters? Try swimming in Crete (7) |
| I think this was supposed to be an anagram of IN CRETE | ||
| 21 | GRIGGED | Got eel and pike (7) |
| GRIG (eel) and GED (pike) – got at, irritated | ||
| 23 | FALCON | Cannon left loaded, the French way (6) |
| L (left) in FACON (way, French) | ||
| 25 | PERITI | Theological consultants, Italian, in grip of spirit? (6) |
| IT (Italian) inside PERI (spirit) – Roman Catholic theological consultants | ||
| 26 | SUMAC | Tree Albert’s climbing? (5) |
| Albert CAMUS reversed (climbing) | ||
| 27 | WENNY | Reverse of modern city, huge and congested? (5) |
| NEW (modern) reversed then NY (city) – cf London: the Great Wen | ||
| 29 | ECHT | Genuine playwright, not British (4) |
| Berthold brECHT (playwright) missing BR (British) | ||
*anagram
definitions are underlined
I wondered whether Clementine had any special family significance.
How does he do this “midway”, not a new idea but fascinating to crack. I had IN quite soon and was wondering about WILHELMINA but then got the L, then the first E.
Thanks again to Azed.
keith – I wondered the same thing, the name has a resonance to it in this setting. Probably nothing more than a convenient choice for the puzzle though.