SUBTITLES ticks several EV boxes: unnumbered thematic clues to be inserted where they fit; but first jumbled with a letter removed – removed letters forming thematic names; misprints in some definitions giving more thematic material… Quite a lot going on – but where to start?…in my case, with a printed copy and a pencil!
The preamble states:
“In SUBTITLES, one letter must be removed from the answer to each of the thematic clues (which are presented in an appropriate order), and the residue arranged to form a thematic word for grid entry. The removed letters can be arranged to form two names which appear separately jumbled at 10 across and 21 down. Eight numbered clues have a misprint in the definition that must be corrected before solving; the correct letters spell out part of the theme’s source. Chambers Dictionary (2014) is recommended.”
I did some tactical reconnaissance first on those thematic ‘jigsaw’ entries – only one 9, so that must fit in the 8 bottom left – two 5s, so they will be the two 4s, top left and bottom right. Three each of 6, 7 and 8s though, so less help there until some crossing letters start to appear.
The first run through the thematic clues themselves yielded a few to work with – LECTION, OSTMEN, BANGLES, PRIMEVAL, MEANT and CHAPEL – one of those 5/4s, but the rest all 6s, 7s and 8s!
A run through the ‘normal’ clues also started to give some crossing letters, but I have to admit I also resorted to an electronic aid, to speed things up. The excellent ‘Tea’ software includes an ‘anagram plus’ and ‘anagram minus’ option, so whilst I probably would have got some of these in the end, I narrowed some of them down to LECTION probably being CLIENT + O; BANGLES probably being GABLES + N; and PRIMEVAL probably being VAMPIRE + L.
So far so good and, with more crossing letters coming in to play, I managed to place VAMPIRE, CLIENT and GABLES, and a few of the other thematics looked like THREE, SOLDIER and THOR, which lent themselves to a bit of reverse e-engineering by adding an imaginary letter.
I eventually got to the point where I had most of the thematic words – VAMPIRE, GABLES, CREEPING, THOR, LODGER, RETIRED, etc – and it looked like it was going to be some sort of Hammer House of Horror theme, with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee making appearances… but good old Go-Ogle came to my rescue when searching on a subset of these – VAMPIRE, CREEPING and GABLES. They all turned out to be linked to Sherlock Holmes stories – and in a flash the jumbled names made sense…HOLMES and WATSON…elementary my dear reader!:
The thematic words all come from stories within a volume called ‘The CASEBOOK of Sherlock Holmes’ (CASEBOOK being the corrected letters of misprints in eght of the normal clues), and the sub-stories, or sub-titles, in this anthology are (from Wikipedia):
“The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone” (1921)
“The Problem of Thor Bridge” (1922)
“The Adventure of the Creeping Man” (1923)
“The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire” (1924)
“The Adventure of the Three Garridebs” (1924)
“The Adventure of the Illustrious Client” (1924)
“The Adventure of the Three Gables” (1926)
“The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier” (1926)
“The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane” (1926)
“The Adventure of the Retired Colourman” (1926)
“The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger” (1927)
“The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place” (1927)
(Although some sources dispute the dates and ordering of the stories, that doesn’t affect their use here…)
So, I got there in the end, with a significant amount of e-help along the way…the work of Sir Arthur C-D not being one of my specialist subjects, and the recent revival of various Hollywood films and Messrs Cumberbatch and Freeman on TV also having largely passed under (or over?!) my radar…
An interesting and educational solve – and quite a feat of construction to get all that thematic material into a 13×13 grid, so thanks and respect due to Oxymoron.
(And I wasn’t too far away with my MC_Hammer_House_of_Horrors idea…there was a Hammer version of the Hound of the Baskervilles in 1959, with Messrs Cushing and Lee doing the honours…)
| Thematic | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution / Entry | Removed letter | Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing |
|
| * | LECTION / CLIENT | O | Oddly She is missing from choice reading (7) / (SE)LECTION (SE, odd letters of ShE, missing from selection, choice) |
|
| * | SOREDIAL / SOLDIER | A | Solution absorbing larval form of a reproductive body (8) / SO_L (solution) around (absorbing) REDIA (larval form of trematode) |
|
| * | OSTMEN / STONE | M | Settlers in Ireland – most end up rejecting god (6) / anag, i.e. up, of MOST EN(D), without (i.e. rejecting) D (Latin abbreviation for Deus, god) |
|
| * | BANGLES / GABLES | N | Sudden success by minor, not special, bands (7) / BANG (hit, sudden success) + LES(S) (minor, without S – special) |
|
| * | PRIMEVAL / VAMPIRE | L | Instinctive beginning by John after retirement (8) / PRIME (beginning) + VAL (lav, lavatory, or john, retired) |
|
| * | HETERO / THREE | O | Champion stopped by the empty straight (6) / HE_RO (champion ) around (stopped by) TE (ThE emptied) |
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| * | OTHER / THOR | E | One of two fleeced parents (5) / (M)OTHER(S) – parents, fleeced of outer letters |
|
| * | CEE-SPRING / CREEPING | S | Grand English Prince’s refurbished carriage support (9) / anag, i.e. refurbished, of G (grand) + E (English) + PRINCE’S |
|
| * | MEANT / MANE | T | Average time intended (5) / MEAN (average) + T (time) |
|
| * | GROWLED / LODGER | W | Northern flyer holding rank sounded like an angry terrier? (7) / G_LED (Scottish or North of England for a common kite, or flyer) around ( holding) ROW (rank) |
|
| * | CHAPEL / PLACE | H | Nonconformist Liberal supporting church primate (6) / CH (church) + APE (primate) + L (Liberal) |
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| * | DESTRIER / RETIRED | S | Special test applied to extremely durable charger (8) / DE (extreme letters of DurablE) + S (special0 + TRIER (a test) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Misprint | Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing |
|
| 1 | TISICK | Cough | Work outside remains tough for the Bard (6) / T_ICK (work, as in a watch) around IS (remains) |
|
| 8 | HOOD-MOULD | Stop mildew covering the edges of old dripstone (9) / HO (interjection, stop!) + MOULD (mildew), around (covering) OD (the edge letters of OlD) |
||
| 11 | REDO | A further attempt to tidy up entrance to Oxford (4) / RED (to tidy up) + O (first letter, or entrance, to Oxford) |
||
| 12 | EGGCUP | Such as doctor securing copper tableware item (6) / EG (such as), plus G_P (doctor) around (securing) CU (copper) |
||
| 13 | WHITEST | Most innocent women set out to follow suit (7) / W (women) + HIT (to suit with, obsolete) + EST (set, out) |
||
| 15 | DEISM | Belief in god exists in 75% of township (5) / DE_M (three quaterers of DEME, Greek township) around IS (exists) |
||
| 16 | CHAPATTI | Bread, tea and short cake? Yes! (8) / CHA (tea) + PATTI(E) (cake, short of a letter) |
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| 18 | RARITY | Gunners score at Ibrox ending in victory – something not often seen (6) / RA (Royal Artillery, gunners) + RIT (to score or etch, Scottish, i.e. at Ibrox, Scottish football ground) + Y (last letter of, or ending in, victory) |
||
| 19 | MATRON | dAme | 160 trapped by collapsed Roman dome (6) / MA_RON (anag, i.e. collapsed, or ROMAN) around T (160 in Roman numerals) |
|
| 20 | ENGAOLED | A poet’s put in the slammer close to the Donegal complex (8) / anag, i.e. complex, of DONEGAL + E (last, or closing, letter of thE) |
||
| 22 | ETAPE | European to record day’s march (5) / E (European) + TAPE (to record) |
||
| 24 | EGESTED | Publisher penning old romance is discharged (7) / E_D (editor, or publisher) around (penning) GESTE (obsolete word for a tale of adventure, or romance) |
||
| 26 | ABRADE | rouSe | Route once run by a department in Lincoln? (6) / AB_E (Abraham Lincoln) around R (run) + A + D (department) |
|
| 27 | LIAM | fEllow | Follow short story-teller with millions (4) / LIA(R) (story teller, short of a letter) + M (millions) |
|
| 28 | IDLING | Two swimmers being lazy (6) / ID and LING are two types of fish, or swimmers. |
||
| 29 | VIGORO | Ball | Russian chap’s appearing in very ordinary wall game at Newcastle (6) / V (very) + O (ordinary), around IGOR (Russian chap) |
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| 30 | FELLAHEEN | Peasant keen on a male nurse (9) / FELL (keen) + A + HE (male) + EN (Enrolled Nurse) |
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| 31 | GESTURE | pOsture | Ancient pasture gets violated by unionist soldiers (7) / GEST (anag, i.e. violated, of GETS) + U (Unionist) + RE (Royal Engineers, soldiers) |
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| 32 | DREDGE | A tangle rector found in back of neglected border (6) / D (last letter, or back, of neglecteD) + EDGE (border) , around R (rector) |
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| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Misprint | Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing |
|
| 2 | IDIOTS | foOl | More than one foul heartless sordid Italian vagrant (6) / anag, i.e. vagrant, of SO(RD)ID (sordid, heartless) and IT (Italian) |
|
| 3 | KONKS | Vermont’s timber diseases get out of order heading south (5) / KONK (or conk, to get out of order, as in ‘conk out’) + S (South) – KONK also means a North American timber disease) |
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| 4 | ALOGIA | Inability to vocalise accepted sayings (6) / A (accepted) + LOGIA (sayings) |
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| 5 | INNUIT | A language popular before night in Montmartre (6) / IN (popular) + NUIT (French, i.e. in Montmartre, for night) |
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| 6 | RISP | Disreputable chap keeping second rough bar in Glasgow (4) / RI_P (disreputable chap) around S (second) |
||
| 7 | ENTAMING | Will’s subduing dictator detained by foreign gent (8) / ENT_G (anag, i.e. foreign, of GENT), around AMIN (Idi Amin, Ugandan dictator) |
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| 9 | MEMENTO | This acts as a reminder to men worried about chronic fatigue (7) / ME_NTO (anag, i.e. worried, of TO MEN), around ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, chronic fatigue) |
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| 14 | HIANT | Wide open opportunity once blocked by associate (5) / HI_NT (obsolete for opportunity) around A (associate) |
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| 17 | PARERGA | Arab in a good area for night jobs? (7) / P_ER (a, as in each) + G (good + A (area), around AR (Arab) |
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| 23 | striKe | State’s recipe for zero strife (5) / P(O)INT (state, a point in time) with R (recipe) replacing O (zero) |
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| 25 | GUILD | Government to establish leaderless corporation (5) / G (government) + (B)UILD (establish, without leading letter) |
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| 26 | ADZE | Something with a cutting edge increases broadcast (4) / homophone, i.e. broadcast – ADZE (comething with a sharp edge) sounds like ADDS (increases) |
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