A perimeter to be filled in with a maxim and its author – this depicts people who win or lose? And must be obeyed before entering all answers. A bit of a chicken and egg issue this week. Then 6 cells to rearrange into a draw. Highly bizarre.
And bizarre it certainly was – I wasn’t convinced I was going to complete this one, at one time. It took me a while to spot a pattern in the clue entries to avoid clashes. This wasn’t helped by my taking some time to solve the longer clues.
The pattern was to exchange the first and last letters on entry in the grid. It proved as simple as that – I spent a lot of head scratching thining that the whole word needed to be muddled up on entry. Personally, an indication of this may have been useful as the perimeter message couldn’t possibly be deduced before the clues had been solved.
Anyway once the entries were in and looking for patterns of LAST and FIRST (not WIN or LOSE as in the preamble) the perimeter spelled out MATTHEW – THE FIRST SHALL BE LAST AND THE LAST SHALL BE FIRST.
A shame this didn’t apply to the recent EU referendum but let the English get what they deserve.
The letters in the 6 triple barred cells were NLI and NLI which can be rearranged to NIL NIL to be written below the grid.
And that was that. I must admit I took far too long to find the setter’s wavelength to say I really enjoyed this – not the only wavelength I have been out of tune with this week.
Thanks Maranga for some very severe head scratching.
Key:
* anagram; DD Double definition; Rev. reverse; Underline definition
ACROSS
8 Very despondent, like an ape after attack (13, four words)
Ape as in mimic = SICK AS A PARROT
10 Female film star that is no more (4)
Lassie (film star) – ie = LASS
12 Letter written in Hebrew thanks Vatican City (3)
Ta (Thanks) + V (Vatican city) = TAV
14 A plant’s manufacturing rota (4)
(rota)* = TARO
15 Chaplain with zero independence runs part of church (5)
Ch (chaplain) + o (zero) + I (independence) + r (runs) = CHOIR
16 Spot where one finishes making pasta (4)
Zit (spot) + e (one fishes) = ZITE
17 Polish summer inspires rewritten The King and I (10)
(inspires)* + r (king) + i = SIERPINSKI (Polish mathematician)
20 Tool to stop old-fashioned eccentricity (3)
Ho (stop) += e (eccentricity) = HOE
21 Steer local girl hugging unknown (4)
Gal (local girl) around y (unknown) = GYAL
23 Startling sound, though not full volume (3)
Boom – m (not full volume) = BOO
24 Ruined chapel at Ambleside – edge away, an archbishop lives here (13, two words)
(chapel at Ambleside – side)* = LAMBETH PALACE
27 Old American lawyer found in harem room (3)
O (old) + da (American lawyer) = ODA
29 In two languages, the noted lady (4)
El + la (the (Spanish and French)) + ELLA
33 Measure, once more, a litre (3)
Mo (once more) + l (litre) = MOL
34 Rubbish tip with less on top to begin with (10)
Balder (less on top) + dash (tip) = BALDERDASH
35 Relief when young man, contemptuously treated, hasn’t won (4)
Whelp(young man) – w (won) = HELP
38 French star loses head returning to writer (5)
Revv. (Etoile( Star) – e) = ELIOT
39 Archdeacon alights on American vessel (4)
Ven (Archdeacon) + a (American) = VENA
41 Sleuths follow big inquiries, putting their heads together (3)
Initials from follow big inquiries = FBI
42 Squirrel’s outside, facing light breeze (4)
V (facing) + air (light breeze) = VAIR
43 Situation in which police surround swimmers (13, four words)
A KETTLE OF FISH (as in kettling by police of demonstrators)
DOWN
1 Hail it, synthesised chemical substance! (6)
(hail it)* + LITHIA
2 Rhino for instance, found in extremes of temperature (4)
As in CH (extremes of temperature cold and hot) = CASH
3 It sounds like I’ll land in the water (4)
Homonym (I’ll) = ISLE
4 After drinking quite a lot, or not that much? (13, four words)
Cryptic definition = HAVING HAD A FEW
5 Easy for Edmund and Erica to fail to start (4)
Heath (Erica) – h = EATH
6 Nothing about seaweed said locally (3)
O(nothing) + re (about) = ORE
7 Dog’s neighbour in East Anglia, being related to animals not caught (6)
bor (neighbour in East Anglia) + zoic (related to animals) – c = BORZOI
9 Sailor missing B-movie in Birmingham? (5)
boater (sailor) – b = OATER (Wild west film)
10 Broadcast one’s denials (4)
(ones)* = NOES
11 Left republicans’ money in Ankara (4)
L + IRA (Republican) = LIRA
13 Fathers have old Turkish title (5)
Pas (fathers) + ha (have) + PASHA
18 One gripped by Albanian cash flow problem (4)
Lek (Albanian cash) around a + LEAK
19 Former reputation not entirely ruined (3)
Lost(ruined) – t = LOS
22 Disastrous year for visionary (4)
(year)* = AERY
25 Perhaps Puck’s rustic game (3)
Triple definition = HOB
26 Key to a second-class dwelling (5)
b (second-class) + flat (dwelling) = B-FLAT
27 On a regular basis ten outpace Dakota City (6)
Ten OutPacE daKotA = TOPEKA
28 Polish workers invading England’s borders (5)
Men (workers) in Ed (England’s borders) = EMEND
30 It’s unedifying being lied about (4)
(lied)* = IDLE
31 See trouble making former profit (4)
V (see) + ail (trouble) = VAIL
32 Toss it carelessly to a young hooligan (6)
(Toss it)* = TSOTSI
36 Aberdonian’s old joint is not entirely supple (4)
Lithe (supple) – e = LITH
37 In Scotland, scale rocky tor with Nationalist (4)
(tor)* + n (nationalist) = TRON
38 Silly couple of headers in daily – and another daily (4)
Da (couple of headers in daily) + FT (daily) = DAFT
40 Crossroads once seen from this station (3)
Straight clue – ATV – Crossroads was a soap opera on ITV (regional company ATV)
Surprised to see so many double unches in an EV. I thought these were frowned upon?