Enigmatic Variations 1232: Something Isn’t There by Samuel

On  first inspection of SOMETHING ISN’T THERE, I had a touch of the Rumsfelds – there are ‘known unknowns’, and there might well be some ‘unknown unknowns’… Will Samuel be using his weapons of mass distraction on us?…

The preamble states that:

“At the final time of asking (1ac), SOMETHING ISN’T THERE; accordingly, every answer is thematically treated on entry. The wordplay in each clue leads to the answer and an additional letter not to be entered into the grid; in clue order, these give a series of thematically treated choices. Four clues contain no definition; their answers could be combined to give events that precede the final time of asking. 30ac must be completed with a relevant name (in which one letter does double duty), and a title (eight cells) must be highlighted; both are also thematically treated. Numbers in brackets refer to answer lengths, and Chambers Dictionary (2014) is recommended.”

Every answer has to be treated thematically, and every clue has an extra letter in its wordplay. So no cherry-picking of non-thematics or ‘normal’ clues then! Before rushing into solving, I ran through the enumerations vs. the space available for each answer – in case there was a nice pattern, e.g. if they all differed by 3 letters then maybe that would help with finding thematic 3-letter sub-words? No such luck either! 11A goes from (12) to (6), 12A goes from (7) to (5), etc.

So, on with the solving, to see if anything would jump out at me…

After a couple of passes I had a handful of answers, including ACQUIESCENCE at 11A, and something that looked like it should have a Q at 2D – engineers (RE?) + question (Q or QU?) + barriers (??)…so REQU??????… 2D also seemed to be lacking a definition, a pointer for later. So, if grid cell (2,2) from top left is to be Q, then ACQUIESCENCE must lose either A or C at the start. At some point, while mulling this around, I had my first PDM – there are 6 vowels and 6 consonants in ACQUIESCENCE, and dropping the vowels gave me CQSCNC, which fits and matches the crossing Q of 2D.

With trusty pencil (and eraser at hand) I applied this theory to the answers I had so far, and made some decent progress. So it looked like the thematic treatment had become a known known.

What about those extra letters? Lots of consonants again, which tallies, as whatever these ‘choices’ are, they have been treated as well. But nothing obvious glaring out from the page. They seemed to start ‘TWRDS’, which could be TOWARDS…?

After much pattern matching and partial anagramming, I could see ?NGVW?S along the middle of 1A, which looked like it could include VOWELS, and maybe a word ending in ING before it. And at the start of 30A I had VCTR? – which could be VICTOR, or VICTORIA, or VICTORY? Did Queen Victoria have something against vowels? W R NT MSD? Instead of ‘orf with his head’, ‘take him away and disemvowel him’?!

The grid was not quite complete – I still couldn’t work out a nine letter word at 2D with REQU and N and S later on. But I could see ‘TWSTDFLX’ and ‘HRNDVPR’ in the extra letters…these looked like TWISTED FLEX (some sort of electronic wiring theme?) and HORNED VIPER (a snaky theme?). A chance/desperate/straw-clutching Wiki-oogle on these two phrases gave me the final PDM – the TV quiz show ONLY CONNECT, hosted by VICTORIA COREN-MITCHELL, uses the Egyptian hieroglyphs ‘twisted flax’ and ‘horned viper’ as part of its format. This explained the multiple uses of CONNECT, or rather CNNCT, in the grid.

I am not a devotee of the program – I have stumbled across it and watched the odd five minutes when channel-hopping – so had to research further. There are three rounds called CONNECTIONS, SEQUENCES (it was SE, Society of Engineers, at 2D, not RE!), and CONNECTING WALL, which helped me get WALL/WLL. The fourth round (the last time of asking) is the MISSING VOWELS ROUND, which completes 1A, and re-confirms the theme. And the title to be highlighted is ONLY CONNECT/NLY CNNCT, which helped me solve ONLY/NLY:

 

 

The treated extra letters:

 

 

And the un-treated ‘choices’, which I believe are used by contestants to choose one of six sets of questions in each round:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If only I could spend more of my time watching TV quiz shows! I’m sure some of you Eggheads were there long before me, but this certainly wasn’t a Pointless exercise…(;+>). (I’m more of a HIGNFY, QI, Mock the Week and ‘8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown’ guy – ‘quiz-lite’ shows, with a sprinkling of comedy/satire…)

Thanks to Samuel for an interesting and educational challenge. A pretty impressive grid fill and denouement…and a wonderful tribute to a much loved (I’m sure, by its devoted followers) quiz show. I have a vague feeling there may have been one or two EVs and/or IQs before with vowels removed, obviously with different underlying themes, but I may be imagining it?

(Just one quibble, with 29A – the enumeration and wordplay imply TATTOISTS (9), whereas all reference materials I have give it with two Os. Immaterial in the end, as the extra O would be dropped anyway.)

 

Across
Clue No	Solution	Entry	Additional Letter	Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing [extra letter in brackets]
1	MISSING VOWELS ROUND	MSSNG VWLS RND	–	See preamble / Thematic deduction
11	ACQUIESCENCE	CQSCNC	T	Consent to release scene that’s upset church (12) / ACQUI[T] (to release) + ESCEN (anag, i.e. upset, of SCENE) + CE (Church of England)
12	FRITTER	FRTTR	W	Waste Friday – talk rubbish (7) / FR (Friday) + [W]ITTER (talk rubbish)
13	CONNECTING	CNNCTNG	R	Painful growth by Midlands venue, sound as a bell (10) / (Not defined) CO[R}N (painful growth) + NEC (National Exhibition Centre, Midlands venue) + TING (sound as a bell)
14	WALL	WLL	D	(Not defined) In the Highlands, plant by lake (4) / WAL[D] (Scottish, weld, plant) + L (lake)
16	TETES-A-TETES	TTS–TTS	S	Secret discussions destroyed clique making a comeback after balls (11, three words) / TE[S]TES (balls) + ATE (destroyed) + TES (set, or clique, coming back)
18	TOSSPOTS	TSSPTS	L	Old drunks lost at sea locate bottles in the end (8) / TOS[L] (anag, i.e. at sea, of LOST) + SPOT (locate) + S (last letter of bottleS)
19	TOCHARISH	TCHRSH	N	Fashion clubs with one overcome by rough language (9) / TO[N] (fashion) + C (clubs) + HAR_SH (rough), around (overcoming) I (one)
21	EXEUNT OMNES	XNT MNS	T	Everyone leaves river with local one married in nearby town? (11, two words) / EXE (river in South West England) + UN (dialect, local, for one) + TO[T]_NES (nearby town, also in SW England), around M (married)
25	ONLY	NLY	W	Ancient custom – every now and then, slay single (4) / [W]ON (obsolete for habit, custom) + LY (alternate letters, ‘every now and then, of sLaY)
27	CONNECTIONS	CNNCTNS	S	Steer in parts (11) / (Not defined) CONN (direct the steering of) + [S]ECTIONS (parts)
28	TITTERED	TTTRD	T	Take in support after dry Italian director made a noise like Frankie? (8) / [T]T (teetotal, dry) + IT (Italian) + TE_E (support) around R (recipe, take), plus D (director)
29	TATTOISTS	TTTSTS	D	Decorators regularly stated to be employed by philosophers (9) / TA__OISTS (Chinese philosophers) around TT[D] (regular letters of sTaTeD) (missing an O?)
30	VICTORIA COREN-MITCHELL	VCTR CRN-MTCHLL	–	See preamble / Thematic deduction
Down
Clue No	Solution	Entry	Additional Letter	Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing [extra letter in brackets]
2	SEQUENCES	SQNCS	F	Engineers question barriers (9) / (Not defined) SE (Society of Engineers) + QU (question) + [F]ENCES (barriers)
3	UNCOCK	NCCK	L	Remove readiness of gun to fire, peacekeepers observe (6) / UN (United Nations, peacekeepers) + C[L]OCK (observe)
4	GENTILITIAN	GNTLTN	X	Film uncovered being overcome by angrily texting Scotsman regarding tribe (11) / GENT_IT (anag, i.e. angrily, of TE[X]TING around IL (fILm uncovered), plus IAN (Scotsman)
5	VACANCIES	VCNCS	H	Cave in Cuba has rocky openings (9) / anag, i.e. rocky, of ACVE IN + C (Cuba) + [H]AS
6	WITGAT	WTGT	R	In Pretoria, large grower carved gun for American (6) / W[R]IT (carved) + GAT (gun, American slang)
7	SOREL	SRL	N	Dullard left animal for Will (5) / S[N]ORE (dullard) + L (left)
8	RETALIATORY	RTLTRY	D	Vengeful lunatic trailed a Conservative (11) / RETALI (anag, i.e. lunatic, of TRAILE[D]) + A + TORY (Conservative)
9	NITWIT	NTWT	V	Idiot standing up can view sex (6) / NIT (tin, or can, standing up) + [V]W (view) + IT (sex)
10	DRONISHNESS	DRNSHNSS	P	Flowing endorphins primarily stop son being idle? (11) / DRONISHNE (anag, i.e. flowing, of ENDOR[P]HINS) + S (first letter, i.e. primarily, of Stop) + S (son)
11	ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE	CCNT XCTV	R	Motoring organisation consider sophisticated advertising employee (16, two words) / [R]AC (motoring organisation) + COUNT (consider) + EXECUTIVE (sophisticated)
15	INSTANTIATE	NSTNTT	W	Give example of victory titans engineered with goddess (11) / [W]IN (victory) + STANTI (anag, i.e. engineered, of TITANS) + ATE (Ate, greek goddess of mischief)
17	TECHNETIUM	TCHNTM	T	Cut then emit decaying artificial substance (10) / anag, i.e. decaying, of CUT THEN EMI[T]
19	TARANTINO	TRNTN	R	Race around Scottish island with Indiana’s old director (9) / T_T (TT, motorcycle race on Isle of Man) around A[R]RAN (Scottish island), plus IN (Indiana, US state) + O (old)
20	SAMANTHA	SMNTH	Y	Girl, perhaps, hot in cloak (8) / SA[Y] (for example, perhaps) + MANT_A (Spanish cloak) around H (hot)
22	ENZOOTIC	NZTC	F	Confined to a particular area (part of Norfolk?), unruly group twitch (8) / [F]EN (part of Norfolk) + ZOO (unruly group) + TIC (twitch)
23	SOCCER	SCCR	H	Society’s dear game (6) / SOC (society) + C[H]ER (dear, French)
24	ALCOTT	LCTT	R	Initially, love rat remade bed inside for authoress (6) / AL_T (anag, i.e. remade, of L – love initially – and [R]AT), around COT (bed)
26	LORRE	LRR	S	Sinister actor, 50, angry about rule (5) / L (fifty, Roman numerals) + [S]OR_E (angry), around R (rule)