This was Kruger’s third EV of the year (and if you want more of this fine setter, he had his third Inquisitor of the year last Saturday). Here we had some extra wordplay letters to give us an instruction which would tell us what to do in the endgame.
I managed to get a good start in the north-west quadrant courtesy of LAUDS, AFOOT and PLUMPS, then PACING and TIAN. ADULATE at 21dn got me going in the south-west corner but solving was nonetheless comparatively slow. It was only when I got round to SLIDER at 35ac, which had a 7-letter entry space that a reread of the preamble revealed “Numbers in brackets refer to space available for answers”. It seemed strange that, after about 90 minutes of solving, this was the first answer that was too short.
Meanwhile, the extra wordplay letters weren’t helping much, although it looked like something needed to be illustrated… perhaps.
With all the ‘wrong’ lengths on the right side of the grid, and some tricky clues, it needed another hour or so to finish the grid. Eventually, everything became clear, with the instruction reading Relocate hiden word to illustrate two Milton poems. The two poems were obviously Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. And so, PARADISE in the shape of > in the top left was lost and then regained in the lower right in the shape of <.
As I suspected, thanks due to Kruger for a very enjoyable puzzle.
Solving time: About 2½ hours.
Legend:
Definition in clue
EXTRA = Extra letter in wordplay
ABC* = anagram
ABC< = reversal
abCDef = hidden
| ACROSS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Entry | Extra Letter |
Clue and Explanation |
| 1 | PACING becomes ACING |
R | Swaggering knight leaves, walking slowly (6) PRANCING (swaggering) – N (knight) |
| 5 | SIGNAC | E | Engage outstanding French artist (6) SIGN (engage) + ACE (outstanding); reference to Paul Signac |
| 10 | LAUDS becomes LUDS |
L | Time to pray in a dull miserable Sabbath (5) (A DULL)* + S (Sabbath) |
| 12 | ALL-HAIL | O | Stopped greeting goal for Scotland after short old-fashioned pass (7) hail (goal, Scottish) after ALLO[W] (pass, short); stopped = archaic |
| 14 | NIPA | C | Jockey cap in palm (4) (CAP IN)*; jockey = anagram indicator |
| 15 | MORAINE becomes MORINE |
A | Earthy mass’s lament includes African’s music and eulogies, primarily (7) MOAN (lament) including RAI (African music) + E (Eulogies, first letter); I could only find MORINE in the ODE |
| 16 | URVAS | T | Mongooses kept by court vassal (5) in coURT VASsal |
| 17 | POODLE becomes POOLE |
E | Southern town accommodating newspaperman’s lackey (6) POOLE (southern town, near Bournemouth) including ED (newspaperman) |
| 18 | SCAIL | H | Jock’s to spill just less than 50% of alcohol with his shaking (5) (ALC (ALCohol, just under half) + HIS)* |
| 20 | TIAN becomes TAN |
I | Gratin prepared in Italy extremely likely to be forgotten (4) (IN ITALY – LY (extremes of LikellY))* |
| 22 | TANKS becomes TANKAS |
D | Drives at great speed in wet through street running east to west (6) DANK (wet) in ST< (street, to the west/left) |
| 23 | ASIDES becomes AIDES |
D | Indirect efforts idiot going outside did with energy (6) ASS (idiot) outside DID E (energy) |
| 27 | SAI becomes SARI |
E | Whale swallows adult capuchin (4) SEI (whale) including A (adult) |
| 30 | FLUTE | N | Instrument (pipe) secured by National Trust? On the contrary (5) FLUE (pipe) including NT (National Trust) |
| 31 | LENTO becomes LEAN-TO |
W | Slowly moved from one place to another in suburbs of Livorno (6) WENT (moved from one place to another) in LO (suburbs of LivornO, suburbs = outskirts) |
| 33 | RALLY | O | Footballer playing for Rovers accepts limitless banter (5) ROY (footballer with the Rovers in British comics) including ALL (limitless); how I knew about the footballing character, Roy of the Rovers, is beyond me! |
| 35 | SLIDER becomes SLIDDER |
R | Terrapin in a lake avoiding flipping bores again (7) (REDRILLS (bores again))< – L (lake) |
| 37 | ALTO | D | British chemist giving away Norway’s antique viola (4) DALTON (19c British chemist John Dalton) – N (Norway); antique = archaic |
| 38 | EMOTION | T | Perhaps regret no book reviewed without it (7) (NO TOME (book))< outside IT |
| 39 | TRES becomes TRESS |
O | Very extravagant non-unionist society (5) OUTRE (extravagant) – U (unionist) |
| 40 | SATEEN | I | Stain early English woven fabric (6) (STAIN EE (Early English))* + S (society) |
| 41 | STELA becomes STELAE |
L | American artist’s tablet (6) STELLA (20c American painter Frank Stella) |
| DOWN | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Entry | Extra Letter |
Clue and Explanation |
| 1 | PLUMPS becomes LUMPS |
L | Gives all ones votes to pull corrupt members of parliament (6) PULL* + MPS (Members of Parliament) |
| 2 | CURR becomes CUR |
U | First of all, cats (usually rubbing unceasingly against back of chair), make a purring noise for some people (4) CURU (first letters of Cats Usually Rubbing Unceasingly) + R (back of chaiR) |
| 3 | IDEADbecomes IDE |
S | Internal Security directly presented with plan (5) IS (Internal Security) + DEAD (directly) |
| 4 | GANNET | T | Sixpence nearly snatched by great bird (6) TANNE[R] (sixpence, nearly) in GT (great) |
| 5 | SLIEST | R | Most secretive realists fancy giving up acting (6) (REALISTS – A (acting))* |
| 6 | GHARANA | A | Associate of the Royal Academy visits African country’s school of musicians (7) ARA (Associate of the RA) in GHANA (African country); GHARANA is the word mentioned in the preamble as in the ODE |
| 7 | NARVIK | T | Nearly half of vikings following Norse sailor in port (6) VIK (nearly half of VIKings) after N (Norse) TAR (sailor) |
| 8 | AIDA | E | Feudal tax on each material (4) AID (feudal tax) + EA (each) |
| 9 | CLASS becomes CLASPS |
T | Order upset sailor in Court of Session (6) SALT< (sailor, upset) in CS (Court of Session) |
| 11 | AFOOT becomes FOOT |
W | Running, gypsy turned up with stolen money – lawmen initially shaken off (5) FAW< (gypsy, up) + LOOT (stolen money) – L (Lawmen, initially) |
| 13 | MILNET | O | It aids long-distance communications from individual in US college (6) LONE (individual) in MIT (US college) |
| 19 | CASEIN | M | Henry overlooked machines manufactured source of cheese (6) (MACHINES – H (henry))* |
| 21 | ADULATE | I | Grown-up eats second of oatcakes that is flatter (7) ADULT (grown-up) containing A (oAtcakes, second letter) + IE (that is) |
| 23 | AERIES becomes ARIES |
L | Lies are rampant in high places (6) (LIES ARE)* |
| 24 | ILL-GOT | T | Plough barbarian almost obtained dishonestly (6) TILL (plough) GOT[H] (barbarian, almost) |
| 25 | SESTON | O | Plankton soon set to be cooked (6) (SOON SET)* |
| 26 | ALLONS | N | A party from UK capital in Lesotho come to France (6) A + LONDON (UK capital) – DO (party) in LS (Lesotho) |
| 28 | ITEM becomes ITEMS |
P | Make note of appeal close to umpire in the afternoon (5) IT (appeal, as in sex) + E (umpirE, closing letter) in PM (afternoon) |
| 29 | CORPS becomes CORPSE |
O | Officers really oddly ignored branch of army (6) CORPORALS (officers) – RAL (odd letters of ReAlLy) |
| 32 | ORE becomes ADORE |
E | Tangle uncovered corded material (5) [M]OREE[N] (corded material, without first and last letters) |
| 34 | AGMA | M | In short, publication starts to misuse ancient phonetic symbol (4) MAG (publication, short form) + MA (first letters of Misuse Ancient) |
| 36 | DEL becomes DIEL |
S | Operator mounted means of transporting the dead (4) SLED< (means of transporting the (almost) dead) |
A gentle EV amongst a few tricky ones of late. I had a similar experience to DH here, inasmuch as I skipped along with no issues until the SE corner, which probably took as long as the rest of the grid. A clever endgame and always a bonus to see real words after all the movements. Thanks again to both setter and blogger