I think this is my first blog of a Gaston EV, although I have solved a few over the years. (S)he made it into the WHO’S WHO of setters celebrated in the recent 1300th puzzle by Samuel.
The preamble states that:
“Solvers must discover WHO’S WHO in the top and bottom rows. All but two of the entries which start or finish in these rows have two possible initial or final letters, both of which must be entered in the relevant cell; clues to these answers consist of a definition leading to one word, and wordplay leading to another. In two cases the clues are normal, and the same letter should be entered twice in the relevant cell. In all remaining clues, the wordplay leads to the answer and an additional letter not entered into the grid; in clue order, these hint at what should be displayed in the top and bottom rows when letters in these rows are entered correctly. Unchecked letters in the top and bottom rows could give BLAIR CITYWIDE WEB, and Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended. ”
A relatively long and convoluted preamble, but the upshot is that all clues are affected thematically – either by producing two answers with differing first/last letters, or by leading to a spare letter making up a hint…
Where to start?! All fronts really – I tried a few of the doubled up clues, then tried a few of the ‘internal’ ones, then back to the others and then just worked away for a while trying to get any sort of foothold…which did come eventually, although my memory and my solving notes don’t seem to record a particular PDM…
in the end, this was a bit like watching one of those late evening historical dramatised-documentaries on BBC4 – with Lucy Worsley or Alice Roberts (or Dan Snow, for the ladies?!) taking us through a slice of English history – and I should probably have paid a bit more attention, to make up for the attention I obviously didn’t show during history at skool…
The extra letters started to give ‘pretender…’ and ‘…throne…’ and ‘…Henry…’, while the paired letters sort of had something that might be ‘Perkin…’ and ‘Lambert…’, and I’m afraid the current history master, Professor Go-ogle, helped get me the rest of the way.
LAMBERT SIMNEL and PERKIN WARBECK both, separately, tried to usurp Henry VII by pretending to be the EARL OF WARWICK and RICHARD OF YORK respectively. A bit like Boris ‘two shags’ Johnson and Michael ‘Tim-nice-but-dim’ Gove are currently trying to usurp Theresa May (by pretending to be anything but Theresa May)…although the flaw in their plan is that two into one doesn’t go, and one them would have to be the Gordon Brown to the other’s Tony Blair…but I digress..
The extra letters tell us that they were both ‘PRETENDERS TO (the) THRONE OF HENRY VII’, and that is pretty much that:
Not the most difficult EV (unless I have missed anything else more subtle/hidden?), but it kept me going for a few sessions, and was interesting and educational, with a nice/different denouement – no significant diagonals, hidden words, blanks or jigsaw-fitting… Once the theme and protagonists became apparent, I didn’t actually bother checking the hint in the preamble about the unchecked letters making a phrase, but I guess that might have been of use to anyone who wasn’t quite sure?…
Many thanks to Gaston, and I look forward to locking horns again soon…
One point of note – when writing the blog I realised that I hadn’t fully solved/parsed 19A or 31A – they are both formed of five crossing letters, so I think I had both of them in or guessed without spending too much time looking at their clues. Fairly rare to get ‘fully crossed’ answers in a puzzle of this level?…
The phrase ‘Who’s Who’ always reminds me of the classic comedy sketch where Condoleeza Rice is briefing George W Bush on the new leader of China – Hu Jintao. She says ‘Hu is the new leader of China’. He says ‘I don’t know, you tell me’…and so on…leading on to the point where she says ‘Yes sir’ and he thinks she means Yassir (Arafat), and then she suggests contacting Kofi Annan, and he thinks she is offering him coffee…
(Such innocent times, when we thought the gentle country-bumpkin idiocy of George Dubya was the worst America could do after Ronald Reagan…how wrong we were!…)
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Extra Letters | Solution(s) | Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing |
| 10 | P | AMESLAN | Last word about friends echoed New Yorker’s silent communication (7) / AME_N (last word) around SLA(P) (pals, friends, reversed, or echoed) |
| 11 | R | SOOTE | Sweet Dutchman lost family members (5) / SOOTE(R)( |
| 12 | E | APOCARPOUS | Like certain flowers, in Australia trouble is found between two rivers (10) / A___US (Australia) around PO___PO (two rivers), themselves around CAR(E) (trouble) |
| 14 | T | NONAGE | Minority pay attention to stabling horse (6) / NO__(T)E (pay attention to) around (stabling) NAG (horse) |
| 15 | E | READS UP | Somehow persuade and amasses knowledge (7, two words) / anag, i.e. somehow, of PERSUAD(E) |
| 16 | N | ESSAY | Attempt to declare existence first (5) / E(N)S (existence) + SAY (declare) |
| 19 | D | DUETS | Smart guys without time for songs (5) / DU(D)E_S (smart guys) around (without, in the ‘encompassing’ sense!) T (time) |
| 25 | E | PARIS | Dad gets increase in capital (5) / PA (dad) + RIS(E) (increase) |
| 26 | R | DRY | Not drawing blood, lacking energy from resentment in Perth (3) / D( |
| 27 | S | A FRIEND IN NEED | Fairy Godmother, perhaps, also wanting to eat chips (13, four words) / A_ND (also) + IN NEED (wanting), around (eating) FRIE(S) (ships) |
| 28 | T | LAB | Northern European returns to classroom (3) / (T)LAB (Balt, northern European, returning) |
| 29 | O | BRAIL | Get very angry in Chicago about a sailing rope (5) / BR(O)_IL (US, i.e. in Chicago, to be enraged) around A |
| 31 | T | CRAIC | Showing weakness of will not having a party in Belfast (5) / ( |
| 34 | H | SAMAN | Magic man’s tree? (5) / double defn. SHAMAN is a magic man; S(H)AMAN is a tree |
| 36 | R | HOT MEAL | A mother left cooking winter fare (7, two words) / anag, i.e. cooking, of A + MOTHE(R) + L (left) |
| 39 | O | UPCAST | Bill’s piece of luck further along the shore (6) / double defn. UPCOAST means further along the shore; UPC(O)AST is a Shakespearean term for a stroke of luck |
| 41 | N | GO UP TO TOWN | Torn gown put on to visit London (10, four words) / anag, i.e. torn, of GOWN PUT O(N) TO |
| 42 | E | EARST | Determined to sacrifice knight at first, years ago (5) / EAR( |
| 43 | O | GEORGIC | Northern creek’s unrestrained poem (7) / GEO (Scottish, i.e. Northern, for creek, gully) + (O)RGIC (unrestrained) |
| Down | |||
| Clue No | Extra Letters | Solution(s) (defined version underlined) | Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing |
| 1 | LARNED / EARNED | Got credit for harvesting darnel (6) / EARNED = got credit for; LARNED = anag, i.e. harvesting, of DARNEL |
|
| 2 | AMBO / AMBO | Simple cart without good desk (4) / AMBO = desk; (G)AMBO (simple cart, without G – good) |
|
| 3 | MEANS / REANS | Channel ditches (5) / double defn. a channel can be MEANS of passing or conveying something; REANS are ditches/watercourses |
|
| 4 | ELOGY / OLOGY | Science reversed unknown aim for John (5) / OLOGY = any science, ending in ‘…ology’; ELOGY = Y (unknown – mathematics) + GOLE (John Milton – variation of goal, or aim) – all reversed |
|
| 5 | RACED / FACED | Competed? Drink up! (5) / RACED = competed; FACED = DECAF (coffee, drink) ‘up’ |
|
| 6 | SIRED / AIRED | Produced a dire shot (5) / SIRED = produced; AIRED = anag, i.e. shot, of A DIRE |
|
| 7 | MOOD / WOOD | Sounds conditional and subjunctive (4) / MOOD = subjunctive form of a verb; WOOD = homophone – WOOD sounds like WOULD (conditional) |
|
| 8 | NOUS / IOUS | Possibly valuable documents omitting you and me? (4) / IOUS are possibly valuable documents; NOUS = if you omitted ‘you’ and ‘me’ there would be NO US! |
|
| 9 | LEEPS / KEEPS | Manages special fish rising (5) / KEEPS = manages; LEEPS = SP (special) + EEL (fish) – all rising |
|
| 11 | F | SPADING | Somehow find gaps when digging (7) / anag, i.e. somehow, of (F)IND GAPS |
| 13 | H | ARMADILLO | Damage a herb with old mammal (9) / (H)ARM (damage) + A + DILL (herb) + O (old) |
| 17 | E | SO FAR | Very good food up to now (5, two words) / SO (very good) + FAR(E) (food) |
| 18 | N | ALIBI | Excuse possibly the greatest collection of rubbish (5) / ALI (Muhammad Ali, possibly – shurely ‘definitely’?! – the greatest) + BI(N) (collection of rubbish) |
| 20 | R | USNEA | American close to lichen (5) / US (American ) + NEA(R) (close to) |
| 21 | Y | EDEN | English refuse entry to garden (4) / E (English) + DEN(Y) (refuse entry) |
| 22 | V | TREFA | Tax returns involving judge that’s not kosher (5) / T_A(V) (VAT, tax, returned) around REF (referee, judge) |
| 23 | I | ARBA | Where Lawrence lived without a carriage? (4) / AR( |
| 24 | I | PERCEPT | Touch deeply part of something sensed? (7) / P(I)ERCE (touch deeply) + PT (part) |
| 30 | UNTUCK / UNTUCK | Loosen a French friar (6) / UN (a, French) + TUCK (Friar Tuck, from the Robin Hood story) |
|
| 31 | CHEER / CHEEP | Applaud revolutionary record (5) / CHEER = applaud; CHEEP = CHE (Che Guevara, revolutionary) + EP (Extended Play, record) |
|
| 32 | PATER / PATEN | Taper round a metal disc (5) / PATEN = a metal disc; PATER = anag, i.e. round, of TAPER |
|
| 33 | BUTEA / BUTEO | Tree buzzard (5) / double defn. BUTEA is a type of tree; BUTEO is a buzzard |
|
| 34 | SPOOR / SPOOF | Track with odds on old money (5) / SPOOR = track; SPOOF = SP (Starting Price, odds, in betting) + OOF (archaic slang for money) |
|
| 35 | MANGE / MANGO | Inflammation on skin of fruit (5) / double defn. MANGE is an inflammation of the skin; MANGO is a fruit |
|
| 37 | TORR / TORC | Very little pressure from armband (4) / double defn. TORR is a (very small) unit of pressure; TORC can be an armband |
|
| 38 | MUSK / MUSH | Strong-smelling secretion is rubbish (4) / double defn. MUSK is a strong smelling secretion; MUSH can be rubbish |
|
| 40 | SAIR / SAIC | Southern breeze for Mediterranean craft (4) / SAIC = Mediterranean sailing vessel; SAIR = S (Southern) + AIR (breeze) |
|
Thanks, mc, for this. I interpreted the preamble as meaning that we had to choose one name only for the top row and likewise for the bottom row. After all, Simnel wasn’t the earl of Warwick, so that doesn’t fit in with the idea of who’s who. But then which name do we choose? So I am almost certainly wrong.
One other thing, which I almost mentioned when the blogger (I cannot remember who) made his feelings clear about the EU referendum result. What I like about this website (amongst other things) is the absence of politics. It would be nice to keep it that way, no?
I put the real names of the pretenders in the upper/left half of the squares and their assumed identities in the lower/right halves without knowing if that was correct.
I see that the printed solution in the paper and mc _rapper67 in his blog have taken the same path.
Was there an indication that this was the right way round or would the alternative have been equally correct?
Thanks to Gaston for the interesting challenge and mc_rapper for the blog.
Apologies for the late response:
Tony at #1 – I did wonder if a choice had to be made, but on re-checking the preamble it explicitly stated ‘…both of which must be entered in the relevant cell…’, hence the obliques…
Cap’n P’ng’n – it seemed ‘logical’ to put the name first (top left) and the (pretended) title diagonally below/to the right, but the preamble did not seem to specify this, and we will probably never know whether the lucky winner chose the same way!