My solving notes for TREASURE HUNT simply say ‘WOW!’ once I got to the end of this Herculean task…
Yet another carte blanche – no bars, clue numbers or even enumerations! – but at least the clues are in ‘normal’ order, so it isn’t a pure jigsaw – I guess I have to be grateful for small mercies.
The preamble states that:
“The grid has 180-degree symmetry, and clues are in the normal order. The TREASURE HUNT ends in the usual way, though solvers must select which option is correct, and highlight that cell. The options are omitted from wordplay in the relevant clues; accommodations necessary to fit words into the grid will point the way. Bars and clue numbers need not be entered; Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”
The 180-degree symmetry will help with the grid-fill, and a treasure hunt ‘usually’ ends with an X marking the spot – so maybe the grid is a map with an X somewhere in the middle…
Not sure what those ‘accommodations’ are that will need to be made, but at this point the only sensible approach is to start cold-solving and see how many answers fall out, and try to pick over the tea-leaves as they do.
I soon spotted what looked like two long anagrams – both well into the second half of the clues, so probably Downs, and both needing a bit of reference to confirm: ENTOMOSTRACAN and SUOVETAURILIA. So I’ve learned two new words already, and at 13 letters they are too long to fit in a 12×12 grid, so they must need some sort of accommodation…maybe some double-letter cells, or maybe they will track a course towards the destination of the hunt…
Another nugget of information was that the 19th clue (of 36, so half-way) had the phrase ‘kept up’ in what looked like the wordplay, so was likely to be the first of the Downs, or among the early Downs.
But for the first few days of nibbling away at this it was just scraps and nuggets. On the Tuesday after publication, and with maybe only 10-12 clues solved, I found the ‘hormone’ clue led to RELA(X)IN, with the X not indicated in the wordplay, so here is a potential candidate for the end of the hunt.
Annoyingly I still hadn’t solved that first Across clue, or the 19th (if it was to be the first Down), as top left would be a good place to start fitting words in and getting crossers – easier on the brain/eye than trying to match/cross ends of words… I did have ‘ILLUSTRIOUS’ by now, which looked like it should go across one of the middle rows, with a corresponding 11 letter word symmetrically in the other middle row?
Time passed…other puzzles came, were solved and went, but this remained stubbornly intractable, like a slow-moving caravan in a single-lane section of the A303 in a Bank Holiday rush hour. If it hadn’t been my turn to blog, I would have surreptitiously filed it under WPB and moved on. And I nearly caved in and resorted to contacting my fellow EV bloggers to see if any of them could stand in for me.
Then, on the Sunday morning, so a week after starting at base camp of this particular Everest, I woke up at 5am for some reason – on my lie-in day! – and decided to give it another bash. And voilá! FAIRIES appeared at the notional 1A, and FATCAMP in the 19th clue – ‘loser’s place’ in the definition seemed a bit harsh, until I realised it meant losers of weight at said camp!
So maybe these two will cross top-left with their F’s – so pencil them in, and then start weaving in some crossers – ADNOUNS, ADEN, TEETH, etc. The symmetry also allowed me to pencil in some bars to help with fitting/guessing at similar length words on the opposite side of the grid.
There followed a two-hour frenzy of solving, pencilling-in and erasing, re-pencilling and various PDMs before I finally had it solved! It soon became clear that ILLUSTRIOUS couldn’t be entered in full, and for a while I tried to combine the ILLUS from ILLUStrious with the TRATE of perlusTRATE to maybe get some sort of ‘illustration’ – if this was to be a map?!
I think the final straw that broke the Kcit’s back was realising that ASPER and AESC had to be symmetrically opposite, but were different lengths – so I eventually tried putting the ER of ASPER and ROTHER in one cell, and then gradually applied that principle, with some trial and error, to ILLUSTRIOUS, ENTOMOSTRACAN and SUOVETAURILIA, discovering STALWORTH, BALUSTERED and SIAMESE along the way.
More ‘X’s had appeared by now – INE(X)PERT and TWI(X)T – so presumably these were the ‘options’ referred to in the preamble… but, conveniently, the double-letter cells appeared to form an arrowhead, pointing the way to the X of INE(X)PERT, as per the preamble. Phew! WOW!
I still had some work to do – and one more X to find, and discard, as it turned out – as NARTHEX/SYCORAX were my LOIs…(and I’m still not 100% sure on the parsing of NARTHEX)…(See comment #1 from ub, below)
So I missed out on a lie-in, but I had the satisfaction (and relief) of finally completing this challenging puzzle in time to submit it, and of course to blog it!
Thanks, through gritted teeth(!), to Kcit, and I hope I have everything in order below…
| Clues | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing |
|
| * | FAIRIES | Good people having fish surrounded by chips / F_RIES (chips) around (surrounding) AI (small Japanese fish) |
|
| * | STIES | Pens obligation, which sons should keep / S_S (sons) around (keeping) TIE (obligation) |
|
| * | ADNOUNS | Notice no editing of Sun reinterpreted parts of speech / AD (advertisement, notice) + NO + UNS (anag, i.e. editing, of SUN) |
|
| * | TWI(X)T | No longer beset by a fool / TWIT – fool; TWIXT = (betwixt, archaic for between, amongst – or beset) |
|
| * | TEETH | Hard following doctrine with no name or power / TE( |
|
| * | AINÉE | Older woman’s fitted with wider hemline, short in length, ending in flounce / A-( |
|
| * | WOOL CARD | One straightens out before spinning large vehicle into oak? (two words) / WOO_D (oak) around L (large) + CAR (vehicle) |
|
| * | ASPER | Priest, in a sermon, is no longer harsh / A + S_ER (sermon) around P (priest) |
|
| * | ILLUSTRIOUS | Wrong to have fashionable Duke abandoning hard-working noble / ILL (wrong) + ( |
|
| * | PERLUSTRATE | Make wide inspection once in a desire to assess / PER (a, as in per person) = LUST (desire) + RATE (assess) |
|
| * | AESC | Aged character, one from Scotland? Only one quarter Scottish / AE (Scottish, one) + SC (two letters from, or a quarter of, SCottish) |
|
| * | PARAMECIUM | Tiny creature, annoying fly, swallowing seaweed cold / P_IUM (troublesome Brazilian biting fly) around ARAME (seaweed) + C (cold) |
|
| * | O(X)TER | Concert arranger withholding concert, getting support from Scotland / ( |
|
| * | FLURR | Rarely disperse line gripped by enthusiasm for America, nothing less / F_UR( |
|
| * | RINSE | Angry response about new, short-lasting hair colour / RI_SE (angry response) around N (new) |
|
| * | NICOSIA | A coin is representing this European capital / anag, i.e. representing, of A COIN IS |
|
| * | ENZED | Isolated country zone in valley being recalled / EN_ED (DENE, valley, recalled) around Z (zone) |
|
| * | NARTHE(X) | Recycled sole place for women in church / NARTHE = THE-NAR (the sole, anatomically) (re)cycling first three letters to the end; NARTHEX being an area of a church where women were actually admitted in the very olden days…how kind of us men to let them in!… |
|
| * | FAT CAMP | Pretence kept up, beset by familiar pressure? That’s the loser’s place (two words) / FA_M (familiar) around (besetting) TCA (ACT, or pretence, kept up) + P (pressure) |
|
| * | ADEN | A navy’s besieging of continental port / A + N (navy), around (besieging) DE (of, French, or continental) |
|
| * | INEXPERT | One bag is wrapping for each ham / I (one) + NE_T (bag) around PER (for each); INE(X)PERT = ham, or amateur |
|
| * | ROTHER | Old cow not the same after end of October / R (last of octobeR) + OTHER (not the same) |
|
| * | ENTOMOSTRACAN | Shellfish represented as coast ornament? / anag, i.e. represented as, of COAST ORNAMENT |
|
| * | STALWORTH | Old supporter, wise guy, turning up during kick-off with Hearts / STA_RT (kick-off) + H (Hearts), around LWO (owl, or wise guy, turning up) |
|
| * | TWICE | Won, engaging in croquet manoeuvre on a further occasion? / T_ICE (croquet manouevre) around (engaging) W (won) |
|
| * | E(X)ERGUE | Always half of guests overlooked where date’s indicated / EER (ever, always) + GUE (half of GUE |
|
| * | STEDD | Poet’s role, participating in eisteddfod / hidden word, i.e. participating in, in ‘eiSTEDDfodd’ |
|
| * | SUOVETAURILIA | Sacrifice with several components – usual ratio I’ve misjudged / anag, i.e. misjudged, of USUAL RATIO IVE |
|
| * | BALUSTERED | Raged about area with pillars / B_LUSTERED (raged) around A (area) |
|
| * | ROSEBUSH | Live very well, being uplifted amidst activity in plant / R_USH (activity) around OSEB (BE – live – plus SO – very well, all uplifted) |
|
| * | RELA(X)IN | Hormone that sees the Parisienne staying in control / RE_IN (control) around LA (the, French, or Parisienne); RELA(X)IN – hormone |
|
| * | SYCORA(X) | Exclamation when cornered by – say – horrible witch / SY_A (anag, i.e. horrible, of SAY), around COR (exclamation); SYCORA(X) = witch, Shakespeare |
|
| * | SPORE | Unhappy about soft location of reproductive activity / S_ORE (unhappy) around P (piano, soft) |
|
| * | SIAMESE | Possibly enough said about the setter’s cat / S_ESE (Shakespeare, sese = enough said) around I AM (the setter is) |
|
| * | ALLOT | Divide everything over religious text? / ALL (everything) + OT (Old Testament, religious text) |
|
| * | BRIE | French product: legal case sees no place for France in it / BRIE( |
|
On narthex, I read it as thenar (sole), recycling the letters to narthe(x), a way to avoid an indirect anagram. Gaufrid pointed out a similar tool (with “spinning” as the indicator) a few EVs back when I and others had trouble parsing. Thanks for the detailed blog.
Thanks, ub – will update the parsing of NARTHE(X).
I also forgot to mention the surface reading of the SIAMESE clue – which I suspect is an in-joke/reference to the fact that Kcit/Phi is a cat lover who often weaves references into his crosswords ‘in memoriam’ to his beloved feline companions when they pass away? (I hope this doesn’t mean that there has been another such event?…)
I had Fairies/Fatcamp half way along the top row of Chandler’sthe grid for a reason I can’t now recall and I only got 3/4 of the rest anyway so well done and thank you to Mc-rapper67. I doubt Kcit will have much checking to do!
Cats all OK, thanks, but it wasn’t an opportunity I could pass up!
There’s a blog on this and the IQ from the previous day at
http://phionline.net.nz/setters-blogs/inquisitor-1547-northern-lights-and-enigmatic-variations-1335-treasure-hunt/
I’m sorry but I found this puzzle a step too far for an EV – more like a Listener++.
Why did the “accommodation” have to be undisclosed? Knowing what it was would at least have given a much-needed help. Even with that it would have been a very tough crossword.
I just gave up after about 30 minutes and I guess many others did too.
Thanks for the comments & feedback – and thanks to Kcit/Phi for popping in – glad to hear the feline friends are all safe and sound…
Geoff Lee at #3 – as I said in the blog, I was on the verge of giving up myself, and only persevered because it was my turn to blog (and in the – vain, as it turns out – hope that the difficulty might reduce the number of entries and enhance my chance of winning the treasure/prize pen!)
Whisky Mac at #5 – I agree it was a tough EV, but as has been documented elsewhere the EV and IQ series tend to have an approximate cycle of 4-5-6 puzzles within which there will be one or two harder ones, one or two easy(er)s, and one or two ‘medium’s. This was probably well above average difficulty for an EV, but I didn’t feel it was excessively so.
I have only been doing the Listener regularly for the last year or so, and that puzzle also seems to have a similar cadence – some weeks almost do-able in one (long-ish) sitting, some weeks just about do-able eventually, and some weeks put down after, or even during, the reading of the preamble! But overall I feel that the ‘average’ Listener is well above the difficulty of an ‘average’ EV… As a blogger, I just hope that I get something at the other end of the scale in 4 weeks’ time, when it is my next turn!