For those who didn’t see my blog last month, you didn’t miss much. It described the abject failure I had with Sadly Lacking by Ranunculus. I didn’t major in Happy Families… and I wasn’t alone! I hoped I would fare better this time, although the preamble did worry me a bit:
Five entries are apparently random and unconnected phrases or short sentences, none of which are in Chambers Dictionary (2016), but do exactly WHAT IT SAYS ON THE TIN. Each across clue contains an additional word that must be removed before solving; in clue order these give five non-cryptic clues to these phrases. 30 down is unclued, but is significantly linked to these five entries; in clue order, single additional letters given by the wordplay in each down clue give two associated names.
In fact, I didn’t have much to worry about. The grid came together in just over the hour. The extra words in the across clues gave descriptions of fun anagrams of ENIGMATIC or Enigmatic Variations — exactly what it says on the tin. The extra wordplay letters in the down clues gave Alan Turing and Edward Elgar, both associated with ENIGMA (30dn): Turing’s machine and Elgar’s Variations.
Thanks for an easy but enjoyable week, Gaston. Very generous unching as well.
Solving time: 70 minutes.
Legend:
Definition in clue
X = Extra letters of words
ABC* = anagram
ABC< = reversal
abCDef = hidden
| ACROSS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Entry | Extra Word |
Clue and Explanation |
| 1 | ASPS | PERFECT | By way of an afterthought produce perfect old trees (4) AS (by way of) PS (afterthought) |
| a | GET IN MAC | Gaston prepares for wet weather Extra words in clues 15ac–19ac |
|
| 11 | COHOS | USE | Most of school, unusually, use fish (5) SCHOO(l)* |
| 13 | ANAN | OF | Advance of goat? I’m baffled (4) A (advance) + NAN (goat) |
| 14 | LEX | WATCH | Watch novice bridge player take on unknown law? (3) L (novice) + E (east, bridge player) + X (unknown) |
| 15 | EPANADIPLOSIS | GASTON | Expression of disgust after breaking piano pedal? Never say never, Gaston! (13) SIS (expression of disgust) after (PIANO PEDAL)* |
| 16 | THRID | PREPARES | Prepares Ed’s fibre in part of South Riding (5) in souTH RIDing |
| 17 | AGONY | FOR | For some taking on work, misery (5) ANY (some) taking OP (work) |
| 18 | CHEERIO | WET | Food? Wonderful – wet toast! (7) CHEER (food) + IO (expression of joy); toast as in cheers |
| 19 | MEASE | WEATHER | In Perth mitigate most miserable weather when losing catalogue (5) MEASLIEST (most miserable) – LIST (catalogue); not really happy with split LI-ST |
| 21 | STED | DO | Rebellious cops do another’s role? (4) DETS< (detectives, cops); not really sure who another is meant to be |
| 22 | DISC | THEY | They come across half a record (4) DISC(over) (come across, half) |
| 23 | INCUR | HAUNT | Suffer popular dog haunt (5) IN (popular) + CUR (dog) |
| 25 | TUTTI | TOM’S | ‘Everybody – show disapproval before Tom’s note!’ (5) TUT (show disapproval) + TI (note) |
| 26 | NOOP | DREAMS | Walter’s tip: no dreams work! (4) NO + OP (work) |
| 27 | BRAE | SETTER | English setter follows support for Scottish bank (4) E (English) after BRA (support) |
| 29 | COHEN | BECOMES | Fellow female becomes descendant of Aaron (5) CO-HEN (fellow/associate female) |
| 32 | PIANOLA | VERY | No need to play this very soft note (7) PIANO (soft) + LA (note); a pianola plays itself |
| 34 | SNOOD | BUSY | Busy band partners do nothing backwards (5) SN (partners, as in bridge South-North) + (DO + O (nothing))< |
| 35 | OP CIT | ELEVEN | Extraordinary topic in the work eleven referred to (5, two words) TOPIC* |
| 36 | OVERENCOURAGE | IN | Unhappily gave in – our encore is to flirt too much (13) (GAVE OUR ENCORE)* |
| 37 | OIK | CHARGE | Reasonable charge to capture one lout (3) OK (reasonable) containing I (one) |
| 38 | NAOI | OF | Temples of love in North American island (4) O (love) in NA (North American) + I (island) |
| b | GIANT MICE | Do they haunt Tom’s dreams Extra words in clues 21ac–26ac |
|
| 39 | SIGMA | COVERING | Letter covering Italian gentleman and mother (5) SIG (signor) + MA (mother) |
| 40 | LEAM | CAKE | Old glow from the French cake in the morning (4) LE (the, French) + AM (in the morning) |
| No | Entry | Extra Letter |
Clue and Explanation |
| 1 | ACE TIMING | Perfect use of watch Extra words in clues 1ac–14ac |
|
| 2 | SOPHIE | A | Does she have a wash and then hasten away? (6) SOAP(have a wash) + HIE (hasten away) |
| 3 | PHARMACOPOEIA | L | A parochial poem about catalogue of drugs (13) (A PAROCHIAL POEM)* |
| 4 | SONIC | A | Casino in trouble very quickly (5) CASINO* |
| 5 | GADGES | N | Things to torture Democrat in river (6) D (Democrat) in GANGES (river) |
| 6 | TAPERED | T | Covering Labour diminished (7) TAPET (covering, tapestry) + RED (Labour) |
| 7 | INLAID | U | Decorated, ring college back (6) (DIAL (ring) + UNI (college))< |
| 8 | MESOLITHIC AGE | R | Ghastly hostile grimace a long time ago (13, two words) (HOSTILE GRIMACE)* |
| 9 | AXING | I | Getting rid of aircraft moving slowly and losing its nose (5) TAXIING (aircraft moving slowly) – T (its nose, first letter) |
| 10 | COSY | N | Secure inmate’s yard (4) CON‘S) inmate’s + Y (yard) |
| 12 | SADHE | G | Badly gashed character (5) GASHED* |
| 14 | LOGO | E | Box over design (4) LOGE (box) + O (over) |
| c | I GET MANIC | Setter becomes very busy Extra words in clues 27ac–34ac |
|
| d | ICING TEAM | Eleven in charge of covering cake Extra words in clues 35ac–40ac |
|
| 20 | SUP | D | Eat revolutionary desserts (3) PUDS< (desserts, reversed) |
| 22 | DUO | W | Two would, on the up, start to lose out (3) WOULD< – L (start to Lose) |
| 24 | GRANNAM | A | Old woman’s anger about small Indian coin (7) GRAM (anger) about ANNA (Indian coin) |
| 27 | BIDENT | R | Torn following offer for sheep (6) RENT (torn) after BID (offer) |
| 28 | EOZOIC | D | With God in charge around Australia, it could have described the oldest living thing (6) DEO (with God) IC (in charge) about OZ (Australia) |
| 29 | CLOUS | E | Stop taking on board posh ideas? (5) CLOSE containing U (posh) |
| 30 | ENIGMA | See preamble | |
| 31 | ENVOI | L | Last verse in French? There you are… almost! (5) EN (in, French) + VOIL(A) (there you are) |
| 32 | PORK | G | Meat not for the very young, or king (4) PG (not for the young, film rating) |
| 33 | APRIL | A | A strong hand once for woman? (5) A + PRIAL (strong hand in cribbage) |
| 34 | SONG | R | Malay garment missing a piece? (4) SARONG (Malay garment) – A |
I’ll also plead guilty to not knowing the Happy Families. tended to play proper card games, (stop the bus, Newmarket etc.) even at less than 10 years old! However, Dave Hennings, did you deliberately enumerate the un-numbered lights so that the clue numbers became out of sync with the grid entries?
Sorry about the diagram confusion — not deliberate, and now corrected. Un-numbered entries are, in fact, one of my pet hates, especially now that blogs are here. However, the practice goes back to the very early days of the Listener, so I’ve learnt to live with it.
As you say, Dave, a reasonably gentle and enjoyable workout – thanks to Gaston, and you for the blog.
GIANT MICE rang a little bell somewhere, and a quick search revealed a similar device in EV1244 by Serpent, which I blogged back in 2016. And my blog for that suggests I had an inkling I had seen something similar before…which turns out to be EV887 by the late-great Syd Lexis/Alan Donovan, blogged in 2009 by our esteemed EV maestro Gaufrid!
Sorry – should have ‘previewed’ my comment – Gaufrid is of course the 15×15 maestro…!