The last Chalicea puzzle I solved was the wonderful WWI/Armistice tribute IQ 1568 (Such Delight), and now we have a TUG OF WAR…what has made Mme Chalicea so bellicose recently…?!
The (brief) preamble states that:
“The wordplay in every clue leads to the answer plus an additional letter not to be entered into the grid. In clue order these suggest what must be highlighted to illustrate the TUG OF WAR. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”
(Not mentioned in the preamble, but there are also two unclued entries…hopefully they will become clearer from crossing letters.)
After a few passes through I started to gain some traction with grid-fill, crossers for the unclueds, and also some formative bits of the phrase made from the extra letters.
1D ANCHOR STRING sounded like it might be useful in a TUG OF WAR! And this, along with the symmetrically placed ENDORSEMENTS, plus the 12-letter REPRESENTORS and STAR SAPPHIRE across the middle, helped speed things along with beginning, ending and middle letters of crossing words, respectively…
And eventually, with one last heave, I dug my heels in and pulled this across the line – the unclued entries looked likely to be SUMMER and WINTER, and the extra letters started to look like ‘THREE WHOSE STRIFE LED TO UNCLUED LIGHTS’. So what led to summer and winter (apart from the big bang, gravity and the elliptical/rotating orbit of the earth around the sun?). Probably some sort of mythology going on here, although after an unsuccessful scan of diagonals and perimeter I have to confess to resorting to some e-research…
And there it all was in front of me – the devilish HADES developed a Hell of a soft spot for PERSEPHONE, daughter of DEMETER, goddess of crops and the harvest, and after some sort of kidnapping event and custody battle they eventually hit on a compromise, brokered by Zeus, of a timeshare – so for six months of the year while Persephone frolics in the underworld Demeter sulks and doesn’t let the crops grow, and then when she gets her daughter back in the spring she gets back to work making the harvest thrive again…
A very pleasant and educational solve, the very epitome of what an EV should be, albeit at the gentler end of the scale, compared to some recent EVs… Nice grid construction, with Persephone as the rope in this particular tug-of-war, Summer up with Demeter and Winter down in the depths with Hades…
Many thanks to Chalicea, and Festive Greetings and wishes to all EV setters, solvers, commenters and lurkers – see you in the New Year!
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Extra Letter | Solution / Entry | Clue (definition underlined, extra LET(T)ERS bracketed) / Logic/Parsing |
| 1 | T | ANADEM | Arrangement of two things circling a head ornament (6) / (T)AN_DEM (arrangement of two things) around (circling) A |
| 6 | H | ETERNE | The clear, upper air not lasting for ever, as it used to be (6) / ET(H)ER (clear, upper, air) + NE (not) |
| 11 | R | NIEF | Finer dressing for duke when in the regions (4) / anag, i.e. dressing, of FINE(R) |
| 12 | E | PHYTON | Hype about fashion showing Rose’s slip, perhaps (6) / PHY (anag, i.e. about, of HYP(E)) + TON (fashion) |
| 13 | SUMMER | Unclued (6) / Thematic deduction |
|
| 15 | E | HOCK | Game cut short for joint (4) / HOCK(E)( |
| 16 | W | ROBALO | Steal from a humble swimmer (6) / ROB (steal) + A + LO(W) (humble) |
| 17 | H | SAVES | Prevents chaps being superficially ripped off? (5) / S(H)AVE( |
| 19 | O | REPRESENTORS | Reporter noses out those making a case during contractual negotiations (12) / anag, i.e. out, of REPORTER N(O)SES |
| 20 | S | STAR SAPPHIRE | Hard looks besetting eccentric parish priest producing polished gem (12, two words) / STAR_E(S) (hard looks) around (besetting) SAPPHIR (anag, i.e. eccentric, of PARISH + P – priest) |
| 26 | E | PHASE | A sheep managed stage of growth (5) / anag, i.e. managed, of A SHE(E)P |
| 27 | S | RODEOS | Before appeal for help, travelled on horseback to cattle round-ups (6) / RODE (travelled on horseback) + (S)OS (appeal for help) |
| 28 | T | WIFE | Long ago to discern iron in a partner (4) / WI(T) (archaic, or long ago, for discern) + FE (Fe, iron) |
| 30 | WINTER | Unclued (6) / Thematic deduction |
|
| 31 | R | NILOTS | Nothing corrupts river-bank dwellers (6) / NIL (nothing) + (R)OTS (corrupts) |
| 32 | I | SILT | Unusual salinity obscuring any separated fine sediment (4) / subtractive anagram – ‘unusual’ SALIN(I)TY minus separated letters of A-N-Y can give SILT |
| 33 | F | GEISHA | Female entertainer’s angle in dissolute age (6) / GE_A (anag, i.e. dissolute, of AGE) around (F)ISH (angle) |
| 34 | E | DESSES | Addressees without a drawer in poet’s desks (6) / ( |
| Down | |||
| Clue No | Extra Letter | Solution / Entry | Clue (definition underlined, extra LET(T)ERS bracketed) / Logic/Parsing |
| 1 | L | ANCHOR STRING | A bit of naughty sniggering about section and radius for length of protective sheath (12, two words) / A + N (bit of Naughty) + CHOR_T_(L)ING (sniggering) around S and R (section and radius, respectively) |
| 2 | E | NIVOSE | Trailing stem climbs upwards with bare flowers in winter month (6) / (E)NIV (vine, or trailing stem, climbing upwards) + ( |
| 3 | D | AESC | Letter hidden in grade school (4) / hidden word in ‘grA(D)E SChool’ |
| 4 | T | ENMOVE | Couple of hours before noon, short time, very late finally for linesman to stir (6) / (T)EN (a couple of hours before 12.00, noon) + MO (moment, short time) + V (very) + E (final letter of latE) |
| 5 | O | MAMEES | Observe US mother casually getting up to hug American trees (6) / SEE (observe) + M(O)_M (US mother, casually) around (hugging) A (American) – all getting up to give MAMEES! |
| 7 | U | THROWN | Defeated – concede after terrible hurt (6) / THR(U) (anag, i.e. terribly, of HURT) + OWN (concede) |
| 8 | N | EYEBATHS | Intensive desire rising, principally entailing large Jewish measures in small vessels (8) / (N)EY (yen, or desire, rising) + E (principal letter of Entailing) + BATHS (largest Jewish measures of liquid) |
| 9 | C | NOBLER | Northern shoe mender, not essentially more generous (6) / N (northern) + (C)OB( |
| 10 | L | ENDORSEMENTS | Sadly resents old men producing sanctions (12) / anag, i.e. sadly, of RESENTS O(L)D MEN |
| 14 | U | SAVOIE | Exceptionally overcautious court corruptly excluded in French region (6) / another subtractive anagram – an ‘exceptional’ arrangement of OVE( |
| 17 | E | SPAYDS | Removed the ovaries of southern deer (6) / SPAY(E)D (removed the ovaries of) + S (Southern) |
| 18 | D | ARRIEROS | Muleteers journey surrounded by endless dark and frost (8) / AR (dARk, endlessly) + RI(D)E (journey) + ROS (fROSt, also endlessly!) |
| 21 | L | TOORIE | Implement evenly braided knob of Morag’s hair (6) / TOO(L) (implement) + RIE (even letters of bRaIdEd) |
| 22 | I | SCOWTH | More than half of Scots with plenty according to Holyrood (6) / SCO (more than half of SCOts) + W(I)TH |
| 23 | G | PHONED | Tried to communicate having gone into doctorate (6) / PH_D (doctorate) around (G)ONE |
| 24 | H | PATTEE | Support underlying track spreading towards the ends (6) / PAT(H) (track) + TEE (support) |
| 25 | T | RAFFLE | Rubbish once allowed in prize draw (6) / RAFF (rubbish, archaic, i.e. once) + LE(T) (allow |
| 29 | S | IRIS | Egyptian god abandoning ordinary appearance resembling rainbow (4) / ( |
Many thanks to mc_rapper67 for a lovely blog with its racy description the theme. The little group of EV bloggers doesn’t elicit many responses but I know you are appreciated (by the setters too). Indeed season’s greetings and best wishes to all EV setters, solvers, commenters and lurkers and especially to the bloggers – see you in the New Year.
Hi Chalicea – thanks for your kind words on the blog, and your encouraging words for the EV blogging team – much appreciated!