Hi all. I always enjoy blocked puzzles by Samuel, but as a very recent dabbler behind the bars, this is the first time I’ve tackled an EV by him. From VACANT last time around, this one is UNTITLED. Well, let’s see what we’re missing this time* …
The preamble reads:
In UNTITLED, six answers must be entered in keeping with a thematic rejection; clues for these answers contain wordplay for the grid entry, and numbers in brackets refer to entry lengths. The six unclued entries form part of a thematic group; their unchecked and mutually checking letters could give IRONY IF PERK. Solvers must enter a single letter in the barred-off central cell, thus allowing a relevant ten-letter word to be highlighted. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended; one answer is an abbreviation, and another can be found in Collins.
To procrastinate get my bearings, the first thing I did was highlight the unclued entries like so:
The first “thematic rejection” I managed was over in the NW corner with AVEC PLAI fitting the wordplay for AVEC PLAISIR. Removing SIR – a title – wasn’t a great surprise, but it was [SIR]TUIN that confirmed it would always be the same removal. A big help, especially in sorting out the troublesome entry which really felt like it wanted to be UNEDABLE.
With much of the top and right filling up, I spotted G-THOOD as part of the SW-NE diagonal. Aha! Clearly, KNIGHTHOOD is our word to be highlighted.
The first unclued entry was looking very much like HAWKING. Since KNIGHTHOOD without KNIGHT leaves HOOD, and HAWKING without KING (not only a title, but a figure that might bestow a knighthood!) leaves HAW, both real words, I then spent a while fruitlessly mithering about the unclued thematics all having titles which could be removed.
When at a dead end, go back and try a different path. A sudden thought: Stephen Hawking isn’t a sir, but you’d really think he would be, so … a quick check and, yes, he reportedly declined a knighthood. The fog lifts.
A web search for others who turned down a knighthood and, with the help of that and those IRONY IF PERK letters, soon they were all in place. (I smiled “of course!” at BOWIE, because our setter is on record as being a fan.) And now all that remained was solving those few last clues to complete the grid.
The UNTITLED luminaries:
David BOWIE
Michael FARADAY
Graham GREENE
Stephen HAWKING
Rudyard KIPLING
Harold PINTER
*It appears I may be missing a couple of brain cells – think I got my money’s-worth from this one. Thanks to Samuel for a really enjoyable puzzle.
| Clue No | GRID ENTRY/
Defined ANSWER with THEMATIC REJECTION |
Clue with definition |
| Explanation | ||
| Across | ||
| 1a | AVEC PLAI/
AVEC PLAISIR |
Happily average activity not unknown in the Channel Islands (8, two words) |
| AVE (average), then PLA[y] (activity) without (not) Y (mathematical unknown) inside CI (the Channel Islands) | ||
| 7a | TUIN/
SIRTUIN |
Heartless input riled aging regulator (4) |
| IN[p]UT without the middle letter (heartless …) anagrammed (riled). Sirtuins are proteins involved in cell metabolism and ageing | ||
| 10a | MOOED | Anger about English – Jersey might have done this (5) |
| MOOD around (about) E (English) | ||
| 11a | OCS/
SIROCS |
Blows over Lewis? (3) |
| O (over) + CS (CS Lewis). Variant of siroccos, defined in Collins | ||
| 12a | TROTTOIR | Disturbance wrong over place to walk (8) |
| RIOT (disturbance) + TORT (wrong), all reversed (over) | ||
| 14a | PEREIA | Each seminar regularly providing parts for six-footers? (6) |
| PER (each) and even letters of (… regularly) sEmInAr. Thoraxes in Crustacea | ||
| 15a | GAEL | Scot perhaps from East taken in by short letter (4) |
| E (East) in (taken in by) GAL (Gal. is the abbreviation for (short) Paul’s Letter to the Galatians) | ||
| 17a | SHEATH | Quiet about police finding somewhere to keep weapon (6) |
| SH (quiet) around (about) HEAT (police) | ||
| 19a | EST | Set up development programme (3) |
| SET anagrammed (up). This programme | ||
| 20a | PRYS | Former reward from peer succeeded (4) |
| PRY (peer) + S (succeeded). An old spelling of price or prize | ||
| 21a | EVENKI | Still I will capture king for Russians (6) |
| EVEN (still) and I contain (will capture) K (king). Indigenous Russians | ||
| 22a | INTAKE | Cheat’s amount imbibed (6) |
| A double definition. INTAKE is a dialect word meaning a cheat or cheater | ||
| 23a | TWIG | See model, not giddy on vacation (4) |
| TWIG[gy] (model) without the outer letters of (… on vacation) GiddY | ||
| 24a | GIN | Trap game (3) |
| A double definition, the game being GIN rummy | ||
| 26a | GEDDA | Good, book tenor! (5) |
| G (good) + EDDA (book). Nicolai Gedda, Swedish operatic tenor | ||
| 27a | REGAIN | Take back island seized by president (all but one acre) (6) |
| I (island) in (seized by) RE[a]GAN (president) without one (all but one) A (acre) | ||
| 29a | RAPT | Snatched and transported (4) |
| A double definition. Snatched or carried away (archaic), or transported or enraptured | ||
| 32a | NIAMEY | Recollect the ancient ocean city (6) |
| Reverse (recollect): YE (the, ancient) and MAIN (ocean). The capital of Niger | ||
| 34a | YOKE-TOED | Took eye off dead – that’s parrot-like? (8) |
| TOOK EYE anagrammed (off) + D (dead) | ||
| 35a | ENS/
SIRENS |
Alarms all players but west? (3) |
| Three of the four bridge players, W, E, N and S | ||
| 36a | LITER | US measure healthy run (5) |
| LITE (healthy, supposedly) + R (run(s), cricket) | ||
| 37a | ANNABEL | Girl can nab elegant clothes (7) |
| cAN NAB Elegant contains (clothes) this girl | ||
| 38a | DARS/
SIRDARS |
Lacking energy, challenges military leaders (4) |
| DAR[e]S (challenges) without (lacking) E (energy) | ||
| 39a | UNDEABLE/
UNDESIRABLE |
Ban duel, sadly, with earl lacking appeal (8) |
| BAN DUEL anagrammed (sadly) with E (earl) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1d | AHOY | Call to hail a cyclist (4) |
| A (from the clue) + HOY (Chris, cyclist) | ||
| 2d | VACUA | Partly evacuate spaces (5) |
| Contained within (partly) eVACUAte | ||
| 3d | EWS | Key West oddly rejected old railway company (3) |
| [k]E[y] W[e]S[t] with odd letters deleted (oddly rejected). Abbreviation of English, Welsh and Scottish Railway | ||
| 4d | PICENE | Compound found in conifers, mostly over Nebraska (6) |
| PICEa (conifers) without the last letter (mostly) preceding (over) NE (Nebraska, abbreviation) | ||
| 5d | AGREES | Concurs about entering dates (6) |
| RE (about) inside (entering) AGES (dates) | ||
| 6d | LOTAHS | Pots many either side of Alex Higgins, initially (6) |
| LOTS (many) around (either side of) the first letters of (… initially) Alex Higgins | ||
| 7d | TOTO | Dog bone, old (4) |
| TOT (a bone, slang) + O (old) | ||
| 8d | IDIOT | Nana’s tense after short peculiar expression (5) |
| T (tense) following (after) IDIOm (expression peculiar to a language) truncated (short) | ||
| 9d | NORTH SEA | Another’s swimming in water (8, two words) |
| ANOTHER’S anagrammed (swimming) | ||
| 10d | MOISTING | Will’s making wet cat outside sit in rubbish? (8) |
| MOG (cat) around (outside) an anagram of (… rubbish) SIT IN. Shakespearean use of moist as a transitive verb | ||
| 13d | REWEIGH | Occasionally sing where playing around, and try to deliver mass once more? (7) |
| Alternate letters of (occasionally) sInG with an anagram (… playing) of WHERE around it | ||
| 16d | SEIGNIOR | Lord injured in orgies (8) |
| An anagram of (injured) IN ORGIES | ||
| 18d | BETRAYED | Something risky, and two little men sold out (8) |
| BET (something risky) and RAY ED (two shortened – little – men’s names) | ||
| 20d | PTERYLA | Drill new layer in piece of skin (7) |
| PT (Physical Training, drill) and an anagram of (new) LAYER | ||
| 25d | IDAEAN | Aide edited article from particular part of Mediterranean island (6) |
| An anagram of (… edited) AIDE + AN (grammatical article). Of Mount Ida in Crete, or that near Troy | ||
| 28d | EBOLA | Hide out from star getting disease (5) |
| Den (hide) removed from (out from) [Den]EBOLA (star in the constellation Leo) | ||
| 30d | PANEL | Criticise the Spanish board (5) |
| PAN (criticise) + EL (Spanish for “the”) | ||
| 31d | NETS | Cook’s place to practice some revolutionary sustenance? (4) |
| Part of (some) the reversal of (revolutionary) suSTENance, Cook here being the cricketer | ||
| 33d | ISLE | Passage, it’s said, that must be reached by boat? (4) |
| A homophone of (… it’s said) AISLE | ||
| 35d | EBB | Go out lifting rubber trousers (3) |
| ruBBEr reversed (lifting) contains (trousers) our final answer | ||