Hi everyone. This week we have a puzzle from Ifor which I much enjoyed, finding it nicely chewy in the clueing and with an endgame that didn’t give up its secrets too easily.
The preamble reads:
Solvers must highlight the name (6,4; separated by one cell) responsible for moving UP AND DOWN, as well as 22 cells in a closed loop which must be moved ROUND AND ROUND so as to create new words. The six fully-checked (unclued) three-letter entries in the final grid (some of which are unaffected by this change) might let you make OTHER RETURNS INSIDE. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.
Nothing too scary to start with (unless you count Ifor’s name at the top! — and no, going by my last encounter with this setter I was expecting tough but fair and ultimately doable). Anyway, it was set to be a normal solve with fun and games at the end.
I completed most of the grid then stared at it for a while, seeing if I could spot the name or any other clues. This yielded a nice ROUND nothing. I had a bit of a think (there’s a first time for everything) before having an idea (ditto) and speculatively googling “inventor or the elevator”. Back came the result ELISHA GRAVES OTIS. Well, there’s a 6,4 in there — so was this bingo? Yes, yes it was. There he is in the grid, going downwards: ELISHA OTIS.
Now for the ROUND AND ROUND. In keeping with the theme, after the little high from cracking the first bit I found myself in a trough going ROUND AND ROUND fruitlessly for a while. However, the setter has given us an anagram of some of the grid entries. Maybe looking at those would give me a clue.
In the initial grid the unclued entries are TID SHE RUN TAP IRE RET and in the final grid we are told the letters make OTHER RETURNS INSIDE. Checking off the letters common to each side left T A P from the original set, and O N S in the new one. So the A and the P in the unclued entries, both found in TAP, as well as one of the Ts must be part of the loop to be moved. With my attention now drawn to the TAP running down from 19, I spotted the nearby PAT and how it continues PATERN… and from there I spied the PATERNOSTERs going ROUND AND ROUND in a loop. Aha! Now it was just a case of moving them around until they made new real words in the grid. Very satisfying, and a sense of relief too because I’ve safely hopped off at my floor and managed to avoid going UP AND DOWN AND ROUND AND ROUND in endless circles. Hurrah!
Thanks to Ifor for the fun. Did this one floor you or leave you on a high?
| Clue No | ANSWER (FINAL GRID ENTRY) |
Clue, with definition underlined |
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and letters appearing in the ANSWER capitalised and emboldened | ||
| Across | ||
| 5a | LEO (LEP) |
Cancer’s subsequent stage loomed, upsetting the odds (3) |
| LoOmEd, making an anagram of (upsetting) the odd letters (the odds) | ||
| 8a | SCRAE | Fell races eroded rock layer at the foot of Ben Nevis (5) |
| Make an anagram of (fell) RACES. Scottish word for scree | ||
| 13a | TEPEE | Hide home ultimately put to sword (5) |
| The last letter of (ultimately) puT next to EPEE (sword) | ||
| 14a | SINLESS (AIRLESS) |
No good in records taking second without any offence (7) |
| G (good) left out of (no good in) SIN[g]LES (records), next to (taking) S (second) | ||
| 16a | ROSIN (EOSIN) |
Preparation for player’s radius bone wearing (5) |
| A charade of R (radius), OS (bone), and IN (wearing) | ||
| — | TID | — |
| 17a | ARÊTE (ARETT) |
Traverse hollow after a ridge (5) |
| TraversE without its inner letters (hollow) after ARE (a, metric measure) | ||
| 18a | SONERI | Cloth of gold lies with its end before one (6) |
| ONERS (lies) with its last letter moved to the front (with its end before) + I (one) | ||
| 19a | TENES | Forgotten woes of adolescents after name’s misplaced (5) |
| TEENS after N (name) is moved (’s misplaced) | ||
| — | SHE | — |
| 20a | APIAN (ANION) |
A soft ring fading out, like some buzzers (5) |
| A (from the clue) + PIAN[o] (soft) with O (ring) removed (fading out) | ||
| 22a | TAR | Take a short time to turn set on (3) |
| R (recipe, take) + A (from the clue) + an abbreviation for (short) T (time), all to be reversed (to turn) | ||
| 24a | MASS | Service put together after missing an ace (4) |
| [a]MASS (put together) having omitted (after missing) one of the As (an ace) | ||
| 25a | CARPET (CORNET) |
Three to one about right in beginning to classify favourite (6) |
| A (about) + R (right) in the first letter of (beginning to) Classify + PET (favourite) | ||
| 29a | FALTER (FALSER) |
Hesitate following change (6) |
| F (following) + ALTER (change) | ||
| — | RUN | — |
| 31a | NOW | Immediately got oneself wheels (3) |
| WON (got oneself) is reversed (wheels) | ||
| 32a | TEETERING (TETTERING) |
Wavering of support outside of the arena (10) |
| TEE (support), the outer letters of (outside of) ThE, and RING (arena) | ||
| 33a | STOW | Store crop for the crofters (4) |
| Two definitions, the second a Scottish (for the crofters) verb meaning to crop | ||
| 36a | T-CART | Western Region carriage for excursions (5) |
| The reversal of (western) TRACT (region) | ||
| 37a | HIT | This turns spectator’s head leaving club (3) |
| THI[s] is anagrammed (turns) with the first letter of spectator (spectator’s head) removed (leaving) | ||
| 38a | ANIS (ARIA) |
Fliers, as in cuckoo (4) |
| AS IN, anagrammed (cuckoo), with the whole clue also working as an extended definition | ||
| 39a | ISOLDE | Princess idolised after taking sides in struggle (6) |
| [i]DOLISE[d] after removing the first and last letters (after taking sides) rearranged (in struggle) | ||
| 40a | ORISON (PRISON) |
Prayer circulated indoors after burying dead (6) |
| An anagram of (circulated) IN[d]OORS having removed (after burying) D (dead) | ||
| 41a | ELASTICATE | Make bouncy castle time free, accepting adult with no money (10) |
| CASTLE TI[m]E anagrammed (free) with the inclusion of (accepting) A (adult) but with no M (money) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1d | STATESMANSHIP | Diplomacy in poor taste without keeping spy chief informed about political developments (13) |
| An anagram of (poor) TASTE, then SANS (without) containing (keeping) M (spy chief), then HIP (informed about political developments) | ||
| 2d | RELISH | Experience of the dead left heirs desolate (6) |
| An obsolete (of the dead) meaning of relish is to taste or experience. An anagram (… desolate) of L (left) + HEIRS | ||
| 3d | SPADOES | Castrated beasts without issue while hiding female deer (7) |
| SP (sine prole, without issue, Latin) followed by AS (while) containing (hiding) DOE (female deer) | ||
| 4d | TENANTS-AT-WILL | Letters may limit their stay, with Latin talents wasted (13) |
| An anagram of (… wasted) W (with) + LATIN TALENTS | ||
| 6d | ESTER (EATER) |
Condensation product fuses terminals internally (5) |
| Inner letters from (… internally) fusES TERminals | ||
| 7d | OINT (PINT) |
Translated into smear rendered in rhymes (4) |
| An anagram of (translated) INTO. Poetic (… in rhymes) variant of anoint (rendered) | ||
| 9d | CLOSE | Stop nearby (5) |
| A double definition | ||
| 10d | RESENT | Savour once freshly aroused (6) |
| RE–SENT (freshly aroused) | ||
| 11d | ASIDE | Casual arrogance dogging American private at West Point (5) |
| SIDE (casual arrogance, informal word for arrogance) following (dogging) A (American). A US (… at West Point) word for private or apart | ||
| 12d | ESNE | Slave given seventy lashes after being brought back (4) |
| GivEN SEventy contains (lashes) the answer when reversed (after being brought back) | ||
| 15d | TREACLE | Slops etc are left to go to the dogs (7) |
| ETC ARE L (left) is to be anagrammed (to go to the dogs) | ||
| — | TAP (SON) |
— |
| — | IRE | — |
| 21d | NEARCTIC | Centrica supply some northern parts (8) |
| CENTRICA made into an anagram (supply) | ||
| 23d | RINGTONE | Call warning of liquid nitrogen (8) |
| An anagram of (liquid) NITROGEN. Neat anagram! | ||
| 26d | TRIALS | Attempts three times seven (6) |
| TRIAL (three times) + S (seven, medieval Roman numeral) | ||
| 27d | RUN RIOT | Go wild in game with shot into middle of terrace (7, two words) |
| RU (game, Rugby Union) with an anagram of (shot) INTO and the middle of terRace | ||
| 28d | COTISE | Ordinary elements of society, not completely stupid (6) |
| All but one of (… not completely) the letters of (elements of) SOCIETy anagrammed (stupid) | ||
| 30d | TERNES (STERES) |
Plates with metal edges on either side, not plastic (6) |
| Outer letters of (edges on) EitheR SidE NoT, anagrammed (plastic) | ||
| — | RET | — |
| 34d | NADA | Nothing left from star tennis player (4) |
| L (left) taken from NADA[l] (star tennis player) | ||
| 35d | RIOT (RIPT) |
Uproar in small group when temperature falls below zero (4) |
| TRIO (small group) when T (temperature) falls below O (zero) | ||
I realy enjoyed this one. Thanks Ifor, thanks Kitty 🙂
Thanks to both. Kitty – your approach to finding the rotation was exactly what I had in mind when providing the phrase, so it’s good to see it explained so clearly.
Ifor