Autumn and an association to find – 11 unclued entries which need to associated with a word from a normal clue. The other clues have an extra letter in the wordplay – across give the nature of the associations, down a 12th (well almost) it needs a jumble of a clued entry to be added and then the 12th association is in the grid. As preambles go pretty complex.
As puzzles go, pretty straight forward. Lots of clues fell at the first pass. The unclued entries appeared to be names.
The across clues (additional letters) spell PATRON SAINTS
The unclued entries are just so – I never realised quite how many there are!
The down clues spell OUR LADY OF LOR which when a jumble of 6dn is added becomes OUR LADY OF LORETO : Patron saint of AIRMEN (3dn)
And that was that – whilst the blog appears the day after ALL SAINTS DAY, the puzzle by then will be almost 2 weeks old.
Many thanks Piccadilly
Key: * anagram; Rev. reversed; Underline definition; First column saint associated with a word in the normal clue or extra letter in wordplay.
| Across | |
| AGATHA | 1 Crazy Rafe nurses party hat (6) |
| (rafe)* around do (party) = FEDORA | |
| 8 Make love with salesman after difficulty (5) | |
| P | Ado (difficulty) + rep (salesman) = ADORE |
| 9 Debauched man aroused, ignoring son and daughter (4) | |
| A | (aroused – s – d)* = ROUE |
| 10 Convicted smuggling diamonds (3) | |
| T | Hidden ConvICTEd = ICE |
| 11 Shun afternoon in Melbourne? Briefly, I would (5) | |
| R | Arvo(afternoon in Melbourne) + I’d = AVOID |
| 14 The pet trophy regularly given for canines, perhaps (5) | |
| O | thE pEt TrOpHy = TEETH |
| BARBARA | 15 Watchful chap beginning to inspect gunners (3) |
| I (beginning to inspect) + RA (gunners) = IRA | |
| 16 Honda swerved about for special purpose (5, two words) | |
| N | (Honda)* + c (about) = AD HOC |
| MICHAEL | 17 Second of grocers ejected from Royal was equal to Shakespeare (4) |
| Regal (royal) – r (second of grocers) = EGAL | |
| ISIDORE | 18 Farmers finally assembled, going west to find ram (4) |
| S (farmers finally) + Rev. met (assembled) = STEM | |
| 22 Tailor lugs in cloth for turban (5) | |
| S | (lugsin)* = LUNGI |
| FLORIAN | 24 Last of firemen leaves Irishman to find source of water (3) |
| Sean (Irishman) – n (last of firemen) = SEA | |
| 25 Old country-dweller seeing game Lara backed (5) | |
| A | RU (game) + Rev. Lara = RURAL |
| GEORGE | 28 Leaders of scouts assembled tents efficiently: division fully content (5) |
| Start of Scouts Assembled Tents Efficiently: Division = SATED | |
| 29 American soldier joins African Union in German district (3) | |
| I | GI (American soldier) + AU (African union) = GAU |
| 31 Stir in gel – it’s sticky (4) | |
| N | (in gel)* = GLEI |
| 32 South American rodent has Japanese sea-bream in stomach? The reverse (5) | |
| T | Gut (stomach) in Tai (Japanese sea bream) = AGUTI |
| 33 Abnormal contraction of pupil I miss so badly (6) | |
| S | (I miss so)* = MIOSIS |
| Down | |
| DOROTHEA | 1 Marvellous florists arranging bouquets, primarily (3) |
| Florists Arranged Bouquets initially = FAB | |
| 2 Robot I trained to fly in a circle (5) | |
| O | (robot I)* = ORBIT |
| 3 Display list of options for pilots (6) | |
| U | Air (display) + mebu (list of options) = AIRMEN |
| 4 Spenser’s watches are round a wrist (6) | |
| R | A(are) + (a wrist)* = AWAITS |
| 5 Anti-aircraft gun that is under a tree (6) | |
| L | Larch (tree) + ie (that is) = ARCHIE |
| DAVID | 6 Part of foot gets poets wrangling internally (3) |
| (poets – ps)* = TOE | |
| 7 Dance in Hawaii close to large rubber tree (4) | |
| A | Hula (dance in Hawaii) + e (close to large) = HULE |
| 12 Odd course could be suitable (8) | |
| D | (odd course)* = DECOROUS |
| 13 Coming through country of France, celebrate! (7) | |
| Y | Pays (country of France) + sing (celebrate) = PASSING |
| 19 Radio I’m tuning somewhere above ground (6) | |
| O | (radio Im)* = MIDAIR |
| 20 Ornament border of soft fancy ruff on the Parisian (6) | |
| F | P (soft) + (ruff)* + LE (THE Parisian) = PURFLE |
| 21 English and Low Latin included in strictly formal entrance exam (6) | |
| L | E (English) + ll (low latin) in prim (formal) = PRELIM |
| NICHOLAS | 23 Cradling three could make children this big (5) |
| (cradling three – children)* = GREAT | |
| EULALIA | 26 What sailors loaded left for Cuba slowly (5) |
| Cargo (what sailors loaded) swapping l for c = LARGO | |
| IGNATIUS | 27 Head of soldiers gets drink in Cheshire town (4) |
| S (head of soldiers) + ale(drink) = SALE | |
| 29 Turn east to old creek in Shetland (3) | |
| O | Go (tirn) + e (east) + o(old) = GEO |
| 30 Goblin deprives local birds of oxygen (3) | |
| R | Ornis (local birds) – o (oxygen) = NIS |
We enjoyed learning about all those patron saints – many of them new to us. Many thanks, Piccadilly and Twencelas, of course..