Enigmatic Variations No. 1407: Oliver by The Ace of Hearts

An educational (for me) solve from the Ace of Hearts this week…will OLIVER leave us asking for more?!…

The preamble states that:

“In OLIVER, four clues are normal and their answers are associated with a keyword which must be highlighted in the completed grid. From the answer to every other clue, a letter must be deleted wherever it appears before entry; definitions refer to the full unmutilated answer, wordplay and numbers in brackets to the grid entry. The omitted letters in clue order give the etymology of the keyword.”

My approach to this kind of ‘removed letter’ device is usually to try a bit of cold solving and either pencil-work or mental/alphabetical arithmetic to get to a point where coinciding letters in crossing solutions have to be a particular letter, usually meaning that I can make an educated guess as to where the beginning or remainder of those words fit…and so on, until a bit of traction is gained…(if that makes sense?! A bit like a game of Connect 4 with letters, dropping them down from the top, to see where they match the acrosses … no, that makes even less sense!…never mind…)

The fact that there are four normal clues complicates things a bit, but after a couple of runs through I had a few that were obviously too long for their slots, and would need a letter or letters removing, and hence some of the aforementioned juggling.

Slow but steady progress was made, until I eventually hit on a couple that just fitted – 23D HOT DOG, and 36A ALLEYOOP. I resisted the urge to just Go-ogle these terms, as they weren’t completely familiar to me, but my solving notes have a questioning ‘surfing/skateboarding?‘ at this point. So after an hour or so, helped by these and the long anagram at 28A (F)OR ALL THE WORLD, I had the bottom half pretty much complete, but only 2D (F)EINT in the top half.

A few more sessions later, probably totalling another hour, and I had most of the top half done, including 10A WIPEOUT and 6A FAKIE – so again looks like we are in the realms of my earlier guess. I also remembered to check out the ‘omitted letters in clue order’, and started to piece together something like ‘NICKNAME OF ALAN G?LF??DUS SKATEBOARDER.

At this point I did succumb to a bit of r-e-search, to discover there is a US SKATEBOARDER called ALAN GELFAND who, around 1978, invented the (now ubiquitous) ‘flip/jump’ move which was eponymously named the ‘OLLIE‘ from his nickname (also explaining the title).

FAKIE, WIPEOUT, HOTDOG and ALLEYOOP are all skateboarding terms, and the OLLIE can be found in the top left quadrant – tipped up/backwards in the style of a board being flipped up in said move!

As I said, all educational to me, as I missed out on the skateboarding thing in my youth – I’m only 4 years younger than Alan G, but I obviously had my nose in too many books at the time, and I have probably travelled a total of about 200 shaky metres on skateboards in my entire life! My teenage son and his mates are more into scootering and bunny-hops than skateboards and ollies.

I can’t see any particular significance of the date of publication – i.e. there doesn’t seem to have been a ‘Eureka’ moment from young OLLIE when he did his first move exactly forty years ago in Oct/Nov 1979, as it seems to have been more of an evolutionary thing – so maybe this is just a homage from the Ace of Hearts to a previous (and/or current?) passion?

I didn’t find the clueing too difficult – certainly not at the harder end of the EV spectrum, but things were definitely complicated by the constant mental adjustment for word lengths and the uncertainly of how many times an omitted letter might occur. Looking back, the clues for the boarding terms do have some helpful pointers – ALLEYOOP mentions a ‘sporting move’, FAKIE even mentions a ‘movement on deck’, and to HOTDOG is probably a reasonably well-known surfing/skateboarding term to most people(?), although I am more recently familiar with it as an FI winner’s celebratory spins in front of the grandstands…or am I confusing HOTDOGs with DONUTS in this case?!

Some relatively obscure words – KENSPECK, ROKELAY, WENTLETRAP, PALUDAL, DETORTION, INCULT and LARNAKES all needed looking up for confirmation – but there was enough in the wordplay and crossers to help get to them, and it also helped when I eventually got the other long anagram at 16A.

Thanks to the Ace of Hearts for an interesting challenge, and hopefully I have it all covered off below.

 

Across
Clue No	Deleted letter – Original Solution	Entry	Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing (wordplay leads to adjusted entry, not original solution)
1	N – SEEDPLANT	SEEDPLAT	Flowering shrub noticed by old plot of ground! (8) / SEE + D (notice + d ?!) + PLAT (archaic for plot of ground)
6	(Thematic/normal clue)	FAKIE	One stopping cook’s movement on deck (5) / FAK_E (cook, as in cook the books) around (stopped by) I (one)
10	(Thematic/normal clue)	WIPEOUT	South African man on record backtracking in intelligence disaster (7) / WI_T (intelligence) around PE (EP, extended play record, backtracking) + OU (a man, Afrikaans)
12	I – ELDIN	ELDN	Departs for Australia in style to get fuel in Perth (4) / EL(A)N (style), replacing A (Australia) with D (departs) = ELDN
13	C – INCULT	INULT	Rarely coarse, son shuns offensive action (5) / IN(S)ULT – offensive action, shunned by S (son)
14	K – LARNAKES	LARNAES	An earl’s assorted ornamental chests (7) / anag, i.e. assorted, of AN EARLS
15	N – WENTLETRAP	WETLETRAP	The French on water net shellfish (9) / WET (water) + LE (the, in French) + TRAP (net)
16	A – DISSERVICEABLE	DISSERVICEBLE	Injurious putting Catholic among radical disbelievers (13) / C (Catholic) inserted into DISSERVI_EBLE (anag, i.e. radical, of DISBELIEVERS)
17	M – ESTEEMED	ESTEEED	Respected horse injected with ecstasy after end of race (7) / E (end letter of racE) + STEE_D (horse) around (injected with) E (ecstasy)
20	E – CORNEAL GRAFT	CORNAL GRAFT	Order Lorcan to work hard after eye operation (11, two words) / CORNAL (anag, i.e. order, of LORCAN) + GRAFT (work hard)
25	O – DETORTION	DETRTIN	Journalist returns with translator initially to investigate network unravelling, once (7) / DE (Ed, editor or journalist, returns) + TR (translator) + TIN (initial letters of ‘To Investigate Network’)
28	F – FOR ALL THE WORLD	OR ALL THE WORLD	Precisely tell old Harrow frolics (13, four words) / anag, i.e. frolics, of TELL OLD HARROW
29	A – TANGLEMENT	TNGLEMENT	Explosive catching leg badly, people in perplexed state (9) / TN_T (explosive) around (catching) (GLE (anag, i.e. badly, of LEG) + MEN (people)
31	L – DALESMAN	DAESMAN	District Attorney names criminal northerner (7) / DA (District Attorney) + ESMAN (anag, i.e. criminal, of NAMES)
32	A – PALUDAL	PLUDL	Place Deputy Lieutenant around university concerned with boggy ground (5) / PL (place) + DL (Deputy Lieutenant), around U (university)
33	N – OLENT	OLET	Aromatic odour primarily to hire (4) / O (primary letter of Odour) + LET (to hire)
34	G – GUARANIS	UARANIS	Indian princesses east of Ukraine for foreign bread (7) / UA (International Vehicle Reg. code for Ukraine) + RANIS (indian princesses)
35	E – GLEEMAN	GLMAN	Old musician once set off about lecturer getting married (5) / G_AN (archaic for gone, or set off) around L (lecturer) + M (married)
36	(Thematic/normal clue)	ALLEYOOP	Sporting move to roar back into a headless loop (8) / A + LLEY (yell, or roar, back) + (L)OOP (headless loop)
Down
Clue No	Deleted letter – Original Solution	Entry	Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing (wordplay leads to adjusted entry, not original solution)
1	L – SWINDLER	SWINDER	Conman to persuade socialists to go back round (7) / S_DER (reds, or Socialists, back) aound WIN (persuade)
2	F – FEINT	EINT	Pretend a German is on time (4) / EIN (a, in German) + T (time)
3	A – DELAPSE	DELPSE	Sink down, not currently dead, sleep uneasily (6) / D (dead) + ELPSE (anag, i.e. uneasily, of SLEEP)
4	N – LUCERNE	LUCERE	Solved clue about cattle food (6) / LUCE (anag, i.e. solved, of CLUE) + RE (about)
5	D – TWADDLING	TWALING	Chattering in some places expressing surprise return into ring (7) / T_ING (ring) around WAL (law, interjection, as in lord! – expressing surprise – returning)
6	U – FORECOURT	FORECORT	Ancient vestibule beneficial to gigolo, say, taking out soprano (8) / FOR (beneficial to) E(S)CORT (gigolo, removing S – soprano)
7	S – ASSENTER	AENTER	One who acquiesces about to join in (6) / A (about) + ENTER (to join in)
8	S – IDEALIST	IDEALIT	Dreamer dismounted beneath view (7) / IDEA (view, opinion) + LIT (dismounted)
9	K – KENSPECK	ENSPEC	Recognisable Scottish entity heads to party’s European congress (6) / ENS (entity, being) + PEC (first letters, or heads, of ‘Party’s European Congress’)
11	A – PULSATOR	PULSTOR	Machine turned up to deposit nearly fifty inside (7) / PU (turned ‘up’) + L (fifty) + STOR(E) (nearly all of store, or deposit)
18	T – ENTITLEMENT	ENILEMEN	Something which one can claim, topless Eileen excited males (8) / ENILE (anag, i.e. excited, of (E)ILEEN – Eileen topless) = MEN (males)
19	E – AFTERSUN	AFTRSUN	Skin ointment a female turns out (7) / A + F (female) + TRSUN (anag, i.e. out, of TURNS)
20	B – CORNBALL	CORNALL	American boor losing weight in English county (7) / CORN(W)ALL (English county, losing W – weight)
21	O – AUTOMATA	AUTMATA	Robots say, allegedly tested at malls throughout Utah, are originally rejected (7) / reversed (rejected) initial (original letters of ‘Allegedly Tested At Malls Throughout Utah, Are’
22	A – HANDCLASP	HNDCLSP	American welcome in hotel, North Dakota, calls up regularly (7) / H (hotel) + ND (North Dakota) + CLSP (regular letters from ‘CaLlS uP’)
23	(Thematic/normal clue)	HOTDOG	Show off sausage roll (6) / double defn. – to HOTDOG can be to show off; and a HOTDOG can be a bread roll with a sausage in it
24	R – ALLSTAR	ALLSTA	Having notable players in football stadium (6) / hidden ‘word’ in ‘footbALL STAdium’
26	D – EDENTAL	EENTAL	Like sloths perhaps climbing behind small space inside (6) / E_TAL (late, or behind time, climbing) around EN (small space)
27	E – ROKELAY	ROKLAY	Scottish woman’s outer garment is fine in right situation (6) / R (right) + LAY (situation), around OK (fine)
30	R – RADIO	ADIO	Transmit recorded sound waves not socially acceptable (4) / A(U)DIO (recorded sound waves, losing U – ‘socially acceptable, opposite of non-U!)