Just like London buses, you wait ages for a Piccadilly to blog (EV 949 in 2011, EV 1291 in 2017), and then three come along in quick succession (EV 1419 in February this year, EV 1431 in May and now EV 1443). Where is this particular bus taking us?…
The preamble states that:
“Nine clues in GIRL SANG HYMN require one word to be replaced by a related word. Single words linking each removed word and replacement can be found as superfluous words in another nine clues. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”
I didn’t clock it at the time, but – very rarely for an EV – this means that there is actually no manipulation to be done with the grid – all the thematic work is in deciphering those clues.
There will be some brighter sparks than me who anagrammed the title straight off and took the ‘Oxo cube’ straight to Mile End, but it took me a few twists and turns to get there, on the No. 25 bus!…
Some quick maths at the start – 9 replacements and 9 superfluous words = 18 thematic clues, from 42, leaving 24 normal. Good odds for some straight solving, and see if any thematics pop out of the woodwork…
The first superfluous word I chanced on was HOOK in 26A, interrupting the hidden NISSE. The cleverly distracting Captain next to it sent thoughts the way of Peter Pan, but I was brought back on course by APPLES at 21D looking like it should help with an anagram of ARTISTS, and PEARS at 15A being superfluous.
After half an hour or so, and with most of the bottom half done, I realised the theme was Cockney Rhyming Slang (GIRL SANG HYMN!), and it all sort of fell in to place. Nothing too obscure, but I did jump to a conclusion on seeing BREAD as superfluous at 5D and assuming it made up BROWN BREAD = DEAD. (Cue much searching when blogging to find the corresponding BROWN to replace with DEAD – I should ‘ave used my ‘loaf’!)
- 14A BUTCHER’S + HOOK (from 26A) = LOOK (anagram fodder for OKLAHOMA)
- 16A BORACIC + LINT (from 36A = SKINT (anagram fodder for STINK)
- 17A PORKY + PIE (from 8D) = LIE (anagram fodder for UGLIEST)
- 28A PLATES of MEAT (from 18A) = FEET (anagram fodder in FIFTEEN)
- 1D RUBY + MURRAY (from 13D) = CURRY (subtractive anagram fodder for CYMRU)
- 3D DAISY + ROOTS (from 9A) = BOOTS (subtractive anagram fodder for SEASIDE)
- 19D BARNET + FAIR (from 19A) = HAIR (losing H to give AIR in FUNFAIR)
- 21D APPLES and PEARS (from 15A) = STAIRS (partial anagram fodder for ARTISTS)
- 24D LOAF of BREAD (from 5D) = HEAD (indicating first letter of Bakery)
The least familiar to me was DAISY ROOTS for BOOTS, but after an hour or so – and in one sitting, which is very rare for me with an EV – I had a complete grid and was feeling very Jacob* with myself.
Shabba Ranks** to Piccadilly for a fun (and relatively gentle) solve, with some nice surface reads – 26A Captain Hook capturing a seasick goblin; 13D – Andy Murray injuring his abdomen in some net-play; 2A referring to the book ‘Roots‘, about slavery.
I trust all is clear below…
* (Jacob) Rees-Mogg = REALLY SMUG (?!)
**Shabba Ranks = ‘thanks’!
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Extra/replaced word(s) | Entry | Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing |
|
| 1 | CONSEQUENCES | Study successions and effects (12) / CON (study) + SEQUENCES (successions) |
||
| 9 | ROOTS -> 3D | YOKE | During my book Roots we regularly viewed slavery (4) / regularly viewed letters in ‘mY bOoK wE’ |
|
| 11 | MUNRO | Mourn unfortunate Scottish mountaineer (5) / anag, i.e. unfortunate, of MOURN |
||
| 14 | BUTCHERS -> LOOK | OKLAHOMA | A butcher’s ham served in state (8) / anag, i.e. served, of A + LOOK + HAM |
|
| 15 | PEARS -> 21D | REEST | Pears become rancid, damaging trees (5) / anag, i.e. damaging, of TREES |
|
| 16 | BORACIC -> SKINT | STINK | Boracic fluid making foul smell (5) / anag, i.e. fluid, of SKINT |
|
| 17 | PORKY -> LIE | UGLIEST | Porky guts wobbling, most repulsive (7) / anag, i.e. wobbling, of LIE + GUTS |
|
| 18 | MEAT -> 28A | EERIE | Daughter cut meat from deer: that is strangely frightening (5) / ( |
|
| 19 | FAIR -> 19D | FRIDGE | Fair start to frost on hill?range, it keeps things cool (6) / F (first letter of, or start to, Frost) + RIDGE (hill range) |
|
| 21 | ADA | First man spends money getting girl (3) / ADA( |
||
| 23 | GEE | Move on expressing enthusiasm (3) / double defn. to GEE a horse is to ask it to move on; and GEE! can be an interjection expressing enthusiasm |
||
| 25 | THRUMS | Repeats monotonously ‘Time to get hot drinks’ (6) / T (time) + H (hot) + RUMS (drinks) |
||
| 26 | HOOK -> 14A | NISSE | Friendly goblin captured by Captain Hook is seasick (5) / hidden word in, i.e. captured by, ‘captaiN IS SEasick’ |
|
| 28 | PLATES -> FEET | FIFTEEN | Cardinal giving five-dollar bill to cover broken plates (7) / FI_N (American slang for five-dollar bill, from Yiddish finf, for five!) around FTEE (anag, i.e. broken, of FEET) |
|
| 31 | FAUNA | Animals in region about to follow Roman rural deity (5) / FAUN (Roman rural deity) + A (about) |
||
| 32 | LINDA | Girl left state, dumping boy (5) / L (left) + IND( |
||
| 34 | ANNOTATE | Supply with comments backing a heavyweight in gambling stake (8) / AN_TE (gambling stake) around NOTA (A TON, heavy weight, backing) |
||
| 35 | SENSE | Appreciate being in Syracuse on vacation (5) / S_E (SyracusE, on vacation) around ENS (being, existence) |
||
| 36 | LINT -> 16A | TARP | Waterproof lint fabric, in short, required at first to plug source of water (4) / TA_P (source of water) around (plugged by) R (first letter of Required) |
|
| 37 | REPERCUSSIVE | Super service broadcast repeated (12) / anag, i.e. broadcast, of SUPER SERVICE |
||
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Extra/replaced word(s) | Entry | Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing |
|
| 1 | RUBY -> CURRY | CYMRU | Ruby jogged miles for run leading to Wales (5) / anag, i.e. jogged, of CUR( |
|
| 2 | OOZE | Drink heavily, black out: Scotsman’s nap! (4) / ( |
||
| 3 | DAISY -> BOOTS | SEASIDE | Pitched idea to bosses: sacking Daisy working in coastal area (7) / anag, i.e. pitched, of IDEA ( |
|
| 4 | EMOTE | Some came to meeting uplifted to express exaggerated joy (5) / reversed and hidded word, i.e. ‘some’ and ‘uplifted’, in camE TO MEeting’ |
||
| 5 | BREAD -> 24D | UNLIT | Dark bread, last of pumpernickel one’s eaten (5) / UN_IT (one) around (eating) L (last letter of pumpernickeL) |
|
| 6 | ERASED | Rubbed out article in Gaelic by leader of Dáil (6) / ER_SE (Gaelic) around A (article), plus D (leading letter of Dail) |
||
| 7 | CHOIR | One engaged in routine task failing to finish part of church (5) / CHO_R(E) (routine task, failing to finish) around I (one) |
||
| 8 | PIE -> 17A | SHAKERS | Gentlemen providing fish pie for independent American religious sect (7) / S( |
|
| 10 | KEELIE | Glaswegian tough, slippery fellow, wears knife oddly (6) / K_IE (odd letters of KnIfE) around (worn by) EEL (slippery fellow) |
||
| 12 | UKASES | Lawsuits Conservative’s cancelled under this country’s arbitrary decrees (6) / UK (this country, where the puzzle is published!) + ( |
||
| 13 | MURRAY -> 1D | AMNIA | Initially Andy Murray misjudged net-play, injuring abdominal membranes (5) / inirial letters of Andy Misjudged Net-play Injuring Abdominal |
|
| 19 | BARNET -> HAIR | FUNFAIR | Five from Germany and Hungary leaving Barnet find amusements here (7) / FUNF (German for five) + ( |
|
| 20 | STILTS | Tall supports of hut on board (6) / S_S (steamship) around TILT (hut), i.e. the hut is ‘on board’ the steamship |
||
| 21 | APPLES -> STAIRS | ARTISTS | Painters arranged apples around middle of platter (7) / ARTIS_S (anag, i.e. arranged, of STAIRS) around T (middle letter of plaTter) |
|
| 22 | DUENNA | Girl, essentially rude, upset governess (6) / ANNE (girl) + UD (essence, or middle letters, of rUDe), all upset to give DUENNA |
||
| 23 | GIANT | Soldier supported by another – he’s enormous (5) / GI (American soldier) on top of (supported by) ANT (another type of soldier!) |
||
| 24 | LOAF -> HEAD | BEATER | Assistant at pheasant-shoot providing loaf from bakery and an apple, perhaps (6) / B (head, or first letter, of Bakery) + EATER (type of apple, as opposed to a cooker!) |
|
| 27 | SUNUP | Dawn’s second article in French for all to see on page (5) / S (second0 + UN (indefinite article, in French) + U (film classification, for all to see) + P (page) |
||
| 28 | FRANC | Fellow smuggled cocaine making money, once (5) / F (fellow) + Ran (smuggled) + C (cocaine) |
||
| 29 | FLEES | Lecturer trapped by fairies disappears (5) / F_EES (fairies) around (trapping) L (lecturer) |
||
| 30 | NAPPE | Sheet with edges of purple beneath Australian’s bedroll (5) / NAP (Australian’s bedroll) + PE (edges of PurplE) |
||
| 33 | DERV | See some wine served up: put it in the tank (4) / V (vide, Latin, see!) + RED (wine), all reversed (served up) |
||
Yes, what a pleasure to have a crossword where we could simply solve the clues, it’s a relief after crosswords with misprints, extra/missing words/letters, clues that swap words/letters and the myriad gimmicks we are regularly faced with, but, of course, it is a challenge for the setter to present his theme and include it solely in the grid – and I have to admit that we completed the grid without really understanding what was going on (or needing to understand it). Thanks to Piccadilly and mc_rapper67.
Yes I completely agree – a real pleasure to solve from start to finish. I did get the theme quite early on (I think subconsciously connecting APPLES & PEARS did it) and then the title confirmed it. It’s quite nice to have a puzzle that you don’t have to keep coming back to during the week and can just polish off in one session. Thanks Piccadilly & mc_rapper67.
This is one of the most entertaining EV puzzles I have solved since I started on them in March. The theme was right up my field of wheat, and the only phrase I didn’t know was Ruby Murray for curry. I made sure that I found all nine triplets before I put this down, although that was an optional exercise.
The only downside was that this was over too quickly. If I had had to discover and learn more of those weird and interesting phrases I would have got more out of this.
Thanks to Piccadilly and mc_rapper67.
I share the general enthusiasm. I was expecting to find BROWN/DEAD to go with BREAD, but that didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the puzzle. Great stuff.
As others have said, it’s unusual not to require a tentative pencil when entering answers. After the furore over the potential demise of the EV, this was a pleasingly gentle possible introduction for the curious who might have dipped in while wondering what the fuss was about. Thanks to Piccadilly for an enjoyable puzzle.
A gentle EV! This was welcome as I had a busier week than normal, with some very welcome socialising in 3D (safely distanced of course). As others have said, I was grateful for a straightforward gimmick-free grid fill, which, I must confess to not working out all the slang. Maybe that’s a slight flaw but I certainly am not complaining. It’s weird how occasionally certain words reappear in your crossword week. 13d has cropped up 2 or 3 times for me this week.
Thanks to both Piccadilly and mc_rapper
Thoroughly enjoyable, though I perhaps missed some of the nuances on solving.
Thanks for all the comments/feedback – looks like this was much enjoyed all round…
Ifor’s description of a ‘tentative pencil’ rings a bell…usually on his puzzles!
I enjoyed sorting out the Rhyming Slang and looking up many examples that weren’t in the crossword. My last one was Ruby Murray as Murray was cleverly disguised.
Thank you to Piccadilly and mc_rapper67.
I really enjoyed this lovely puzzle. The right standard for me and a theme I could identify without having to look anything up. Thanks Piccadilly and mc_rapper67.