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Hi all, and thanks to Stick Insect for a lovely puzzle.
The preamble reads:
All answers are modified before entry into the grid to agree with a statement by some VILLAINS, which can be found in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (8th edition). Each clue has a misprint in the definition; the correct letters in clue order provide synonyms of a word in the quotation. The central cell must be filled in defiance of the statement and the VILLAINS highlighted (seven cells in a straight line). Numbers in brackets give entry lengths. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended; one plural form is in Collins.
I was lucky in noticing very early on that the answers were too long by the number of Rs in them. This meant that entries could go straight into the grid, although that still left a degree of uncertainty in the checking.
The misprints gradually started to reveal some synonyms: nugatory, otiose, …, sleeveless, vain, …, (with the discovery of a new and unexpected meaning of sleeveless) and I wondered how that might help shed light on the quotation. I looked again at the preamble and realised that it was probable that the central cell had been included for a reason. If the VILLAINS we seek contain an R, say. Knowing where to look makes searching the grid considerably easier! Sure enough, there was THE_ORG.
THE BORG are those Star Trek aliens who like to say:
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE
R is the physics symbol for electrical resistance, and if futile then presumably not worth the effort of including in the grid. Nicely done. And all done … save for solving the remaining clues and finding all the synonyms:
NUGATORY OTIOSE SISYPHEAN SLEEVELESS VAIN INEPT
Many thanks again to Stick Insect for a most enjoyable distraction from the utter futility of everything. VILLAINS don’t generally appear on my blogs, so you should be safe sharing your comments below!
| Clue No | ANSWER | Clue with definition underlined | |
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and letters appearing in the ANSWER capitalised and emboldened | |||
| Across | |||
| 1a | CAMBRIC | Around beginning of March, block mostly produces fine line[s]<n> (6) | N |
| CA (around) + the first letter (beginning) of March + BRICk (block) without the last letter (mostly) | |||
| 6a | SUPERBRAT | Horribly rubes trap and really r[i]<u>de kid (7) | U |
| An anagram of (horribly) RUBES TRAP | |||
| 12a | ICHORS | Parts of church promoting institute’s juices in [p]<g>ods (5) | G |
| CHOIRS (parts of church) moving to the front (promoting) I (institute) | |||
| 13a | ROMNEYA | Gypsy has a desire to return plant [s]<a>kin to poppy (6) | A |
| ROM (Gypsy) + YEN (a desire) reversed (to return) | |||
| 14a | JOINER | One [b]<t>eaming up beloved in return of Trek’s central characters (5) | T |
| JO (beloved) + IN (from the clue) + the reversal (return) of the central characters of tREk. A nice nod to the theme | |||
| 15a | OX-BIRD | Flyer found on sh[a]<o>res: neat offer involves opening of restaurant (5) | O |
| OX (neat) + BID (offer) which contains (involves) the first letter (opening) of Restaurant | |||
| 16a | BREAM | Ca[m]<r>p relation’s brother’s ecstasy in the morning (4) | R |
| BR (brother) + E (ecstasy) + AM (in the morning) | |||
| 17a | CATARRH | Tom and Harry discovered starter of halloumi and cold ma[c]<y> produce this (5) | Y |
| CAT (Tom) and hARRy without outer letters (discovered) + the first letter (starter) of Halloumi | |||
| 18a | RADIALE | Tyre ending in puncture is a b[a]<o>ne (6) | O |
| RADIAL (tyre) + the last letter of (ending in) punctureE | |||
| 19a | RASSE | Carnivore like a ca[d]<t> informed without limits (4) | T |
| gRASSEd (informed) without outer letters (without limits) | |||
| 20a | IMPERTINENCES | More than one bit of l[a]<i>p exercise included in reminiscent jerking (12) | I |
| PE (exercise) inserted in (included in) an anagram of (… jerking) REMINISCENT | |||
| 21a | ETHER | Einsteinian relativity starts to describe article in f[i]<o>rmer content of space (4) | O |
| The first letters of (… starts) Einsteinian Relativity around (to describe) THE (article) | |||
| 24a | KRONOR | Ca[t]<s>h in Sweden took Ron orange bottles (4) | S |
| TooK RON ORange contains (bottles) the answer | |||
| 26a | SARATOGA TRUNKS | Cas[t]<e>s out Arkansas grit processed without iodine (12, two words) | E |
| OUT ARKANSAS GR[i]T anagrammed (processed) without I (Iodine) | |||
| 28a | ARTEX | Kind of pla[n]<s>ter found in smart exhibition (4) | S |
| The answer is found in smART EXhibition | |||
| 30a | HOOKIER | More like a sn[u]<i>ggle perhaps? That is right after misdirected stroke (6) | I |
| IE (that is) and R (right) go after HOOK (misdirected stroke) | |||
| 31a | ERASURE | Eastern god with certain [r]<s>ite of deletion (5) | S |
| E (Eastern) + RA (god) + SURE (certain) | |||
| 32a | TRATT | Western dish incorporates heart of vegetable for Italian eater[s]<y> (4) | Y |
| Written right to left (western), TART (dish) contains (incorporates) the middle letter (heart) of vegeTable | |||
| 33a | COROZO | [C]<P>alm Cook’s half run out, Australian getting inside (5) | P |
| COok’s half + RO (run out) with OZ (Australian) getting inside | |||
| 34a | RENOWN | [Z]<H>ero’s fame concerning name achieved in comeback (5) | H |
| RE (concerning) followed by the reversal of (… in comeback) N (name) and WON (achieved) | |||
| 35a | OSBORNE | Old style and narrow-minded, he p[a]<e>nned plays (6) | E |
| OS (Old Style) and BORNÉ (narrow-minded) | |||
| 36a | MORASS | Fool following local girl for t[i]<a>ngle (5) | A |
| ASS (fool) following MOR (local girl) | |||
| 37a | REST MASS | Amount of matter, when [g]<n>ot moving, streams about sun (7, two words) | N |
| STREAMS anagrammed (about) + S (sun) | |||
| 38a | DE KLERK | [F]<S>A president once retiring kicked relative inside, though not in charge (6, two words) | S |
| The reversal of (retiring) K[ic]KED with REL (relative) inside, without (not) IC (in charge) | |||
| Down | |||
| 1d | CRIBBAGE | Game scored with pegs in ho[p]<l>es to steal double base (7) | L |
| CRIB and BAG (to steal – double) + E (base) | |||
| 2d | ACCREDITATIONS | Documents affirming the r[i]<e>al account trust is not a fake (13) | E |
| AC (account) + CREDIT (trust) + an anagram of (… fake) IS NOT A | |||
| 3d | BROOMRAPE | Typ[o]<e> of strangle-weed in poem a bore amended with R for E (7) | E |
| POEM A BOR[E] anagrammed (amended) with R substituted in for E | |||
| 4d | RISIBLE | Queen seen topless? Not Gra[c]<v>e (6) | V |
| R (queen) + vISIBLE (seen) without the first letter (topless) | |||
| 5d | CONCERTO GROSSOS | Scores go to scorn awful performances where groups take individual’s rol[l]<e> (13, two words) | E |
| SCORES GO TO SCORN anagrammed (awful). This is the plural form found in Collins | |||
| 6d | SMEARS | Around Maine, fish g[r]<l>azes (5) | L |
| Around ME (Maine), SARS (fish) | |||
| 7d | UNSTRENGTHENED | Tend green nuts hybrid acquiring hearts lacking brac[t]<e>s perhaps (13) | E |
| TEND GREEN NUTS anagrammed (hybrid) together with (acquiring) H (hearts) | |||
| 8d | PERORATED | [G]<s>ummed up, brisk editor accepts openings (7) | S |
| PERT (brisk) and ED (editor) contains (accepts) ORA (openings) | |||
| 9d | BARBASCO | Block company acquiring most of support for [N]<S> American plant (7) | S |
| BAR (block) and CO (company) containing (acquiring) all but the last letter of (most of) BASe (support) | |||
| 10d | RADIOSENSITISE | Increase harm from wa[k]<v>e energy’s surge adopting air defence with noisiest engineering (13) | V |
| RISE (surge) containing (adopting) AD (air defence) with NOISIEST, anagrammed (engineering) | |||
| 11d | TEDDERS | Spreaders of gr[o]<a>ss rubbish in carriage sent north (6) | A |
| REDD (rubbish) in SET (carriage), reversed (sent north) | |||
| 22d | HARE-FOOT | Qu[a]<i>ck and screech about mad fear (7) | I |
| HOOT (screech) around (about) an anagram of (mad) FEAR | |||
| 23d | BON-ROBA | We[l]<n>ch for Will evading ten debts of obnoxious Arab criminal (7) | N |
| Without (evading) X (ten) and IOUS (debts), an anagram of (… criminal) OBNO[xious] ARAB | |||
| 24d | KNOTWORK | Decoration involving t[o]<i>es is ultimate in slack idleness? (7) | I |
| The last letter of (ultimate in) slacK + NOT WORK (idleness?) | |||
| 25d | OVERTASK | Give too great an o[p]<n>us to public when Kraftwerk’s number one (7) | N |
| OVERT (public) + AS (when) + Kraftwerk’s first letter (number one) | |||
| 26d | SANCERRE | Hospital chief executive reversing mistake in win[g]<e> (6) | E |
| SAN (hospital) + CE (chief executive) + reversing ERR (mistake) | |||
| 27d | UROSOME | Posterior [w]<p>art is badly troublesome when ill-made belt slips (6) | P |
| An anagram of (badly) [t]ROU[ble]SOME without (when … slips) an anagram of (ill-made) BELT | |||
| 29d | QUERNS | S[c]<t>one grinders question gain without a bonus finally (5) | T |
| QU (question) + E[a]RN (gain) without A + the last letter of (… finally) bonuS | |||
I really enjoyed this puzzle. Like Kitty I noticed that R was being omitted from each answer pretty early on but was working on a ‘right away’ or ‘run out’ theme up until the end. As soon as I got ‘futile’ then the phrase was obvious – but not being a big Star Trek fan I still needed the ODQ to point me in the right direction. It’s funny that for such a familiar phrase I had no idea as to its origin. I thought the grid construction was really good incorporating several long answers and maintaining the theme throughout. It was only afterwards that I spotted the Star Trek reference in one of the clues. Thanks to Stick Insect for the puzzle and Kitty for the blog.
Another one here who was lucky enough to spot the missing Rs early on. A very clever use of the phrase to create a puzzle. 38a was my last one in, a clue which made me both groan and laugh at the same time. Great stuff thanks Stick Insect. Thanks also to Kitty for the blog.
Yes, we spotted the missing Rs in our first three solves which made the entire solve a pleasure. I am not a Star Trek fan but the phrase is indeed famiiar and the other half knew it well and its origin – THE BORG – which conveniently appeared when we inserted the central R. Thanks to Stick Insect and Kitty.
This was a shock to the system after recent puzzles! It successfully targeted my weakness at solving clues without answer-lengths or proper definitions and without help from crossing letters. I managed to solve 15 clues cold, but they were not enough for me to deduce what modifications were needed.
From my collected letters I had INEPT at the end, and further back I saw the partly-formed OTIOSE, a near-synonym. SISYPHEAN followed, and then the rest. I guessed the word ‘useless’ would be the quotable one, but the indexed references for that in my ODQ (eighth edition) were quite literally useless. I solved four more clues before I simultaneously thought of the word ‘futile’ and saw how to enter my clue answers so that they intersected properly – and why. The ‘B’ of THE BORG helped me to solve BONA-ROBA.
Yesterday evening, I all but finished the puzzle, leaving just TEDDERS and SANCERRE unsolved (maintaining perfect symmetry!).
Thanks to Stick Insect and Kitty.
Quite a lot harder than the previous few puzzles but still greatly enjoyable, as Stick Insect’s puzzles always are. I know nothing of Star Trek, but the relevant references were easy enough to find online. A fine set of clues and neat implementation of the theme. Many thanks to the setter, and to Kitty.
Thanks Kitty for the review and to all who’ve commented, here and elsewhere – it’s much appreciated.