Christmas approaches and we have a puzzle entitled Change from Piccadilly. All entries need to be changed before entry as described by the extra letters from the wordplay in the across clues
2020 has indeed been a year of change, so arguably quite an apt message. My initial guess as to what the change was proved to be correct. The extra letters confirmed “Use Anagrams of Answers”, so this arguably made this very much a puzzle at the lower end of the difficulty scale, with a host of easy clues and just a novel entry method.
Thanks Piccadilly and a merry Christmas to all. Let’s hope 2021 brings us a better world than we deserve and we start taking better care of the one we have.
Key
Rev. reverse; * anagram; DD Double definition; Underline defintion
| ACROSS | |
| U | 1 Bygone emblematic device from Byzantium preserved (7) |
| Hidden ByzantIUM PREServed = IMPRESE : PREMISE | |
| S | 7 Fool losing wages for service from county (4) |
| Berkshire (County) – hire (wages for service) = BERK : KERB | |
| E | 11 Reign, near unlimited, excited Latin queen (6) |
| (Reign + ea)* = REGINA : EARING | |
| A | 12 Walked upon highway following wager (6) |
| Bet (wager) + road (highway) = BETROD : DEBTOR | |
| N | 13 Student of prison management taking case from prison wine expert (11) |
| Pn (case from prison) + oenologist (wine expert) = POENOLOGIST : STOOL PIGEON | |
| A | 15 Old delicacies and a drink served in Cannes on vacation (5) |
| A tea (a drink) in Cs (Cannes on vacation) = CATES : SCEAT | |
| G | 17 Regularly played granny song of praise (5) |
| Regularly PlAyEd GrAnNy = PAEAN : APNEA | |
| R | 19 Fellow leaves abandoned former capital (4) |
| (former – f)* = ROME : OMER | |
| A | 21 Himalayan cross and miserable coming back with nothing (3) |
| Rev. sad (miserable) + o (nothing) = DSO: SOD | |
| M | 22 I’m to go up trail: it’s rainbow-coloured (10) |
| Im + ride (to go up) + scent (trail) = IRIDESCENT : INDISCREET | |
| S | 24 Authorisation from Republicans returning to embassy (10) |
| Rev. Reps (republicans) + mission (embassy) = PERMISSION : IMPRESSION | |
| O | 28 A kitchen utensil could be suitable (3) |
| A + pot (kitchen utensil) = APT : PAT | |
| F | 30 Lyre-string broken finally at festival (4) |
| N (broken finally) + fete (festival) = NETE : TENE | |
| A | 32 Medicine bottle contains essence of bark for such an illness? (5) |
| Vial (medicine bottle) around ar (essence of bark) = VIRAL : RIVAL | |
| N | 34 Cast on, knitted a tie (5) |
| (cast on)* = ASCOT : TACOS | |
| S | 37 Fish served in wine sauce gutted after I’m insistent (11) |
| Tuna(fish) in port (wine) + se (sauce gutted) = IMPORTUNATE : PERMUTATION | |
| W | 38 Exercising wariness I avoided traps (6) |
| (wariness – i)* = SNARES : SARSEN | |
| E | 39 Without sun, never see flying grass moth (6) |
| (never see – s)* = VENEER : ENERVE | |
| R | 40 Fresh fish in tin (4) |
| Par (fish) in Sn (tin) = SPAN : SNAP | |
| S | 41 Ordered ear tests: say again? (7) |
| (ear tests)* = RESTATE : ESTREAT | |
| DOWN | |
| 1 American writer finishes off Brecht, starts Milton and Keats? (5) | |
| Poe (American writer) + t s (finishes off Brecht starts) = POETS : PESTO | |
| 2 Rush to see sailor circumnavigating earth (4) | |
| Tar (sailor) around e (earth) = TEAR : RATE | |
| 3 Flower grew upwards (4) | |
| DD ROSE : EROS | |
| 4 Suzuki, first and last fast and noiseless (6) | |
| Si (Suzuki first and last) + lent (fast) = SILENT : INLETS | |
| 5 Tore ID up and revelled (6) | |
| (Tore id)* = RIOTED : EDITOR | |
| 6 Unpleasant situation from the French occupying Parisian station (6) | |
| Gare (Parisian station) around la (the French) = GALERE : REGALE | |
| 8 A, B, C, D, F or G, but … (4) | |
| Not E = NOTE : ETON | |
| 9 Translated Old Norse more readily (6) | |
| (o Norse)* = SOONER : RONEOS | |
| 10 Curse beetle beginning to erode Elizabethan instrument (7) | |
| Ban (curse) + dor (beetle) + e (beginning to erode) = BANDORE : BROADEN | |
| 14 High mountain a record (3) | |
| A + LP (record) = ALP : PAL | |
| 16 Former kingdom settled most of America (6) | |
| (America – a)* = MERCIA : CRIMEA | |
| 18 Poets imaginatively including 80 figures of speech (6) | |
| (Poets + R(80))* = TROPES : PRESTO | |
| 20 Conference that is held by Germany and Thailand (4) | |
| Ie (that is) in D (Germany) + T (Thailand) = DIET : EDIT | |
| 21 Locate sources of seismic incidents triggering earthquakes (4) | |
| Starts of seismic incidents triggering earthquakes = SITE : STIE | |
| 22 Silly smiles from Elvis impersonators (7) | |
| Hidden ElviS IMPERSonators = SIMPERS : IMPRESS | |
| 23 Pennsylvania girl shows Eucharistic plate (6) | |
| Pa (Pennsylvania) + Tina (girl) = PATINA : TAIPAN | |
| 25 Pair of rollers on loom let me free outside right-hand edge of warp (6) | |
| (let me + p)* = TEMPLE : PELMET | |
| 26 Occupation as Shakespeare’s singer (6) | |
| DD TENURE : RETUNE | |
| 27 A series of clues providing advancement (6) | |
| A + scent (series of clues) = ASCENT : SECANT | |
| 29 A short distance behind (3) | |
| A + ft (short distance) = AFT : FAT | |
| 31 Number working to produce part of joint (5) | |
| Ten (number) + on (working) = TENON : NONET | |
| 33 End missing from glossy black side piece of wagon (4) | |
| Raven (glossy black) – n (end) = RAVE: VERA | |
| 35 Note is obsolete money of account (4) | |
| Re (note) + is = REIS : SIRE | |
| 36 River island missed by French plane (4) | |
| Avion (French plane) – I (island) = AVON : NOVA |
In the top half I didn’t get very far before it became obvious that the ‘change’ was going to be a major one. DEBTOR seemed to fit well where I had pencilled in BETROD, and the idea of anagrams was confirmed when I got to solving 22a and 24a. IRIDESCENT and PERMiSSION duly formed themselves, and it was then a matter of working out all the anagrams.
I would guess this has been done before, anagrams being such a fundamental crossword device, but I was amazed nevertheless that it was possible to create this puzzle with so many anagrams of long words: 2 of 11 letters and 2 of 10 letters, not to mention 4 of 7 letters and 14 of 6 letters.
Thanks to Piccadilly for an interesting and not too taxing puzzle and to twencelas for the blog.
[Small point: TEEN (from NETE), TACOS (from ASCOT) and EROS (from ROSE) are missing from the blog.]
Me @1
Oops! INDISCREET and IMPRESSION were the anagrams that formed themselves from the solutions at 22a and 24a.
Took a bit of cold solving to get going. I solved the first few down answers and spotted they weren’t matching acrosses. Tried the idea of putting them into their symmetrically opposite places in the grid but solving 41 across put paid to that idea. Then thought of anagrams and all fell into place pretty swiftly, though finding an anagram for stool pigeon took some puzzling out. Thanks to Piccadilly for a fun challenge.
Thanks Alan B – have updated the blog.
Yes, indeed, working out stool pigeon took some time but it was our last 4-letter clue that took us the longest. SPAN. Many thanks to twencelas and Piccadilly.