Hello all. Many thanks to Ploy for a puzzle which for me definitely passed the acid test.
The preamble reads:
In the completed grid, one cell contains two letters. Across and down entries clash in another cell (giving a choice between two numbers) preceded by a 4-letter phrase. A letter must be changed in each clue before solving. The new letters indicate (1) how to select the correct number, followed by (2) which three cells to colour correspondingly to show the TEST MATCH. Of two parallel, thematic words in the grid, the cells of the correct one must be similarly coloured. The final grid must contain a numeral, and one letter is best in lower case. Numbers after clues show how many cells are available for the answer.
My very first in was APHIS, so it looked like I had straight away narrowed down the location of the two letter cell – unless there was more going on that the preamble initially seemed to suggest. Not uncommon in an EV, but that wasn’t the case here: no other shenanigans encountered until later on when I solved 3d and found the cell needing a number.
Words started to reveal themselves from the corrections to the misprints. This did help with solving the last few clues but, as often happens, I had a completed grid before I settled down to the fun part. (Not that solving the clues isn’t fun, but you know what I mean!)
Rereading the preamble, this indicates
(1) how to select the correct number:
TO GIVE TWO REAL WORDS
(2) which three cells to colour correspondingly to show the TEST MATCH:
WHERE SAMPLE COVERS TEST STRIP
The first part tells us that 10 is the number to select. The second part took a bit more pondering, but the lower case letter gave the key hint. Then I had a look at the diagonals and found the test strip: LITMUS PAPER.
Scanning more diagonals revealed ALKALI and ACID – and as the pH IS 10 (the number preceded by a 4-letter phrase mentioned in the preamble), the result of our test is ALKALI. Acid turns litmus red, whereas alkali turns it blue. So blue would be the appropriate colour to highlight this and the three cells covering the test strip. Lovely.
Edit – as cruciverbophile and ub point out in the first two comments, the SAMPLE is to be found in the grid, overlapping the litmus paper. All the more annoying because I’d spotted “SARULE” in 33a earlier (and briefly wondered if the match was something to do with Rugby Union), then promptly forgotten about it. Ah well, this is why I dropped chemistry after A-Level and did physics instead. Much easier! Thanks to cruciverbophile and ub for suggesting highlighting which is a MATCH for the correct solution. They pass this TEST with flying colours – whereas my face is red, wearing a blue expression and a pointy hat emblazoned with the letter D!
| Clue No | ANSWER | Clue with definition underlined | |
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and letters appearing in the ANSWER capitalised and emboldened | |||
| Across | |||
| 2a | SWAMP BOAT | Del[i]<t>a’s vessel, perhaps, floated past sheltering snake (9, two words) | T |
| SWAM (floated) + PT (past) containing (sheltering) BOA (snake) | |||
| 9a | PLANTA | S[a]<o>le purpose – initially to attract (6) | O |
| PLAN (purpose) + first letters of (initially) To Attract | |||
| 10a | BABUCHE | Leaving Malta, beach bum’s chan[c]<g>ed heelless slipper (7) | G |
| Without M (leaving Malta), BEACH BU[m] is anagrammed (changed) | |||
| 12a | APHIS | American h[o]<i>ps spreading greenfly, say (4) | I |
| A (American) + HIPS anagrammed (spreading) | |||
| 13a | TENIASIS | Unaltered after sustained iodine, in the US this needs a [g]<v>ermicide (6) | V |
| AS IS (unaltered) goes after TEN (tenuto, sustained) plus I (iodine) | |||
| 16a | NEAT | To some extent salmon [m]<e>ating is elegant (4) | E |
| Hidden in (to some extent) salmoN EATing | |||
| 17a | BED | Plo[y]<t> in the garden, bowered at intervals (3) | T |
| BowEreD, regular letters (at intervals) | |||
| 18a | DREAM ON | Wanderer s[n]<w>ivelling about outskirts of Rome – that’s most unlikely! (7, two words) | W |
| NOMAD (wanderer) reversed (swivelling) around (about) the outer letters (outskirts) of RomE | |||
| 20a | RILE | Puzzle n[u]<o>t having double Dutch to annoy (4) | O |
| RI[dd]LE (puzzle) without (not having) two copies of (double) D (Dutch) | |||
| 21a | INURE | In review, not all close[d]<r> units come into operation legally (5) | R |
| Hidden reversed in (in review, not all) closER UNIts | |||
| 23a | YOLANDA | Viola derivative oddly learned by you, missing final[s]<e> with academy (7) | E |
| Odd letters of (oddly) LeArNeD next to (by) YOu without the last letter (missing finale) + A (academy) | |||
| 24a | UNDERSELLER | B[e]<a>d lenders rule one pricing too low (11) | A |
| Anagram of (bad) LENDERS RULE | |||
| 26a | AURISTS | Hearing experts working upstairs having [m]<l>ost power (7) | L |
| An anagram of (working) U[p]STAIRS without P (having lost power) | |||
| 29a | TOTAL | [T]<w>aste starter of tuna, a lot to be thrown out (5) | W |
| The first letter (starter) of Tuna + A LOT anagrammed (thrown out) | |||
| 31a | BLAG | R[u]<o>bbers do this switch of hands in card game (4) | O |
| B[r]AG (card game) with a switch of hands: R (right) changed to L (left) | |||
| 33a | AS A RULE | Adve[n]<r>t watchdogs take year off for Yule usually (7, three words) | R |
| ASA (advert watchdogs) + R (recipe, take) + [y]ULE without Y (year off for …) | |||
| 35a | LEK | Nothing o[l]<d>d in blue-sky location of avian display (3) | D |
| Even letters only of (nothing odd in) bLuE-sKy | |||
| 36a | AUDI | Car manufacturer lo[v]<s>ing half of house (4) | S |
| AUDI[ence] (house), losing half | |||
| 38a | AIRILY | Fifty quitting rocky Illyria in a breezy [d]<w>ay (6) | W |
| L (fifty) leaving (quitting) an anagram of (rocky) IL[l]YRIA | |||
| 39a | LEES | S[m]<h>elters in stretches of open country reportedly (4) | H |
| LEAS (stretches of open country), homophone (reportedly) | |||
| 40a | SADDLER | Sister astride bad horse for riding in Main[z]<e> (7) | E |
| SR (sister) around (astride) ADDLE (bad) | |||
| 41a | ONWARD | Advancing or retreating, number deserted following wa[g]<r> (6) | R |
| The reversal of (retreating) NO (number), then D (deserted) following WAR | |||
| 42a | RESIGNALS | Waves once more ring s[p]<e>a choppily, with Lesotho beyond (9) | E |
| RING SEA anagrammed (choppily) followed by LS (Lesotho) | |||
| Down | |||
| 1d | ALPHORN | No, Ralph changes noisemaker for cowherd’s u[k]<s>e (6) | S |
| NO RAPLH is anagrammed (changes) | |||
| 2d | SAICE | Groom’s trapped by alopecia symptoms so[u]<a>ring (5) | A |
| Hidden in (trapped by) alopECIA Symptoms reversed (soaring) | |||
| 3d | ATONED | A sound character, retired Penny made up for [k]<m>issing things (4) | M |
| A + TONE (sound character) + D (retired penny) | |||
| 4d | MAINOUR | What’s been [w]<p>inched earlier? Principal pipe belonging to us (7) | P |
| MAIN (principal pipe) + OUR (belonging to us) | |||
| 5d | BASAL | Final 60% of brass instruments are loud, primarily at the lowest leve[r]<l> (5) | L |
| The final 60% of tuBAS (brass instruments) + Are Loud, first letters (primarily) | |||
| 6d | OBITAL | [A]<e>rrant tabloid omitting day of death date (6) | E |
| Anagram of (errant) TABLOI[d] without (omitting) D (day) | |||
| 7d | AUSTRALORP | Breed of hen [t]<c>racking up a rural spot (10) | C |
| Anagram of (cracking up) A RURAL SPOT | |||
| 8d | SHIELD | Daughter in pursuit of hut giving [c]<o>uter protective cover (6) | O |
| D (daughter) after (in pursuit of) SHIEL (hut) | |||
| 11d | CABINET | Case of T[B]<V>, maybe – can it be fixed? (7) | V |
| CAN IT BE anagrammed (fixed) | |||
| 12d | AUDITABLE | Educatability abandoned by divided city sadly – that can be officially ch[u]<e>cked (9) | E |
| An anagram of (… sadly) EDU[c]ATAB[i]LIT[ty] without (abandoned by) – in separate parts (divided) – CITY | |||
| 14d | IDEALLESS | The French [d]<r>eceived by crooked ladies lacking the highest standards (9) | R |
| LES (the, French) inside (received by) an anagram of (crooked) LADIES | |||
| 15d | TARDIGRADE | Amateur runs mine in buying and selling – a discarded [c]<s>loth? (10) | S |
| A (amateur), R (runs) and DIG (mine) in TRADE (buying and selling) | |||
| 19d | NYSSA | Asian tree is no[w]<t> dead, so taken back (5) | T |
| NYS (is not dead, dead meaning obsolete) + AS (so) reversed (taken back) | |||
| 22d | UNRAKED | Unionist Kar[i]<e>n misplaced dinar not banked up (7) | E |
| U (unionist) + KAREN anagrammed (misplaced) + D (dinar) | |||
| 25d | EPSILON | Under extreme pressure, [D]<s>on and I shortened long letter (7) | S |
| After (under) EP (extreme pressure), S (son) and I, then all but the last letter of (shortened) LONg | |||
| 27d | ULEMAS | University lecturer sent up same [r]<t>heology professionals (6) | T |
| U (university) + L (lecturer) + reversal of (sent up) SAME | |||
| 28d | SNAILS | Brad’s going after essentially elusive [p]<s>lugs for certain people (6) | S |
| NAIL’S (brad’s) going after the middle letter of (essentially) eluSive | |||
| 30d | ALTERN | Previously, every other an[g]<t>ler in a mess (6) | T |
| ANTLER anagrammed (in a mess) | |||
| 32d | AUREI | Gold coins a[g]<r>e overrunning upper-class India (5) | R |
| ARE around (overrunning) U (upper-class) + I (India) | |||
| 34d | UVEAS | You’ve a struggle, screening parts of [c]<i>rises (5) | I |
| YoU’VE A Struggle is hiding (screening) the answer | |||
| 37d | MYNA | Bird with s[l]<p>otted wings, many heading north with tail raised (4) | P |
| MANY reversed (heading north) with the last letter (tail) then raised to the top | |||
I thought the three cells to highlight were the APE of LITMUS PAPER. The word SAMPLE starts at the second letter of 33 across and proceeds stepwise from there, one square right then one square down. The A, P and E coincide with the A, P and E of LITMUS PAPER, so could be said to cover it. Or was this a red (blue?) herring?
I did the same shading as cruciverbophile @1 because the preamble says three cells, so it seemed clear to me. I saw “sample” well before I saw “litmus paper” on the diagonal. Thanks to Ploy for a fun puzzle and to Kitty for the blog. APHIS and 10 were among my last ones in, so I did not help myself in getting the theme.
Gah – you are right of course, thanks. I’ll update the blog,
No nedto feel so guilty, Kitty. We, the Numpties had found all the rest and realized that we had to highlight the ALKALI in blue and not the ACID in red but still head-scratched for the APE of ‘sample’. Thanks to Ploy and Kitty.
I had nearly all of the grid filled, but the enjoyment I had from this puzzle was limited to solving the clues and, in so doing, battling with a varied and clever collection of misprints in all of them. (The majority of puzzles in this genre now seem to incorporate single-letter manipulations of some kind, but too often I find that they add considerably to the solver’s workload but not to the enjoyment. The use of that device here, though, deserves praise. Examples that stood out were advent/advert, chucked/checked, Ploy(!)/plot, snivelling/swivelling, now/not, angler/antler and crises/irises.)
I guessed what the theme was about, but I did not fully understand parts of the preamble and could not work out exactly what the 44-character message was telling me. Grid-gazing is something I avoid as much as possible, but it is evident now that I absolutely needed to do that and should have known what kind of thing to look for. My failure to look along either of the long diagonals was unforgivable in retrospect. The only other puzzle by this setter that I have solved (elsewhere, more than a year ago) was a classic, and it’s just unfortunate that I couldn’t get the most out of this one.
Thanks to Ploy and Kitty.
A nicely realised idea – the intersecting “sample” in particular I thought was a clever touch. Not a subject I’ve had to think about since Chemistry O-level so good job it’s easy to look up! As with some others, finding pH and 1/10 came right at the end, so a satisfying moment of discovery. Thanks Ploy for an entertaining challenge and to Kitty for the review.
Loved the symmetry of the final grid with the three diagonals. Like Stick Insect, my 1 and 10 were last in so the end game didn’t twig for me until late on.
I initially highlighted SAMPLE and on rereading the preamble realised I needed to shade just three and not six cells. That caused a bit of head scratching, though got there in the end.
Many thanks to Ploy for the enjoyment and Kitty for another fine blog.
Surely it should be pH not Ph…. Connie
Did I imagine seeing Ph in the solution grid?? Now corrected to pH?? I always read too quickly so ,if my mistake, apologies……
Hi Liz. No, you didn’t imagine it. I have just amended the grid and was about to reply to you (with a comment that started with, “Oh pH …!”). No idea what caused that slip, I’ve no excuse.
Many thanks for the correction. Hopefully this third version of the completed grid will be the last!
Thought it was a brilliant puzzle. Only query was that I thought “numeral” meant a single figure. Neat that the litmus paper is in the sample. Thanks Plot and Kitty.