A deliberately inaccessible preamble this week. I do tend to ignore them until I’ve at least read all the clues – so right up my street.
I do think this was solvable without deciphering the preamble as it was a fair guess that certain letters were missing in the answers/ grid and so it proved to be.
So what did the preamble say – my version is below:
A GLITCH ON MY COMPUTER MEANS SOME ANSWERS ARE TOO SHORT AND SO TEN CELLS ARE LEFT EMPTY. THIS CAN OCCUR ANYWHERE IN ENTRIES. SOLVERS MUST USE EACH OF THE LETTERS OMITTED FROM THIS PREAMBLE (AND THE TITLE) TO FILL THE EMPTY CELLS. FINAL GRID ENTRIES ARE ALL REAL WORDS OR PHRASES, INCLUDING ONE DERIVED FROM A HEADWORD IN CHAMBERS DICTIONARY (2016).
The missing letters being one of either ACEGHILOPT. Each of which needed adding to the grid to make new words for those answers too short for their grid length.
Good fun I thought and a neat execution – Thanks Artix
ACROSS
1 Wine and unopened cheese put in bin (10)
Brie (cheese) – b + sling (put in bin) = RIESLING
Entry PRIESTLING
9 End scene: Wray’s snubbed by cheeky monkey! (6, two words)
Wray – y (snubbed) + pup (cheeky monkey) = WRAP UP
11 Last to scorn a feature that’s outmoded (4)
N (last to scorn) + are (a) = NARE
12 180 grain bundles heading to port (4)
To + LA (port) = TOLA
13 In DC, he was the man to beat (7)
DD TRUMP
Entry TRIUMPH
15 Stops interminable cough on farm (4)
Hoast (cough) – t = HOAS
16 Muscle supplement used outside of Georgian hospital department (6)
TES (supplement) around ER (Georgian hospital department) = TERES
17 Damages from Asian disease swollen by end of pandemic (6)
Sars (Asian disease) around c (end of pandemic) = SCARS
19 Plump old man, about 50 (4)
Pop (old man) around l(50) = PLOP
20 Murdered shepherd found by butt of pine tree (7)
Abel (murdered shepherd) + e (butt of pine) = ABELE
23 Request pianist entertains one (I was here with the King) (4)
Sam (Request pianist – Casablanca) around I = SIAM (The King and I)
24 Reddish leather (4)
DD ROAN
25 Posted post to oust leaders? Result! (6)
Sent(posted) + mail(post) = ENTAIL
26 A US minor criminal and the things he’d once stolen (10)
(a US minor)* = MAINOURS
Entry MAINCOURSE
DOWN
1 Be keen to bamboozle headhunters? That’s not hard somehow (9)
(headhunters – hard)* = ENTHUSE
Entry PENTHOUSE
2 Might this sound brutal? (4)
Homonym of raw (brutal) = ROAR
3 Ozzie birds exploit me after cycling (5)
Use (exploit) + me cycling = EMEUS
4 Mystic with foot chopped off crawled? (4)
Swami (mystic) – I = SWAM
5 Attacks close to howler monkeys (6)
R (close to howler) + apes = RAPES
Entry TRAPES
6 John’s slow, DNF (4)
Late (slow) – e (DNF) = LAT
Entry LATH
7 Kinks star upset about lines (5)
Rev. sun (star) around ll (lines) = NULLS
8 Reportedly like Caterpillar’s extent (6)
Homonym of tracked = TRACT
Entry TRIACT
10 Shut up about sculptor’s stone wall! (9)
pent (shut up) around Arp (sculptor – Jean Arp) = PARPENT
Entry PARAPENTE
14 Joint shifting barrels upstairs downstairs (6)
Elbow(joint) moving b (barrels) up = BELOW
Entry BELLOW
16 Paper consumed by perverse sex’s hairy bits (6)
Rag (paper) in Rev. IT (sex) = TRAGI
Entry TRAGIC
18 Send hurtling a barrier at the Circus (5)
Spin (send hurtling) + a = SPINA
19 Super-duper, yet not super? I’m lost (5)
(duper)* = PERDU
20 Gent’s hair cut (4)
Mane (hair) – e = MAN
Entry G-MAN
21 British game lacks power punch (4)
B(British) + polo (game) – p (power) = BOLO
22 Top form for youngster (4)
Class(form) – c (top) = LASS
I admired the construction of this puzzle – it must have been quite hard both to find pairs of words that would work in this way and to achieve a symmetry of inserted letters.
Unlike most solvers probably (including the blogger), I decided to complete the preamble and title before starting on the clues. ‘Chambers Dictionary’ and ‘Mind the Gap’ gave me nine letters and ‘Solvers’ (with L) assisted me with TEN CELLS, and that allowed me to assume that the ten letters I had collected made a complete set. The only word one had to guess was GLITCH, in the absence of any other credible word that could be made from those letters (CATPIGHOLE).
I decided to make the setter’s name Croix, but the truth is that I remember Artix from previous puzzles.
Many thanks to Artix and twencelas.
A pretty daunting preamble at first glance – it was interesting how much of it could be deduced nonetheless. I guess some familiarity with preamble wording helped. Glad the clues didn’t get the same treatment! Good fun – and the symmetrical gaps was an elegant touch. Thanks Artix and twencelas
More a case of DNS than DNF for me I’m afraid. Wasn’t particularly taken with the idea of having to put extra strength spectacles on to see how many letters were missing and play hangman before even looking at the clues. One man’s meat and all that I suppose.
The hardest part was seeing the tiny type in the preamble, but I understood enough of it that I knew I would need to fill 10 empty cells with missing letters. However, I managed to complete the grid correctly without bothering to check that the missing letters were ACEGHILOPT, which would have further strained my eyes and brain. However, that is not the setter’s fault and in the end I was happy with his and my own efforts at this. Thanks to both.
Thoroughly enjoyable, thanks Artix. Like Alan B, I was drawn to resolve the preamble and title before starting on the clues, which, as Stick Insect says, was helped by familiarity with preamble wording.
Re 12a, I read ‘bundles’ as A LOT heading to the left.
Yes, thoroughly enjoyable and the clues were slightly less difficult than is the norm for Artix.
I am a recent EV solver, this only my second. I liked this very much. I saw MIND THE GAP immediately on reading the title, but then got distracted looking for something London Underground related.
Thanks all.