Hi all. This is the second Kruger EV I have encountered and I would be happy to come back for more.
The preamble reads:
Nine clues each contain a misprint in their definition. Correct letters, in clue order, give a location (to be written beneath the grid) where you might participate in a CARBON-NEUTRAL activity and hinting at how several answers must be treated before entry. All final grid entries are real words or phrases; Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.
I’m never fazed by misprints because I have a tendency to misread clues at the best of times! The need to treat several answers before entry could make things a little tricky, so I was on the alert for answers which didn’t fit with others and possible ways to alter them. As it happened I managed to twig early on from the clashes that some answers needed to be cycled before entry. This freed me from needing to pay much attention to the letters generated from the misprints until near the end. I had been thinking vaguely they might give a location of a famous cycling event, but when I turned my attention to them I found that our location was in fact a VELODROME.
Many thanks to Kruger for the most enjoyable CARBON-NEUTRAL exercise.
| Clue No | ANSWER
(ENTRY) |
Clue with definition underlined | |
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and letters appearing in the ANSWER capitalised and emboldened | |||
| Across | |||
| 1a | LINTEL
TELLIN |
Artificial intelligence gathers support (6) | |
| ArtificiaL INTELligence holds (gathers) the answer | |||
| 5a | RAINING
INGRAIN |
Enclosure conceals Asians regularly showering (7) | |
| RING (enclosure) goes around (conceals) regular letters of (… regularly) AsIaNs | |||
| 10a | ENGINERY | Machinery from England in eastern railway (8) | |
| ENG (England) + IN + E (eastern) + RY (railway) | |||
| 12a | ELSA | Celebrated lion living in Belgravia slept around (4) | |
| Our lion is found inside (living in) the reversal of (… around) BelgraviA SLEpt | |||
| 13a | CONTRAIL | Sky show art in half of colour broadcast (8) | |
| ART IN and half of COLour anagrammed (broadcast) | |||
| 15a | REVERE | [G]<v>enerate energy following beginning of race possibly (6) | V |
| E (energy) following the first letter (beginning) of Race plus EVER (possibly) | |||
| 16a | TRASHED | Took away l[o]<e>aves etc from that woman in unfinished business (7) | E |
| SHE (that woman) in all but the last letter of (unfinished) TRADe (business) | |||
| 17a | AIRN | Element of Jock’s first-class service (4) | |
| AI (first-class) + RN (service) | |||
| 19a | MODE
DEMO |
Way of doing things not quite exemplary (4) | |
| All but the last letter of (not quite) MODEl (exemplary) | |||
| 21a | OCTROI | City tax in Eire after middle of autumn? (6) | |
| ROI (Eire) after OCT (middle of autumn?) | |||
| 23a | TABS
STAB |
Sailor in street rolling cigarettes for Geordie (4) | |
| AB (sailor) in the reversal of (… rolling) ST (street) | |||
| 24a | RIPEN | Mature author backs Indonesia (5) | |
| PEN (writer) goes after (backs) RI (Indonesia) | |||
| 25a | AIRY | Jaunty director abandons local store in Wellington (4) | |
| D (director) leaves (abandons) [d]AIRY (local store in Wellington) | |||
| 27a | AORTAS | Oscar right to board Australian army’s vessels (6) | |
| O (Oscar) and RT (right) inside (to board) AA’S (Australian Army‘s) | |||
| 29a | EYRE | Wildcat American leaves for European tour (4) | |
| EYR[a] (wildcat) in which A (American) is replaced with (leaves for) E (European) | |||
| 32a | LIMB | [M]<l>eg perhaps taking nothing from dance (4) | L |
| Removing (taking) O (nothing) from LIMB[o] (dance) gives the answer | |||
| 33a | RESPECT
SPECTRE |
Relation reset PC after crashing (7) | |
| RESET PC anagrammed (after crashing) | |||
| 35a | STOMAL | Somehow almost like a p[y]<o>re (6) | O |
| An anagram of (somehow) ALMOST | |||
| 36a | IN LEAGUE | Having ma[l]<d>e partnership in UAE, Nigel’s gay (8, two words) | D |
| UAE NIGEL is anagrammed (‘s gay) | |||
| 37a | ARTS
TSAR |
Tricks lost pet to return – anxiety finally lifted (4) | |
| STRA[y] (lost pet) is reversed (to return), with the last letter of (… finally) anxietY removed (lifted) | |||
| 38a | SESTINAS | Ossetians not initially translating poems (8) | |
| An anagram of (… translating) oSSETIANS without the first letter (not initially) | |||
| 39a | ATINGLE | Feeling vibration, fish gulps it back (7) | |
| ANGLE (fish) goes around (gulps) IT reversed (back) | |||
| 40a | CENTRE
RECENT |
A hundred engineers focus (6) | |
| CENT (a hundred) + RE (engineers) | |||
| Down | |||
| 1d | RANTER
TERRAN |
Storing religious books in tower upset Primitive Methodist (6) | |
| We get the answer by storing NT (religious books) in REAR (tower) reversed (upset) | |||
| 2d | ENCEINTE | Expecting enclosure (8) | |
| A double definition | |||
| 3d | LINEN | It may be used after washing new underclothes (5) | |
| LINE (it may be used after washing) + N (new) | |||
| 4d | TRAIN
INTRA |
Prepare whale oil (5) | |
| Two definitions | |||
| 5d | IRATE | En[g]<r>aged paramilitary organisation evacuated tube (5) | R |
| IRA (paramilitary organisation) + TubeE without the inner letters (evacuated …) | |||
| 6d | ELATING
GELATIN |
Dining outside of London’s capital – raising spirits! (7) | |
| EATING (dining) around (outside of) London’s first letter (capital) | |||
| 7d | CHEMICAL
ALCHEMIC |
Revolutionary claim about what could be artificially produced substance (8) | |
| CHE (revolutionary) + CLAIM anagrammed (about) | |||
| 8d | ISLE | I nearly swing round uncontrollably in h[e]<o>lm (4) | O |
| I + nearly SLEw (swing round uncontrollably) | |||
| 9d | NANDOO | Gate in the centre spooks ostrich (6) | |
| NAND (gate) + the middle of (in the centre) spOOks | |||
| 11d | ERECTION | Record and last of styli kept apart in college building (8) | |
| REC (record) and the last letter of stylI contained separately in (kept apart in) ETON (college) | |||
| 14d | ESDRAS | Libraries drastically hiding Greek scripture (6) | |
| LibrariES DRAStically is hiding the answer | |||
| 18d | FOETUSES | Saving time, enemy exploits young animals (8) | |
| With the insertion of (saving) T (time), FOE (enemy) and USES (exploits) | |||
| 20d | HAEREMAI | Travelling here, I am receiving a Maori welcome (8) | |
| An anagram of (travelling) HERE I AM containing (receiving) A | |||
| 21d | OBJECT | Ai[d]<m> change of job etc (6) | M |
| An anagram (change) of JOB ETC | |||
| 22d | ARAMAEAN | Non-independent AAA remain altering speech from Damascus (8) | |
| Without I (non-independent), an anagram of (… altering) AAA REMA[i]N | |||
| 24d | INGRAFT
RAFTING |
Insert outdated things essentially by hard work (7) | |
| Inner letters of (… essentially) thINgs + GRAFT (hard work) | |||
| 26d | ÉTAPES
PESETA |
Woven material found in El Salvador storehouses (6) | |
| TAPE (woven material) found in ES (El Salvador) | |||
| 28d | STABLE
ABLEST |
Durable paintbrush clogged with dirt in the end (6) | |
| SABLE (paintbrush) containing (clogged with) the last letter of (… in the end) dirT | |||
| 30d | MÊLÉE | Extremely miserable shelter muddled s[o]<e>t (5) | E |
| Outer letters of (extremely) MiserablE + LEE (shelter) | |||
| 31d | TESTA
STATE |
Shell estuary defended by volunteers (5) | |
| EST (estuary) inside (defended by) TA (volunteers) | |||
| 32d | LOGIC | Rugby player shortly accepts introductions to game’s investors – sound reasoning! (5) | |
| LOCk (rugby player) without the last letter (shortly) contains (accepts) the first letters of (introductions to) Game’s Investors | |||
| 34d | POST | Position letter box (4) | |
| Two definitions | |||
I was one clue away from cracking my last Kruger puzzle, and I was glad to get back on song and in tune with this one.
Beginning in the top right quadrant, I filled in my clue answers in pencil, allowing clashes where they occurred, and found that the first few could be fully resolved by making anagrams. Moving to the bottom left, I found I could do the same, but now at last realising that the entries were actually formed by cycling the answers. That discovery made it easier to solve the stickier clues, and when I was left with just the top left quadrant to complete I got the word VELODROML. As E worked just as well as L in that clue (making ‘set’ instead of ‘lot’), it was easy to make a proper word to represent all the cycling going on.
I was fazed by Kitty’s spelling of ‘phased’, but I checked my Chambers and found that it is an alternative – it was new to me, though!
Thanks to Kruger for yet another enjoyable puzzle in this series, and to Kitty for the blog.
A nicely simple idea, generating an enjoyable solve. Spotting the thematic device came after apparent clashes began to appear and involved some rubbing out of entries I’d rashly put in; once spotted, a smooth solve to the conclusion. Thanks Kruger and Kitty.
Alan B @1 – nice of you (and Chambers) to exonerate me, but the truth is it was a simple brain fail late at night! Oxford is not so kind, calling it merely a common error, and I agree with that. I will amend the blog, so only those who read through to the comments will know that I was all out of phase. 🙂
I was a bit dim here, I didn’t spot that the answers were cycled, I just assumed they were anagrams. I decided that recycling was the carbon-neutral activity and glossed over the weak velodrome fit. Thanks to Kitty and Kruger.