Hi everyone. A brief one from me this week as I have nothing much to report. The most important factor, enjoyment, was certainly there as expected though. Thanks proXimal – and happy 1500th to the EV!
The preamble reads:
With one exception, each down clue has an extra letter provided through wordplay to form the entry; extra letters, in clue order, spell out the first part of the theme (THE OBVIOUS ONE). Solvers must replace the contents of two lines of 11 cells each to show the second part of the theme. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended; all final entries are real words.
The extra letters from the wordplay spell out (complete with the space in the right place, a nice touch):
ENIGMATIC VARIATIONS
The one obvious thing to note was of course the number. My first thought, FIFTEEN HUNDRED, doesn’t have 22 letters, but the other option, ONE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED, does. Furthermore, it splits neatly into two 11s. The obvious thing to do now was find a place to pop this into the grid to produce real words. Since the outer columns already had real words in the initial grid fill, horizontal lines of 11 cells somewhere in the middle seemed a likely place. Sure enough:
| Clue No | ANSWER (INITIAL GRID ENTRY) |
Clue with definition underlined | |
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and ANSWER letters in bold capitals | |||
| Across | |||
| 1a | SNAPS | Put shilling on card game and loses it (5) | |
| Put S (shilling) next to (on) SNAP (card game) | |||
| 5a | TENON SAW | Used to be no difficulty turning tool (8, two words) | |
| WAS (used to be), NO and NET (difficulty), reversed (turning) | |||
| 10a | LULU | That’s impressive doubling facilities in auditorium (4) | |
| Homophone of (… in auditorium) LOO LOO (doubling facilities) | |||
| 11a | GRUE | Unfinished oatmeal dish makes Scots shudder (4) | |
| GRUEl (oatmeal dish) without the last letter (unfinished …) | |||
| 12a | RECCY | Military mission’s secrecy uncertain after withdrawing south-east (5) | |
| [se]CRECY anagrammed (uncertain) after removing (withdrawing) SE (south-east) | |||
| 14a | MOREEN | Additional space for fabric (6) | |
| MORE (additional) + EN (space) | |||
| 15a | FAIR | Large market free from rain (4) | |
| Two definitions | |||
| 16a | IBIS | Bird from Britain lives on island (4) | |
| B (Britain) and IS (lives) next to (on) I (island) | |||
| 17a | CAINITE | Worshipper of murderer’s warped dedication sacrificing odd vagrant (7) | |
| An Anagram of (warped) [d]E[d]ICATI[o]N removing (sacrificing) an anagram of (… vagrant) ODD | |||
| 18a | GREENEST | Most naive to comply, abandoning a comfortable residence (8) | |
| [a]GREE (to comply) leaving (abandoning) A + NEST (comfortable residence) | |||
| 19a | OILS | Put back section of dirty waterproof cloths (4) | |
| Move to the end (put back) the S (section) in SOIL (dirty) | |||
| 20a | HI-FI | Playing kit dankish if in bags (4) | |
| DankisH IF In contains (bags) the answer | |||
| 22a | SNELLEST | Trapping national in deception, established Mac’s most severe (8) | |
| Inserting (trapping) N (national) in SELL (deception) + EST (established) | |||
| 24a | DERIDES | Laughs at seals, right for lead in circus (7) | |
| DE[c]IDES (seals) with R (right) substituted in for the first letter of (lead in) Circus | |||
| 29a | REASSESS | Judge again having reservation imprisoning idiots (8) | |
| RES (reservation) around (imprisoning) ASSES (idiots) | |||
| 31a | TRUE | Right to feel remorse after time (4) | |
| RUE (to feel remorse) after T (time) | |||
| 32a | NAOI | Anatolia’s prime locations for places of worship (4) | |
| The letters in 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 7th places (prime locations) in aNAtOlIa | |||
| 33a | REUNIONS | Disruptive one ruins social gatherings (8) | |
| An anagram of (disruptive) ONE RUINS | |||
| 34a | MAD-BRED | Mediterranean surrounds versatile bard Shakespeare’s produced in passion (7) | |
| MED (Mediterranean) surrounds an anagram of (… versatile) BARD | |||
| 36a | ADIT | Opening examination not suitable for everyone (4) | |
| A[u]DIT (examination) without (not) U (suitable for everyone) | |||
| 37a | INLY | Poet’s thoroughly popular lady needing no promotion (4) | |
| IN (popular) + L[ad]Y without (needing no) AD (promotion) | |||
| 38a | AROYNT | Browning’s to drive off any sort ignoring initial shot (6) | |
| ANY and sORT without the first letter (ignoring initial) anagrammed (shot) | |||
| 39a | STELE | The box on square stone slab (5) | |
| TELE (the box) next to (on) S (square) | |||
| 40a | REEF | Leader going to back in open bank (4) | |
| The first letter is moved to the end (leader going to back) in FREE (open) | |||
| 41a | EVET | Amphibian’s incident losing tail in altercation (4) | |
| EVE[n]T (incident) without (losing) the last letter of (tail in) altercatioN | |||
| 42a | DISORDER | Confusion of detective comparatively vexed covering department (8) | |
| DI (detective) + SORER (comparatively vexed) around (covering) D (department) | |||
| 43a | TRADE | Craft English launch backwards (5) | |
| E (English) and DART (launch) reversed (backwards) | |||
| Down | |||
| 1d | SLIGHT SLEIGHT |
Flimsy sides of special rowing boat (7) | E |
| The sides of SpeciaL + EIGHT (rowing boat) | |||
| 2d | UMBRIL NUMBRIL |
Ed’s visor dead centre in basinet cupped in hands (7) | N |
| NUMB (dead) + the middle letter of (centre in) basInet inside (cupped in) R and L (hands) | |||
| 3d | PURSED PURSEID |
Contracted infectious diseases, super drunk on top of that (7) | I |
| ID (infectious diseases) with SUPER anagrammed (drunk) above (on top of) that | |||
| 4d | SEN SGEN |
Asian bread consumed by Buddhists generally (4) | G |
| The bread/money is inside (consumed by) BuddhistS GENerally | |||
| 5d | TREES TREMES |
Undo rot, to be extracted from tremendous plants (6) | M |
| UNDO anagrammed (rot) removed (extracted) from TREME[ndou]S | |||
| 6d | NETTED NETATED |
Caught hooligan in Ayr casing gallery (7) | A |
| NED (hooligan in Ayr) around (casing) TATE (gallery) | |||
| 7d | ORIOLES ORTIOLES |
Birds from north losing wings, so lie around (8) | T |
| An anagram of (… around) nORTt without outer letters (losing wings) with SO LIE | |||
| 8d | SCALED SCAILED |
Climbed, navigated cloudy parts (7) | I |
| SAILED (navigated); C (cloudy) goes inside (parts) | |||
| 9d | AITS ACITS |
First person in middle of exploits to find islands (5) | C |
| I (first person) in the middle of ACTS (exploits) | |||
| 13d | YRENT | Once split new tyre badly (5) | |
| N (new) and TYRE anagrammed (badly) | |||
| 21d | DESIRER DESIRVER |
One wanting dead overturned reverend to come back to life (8) | V |
| D (dead) + the reversal of (… overturned) REV (reverend) and RISE (to come back to life) | |||
| 23d | PADLES PAADLES |
Lumpsuckers, sprat and elvers occasionally sampled (7) | A |
| Alternate letters of (… occasionally sampled) sPrAt AnD eLvErS | |||
| 25d | REREAD REREARD |
Again studied earl on buttocks blocking road (7) | R |
| E (earl) preceding (on) REAR (buttocks) inside (blocking) RD (road) | |||
| 26d | STAYER STAIYER |
Racer with good endurance indeed to move around circuits (7) | I |
| AYE (indeed); STIR (to move around) goes around (circuits) | |||
| 27d | UNITED AUNITED |
Married female relative embracing Independent editor (7) | A |
| AUNT (female relative) around (embracing) I (Independent) + ED (editor) | |||
| 28d | ESTATE TESTATE |
Examine content of water for property (7) | T |
| TEST (examine) + inner letters (content) of wATEr | |||
| 29d | RAMS RAMIS |
Musketeer beheaded sheep (5) | I |
| aRAMIS (Musketeer) without the first letter (beheaded) | |||
| 30d | SURER SUORER |
One taking action to keep gold safer (6) | O |
| SUER (one taking action) containing (to keep) OR (gold) | |||
| 32d | ANTI NANTI |
Against home erected to house insect (5) | N |
| IN (home) reversed (erected) around (to house) ANT (insect) | |||
| 35d | OFT SOFT |
Yielding frequently (4) | S |
| SOFT (yielding) | |||
I found the instructions confusing at first, but after solving a couple of Down clues I got the idea of this unusual twist in clue manipulation, which made for a very enjoyable puzzle.
I guessed the ‘obvious’ first part of the theme from EN_G… (what else could it be!). For the second part, I guessed, and hoped, that it would consist of placing the two lines ‘one thousand’ and ‘five hundred’ somewhere, but when I first looked through the grid I somehow failed to see where to put them. I assumed (hastily) that I got the lines wrong, but much later I saw where HUNDRED could go and rapidly resolved the endgame from there – a very satisfying result.
I appreciated how well-executed the theme was, with so many grid changes resulting from the second part.
Thanks to proXimal and Kitty.
Surprisingly easy for a milestone puzzle, but no less enjoyable for that. Puzzles where changed entries produce real words are always fun. Congratulations and thanks to the EV team for reaching 1500 puzzles, not least for keeping going in spite of the recent discontinuation scare!
An impressive construction with the down entries needing specific additional letters and then forming real words after the row changes. A very nice marking of the anniversary and enjoyable to solve.
Embarrassingly I failed to notice the number of the puzzle, so sadly not obvious enough for me. Must try harder next time!
I enjoyed the rest of the puzzle so thank you Kitty and proXimal.