Hi all. We were treated to an EV puzzle of the highest order for a “low” day …
The preamble reads:
Answers are entered around the appropriate numbered square, clockwise or anticlockwise, beginning anywhere. Clues are a GALLIMAUFRY of types (three of each per quadrant): (i) a letter needs removing from the clue (ii) a letter needs adding to the clue (iii) wordplay gives the answer with a superfluous letter; these letters must be entered in the central square of the entry.
The central squares in three quadrants, read in the same way, define names in a novel; solvers must replace these letters to show the names and rearrange the letters in the fourth quadrant to show a synonym of one of the names, all reading in the same way as before. Finally, solvers must highlight the author’s name in the grid (10 cells in two straight lines). Unchecked corner cells could give EASTER NO MORE; Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.
The first thing I did upon setting eyes on this was exclaim aloud, “Ooh, awesome! This looks like a more fun one!” The second thing I did was write down what I had just said, so that I could report it here. Thirdly, I read the preamble properly, and then I got stuck in.
It wasn’t the fastest start ever: I solved some clues and had a few three-letter overlaps, but nothing to pin down any directions of entry. After a while I had a trio, 1, 2 and 8, which I could enter definitely, and then things became easier. The different nature of intersection of the answers made things interesting: plenty of checking letters, and consecutive ones to boot, but with the unknown direction and start point keeping the difficulty up. Overall, other than being slightly harder at the start and easier at the end, I found these two factors pretty much cancelled each other out.
I noticed as 1 went in that EAS in the top corner is the first three letters of EASTER NO MORE and wondered if the letters would continue to be in order in the grid. Unfortunately I completely forgot about that until the very end. That would have helped, because they are!
Once complete, the next phase began. It took a little while to find what I was looking for, but in the NW lurked a HUNCHBACK, spiralling inwards. In the SW, a similarly spiralling CATHEDRAL confirmed the theme. Replacing these with their names, QUASIMODO and NOTRE DAME revealed the author VICTOR HUGO in the 6th and 4th columns.
For the ITINERANT in the NE I had to do some homework, because I had managed to forget the little I ever knew about the novel beyond than that required to complete the left hand side. Ah – ESMERALDA.
I played around with the letters in the SE for all of ten seconds, but I’m terrible at anagrams and was eager to complete the last step, so electronic unscrambling it was. LOW SUNDAY was the result. Fortunately, I had done my homework well and been sufficiently interested to read more than just as far as “Esmeralda”. The penny dropped upon learning that Quasimodo was named after the day he was found: Quasimodo Sunday, the first Sunday after Easter. Also known as LOW SUNDAY …
… which was also the publication date of this puzzle. Marvellous! Thanks proXimal!
| Clue No | ANSWER | Clue with definition underlined | (i) | (ii) | (iii) |
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and ANSWER letters in bold caps | |||||
| NW Quadrant | |||||
| 1 | NEAR EAST | Geographical region s<h>own in fine areas tilled (two words) | H | ||
| The answer is shown in fiNE AREAS Tilled | |||||
| 2 | HEADGEAR | Maybe Breton ambassador raged with a sho[u]t | U | ||
| HE (ambassador) + an anagram of (… shot) RAGED with A | |||||
| 3 | DEADNESS | Torpor of college official with cape retaining degree | N | ||
| DEA[N] (college official) with NESS (cape) around (retaining) D (degree) | |||||
| 7 | ASSIENTO | Idiot keen about [c]hiding Spain for historical treaty | C | ||
| ASS (idiot) + INTO (keen about) covering (hiding) E (Spain) | |||||
| 8 | ERDGEIST | Earth-spirit having idea s<k>inned, tiger’s mauled | K | ||
| An anagram of (… mauled) iDEa without outer letters (skinned) and TIGER’S | |||||
| 9 | REVEREND | Cleric’s recreation to sell entertaining Religious Education | C | ||
| RE[C] (recreation) + VEND (to sell) holding (entertaining) RE (Religious Education) | |||||
| 13 | CASSETTE | Valuable property in car<a>t, both sides of the cartridge | A | ||
| ASSET (valuable property) in C (carat) and both sides of ThE | |||||
| 14 | ATTESTER | One bearing witness to attack outside estate | B | ||
| [B]ATTER (to attack) around (outside) EST (estate) | |||||
| 15 | ACHIEVER | Start to [h]ail Greek character, always winner | H | ||
| The first letter of (start to) Ail + CHI (Greek character) + EVER (always) | |||||
| NE Quadrant | |||||
| 4 | ESPRESSO | Ma[i]d reposes with special drink | I | ||
| An anagram of (mad) REPOSES with S (special) | |||||
| 5 | PERIGEES | For each one, wildfowl taking off [t]end to reach astronomical points | T | ||
| PER (for each) + I (one) + GEESe (wildfowl) removing the last letter (taking off end) | |||||
| 6 | ERIGERON | I’m not sure metal including germanium is pl[i]ant | I | ||
| ER (I’m not sure) + IRON (metal) containing (including) GE (germanium) | |||||
| 10 | PESTERER | Nag heartless pope harder | N | ||
| PopE without the middle letters (heartless …) + STER[N]ER (harder) | |||||
| 11 | PERVERSE | Wayward saucy poetry | T | ||
| PER[T] (saucy) + VERSE (poetry) | |||||
| 12 | NERVELET | Tendril from head of <n>one alien, wrapped around broken lever | N | ||
| The first letter (head) of None plus ET (alien) wrapped around an anagram of (broken) LEVER | |||||
| 16 | HOLOSTEI | T<a>inted the oil preserving very large fish | A | ||
| An anagram of (tainted) THE OIL containing (preserving) OS (very large) | |||||
| 17 | SOLANDER | Box very new in food store | R | ||
| SO (very) + N (new) in LA[R]DER (food store) | |||||
| 18 | DELETION | D<e>ad with vote wanting Conservative removal | E | ||
| D (dead) + ELE[c]TION (vote) without (wanting) C (Conservative) | |||||
| SW Quadrant | |||||
| 19 | PRETTIES | Sit with Peter <c>hanging beautiful things | C | ||
| An anagram of (… changing) SIT with PETER | |||||
| 20 | CATTIEST | Tense st[a]ring between group of players being most spiteful | A | ||
| T (tense) and TIE (string) inside (between) CAST (group of players) | |||||
| 21 | CACHEPOT | Make out supreme base after overturning ornamental receptacle | T | ||
| CA[T]CH (make out) + TOP (supreme) and E (base) on reversal (after overturning) | |||||
| 25 | POLITIES | Governing bodies abridged epistolic exotic[a] | A | ||
| EPISTOLIc without the last letter (abridged …) anagrammed (exotic) | |||||
| 26 | TENTIEST | Scotsman’s most wary figure receiving fibs in heart of matter | L | ||
| TEN (figure) + [L]IES (fibs) in the middle letters of (heart of) maTTer | |||||
| 27 | REPOTTED | Went off to <h>old record put in new container | H | ||
| ROTTED (went off) around (to hold) EP (old record) | |||||
| 31 | STILTERS | Closing of sales pitche<r>s uplifting people | R | ||
| The last letter of (closing of) saleS + TILTERS (pitchers) | |||||
| 32 | SALIENTS | Defences succeeded, boxer’s absorbing damage | D | ||
| S (succeeded) + ALI’S (boxer’s) around (absorbing) [D]ENT (damage) | |||||
| 33 | REALLIED | Genuine hat[e] surrounding earl getting married again | E | ||
| REAL (genuine) + LID (hat) around (surrounding) E (earl) | |||||
| SE Quadrant | |||||
| 22 | HOLOTYPE | Original specimen [s]old with set in intense enthusiasm | S | ||
| O (old) with LOT (set) in HYPE (intense enthusiasm) | |||||
| 23 | PORTOLAN | Manual for navigating Iberian city district | D | ||
| PORTO (Iberian city) + LAN[D] (district) | |||||
| 24 | POTATION | Maybe King Edward sealing current end of mansion that’s draught[y] | Y | ||
| POTATO (maybe King Edward) around (sealing) I (current) + the last letter (end) of mansioN | |||||
| 28 | PERSEITY | B<o>ring shame with Gaelic tongue and independent existence | O | ||
| The answer is arrived at by piercing (boring) PITY (shame) with ERSE (Gaelic tongue) | |||||
| 29 | PORTIÈRE | Concierge and la[w]yer blocking small passage | W | ||
| TIER (layer) inside (blocking) PORE (small passage) | |||||
| 30 | OPERA HAT | Collapsible cover atop he<a>r buggy (two words) | A | ||
| An anagram of (… buggy) ATOP HEAR | |||||
| 34 | REAWAKES | Ro<u>ses again spoiled Kew areas | U | ||
| An anagram of (spoiled) KEW AREAS | |||||
| 35 | SAKERETS | Male birds in southern reservoir rest after flying | L | ||
| S (southern) + [L]AKE (reservoir) + REST after being anagrammed (after flying) | |||||
| 36 | MONSTERA | On back cutting mother’s evergreen plant | N | ||
| ON and STER[N] (back) inserted into (cutting) MA (mother) | |||||
An absolutely stunning creation. Bravo proXimal. Layered PDMs, full of thematic material, lovely endgame and a beautiful grid.
One of the best crosswords I’ve done this year without doubt.
Thanks Kitty and of course proXimal.
I agree with Phil R and Kitty. I don’t recall much about my solving experience other than thinking the puzzle was first-rate.
I also thought this was a stunning puzzle – similar device to the ‘specials’ that Azed sometimes does(?). As with Kitty’s description of the solving process, once a few ‘proximate’ clues were solved, momentum built… Many thanks to proXimal, and Kitty.
My only comment would be ESMERALDA rather than ESMERELDA? I put the latter in first, then had a flashback to a previous puzzle/quiz/discussion where I had done the same, and Go-ogle-d it to make sure… As it is a thematic substitution, there is no crossing letter to confirm.
And this has to worth a revisit…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP5uE6-CG54
The unusual design of this puzzle worked really well, allowing consecutive crossing letters for other clues to appear as answers went in. The fact that the clues could be of three different types was daunting at first, but the quality of the clues ensured that this was hardly any handicap at all.
For no particular reason I worked through the clues mainly in the order presented. The word HUNCHBACK could quite easily be made out in the first quadrant, making a kind of coil shape. QUASIMODO took its place. The next two quadrants (NE and SW) produced the similarly shaped ITINERANT and CATHEDRAL, changing to ESMERALDA (which I had to look up) and NOTRE DAME. HUGO and VICTOR appeared as a result of these changes.
The fourth quadrant yielded the letters SDYOWAULN (eventually, after correcting two wrong letters!). I was drawn to the word LADY at first (leaving NOW US), believing NOTRE DAME was the required name. Getting nowhere with that, I focused on QUASIMODO next, recognising its Latin form but not knowing what it meant. It didn’t take me long to find out all about ‘Quasi modo geniti infantes …’ and its connection with the first Sunday after Easter, which was the day this puzzle was published. This had to be it: LOW SUNDAY.
This was a brilliant conception. It is amazing how many key names on this subject had nine letters, starting with Hunchback and Quasimodo and ending with Low Sunday. The setter was lucky in that respect, but I realise that setters make their own luck by noting these things.
Altogether a masterful puzzle that took me quite a long time, but it was an enjoyable and rewarding experience.
Thanks to proXimal and Kitty. (I too completely forgot about EASTER NO MORE!)
ProXimal has confirmed to me that the “signature” in the fifth row is intentional. And of course I endorse the very positive comments about a challenging and enjoyable puzzle.
mc_rapper @3 – Gah, that’s very annoying. I should have double checked. I will see if I can amend the blog quickly on my phone, but the image will have to wait until this evening. It’s rather a lot of frames to change, but I’m a perfectionist.
Ifor
What signature? (I need at least a cryptic clue, but it would be easier just to tell me!)
Cryptically, then, Alan:
the Sunday Telegraph Enigmatic Variations Editor (and it’s his actual name, not just an apposite acronym)
Thanks, Ifor. (I knew it wasn’t St. Eve.)
I suspected I was in for a treat when I saw the editor’s name above the crossword.
And I wasn’t disappointed. The construction and the realisation of the theme are excellent.
I didn’t know that Quasimodo was named after the day and I didn’t know that the Sunday after Easter was called Low Sunday or Quasimodo Sunday, so I learned a lot as well.
Having limited knowledge of the book I had to research the third character and I almost convinced myself that Gringoire was the ITINERANT.
But I put ESMERALDA – and I would have misspelt that if I hadn’t looked it up.
Thanks to proXimal for the challenge and to Kitty for the comprehensive Blog
A fun solve – don’t think we’ve had an eightsome reels puzzle for a while. Finding a work with key names all 9 letters was a nice discovery and the replacements neatly done, especially in producing the author’s name. Can’t remember being up to 12 comments this early which I think is also a tribute to the puzzle. Thanks to proXimal and Kitty.
[mc_rapper67 @4
Thanks for the link – I don’t remember that BT ad. Annoyingly, ‘Quasimodo’ clearly says the name ‘Esmerelda’.]