“Alternate down clues have an extra word, to be removed before solving, taken from a prayer which is always said before the start of an annual TOUR, which can have different high spots; their position in the clue indexes which letter to use from that word. In clue order, these letters have undergone some ups and downs and must be restored to the correct order to give the title of this prayer which indicates what runs around the perimeter of the grid in a clockwise direction and completes four unclued entries. Finally, one thematic destination must be changed to a general location. Unchecked letters of thematic entries give A DARK HILL HUMOUR SHOWS A BIT and all words before or after any changes are proper nouns or can be found in Chambers Dictionary (2016).”
Sorry the blog is late.
The letters indexed by the extra words spell THE TEN TORS (when rearranged – “undergone some ups and downs” being an appropriate anagram indicator). The extra words are taken from the Ten Tors Prayer. The unclued entries and perimeter are various of the tors. BEARDOWN (initially the first eight letters in the first row) is to be changed to DARTMOOR, the location of the annual hike.
Thankfully, given the amount of unclued material, the clues were relatively friendly (although “sarcastic maiden” confused me at first, and I found SCRY a little difficult to parse).
Please post a comment if the explanations are not clear.
| Notation | |
|---|---|
| Definition | word |
| Indicator | [word] |
| Anagram | WORD* |
| Reversal | <WORD |
| Homophone | “WORD” |
| Extra word | earth |
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | {LIE TO DATE}* [sick] and pale from lack of light (9) | ETIOLATED | |
| 10 | NY (American city) MP (politician) H (hot) for sarcastic maiden (5) | NYMPH | |
| 12 | IT’S* [about] ME (Vismut) getting glimpse of Scotland (5) | STIME | |
| 14 | Crowned [heads of] T |
TIARAD | |
| 15 | A S (son) S |
ASSOILS | |
| 17 | [Without U (university) TIN (can)] SCR |
SCRY | |
| 18 | [Cycling] SUN (star) with HIP (cool) move from seat (6) | UNSHIP | |
| 20 | LAT | ||
| 21 | Previously proper < WED (to marry) [on reflection] (3) | DEW | |
| 22 | Superhuman < DOG (setter maybe) [gets rejected] (3) | GOD | |
| 23 | PER |
PER | |
| 24 | O (Oscar) LIMA* [confused] N (new) rig operator (6) | OILMAN | |
| 25 | [Without] I (one) O (ordinary) L (lecturer), B |
BOGY | |
| 26 | One plucking instrument from [mutinous], [leaderless] |
HARPIST | |
| 29 | Pull apart [something found in] bosUN’S NAPkin (6) | UNSNAP | |
| 31 | STORE* [generated] Italian enthusiasm (5) | ESTRO | |
| 34 | Nosey parker S (S |
SNOOP | |
| 36 | Going in with single hit “WHOLE (total) INN (local) WON (got)” [on the radio] (9, three words) | HOLE IN ONE | |
| Down | |||
| H | 1 | {C (Carbon) [mixed with] PEATY earth and IL ([50 per cent] |
ETYPICAL |
| 2 | Intend [no odd bits of] |
AIM | |
| T | 3 | Maybe one making guys in adventure smootheR OPERators (5) | ROPER |
| 4 | [Reported] “ORE” (source of metal) blade (3) | OAR | |
| T | 5 | NESTS | |
| 6 | O (Old) STE |
OSTEOID | |
| E | 7 | Slug shooter great U |
UZI |
| 8 | Language [both TAM |
TAMIL | |
| N | 11 | Nature ANNOTAT |
STANNATOR |
| 13 | Description of [endless] BALLE |
LABEL | |
| E | 16 | In perfectly executed moves PP (past president)’s courage [expunged R (Republican) in] I |
IPPONS |
| 19 | [Nervous] MAGE* T (tense) ON (working) S (special) measures of explosive power (8) | MEGATONS | |
| O | 21 | Fumes God cut off by this [devilish] TRIAD* [possessing] P (papa) P (priest) (7) | DIPTRAP |
| 27 | “I’LL” (I will shortly) [broadcast] newlyweds’ way out (5) | AISLE | |
| T | 28 | [Heads to] S |
SFOOT |
| 30 | [Revolutionary] < [IN NUS (student group)]’s branch of religion (5) | SUNNI | |
| S | 32 | Spirit oil producer’s < LIT (fired) [up] (3) | TIL |
| 33 | Swimmer of E (Eastern) E (European) L (lake) (3) | EEL | |
| R | 35 | Cor! < HOO |
OOH |
Grid (after change):
An impressive amount of thematic material packed into the grid, especially given the constraint of turning Beardown into Dartmoor, achieved without having to resort to obscure entries, so kudos to the setter for that. Working out the anagram to The Ten Tors rather than the prayer was my way in; with hindsight, it probably would have been quicker to Google the extra words in clues: having those words do double duty was also a nice touch. Thanks to Vismut and Mister Sting.
Hoping that the preamble would become clearer later, I launched myself into the clues and enjoyed solving them. For some reason I got stuck on TIL, but when it yielded I got the one remaining letter in my set of ten.
I could not identify the prayer from the words extracted from the Down clues, and I was also unable to relate any of the possible words I could visualise in the borders and shaded entries to anything.
I presumed ‘ups and downs’ meant an anagram, that being my only entry into the theme using the letters HTTENEOTSR. It took me a long time to get THE TEN TORS because I had never heard of that name, but it explained ‘ups and downs’ and led me to nearly everything.
The last piece of the theme would have been the most difficult to find, but I had the good fortune to think of Dartmoor as soon as I realised that ‘general locations’ like ‘checkpoint’ were no good. DARTMOOR went in the first place I tried.
Yet another original theme, and what an interesting one, with all its unusual, unfamiliar names, not to mention the little-known prayer.
Thanks to Vismut and Mister Sting.