Hi all. A relative pussycat of an EV with a theme right up my alley!
The preamble reads:
Some clues are really two clues run together. Their combined answers must be treated in accordance with an INSTRUCTION (four words, symmetrically placed, to be highlighted) in the grid. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.
The enumeration identified the “some”, so it would be logical to concentrate on the other clues first. In the event it didn’t take too long before I had the 2d pair, and I tentatively put in what turned out to be the correct entry, wondering if perhaps we were losing weight. Soon afterwards followed the 29a pair, which let the cat out of the bag.
We remove (big) cats from inside the paired answers:
COUGAR TIGER OUNCE CHEETAH JAGUAR PANTHER CIVET
(Strictly, the civet isn’t a cat, although it is catlike and is also known as the civet cat. I know it from civet cat coffee, which I have not been tempted to try!)
I started the wordsearch element at the end by reasoning that the INSTRUCTION must surely include CAT. Once I had located THE CAT my eye was drawn along the same line and I found the instruction to:
PUT THE CAT OUT
Well, this puzzle didn’t put me out in any way. Very nice – thanks Piccadilly!
| Clue No | ANSWER | Clue with definition underlined |
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and ANSWER letters in bold caps | ||
| Across | ||
| 1a | LAPTOP | Note raised in this computer would achieve the height of excellence (6) |
| In LAPTOP, raising the note LA to the next in the scale, TI, would produce TIPTOP (the height of excellence) | ||
| 5a | TUCSON | Numbers reduced over US city (6) |
| NOS (numbers) and CUT (reduced), all reversed (over) | ||
| 10a | ROUCOU-GAREFOWL | Orange colouring matter from hearts of crow, duck and grouse // spiced raw leg of great auk (6;8) |
| The middle letters (hearts) of cROw, dUCk and grOUse // An anagram of (spiced) RAW LEG OF | ||
| 12a | SHOOS | We hear more than one brogue maybe scares away birds (5) |
| Homophone of (we hear) SHOES (more than one brogue maybe) | ||
| 14a | TERRAIN | Turtle quietly lost ground (7) |
| TERRA[p]IN (turtle) with P (quietly) removed (lost) | ||
| 16a | PENI | Contrite dropping off Spanish wine and coin for Spenser (4) |
| PENI[tent] (contrite) without (dropping off) TENT (Spanish wine) | ||
| 17a | ARMED | Damaged hotel leaving with guns (5) |
| [h]ARMED (damaged) with H (hotel) removed (leaving) | ||
| 18a | DOLTISH | Stupid old lieutenant taken in by pretty girl (7) |
| O (old) and LT (lieutenant) inside (taken in by) DISH (pretty girl) | ||
| 19a | IMPI | Warriors, two from Rome capturing redcap (4) |
| II (two from Rome) surrounding (capturing) MP (redcap) | ||
| 21a | UNLIME | Recycled uranium left mine free from sticky stuff (6) |
| An anagram of (recycled) U (uranium), L (left) and MINE | ||
| 22a | EMEER | Islamic ruler regularly appears in team, we hear (5) |
| The answer is found in alternate letters of (regularly appears in) tEaM, wE hEaR | ||
| 24a | SALIC | This law limits succession barring male from claims unfortunately (5) |
| We are removing (barring) M (male) from an anagram of (… unfortunately) CLAI[m]S | ||
| 26a | PIE-DOG | Go back after black-and-white ownerless canine (6) |
| GO reversed (back) after PIED (black-and-white) | ||
| 28a | TARA | Sailor by a variety of bracken (4) |
| TAR (sailor) by A | ||
| 29a | ASTI-GERONIMO | Leaders of Arapahos say this island wine // region fermented 50% of Moet for Apache chieftain (4;8) |
| The first letters (leaders) of Arapahos Say This Island // REGION anagrammed (fermented) + 50% of MOet | ||
| 31a | ABUNA | A sweet cake given by a patriarch from Ethiopia (5) |
| A + BUN (sweet cake) + A | ||
| 34a | HEAD | Principal listened to rook flying (4) |
| HEA[r]D (listened to) with R (rook) leaving (flying) | ||
| 36a | POTOROO | Motley troop loves small marsupial (7) |
| An anagram of (motley) TROOP + O O (loves) | ||
| 37a | EARLY | Nobleman finishing off journey in good time (5) |
| EARL (nobleman) + the last letter of (finishing off) journeY | ||
| 38a | KISS-CURL | Part of hairstyle dreadful: Ric sulks (8) |
| An anagram of (dreadful) RIC SULKS | ||
| 39a | DOSEHS | Bone found inside shed recalled old religious ceremonies (6) |
| OS (bone) found inside SHED reversed (recalled) | ||
| 40a | TRONES | Bananas rest on Scottish weighing machines (6) |
| An anagram of (bananas) REST ON | ||
| Down | ||
| 1d | LISP | Sulphur injected into cheek results in speech impediment (4) |
| S (sulphur) put inside (injected into) LIP (cheek) | ||
| 2d | PRONOUN-CELLAR | Perhaps she upset nun, poor // Clare wandering outside large underground room (7;6) |
| An anagram of (upset) NUN POOR // CLARE anagrammed (wandering) around (outside) L (large) | ||
| 3d | TROCHEE-TAHITI | Poet’s foot twitching to cheer // time on Haiti and Pacific island (7;6) |
| An anagram of (twitching) TO CHEER // T (time) + an anagram of (on) HAITI | ||
| 4d | PUTTS | American idiot caught golf shots (5) |
| PUTZ (American idiot), sound-alike (caught) | ||
| 5d | TEETH | Support most of the force (5) |
| TEE (support) + most of THe | ||
| 6d | CORRIE | Sheepdog runs for leagues to see hollow in Scottish hillside (6) |
| CO[ll]IE (sheepdog) with R R (runs) substituted for L L (leagues) | ||
| 7d | SWAM | Rector fleeing lots of bees travelled by water (4) |
| R (rector) is leaving (fleeing from) SWA[r]M (lots of bees) | ||
| 8d | NINJA-GUARDING | Assassin among dozen in Japan // protecting drug Gina synthesised (5;8) |
| The answer is in (among) dozeN IN JApan // DRUG GINA anagrammed (synthesised) | ||
| 9d | PHEONS | Barbed arrowheads destroyed phones (6) |
| An anagram of (destroyed) PHONES | ||
| 11d | LIE | Beef extract not very important? That’s falsehood (3) |
| LIE[big] (beef extract) without (not) BIG (very important) | ||
| 13d | SCIMITAR | Result of injury restricts one with German sword (8) |
| SCAR (result of injury) surrounds (restricts) I (one) and MIT (with, German) | ||
| 15d | RAMPANT-HERMIONE | Part man played rearing // that girl, note, single friend of Harry (7;8) |
| PART MAN anagrammed (played) // HER (that girl) + MI (note) + ONE (single) | ||
| 20d | MEDICI-VETERAN | Old Florentine family’s uncommon physician, first person // experienced at nerve transplants (6;7) |
| MEDIC (uncommon physician) + I (first person) // AT NERVE is anagrammed (transplants) | ||
| 21d | UNTAPED | Style of dancing in nude regrettably not videoed (7) |
| TAP (style of dancing) in NUDE anagrammed (regrettably) | ||
| 23d | ROMALS | Travellers by lake start to sell handkerchiefs (6) |
| ROMA (travellers) + L + the first letter of (start to) Sell | ||
| 25d | LANOSE | Behold proboscis: it’s woolly (6) |
| LA (behold) + NOSE (proboscis) | ||
| 27d | ENHALO | Put ring of colour round broken manhole with cover missing (6) |
| An anagram of (broken) mANHOLE with the top letter removed (cover missing) | ||
| 29d | ATOCS | A Glaswegian, say, raised skunks (5) |
| A + SCOT (Glaswegian, say) reversed (raised) | ||
| 30d | SCOUT | Mock old military spy (5) |
| Two definitions | ||
| 32d | BOK | Reserve half-heartedly displays South African goat (3) |
| BOoK (reserve) with the middle pair of letters reduced by half (half-heartedly) | ||
| 33d | UTIS | Uproar in Shakespeare’s Titus cast, leading character having left (4) |
| Without the first letter (… leading character having left), tITUS anagrammed (cast) | ||
| 35d | DYES | Stains first to disappear? Affirmative (4) |
| The initial letter of (first to) Disappear + YES (affirmative) | ||
It might have been possible to discover the theme from one’s first ‘double’ clue, but I had to get two of them before making that discovery, ‘cougar’ and ‘panther’ being the two (big) cats to put out.
I thought this was a very well designed puzzle, with the seven special non-words and the symmetrical four-word phrase all fitting neatly into a symmetrical grid. I enjoyed solving the clues too.
Thanks to Piccadilly and Kitty.
A gentle but fun puzzle. Generous clueing meant the grid filled pretty quickly and the penny dropped when I realised cougar and tiger were going from paired answers. Good use of the thematic phrase, though not one my feline would recognise: he decides if and when he’s popping out and may or may not decide to bring something back in with him (the inspiration for one of my own EVs, as it happens). Thanks to Piccadilly and to Kitty.
Yes, Stick Insect, “let the cat out” would certainly be preferable for the feline. Sadly, that wouldn’t be accurate for the instruction as once cat has been let out, cat may well decide cat wants to stay in! (At least until the door is shut again …)
FAB! I really enjoyed this, especially the terse instructions. Thank you all.