Hi, intrepid EV-ers, and congratulations on securing access to the puzzle despite the LIMITATIONS those in charge at the paper have introduced. (Not the EV or puzzles editors, I hasten to add – their skills and commitment to the series have steered it through this far.) Before getting to the puzzle, I must give a big thank you to my fellow blogger mc_rapper for supplying me with a copy, complete with perfectly OCR-ed clues.
The two previous Jaques puzzles I’ve had the pleasure of blogging should have put me in a good frame of mind for this one but, perhaps because blogging the EV gets a smidge less fun with every attempt to kill it, I didn’t get around to starting this until Tuesday evening. I was lucky that it wasn’t a monster! Instead, it was all most enjoyable with a satisfying ending.
The preamble:
A letter has been omitted from each down clue and must be reinstated before solving. These letters, in clue order, give a line of verse (in ODQ). The remainder of the verse indicates what should be entered at 1 across and how two other entries must be changed to redefine LIMITATIONS. All entries in the final grid are proper nouns or words in Chambers Dictionary (2016), which is recommended.
After a pass across the acrosses, I had not much up top (so to speak) but a decent amount lower down. I then worked my way up the downs, spelling out the message in reverse, which turned out to be:
I AM MASTER OF THIS COLLEGE
A little research led me to the Balliol rhyme:
First come I; my name is Jowett.
There’s no knowledge but I know it.
I am Master of this college:
What I don’t know isn’t knowledge.
It comes from The Masque of B–ll––l, a collection of forty verses created by undergraduates of Balliol College, Oxford, and published (then promptly suppressed by the college authorities) in 1880. This rhyme is one of those attributed to Henry Charles Beeching, and the subject is Benjamin Jowett, the Master of Balliol.
It seems that in the original form the vowels are omitted from the names, thus Jowett is written as J–W–TT, just as in the initial grid. A neat touch.
Filling in the missing vowels at 1a seemed the logical first thing to do.
J-W-TT -> JOWETT
As for the second, I was fortunate that the entry “I don’t know” had stuck in my mind. This helped me to identify and locate the substitution to be made, taken from the last line of the verse …
WHAT I DON’T KNOW -> ISN’T KNOWLEDGE
… leaving real words in the grid. Very nice. Thanks Jaques!
| Clue No | ANSWER | Clue with definition underlined | |
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and ANSWER letters in bold caps | |||
| Across | |||
| 6a | CUBAGE | Found content to be too young for Scouts? (6) | |
| To be of CUB AGE might mean being younger than Scout age (to be too young for Scouts) | |||
| 10a | APACHE | Air Police distress Parisian hooligan (6) | |
| AP (Air Police) + ACHE (distress) | |||
| 11a | IODURET | Ride out at sea for old salt (7) | |
| RIDE OUT anagrammed (at sea) | |||
| 12a | GERBIL | Desert inhabitant in Mongolian tent with much humour (6) | |
| GER (Mongolian tent) + most of (much) BILe (humour) | |||
| 13a | RAGMAN | Rough slate pillar having rock and totter (6) | |
| RAG (rough slate) + MAN (pillar having rock) | |||
| 14a | IMMINENCE | Danger looming in diamond mine in Minnesota (9) | |
| In ICE (diamond) is MINE in MN (Minnesota) | |||
| 16a | BLAG | Appropriate length in short trousers (4) | |
| L (length) in all but the last letter of (short) BAGs (trousers) | |||
| 18a | CHALICE | Contemptuous individuals after tea cup (7) | |
| LICE (contemptuous individuals) after CHA (tea) | |||
| 21a | STRATUM | Group standing all round café (7) | |
| SUM (all) round TRAT (café) | |||
| 23a | TRON | Scales getting weight about right (4) | |
| TON (weight) around (about) R (right) | |||
| 24a | APART | Acting role is out of consideration (5) | |
| A (acting) + PART (role) | |||
| 26a | BASE | Short jacket without question is counterfeit (4) | |
| BAS[qu]E (short jacket) without QU (question) | |||
| 28a | CHEERIO | Port pursuing reduction in vice element for so long (7) | |
| RIO (port) after (pursuing) CHEEk (vice element) without the last letter (reduction in …) | |||
| 31a | ACETONE | To purge chemical engineer’s injected in organic compound (7) | |
| ATONE (to purge); CE (chemical engineer) is inserted (injected) | |||
| 34a | WHAT | Pardon bowler maybe after wide (4) | |
| HAT (bowler maybe) after W (wide) | |||
| 35a | I DON’T KNOW | I disagree – papers get guards not confused (9, three words) | |
| ID (papers) and KNOW (get) goes around (guards) an anagram of (… confused) NOT | |||
| 37a | ISOBAR | In such a condition in one pub, indication of pressure? (6) | |
| SO (in such a condition) in I (one) and BAR (pub) | |||
| 38a | KABUKI | Mikado’s core response to traditional medicine round country is entertainment for the Japanese (6) | |
| MiKAdo’s central letters (core) + BI (response to traditional medicine) round UK (country) | |||
| 39a | EVENING | Late in the day, say, eating something poisonous (7) | |
| EG (say) around (eating) VENIN (something poisonous) | |||
| 40a | ETALON | Measuring device certainly not recently returned (6) | |
| NO (certainly not) and LATE (recently) reversed (returned) | |||
| 41a | DIRECT | Outspoken in portentous court (6) | |
| DIRE (portentous) + CT (court) | |||
| 42a | REBATE | Cost with bill of exchange returned in refund (6) | |
| RATE (cost) containing (with … in) BE (bill of exchange) reversed (returned) | |||
| Down | |||
| 1d | JAGIR | Neglected tax to land one’s load of liquor and [I]ran (5) | I |
| JAG (one’s load of liquor) + IR (Iran) | |||
| 2d | WARMER | We run round b[a]y fire perhaps (6) | A |
| WE and R (run) round ARM (bay) | |||
| 3d | THINK | [M]Use half of this printing material (5) | M |
| Half of THis + INK (printing material) | |||
| 4d | TELEDU | Indonesian inhabitant known to s[m]ell Dutch television to begin with (6) | M |
| DU (Dutch) preceded by (… to begin with) TELE (television) | |||
| 5d | KIRN | Spilt drink, dram’s initially gone, last chance for gr[a]in on Islay? (4) | A |
| An anagram of (spilt) [d]RINK missing D (Dram’s initially gone) | |||
| 6d | COACHER | Horse taking carriage to [s]mart’s slipped in corner (7) | S |
| ACHE (to smart) is inserted into (slipped in) COR (corner) | |||
| 7d | BUMBLEBEE | One maybe drinks in pinks, but[t] remain committed to old colour (9) | T |
| BUM (butt) + BE (remain) inserted into (committed to) BLEE (old colour) | |||
| 8d | ARALIA | Clear a liar rob[e]s Ivy (6) | E |
| CleAR A LIAr surrounds (robes) the answer | |||
| 9d | ÉTAGÈRE | Place for objet d’art, French tie[r] rosette on the outside (7) | R |
| ÉTAGE (French tier) + RosettE, outer letters (on the outside) | |||
| 15d | METRIC | Master rice tang[o] cooked according to International standard (6) | O |
| M (master) + an anagram of (… cooked) RICE and T (tango) | |||
| 17d | PANETTONE | Fancy for Italian and French to per[f]use colour scheme (9) | F |
| ET (and French) in (to perfuse) PANTONE (colour scheme) | |||
| 19d | ANTE | Advance payment essentially wan[t]ed (4) | T |
| The inner letters of (essentially) wANTEd | |||
| 20d | CASINO | Betting [h]Ouse river base vanishes from churned up scenario (6) | H |
| R (river) and E (base) leaves (vanishes from) an anagram of (churned up) SC[e]NA[r]IO | |||
| 22d | TARO | I’m consumed by [i]slanders and hold forth endlessly for retraction (4) | I |
| ORATe (hold forth) without the last letter (endlessly) reversed (for retraction) | |||
| 23d | TRAWLED | Finally get green light having [s]wept for information (7) | S |
| The last letter of (finally) geT + RAW (green) + LED (light) | |||
| 25d | PENDANT | Long about to [c]lose – some hanging matter (7) | C |
| PANT (long) around (about) END (to close) | |||
| 27d | TEASER | Tr[o]y pain reliever tempting one (6) | O |
| T (troy) + EASER (pain reliever) | |||
| 29d | HANKER | Yearning fish ru[l]e having limited number (6) | L |
| HAKE (fish) and R (rule) around (having limited) N (number) | |||
| 30d | RANULA | When arising sing[l]e moonlike glandular cyst (6) | L |
| On reversal (when arising) A (single) and LUNAR (moonlike) | |||
| 32d | STATE | Stag[e]’s damaged antlers oddly round end of rut (5) | E |
| An anagram of (damaged) AnTlErS, alternate letters (oddly), around (round) the last letter (end) of ruT | |||
| 33d | SWINE | Pi[g] adding weight to function (5) | G |
| We are inserting W into (adding weight to) SINE (function) | |||
| 36d | ORGY | Gourd[e]’s dropped in bloody wine-fuelled revel (4) | E |
| G (gourde) is moved downwards (dropped) in GORY (bloody) | |||
How can I print a copy of this crossword, can someone help me?
Hi Worworcrossol,
If you have access to PressReader, either through your own account or via your library, you can access a facsimile of the paper through that. There is an option to print all or part of a page – I can’t remember the exact details, but will log in to check if needed.
If you are happy for me to email you, I can help further.
Hi Kitty
As I am in Canada press reader is out so any kind of reply would be great, if it is not too much trouble.
TIA
Worworcrossol
Enjoyed this lovely puzzle. I had no knowledge of the subject. I had *****T at 1 Across and this college from the letters. I assumed it was to do with Heriot Watt, but eventually got on the right track.
Yes, very enjoyable; as is the setting blog that has appeared at Big Dave’s, where Jaques makes a salient point in a most entertaining way.