“Four members of a group and the name of the man who devised the group must be highlighted (all in straight lines). The wordplay in 23 clues produces an extra letter in addition to those required by the answer. In clue order, these lead to a two-word thematic hint to guide solvers out of OBSCURITY.”
The 23 extra letters spell ANAGRAM OF CIRCLED LETTERS. Below, I’ve indicated the circled letters with grey cell backgrounds. Rearranging them gives CLOUD TYPES. LUKE HOWARD is the chap who named these. In addition to his name, we are to highlight CIRRUS, CUMULUS, STRATUS, and NIMBUS, forming a grid that looks like sunbeams peeping out from behind a cloud.
This was a lovely one! I sent the completed grid to a couple of friends to share the joy.
| Notation | |
|---|---|
| Definition | word |
| Indicator | [word] |
| Anagram | WORD* |
| Reversal | <WORD |
| Extra letter | ANA |
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 1 | Dinosaur ANA (gossip) after historic rhino uncovered [in muddle] (13) | ORNITHISCHIAN |
| 12 | In the country, time of day < LEES (the worst part) [returns] (4) | SEEL | |
| N | 13 | SAN |
SABLE |
| 14 | SELL (“Flog) IT” [included in] RITE (stratagem) for Jehovah’s Witness (10) | RUSSELLITE | |
| A | 15 | ASIA | |
| 16 | KILL (Alaskan ice) [surrounding] R (river) whale food (5) | KRILL | |
| G | 18 | [Damaged] |
TSUBA |
| 19 | [Exceptionally], {SEE, I GOT}* to talk about number one (7) | EGOTISE | |
| R | 20 | RUM (Strange) [opening of] U |
UMU |
| 21 | Drunkard’s |
LUSH | |
| A | 23 | Expenses of COATS (outer garments) [enveloping] S (son) (5) | COSTS |
| 24 | Be at the forefront of HEAP (great number) [protecting] [centre of] |
HEAD UP | |
| M | 27 | Drinkers [finally] |
TOPERS |
| 30 | Amusing CO (company), M (male) IC (in charge) (5) | COMIC | |
| O | 32 | Old tale of adventure GOES |
GEST |
| 33 | Letter [held by] laWYEr (3) | WYE | |
| F | 35 | Fat substitute FALTERS* [badly] [with] O (nothing) [up front] (7) | OLESTRA |
| 38 | US (Unserviceable) AGE (mature) practice (5) | USAGE | |
| C | 39 | Bard’s pouch, PACK [holding] O (over) [before] [end of] |
POAKE |
| 40 | [Some of] chaIN REaction’s concerning (4, two words) | IN RE | |
| I | 41 | Undeniably |
FAR AND AWAY |
| 42 | [Some] golDEN, IMported material (5) | DENIM | |
| R | 43 | Diligent AR (airman recruit) [axed from] BURS |
BUSY |
| 44 | Unusually {EROTIC ITEM, IT’S}* for specialist in fireballs and so on (13) | METEORITICIST | |
| Down | |||
| C | 2 | Reprinted publication {IS SECURE}* [in a fashion] (7) | REISSUE |
| 3 | Tree genus, |
NERIUM | |
| L | 4 | [Ultimately] |
TSUGA |
| 5 | H (Hotel) ASKS (requests) poet’s fish baskets (5) | HASKS | |
| E | 6 | Tricks of < LES (the French) [overturned] EIGHTS (rowing teams) (8) | SLEIGHTS |
| 7 | HELLO (Greeting) [C (cold), not H (hot)], for stringed instrument (5) | CELLO | |
| D | 8 | H (Hospital) |
HILLTOP |
| 9 | Put play of colours into haIR I DISEntangled [somewhat] (7) | IRIDISE | |
| L | 10 | Bear witness to T (time) [taken by] LATEST (most up-to-date) (6) | ATTEST |
| 11 | Spasmodic exhalations < SEEN (observed) [rising] [around] SE (south-east) (6) | NEESES | |
| E | 12 | SCATHE (Scorch with invective) [about] C (carbon) stilt (6) | SCATCH |
| 17 | Echo RES (reserve) [over] PEAK (point) (7) | RESPEAK | |
| T | 22 | UP (Thoroughly) G (good) TRADER (dealer), one who improves outdated things (8) | UPGRADER |
| 25 | Ed’s deprived of AME (soul), [endlessly] |
AMEARST | |
| T | 26 | DIT (Old composition) about SPACE to range about in lines (7) | DISPACE |
| 28 | R (Right) EGRESS (way out) to return to former state (7) | REGRESS | |
| E | 29 | Prompt [using] ESP EYED* dubiously (6) | SPEEDY |
| 30 | [With no restraints] |
CORFAM | |
| R | 31 | Salt, O (ordinary) [with] [essentially] |
OLEATE |
| 34 | < NAY (Yet more) [upset] with QUI |
YANQUI | |
| S | 36 | “TONNE” (A great number), [it’s said], DO (perform work on) circular relief (5) | TONDO |
| 37 | Type of bird in some regions — TE |
TEWIT | |
| 38 | Basic taste of U (university) M (male) AMI (friend) (5) | UMAMI | |
| O | R | N | I | R | H | I | S | C | H | I | A | N |
| S | E | E | L | S | A | B | L | E | I | R | T | E |
| C | I | R | R | U | S | S | E | L | L | I | T | E |
| A | S | I | A | G | K | R | I | L | L | D | E | S |
| T | S | U | B | A | S | E | G | O | T | I | S | E |
| C | U | M | U | L | U | S | H | C | O | S | T | S |
| H | E | A | D | U | P | P | T | O | P | E | R | S |
| C | O | M | I | C | G | E | S | T | W | Y | E | P |
| O | L | E | S | T | R | A | T | U | S | A | G | E |
| R | E | A | P | O | A | K | E | M | I | N | R | E |
| F | A | R | A | N | D | A | W | A | Y | Q | E | D |
| A | T | S | C | D | E | N | I | M | B | U | S | Y |
| M | E | T | E | O | R | I | T | I | C | I | S | T |
A gentle but lovely puzzle, and one for the perfectionists with the cloud names (obviously) placed in the grid in broadly correct ascending order, and the extra letters in every other clue except the last one.
I very much enjoyed the theme although was left slightly perplexed by the anagram, as I couldn’t figure out why Cloud Types would “lead me out of OBSCURITY” and kept looking for some other twist – which I never found as it doesn’t exist?
Thank you to setter and blogger.
Arnold, I’d missed that! Thanks for pointing it out.
I think perhaps the idea is that design of the grid suggests light dawning = an escape from obscurity.
And you’re right: lovely is exactly the word for this puzzle.
🙂
Just to be clear when I said “obviously in the right order” I didn’t mean “obviously you should have noticed it” (took me some time), but “obviously because it’s an EV puzzle hence the setters are perfectionists”!
Many thanks, MisterSting (and Arnold). I’m always happy when a compilation goes down well.
Sorry to be late to comment, this week. I was trying unsuccessfully to remember the false trail that I followed, almost to the end, trying to get something else out of the final ten letters. But it clicked with the discovery of Luke Howard, a quick check of him online, and then finding the clouds, which had of course appeared in plain sight by then. Altogether an enjoyable struggle, typical of the pleasures of EV. So, belated thanks both to Chalicea and to Mister Sting.