Enigmatic Variations No. 1587: Cross Debate by Kcit

Mrs Merton used to invite her audience to join in a ‘heated debate’, and there are many angry debates in Parliament these days…what sort of CROSS DEBATE does Kcit have for us – let’s hope it isn’t in the comments below!

The preamble states that:

“Each of four apparent three-letter entries has a clue to a six-letter word which protrudes into the central region. Clues to six six-letter entries each contain a redundant word to be removed before solving. These six six-letter words must also form across entries in the central region, using the protruding elements as a guide. Using the redundant words as definitions for new words, solvers must change one letter in each of the six so as to reveal in a thematic manner the name of someone responsible for the CROSS DEBATE indicated by the two unclued entries. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”

Quite a lot going on there – lots of sixes! At least there are no extra or missing letters from wordplay or entries, so fairly safe to start some cold solving and maybe come back to see if this all makes sense a bit later…

The first of those ‘apparent’ three-letter solutions to fall for me was 20A MEDUSA, with MED in the mini-grid and USA in the outer one. Followed by ROTTER, and then DEGRAS – which had to be that from crossers and wordplay, but needed a quick look-up. As did AVOSET, after I first put in AVOCET for bird and OVA -> AVO, thinking: ‘I’ll check that parsing later…’! These four were symmetrically placed – a nice touch.

In the meantime, a few redundant words had also been wheedled out – quietly, disfigured, stays…

And, gradually, things started to fall into place – the outer grid filled up slowly, with eight 6-letter answers, of which six had to be transcribed to the central grid. RASTER and WARMED were the most obvious, and then four from six filled the remaining spaces.

The extra words as definitions helped to work out the single-letter changes: ‘Kcit’, our setter, suggested SETTEE to SETTER; ‘stays’ gave DORSET to CORSET; ‘runner’ changed STOLEN to STOLON; ‘quietly’ changed TIMELY to TAMELY; and ‘preacher’ made RASTER into RANTER. My one glitch was when I put HARMED for WARMED, using ‘disfigured’. But this didn’t tally with the other changes, which were following the diagonal…so I changed it to WARPED!

So I ended up with ‘CANPOR’ as the diagonal, as well as DIAGONAL (cross, as in cross-court, cross-ply) and ARGUMENT (debate) as the unclued entries in the top and bottom rows.

A little Wiki-oogling helped me out of my predicament – the DIAGONAL ARGUMENT is a complex mathematical theorem posited by Georg CANTOR in the late 19th century (meaning ‘disfigured’ took WARMED to WARTED!).

 

 

I must have done some set theory in my Further Maths A-level, and/or my subsequent Maths/Economics degree, but this didn’t ring any bells – given the 35-odd years intervening, the rope-pulls have all become tangled and rotten, and the bells are very rusty!

An interesting and educational challenge from Kcit, which turned out to be more accessible than it seemed at first, with that fairly complex preamble and initially daunting/unconventional grid. (Having said that, surely no EV puzzle is conventional?!…). In fact, the hole in the middle meant a much higher than usual proportion of shorter entries – lots of 3s and 4s – which aren’t always easier to solve than longer words, but on the whole do tend to be…less opportunity for setters to be too devious!

My thanks to Kcit, and I trust all is clear above and below…

Across
Clue No	Redundant Word	Solution / Entry	Clue (definition underlined, redundant word in bold) Logic/Parsing
7		ASTI	Busy offloading latest wine (4) ASTI(R) – busy, moving – offloading latest letter
11	quietly	DORSET	County quietly back by middle of match (6) DORSE (the back, e.g. of a book) + T (middle letter of maTch)
12		VISCID	Video about science is inclined to stick (6) VI_D (video) around SCI (science)
13		ALBERGO	Roman inn: possible habit for Pope, therefore (7) ALB (priestly vestment, so a possible habit for the Pope) + ERGO (therefore)
14		DRAMA	Doctor seen leading US doctors in TV show? (5) DR (doctor) + AMA (American Medical Association, US doctors)
15		ETA	Menial worker overseas cheers after end of chore (3) E (end of chorE) + TA (cheers, thanks!)
17		ALE	Healthy husband spurned booze (3) (H)ALE – healthy, spurning H – husband
18		DEGRAS	Fat French artist’s framing rule (3) DEG_AS (Edgar Degas, French artist) around (framing) R (rule) [DEGRAS being a fat obtained from sheepskins]
20		MEDUSA	Democrat backing America’s creator of statues? (3) MED (Dem, or Democrat, backing) + USA (America) [those who looked directly at MEDUSA were turned to stone!]
22		EAN	Playwright’s to bring forth show without leading character (3) (M)EAN – show? – without leading letter [EAN being Shakespearean for ‘to give birth to’]
23		STY	Stop losing a historic path (3) ST(A)Y – stop, losing A [STY being obsolete for a path]
27		IMPOT	Lot of lines, perhaps, this writer’s put on quantity of paper (5) IM (I’m, this writer is) + POT (a size of paper) [IMPOT being school slang for an imposition, e.g. the punishment of writing out repetitive lines…]
29		TREMOLO	Organ feature about to appear in molto agitato (7) T_MOLO (anag, i.e. agitato, of MOLTO) around RE (about)
31	disfigured	SETTEE	Disfigured sofa giving support to group of people (6) SET (group of people) + TEE (support, e.g. for a golf ball)
32	stays	RASTER	Set of lines? Stays back, mostly following railway’s opening (6) R (opening letter of Railway) + ASTER(N) (back, mostly)
33		EDOM	Way of behaving back in Biblical kingdom (4) MODE, or way of behaving, back = EDOM – a biblical kingdom
Down
Clue No	Redundant Word	Solution / Entry	Clue (definition underlined, redundant word in bold) Logic/Parsing
1		D-DAY	Recalled one-third of chatter dismissing a significant moment (4) YADD(A) – one third of ‘yadda yadda yadda’, or persistent chatter, dismissing A and reversed, or recalled, to give D-DAY!
2		IOLITE	Colourful gem I refined, eliminating phosphorus (6) I + (P)OLITE (refines, eliminating P – phosphorus)
3		ARBA	Wheeled carriage — horse shifting second one (4) ARAB (horse) shifting the second A (or one) to the end, giving ARBA
4		OER	Poet’s finished ode, gutted by reception initially (3) OE (OdE, gutted of its middle letter) + R (initial letter of Reception)
5		AVOSET	Bird‘s eggs up on top of stake (3) AVO (ova, eggs, up) + SET (stake, as in lay out a border with stakes) [AVOSET being a variation on avocet]
6		LID	Swimming pool ditching old cover (3) LID(O) – swimming pool, ditching O – old
8		SCAM	Racket? That’s monkey banishing quiet (4) SCAM(P) (monkey, mischievous child) ditching P (piano, quiet, music)
9	preacher	TIMELY	Preacher, with German, climbing over cathedral city, early (6) TIM (mit, with in German, climbing) + ELY (generic cruciverbal cathedral city!)
10		I DARE SAY	Dicky is ready to tour Australia? lt wouldn’t surprise me (8, three words) I DARE S_Y (anag, i.e. dicky, of IS READY) around (touring) A (Australia)
15		EDGEWISE	Irritability over sound towards the border (8) EDGE (irritability) + WISE (sound)
16		AGON	A former radio comedian’s half-hearted struggle (4) A + GO(O)N (radio comedian, from The Goons, half heartedly, losing one of its two middle letters)
17		APUS	Constellation Penny observed in Australia (4) A_US (Australia) around P (penny)
19	runner	WARMED	Hot runner runs with me, tucking into sandwich (6) WA_D (sandwich) around (tucked into by) R (runs) + ME
21	kcit	STOLEN	Kcit unobtrusively passed anagram for ‘Solent’ (6) anagram, i.e. anagram!, of SOLENT [to STEAL can be to pass by unobtrusively]
24		UP TO	Working at University? Read on (4, two words) U (university) + P_TO (please turn over, instruction to read on)
25		NOTE	A,B,C, D, F or G? (4) &lit-ish/CD? Six of the seven musical notes, but not E!
26		DORT	Scots to sulk, tense after mockery, as before (4) DOR (obsolete, i.e. as before, for mockery) + T (tense)
28		TEA	Drink small quantity of salt water, but not all (3) TEA(R) – a quantity of salty water, but not all of it
29		ROTTER	Scoundrel beginning to ruin fishing device (3) R (beginning to Ruin) + OTTER (fishing device, a floating board behind a boat with several hooked lines)
30		EAU	English attracted to gold in water overseas (3) E (English) + AU (Aurum, gold)