Enigmatic Variations No. 1599: Full Steam Ahead by X-type

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No fancy clueing devices from X-type this week, but we have a perimetral message, and something that looks like a speedometer in the middle of the grid, which is a first, I think! Are we going train-spotting?…FULL STEAM AHEAD!

The preamble states that:

“The perimeter message (starting at the top left) must be completed using the letters of SEEMED SLOW FOR CROWD in the unchecked cells. Solvers must draw a line/arrow in response to this message (taken at time of publication) regarding something going FULL STEAM AHEAD. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”

As it was, I went from 0-60 pretty quickly here (or rather 0-36, as a thematic perimeter usually results in fewer clues for your blogger to have to process), with some fairly amenable clueing leading to a fairly rapid grid-fill, and the perimeter gradually filling up with checked letters:

‘_UR_ENT_OR_D_P_E_R_CORD__RA_TEA_PO_E_E_M_T_RBIK__’

It didn’t take too many leaps of the imagination to get to:

‘CURRENT WORLD SPEED RECORD FOR A STEAM-POWERED MOTORBIKE‘, with the specified letters filling in the blanks.

So far, so good – two wheels rather than two rails, but that is a pretty specialised bit of General Knowledge…I’m not sure I even knew there was such a thing as a steam-powered motorbike! But luckily we are in the ‘Wiki-oogle Age’ where all such gaps in knowledge/experience can be filled fairly quickly – as long as you can find a definitive source.

In this case I happened upon some consistent reports of a recent (18 June 2023) achievement, whereby a ‘nutty inventor’ and ‘grandfather-of-nine’ Graham Sykes raised the bar in this category by covering 1/8th of a mile in just under 4 seconds, on a bike he built ‘in his shed’, with a ratified ‘exit speed’ of 163.8 mph. (The stories go on to say that the bike subsequently reached a speed of 180 mph as it continued accelerating beyond the measured distance, but that is unratified – maybe he should have started further back!

So, in my submitted grid I set the speedo to approximately 163.8:

And that was that – I didn’t record a time, but I think it must have been my quickest EV solve of recent times, with a lot of relatively simple (to me) clues/write-ins. Having said that, I had to check that ‘ESSENCE’ was a ‘fine Tokay wine’, and that CHURR was a bird sound. However, the research at the end probably took almost as long as the solving process!

Not that I am complaining – especially on my turn on the blogging rota – this was a wonderfully quirky EV with a novel grid design and an educational twist. Hopefully it will have attracted a larger than usual number of submissions, as an ‘entry-level puzzle, and will encourage new solvers in to the series.

My thanks to X-type for the entertainment and challenge – just one question remains: was this puzzle inspired by the latest record – which would be a pretty quick turnaround? Or had it been in the pipeline for a while, based on the previous record of 80 mph, set in 2014, and maybe recent events helped to push it up the pecking order – and caused the ‘at the time of publication‘ caveat in the preamble, in case someone felt inspired to try to go faster in the meantime? Maybe we will find out below…

 

Across
Clue No Solution Clue (definition underlined)

Logic/Parsing
9 EGRESS I must leave – Sergei’s getting bothered – find way out (6)

subtractive anagram, i.e. getting bothered, of SERGE(I)S, leaving out I
10 ATOP Something that spins on high spot (4)

double defn. (allowing for enumeration!) – A TOP will spin; and ATOP means on a high spot
11 KIDDO Young person to tease and con? (5)

KID (tease) + DO (con)
12 EARFUL Crying with leader’s rejection: get reprimand (6)

(T)EARFUL (crying) rejecting leading letter
13 ISOS I appeal for help making film replays (4)

I + SOS (appeal for help)

[an ISO, or isolated replay, is a clip from a film that can be replayed separately]
14 RENAME Are men excited to get title again? (6)

anag, i.e. excited, of ARE MEN
15 BLUE Spend lavishly? So sad (4)

double defn. – to BLUE can be to squander, or spend lavishly; and BLUE can mean sad
16 ESSENCE Riotous scenes with ecstasy and fine Tokay wine (7)

ESSENC (anag, i.e riotous, of SCENES) + E (ecstasy tablet)
18 RABIC First of all rescue animals brought in case of this illness from mad dog? (5)

first letters from ‘Rescue Animals Brought In Case’
20 CHURR Sound of birds, as snack is unfinished (5)

CHURR(O) – snack, unfinished!
23 TIDAL Boy, it comes back – like the sea (5)

LAD (boy) + IT – all coming back gives TIDAL
24 SERAC Frantically races large chunk of ice down glacial slope (5)

anag, i.e. frantically, of RACES
25 PRO RATA Backing a sailor and head of pirates receiving gold proportionally (7, two words)

A + TAR (sailor) + P first letter, or head, of Pirates), all around (receiving) OR (heraldic, yellow, gold) gives ATARORP – and then ‘backing’ this gives PRO RATA
29 LIMO Oil mixture initially blended for vehicle (4)

anag, i.e. blended, of OIL + M (initial letter of Mixture)
30 MANCUS Chap with cents – US money from way back (6)

Man (chap) + C (cents) + US

[a ‘mancus’ being an old English coin, or it’s value – 30p]
32 EMIR Frost backed as leader (4)

RIME (frost) backed gives EMIR (Islamic ruler)
33 LARVAL One who protects the house gets servant (not alien) to make, like, grub (6)

LAR (household god, as in Lares & Penates) + VAL(ET) (servant, losing ET – extra-terrestrial, or alien)
34 AHIND A red deer seen after all in Scotland (5)

A + HIND (female red deer)
35 EDIT Correct and improve poor diet (4)

anag, i.e. poor, of DIET
36 ENDRIN Cranky nerd at home making pesticide (6)

ENDR (anag, i.e. cranky, of NERD) + IN (at home)
Down
Clue No Alternatives Clue (definition underlined)

Logic/Parsing
1 UNISLAMIC Place of learning to criticise current leader of council, being anti-Muslim? (9)

UNI (place of learning) + SLAM (criticise) + I (current, physics notation) + C (leading letter of Council)
2 REDOUBT Soldiers have second thoughts about retreat? (7)

RE (Royal Engineers, soldiers) + DOUBT (have second thoughts about)
3 ERODE Wear innards of five rodents! (5)

hidden word in, i.e. innards of, ‘fivE RODEnts’
4 NEEDS Ordered Eden’s requirements (5)

anag, i.e. ordered, of EDENS
5 TSARS Old Russians getting temperature with coronavirus? (5)

T (temperature) + SARS (coronavirus)
6 OFFENCES Breaches of law involving boundaries (8)

OF (involving) + FENCES (boundaries)
7 RAUNCHY Bawdy – and chary about UN coming in (7)

RA_CHY (anag, i.e. about, of CHARY) with UN coming in
8 DORM Daughter or maiden in sleeping quarters (4)

D (daughter) + OR + M (maiden, cricket scoring notation)
17 URSA MINOR Stars the little bear – minus roar — in play (9, two words)

anag, i.e. in play, of MINUS ROAR
19 COLOUR UP Cool, upper-class Pru agitated: now seen to blush (8, two words)

anag, i.e. agitated, of COOL + U (upper class, not non-U!) + PRU
21 MARCATO Cause harm to animal? Nothing as emphatic (7)

MAR (cause harm to) + CAT (animal) + O (zero, nothing)

[‘marcato’ being musical notation for emphatic, strongly accented]
22 CRIMINA Illegal doings – almost totally deplorable (7)

CRIMINA(L) – deplorable, almost totally

[‘crimina’ being the plural of CRIMEN – a crime]
26 ANANA Fruit with its top sliced off; and another (5)

(B)ANANA – fruit, with top letter sliced off!
27 TILDE Leader of Denmark, in cockney hat, gets Spanish accent (5)

TIL_E (hat, slang) around D (leading letter of Denmark)

[not sure why ’tile’ is Cockney slang specifically, as that would be ‘titfer’, as in tit fer tat = hat]
28 APART One actor’s role: giving aside (5)

A (one) + PART (actor’s role)
31 AIDE Raider smothering assistant (4)

hidden word in, i.e. smothered by, ‘rAIDEr’

5 comments on “Enigmatic Variations No. 1599: Full Steam Ahead by X-type”

  3. Just to add that there is a setter’s blog over on the BD site with some background on the puzzle – it seems X-type is a personal friend of Graham ‘Syko’ Sykes, and prepared this puzzle in anticipation of the record attempt!

    KVa at #1 = unfortunately not…the Telegraph chose not to make it available on their new site, as everything has to be interactive, and each EV’s uniqueness makes them impractical for interactive grids. The only way to get hold of the puzzle is to buy the dead tree version, or to subscribe to a service that offers ‘facsimile’ copies of the daily newspapers. I subscribe to the Telegraph (and other dailies) via PressReader, although other services are available! It costs around £100 a year for the Telegraph, and I can screenshot/print the EV from there.

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