Enigmatic Variations No. 1607: Eightsomes by Gaston

In crossword-land, ‘Eightsome’ is usually associated with ‘Reels’, and has 8-letter words meshing, cog-like, around their clue numbers…but Gaston seems to be serving up some different types of EIGHTSOMES here…

(Apologies for the delay in posting this blog – a 4-hour power cut in North Hampshire prevented me from finishing it last night.)

The preamble states that: “One EIGHTSOME (12 words) can be found reading clockwise around the perimeter of the grid, starting at the top left cell. Four apparently nonsensical, but thematic, unclued entries make up a second associated EIGHTSOME. Unchecked letters in the perimeter could make JUST MEN HARM HER SHIP; Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”

As a blogger, a perimetral message and unclued thematics are always welcome – fewer clues to parse below! Also noted was the absence of any ‘tricks’ in the clues – e.g. extra/missing/misprinted letters giving hints/thematic messages.

I made reasonable progress through the clues, with the grid slowly filling up, and crossers starting to creep into the perimeter and unclueds. And eventually I could make out NOAH along the top, MAND down the right, PL?S along the bottom, and WIV?S up the left. With a little Wiki-oogling to flesh out my vague Sunday Skool memories, I was able to fit Noah’s three sons, SHEM, HAM AND JAPHETH down the right, and also to add PLUS THEIR THREE WIVES – none of whom gets a mention by name in the original stories, I believe. Finally, with a last few clues in the top left, and cross-checking the unchecked letters from the preamble, I came up with MR AND MRS NOAH to complete the perimeter.

So, our first EIGHTSOME on the Ark is ‘MR AND MRS NOAH, SHEM, HAM AND JAPHETH, PLUS THEIR THREE WIVES’.

And the four unclued entries fell one-by-one as pairs of male/female animals boarding the Ark two-by-two:

• cats – QUEEN/TOM
• chickens – HEN/COCK
• sheep – RAM/EWE
• deer – STAG/DOE

…giving the second EIGHTSOME.

An epic EV of biblical proportions! With a cast of thousands! (Well, sixteen, to be precise.) Brought to you by Cecil B De Gaston! 

Overall I felt that this was a relatively gentle EV, with a fun take on a pretty universally known story. There were a few obscure/new (to me) words, like TIRL, SHCHI, NIM, KANS as a grass, MAGIAN and ILLATIVE – but all were pretty gettable from wordplay/crossers, and just needed a quick check in the cruciverbal ‘bible’ (Chambers) to make sure they were words.

My thanks to Gaston for an enjoyable solve, and I hope all is clear below.