Hello everyone.
The preamble:
There is MORE to the grid THAN MEETS THE EYE. Clues are given in alphabetical order of their answers, which must be fitted in where they will go, resulting in the creation of a thematic 12-letter word. The obelised clue is an ODE variant of a word in Chambers Dictionary (2016), which is otherwise recommended.
Faced with a jigsaw, I always group the clues by answer length and also look at the length distributions in the grid. In this case, they didn’t match – for a start, there was a 13 letter answer and the grid was 12×12. When I added up all the answer lengths the total was 12 more than the spaces available, confirming a hunch that we would have to think outside the box (/grid).
After solving what clues I could after a pass or three through them, I turned my attention back to the problem of the jigsaw.
I could see no obvious way to start without some idea of what the final grid would look like, and I thought it wouldn’t be too hard to construct. 12 contiguous cells was my first thought, but that clearly wouldn’t work. I then experimented to try to find a viable symmetrical arrangement, but no joy. I began to get dispirited with no idea how to fit the entries in, and started to seriously doubt I would manage it at all without help.
So I decided to look again at the answers I had and just try to fit them in somewhere, somehow.
I realised that making the assumption the first cell really was the first cell (i.e. with nothing added above or before), PRINCELET across the top would fit nicely with one of the long P-words going down. Of the two options, PHALANSTERIAN was the one which looked promising, so in it went. Then I continued, just fitting words in where they would go and resorting to sticking letters outside the edge of the grid when it seemed necessary.
This approach worked like a dream – it was astounding how quickly everything came together from here, and very satisfying.
The 12 letter word wasn’t the one which had suggested itself to me (crenellation), but:
EXCRESCENCES
Appropriately enough. Thanks Kcit!
In the grid and clues below I have included clue numbers for ease of reference.
| # | ANSWER | Clue with definition underlined |
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and ANSWER letters in bold caps | ||
| 12a | AGLEE | Crooked Scots acting with enjoyment (5) |
| A (acting) + GLEE (enjoyment) | ||
| 23d | ASIANIC | As primarily encapsulated by a Chinese? (7) |
| The first letter of (… primarily) As inside (encapsulated by) A from the clue and SINIC (Chinese) | ||
| 22d | BEE-GLUE | Unhappy about brain scan revealing something of honeycomb structure (7) |
| BLUE (unhappy) around (about) EEG (brain scan) | ||
| 30a | CALAIS | Cocaine sadly found around island port (6) |
| C (cocaine) + ALAS (sadly) found around I (island) | ||
| 3d | CILIA | Hair-like attachments on hip bone, bottom to top (5) |
| ILIAC (on hip bone) with the last letter raised to the top (bottom to top) | ||
| 29a | CRINGING | Timid campanologist’s beginning campanology? (8) |
| Campanologist’s first letter (beginning) + RINGING (campanology?) | ||
| 17a | EASEMENT | No longer support Orient after involvement of European chaps (8) |
| EAST (orient) on insertion of (after involvement of) E (European) and MEN (chaps) | ||
| 18d | ENCEINTE | Almost write in about Nice rioting, ready for issue of Le Monde (8) |
| Almost ENTEr (write in) around (about) an anagram of (… rioting) NICE | ||
| 1d | ENDERMICAL | Applied to the skin, covering particular area around bottom of ear (10) |
| ENDEMICAL (covering particular area) around the last letter of (bottom of) eaR | ||
| 7d | ERMINE | Former monarch to bring down symbol of nobility? (6) |
| ER (former monarch) + MINE (to bring down) | ||
| 26a | EVILLY | Wrong to block tax, though not initially with bad intent (6) |
| ILL (wrong) going in (to block) lEVY (tax) without the first letter (not initially) | ||
| 20a | EXOCARP | Part of fruit apple-grower returned, interrupting distribution of pear (7) |
| Reversed (… returned) COX (apple-grower) inside (interrupting) an anagram (distribution) of PEAR | ||
| 28d | FLIT | Desirable to accommodate large transfer (4) |
| FIT (desirable) containing (to accommodate) L (large) | ||
| 32a | FLUTINA | Disorder can start to affect accordion (7) |
| FLU (disorder) + TIN (can) + the first letter of (start to) Affect | ||
| 14d | GEMÜTLICH | What might be approachable for German? Cryptic clue might (9) |
| An anagram of (cryptic) CLUE MIGHT | ||
| 25a | HEIRESS | Inheritor – the guy is receiving most of remainder (7) |
| HE (the guy) + IS taking in (receiving) all but the last letter of (most of) RESt (remainder) | ||
| 19a | HINNIE | Hurry to include tavern in Scottish expression of affection (6) † |
| HIE (hurry) to include INN (tavern) | ||
| 6d | IDLE | Fish circling lake without real intention (4) |
| IDE (fish) around (circling) L (lake) | ||
| 31a | IOTA | One cheers after visit from old Greek character (4) |
| I (one) and TA (cheers) with insertion of (after visit from) O (old) | ||
| 11a | MALAR | Absurd behaviour not significant in describing cheeky stuff? (5) |
| MALAR[key] (absurd behaviour) without KEY (not significant) | ||
| 8d | MALONATE | Acidic salt China’s imported throughout? Not good (8) |
| MATE (china)’s taken in (imported) ALON[g] (throughout) without (not) G (good) | ||
| 13a | MOONLIT | Brief time on lake has special quality under nocturnal illumination (7) |
| MO (brief time) + ON + L (lake) + IT (special quality) | ||
| 9d | PATRIPASSIAN | Power given to delinquent Saints, a pair advocating a heresy? (12) |
| P (power) + an anagram of (delinquent) SAINTS, A PAIR | ||
| 4d | PHALANSTERIAN | Arenas and a plinth arranged about idealistic building complex (13) |
| ARENAS and A PLINTH anagrammed (arranged) | ||
| 4a | PRINCELET | Newspaper covering church linked to the French royal? (9) |
| PRINT (newspaper) covering CE (church) plus LE (the French) | ||
| 16d | RICERCATA | Type of fugue: local twigs jazz fan is enthralled by artist (9) |
| RICE (local twigs) + CAT (jazz fan) is surrounded by (enthralled by) RA (artist) | ||
| 5d | RUGOSE | Offering some wrinkles in plan that secures game (6) |
| RUSE (plan) which goes around (that secures) GO (game) | ||
| 10a | SHUDDERY | Wary about milk supplier, evincing sense of horror (8) |
| SHY (wary) around (about) UDDER (milk supplier) | ||
| 21a | SUCCUMB | Junior journalist covering cricket club with show of hesitation to sink under pressure (7) |
| SUB (junior journalist) around (covering) CC (cricket club) with UM (show of hesitation) | ||
| 33a | THAUMATIN | Sweet stuff American consumed during Thursday morning in Paris (9) |
| A (American) inside (consumed during) THU (Thursday) + MATIN (morning in Paris) | ||
| 24a | TREAT | Husband out of danger? That’s a welcome event (5) |
| H (husband) taken from (out of) T[h]REAT (danger) | ||
| 15a | UPROAR | Outrage: University supporting arts, but with 50 percent cut (6) |
| U (University) + PRO (supporting) + ARts but with 50 percent cut | ||
| 27d | VIOL | Wings on shield bracketing one ancient instrument (4) |
| VOL (wings on shield) surrounding (bracketing) I (one) | ||
| 2d | XENOPHOBIC | Redesigned phone box, I see, not supporting overseas connections (10) |
| An anagram of (redesigned) PHONE BOX + I + C (see) | ||
Thanks, Kitty. There’s a setter’s blog at https://phionline.net.nz/setters-blogs/more-than-meets-the-eye/
Liked
“When I added up all the answer lengths the total was 12 more than the spaces available, confirming a hunch that we would have to think outside the box (/grid).”
🙂