NB – apologies the pdf of the puzzle missed out the last part of the instructions – the first letters of the redundant words spell out an instruction to complete the puzzle.
If you would like to solve this barred puzzle but you were not at the S&B in York, click HERE.
INSTRUCTIONS:
All clues include a superfluous word of 4 or more letters – the first letters of these words in clue order spell out an instruction to finish the puzzle.
Joyce blogging……
The S&B puzzles were blogged by a small team – many thanks to them. As this was a barred puzzle with a large number of clues, I felt it was only fair that I blogged my husband’s crossword which he compiled as a tribute to John.
It’s always a bit daunting solving alone as I am used to it being a double act – this time even more so as I had a barred puzzle plus an alarming number of clues. However, I was pleasantly surprised that there was only one word that I had to check in Chambers – NAOS. I was misled by DICTA for a while as I was unsure whether they were ‘sayings’ or ‘accepted sayings’. I needed help with the parsing of LOG – I couldn’t see where OG came from – maybe that was because I am not that interested in team sports.
There were a number of references to John and his alter egos within the clues and the grid. Apparently Bert tried really hard to include ENIGMATIST but could only manage the first 6 letters.
Once I had a number of the extra words it became a little easier to spot them as the instructions revealed itself – a few of the superfluous words were very well hidden.
Superfluous word in each clue in brackets, definition underlined
ACROSS
3 John when setting (Sail) for the 9 gets 40% off for this puzzle
ENIGMA
ENIGMAtist (John when setting for the Guardian – 9d) missing 40% (last four letters)
7 Ungodly grandpa unfortunately ignores (Hospital) doctor
PAGAN
An anagram (‘unfortunately) of GrANdPA ‘ignoring’ ‘dr’ (doctor)
11 Naked (Ambition) demonstrated by rejecting redundancy
NUDE
Hidden (‘demonstrated by’) and reversed (rejected’) in rEDUNdancy
12 Charlie (Drake’s) penniless friend
CHUM
CHUMp (Charlie) without ‘p’ (‘penniless’)
13 Unfinished upmarket bar ditches old (Electric) organ
LUNG
LoUNGe (upmarket bar) without the last letter (‘unfinished’) and missing (‘ditching’) ‘o’ (old)
14 Abridged version of Chambers typically accepted (Common) sayings
DICTA
DICT (abbreviation -‘abridged’- for dictionary – ‘Chambers typically’) A (accepted)
16 Ben (Elton) is absent from money-raising event helping to identify criminals
E-FIT
benEFIT (money-raising event) with ‘ben’ absent
18 Body decoration once tawdry stuff, (Latterly) socially acceptable
TATU
TAT (tawdry stuff) U (socially acceptable) – old spelling of ‘tattoo’
20 Group of friends sit around (Leicester) Square
POSSE
POSE (sit) round S (square)
21 Old S & B location briefly sustained English (Soldiers) moving to the front
EBOR
BORE (sustained) with E (English) moving to the front – Ebor. is the abbreviated form of Eboracum – Roman name for York
23 Contemporary music featured in jazzed-up (Wagner) opera
POP
Hidden (‘featured’) in jazzed-uP OPera
24 Aquatic bird spotted in Western (Isles)
TERN
Hidden (‘spotted’)in wesTERN
25 Aimless (Tory) managed to upset Defence Department….
RANDOM
RAN (managed) + a reversal (‘upset’) of MOD (Defence Department)
26 ….spoke about (Hostility) initially shown to financial assistance abroad…..
SAID
S (first or initial letter of shown) AID (financial assistance abroad)
29 ….starts to accuse (Lefty) lawyers with interfering and backing immigration – an excuse for failure
ALIBI
First letters or ‘starts’ to Accuse Lawyers, Interfering, Backing Immigration
31 Agree to (Early) return of Quixote
NOD
A reversal of DON (Quixote -the fictional Spanish knight and former setter)
32 Detective has a loan arranged for (Tracing) a self-playing musical instrument
PIANOLA
PI (private investigator – detective) + an anagram (‘arranged’) of A LOAN
33 “The Hay Wain’, first of Constable’s (Temporarily) ignored paintings
ART
cART (‘hay wain’) missing or ignoring ‘c’ (first letter of Constable)
34 Director’s angry about missing rubbish (Exhibition)
DROSS
D (director) cROSS (angry) missing ‘c’ (about)
36 Microscopic (Research) can end in discovery
TINY
CAN (tin) Y (last letter or ‘end’ in discovery)
37 Drugs found by (Sleazy) tarts result in spots
ESPIES
ES (drugs) PIES (tarts)
38 One’s tender (Inflammation) in the same place as before
IBID
I (one) BID (tender)
39 Record (Notes) learner’s self-inflicted setback
LOG
L (learner) OG (own-goal – ‘self-inflicted setback’)
41 Result of eye-watering (Property) rent
TEAR
Double defintion
44 Various ducks (Usually) appear heading west with sun ahead
SMEES
A reversal (‘heading west’) of SEEM (appear) after S (sun)
47 Labour: “Fossil fuel needed after end of net (Zero)“
TOIL
OIL (fossil fuel) after T (last letter or ‘end’ of net)
48 (Zulu) family found in back end of East Anglian county
FOLK
‘Back end’ of NorFOLK or SufFOLK (East Anglian county)
49 Poet’s final verse left John in the 17/36 a (Little) bit tearful
ELIOT
E (last or ‘final’ letter of verse) L (left) IO (John’s pseudonym when setting for the FT -17/36) T (first letter or ‘bit’ of tearful)
50 (Egyptian) temple near OMSK, oddly
NAOS
Odd letters of NeAr OmSk
51 (Telling) some of the silliest stories
LIES
Hidden in (‘some of’) silLIESt
52 Wild, bare, (Inhospitable) Scottish hillside
BRAE
An anagram (‘wild’) of BARE
53 A former partner takes in new (Tenant) – here?
ANNEX
AN EX (a former partner) round (‘taking in’) N (new)
54 When (Leading) lady’s Oscar goes missing, she pursues US city sheriff
LAWMAN
WoMAN (lady) missing ‘o’ (Oscar) after or ‘pursuing’ LA (US city)
DOWN
1 Home of French writer with (Eerie) pit where the spectre of Nimrod occasionally materialises
INDEPENDENT
IN (home) DE (of in French) PEN (writer) DENT (pit)
2 Jerk fails to finish (Tricky) online crossword – it makes you smile
QUIP
QUIPtic (online crossword) without ‘tic’ (jerk) or ‘failing to finish’
4 Sent out (Overnight) bags
NETS
An anagram (‘out’) of SENT
5 Butter product finishes off cooking with (Sticky) white rice
GHEE
Last letters or ‘finishes’ to cookinG witH whitE ricE
6 Welsh politician’s current European girlfriend (Hails) from France
AMIE
AM (Assembly member – Welsh politician) I (current) E (European)
7 Pamper favourite (Oriental) cat?
PET
Triple definition
8 Choir member contributes (Wine) to loyal toast
ALTO
Hidden in (‘contributing to’) layAL TOast
9 Pacific island’s short road leads to improvised airstrip with no (Access) for a national
GUARDIAN
GUAm (Pacific island) missing the last letter or ‘short’ + RD (road) + I A (first letters or ‘leads’ of improvised airstrip) + N (no)
10 Advance payment wanted endlessly (Nowadays)
ANTE
wANTEd without the first and last letters or ‘endless’
12 Part of (Office) staircase designed to be enclosed
CASED
Hidden in (‘part of’) stairCASE Designed
15 54 parking behind company (Treasurer)
COP
P (parking) behind CO (company) – 54ac is LAWMAN
17/36 Paper (Acclaimed) by following Scandinavian round a US state, cornering leading industrialist
FINANCIAL TIMES
TIMES (by) following FINN (Scandinavian) round A + CAL (California – US state) round (‘cornering’) I (first letter or ‘lead’ of industrialist
19 Out-and out Unionist wasted time dating (Brexiteer)
UNMITIGATED
U (Unionist) + an anagram (‘wasted’) of TIME DATING
22 Bishop’s (Lame) answers sound sheepish
BAA
B (bishop) A A (answers)
24 (Exhibitionist) totters, almost drunk
TIPS
TIPSy (drunk) missing the last letter or ‘almost’
25 Criminal executed (Flagrant) swindle
ROOK
cROOK (criminal) missing the first letter (’executed’ as in beheaded)
27 Fostering (Imprudent) commercial choice
ADOPTION
AD (commercial) OPTION (choice)
28 Finishes off upcoming Azed then starts on (Guardian) Prize solution
ZAPS
A reversal (‘upcoming’) of A Zed + P S (first letters or ‘starts’ of Prize solution)
30 Set out to reverse phone (Usage)
LAID
A ‘reversal’ of DIAL (phone)
35 According to reporter, what The Observer will do for maritime (Region)
SEA
A homophone of SEE (what the observer will do)
36 see 17
39 (Exotic) garland ready for Ilie Nastase
LEI
Double definition – second being currency in Romania
40 Horse raced around over (Fences)
ROAN
RAN (raced) round O (over)
42 Chelsea houses otherwise (Occupied)
ELSE
‘Housed ’ in ChELSEa
43 Luxury car (Regularly) takes queen away for a spin
ROLL
ROLLer (Rolls Royce – luxury car) with ‘ER’ (queen) taken away
44 Biased society (Jeopardises) location of well-known gardens
SKEW
S (society) KEW (location of well-known gardens)
45 Skilful (Officer ) goes over Italian island
ELBA
A reversal (‘goes over’) of ABLE (skilful)
46 To climb (Hills) at speed sounds painful
SOAR
A homophone (‘sounds’) of SORE (painful)
48 Puzzle (Nonplussed) Roman’s S & B partner
FOX
A reference to the FOX & Roman pub – venue for the York S & B
The message formed by the first letters of superfluous words:
SHADE CELLS WITH LETTERS IN PUZZLE TITLE TO SHOW A NOTABLE FIGURE FOR JOHN –
shading in all cells containing the letters Y, O, R, K, S or B reveals ’60’ – John’s landmark birthday
Also – hidden in the top left corner is IQ – our favourite puzzle! Bert had to point this out to me as I completely missed it.
I solved this with a fellow setter (after Kenmac abandoned us for a game of backgammon!) yesterday at the Fox and Roman. Nicely clued with us being able to complete the grid quite fluidly. I did wonder if Egbert was unsure of normal checking rules or whether the thematic constraint led to some underchecking (3,54,25dn,28) — that made 28 very difficult for us and we guessed at DAPS rather than ZAPS.
That aside, the message was clear enough to me and the revelation of 60 was very nice and a lovely tribute. Quite similar sort of stuff to that seen in barred puzzles, so perhaps we’ll see a puzzle from Egbert in one of the series in the future. Apologies if that has already been the case and I’ve missed it!
Thanks Egbert for this enjoyable puzzle which made for a very pleasant post-S&B solve this afternoon. I echo ExTERNAL, sorry eXternal’s comments, a fitting tribute. Is this a debut?
Thanks for this entertaining puzzle, Egbert.
The instruction, when it eventually came, revealed what I thought was a very well executed design, whereby a particular set of letters occupied its own defined zones in the completed grid. (A fairly recent IQ puzzle by Serpent had a similar design feature.) A very fitting tribute to a puzzle king!
I enjoyed grappling with the clues and with the familiar kind of device that applied here to every clue. I have to admit that I had to make a few corrections to my set of extracted letters in order to make the instruction readable.
And thanks to Joyce for the clear blog, which cleared up a few parsing queries I had.
Bert here, aka E.G.Bert ……. Many thanks to eXternal, Wire and Alan for the lovely comments. This is not my debut puzzle for S&Bs, but it the first barred one. My previous blocked puzzles have always had a theme relating to the venue or fifteensquared characters- setters or bloggers etc.
I am not sure about eXternal’s comment about ‘checking rules’ – the four entries mentioned all have alternate letters checked and there are no double unches which are the rules for blocked puzzles as I understand them. Are the ‘rules’ different for barred puzzles? I was slightly concerned about ZAPS, as there are so many options for -A-S….but couldn’t resist the Azed connection. It also could have helped towards a pangram, but I couldn’t get J or V into the grid without resorting to unusual words.
I deliberately didn’t make the clues too difficult, as I am aware that barred puzzles ‘frighten’ some regular solvers, and I hoped that, although there are a lot of clues, most of the entries are short, common words which might encourage ‘new’ barred puzzle solvers to persist to the reveal the endgame.
Thanks again – the comments are much appreciated.
Hi Bert,
Standard number of unches (unchecked letters) for barred crosswords are maximum of 1 in 4-letter entries and maximum of 2 in 6-letter entries. I mentioned it, as you might not have been aware (and obviously weren’t) and it would be a good thing to improve on, if you were to do further barred puzzles. Thanks for the puzzle.
Grid ‘rules’ for barred puzzles are covered here, Bert.
https://www.listenercrossword.com/HTML/Reference06.html
Thanks Wire – I think I have to rely on the relaxation of the rules to accommodate themes etc. I have set barred puzzles previously for our son’s birthdays, and he has set some for mine, but as we have no ambitions to be published, we have never worried about rules.
I was devastated to be informed by our son when he solved this puzzle that there an errant ‘R’ which does not fall into the ‘60’ – the last letter of 46d, which could so easily have been SOAP! Joyce missed it when test-solving and I was obviously having a senior moment when compiling!
Thanks to egBert and Joyce
I generally don’t do barred puzzles, as I’m one of those scared off by them, but I was given the nudge by Bert in York on Saturday, so decided to give it a whirl.
I’m glad I did, as I very much enjoyed the solve.
I didn’t get all the subtleties, which on a first effort isn’t all that surprising.
Ref the errant R, you could see it as a full stop, which in German equates to ‘th’, so the hidden message could be ‘60th’, if you want to get off the hook 😉
I got GUARDIAN from the theme and the crossers, but I could not begin to parse it. (I guess that works? A hard word to clue.)
I came up with EATS instead of ZAPS: Last letters of (“finishes off”) A[zed] T[hen] S[tarts] when read backwards (“upcoming”) appended to (“on”) last letter of (“solution”) [Priz]E, with “finishes off” doing some sort of &lit double duty as the definition. A bit of a strained parsing, I admit, but not much less plausible than the intended one, IMHO. Anyway, it did not affect the endgame.
I also read the extra shaded R as meaning “60.”
Otherwise, a very fine and intricate puzzle, well worth the time I spent solving it.