Enigmatic Variations No. 1615: First Born by Luxor

Luxor seems to be a new name on the EV roster – and with that name and a theme of FIRST BORN you could be forgiven for thinking this might be a biblical tale…

The preamble states that:

“Four unclued entries each describe the FIRST BORN, a creature which was both like and unlike any other that had previously existed. To resolve clashes in the grid four normally clued answers must each have one letter changed before entry, always making new words. Solvers must highlight the name of the creature in three straight lines (13 cells). Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”

No extra letters in wordplay or misprints in definitions, or other fancy gimmicks/devices, which means we are in for some straight solving. However the preamble does mention (an unspecified number of) clashes…for which my approach is to print off a working copy of the grid and enter Across solutions in the top right corner of the cells, and Downs in the bottom left, circling any cells where clashes appear. And with potential clashes, you can never fully trust crossing letters, which can slow things down a bit, making each clue potentially a cold solve.

Ignoring those symmetrically-placed unclued entries, I pressed on with some straight solving, and started to make fairly good progress in the gridfill, although I couldn’t seem to identify any clashes. And still none, as things progressed further, until eventually I had managed to solve all the clues – but still no clashes!

At this point I changed focus to the unclued entries, which looked like:

• T_ONE (TRONE?)
• C_E_E (several possibilities
• CLO_T (CLOOT or CLOUT?)
• N_O_E (NOOSE, NIOBE?)

…and revisited the preamble, which refers to four ‘normally clued’ entries needing to make a single change…and my PDM was that this must mean I had to ‘manufacture’ some clashes with the unclued entries.

After a fair amount of grid-staring and working through possible one-letter-different real words for the surrounding normal entries, I eventually stumbled on the possibility of all four unclued entries being CLONE, changing STREAM to SCREAM; RESINS to ROSINS; PINT to PICT and STILTS to STILES.

And being of a certain age/cultural reference frame, when someone mentions ‘CLONE’ my word association immediately jumps to DOLLY THE SHEEP, who then jumped out at me from the grid, in the rising diagonals:

 

This helped resolve the title and more of the preamble – Dolly was the first successfully cloned sheep, so a FIRST BORN, and was thus ‘like and unlike’ any other non-cloned sheep that had previously existed. She was born in July 1996, and died in February 2003, so I can’t see any particular anniversary being marked here – maybe Luxor has some academic or other interest in the subject?

And, apart from transcribing my work onto a clean copy for submission, that was that. A pleasant diversion with an interesting dénouement – those threatened clashes led to some wary solving, but the clueing was not overly taxing. There were a few new/obscure (to me) words, like TIRR, POLLAN, ANGUIS, IYYAR and LEEP, which needed a quick check to confirm.

I enjoyed the reference to the Famous Five as ‘five celebs’ for 3D ENID; and the image of a drunken brawl breaking out in the outback for 29A WARATAH. Less pleasant was the idea of putting a cow-dung plaster on a boil for 19D LEEP!

Many thanks to Luxor, and congratulations on the debut (if it is one) – and I trust all is clear below…

 

Across
Clue No	Solution / Entry	Clue (definition underlined) Logic/Parsing (extra letters in (bold)
1	SCREWED	Puckered edges of collar sewed untidily (7) anag, i.e. untidily, of CR (edges of CollaR) + SEWED [not completely sure about puckered = screwed…maybe as in screwing/puckering up one’s lips for a kiss?…]
6	PASHA	Prince remains a Turkish dignitary (5) P (prince) + ASH (remains) + A
11	NOISE	Section of volcano is emitting disturbing sound (5) hidden word in, i.e. section of, ‘volcaNO IS Emitting’
12	RESINS / ROSINS	Small reserve in Sweden for frankincense and myrrh? (6) RES (abbreviation, or small, for reserve) + IN + S (Sweden)
13	POLLAN	People oddly land tailless fish (6) POL (odd letters of PeOpLe) + LAN(D) (land, tail-less)
14	VIYELLA	Cut through alley returning fine material (7) VI(A) (through, cut short) + YELLA (alley, returning)
15	AEON	Fabulous hunter not active for a long time (4) (ACT)AEON – mythical hunter, without ACT (active)
17	ABLE	Skilful filling barrels with beer? On the contrary (4) A_LE (beer) around (filled with) B (barrels), contrary to the order in the clue!
19	LUAU	Sampled in Honolulu, authentic Hawaiian dish (4) hidden word in, i.e. sampled in, ‘honoluLU AUthentic’
20	MORALLY	Milksop protects artist virtuously (7) MO_LLY (milksop, diminutive of Mary) around (protecting) RA (Royal Academician, artict)
24	CEREALS	Favourites at breakfast time, TV programmes for audience (7) homophone, i.e. for audience – SERIALS – TV programmes – sounds (in most accents!) like CEREALS
26	IGAD	One father losing head stifles good old curse (4) I (one) + (D)AD (father, losing head), around (stifling) G (good)
27	SHOE	Item produced on last clear out reportedly (4) homophone, i.e. reportedly – SHOE – item produced on a cobbler’s last – sounds like SHOO – Clear off!
28	PINT / PICT	Drink tipping all over the place avoiding wild pig (4) subtractive anagram, i.e. all over the place, of TIP(PI)N(G), minus (avoiding) the mixed up (wild) letters of PIG
29	WARATAH	Fighting at a hotel in Australian bush (7) WAR (fighting) + AT A + H (hotel)
33	ANGUIS	Group of snakelike lizards in endless torment (6) ANGUIS(H) – torment, endless
34	PISTOL	Arm spoilt delinquent (6) anag, i.e. delinquent, of SPOILT
35	AIRER	Initially spurned fairer maiden (5) (F)AIRER, spurning its initial letter [one definition of ‘maiden in Chambers is ‘clothes-horse’]
36	IYYAR	Rivalry occasionally surrounding unknown pair this month in Tel Aviv (5) I_AR (occasional letters of ‘rIvAlRy’) around (surrounding) YY (a pair of unknown quantities, in maths)
37	ROTATES	Succeeds in order renewing toaster (7) anag, i.e. renewed, of TOASTER
Down
Clue No	Solution / Entry	Clue (definition underlined) Logic/Parsing (extra letters in (bold)
1	STREAM / SCREAM	Fiddled smart electronic way to download film (6) anag, i.e. fiddled, of SMART + E (electronic)
2	ROSE	National emblem was cheered (4) double defn – the ROSE is the national emblem of England; and if your spirits ROSE you would have cheered up
3	ENID	Named woman who wrote of five celebs in English national papers (4) E (English) + N (national) + ID (identity papers) [Enid Blyton being the author of the Famous Five – five celebs?!]
4	ENS	Existence without having succeeded at the end (3) SEN (senza, musical notation, without) with S (succeeded) moving to the end = ENS
5	DOPILY	Sanctimonious person cleared lobby after party stupidly (6) DO (party) + PI (sanctimonious person) + LY (LobbY, c;leared of contents)
6	PIOY	Damp squib in Edinburgh? Pity time wasted for nothing (4) PI(T)Y with T – time removed – or wasted – and replaced by O – zero, nothing [a pioy, or peeoy, can be a cone of damp gunpowder in Scotland, hence ‘in Edinburgh’]
7	SELL UP	Dispose of assets in varying measure after son in court (6, two words) S (son) + ELL (varying measure of cloth) + UP (in court, up in front of the judge)
8	HEAL-ALL	This man essentially bald repeatedly left restorative plant (7) HE (this man) + AL + AL (the essence, or centre, of bALd, repeated) + L (left)
9	ARNAUT	Old Albanian gunners upset uniform in brown turned up (6) AR (RA, Royal Artillery, or gunners, upset) + NAUT (T_AN, brown, around U, uniform, all turned up) [Arnaut being a word for an Albanian, especially one in the Turkish army…not shown as archaic or obsolete in Chambers, so ‘old’ may be unnecessary?]
10	ENHALOS	Surrounds with light shale on ground (7) anag, i.e. ground, of SHALE ON
16	NARD	Galloped over deserted moorland grass (4) NAR (ran, or galloped, over) + D (deserted)
18	EIRENIC	Note Nicaragua following East Indies in proposing peace (7) EI (East Indies) + RE (note, in do-re-mi) + NIC (Nicaragua)
19	LEEP	Put cow-dung plaster on boil for some folk (4) (pretty obscure!) double defn. – to LEEP can be to plaster with cow-dung, in India; and to LEEP can also be dialect, i.e. for some folk, for to boil or scald)
21	ORGANDY	Instrument over edges of dusky fabric (7) ORGAN (instrument) + DY (edging letters of DuskY)
22	DIWALI	Regularly mislead weirdo backing festival (6) reversed regular letters from ‘mIsLeAd WeIrDo’!
23	MARGAY	A Yankee following Mrs Simpson almost spotted cat (6) MARG(E) (almost all of Mrs Simpson, Marge, not Wallace!) + A + Y (yankee, phonetic alphabet)
24	CHASER	Teacher skipping meal consumes a second whisky after ale maybe (6) (TEA)CH_ER (teacher, dropping TEA, or skipping a meal) around (consuming) A + S (second)
25	STILTS / STILES	Enhance height using these special heels (6) S (special) + TILTS (lists, or heels)
30	TIRR	Strip of Stewart tartan in regulation red primarily (4) primary letters of ‘Tartan In Regulation Red’ [tirr being Scottish, hence ‘of Stewart’, to strip]
31	ISLA	Scottish girl‘s religion curtailed (4) ISLA(M) – religion, curtailed
32	STOT	Knocking back drams makes Scots walk unsteadily (4) TOTS – drams – knocked back = STOT
34	PRO	Expert in favour (3) double defn. – an expert can be a PRO(fessional); and PRO can mean to be in favour of