[New comment layout] - details here
Gaston challenges us to find a MISSING LINK, and to ‘deal with’ a barred-off central cell…
The preamble states that:
“Answers to eight normal clues have the same consecutive letters (the LINK) removed before being entered as real words (one being a place name). The LINK is also MISSING from a statement of 10 words (11 if the LINK were added); this begins in the top row, follows into the bottom row and continues into the sequence of single-letter corrections to the definitions in 18 clues – none of which involve the eight above. When the grid is complete, solvers should highlight the eight entries from which the LINK is MISSING and deal with the central square appropriately. Letter and word counts refer to grid entries.”
Pretty lengthy and convoluted! In essence, clues can be one of three types: a) eight missing link, or rather link to be removed b) eighteen misprint in definition clues, or c) twenty normal. Oh and that middle cell, and the top and bottom rows have to be deduced…
Nothing for it but to press on with some solving, and hopefully start to eat into those first two categories. Progress was fairly slow, but I eventually found my first LINK clue – 16D looked like SCRAP + PIER, so two letters too long for its slot. Then 15D – PI_ERS around LAST for PILASTERS, again two letters longer. When I then found PIRATES at 36A, it seemed likely that the LINK would be PI – and removing PI seemed to leave real words – SCRAPER, LASTERS, RATES.
In the meantime, some of the corrections to misprinted letters were starting to show themselves – e.g. 10A had to be ‘dropping water’ for RAIN from RA(IS)IN.
After a few setting downs and picking ups, the three thematic strands started to take shape – literally, in the case of the eight LINK clues! When highlighted, they made the numbers 3, 1 and 4, and making that central cell into a decimal point that gives PI to 2 decimal places.
The top and bottom rows became ‘MULTIPLY (PI) BY THE RADIUS SQUARED…’, an instruction that carried on into the corrected letters: ‘…TO FIND AREA OF CIRCLE’:
And there we have it – an archetypal EV puzzle! Some word alterations, some misprinted definitions, some highlighting, a semi-perimetral message; and a mathematical twist to boot!
I’d say this was pretty tough – lots going on, and some obscure/new (to me) words – BA’SPIEL, YETT, FYTTE, BEREAN, RAILE, LAZARET. All very educational.
My thanks to Gaston – who has become a pretty prolific and regular EV setter, with 2, 3 or even 4 puzzles a year since 2014…keep ’em coming in 2024!…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Letter correction | Solution / Entry | Clue (definition underlined, incorrect letter in bold)
Logic/Parsing |
|
| 10 | T | RAIN | Dropping wager grape is missing (4)
RA( |
|
| 11 | O | BONE MEAL | Animal fond of Gaston’s good English breakfast? (8, two words)
BON (French, i.e. Gaston’s, for good) + E (English) + MEAL (breakfast, example of a meal, hence the ?) |
|
| 12 | SIZISTS | Discriminators Italian certainly spots going round square (7)
SI (Italian for yes, certainly) + ZI_TS (spots) going round S (square) |
||
| 13 | F | GRILLE | Gross evil earl that might protect race (6)
GR (gross) + ILL (evil) + E (earl) |
|
| 14 | BASPIEL / BASEL | Graduate with discourse for Scottish football (5)
BA (Bachelor of Arts, graduate) + SPIEL (discourse) [ba’spiel being a Scottish football game involving a whole town playing in the streets] |
||
| 16 | I | SETAE | Harry structures base to put in repaired seat (5)
S_TAE (anag, i.e. repaired, of SEAT) around E (logarithmic base) |
|
| 18 | N | HIRE CAR | Archie injured radius? It can be rested on holiday (7, two words)
HIRE CA (anag, i.e. injured, of ARCHIE) + R (radius) |
|
| 19 | D | YETT | The old dry moor in the Grampians (4)
YE (the, old fashioned) + TT (teetotal, dry) [YETT being Scottish for a gate or door] |
|
| 20 | ITEM | The same time for date for those in love? (4)
I( |
||
| 22 | A | TSAR | Strange star once held in the East (4)
anag, i.e. strange, of STAR |
|
| 23 | NISEI | Second generation immigrant that is evil revolutionary (5)
IE (id est, that is) + SIN (evil), all revolved = NISEI |
||
| 25 | SPIT OUT / SPOUT | Tell odds given by one person hanging round racing-stables (5)
SP (starting price, odds) + I (one) + T_OUT (person hanging round racing stables, spying for the bookies or another stables?) |
||
| 26 | ANNAL | Obsessive restricting new record (5)
AN_AL (obsessive) around (resticting) N (new) |
||
| 28 | FYTTE | Early song covered by pretty foursome recalled (5)
reversed, hidden word, i.e. covered by and recalled, in ‘prETTY Foursome’ |
||
| 30 | ESPY | Unexpectedly discover European agent (4)
E (European) + SPY (agent) |
||
| 32 | PIG-MAN / G-MAN | Anthony’s carer is Simon’s acquaintance, having abandoned Spain for Gabon (4)
PI( [the St Anthony pig, or tantony pig, being the smallest in the litter; so a PIG-MAN could be Anthony’s carer!] |
||
| 33 | R | MOVE | House doctor on important day in May (4)
MO (Medical Officer, doctor) + VE (VE Day, 8 May) |
|
| 35 | BENNITE | Morally wrong keeping Ulster base for political follower (7)
BEN_T (morally wrong) around (keeping) NI (Northern Ireland, Ulster), plus E (logarithmic base, again) |
||
| 36 | PIRATES / RATES | Talks idiotically about current copies (5)
P_RATES (talks idiotically) around I (physics, electric current) |
||
| 37 | E | RAILE | Ed’s team about to be sick inside (5)
R_E (regarding, about) around AIL (to be sick) [RAILE being Spenserian, i.e. Ed’s, for flow or gush, so teem] |
|
| 38 | KILERG | A lot of work when weight limits runner failing to start (6)
K_G (kilogram, weight) around (restricting) ( |
||
| 39 | TIMIDER | Less confident part of personality kept hidden by record-keeper (7)
TIM_ER (record-keeper) around (keeping) ID (part of personality) |
||
| 41 | EVIL-DOER | Like 1 Down, Oliver Reed oddly ignored rum (8)
anag, i.e. rum, of OLIVER + ( |
||
| 42 | A | BRAW | In Ayr, greet bishop naked (4)
B (bishop) + RAW (naked) [BRAW being Scottish, i.e. in Ayr, for fine/splendid, so great] |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Letter correction | Solution / Entry | Clue (definition underlined, incorrect letter in bold)
Logic/Parsing |
|
| 1 | MISCHIEF-MAKER | Bond acknowledging his boss and former rabble-rouser (13)
MISCHIEF (James Bond might acknowledge that M IS CHIEF!) + MAKER (former) |
||
| 2 | URI | Murrain occasionally struck canton (3)
occasional letters struck from ( [URI being a Swiss canton – one of the original three cantons, to be precise] |
||
| 3 | LAZARET | Hospital located in plaza retained (7)
hidden word in, i.e. located in, ‘pLAZA RETained’ [a LAZARET being a hospital for infectious disease, particularly leprosy] |
||
| 4 | O | INSECT | Reach possibly popular group (6)
IN (popular) + SECT (group) |
|
| 5 | F | LOSER | One who sails topless comparatively intimate (5)
( |
|
| 6 | BEREAN | Live near struggling Scottish Presbyterian (6)
BE (live) + REAN (anag, i.e. struggling, of NEAR) |
||
| 7 | TELAE | Young bird rising drops grand tissues (5)
EA( |
||
| 8 | C | HALE | Shipper of endless sea creatures (4)
( |
|
| 9 | ELECTIONEERED | Championed removing tops of playlist and mocked (13)
( |
||
| 14 | I | BITSY | Tony tore everything away from Sally (5)
BIT (tore) + S( |
|
| 15 | PILASTERS / LASTERS | Morgan maybe concealing most recent columns (7)
PI_ERS (Piers Morgan, aka Piers Moron, as per Private Eye) around (concealing) LAST (most recent) |
||
| 16 | SCRAPPIER / SCRAPER | Get rid of seaside attraction – it’s even more disorganised (7)
SCRAP (get rid of) + PIER (seaside attraction) |
||
| 17 | PITYING / TYING | Feeling sorrow for negative side in depression ending in wallowing (5)
PIT (depression) + G (end of wallowinG), around YIN (negative side, opposite of YANG) |
||
| 21 | MOTET | Test on French and Music Composition (5)
MOT (Ministry Of Transport test) + ET (and, French) |
||
| 24 | EPILATE / ELATE | Maybe shave Eastern governor of Judaea formerly (5)
E (Eastern) + PILATE (Pontius Pilate, governor of Judea) |
||
| 27 | R | AMILDAR | Admiral craftily managed in India (7)
anag, i.e. craftily, of ADMIRAL |
|
| 29 | EPERDU | Marcel’s distracted, playing rude record first (6)
EP (Extended Play, record) + ERDU (anag, i.e. playing, of RUDE) |
||
| 31 | YNAMBU | Huge flyer given by several going up and starting British university (6)
YNAM (many, several, going up) + B (British) + U (university) |
||
| 34 | VALID | Sound and patient batting is abandoned (5)
( |
||
| 35 | C | BITES | Puts note in twice (5)
BI_S (twice) around TE (note, from sol-fah/do-re-mi, variation of ti) |
|
| 36 | L | RIVA | Opponent discards last suit in Lerwick (4)
RIVA( [RIVA being Shetland dialect, hence ‘in Lerwick’, for a cleft in rock, so a slit] |
|
| 40 | E | EWE | Shlep from right to left and back again (3)
EWE is palindromic, so the same read from left to right and back again! |
|
This well-constructed puzzle was just right for me, and it was very satisfying to complete it. The two types of clue manipulation, affecting 26 of the 46 clues, made many of the clues quite challenging to solve, and I started the endgame with all eight of the shortened answers but with six of the 18 letters still to find.
I worked out that PI was the missing link and had to be one of the words of the message, enabling me to read the first two parts of the three-part message. That simultaneously helped me with the stickiest clues and enabled me to complete the message and, of course, the grid.
Thanks to Gaston and mc_rapper67.
[ Very off topic I am afraid . MC you have a letter printed in the Guardian today , I hope it was hand written. I learned about that meaning of Mike from a crossword of course. ]
Thanks, Alan B at #1 – ‘just right’ and ‘satisfying’ do sum this puzzle up rather well!…
[And a good spot from Roz at #2 – I’m afraid it was sent via e-mail – I am too idle to write on paper and walk down to the post-box! I look forward to seeing your letter of complaint re. ‘the wrong Paul’ fiasco yesterday…]