[New comment layout] - details here
Hello all.
The preamble:
Twelve of the clues are missing a letter that solvers must restore before solving, always making a real word; wordplay in twelve further clues gives the defined entry less one letter. These letters, taken in clue order, COULD BE helpful for the remaining entries, whose clues are otherwise normal. Numbers in brackets indicate the length of entries. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.
Three types of clues then, and some answers will be modified. This COULD BE fun!
REAL and REPLY came early, and I noted that these were both two letters too short for the space available. Once I had solved IDENT I saw that I could add EVs to give REVEAL, EVIDENT and (with the help of Chambers!) REPLEVY. That also shed light on an entry I had been struggling to make sense of: PRIMEVALLY. It was all much easier from here, although I did make good use of the emerging message to help me in the NE corner. This message revealed itself to be:
WHAT COULD BE WORTH ENTERING?
Well, by this point I knew the answer as I had been merrily entering it into the grid where it fit: EV!
And of course it could be worth entering* your completed EV into the competition. Nicely done.
Certainly I found it worth spending the time entering the letters into the grid. Thanks Jaques!
| # | ANSWER ENTRY |
Clue with definition underlined | ||
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and ANSWER letters in bold caps | ||||
| Across | ||||
| 1a | PRIMALLY PRIMEVALLY |
First proper friend (10) | ||
| PRIM (proper) + ALLY (friend) | ||||
| 9a | YE YEVE |
The old lock’s aluminium is scratched (4) | ||
| Y[al]E (lock)’s AL (aluminium) is removed (scratched) | ||||
| 10a | UNWEAVE | Pick breaking up avenue (7) | W | |
| An anagram of (breaking up) AVENUE | ||||
| 12a | IDENT EVIDENT |
Depression in surface following current’s indication of a channel (7) | ||
| DENT (depression in surface) following I (current) | ||||
| 13a | ZANZE | African instrument almost crazy s<h>ell in Zaire (5) | H | |
| Without the last letter (almost) ZANy (crazy) + the outer letters of (shell in) ZairE | ||||
| 15a | DRIP | Depression’s le<a>d tear to fall in drops (4) | A | |
| Depression’s first letter (lead) + RIP (tear) | ||||
| 17a | DATED | Backward-looking, obsolete and old-fashioned (5) | T | |
| Reversed (backward-looking) DEAD (obsolete) | ||||
| 18a | SCENE | Bit of play necessary in the Pacific (5) | C | |
| SENE (necessary in the Pacific) | ||||
| 20a | BRETHREN | Trade unionists not accepted slight suspicion concerning n<o>un (8) | O | |
| Without (not) A (accepted), BRE[a]TH (slight suspicion) + RE (concerning) + N (noun) | ||||
| 21a | SCRAPERS | Senior sons adopting material for mo<u>rning shave acquired from these? (8) | U | |
| SR (senior) and S (sons) taking in (adopting) CRAPE (material for mourning) | ||||
| 24a | POILU | French soldier, private, abused pawn? Oui! (5) | L | |
| Anagram of (abused) P (pawn) with OUI | ||||
| 25a | AVOID | Duck eggs rejected by institute (5) | D | |
| OVA (eggs) reversed (rejected) + I (institute) | ||||
| 27a | HOME | Beginning for many in garden a<b>iding digs? (4) | B | |
| The first letter of (beginning for) Many in HOE (garden) | ||||
| 30a | OVINE | Like mutton and love French wine (5) | E | |
| O (love) + VIN (French wine) | ||||
| 31a | REPLY REPLEVY |
Lacking answer, face off again to get answer (7) | ||
| Without (lacking) A (answer), REPL[a]Y (face off again) | ||||
| 32a | VASTEST | Extremely huge <w>eight taken from oyster beds in large tank (7) | W | |
| W (weight) taken from STE[w]S (oyster beds) in VAT (large tank) | ||||
| 33a | EN EVEN |
Service dock having no parking space (4) | ||
| [p]EN (service dock) having no P (parking) | ||||
| 34a | RELATORS REVELATORS |
Rotas messed up after cutting short bank tellers (10) | ||
| ROTAS anagrammed (messed up) following (after) RELy (bank) removing the last letter (cutting short …) | ||||
| Down | ||||
| 1d | PYET | Power still h<o>arder for Scots (4) | O | |
| P (power) + YET (still) | ||||
| 2d | REAL REVEAL |
Antique Spanish coin is not counterfeit (6) | ||
| Two definitions | ||||
| 3d | MEDIAL MEDIEVAL |
Donor insemination during a feed, like bee in lobelia? (8) | ||
| DI (donor insemination) in (during) MEAL (a feed) | ||||
| 4d | EYED | Peered at fish in the ea<r> (4) | R | |
| Sounds like (… in the ear) IDE (fish) | ||||
| 5d | ANTISERUM | Liqueur additive and spirit’s aid to preservation? (9) | T | |
| ANISE (liqueur additive) + RUM (spirit) | ||||
| 6d | LEAP | Ample fluid cutting opening in major <h>op (4) | H | |
| Anagram of (… fluid) A[m]PLE removing the first letter of (cutting opening in) Major | ||||
| 7d | ZONE EVZONE |
Combustion engine finally sitting under cross belt (6) | ||
| Last letters of (… finally) combustioN enginE sitting under ZO (cross) | ||||
| 8d | DEEPENED | Got harder to understand writer’s added in act (8) | E | |
| PEN (writer)’s inserted into (added in) DEED (act) | ||||
| 11d | ANTERIOR | Anger swallowed by canon rising to the fore (8) | N | |
| IRE (anger) inside (swallowed by) ROTA (canon), all reversed (rising) | ||||
| 14d | UTERITIS | Seconds after EU returns SNP’s to scratch independence, a source of irritation? (8) | T | |
| S (seconds) after EU returns plus RIT (SNP’s to scratch) and I (independence) | ||||
| 16d | REREDORSE | Reorders broken old fireback (9) | E | |
| REORDERS anagrammed (broken) | ||||
| 17d | DISPROVE | Invalidate point-of-view relocation of side boxes (8) | R | |
| POV (point-of-view) which an anagram (relocation) of SIDE encases (boxes) | ||||
| 19d | CHALET CHEVALET |
The French loose discussion covers Alpine tourists’ accommodation (8) | ||
| LE (the French): CHAT (loose discussion) surrounds (covers) | ||||
| 22d | COAL COEVAL |
Cobalt regularly ignored for a mining product (6) | ||
| CObALt regularly ignored | ||||
| 23d | LIER LIEVER |
One’s prone to deceive and rook (6) | ||
| LIE (to deceive) + R (rook) | ||||
| 26d | ANTE | What’s initially pa<i>d for better athletic support at last lining inside of knee (4) | I | |
| A (athletic) + supporT at last inside (lining) the inside of kNEe | ||||
| 28d | EPHA | Pa<n>ts heap’s quantity of dry goods (4) | N | |
| An anagram of (pants) HEAP | ||||
| 29d | WYNS | Letters no lon<g>er willingly notices, ignoring the contents (4) | G | |
| WillinglY NoticeS, taking outer letters only (ignoring the contents) | ||||
*I might enter if I could actually source the puzzle from the puzzles site rather than having to resort to a screengrab from PressReader. But that’s just how things are, no use grumbling. Grumble grumble …
thanks for puzzle and blog! I decided that EV=Expected Value and only then did the engimatic variations penny drop
If we are in confessional mode, then I will admit I spent ages trying to work out why I had to insert ‘electron-volt’ or ‘English Version’ into all those answers!
If we’re in confessional mode, I once … on second thoughts, maybe not!