“Two down entries are on the BORDERLINE and clued without definition. Three other contiguous border entries are appropriate to their location. Wordplay in all other clues indicates the answer with an extra letter that is not entered in the grid; these spell out an instruction affecting 32 cells. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended; 37a is in the Oxford Dictionary of English.”
The entries on the BORDERLINE are OFFA’S DYKE and WYE, which roughly follow much of the border between Wales and England.
The appropriately located entries are CAM, HWYL, and CYMRU, which… well, I’m honestly not sure. They are all on the “Welsh” side, and they are all Welsh words. Additionally, CAM may be related to CAMBRIA?
The extra letters spell out SHADE NATIONAL BORDER, TWO NAMES AND SYMBOLS. That’s simple enough following the grid fill (thank goodness – I’ve been pretty frustrated with some puzzles’ endgames recently (sod Ed Sheeran!)).
I didn’t know there was a Moulin Rouge with Zsa Zsa Gabor, I’m definitely not alone in googling who Jacob’s eldest was, and I thought for the longest time that 23dn involved some awful ‘Gen S’ label. That said, this was certainly a gentler puzzle than some of late – the two definitionless clues were pretty easy.
The question is whether WHO can legitimately be clued as “doctor on TV”, given that The Doctor isn’t called “Doctor Who”!
I’m only kidding – thanks to Vagans!
| Definition | word |
| Indicator | [word] |
| Anagram | WORD* |
| Reversal | <WORD |
| Homophone | “WORD” |
| Extra letter | WORD |
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| S | 1 |
Gradually slowing down [in] musiCALS AND Opera (7)
|
CALLANDO |
| H | 6 | Moulin Rouge actress, Z (unknown), < HAS [around] Z (zero) SA (sex appeal) (6, two words) | ZSA ZSA |
| A | 11 | Seed covers A |
ARILLI |
| D | 12 | Having numbered pages FOLDED* [round] [middle of] dictIOnary (7) | FOLIOED |
| E | 13 | Period MEN (soldiers) SEE (regard) [with] S |
MENSES |
| N | 14 | GAL (Girlfriend) ON (inclined towards) [extremes of] R |
GALORE |
| A | 18 | Frenchman’s creative impetus [fermented] {LATVIAN ALE}* (9, two words) | ÉLAN VITAL |
| T | 19 | Strike WH |
WHACK |
| I | 21 | [Firstly] Y |
YARELY |
| O | 22 |
Catastrophe A (accepted) [by] CLEO (familiar Egyptian queen) [after] < BED (couch) [overturned] (7)
|
DEBACLE |
| N | 24 | Extra twenty-four hours [disorientated] ANDY* [after] LEAP (spring) (7, two words) | LEAP DAY |
| A | 27 | Charlemagne’s capital ANA (gossip collection) [over] ACHE (long) (6) | AACHEN |
| L | 32 | Irish renounce NIL (nothing) [in] REG (register) (5) | RENIG |
| B | 33 | HEAVE |
YO-HEAVE-HO |
| O | 35 | VOLUMES* [pulped] huge trees (6) | MVULES |
| R | 37 | RES (Reserve) TUFA (Travertine) heated chamber (6) | ESTUFA |
| D | 38 | RETRY (Try again) [holding] < AID [back] to do with nets (7) | RETIARY |
| E | 39 | Jacob’s eldest [voiced] “RUE” (regret) [with] BENE (prayer long ago) (6) | REUBEN |
| R | 40 | Wasn’t in the habit of RUSE (trick) [with] D |
USEDN’T |
| T | 41 | Rifle FIELD (battle) [led by] TEN (cardinal) (7) | ENFIELD |
| Down | |||
| 1 |
Irregular projection twisted to one side (3)
|
CAM | |
| W | 2 | ETH (Lost letter) [following] WAR (conflict) A (about) Franklin? (6) | ARETHA |
| O | 3 | Wine region ALSO (likewise) ACE (of highest quality) (6) | ALSACE |
| N | 4 | Unfaithful synod alliance with half deserting in disarray (8) | DISLOYAL |
| 5 | {OFF-KEY ADS}* [all over the place] (9, two words) | OFFA’S DYKE | |
| A | 7 | LAV (John) [taken in by] SEA (Blue) Labour (5) | SLAVE |
| M | 8 | ZOOM (Enlarge) NY (US city) [following] TECH (college) breeding on scientific principles (9) | ZOOTECHNY |
| E | 9 | Women’s quarters SEE (get) RAIL (bar)… (6) | SERAIL |
| S | 10 | …noble woman SAD (upset) < [returning] ALE (beer) (5) | ADELA |
| A | 15 | LAIR (Retreat) [beginning to] A |
LIRA |
| 16 | Divine inspiration [seen in] |
HWYL | |
| N | 17 | PAN (Criticise) RA (gunners) [over] CHUTE (rapid) airborne braking device (9) | PARACHUTE |
| D | 20 | Like buff LEARN |
LEATHERN |
| S | 23 | Sign for pair of young GENS (people) [cycling] (3) | ENG |
| Y | 25 |
MO (Second) V (verse) [in] EYE (organ) S (section) has emotional effect on ancient (6)
|
EMOVES |
| M | 26 |
Strip [battered] HAT* [from] [dishevelled]
|
PEEL |
| B | 28 |
He legally [sheltered in[ niCEST BUIlding (6)
|
CESTUI |
| O | 29 | Parisian engineer OFF (removed from) EL (US railway) [after] E |
EIFFEL |
| 30 | CRU (Vineyard) < MY (belonging to Vagans) [retired] [within] land of fellow-countrymen (5) | CYMRU | |
| L | 31 | Lyric PLAN (figure) [crossing] EA (local river) (5) | PAEAN |
| S | 34 | Set down SLAND |
LAND |
| 36 |
“WHY” (How come) [aloud]? (3)
|
WYE | |
| C | A | L | A | N | D | O | Z | S | A | Z | S | A |
| A | R | I | L | L | I | F | O | L | I | O | E | D |
| M | E | N | S | E | S | F | G | A | L | O | R | E |
| H | T | P | A | E | L | A | N | V | I | T | A | L |
| W | H | A | C | K | O | S | L | E | R | E | I | A |
| Y | A | R | E | L | Y | D | E | B | A | C | L | E |
| L | E | A | P | D | A | Y | A | A | C | H | E | N |
| C | M | C | E | P | L | K | T | R | E | N | I | G |
| Y | O | H | E | A | V | E | H | O | S | Y | F | L |
| M | V | U | L | E | S | W | E | S | T | U | F | A |
| R | E | T | I | A | R | Y | R | E | U | B | E | N |
| U | S | E | D | N | T | E | N | F | I | E | L | D |
Although I have seen this setter’s name on a crossword before this is the first puzzle of his that I have attempted. The ‘extra letter’ device made most of the clues extra tricky, but this feature was cleverly executed, and the clues were fun to solve.
On solving WYE early on, and noting the title BORDERLINE, I immediately thought of the England-Wales border (remembering also a holiday break in the Forest of Dean two years ago), and that aided the solving of OFFA’S DYKE. When the extra letters gave me all but the last word (??MBO??) of the message I had already shaded 24 of the 32 cells, and finally getting SYMBOLS led me to LEEK and ROSE on either side of the border (very neat) to wrap up the whole thing.
My last clue to solve was ESTUFA (the one not in Chambers). I got lucky with it because I knew two adjoining roads near where I used to live named Travertine Road and Tufa Close: ever since then I have known that travertine and tufa are synonymous. (Interestingly, although both tufa and travertine are in Chambers neither references the other.)
Thanks to Vagans and Mister Sting.
well I have zero chance of ever getting a foothold on a puzzle like this, but my (serendipitous) visit to this page will not be regretted. Thank you both, but especially to AlanB@1 for the tufa/travertine info – fascinating!
@ludosmoll
I’m glad you found us!
I don’t know if this will help, but I have definitely finished puzzles where I spent a lot of time just chipping away at this and that. I try not to worry too much about progress.
In this one, we knew that we were looking for two clues that didn’t have definitions. While there was no reason to suspect the last one, I often start with the final down clue. The theory is that the setter will have used up all their cunning and malevolence by that point.
We had a classic homophone indicator (aloud), and there’s only one short word that means ‘How come?’ If a solver could make those leaps, they knew that the puzzle had something to do with the Wye.
5dn had ‘all over the place’, which looked a lot like an anagram indicator, and OFF-KEY ADS had the right number of letters to be the fodder. Now, I can’t speak for others, but am not above using ‘aids’ like:
https://www.quinapalus.com/cgi-bin/match
https://anagram-solver.net/
In short, I don’t know what your solving experience is, but maybe don’t be so certain that this one was beyond you!