Hello from Westward Ho! Well, almost. I was holidaying in North Devon when this puzzle appeared, staying only a couple of miles away, and very nearly contrived to solve and blog from Westward Ho! itself (it would have been easy to be honest). Instead I solved in the comfort of my home from home and am typing these words from home home. Perhaps if Chalicea had included an exclamation mark I would have been unable to resist!
The preamble:
Sixteen clues need an extra word removed to enable solving. The first and last letters of those words, read in clue order, give two instructions with regard to the unclued entries, the person who did what the first instruction says (making WESTWARD HO possible) and 20 cells to highlight. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.
I had no issues filling the grid or identifying the extra words. The messages generated from these extra words were:
LINK THE TWO PLACES
SHADE THE ENGINEER
BRISTOL was clearly one of the places; the second looked to be READING. I checked for the most obvious engineer, but BRUNEL was not in the grid!
It took far longer than it should have for me to spot the CANAL. I had been trying without success to find something starting from the west and moving east. And even moving from east to west, given the puzzle’s title.
A little investigation led me to the KENNET AND AVON CANAL. This waterway comprises the River KENNET in the east, the River AVON in the west and a linking CANAL, a project of engineer John RENNIE. The navigation is neatly represented in the grid. Very nice indeed, and I enjoyed making the connection. Thanks Chalicea!
(Chalicea also set the Inquisitor of the same weekend, which I solved first because I was interested to compare and contrast. I won’t say more here, other than to recommend it, but if you are interested, the blog is now available: Inquisitor 1861.)
| # | ANSWER | Clue with definition underlined | ||
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and ANSWER letters in bold caps | ||||
| Across | ||||
| 1a | AIGRETTE | Shaped egret tail cut short for ornamental feather plume (8) | ||
| An anagram of (shaped) EGRET TAIl without the last letter (cut short) | ||||
| 6a | AWING | Flying [linnets] inspiring admiration (5) | L | S |
| Double definition | ||||
| 10a | DUE DILIGENCE | Expected before aged coach, reasonable steps taken (12, two words) | ||
| DUE (expected) + DILIGENCE (aged coach) | ||||
| 11a | BEATS ME | Clobber duck, mostly; I find it incomprehensible (7, two words) | ||
| BEAT (clobber) + SMEe (duck), mostly | ||||
| 13a | ALTER | Change focus for [interfaith] religious ritual, we’re told (5) | I | H |
| Homophone of (… we’re told) ALTAR (focus for religious ritual) | ||||
| 14a | BURR | Triangular chisel’s humming sound (4) | ||
| Two definitions | ||||
| 15a | BOOTLEG | Strong [napa] leather footwear swindler illicitly sold (7) | N | A |
| BOOT (strong leather footwear) + LEG (swindler) | ||||
| 17a | RAVEN | Infatuation with [kind] northern bird (5) | K | D |
| RAVE (infatuation) with N (northern) | ||||
| 19a | RILE | Agitate firearm, lacking force (4) | ||
| RI[f]LE (firearm), lacking F (force) | ||||
| 21a | REE | With no restraints welcome wader (3) | ||
| Without outer letters (with no restraints) gREEt (welcome) | ||||
| 22a | ICONS | Part of symbolic on-screen representations (5) | ||
| Part of symbolIC ON–Screen | ||||
| 23a | MADONNA | Crazy about not originally accepted US singer (7) | ||
| MAD ON (crazy about) + Not originally + A (accepted) | ||||
| 24a | SCAN | Scrutinize small tin (4) | ||
| S (small) + CAN (tin) | ||||
| 25a | LANE | Path of celestial body quitting bounds (4) | ||
| pLANEt (celestial body) leaving outer letters (quitting bounds) | ||||
| 27a | TITHING | Exacting of levy – object about it! (7) | ||
| THING (object) around (about) IT | ||||
| 30a | ENVOI | Some hidden [tale] voiced in author’s final words (5) | T | E |
| Some hiddEN VOIced | ||||
| 31a | ONE | A certain rhyme tells us this magpie brings sorrow (3) | ||
| Double definition | ||||
| 32a | LIEU | Every so often sluice out place (4) | ||
| Every so often sLuIcE oUt | ||||
| 33a | REJÓN | Become member again without independent bullfighter’s weapon (5) | ||
| REJO[i]N (become member again) without I (independent) | ||||
| 34a | GREYEST | Most mature wandering egrets ultimately fly [highest] (7) | H | T |
| An anagram of (wandering) EGRETS with the last letter of (ultimately) flY | ||||
| 35a | CHUG | Part of exotic huge swig (4) | ||
| Part of exotiC HUGe | ||||
| 37a | AGENT | Spy active [English] man of refined manners (5) | E | H |
| A (active) + GENT (man of refined manners) | ||||
| 38a | ACETOSE | Sour golfer’s shot, dropping one slightly under two metres (7) | ||
| ACE (golfer’s shot) + TO[i]SE (slightly under two metres) dropping I (one) | ||||
| 40a | SPOTTED HYENA | Mirthful beast naughtily eyed hot pants (12, two words) | ||
| An anagram of (naughtily) EYED HOT PANTS | ||||
| 41a | SESSA | In Stratford, enough [tiresome] lack-brains returned (5) | T | E |
| ASSES (lack-brains) reversed (returned) | ||||
| 42a | SHANDEAN | Sadly ashen and like Sterne’s work (8) | ||
| An anagram of (sadly) ASHEN AND | ||||
| Down | ||||
| 1d | ALB | Vestment featuring in formal baptism (3) | ||
| The answer is featuring in formAL Baptism | ||||
| 2d | GUAR | Legume in cooked ragu (4) | ||
| An anagram of (cooked) RAGU | ||||
| 3d | RETRENCHMENTS | [Wise] acts of economy started centrally by church absorbed in mishandled resentment (13) | W | E |
| StaRted centrally + CH (church) absorbed in an anagram of (mishandled) RESENTMENT | ||||
| 4d | TIMBRE | Sound quality of wood it’s said (6) | ||
| This can be pronounced as (… it’s said) TIMBER (wood) | ||||
| 5d | EIDOLA | A story raised taking in party images (6) | ||
| A LIE (a story) reversed (raised) taking in DO (party) | ||||
| 6d | AGATE | A way in for ornamental stone (5) | ||
| A + GATE (way in) | ||||
| 7d | WELL-CONNECTED | Having influential friends, got supply of spring water (13) | ||
| Definition plus alternative interpretation | ||||
| 8d | INTERNE | Pentagon’s trainee’s [often] incomplete computerised source of data (7) | O | N |
| Missing its last letter (incomplete) INTERNEt (computerised source of data) | ||||
| 9d | GER | Asian accommodation apparatus not advanced (3) | ||
| GE[A]R (apparatus) without (not) A (advanced) | ||||
| 12d | SENSA | What organs perceive, being surrounded by sexiness (5) | ||
| ENS (being) surrounded by SA (sexiness) | ||||
| 16d | GENTOO | Information – more than is required – for penguin (6) | ||
| GEN (Information) + TOO (more than is required) | ||||
| 18d | ACTING | Operating [peacekeeping] decree in government (6) | P | G |
| ACT (decree) + IN + G (government) | ||||
| 20d | IMAGE | Likeness of international learned person (5) | ||
| I (international) + MAGE (learned person) | ||||
| 24d | STEREOS | Intricately resets ordinary [lo-fi] sound systems (7) | L | I |
| An anagram of (intricately) RESETS with O (ordinary) | ||||
| 26d | AERIE | Poets’ spiritual high spot (5) | ||
| Double definition | ||||
| 28d | NIECES | New coins papa left for family members (6) | ||
| N (new) + [p]IECES (coins), P (papa) having left | ||||
| 29d | KUTCHA | Makeshift pekoe essentially as tea (6) | ||
| The centre of (… essentially) peKoe + UT (as, Latin) + CHA (tea) | ||||
| 32d | LYTTA | Docked old [Afghan] bloodhound consuming heart of rotten bit of tongue (5) | A | N |
| Without the last letter (docked) LYAm (old bloodhound) taking in (consuming) the centre (heart) of roTTen | ||||
| 36d | HONE | Locally pine for [coarse] sharpening stone (4) | C | E |
| Two definitions | ||||
| 37d | ASS | Equine [example] regularly seen in Kansas (3) | E | E |
| The answer is regularly seen in kAnSaS | ||||
| 39d | EON | Time out of school – [sheer] eternity! (3) | S | R |
| T (time) comes out of E[t]ON (school) | ||||
Wow Kitty! That looks like great fun and what a great visual result. Impressed. Very impressed. All the best.
There’s a setter’s blog for this crossword here:
https://bigdave44.com/2024/07/04/ev-1648-setters-blog/#more-198507
Many thanks, Kitty. I’m glad my deceptive title didn’t mislead you for long!
Lovely puzzle. I hadn’t heard of Rennie, but as ever with a Chalicea puzzle, I have been informed, educated and entertained.
Thanks both.