ASSERTION anagrammatises to ‘arsonites’, ‘notarises’, ‘rosinates’ and ‘senoritas’…which one is Senorita Skylark maybe leading us towards?…
(An addition to the rules of EV Club: ‘always check the title, in case it is an anagram of something relevant…’)
The preamble states that:
“In each clue there is an extra letter, which must be removed before solving. In order, these give two instructions: the second refers to an ASSERTION by the subject. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”
Short and sweet – my modus operandi with this sort of setup is to start solving and await the ‘instructions’.
I was away from home and printer, so I solved it on my iPad, scribbling with the iPencil on a screenshot of the puzzle – useful for undoing mistakes, but not as flexible and tactile as a printout and pencil/eraser…
Anyway, progress came, in fits and starts, with some of the removed letters starting to take shape, and the grid starting to fill. I seemed to get most traction in the bottom half of the grid, and the last few removed letters seemed to be giving ‘…R?SHING IN’ – and as ‘any fule no’, there is a quotation about ‘…fools rush in where angels fear to tread…’.
But this didn’t help, as this fule didn’t know the provenance of the quotation, and it wasn’t until the first few removed letters gave me ‘SHADE POET…’ that I remembered one of the cardinal rules of EV Club: ‘always check the diagonals‘. And there on the leading diagonal was ALEXANDER POPE – who Professor Go-Ogle assures me is the source of the ‘rushing fools’ quotation, or ASSERTION.
It only remained to spot that FOOLS appears as a clued answer, and the second instruction/assertion eventually revealed itself as ‘CAUTIOUS ONE MUST REPLACE THOSE RUSHING IN’. So a cautious ANGEL replaces those rushing FOOLS, leaving real words all round and a completed grid:
A neat and educational puzzle – I will forever associate Senor Pope with that quotation – and my thanks to Senorita Skylark. (Looking forward to seeing you in York in a few weeks’ time…)
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Removed Letters | Solution / Entry | Clue (definition underlined, removed letter bold)
Logic/Parsing |
|
| 1 | S | ANTIMACASSARS | Mascara stains, stripping protective covers for seats (13)
anag, i.e. tripping, of MASCARA STAINS |
|
| 10 | H | SLALOM | Seth loses time during crash in tactical race (6)
SLA_M (crash) around LO( |
|
| 12 | A | SCHOUT | Cuba‘s reported Dutch town officer (6)
homophone, i.e. reported – depending on your accent/dialect, SCOUT (cub) can sound like SCHOUT (Dutch municipal officer, pronounced ‘skowt’) |
|
| 13 | D | SEELIER | Recognise lean driver’s no longer happier (7)
SEE (recognise) + LIE (lean) + R (river) |
|
| 14 | E | ERNE | Crane‘s behind feeding before eagle (4)
ER_E (before) around (fed by) N (last letter, or behind, of craN) |
|
| 15 | P | CON | Ignoring prank, accompany prisoner (3)
CON( |
|
| 17 | O | FOOLS / ANGEL | Fruit puddings and soaps (5)
double defn – a FOOL can be a fruit pudding; and a FOOL can be a saphead, or sap |
|
| 19 | E | GAIT | German small island’s peace (4)
G (German) + AIT (small island) |
|
| 21 | T | AGLEAM | Glowing working, age malt (6)
anag, i.e. working, of AGE MAL( |
|
| 23 | C | NEATEN | Old cox regularly being tidy (6)
NEAT (archaic, i.e. old, for ox) + EN (regular letters from ‘bEiNg’ |
|
| 26 | A | UNCOORDINATED | Clumsy, uncovered hiding gold, astound Glaswegian (13)
UNCO_ATED (uncovered) around OR (heraldry, golden yellow) + DIN (stound, Scottish, hence Glaswegian, can mean din) |
|
| 29 | U | EGOIST | Self-centred individual‘s endless pout cutting patronage by Tesla (6)
EG_IS (protection, patronage, variation on aegis) around (cut into by) O (pOt, endless), plus T (tesla, SI unit) |
|
| 31 | T | EDDAIC | Joint in French company reverts on ancient Scandinavian books (6)
CI_E (compagnie, French company) around ADD (join) = CIADDE, all reversed, or reverted, to give EDDAIC |
|
| 32 | I | ERRS | Mistakes ruins covered by bitter vetch (4)
ER_S (bitter vetch) around (covering) R (runs, cricket notation) |
|
| 35 | O | EDEMA | Missing end of beano, European returned to cure dropsy (5)
E (European) + DEMA (amend, or cure, returned and missing N – end of beaN)(?) |
|
| 38 | U | GAM | Georgia and Samuel in middle school (3)
GA (Georgia, the US state, not the country) + M (middle of saMel) |
|
| 39 | S | ERED | Scent after earl ploughed once (4)
E (earl) + RED (a red cent) |
|
| 40 | O | PRONAOS | Vestibule in front of temple tenor’s left promptly, being replaced by alto soon (7)
PRON( |
|
| 41 | N | SAVING | Frugal drudging without linen (6)
S( |
|
| 42 | E | SYRUPS | At last Faye entering kicks out rejected wigs for EastEnders (6)
S_RUPS (spurs, or kicks out, rejected) around (entered by) Y (last letter of faY) |
|
| 43 | M | STREET THEATRE | External entertainment troubled them, set retreat (13, two words)
anag, i.e. troubled, of THE( |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Removed Letters | Solution / Entry | Clue (definition underlined, removed letter bold)
Logic/Parsing |
|
| 1 | U | ASHCAN | Hot inside, Paul stripped to check bin (6)
A (pAl, stripped) + S_CAN (check) around H (hot) |
|
| 2 | S | TAENIACIDE | Escorted, I start east to get worm-killing substance (10)
TAEN (ta’en, contraction of taken, or escorted) + I + ACID (tart) + E (east) |
|
| 3 | T | ILEX | Spoilt example covers shrub (4)
hidden word in, i.e. hidden by, ‘spoIL( |
|
| 4 | R | AMID | Among stupid race, upset (4)
DIM (stupid) + A (ace), all upset to give AMID |
|
| 5 | E | CLEFTS / CLEATS | Abandoned in copse on vacation, cracks (6)
C_S (CopS(e), vacated) around LEFT (abandoned) |
|
| 6 | P | SCOOGING / SCOGGING | Sheltering in Scotland Government gasp, finally murmuring softly outside (8)
S (final letter of gaS) + COO_ING (murmuring softy) around (outside) G (government) |
|
| 7 | L | SHELLS / SHEELS | Plods beginning to subdue commotions (6)
S (beginning of Subdue) + HELLS (commotions) |
|
| 8 | A | RUNT | Haunt tense little pig (4)
RUN (hunt) + T (tense) |
|
| 9 | C | STEAMED | Craving meats, editor cooked (7)
STEAM (anag, i.e. raving, of MEATS) + ED (editor) |
|
| 11 | E | OLLA | Completely over elevated poet (4)
ALL (completely) + O (over, cricket notation), all elevated to give OLLA |
|
| 16 | T | OPENED | Topless gent and disruptive adolescent spoke out (6)
( |
|
| 18 | H | SETTING OUT / LETTING OUT | Displaying hat in tartan pattern with relish (10, two words)
SETT (tartan pattern) + IN (at) + G_OUT (relish, taste) |
|
| 20 | O | INRO | Nationalist in hoard’s raised medicine case (4)
IRO( |
|
| 22 | S | AVESTA | Birds briefly stab scriptures (6)
AVES (classification of birds) + TA(B) (tab, briefly) |
|
| 24 | E | EOLIENNE | Press in English bases shunning Marie Claire’s good material (8)
E (English) + ( |
|
| 25 | R | PIER | Start to ride within a promenade (4)
P_ER (a, as in for each) around I (start to Ide) |
|
| 26 | U | USELESS | Treat suave poor (7)
USE (treat, behave towards) + LESS (save, unless) |
|
| 27 | S | WADDIE | Bundle of banknotes: send cowboy (6)
WAD (bundle of bank notes) + DIE (end) |
|
| 28 | H | LEARNT | Was informed whin’s in Lithuania (6)
L_T (Lithuania, IVR) around EARN (win) |
|
| 30 | I | TAMISE | Gentile welcoming Iceland’s thin woollen fabric (6)
TAM_E (gentle) around (welcoming) IS (Iceland, IVR) |
|
| 33 | N | RENY | Old-fashioned to refuse most of revenue, yearn (4)
REN( |
|
| 34 | G | BRAT | Young rascal‘s grand blocking racket (4)
B_AT (racket) around (blocked by) R (rand) |
|
| 36 | I | BOSH | Chief cut short hard riot (4)
BOS( |
|
| 37 | N | PARA | Accepted hint to pick up Turkish coin (4)
A (accepted) + RAP (hit), all picked up to give PARA |
|
Looking forward to seeing you too, mc_rapper67, and thank you for such an entertaining blog.
(This fule too was unaware of the coiner of the quotation until I checked).
(Love my new handle Senorita Skylark)
I really enjoyed solving this puzzle. I thought it was very well-crafted, had some ingenious clues,some entertaining clues and didn’t reveal too much too soon. I did, however, take off one mark for ‘that’ diagonal and another for the (to me a little too common) instruction to S H A D E…
Thanks for the excellent blog – and the excellent puzzle.