Enigmatic Variations No. 1659: Problem by Eclogue

Ah, Monsieur l’EV Editor, two cartes blanche in as many weeks – you do spoil us! The only PROBLEM is that it is my turn to blog…

The preamble states that:

“Reading clockwise from the top left corner is the first line of a PROBLEM (in ODQ, with a change of article) followed by the ‘setter’, the solution to which is the unclued entry. Unchecked letters in the perimeter could provide FRAN FRONTS BLUFFS. Clues are provided in alphabetical order of their answers, which should be entered wherever they will fit. Eight clues each contain an extra word. The length of each answer in this group will provide the index to use when extracting a letter from its extra word. In clue order these letters spell out the source of the theme. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”

A few years ago, a carte blanche/(jigsaw – see comment #3!) and a preamble like that would have had me hiding behind the sofa and praying it wasn’t my turn to blog! But I have embraced the ‘wherever they will fit‘ instruction and am now fairly confident I can usually complete them.

First step is to annotate around the edges of the grid to indicate what length lights there are, so Row 2 would have a 6 on the left and a 5 on the right, etc. This just makes it easier to scan the grid when looking for a likely spot to put a solution. I then use any white space on the page to group all the word lengths together. There are eight 4s, so I put eight sets of four dashes waiting for the solutions to be written in, eight 5s, etc. Only four 7s and four 10s, so these are likely to be the way in to filling the grid, once a few options are available.

(I also quite often do all this in Excel, re-creating the grid, and then copy/pasting the clues in, as that then allows for quicker and cleaner experimenting and un-doing than a pencil and eraser, with the paper copy getting ever more tatty!)

In this case, I had EVANGELISE and ANCHYLOSIS quite early on, both reasonably clearly signposted as anagrams, ‘reformed’ and ‘shattered'(!), although I had to use an anagram finder for, and then look up, ANCHYLOSIS. The 10s all cross each other around the middle of the grid, and it didn’t take too many permutations to work out that these two probably crossed on the L, whereas most of the permutations with them side-by-side led to unlikely starts/ends of other words.

From this start, there was only one likely four-letter G – GEEK, one likely six-letter I – IN A RUT, which made ENTRISM most likely to fit down the bottom right corner. A little educated guess with SCHERZO as a seven-letter with second letter C, and things started to fall into place nicely.

As I found crossers, I was able to fill in some of the blanks in my ‘unfilled dashes’ groups, which then helped with narrowing down options for unsolved clues, in a virtuous circle that eventually filled what I could in the grid.

A period of perimeter-staring then ensued – the ‘setter’ of the problem, as opposed to the setter of the puzzle, had to finish up the left side, and didn’t take long to pin down as LONGFELLOW. The top row looked like THE SQUARE ROO/T, with NUMBER at the start of the bottom row. I think around this point I resorted to a little Wiki-oogling of ‘Longfellow’ and ‘square root’.

This led me to his novel. Kavanagh, in which he sets various mathematical problems, including one where he askes for THE SQUARE ROOT OF HALF THE NUMBER OF BEES. To which the answer is the unclued entry: SEVENTY-TWO. (Although one site I found confidently gave the answer as 15…)

I had spotted a few of the extra words and their indexed letters along the way, but this helped me nail the last few down, to give KAVANAGH.

 

(I have to admit that I never checked at the time if the unchecked perimeter letters did indeed give FRAN FRONTS BLUFFS, but I have since.)

Well, that was a bit of a challenge! A few new/obscure (to me) words like ANCHYLOSIS, HABOOB, QUOIN and BYRNIE, and a lot going on with the jigsaw, the extra words and discerning the perimeter. My thanks to Eclogue for a tough but enjoyable diversion, and a bit of education at the end, as I had not heard of the novel or the PROBLEMs set out therein…

 

Across
Clue No	Extra words / letters	Solution	Clue (definition underlined, extra word in bold) Logic/Parsing
*		ACNE	Minor problem incurred by MacNeice? (4) hidden word in, i.e. incurred by’ ‘mACNEice’
*		ANCHYLOSIS	Noisy clash shattered union of bones (10) anag, i.e. shattered, of NOISY CLASH
*		ANELE	Administer the last rites to one in Scotland on endless meadow (5) ANE (Scottish, one) + LE(A) (endless meadow)
*		BISH	Blunder from senior cleric out of work (4) BISH(OP) – senior cleric, without OP (opus, musical work)
*	UNLIKELY / K	BUSSU	Palm smack acceptable? Unlikely (5) BUSS (kiss, smacker) + U (acceptable, not non-U!)
*		BYRNIE	Comedian Ed securing one old Scottish breastplate (6) BYRN_E (comedian, Ed Byrne) around (securing) I (one)
*	BODEGAS / A	ENEMAS	In French bodegas brought up unchanged internal cleansers (6) EN (in, French) + EMAS (same, unchanged, reversed, or brought up) [‘brought up’ suggesting this will be a Down entry]
*		ENTRISM	Minster resolved method of influencing policy (7) anag, i.e. resolved, of MINISTER
*	GRAVEST / V	ENVY	Leaders of every noisome villainy yearn for gravest cardinal sin (4) first letters, or leaders, of ‘Every Noisome Villainry Yearn’
*		EVANGELISE	Preach the Gospel seeing vale reformed (10) anag, i.e. reformed, of SEEING VALE
*	ABOUT-FACE / A	EYEFLAP	Perhaps aged pheasants about-face and panic in that which prevents distraction (7) EYE (obsolete, or aged, for a group of pheasants) + FLAP (panic)
*		GEEK	Short, sharp head of guards lifting creep (4) KEE(N) (sharp, short of a letter) + G (first letter, or head, of guards) = KEEP, all lifted to give GEEK
*		GYNAE	Medicine for women to give birth in theatre to young on vacation, then coming round (5) EAN (Shakespearean, i.e. in theatre, for to give birth) + YG (YounG, vacated of middle letters) = EANYG, all coming round to give GYNAE (informal shortening of ‘gynaecology’)
*		HABOOB	Husband advanced by mistake in sandstorm (6) H (husband) + A (advanced) + BOOB (error)
*		HAVER	Bear right nonsense in some parts (5) HAVE (bear, as in children) + R (right)
*		IN A RUT	Bad turn involving Al gets one subject to inescapable routine (6, three words) anag, i.e. bad, of TURN + AI
*	TIMING / N	KANEH	Harry, say and Henry timing Hebrew measure (5) KANE (Harry Kane, an example of a Harry) + H (henry, SI unit of inductance)
*		LEFTIE	Southpaw, perhaps, almost dropped in return match (6) LEF (almost all of fell, or dropped, returned) + TIE (match)
*		LINOS	Floor-coverings with seller’s option having nothing for backing (5) SO (seller’s option, or opinion?) + NIL (nothing, as in a sports score) = SONIL, all backing to give LINOS
*	REPENTANT / A	ONCOSTS	Items of expenditure breaking repentant Scot with son (7) anag, i.e. breaking, of SCOT + SON
*		OOZIER	Overturned menagerie that is starting to rot is more leaky (6) OOZ (zoo, or menagerie, overturned) + IE (id est, that is) + R (start of Rot)
*		OVEN	Lear, for instance, above docked navy (4) OVE(R) (above, docked by one letter) + N (navy)
*	INDICATING / G	PHENOMENAL	Remarkable mobile phone marks indicating passage in retrospect (10) PHENO (anag, i.e. mobile, of phone) + M (marks) + ENAL (lane, or passge, in retrospect)
*		PLISSE	Second son interrupting dance move puckered cloth (6) PLI_E (ballet move) around S (second) + S (son)
*		QUOIN	Secure Queen ordinary traditional hotel (5) QU (queen) + O (ordinary) + IN (obsolete, or traditional, for inn, hotel)
*		RORE	Old poet’s tumult compounding error that’s never-ending (4) anag, i.e. compounding, of ERRO(R) – never ending error
*		SCHERZO	Lively piece in school getting zero appallingly (7) SCH (school) + ERZO (anag, i.e. appallingly, of zero)
*		SEVENTY TWO	Unclued (10) thematic deduction
*		SKIM	Glide and slide miles (4) SKI (glide) + M (miles)
*	IRISH / H	SNOOT	Irish person that’s supercilious, soon to be corrected with time (5) SNOO (anag, i.e. corrected, of SOON) + T (time)
*		TSAR	Powerful ruler found primarily in the state and revolution (4) first, or primary, letters, of ‘The State And Revolution’
*		WAY-OUT	Unconventional system that’s wrong (6) double defn (ignoring punctuation) – WAY-OUT can be unconventional, avant-garde); and if a guess or a calculation is wrong it might be WAY OUT [not sure what ‘system’ is doing here?] as per KVa at comment #1 below, WAY (system) + OUT (wrong), with that’s as a link word