This week Kruger presents us with a jigsaw, which we have to fill in a RESPONSIBLE way…
The preamble states that:
“Clues are given in alphabetical order of their answers which must be entered where they will fit. Eight thematic entries are clued without definition and thirteen other clues contain a superfluous word which must be removed before solving. Seven of these extra words can each be matched, in a RESPONSIBLE way, with seven of the thematic entries. First letters of the remaining six extra words can be used to form a word associated with the previously unmatched thematic entry. Solvers must highlight the originally unmatched entry and write the associated word below the grid. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended; the asterisked answer is in Collins.”
Quite a bit to pick the bones out of, with a couple of re-reads required whilst preparing for jigsaw mode:
- annotate round the edge of the grid to indicate lengths of entries in rows/columns touching each side (or, occasionally, within the grid)
- write out sets of _ _ _ _ corresponding to groups of word lengths
- analyse groupings for outliers – only two 8s and two 10s, so extra focus there?…
- look for significant crossings – e.g. first/last letters – for example the top row has a 6 across and a 5 down from the second cell, and 5/7 from the 8th cell
- if all else fails, just start cold-solving and see what happens!
- make some educated guesses once you have a few answers
- oh, and use a pencil on a working copy, or in my case, an iPencil on a screenshot of the puzzle on my iPad (other tablets and writing implements are available)
I iterated around the clues, the grid layout and the length groupings a few times before cracks started to appear. SLEUTH was the first clue solved, as HUSTLE/SLEUTH has appeared often enough in my solving career to rival ORCHESTRA/CARTHORSE as a chestnut-ty anagram…and some progress was made with cold-solving in the first few passes.
My way in to the grid was getting SUTHERLAND as SUNDERLAND minus ND and plus TH. This had to be top left or on the right, and I had a few other answers, like ULCER, HULAS and ABOULIA which looked like they might fit nicely with SUTHERLAND on the left. (In my experience, if an educated guess/stab-in-the-dark jigsaw entry is backed up by at least two crossers, then it will usually be in the right place…)
It was also undefined, and probably a name, so SUTHERLAND looks like one of the eight. Donald, or maybe his son Keifer?…responsible for many roles/characters in various films…
ULCER and HULAS, plus ETAT helped to place SLEUTH; then AERATOR; then SHAGGY and things started to motor along nicely in the top left quadrant.
Next PDM was POUSSIN, with his ‘fishy’ soup(!), plus SICKERT – so adding in Graham SUTHERLAND we are into the realms of famous artists, which would not necessarily be my chosen specialist subject on Mastermind…
GROSZ, UCCELLO and TINTORETTO followed in short order, plus LAWRENCE giving us seven of the eight. I was momentarily held up by assuming the (printer’s) space was EM with Queen and Empress (RI), to give (Georges) REMI, who did ring a ‘tintin’abulary bell. But Remi, or Hergé as he is better known, was more of a cartoonist, whereas the others seemed to be ‘proper’ artists.
Professor Go-ogle helped me find (Guido) RENI to complete the set, and then also assisted in a fairly extensive search of the genres and catalogues of the various names, trying to cross-reference them against the various extra words gleaned from various clues – Churchill; Madonna; Paradise; Despair – to see who was RESPONSIBLE for which. It wasn’t completely clear cut – quite a few people have painted the Madonna, and Churchill, and quite a few artists have seen Paradise and Despair, such is the lot of the tormented genius, poor loves!
There was also the parallel distraction of the ‘decoy’ extra words giving initial letters, but by a process of elimination I gradually worked out who was responsible for what, leaving (Thomas) LAWRENCE unattributed, and his famous (as I now know) painting of Sarah Goodin Barrett Moulton, aka ‘PINKIE’:
And that, I think, was that – unless I have mis-attributed something to the wrong artist below…
A wonderfully crafted EV puzzle – my thanks to Kruger for giving us a a reasonably challenging jigsaw and an educational (unless you already knew them) end-game in matching up the artists and subjects.
| Clues | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Extra word /
Work (by Artist) |
Solution | Clue (definition underlined, extra word in bold)
Logic/Parsing |
|
| * | ABOULIA | Sailor and SA man left India before onset of alarming indecisiveness (7)
AB (Able-Bodied seaman, sailor) + OU (man, South Africa) + L (left) + I (India) + A (first letter, or onset, of Alarming) |
||
| * | AERATOR | Gas pump of a reactor disastrously lacking coolant from the outset (7)
subtractive anagram, i.e. disastrously, of A REA( |
||
| * | Churchill,
by Sutherland |
BASIS | Fundamental component of Churchill book unaltered (5)
B (book) + ASIS (as is, unaltered) |
|
| * | BYGONE | Past treating bony middle of legs (6)
anag, i.e. treating, of BONY + ( |
||
| * | piano | CANNAE | In Ayr, is unable to play an ace piano note (6)
anag, i.e. to play, of AN ACE + A (musical note) |
|
| * | CAVITY | Hollow Parisian lawyer visiting York? (6)
C_ITY (York is an example of a city, hence the ‘?’) around (visited by) AV (French, i.e. parisian, avocat, lawyer) |
||
| * | CHAR | New island tea (4)
double defn. CHAR can refer to tea; and a CHAR is an Indian word for a new island of silt deposits formed in a large river) |
||
| * | Paradise,
by Tintoretto |
DEFLUENT | Running down of French paradise easy (8)
DE (of, French) + FLUENT (easy) |
|
| * | Madonna,
by Uccello |
DELAYER | Take bed away from one who hinders Madonna? (7)
double defn. – to DE-LAYER can be to take a layer, or bed/stratum, away); and a DELAYER might hinder progress |
|
| * | ETAT | Rank gallery’s preposterous (4)
the TATE gallery, preposterously, or inverted/reversed = ETAT (rank) |
||
| * | GLOAT | Fool eats wing of local crow (5)
G_OAT (fool) around (eating) L (one side, or wing, of LocaL) |
||
| * | keep | GLOBULE | Keep glass vessel containing extremely useful pill (7)
GLOB_E (glass vessel) around (containing) UL (extreme letters of UsefuL) |
|
| * | Despair,
by Sickert |
GLOGG | Three Germans despair drinking most of inferior spiced drink (5)
G_GG (three Germans!) around (drinking) LO( |
|
| * | GRIPPE | Flu once affected grand piper (6)
anag, i.e. affected, of G (grand) + PIPER |
||
| * | GROSZ | Australia imports last of goods giving support to Greece (5)
GR (Greece) on top of/supported by (in a Down entry) O_Z (Oz, Australia) around (importing) S (last letter of goodS) |
||
| * | GROTS | In Parnassus perhaps caves found in forest or gully to the west (5)
reversed hidden word, i.e. ‘found in’ and ‘to the west’, in ‘foreST OR Gully’ |
||
| * | Charity,
by Reni |
HULAS | Has university lecturer entered Hawaiian charity dances? (5)
H_AS around (entered by) U (university) + L (lecturer) |
|
| * | LAWRENCE | Note bird in front of church (8)
LA (note, in sol-fa notation) + WREN (bird) + CE (Church of England) |
||
| * | inhabiting | LERNE | Beginning to locate eagle inhabiting swamp (5)
L (beginning to Locate) + ERNE (eagle) [Lerna, or Lerne?] |
|
| * | NAIRAS | Look into hospital returning Nigerian bread (6)
N_AS (san, sanatorium, hospital, returning) around AIR (look, appearance) [bread as slang for money] |
||
| * | novel | OVERSEE | Disregard short section of chapter in Old English novel (7)
O_E (Old English) around VERSE (short section of – usually biblical – chapter) |
|
| * | POUSSIN | Fishy soup’s much used (7)
POUSS (anag, i.e. fishy, of SOUPS) + IN (trendy, much used) |
||
| * | RAKE | Inclination to roam in some places (4)
double defn. – to TAKE can be to incline, or lean; and to RAKE can be dialect, i.e. in some places, for to roam) |
||
| * | RELEVES | Omitting second of pirouettes eases movements of ballet (7)*
REL( |
||
| * | RENI | Queen and Empress given little space (4)
R_I (Regina et Imperatrix, Queen and Empress) around (given) EN (printing, small space) [Not EM, which gives REMI, aka Hergé, as in Tintin comics!] |
||
| * | Penance,
by Poussin |
SBIRRI | Penance starts to surprise big Italian rogue running into cops in Rome (6)
starting letters of ‘Surprise Big Italian Rogue Running Into’ |
|
| * | expert | SHAGGY | In some stories, dogs are so reticent over a good term of expert training (6)
SH_Y (reticent) around (over) A + G (good) + G (term, or last letter, of traininG) [as in ‘shaggy dog story’] |
|
| * | SICKERT | Ill and in France without insurance essentially (7)
SICK (ill) + E_T (and, in French) around (without, or out-with) R (middle letter, or essence, of insuRance) |
||
| * | SLEUTH | Badly hustle detective (6)
anag, i.e. badly, of HUSTLE |
||
| * | SUTHERLAND | No date to leave northern city – Thursday included (10)
SU( |
||
| * | TERROIR | Distinctive quality of fear gripping Italy (7)
TERRO_R (fear) around (gripping) I (Italy) |
||
| * | TETRI | Georgian sugar used in chocolate trifle (5)
hidden word in, i.e. used in, ‘chocolaTE TRIfle’) [sugar as slang for money] |
||
| * | TINTORETTO | Former dictator imprisons rotten liberal (10)
TI_TO (former Yugoslavian dictator) around (imprisoning) NTORET (anag, i.e. liberal, of ROTTEN) |
||
| * | TWO-INCH | Thin cow lost approximately 5cm (7)
anag, i.e. lost, of THIN COW |
||
| * | UCCELLO | It’s most common to pursue four crotchets in a bar with instrument (7)
U (most common letter in pUrsUe) + C (music, common time, four crotchets in a bar) + CELLO (instrument) |
||
| * | international | ULCER | Horribly cruel source of international corruption (5)
anag, i.e. horribly, of CRUEL |
|
| * | Metropolis,
by Grosz |
USHER | Conduct of powerless metropolis drug dealer (5)
( |
|
| * | VIOLENT | Savage finally seen to live abnormally (7)
anag, i.e. abnormally, of N (final letter of seeN) + TO LIVE |
||