There have typically been about 100 puzzles between successive appearances by Poat, but the one prior to this was #1881 Get the Message, last November.
Preamble: Four creative works suggest how the answers to each group of clues must be treated. In the fifth group, each clue contains an extra letter which must be removed to enable solving; extras can be arranged to make the creator. The entry at 22dn is two words.
So, we need to identify the creator, then find their works, and then discover how to enter the answers to each of the four works – a workout indeed. 
It seemed sensible to start at the end with the “Extras”; it was already late but I couldn’t resist a quick peek: 26d CRANIA. (Little else would come so quickly.)
Near the end of the next day I’d solved just over half the clues. I figured that answers from the Extras would be entered untreated, and seemingly that also went for those from Work 4 – at least they didn’t result in clashes, unlike most of the others. More importantly I had seven of the extra letters and an idea of the eighth – enough to see that the creator was more than likely to be STOPPARD, prime fodder for a barred cryptic.
By early the following evening, I had consulted a list of Stoppard plays (both in my head and on the web) and concluded that Work 4 was The Real Thing (hence entered untreated), and that Work 2 was Travesties, with entries being anagrams of answers. A little later I noticed that 17d DAGENHAM would fit at 9d with similar exchanged positions for other answers in Work 1 – Jumpers, of course.
I had been labouring under the misapprehension that Work 3 was On the Razzle (11, 3 words) until I saw that 13a DETACH should be entered as ATTACH, so the relevant play was Night and Day (also 11, 3 words), and there quickly followed a clatter of entries: EVIL for GOOD, ANTONYM for SYNONYM, HARD for SOFT, and so on. Nearly midnight, off to bed. Finish in the morning …
… when I sorted out the wordplay for a couple of clues, plus answers/entries for the final 2 or 3 opposites in Work 3 – except 23d. No one I’ve contacted has come up with a good explanation. A couple of comments: I really dislike clues that refer to the setter, such as “my” in Extras 25a; and in a puzzle that required rather a lot of cold-solving it would have been nice if the clue for Extras 37a could been written to avoid the ambiguity as to which of RAGES & SEGAR was the answer and which the reversal.
Tough workout from Poat, but certainly a sense of achievement having got (almost) to the end. Thanks – have I missed something with regard to the title?
| No. | Clue | Answer/ Entry |
Wordplay |
| Work One – Jumpers | |||
| 19 | Used too much leeway on vacation, remarkably (5) | ODDLY at 30d |
OD’D (used too much) L(eewa)Y |
| 38 | Nearly all bound to turn up in Spanish Main? (6) | PAELLA at 2d |
AL(l) LEAP (bound) all< |
| 2 | Macron’s ten for one changing leaders, never on the Sabbath? (6) | SIX-DAY at 38 |
DIX (ten, Fr) SAY (for one) with initial letters swapped |
| 9 | Hoover? Confess working with iron (8) | PRESSING at 17d |
PRES (President, Hoover?) SING (confess) |
| 10 | Tiny state misplaced in European Union (4) | NIUE at 32d |
[IN EU]* |
| 17 | Mongrel had mange? Barking’s next (8) | DAGENHAM at 9d |
[HAD MANGE]* |
| 30 | Musk offloaded from Spanish port in Meloni’s boat (5) | BARCA at 19a |
BARCELONA (Spanish port) ¬ ELON (Musk) |
| 32 | Bumps off US magistrates – not fair (4) | ICES at 10d |
JUSTICES (US magistrates) ¬ JUST (fair) |
| Work Two – Travesties | |||
| 14 | School casually agreed to confiscate blade (8) | YESHIVAH HEAVYISH |
YEAH (yes, inf) around SHIV (blade) |
| 20 | Tasteless items include banger in lettuce (7) | CHEAPOS EPOCHAS |
HEAP (run-down old car, banger) in COS (lettuce) |
| 34 | Devour Line Of Duty initially concealing a PC’s file (8) | DOWNLOAD WOODLAND |
DOWN (devour) L(ine) O(f) D(uty) around A |
| 5 | Coil around nut is not one secured by pinhead (7) | ENTWIST TWINSET |
EN (nut) IS ¬ I (one) in TWIT (pinhead) |
| 8 | Oscar-winner Emma’s not quite out of it (5) | STONE STENO |
STONE(d) (out of it) |
| 22 | Hero in Murray’s book, one with endless drive (7) | OEDIPUS OPUS DEI |
OED (Murray’s book) I (one) PUS(h) (drive) |
| 24d | Whale deity flips for Cape Cod calves (6) | DOGIES GEOIDS |
SEI (whale) GOD (deity) all< |
| 28 | Plants originally culled where witches appear in Macbeth (5) | CACTI TICCA |
C(ulled) ACT 1 (where witches appear in Macbeth) |
| Work Three – Night and Day | |||
| 12 | Very fast, not so far out of training (4) | SOFT HARD |
SO (very) FAST ¬ AS (so far) |
| 13 | Withdraw in confusion: what comes from deathwatch? (6) | DETACH ATTACH |
[DEATHWATCH ¬ WHAT]* |
| 18 | At sea, not many converse (7) | ANTONYM SYNONYM |
[NOT MANY]* |
| 27 | 50% of brides match deep blues? (7) | DESPAIR ECSTASY |
(bri)DES PAIR (match) |
| 36 | Sufficient to extend overdraft (4) | GOOD EVIL |
GO O/D (go overdrawn) |
| 3 | Two soaks need afternoon in hideaway (7) | RETREAT ADVANCE |
2×RET (soak) around A(fternoon) |
| 23 | Specific hearing engrossing some of Cicero’s peers (7) | TRIVIAL COMPLEX |
TRIAL (hearing) around IV (four, Roman numerals, some of …) {or maybe VI if he had 6 peers, or some other explanation of the IV or VI} |
| 29 | Clear strategy to besiege island (5) | PLAIN SHOWY |
PLAN (strategy) around I(sland) |
| Work Four – The Real Thing | |||
| 1a | Bear aloft with behind seen after jump, intermittently (6) | UPWAFT as is |
W(ith) AFT (behind) after (j)U(m)P |
| 16 | Novelty won in goose, Christmas gifts at last appear (7) | NEWNESS as is |
W(on) in NENE (goose) (Christma)S (gift)S |
| 24a | Regent’s mad monarch finally leaves, according to history (7) | GREENTH as is |
[REGENT]* (monarc)H |
| 33 | Unhappy about comms strategy formerly disseminated (5) | SPRAD as is |
SAD (unhappy) around PR (comms strategy) |
| 35 | Scots visitor weak at first sign of death ray (6) | DUN-COW as is |
UNCO (visitor, Scot) W(eak) after D(eath) |
| 1d | Grunted assent of Ulster Unionist, holding hands and hearts (5) | UH-HUH as is |
UU (Ulster Unionist) around HH (hands) H(earts) |
| 11 | Church mass disguised gaping holes (6) | CHASMS as is |
CH(urch) [MASS]* |
| 21 | Hypnotist in training might make it with these rudiments (7) | PHYTONS as is |
[HYPNOTIST ¬ IT]* |
| Extras | X | Answer | Wordplay | |
| 7 | Means of picking up s[t]ub when caught by inspector (5) | T | ASDIC | AS (when) C(aught) after DI (inspector) |
| 15 | Godly m[o]an manifested in sultanate (5) | O | ULTAN | (s)ULTAN(ate) {ref: St Ultan} |
| 25 | Chaplain occupying my time gets c[r]ook in hot water (5) | R | POACH | CH(aplain) replacing T(ime) in POAT (setter, my …) |
| 31 | Version of hit song s[p]ans previous review (7, two words) | P | ON SIGHT | [HIT SONG]* |
| 37 | Tobacconist’s [p]article on the counter inspired frenzies (5) | P | SEGAR | RAGES< (inspired frenzies) |
| 4 | Physicist Richard[s] requiring new staff – doomed at the start (7) | S | FEYNMAN | N(ew) MAN (staff) after FEY (doomed) |
| 6 | EU agreement and its translation backing one-time [d]rug (5) | D | JASEY | JA (yes, Ger, EU agreement) YES< (translation of JA) |
| 26 | Hard parts of [a]nanas are found by ruined cairn (6) | A | CRANIA | A(re) after [CAIRN]* |
A slightly intimidating structure and preamble, but clearly the Extras were the clues to focus on, and when STOPPARD emerged I guessed all four Works (albeit with a side-bet on Arcadia for the first). Work Two implied jumbled entries; it was a nice touch that they all became other real words. Work Three suggested antonyms even without the great big hint of 18A. Work Four surely meant the answers went in unchanged, but here I ran into trouble by interpreting 1A as the plausible UPREAR (a deliberate trap?), leading to clashes with 3D and 4D and a need for rethinking. It took me a stupidly long time to see what the Jumpers were doing. But a very enjoyable Workout overall. Many thanks to Poat and HolyGhost.
CRANIA came first here too, and I too was frustrated for a while by RAGES/SEGAR. The pairing of 22D (before treatment) and 23D (after treatment) was an interesting Easter egg.
Uniquely this year (so far), this puzzle did not give me much enjoyment. Being a slow solver has hardly ever got in the way of my success with Inquisitor puzzles, but solving the clues of this puzzle was a ponderously slow process. I had no luck in guessing the name of the ‘creator’ (lacking two letters of that name), with the result that there was no way either to reveal the ‘Works’ or to make sense of the first instruction. I can see now, of course, how cleverly the theme was executed, with the titles hinting at the treatment of the clues – many of which I solved but most of which were not entered (except those I had from Extras and Work 4).
Certainly hard work, but I got there, with the satisfaction that comes with wading through some quite thick undergrowth. I share HG’s irritation at a setter referring to themselves in this type of crossword (though I don’t mind it in the Guardian, perhaps because it is more common there), but didn’t find the RAGES/SEGAR ambiguity took long to resolve. My main gripe was being expected to identify Ultan as a godly man – on this basis, virtually any male name would qualify, so it simply isn’t a definition – and is TRIVIAL really a recognised antonym of COMPLEX ? I can’t help with Cicero’s peers (might it somehow refer to the Cicero typeface?), or with the title. Thanks to HG for the parsing of ODDLY, and to Poat for the puzzle.
Not being a fan of cold-solving, I was close to giving up at one point but am glad I persevered.
Some really tough clues, but an impressive construction, particularly the real words for Works Two and Three.
It was nice when the pennies finally dropped one by one, starting with Antonym/Synonym and then Stone/Steno.
I too cursed 37a and I too couldn’t parse IV/VI so I’m glad I’m on the same wavelength as HG.
Minor note: in Work Four, it should have said 24ac instead of 24, but seeing as 24dn was indicated elsewhere, it was not an issue.
Forgot to say I was hoping to be told for sure how “Cicero’s peers” worked! My best guess, long after filling the grid, was VI as “some of” Latin VIRI (plural of VIR = man).
It was certainly well titled 😁 I’m not great at cold-solving so this took quite a bit longer than the average IQ. But I did eventually twig three of the four entry treatments shortly before I got STOPPARD and his Wiki page gave me the missing penny drops. Never parsed POACH or TRIVIAL but they had to be the answers.
Thanks both!
I laboured mightily to get to Stoppard… and then I stopped. Jumpers suggested anagram to me, rather than moving in the grid; without this conceptual breakthrough, I couldn’t even enter the Real Things… Thanks to both.
I haven’t seen or attempted this puzzle, but have been looking through this blog out of idle curiosity. Could some of Cicero‘s peers be VI(DET) – sees? “Sees” is a poor synonym for “peers” though.
Yes, very hard, but twigging STOPPARD saw several walls crumble and progress resume. A fine example, for me, of a puzzle that stayed meaty to the end.
We think Phi has summed up our experience of the puzzle.
We were fortunate to think of STOPPARD early on partly because we have seen most of his plays and enjoyed every one!
We are away at the moment so cannot check our solution but we don’t think we were able to parse TRIVIAL either.
Thanks to S&B.
Cicero’s treatise on ‘The four personae’ for 23d perhaps?
Thanks for the comments! The TRIVIAL clue was meant to work as follows:
Hearing = TRIAL around IV, or VI, being explained as a smallish number according to the Latin-speaking world (that’s all that ‘of Cicero’s peers’ indicates, in a roundabout way). I love the idea of VIDET though it’s a tad unfair, VIRI too, and the four personae reference is also impressively erudite.
I remember doing a Schadenfreude Listener maybe 20 or so years ago, themed on Summertime (‘Fish are jumping, the cotton is high’) – where various clued fish appeared at different entries, and various clued cottons were entered as jumbles.
Poat
I found this very enjoyable – and a relief to get back to Eng Lit after last week’s Maths class. Stoppard is an old favourite and it didn’t take long for his name to pop out of the Extras. Struggled with parsing a couple of the clues (the same as others here), and the Jumpers had me flummoxed for a while, but it all came together in very satisfying fashion. I guess asking for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to appear hidden in the final grid would have been a bit much. Filled the grid, but due to the parsing failures 9/10 this week. Thanks to setter and blogger for their estimable work