Enigmatic Variations No. 1707: Crassword by Stick Insect

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A quick check – no, this isn’t the Grauniad, so that probably isn’t just a typo in CRASSWORD…

The preamble states that:

“Entries to the three normal clues, plus three other cells, must be highlighted to show a message related to the remaining clues in this CRASSWORD. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”

My first couple of ‘non-linear’ scans through the clues threw up 16A UDON (the clue mentioned noodles and a ‘crime boss’) and 2D UPSIDE (the losing team would be the ‘down’ side, but the definition and enumeration suggested UPSIDE).

So there is something odd going on – in the former, the definition (or wordplay) seemed out of place, in the latter part of the wordplay seemed to be the opposite of what was meant.

And so it developed – 18A looked like (Arne) SLOT, but he is the Liverpool manager, not Everton – another ‘binary’ opposite, if you know your Mersey-based football clubs. 14D had a moon (often IO) and ‘books’ (often OT or NT), but INTO (keen on) has the moon around the books, which was the opposite of what the wordplay implied. Several clues had extra letters appended to a word in the wordplay: view instead of vie; lout instead of out; knew instead of new – or homophones: court instead of caught; piece for peace…

This probably explained why there were no ‘extra letters in wordplay’ or other typical EV tricks – it looked like every clue had some sort of deliberate mistake, as per the typo in the title.

In the end, I actually filled the whole grid without working out which were the ‘normal’ clues – I had seen and twisted my brain around so many erroneous bits of wordplay/definition/enumeration that I couldn’t see the would for the threes…

So I put it down for a day or two, came back and stared at the grid for a while, and immediately saw ’11A APOLOGIES |F|O|R| 19A SETTER 39A INCOMPETENCE’!

 

And re-visiting the clues for those three I realised that they didn’t actually have any extra ‘misdirection’.

A devious (but definitely not incompetent) trick by Stock Insert, and a puzzle that I suspect was a booger to edit, given that the Editor’s job is normally to route out any unintended miss-steaks, and to make shore wee solvers start on a level playing feeled!

I have tried to indicate what the ‘mistakes’ are below, but my apologies for any blogger incompetence…

 

Across
Clue No Solution / Entry Clue (definition underlined)

Logic/Parsing
1 LURKING PLACE Troubled man found in Lupercal site of concealment (12)

LUR_ PLACE (anag, i.e. troubled, of LUPERCAL) around KING (chess piece, man)

[misplaced anagram indicator – troubled?]
11 APOLOGIES Justifications when adopting game costume (9)

A_S (when) around (adopting) POLO (game) + GIE (judo or karate costume)

[normal clue!]
12 PSION Perhaps I only partly read a tiny bit, being short-lived (5)

hidden word, i.e. read a tiny bit, in ‘perhaPS I ONly’

[psions, or psi particles are very LONG lived]
13 UNCLING Using relative title, university knew to hold firm in opinion (7)

U (university) + N (new, not knew!) + CLING (hold a firm opinion)

[misspelling of new as knew]
15 TOWED Drew amphibian (5)

homophone – TOWED (drew) can sound like TOAD (amphibian)?

[missing homophone indicator?]
16 UDON Otaku’s ending Japanese noodle boss criminally (4)

U (ending of otakU) + DON (criminal boss)

[misplaced definition – ‘Japanese noodle’ should be at the end – or start?]
17 SIR Lady desired houses (3)

hidden word in, i.e. housed by ‘deSIRed’

[sir = man, not lady]
18 SLOT Everton manager lost badly (4)

anag, i.e. badly, of LOST

[Arne Slot is the Liverpool manager, not Everton]
19 SETTER Fish contains dry pectin perhaps (6)

SE_ER (seir, Indian fish) around (containing) TT (teetotal, dry)

[normal clue!]
21 AO DAI Mao daily stripped, left out Asian dress (5, three words)

(M)AO DAI(L)(Y), stripped of outer letters and removing L – left out

[two words, not three]
23 CLOOT Highland fabric caught around toilet (5)

C_T (court) around LOO (toilet)

[court, not caught]
26 PAVLOV Noble recipient of cake almost (6)

PAVLOV(A), cake, almost

[Nobel, not noble, recipient, Ivan Pavlov]
29 A ONE Adding tenor, appease special person (4, two words)

A(T)ONE (appease) removing T (tenor) to give A ONE, special person

[removing, not adding tenor]
31 LAV Can‘t wash once lacking energy (3)

LAV(E), archaic, to wash, lacking E – energy

[can (toilet), not can’t]
33 IDLE Useless police officer discovered flea (4)

ID (DI, Detective Inspector, policeman, reversed) + (F)LE(A) (dis-covered flea)

[missing reversal indicator?]
34 RIVAL View first couple abandoning newcomer (7)

(AR)RIVAL, newcomer, abandoned by first couple of letters

[vie, not view]
36 AIRTIME Emirati programme’s start is changed (7)

anag, i.e. is changed, of EMIRATI

[misplaced definition – ‘programme’s start’ should be at the end?]
37 SHIVA One Hindu’s worshipping morning period (5)

double defn. – capitalised, SHIVA is one (god) that Hindus worship; and uncapitalised, a SHIVA is a period of mourning in Judaism

[mourning, not morning]
38 PROLEPSIS Anticipation for the French and their letters (9)

PRO (for) + LE (the, French) + PSIS (Greek letters)

[Greek letters, not French!?]
39 INCOMPETENCE Inefficiency stressed in audition following pressure in pay (12)

INCOM_E (pay) around P (pressure), plus TENCE (homophone, i.e. in audition – TENCE can sound like TENSE, or stressed)

[normal clue!]
Down
Clue No Solution / Entry Clue (definition underlined)

Logic/Parsing
1 LAPSUS CALAMI Las Palmas ICU lout in slip of the pen (12, two words)

anag, i.e. out, of LAS PALMAS ICU

[out, not lout]
2 UPSIDE Losing team shows positive aspect (6)

UP (winning) + SIDE (team)

[winning, not losing]
3 ROIL Annoy independent replacing liberal in American list (4)

RO(L)L (list) losing L (liberal) for I (independent) + ROIL (rile, annoy)

[misplaced ‘American’, should be with ‘annoy’ to show US word?]
4 IONISE Charge that is working is marginal (6)

I_E (id est, that is) around ON (working) + IS

[central rather than marginal?]
5 NGUNI Northern Ireland welcomes peace language (5)

N_I (Northern Ireland) around (welcoming) GUN (piece, slang)

[piece, not peace]
6 GIN TRAP Powerful snore? Parting is arranged (7, two words)

anag, i.e. is arranged, of PARTING

[snare, not snore]
7 PECORA Some ruminants eat sparingly with more than one mouth (6)

PEC (homophone, PECK, eat sparingly, sounds like PEC) + ORA (plural of os, mouth)

[missing homophone indicator?]
8 AFIELD Nearby supply failed (6)

anag, i.e. supply (supple-ly) of FAILED

[at a distance, not nearby]
9 CONDO US accommodation, willing to exchange Ohio for Australia (5)

C(A)N DO (willing attitude) swapping A (Australia) for O (Ohio)

[not sure what the incompetence is here?]
10 ERGATIVE CASE I agree TV corrupts, involving a grammatical type with box (12, two words)

ERGATIVE (anag, i.e. corrupts, of I AGREE TV) + CASE (box)

[misplaced definition, grammatical type should be at the end?]
14 INTO Keen on books about moon (4)

I_O (moon of Jupiter) around NT (New Testament, biblical books)

[moon about books, not books about moon]
20 ROLLMOP Herring filled bun dog rejected (7)

ROLL (bun, bread roll) + MOP (pom, pomeranian, dog, rejected)

[filled herring, not herring filled]
22 OVID See short, old Latin poet (4)

O (old) + VID(E) (latin, see, short of a letter)

[wordplay in wrong order, old then see, not see then old?]
24 ONIRIC Pepperoni and rice – no starter – missing sprinkle of dreams (6)

(PEPPER)ONI (missing pepper, or sprinkle) + RIC(E) (no end letter)

[no end, not no starter]
25 THAIRM North air miserable for Iain’s intestine (6)

hidden word in ‘norTH AIR Miserable’

[missing hidden word indicator?]
27 AVOSET Macau rhino turned on determined wading bird (6)

AVO (unit of currency, or rhino/cash, in Macao) + SET (determined)

[superfluous ‘turned’, as ‘avo’ is the right way round?
NB. I saw AVOSET recently and learned it was an alternative spelling of AVOCET]
28 OLD VIC 22 plays about inductance ending for commercial London theatre (6, two words)

O_D VI (anag, i.e. plays, of OVID) around l (inductance, electrical notation) + C (start of Commercial)

[start, not ending, of commercial]
30 ORION Port in Ontario gets five stars (5)

O_N (Ontario) around RIO (port)

[Orion is formed of seven stars, not five]
32 ADELE Australian city adds support for singer (5)

ADEL(AID)E – Australian city, removing AID, or support

[removes, not adds]
35 HISN Male’s local inn; sh – it could be ruined (4)

anag, i.e. it could be ruined, of IN SH

[in, not inn; HIS’N being dialect for his, or a male’s]

4 comments on “Enigmatic Variations No. 1707: Crassword by Stick Insect”

  1. Wow. Super blog MC. Thanks a lot for the entertainment and the enlightenment.

    US accommodation, willing to exchange Ohio for Australia (5)
    Should be ‘Australia for Ohio’?

  4. What an original idea, and how well and how broadly it has been applied throughout these clues. Solving my first few clues (NGUNI, AFIELD, and SIR) put me on the right track, scarcely believable though it was. APOLOGIES came quite early too, and that was evidently the start of the message. I think I managed to find all the ‘opposite’ words, sounds, meanings, etc, that were present in all bar three of the clues. 18a SLOT was a bit brave, I thought: I follow English soccer less than I used to, but fortunately I knew the names of the bosses of the two big Liverpool teams.

    Thanks to Stick Insect for such a clever, original and entertaining masterpiece, and to mc_rapper for the bonus of an entertaining blog.

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