A welcome sixth puzzle from Awinger. Kipling and Macbeth were last up from him – what next?
What next proved to be another literary work, An Inspector Calls by J B Priestley (a “clerical work” …), and for English teachers like both halves of DASH the preamble’s indication of a play with a 16-letter 3-word title featuring five characters “treating” a sixth with a seventh turning up as a result was a quick win before any clues were solved. So in due course it was no surprise to find PRIEST and LEA as the first two extra words in the clues and AWFUL HOLLOW RUEFUL PAST CAN CLOSE IN as the anagram &lit indication of the title and plot.
A grim plot it is too for all Priestley’s wit and drawing-room setting. The characters and their awful treatments of EVA SMITH aka DAISY RENTON who became SUICIDAL as a result were ARTHUR (who SACKED her), SYBIL (who offered NO AID), SHEILA (who ENVIED her), ERIC (who was a LECH and raped her), and GERALD (who DUMPED her). The supposed Police Inspector who called on them was GOOLE (GHOUL in the grid and perhaps in reality) was no policeman, but thankfully the real police show up at the end and the villains face their fate. The text has been a school exam favourite despite its grisly subject matter, and of course a stage success.
Once the clues are solved and the messages deciphered the grid and final entry look like this:
The clues had their tricky moments so this was no write-in though, and extracting the right extra word-play letters from the most of the clues to spell out the sins was tricky even when we knew what we were looking for. (Should ERIC really have been made to face up to his RAPE rather than simply being a LECH?) 23a was a late entry because its “volcano” was ARENAL which neither we nor Mrs Bradford had heard of, and the final entry for 34d ORLA was a Welsh girl’s name also new to us. 4d “Stingy nurse hoards posh material (6)” needed careful parsing to find U in H[A]RD EN giving HURDEN which then changed to HERDEN, both spellings for the same rough cloth. 32a “Henry, dive in! (3)” for HIP was fun, and there many other nice touches, with a novel clue for PUTINS at 7d “Ways to restart game of Russian leader”. We were heartened too to be urged at 30a to “Stop rueful bishop’s mischief” (3) [HOB] and “bishop” there is just enough to keep Awinger in Oeonophiles’ Club, with our thanks for the puzzle and best wishes for the next.
Remember as always that for the Listener series there is a full parsing of all the clues at https://www.listenercrossword.com/List_Puzzles.html