This puzzle almost COMPLETEly defeated me – until a PDM at the 11th hour of the 10th day after publication, just before the submission deadline…
The preamble states that:
“Single-letter clashes occur in some cells; the letter which produces real words should be entered. Finally, letters in two other symmetrically placed cells must be changed to COMPLETE two sets. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”
So, no fancy tricks with extra letters or redundant words, etc., just that seemingly short, sweet and innocent word ‘some‘…which ended up causing me a world of pain!
There are 169 cells, although many – 40+? – are unchecked so ‘some’ could mean a handful or anything up to half of the checked clues?! (After which it would be ‘most’?).
This meant a lot of cold solving, and entering Across solutions in the top right of their cells, Downs in the bottom left, and then circling any that clashed.
Suffice to say, ‘some’ time passed, and ‘some’ more, with a few clashes presenting themselves – TOGUE at 1A clashed with 1D JINGLE and 3D QUAD – with JINGLE becoming TINGLE and TOGUE becoming TOQUE.
And so on. With the clash count of ‘some’ rising into the 10s, and then 20s.
After much head-scratching and liberal use of the Chambers app’s pattern matcher, I managed to get what I thought was a full grid, with 25 clashes. (I had mis-parsed 13D as REVERIE, so there was a clash of I/S in the last but one cell.
Cue a lot of grid-staring to try and find some ‘sets’. There were many pick-ups and put-downs of the puzzle, scanning diagonals and rows/columns but I just couldn’t see anything that constituted a set of things. There are several instances of ‘GO’ scattered around…but no obvious set, or counter-set of e.g. ‘STOP’.
Time passed.
At last some sort of realisation dawned when I decided to write out all the clashes in a methodical list, kept letters above the line, discards below – and I realised that they were two almost-complete alphabets – so the ‘sets’ might be A-Z!
Except that I had I and S appearing twice, due to REVERIE. Once I had corrected that to REVERSE/REVERSI, with no clash with HERSE/VERSE, I then had two sets of 24, one missing C and D, the other missing Y and Z.
A further (but briefer) inspection of the grid, looking for symmetrically placed C/Ds or Y/Zs eventually threw up the D of QUAD changing to Y/QUAY; and the C of CONE changing to Z/ZONE.
And there we have it a complete set of A-Z of kept letters, and a corresponding set of A-Z of discarded ones:
Phew, I found that tough – or maybe made it tougher than it needed to be, by mis-parsing REVERIE/REVERSE and by not being more methodical with the clashes…
My thanks to Stick Insect for a heavy mental workout, and I trust that all is clear below…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution / Entry | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/Parsing |
||
| 1 | TOGUE / TOQUE | Char into guest’s packing (5)
hidden word in, i.e. packed into, ‘inTO GUEsts’ |
||
| 5 | HANGOVER | Threaten survival (8)
double defn. (ignoring punctuation) – to HANG OVER something can be to threaten; and a HANGOVER can be something surviving from the past |
||
| 11 | IN USE | Current home employment (5, two words)
IN (at home) + USE (employment) |
||
| 12 | SEA HARE | Mollusc is dry eating – that’s a surprise (7, two words)
SE_RE (dry) around (eating) A_HA (that’s a surprise) |
||
| 14 | NIAGARA | River forming border again composed by artist (7)
NIAGA (anag, or reversal, i.e. composed, of AGAIN) + RA (Royal Academician, artist) |
||
| 15 | IDEA / IDES | Fancy assistant when cycling (4)
AIDE, assistant, with the first letter cyling to the end = IDEA |
||
| 17 | EL NINO | Weather system seen returning in Amazon inlet (6, two words)
reversed hdden word, i.e. seen returning, in ‘amazON INLEt’ |
||
| 18 | LEONES | African rhino – predator almost turning one to east (6)
L(I)ONES( [the LEONE beng a monetary unit of Sierra Leone; rhino being slang for cash. So African rhino!] |
||
| 19 | UDDER / ADDER | Mammary gland rude novel covers essentially crudely (5)
UD_ER (anag, i.e novel, of RUDE) around (covering) D (essence, or middle letter, of cruDely) |
||
| 21 | BAST / EAST | Fibre bears it occasionally (4)
occasional letters of ‘BeArS iT’ |
||
| 24 | TRIMLY / TRIGLY | Endeavour to keep the setter’s Latin in a good state (6)
TR_Y (endeavour) around (keeping) IM (I’m, the setter is) + L (Latin) |
||
| 26 | JELLY / JELLO | Conserve explosive footwear (5)
triple defn. – JELLY can be a jam/conserve; JELLY can be short form/slang for gelignite, explosive; and a JELLY can be a brighly coloured plastic sandal, so fotwear |
||
| 27 | HERSE / VERSE | Retired Harrow girl’s by seashore on vacation (5)
HER (girl’s) + SE (SeashorE, vacated of its middle letters) |
||
| 28 | APPAIR / AUPAIR | Damage no longer used appendix with gas (6)
APP (appendix) + AIR (gas) |
||
| 31 | KAIL / PAIL | Trump’s money trouble after bank’s closing (4)
K (closing letter of banK) + AIL (trouble) |
||
| 33 | BEGIN | Found existence good moving to the west (5)
BEIN(G) – existence – with G (good) moving to the west, or left, gives BEGIN |
||
| 34 | FOREGO | Give up wanting to have self-confidence (6)
FOR (wanting to have) + EGO (self-confidence) |
||
| 37 | OCREAE | Plant covers manufacturing core, one in Glasgow (6)
OCRE (anag, i.e manufacturing, of CORE) + AE (one, Scottish, so in Glasgow) |
||
| 39 | CURS / CUBS | Pope finally leaving to excommunicate scoundrels (4)
CURS( |
||
| 40 | NEW MOON / NEW-MOWN | Phase before waxing partners married, midday hugs (7, two words)
N_OON (midday) around (hugging) EW (east and west, partners in bridge) + M (married) |
||
| 41 | TSADDIQ / TSADDIK | Jewish leader tense, qadis upset about God (7)
T (tense) + SAD_IQ (anag, i.e. upset, of QADIS) around (deus, Latn, god) |
||
| 42 | FIXED / FINED | US agent locks up nine fast (5)
F_ED (US federal agent) around (locking up) IX (9, Roman numerals) |
||
| 43 | STYRENES | Pen half of rebel section in compounds (8)
STY (pig pen) + RENE( |
||
| 44 | OVERS / OXERS | At least twelve deliveries – too much opening of Shein.com (5)
OVER (too much) + S (opening letter of Shein.com) |
||
| Clue No | Solution / Entry | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/Parsing |
||
| 1 | JINGLE / TINGLE | Judge record lacking singular ditty (6)
J (judge) + ( |
||
| 2 | ON ICE | Old fine suspended (5, two words)
O (old) + N_ICE (fine) |
||
| 3 | QUAD / QUAY | 4WD vehicle in boggy area nearly died (4)
QUA( |
||
| 4 | URGENT | Original man of breeding is earnest (6)
UR (prefix, original/primitive) + GENT (man) |
||
| 5 | TIRES / HIRES | Obligation to receive Republican society bores (5)
TI_E (obligation) around (receiving) R (Republican), plus S (society) |
||
| 6 | A SALTI | Best to trap sailor intermittently (6, two words)
A_I (A1, best) around (trapping) SALT (sailo, old salt) |
||
| 7 | NENNIGAI | In Arabia, ginn encounters repellent fish (8)
reversed hidden word, i.e. in and repellent, in ‘arabIA GINN ENcounters’ |
||
| 8 | GARIAL | Abandoning sloth, Gail pens song for reptile (6)
G_( |
||
| 9 | VADODARA | See Bill mending road by a city in West India (8)
V (vide, Latin, see) + AD (advertisement, bill) + ODAR (anag, i.e. mending, of ROAD) + A |
||
| 10 | REST | Break worn-out piece of armour others support (4)
quadruple defn! – a REST can be a break; also an obsolete, or worn out, piece of armour; the REST are the others, not oneself; and a REST can be a support, e.g. in snooker |
||
| 13 | REVERSE | Defeat Sweden for India in fanciful state (7)
REVER(I)E – fanciful state, losing I (India) for S (Sweden) = REVERSE, defeat |
||
| 16 | VETO | Prohibit animal doctor skinning dog (4)
VET (animal doctor) + ( |
||
| 20 | RUE | Pity grouse, oddly eliminated (3)
even letters, i.e. odd etters eliminated, from gRoUsE |
||
| 22 | AENEOUS | Cooked ribs from Buenos Aires dreadful and rarely shining bronze (7)
subtractive anagram, i.e. dreadful, of ( |
||
| 23 | SLIGO BAY | Supply gas and oil by Irish inlet (8, two words)
anag, i.e. supple-ly, of GAS OIL BY |
||
| 25 | REPLEVIN | Provisionally restoring property of note, conductor’s right to turn to student (8)
RE (note, from sol-fa notation) + P( |
||
| 26 | NAB / JAB | Hilltop arrest is old hat (3)
triple defn – a NAB can be a hilltop; to NAB can be to arrest; and a NAB is obsolete, or old, slang for a hat |
||
| 27 | VROW | Virtual reality that hurts Boer wife (4)
VR (virtual reality) + OW (exclamation, that hurts!) |
||
| 29 | UNRULE / UNRUDE | Peacekeepers standard in anarchy (6)
UN (United Natons, peacekeepers) + RULE (standard) |
||
| 30 | ANANKE | Necessity of pain formerly confining grandma (6)
A_KE (obsolete, or formerly, for ache/pain) around (confining) NAN (grandma) |
||
| 31 | PREFIX / PREMIX | Title snaps to retain reference (6)
P_IX (short for pictures, or pics, snaps) around (retaining) REF (reference) |
||
| 32 | ZOUNDS / LOUNDS | Cross government debts must exclude francs producing historic outcry (6)
ZO (dso, Himalayan cattle/yak hybrid) + ( |
||
| 34 | WEEDS / FEEDS | Little police officer in mourning clothes (5)
WEE (little) + DS (Detective Sergeant, police officer) |
||
| 35 | GOWER | Cricketer‘s threatening stare after getting left out (5)
G( |
||
| 36 | AITS / ACTS | Sex in a second in small islands (4)
A + S (second), around IT (euphemism for S-E-X, a bit of the other, how’s yer father, etc…) |
||
| 38 | CONE / ZONE | Once reconstructed volcanic hill (4)
anag, i.e. reconstructed, of ONCE |
||
This took some chewing over, but what an impressive achievement. If memory serves, I was tripped up by not parsing correctly at 24a and thinking ‘trigly’ was the correct answer (for it also means something like trimly, neatly) thereby missing that clash. Something similar with jello/jelly, cannot quite remember what my issue was there. But on the whole a very fair grid for such an ambitious endgame.
Many thanks to Stick Insect and to mc_rapper67 for the blog.
I admitted defeat with this around 0700 on submission day. I knew what was going on but still required a few more clashes to sort and ran out of time. All very impressive though.
If memory serves, wasn’t there a Listener in the last couple of years or so that also did this?