Another “constrained” puzzle, where Gemelo has enforced a rule that makes the setting harder for himself without making the solver’s job harder (or easier)…
… or so I thought! The rubric states: Here we go! In this puzzle, one specific letter is omitted from the clues (likewise, it is omitted from these instructions) – but you never know, you might stumble ‘cross it in the grid. The aphetic ‘cross immediately made me suspect that the missing letter is A, and so it proved. There are no As in the clue, though every other letter appears at least once; the instructions (apart from “constrained”) also contain no As, but also no Js, Qs or Xs.
There are indeed As in the solutions, but there’s more to it than that, as they occur only on the main diagonals, thus creating a cross, as promised. Unfortunately I noticed this too late for it to be much help in solving.
Constraint aside, I found this puzzle on the tough side, with a number of clues proving hard to parse to my satisfaction, though I think I got there in the end, with the possible exception of 31. Thanks to Gemelo for the challenge.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | AFFECTIVE | Voice filled with very loud energy of emotion (9) FF (very loud) + E[nergy] in ACTIVE (grammatical voice) |
||||||
| 11 | PALM | Quickly lift the prize (4) Double definition |
||||||
| 12 | NENUPHAR | Lily, runner-up, dropping sport in distress – I’m surprised to go into it (8) HA (I’m surprised!) in anagram of RUNNER-UP less RU (sport) |
||||||
| 13 | SCABIES | Infection, in other words, hidden by ongoing workers? (7) I.E. (in other words) in SCABS (those who continue to work during a strike) |
||||||
| 14 | CHART | Scott’s to do tense plot (5) CHAR (to do, as used by Sir Walter Scott) + T[ense] |
||||||
| 15 | SISAL | Fibre of girl returning to seize independence (5) I in reverse of LASS |
||||||
| 18 | TEHRAN | Muslim city then struggling to host god from Egypt (6) RA (Egyptian sun god) in THEN* |
||||||
| 19 | LAPSUS | Slip round with knowledge (6) LAP (round) + SUS |
||||||
| 20 | BAATHIST | Lingo circling before someone phoned ME reformer (8) A (ante – before) + THIS (as in “who is this?”) in BAT (“the informal speech of a foreign language, lingo”) |
||||||
| 21 | SKOKIAAN | Bushmen winning three points, drinking one Joburg home-brew (8) I in KOKA (three points in judo) in SAN (Bushman). Skokiaan is a South African home-brewed drink |
||||||
| 26 | SERIAL | Episodic Porridge possibly picked up (6) Sounds like “cereal” |
||||||
| 27 | PAUSES | DVD controls providing kicks for some (6) Double definition – pause is a dialect word for “kick” |
||||||
| 30 | PANSY | Silly to vent with difficulty on betel flower (5) PAN (betel) + SILLY less ILL (with difficulty) |
||||||
| 31 | LLANO | Reversing very little short of the whole steppe (5) Reverse of ON[e] (very little, as in a small amount?) + ALL (the whole) |
||||||
| 32 | EBRIATE | Drunk, 29, briefly consumed by current (7) EBR[o] + I (current) + ATE |
||||||
| 33 | LARMIERS | Luxembourg hosts over 80 dripstones (8) L[uxembourg] + R (mediaeval Roman numeral for 80) in ARMIES (hosts) |
||||||
| 34 | G-MAN | Fed executioner (but not Chinese) (4) HANGMAN less HAN |
||||||
| 35 | OENOTHERA | Love cycling off from evening primrose (9) O (love) + NOT HERE (off) “cycled” by one letter, plus A (from, as in Thomas à Kempis; also incorrectly in Thomas à Beckett) |
||||||
| Down | ||||||||
| 2 | FACIES | Likes putting out new expressions on mugs (6) FANCIES less N, with the mugs being faces |
||||||
| 3 | FLASH-FORWARD | Vision of the future from Liechtenstein, so hot with respect to defensive position (12, 2 words) FL (Fürstentum Liechtenstein) + AS H + FOR WARD |
||||||
| 4 | EMBARK | Begin retrospective Gemelo report (6) Reverse of ME (Gemelo) + BARK (report) |
||||||
| 5 | TEEN | Youngster’s grief no longer in evidence (4) Double definition – it’s an archaic word for grief |
||||||
| 6 | INSULA | Old block of buildings put down, not quite the best of its kind (6) INSUL[t] + A (best of its kind) |
||||||
| 7 | EPHA | Volume of Hebrews to copy over, including ending of Ruth (4) [rut]H in reverse of APE |
||||||
| 8 | WHAT’S‑ITS‑NAME | Thingummy with e.g. trilby is tested in Northern Soul (12) W[ith] + HAT (e.g. a trilby) + SIT (be tested in, as in an exam) + N + AME (soul) |
||||||
| 9 | SARGUS | Police officer not finishing one’s fish (6) SARG[e] + US (dialect form of me = one) |
||||||
| 10 | ARTISTES | Greek god receiving income support secured by dry performers (8) IS in TT (teetotal, dry), all in ARES |
||||||
| 16 | LABIAL | Behold! Unevenness shortened line of the lips (6) LA (behold!) + BIA[s] + L[ine] |
||||||
| 17 | CATNAP | More or less blow up rest (6) CA (circa, more or less) + reverse of PANT |
||||||
| 18 | TESSELLA | Two girls in little tile (8) TESS + ELLA |
||||||
| 22 | KEVLAR | Bow’s cut in two, lifted into hem of knicker’s synthetic fibre (6) Reverse of [h]ALVE in K[nicke]R |
||||||
| 23 | ALPEEN | Cudgel’s power restricted by sheltered knight (6) P in ALEE + N |
||||||
| 24 | QUAIGH | Queen covering lid of sunken drinking cup in Holyrood (6) LAIGH (Scots “sunken”) with its “lid” replaced by QU; “in Holyrood” indicating a Scottish word |
||||||
| 25 | BESTAR | Possibly put EU emblem on shoulder when crossing street (6) ST in BEAR |
||||||
| 28 | AN MO | One second in Chinese remedy system (4, 2 words) AN (one) + MO (moment, second) |
||||||
| 29 | EBRO | River bore moved violently (4) BORE* – the Ebro is the longest river lying entirely in Spain, the name being cognate with “Iberia” |
||||||
I guessed that the As would occupy both diagonals early enough for it to be helpful, but I still found the puzzle a little tricky and I ended up hunting in Chambers for the last few answers. I didn’t have a hope of working out SKOKIAAN since I didn’t know that word or KOKA, but I might have worked out NENUPHAR if I had thought of ‘sport’ being RU. I also couldn’t think of the second letter of OENOTHERA and I often have trouble with clues where a short word like ‘off’ indicates a phrase NOT HERE. I managed to guess QUIAGH despite the only part of the clue I understood being ‘queen’ is QU, and even then it might have been Q but I thought R was less likely.
For 31a, Chambers gives ‘very little short of’ as a meaning of ON.
Thanks, Andrew and Gemelo.