By ’Eck, ’e’s back for the first time since NY 2014.
Preamble: The grid consists of two crosswords with a common theme. Clues are presented in non-overlapping pairs; either clue appearing first. Across clues are normal, but one letter of each answer must be removed before entry. To reveal the theme, the letter that is “mid-way” between the two removed letters in each row is to be entered in the middle column (the removed letter from the left side is always earlier alphabetically). In each down clue one answer is thematic and clued without definition.
Off to a flying start with both parts of 1a in an instant (SCUTTLED & LEPORINE), and half of 2d (USURPERS) & half of 3d (REIN); that meant that either S or C are to be removed from SCUTTLED, and one of L, E, P, O from LEPORINE.
I had TOAD (tentatively) as ‘wordplay-only’ for the other half of 3d, but after that, only a smattering of answers in the lower(ish) right(ish) portion of the grid(s) that fitted together, including MARTIN (maybe) at 12d … but to be entered on the left or the right? And then … time passed …
… more time passed. At last, I solved half of 1d: SARDAR. So it had to be C removed from SCUTTLED, and since the left removal is earlier alphabetically than the right removal, S·UTTLED is on the left. Further, the removal (L/E/P/O) has to have the same ‘parity’ as C (in order to produce an ‘average’ letter) so must be E or O, hence the first letter of the middle column is D or I, and the other half of 1d starts with L. (Phew!)
Look harder at the other half of 1d: up pops LUTHER. OK, Martin Luther connects to the Diet of Worms; that has 11 letters and fits with the middle column starting with D – bingo! Time for bed.
Other clues fell, letters to be removed were revealed, and together with the associated letter in the middle column we could figure out the letter to be removed from the answer to the clue in the opposite half. It was hard going, but satisfying – worm-eaters such as HEDGEHOG and SPARROW had to go on the left, because all the other ‘wordplay-only’ entries (those connected with the historical event) were on the right. Eventually, I was all done except for 6a and 13a. (I had been held up for a while by forgetting to note that the 8-letter right-hand half of 2d was 3 words – POPE LEO X.)
I can no longer recall if it was STOOZER at 6a or À RAVIR at 13a that were the last ones in. Whatever. A great return by ’Eck – welcome back.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue | Answer | Wordplay |
| 1 | Harish Liberal pioneer foolishly | LEPORINE | L(iberal) [PIONEER]* |
| ran from small mollusc and died (8;8) | SCUTTLED | S(mall) CUTTLE (mollusc) D(ied) | |
| 6 | Cat returns with energy and pride, say, and takes possession of | MOVES IN | VOM< (vomit, cat) + E(nergy) + SIN (pride, say) |
| deposit assumed by strong investor (7, 2 words;7) | STOOZER | OOZE (deposit) in STR(ong) | |
| 7 | Yank veg from furrow before British officer, | RUTABAGA | RUT (furrow) A (ante, before) B(ritish) AGA (officer) |
| most unsteady, gets upset by site rent (8;8) | TIPSIEST | TIPS (gets upset) + [SITE]* | |
| 8 | James, say, losing right to keep neuter avian | HENNY | HENRY (James, say) − R(ight) + N(euter) |
| robot; swizzed when logic circuit’s inserted wrong way round (5;5) | DROID | DID (swizzed) around OR< (logic circuit) | |
| 10 | With nimble attributes, ferret’s found in clandestine | SPRYLY | PRY (ferret) in SLY (clandestine) |
| seat, for you? (6;6) | SETTEE | ’Eck is the SETTER, so you are the … | |
| 11 | Geld peer at sea to reassert commitment to | REPLEDGE | [GELD PEER]* |
| pragmatism about good king’s supremacy (8;8) | REGALISM | REALISM (pragmatism) around G(ood) | |
| 13 | Abandoned my ex hiding on, perhaps, Calcutta | EXONYM | [MY EX]* around ON |
| Express, welcoming unlimited knees-up in delightful fashion (6;6, 2 words) | À RAVIR | AIR (express) around RAV(e) (knees-up) | |
| 14 | “Criminal, nark and English lady | KAREN | [NARK + E(nglish)]* |
| initially walked into pub” South Hebridean jokes (5;5) | BAWRS | W(alked) in BAR (pub) S(outh) | |
| 15 | Hasten one to split up after enjoying ultimately spiritual position, | GURUSHIP | RUSH (hasten) I (one) in UP after (enjoyin)G |
| minute’s frolicking and rumpy-pumpy for hour maybe? (8;8, 2 words) | TIME UNIT | [MINUTE]* + IT (rumpy-pumpy) | |
| 16 | The king’s evil factions capture Burundi | CRUELLS | CELLS (factions) around RU (Burundi) |
| nation’s drinker in ramshackle hole (7;7) | LESOTHO | SOT (drinker) in [HOLE]* | |
| 17 | With thoughts circling, they sell (on tick) | TALLYMEN | MENTALLY (with thoughts) with letters circling |
| cats catching worn out fish (8;8) | MORWONGS | MOGS (cats) around [WORN]* | |
| Down | |||
| No. | Clue | Answer | Wordplay |
| 1 | C-in-C in Scotland, afraid African prince’s raising, | SARDAR | RAD (afraid, Scot) RAS (African prince) all< |
| not closing, window (6;6) | LUTHER | LUTHER(n) | |
| 2 | Having complaint about old obsolete stake, | POPE LEO X | POX (complaint) around O(ld) PELE (stake, obs) |
| they unfairly assume Shylock’s pocketing coin (8, 3 words;8) | USURPERS | USURERS (Shylock’s) around P (penny, coin) | |
| 3 | Frankfurter’s one to follow Republican and stop | REIN | EIN (one, German) after R(epublican) |
| over in a bit (4;4) | TOAD | O(ver) in TAD (bit) | |
| 4 | Let’s rob hairy | LOBSTER | [LETS ROB]* |
| inhuman character; do you find ’im unpleasant? (7;7) | ISEGRIM | IS ’E GRIM (do you find ’im unpleasant) | |
| 5 | Dead playboy | DRAKE | D(ead) RAKE (playboy) |
| originally encouraged naturist to critically examine appearance (5;5) | ENTRY | E(ncouraged) N(aturist) TRY (critically examine) | |
| 9 | Her grace protects kerb prostitute | HEDGEHOG | HG (her grace) around EDGE (kerb) HO (prostitute) |
| ‘Edelweiss’, being suspect with diamonds lost in a different way (8;8) | ELSEWISE | [EDELWEISS]* − D(iamonds) | |
| 10 | Special projectile | SPARROW | SP(ecial) ARROW (projectile) |
| lance also penetrates shelters to the north (7;7, 2 words) | SAND EEL | AND (also) in LEES< (shelters) | |
| 12 | Winy fruits Georgia tastes | GENIPS | GE (Georgia) NIPS (tastes) |
| spoil loaf of bread (6;6) | MARTIN | MAR (spoil) TIN (loaf of bread) | |
| 13 | Will’s to adjudge upset, tense, | EDICT | CIDE< (adjudge, Shakesp) T(ense) |
| originally-British Russian woman, getting up around noon (5;5) | ANGLO | OLGA< (Russian woman) around N(oon) | |
| 14 | Hoodlum tailed | BULL | BULL(y) (hoodlum) |
| car; blade and body part reported (4;4) | AUTO | homophones: OAR (blade) + TOE (body part) | |
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I agree with HG, a great puzzle.
SCUTTLE and LEPORINE were also good start, and luckily, on my rough, I put them in their ultimately correct grids.
Made fairly swift progress, but was puzzled by the “Only Connect” end-game, where we had to pair e.g. EDICT and SPARROW.
I was further held up by being seduced into “avian robot” as a definition of DRONE, with DONE = swizzed, thus didn’t get LUTHER till after realising what the theme was … and for a long time I thought the theme ended in …WORDS. Only when I linked EDICT, BULL and MARTIN, ands realised that the others were vermivores (though couldn’t confirm that lobsters are !) did the papal penny drop, and I realised that it must be LUTHER, plus the delightfully clued three-word pontiff.
New words gratefully learned … ISEGRIM, STOOZER, CRUELLS.
I found the preponderance of obscure words a little off-putting, but I did enjoy the solving process and admire the construction – all very neat (although, whilst I’d noticed that there were five of each type of thematic word, I’d somehow missed that all those of the same same were on the one side).
Just plunged in, with pencil, and luckily my first guess was right. Rather unscientific.
Lots of ways to go wrong here, including assuming Martin is a bird, the bull is a buck (blade), the rein is a deer (at a time when I hadn’t worked out the wormy theme. But eventually most things sorted out, though some tricky cluing / obscure words meant I couldn’t complete the grid.
A clever, fun theme; thanks to ‘Eck and HolyGhost.
I found this very tricky, but persevered and made steady progress through the week. It was only on Sunday evening though that I managed to crack the centre column having managed to get D..TOFWOR.S and tried googling Diet of Worms – not a phrase with which I was familiar.
I think it was a lucky guess for me in plumping to enter my first answers on the left hand side (REPLEDGE and HEDGEHOG if memory serves). I thought that there was something almost sudoku-like in the way that you could begin to use logic as the grid filled in working out which clues had to go on the left/right and what the missing letter pairs could/couldn’t be.
16a: I found the abbreviation for Burundi to be BI. Where does RU come in?
Thanks to ‘Eck and HolyGhost.
Kippax
RU is the IVR for the Republic of Burundi. .bi is the internet suffix for Burundi.
Kippax @4: Wikipedia suggests that what are now Rwanda and Burundi shared the IVR (International Vehicle Registration) code RU until 1962 when they were the Belgian territory of Ruanda-Urundi; after independence (and separation), Rwanda changed to RWA and Burundi retained RU.
This was the sort of IQ I prefer – all the work is in completing the grid, including the dénouement. I don’t mind a bit of googling to improve my general knowledge and some fairly straightforward wordfinding but when the endplay takes longer than the gridfill, I really cannot be fussed.
Quite a slow start getting a foothold in the grid and some nicely hidden splitting points in the clues. In 8A, I was convinced that avian robot was DRONE, with RO in DONE, but how to account for the extra O? Then in 14D, I had blade and body part as double defs for BACK, except reported means a homophone. I could not believe that John H would have let these two through! Eventually, I parsed both correctly.
Creatures were appearing on both sides, including ISEGRIM, BULL and (house?)MARTIN on the right, but EDICT??? The top right was bothering me, especially 1 & 2D but after the PDM, completion was very quick. I wrote in LUTHER before even attempting to parse it and POPE LEO X was the LOI.
A very satisfying IQ. Thank you, ‘Eck and thank you HG for your usual fine analysis.
Strenuous but ultimately very satisfying – thanks all round! I started this in a convention hotel far from home and Chambers, and didn’t get back to it until days later. My first three specials all seemed to be birds: SPARROW, DRAKE and the deceptive MARTIN. Then other animals began to appear and the mystification deepened. An awful lot of careful letter-averaging followed before the point where the Chortle of PDM alarmed my wife.
Put me down as another one who for some time had a tentative but not quite satisfactory DRONE for what proved to be DROID. Oh dear, and it was a science fiction convention that I was attending …
What does LOI stand for?
Query at #9 – Last one in – final clue solved
Ah, thank you!
Gaufrid & HolyGhost @5&6: Thanks!
So fairly similar observations with repledge and regalism solved straight away… Then lots of pondering before backsolving drake, then Martin and sparrow moving us on to birds… But lobster also had to be right…and so on
Perhaps out of line with other commentators I thought it was hard work to only literally connect answers to a historical event I wasn’t familiar with. Not the best for me I’m afraid. Would rather have a grid fill, a long stare, and then the great revelatory moment of the recent Halloween one.
Nevertheless a welcome variation on the extra letters generating ideas!
Re Trebor @13. Yes, perhaps my comments were too onesided to accurately reflect my view. I do enjoy some post-grid endplay but not when the long stare takes as long as the gridfill itself, so ‘Eck’s puzzle was a refreshing change from recent trends. Like you, I very much enjoyed Harribob’s Halloween puzzle.
Kippax @12 (& @4): so that you can be independent, when, for example, you find out that RU is clued by “Burundi” in the wordplay, try looking up “RU” in Chambers.
A rare DNF for us, as despite a relatively easy Listener giving us more time to spend on this we never fully got to grips with ‘Eck’s clues and had great difficulty identifying several of the removed letters. As Kippax was doing better than us we helped him over the line once he’d got the theme and were pleased today to see that he is one of the winners.
Terrier @ 16 … hope you’ll get a few “thank-you” chocolates !!!
Hard work, but enjoyable. I got most of this including DIET OF WORMS but failed to quite finish. I failed to complete KAREN, A RAVIR, CRUELLS and GENIPS. I had pencilled in POPE LE OX but was so fixated on this being some sort of cow that I failed to spot I had the right answer anyway.
Thanks HG and Eck.