A fairly straightforward preamble from Poat this week, indicating some misprints and some colouring in to do in the endgame:
In TALKING POINTS, the vertices of a figure appear in one-third of grid entries, clues to which include a misprint in the definition part; the correct letters spell what must be traced and filled with colour appropriately. The relevant letters in vertex cells, reading from the top clockwise, must be translated. Chambers (2016) is recommended.
I started this one on the train back from Newcastle and was surprised how many clues I got without help from Chambers or Mrs B. Unfortunately, after about 40 minutes and about half the grid filled, things came to a bit of a standstill, so I put it to one side until I got home… where I promptly fell asleep!
Finishing things off was a bit tricky, partly because there were some clues which I thought might contain a misprint, but in the end didn’t. There were also some new words for me, including CACAFOGO, POAKA and THERMIT.
As for the misprints themselves, those in the downs seemed to contain simbo which made no sense. When I finally sussed Esperanto, simbolo came to the rescue… not that I have much knowledge of the language. I had already identified A GREEN STAR as the letters which formed the vertices of the required figure in the grid, and a bit of googling revealed it to be the symbol most often associated with Esperanto, and with the help of Google Translate, VERDA STELO replaced A GREEN STAR at the vertices.
A tricky solve from Poat this week and a marvellous piece of gridmanship.
Solving time: best part of 3 hours
Legend:
Definition in clue
X = Corrections to misprints
ABC* = anagram
ABC< = reversal
abCDef = hidden
| ACROSS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Entry | Correct Letter |
Clue and Explanation |
| 1 | CACAFOGO | Hide in tree to confuse old bully (8) CACAO (tree) hiding FOG (to confuse) |
|
| 7 | EXTRA | Cut back, reining in transactions beyond the necessary (5) AXE< (cut, back) containing TR (transactions) |
|
| 11 | BLOOTERED | One taking plunder in sack loaded north of Gretna (9) LOOTER (one plundering) in BED (sack); loaded = drunk |
|
| 13 | AERO | Dealing with high-flers at intervals in salesroom (4) at intervals in sAlEsRoOm |
|
| 14 | DEALINGS becomes DEVLINGS |
E | EALING (film studio) in DS (outskirts of DallaS) |
| 16 | SUN ROOM | Catch boy with old head-cold in tannery? (7, two words) sounds like (catch, ie hear) SON (boy) RHEUM (head-cold) |
|
| 18 | AKEE | Fruit in Jamaica makes tea, removing rinds (4) mAKEs tEa (without rinds, ie outsides) |
|
| 19 | REAST | Go off in far east, dropping first of two notes (5) FAR EAST – FA (first of two notes, the other being RE) |
|
| 21 | AGA KHAN | Leader’s epic tale leaving southern inn (7, two words) SAGA – S (southern) KHAN (inn) |
|
| 22 | POAKA becomes POLKA |
S | Latin lover’s POA[t] (setter, not finished) KA (spirit); avis is Latin for bird |
| 23 | DIRL remains DIRL |
P | Jock’s tingling after LURID< (pale, turned) – U (last of fugU) |
| 25 | ANEW | Adult term linked with Amsterdam, maybe another time (4) A (adult) NEW (as in New Amsterdam) |
|
| 27 | AERIE | Revolutionary republic led by a poetic visionary (5) EIRE< (republic) preceded by A |
|
| 28 | SATE | Malay dish to slake one’s hunger (4) 2 meanings (even though I suspect they’re pronounced differently) |
|
| 30 | SLOT becomes SLOE |
E | Point to stain, erasing black marks left by S (point) + BLOT (stain) – B (black) |
| 31 | EIGHT becomes DIGHT |
R | Set of WEIGHT (power) – W (weak) |
| 34 | SIERRAN becomes SIERRAS |
A | Romeo’s successor gets name for a series of SIERRA (Romeo’s successor in Nato alphabet) + N (name) |
| 35 | GENRE | Kind of politician putting religious education last (5) GREEN (politician) with RE (Religious Education) moved to end |
|
| 36 | AMOK | Live very well as a lunatic (4) AM (live) OK (very well) |
|
| 37 | SEA-FIRE | In the main, brilliance … is a free bubbly (7) (IS A FREE)* |
|
| 39 | NASALITY becomes NATALITY |
N | Heavyweight featured in obscene movie sounding ALI (heavyweight) in NASTY (obscene movie) |
| 41 | EGMA becomes AGMA |
T | Bumpkin’s erroneous GAME*; Costard’s attempt at ‘enigma’ in Love’s Labours Lost |
| 42 | DESOLATER | One laying waste to leader’s offensive (9) (TO LEADERS)* |
|
| 43 | ALEPH | Leading character’s beer, and where to procure it (5) ALE (beer) + PH (Public House, where beer can be bought) |
|
| 44 | SANCTITY | Tiny cats abused good nature of St Bernard? (8) (TINY CATS)* |
|
| DOWN | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Entry | Correct Letter |
Clue and Explanation |
| 1 | CRASHPAD | Protection from reckless parking when abducted by rogue (8) RASH (reckless) P (parking) in CAD (rogue) |
|
| 2 | ALEURON | Protein Germany exported from fragmenting Euroland (7) (EUROLAND – D (Germany))* |
|
| 3 | CORNEA becomes CORNEL |
O | OR (Of Rubble, initially) N (and) E (earth) in CA (California) |
| 4 | ANORAK | Trivia buff’s certainly not gripped by liquor (6) NO (certainly not) in ARAK (liquor) |
|
| 5 | OLEO | Print ode to classical lion (4) O LEO (how to address lion in classical Latin); question mark? |
|
| 6 | GOA becomes GOV |
S | Be regarded as a GO (be regarded as) A |
| 8 | XENAKIS | Warlike princess’s destiny, not having encountered composer (7) XENA (warrior princess, TV programme) + KISMET (destiny) – MET (encountered) |
|
| 9 | RESEAL | Wearing authentic jacket, almost ready for close up again (6) SE[t] (ready, almost) surrounded by REAL (authentic) |
|
| 10 | ADZE | Promos broadcast for woodworking tool (4) sounds like ADS (promos, ie adverts) |
|
| 12 | TIRADE | Harangue one in traffic (6) I (one) in TRADE (traffic) |
|
| 15 | LUGGING becomes LUGEING |
I | GIG* in LUNG (open space) |
| 17 | MATRONS becomes MATROSS |
M | Inhale in the morning when rising, (SNORT (inhale) AM (in the morning))< |
| 20 | TRENAIL becomes TOENAIL |
B | Half annual value in limited inheritance should hold REN[tal] (annual value, half) in TAIL (limitation of inheritance) |
| 24 | GET READY | Remake of this classic hit – it could be Fade to Grey> (8, two words) (OF GET READY)* = FADE TO GREY |
|
| 26 | WORKSOP becomes WORKTOP |
O | Opera, out of print, where folk WORKS (opera) OP (out of print); Rhodesia is a place in Nottinghamshire just west of Worksop |
| 27 | ATRIAL becomes AERIAL |
L | Two different monetary units covering Roman’s AT & RIAL (two monetary units) |
| 29 | THERMIT | Putting loner with last of TNT could be explosive (7) HERMIT (loner) after T (last of tnT) |
|
| 30 | SIMNEL | Cake without alcohol finally includes last of rum (6) SINE (without) L (alcohoL, finally) containing M (last of ruM) |
|
| 32 | INFECT becomes IN FACT |
O | Corrupt with IN FE (iron) CT (court) |
| 33 | GRIGRI | It’s charming in Africa, but doubly depressing without money (6) (GRIM (depressing) – M (money)) times two |
|
| 36 | AIDA | Supergroup’s heart taken by the same material (4) ABBA (supergroup) with heart replaced by ID (the same) |
|
| 38 | ETEN | Retired big guy in flat having time for verse (4) EVEN (flat) with T (timne) replacing V (verse); retired = archaic word |
|
| 40 | ITA | Palm found in part of Britain (3) in brITAin |
|
I really enjoyed this even though I found it harder than the blogger, it seems. Does anybody actually speak Esperanto these days? I assume yes. At least if I ever meet them I now know how to ask them for a green star! Thanks to Post for an excellent puzzle. More from this setter please.
Wow! I would not have done well on this competition. However, I have found Esperanto of a lot of use when travelling on my own, to get my bearings within a country. Esperanto may not be perfect, but I’ve used it successfully in Africa, South America and Europe, and it does the job, serving as a unique common language on my travels in, for example, Armenia and Bulgaria.
Esperanto speakers are highly organised. There is a Jarlibro (Yearbook) published annually giving access to a network of local representatives. These people, scattered all over the world and act as ‘consuls’, providing help and information, and passing on the visitor from another country to his/her contacts.
There is a green star symbol, available in several different formats, but I must confess to failing to wear mine all the time.
Ah, so that’s how the star was supposed to look. 🙂 I filled the grid, and sorted out exactly what we were looking for, at which point I got myself into a muddle. Never mind…
Lovely puzzle, and great blog – although as a colour-blind, or rather colour-ignorant, person, I always dread the need to colour things in…
Interesting to see a certain ‘Dave Hennings’ listed as the winner of this in the paper today – maybe a doppelganger/namesake, but assuming not, how often has a blogger been picked as the winner of the puzzle they have blogged? (he asked, jealously…)
mc, I am only aware of one occasion when an EV blogger has won for a puzzle they have blogged, and that was me back in October 2015 for ‘Misnomer’ by Kcit! I can only assume this week that everyone else had run out of green crayon and just left the star in outline without filling it in. If only I had this much luck with the Inquisitor chocolates.
wow – well done on lightning striking twice then!…
The IQ chocolates (and Prosecco before, and Champagne before that) are ephemeral, whereas a Telegraph fountain pen is forever…and they make useful birthday/Xmas presents once you have a couple for yourself!…
Thanks for the positive feedback. I studied Esperanto as a student, but I suspect I have forgotten most of the vocab. However, I liked the idea of a few hundred solvers unravelling the translation and drawing a green star on their submissions.