Some nifty footwork from Samuel this week…
…with a hot-off-the-press topical sporting theme!
The preamble states that:
“The wordplay in each across clue leads to the answer and an additional letter not to be entered into the grid; in clue order, these letters give an appropriately updated line from a song, the title of which is one of the unclued entries. The other unclued entry completes an apposite phrase (16, four words) which must be highlighted. Across and down entries CLASH in one cell; this must be resolved in favour of the ultimate victor, also to be highlighted. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”
So far so EV, as I started into this on the train on the Monday morning. My solving notes show that I made steady progress at just ‘straight solving’, without worrying too much about the preamble, and within 15 minutes a PDM of sorts – THREE LIONS across the top, COMING HOME across the bottom. What the…where the…a football-themed puzzle? Published on the day of the World Cup final?! It took a while longer for the ‘apposite phrase’ to appear – apparently IT’S NOT coming home…but we’d only known that since the Wednesday!
The extra letters turned out to be ‘FIFTY-TWO YEARS OF HURT’, an update on the original 1996 THREE LIONS’ lyric ‘Thirty Years Of Hurt’…(Too soon Samuel, too soon! The updated number is still one year more than I have been on the planet, so literally a lifetime of ‘hurt’ that came close to being assuaged!)
And the CLASH turned out to be the N/T of BANNER/BANTER and CANNON/CANNOT, between the diagonals containing the FRANCE team (of my French-Chinese sister-in-law) and the CROATIA team (of my Australian-Croatian brother-in-law – which means I was getting it in the neck either way!) As I already knew, France had won 4-2, but any clever-clogs solving this before about 6 pm on the Sunday would have had to wait for the dénouement!
So, what to say? Did Samuel just work really hard from Wednesday to Saturday to get this in – helps being the editor, to keep the slot open! (But my understanding is that puzzles like this can take weeks/months in gestation?) Did he make a lucky guess on the previous weekend, after the quarter finals had been sorted – or maybe he started three other setters at the other three permutations ?! (If so, I hope they were paid for their ultimately wasted efforts?!)
I did spend some time scanning the grid for alternatives – you could get ‘BELGIUM’ in down from the B of BANNER, where ELOHIM ended up, so maybe that was an option – but I can’t see any way of getting ENGLAND to ‘clash’ – and even changing BELOHIM to BELGIUM would require several new crossing words and different clues…and England participation in the final would have needed different extra letters – FIFTY-TWO YEARS WAITED!?
All in all, an impressive feat of grid/puzzle/clue construction in the time available – although that maybe led to some compromises on clueing and the overall difficulty level, with most of the entries being 3-4-5-6 in length and the overall solving time of 45 minutes being on the quicker end of my EV spectrum. My thanks to Samuel, and it would be interesting to learn more about the frantic process of getting this ready in time…
NB. As an aside, this did tickle a few memory buds that I had seen something similar-ish at a previous World Cup, or Euros… A quick search/educated guess around possible dates revealed an eight-year-old Inquisitor – IQ 1134 – by Eddie/the late great Mike Laws. That puzzle incorporated the eight quarter finalists of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, again asking the solver to highlight the eventual winner. A totally different treatment, but an equally impressive feat in the time available. (If this was a homage, then it certainly hit the back of the net!…)
As Mike Laws commented on that blog: “… and SPAIN won the cup. That’s enough football for a while!” If only that was the case nowadays – pre-season ‘friendlies’ and European pre-qualifications are in full swing, the transfer market is as mad as usual, and the Premier League starts a week next Saturday…and we haven’t even started the Test series vs. India…it’s just not cricket!
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Extra Letters | Solution / Entry | Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing |
| 1 | THREE LIONS | Thematic deduction (10) / Thematic deduction |
|
| 8 | F | AROUET | Rake carried by obese writer (6) / (F)A_T (obese) around (carrying) ROUÉ (rake, debauchee) |
| 10 | I | BAA | Heartless battle-cry that’s heard in the farmyard? (3) / BA( |
| 12 | F | BUMF | Marks seen in Polish papers (4) / BU_F(F) (polish) around M (marks) |
| 14 | T | HATTOCK | Chat to criminal with knot on headwear (7) / HATTOC (anag, i.e. criminal, of CHAT TO) + K(T) (knot) |
| 15 | Y | HONOUR | Reward hospital you’re mostly on about (6) / H (hospital) + ONOUR (anag, i.e. about, of (Y)OU’R( |
| 16 | T | EYRIR | Reykjavik’s ready, yet backing rule by Irish (5) / (T)EY (yet, backing) + R (rule) + IR (Irish) |
| 17 | W | ZOEAE | Cross sheep incubating active larvae (5) / ZO (hybrid domestic cattle, or cross) + E(W)E (sheep), around (incubating) A (active) |
| 19 | O | CORNEA | The Crown purchases electronic cover for optic (6) / COR(O)N_A (crown) around (purchasing) E (electronic) |
| 21 | Y | OARAGE | Rowing movement destroyed year ago (6) / anag, i.e. destroyed, of (Y)EAR AGO |
| 24 | E | BANTER / BANNER | Stop support and ultimately hinder one dieting? (6) / BAN (stop) + TE(E) (support, e.g. for golf ball) + R (ultimate letter of hindeR) |
| 27 | A | TAPETI | Hit then polish off one rabbit (6) / TAP (hit) + E(A)T (polish off) + I (one) |
| 29 | R | SCHEME | Plan special food to entertain master (6) / S (special) + CHE_E(R) (food) around (entertaining) M (master) |
| 31 | S | ADELA | Noble girl beginning to eat salad, unhappily (5) / anag, i.e. unhappily, of E (beginning letter of Eat) + (S)ALAD |
| 33 | O | IEUAN | Lacking quantity when divided, equation confused John (5) / anag, i.e. confused, of E(Q)UA(T)I(O)N (missing the divided letters Q and T of qt – quantity) |
| 35 | F | COTEAU | Out, face moving around hilly area (6) / anag, i.e. moving around, of OUT (F)ACE |
| 38 | H | CATHARI | Talk Arabic in greeting members of ancient sect (7) / C(H)AT (talk) + H_I (greeting) around AR (Arabic) |
| 39 | U | EDEL | Darling woman, delegate in Brussels (4) / E_(U) (Brussels, the European Union) around DEL (delegate) |
| 40 | R | HIE | Let turn to the left! (3) / subtractive double defn. HI(R)E = to let; HIE can be a call to a horse to turn left |
| 41 | T | NOTATE | Write ‘fashion’ in review by gallery (6) / NO(T) (ton, fashion, reviewd, or reversed) + TATE (Tate Gallery) |
| 42 | COMING HOME | Thematic deduction (10) / Thematic deduction |
|
| Down | |||
| Clue No | Extra Letters | Solution / Entry | Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing |
| 1 | TRUE | Genuine ceasefire about to be abandoned (4) / TRU(C)E (ceasefire, abandoning C – circa, about) |
|
| 2 | HOMER | Author trained flier (5) / double defn, HOMER was a Greek author; a HOMER is a pigeon (flier) that has been trained to fly homewards |
|
| 3 | RUFFIN | Almost striking without securing bird for Ed (6) / to RUFF is an obsolete falconry term for striking without securing (the prey), so almost RUFFING would be RUFFIN |
|
| 4 | ETHOS | Character shown by Eastern section, though briefly hidden (5) / E (Eastern) + S (section), around (hiding) THO (though, briefly) |
|
| 5 | INTO | Keen about headless horse (4) / (P)INTO (type of horse, missing first letter, or headless) |
|
| 6 | OCTUOR | Particular-sized group defeat company in retreat (6) / OCTUOR = ROUT (defeat) + CO (company), all in retreat |
|
| 7 | SACKAGE | Fire Georgia after amateur act of destruction? (7) / SACK (fire, dismiss) + A (amateur) + GE (Georgia, the country, not the US state!) |
|
| 8 | ABJECT | With sailor taking drug, throw out slave (6) / AB (Able-bodied seaman, sailor) + (E)JECT (throw out, removing E – Ecstasy, drug) |
|
| 9 | CANNON | Standard reported bigshot producer? (6) / homophone, i.e. reported: CANNON (bigshot producer) sounds like CANON (a standard or criterion) |
|
| 11 | AKEE | Tree spirit, not river (4) / (R)AKEE (aniseed-flavoured Turkish spirit, without R – river) |
|
| 13 | THREAT | Danger that envelops engineers (6) / TH_AT around (enveloping) RE (Royal Engineers) |
|
| 18 | EASE | Relax during striptease (4) / (not very!) hidden word in ‘striptEASE’ |
|
| 20 | RYPE | Bird seen in edge of park in Sussex town (4) / RY_E (Sussex town) around P (edge letter of Park) |
|
| 22 | AECIUM | A Greek character, with reserve, lifted something cupshaped (6) / A + ECIUM (MU – Greek character- plus ICE – reserve, all lifted, or reversed) |
|
| 23 | PADRAIC | Irishman upset paramedic? Not me! (7) / anag, i.e. upset, of PAR(ME)DIC without ME |
|
| 25 | NIXERS | New Cub leaders when first son leaves could be foreigners (6) / N (new) + (S)IXERS (leaders of cub groups, losing the first S, or son) |
|
| 26 | GENTLE | Sweet fish bait? (6) / double defn. GENTLE can mean kind, sweet; and a GENTLE can be a soft – gentle? – maggot used as bait in fishing) |
|
| 28 | ELOHIM | God, the Spanish love that man (6) / EL (the, in Spanish) + O (zero, love) + HIM (that man) |
|
| 30 | HERETO | The ore’s destroyed – for this? (6) / anag, i.e. destroyed, of THE ORE |
|
| 31 | ARCH | Marble perhaps revealed in searchlight (4) / hidden word in ‘seARCHlight’ |
|
| 32 | LAING | Note trendy German psychiatrist (5) / LA (note, in sol-fa notation) + IN (trendy) + G (German) |
|
| 34 | UNDAM | Occasionally funny and flipping mad? Open the floodgates! (5) / UN (occasional/alternate letters of ‘fUnNy’) + DAM (mad, flipped) |
|
| 36 | TATI | Rubbish independent French film-maker (4) / TAT (rubbish) + I (Independent) |
|
| 37 | FETE | Fair chance, we hear (4) / homophone, i.e. we hear: FETE (fair) sounds like FATE (chance) |
|
Thanks for the blog. I had the idea for the puzzle once England qualified for the semi-finals, with the thought that a triumphant message in the final grid would be a nice celebration if England went all the way. Sadly it wasn’t to be. I sat down at 10.30pm on the Wednesday evening to come up with a grid and fill it, and sent it to press 13 hours later. It was a busy night!
Chris, your busy night was time well-spent! I enjoyed every step of this and it didn’t matter that I have zero interest in football. The World Cup is such a major encompassing event, it certainly merited a themed puzzle.
Sorry, I completely forget to say thanks for the comprehensive blog. Thanks, mc_rapper!
A great puzzle and I was astonished at how the setter had managed to construct this in so short a time. Bravo to Chris L. I agree with the blogger, not the trickiest EV so I had managed to solve by Sunday lunchtime so just had to wait for the final score to come in, and complete the grid before posting off. I was happy with the final result too. Allez Les Bleus.
Thanks to blogger and editor!