A nicely constructed grid and a reasonably challenging puzzle in REMAINDER from Gaston this week…
The preamble states that:
“This week, a large thematic group are bound for the entry in the central column (two words). In the first 18 across and 18 down clues, the wordplay leads to the answer and an additional letter not to be entered into the grid; in clue order these letters spell out an associated request on behalf of the group, the most celebrated of whom (17 cells) must be highlighted. Six other members appear as unclued entries, and the REMAINDER (6, two words) must be written beneath the grid. Chambers Dictionary 2016 is recommended.”
The group certainly seems to be large – six unclued entries and that long spine down the middle of the grid. What we need is a few crossing letters, so on with the solving…
I made fairly steady progress, although there were a few new/unfamiliar (to me) words, like RHABDOMYOMATA, TYLOPODA and PERISARC – all reasonably gettable from the wordplay and crossers, but needing some confirmatory checks of Chambers.
I don’t have a PDM noted on my working copy, but at some point I had what looked like WHIDD?? and DA?Y, with ?R?WER in the top right quadrant, while the extra letters in across clues seemed to be repeating something like TOM PEARCE…and it didn’t take a huge leap of logi-googling to link to the well-known folk song WIDECOMBE FAIR, down that middle spine.
(The only other large group of people going somewhere I could think of was the multiples of 7 going to St Ives…but St Ives was a bit short for the central column!)
The first verse of Widecombe Fair gives us the extra letters (first line) and the six members:
Tom Pearce, Tom Pearce, lend me your grey mare.
All along, down along, out along lea.
For I want for to go to Widecombe Fair,
With Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney,
Peter Davy, Dan’l Whiddon, Harry Hawke,
Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all,
Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all.
And, after a bit of searching of diagonals and rows/columns, plus eventually getting my LOI – BLEY – at 40A, I found OLD UNCLE TOM COBLEY in the bottom right quadrant, leaving AND ALL to be written below the grid!
A nice treatment of a reasonably well known(?) piece of folklore – most people should at least be familiar with the phrase ‘Old Uncle Tom Cobleigh/Cobley, and all’?
Many thanks to Gaston for a pleasant EV diversion. A pretty impressive feat of construction to stuff Old Uncle Tom down in that corner and fit in all the other thematic material, while still maintaining 180-degree symmetry…(having said that, I have just noticed I have missed a bar between the T of Tom and the L of Cobley, but I don’t have the energy/time to re-do my animated grid!)
Fortunately I don’t know any tune to the song, so I wasn’t left with it rolling around in my head for the next few days!
Hopefully everything is covered below:
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Extra Letter | Solution / Entry | Clue (definition underlined, extra letters in (), unwanted letters Logic/Parsing |
| none. | DAVY | Thematic deduction (4) / Peter Davy |
|
| 5 | T | SWEARS BY | Puts complete confidence in wet, brassy fluid (8, two words) / anag, i.e. fluid, of WE(T) BRASSY |
| 9 | O | NAGAR | No fungus curtailed ancient script (6) / N(O) + AGAR( |
| none. | BREWER | Thematic deduction (6) / Bill Brewer |
|
| 12 | M | TYLOPODA | Dancing, may plod to find llamas, for example (8) / anag, i.e. dancing, of (M)AY PLOD TO |
| 14 | P | GUANO | Dung on a dog’s back? (5) / ON A (P)UG (dog) all backwards gives GU(P)ANO |
| 15 | E | THAE | Those in Glasgow the same in Edinburgh? (4) / TH(E) + AE (Scottish, i.e. in Edinburgh, for ‘the same’) |
| 17 | A | EOKA | Plant tree in river for secret organisation (4) / O(A)K (tree) planted in E_A (river, dialect?) |
| none. | GURNEY | Thematic deduction (6) / Peter Gurney |
|
| 19 | R | ECHE | Augment Elizabethan nursery by dead-heading? (4) / ( |
| none. | WHIDDON | Thematic deduction (7) / Dan’l Whiddon |
|
| 22 | C | PUPIL | Student reviewed last moments of successful putt? (5) / A successful golf putt might run along the green and then at the last moment reach the LIP of the hole and fall in the (C)UP – and LIP(C)UP reviewed, or reversed, gives PU(C)PIL |
| 23 | E | RHABDOMYOMATA | Gaston’s old mother thanks after party – following recovery from tumours? (13) / R(E)HAB (recovery) + DO (party) + MY (Gaston’s) + O (old) + MA (mother) + TA (thanks)! |
| 25 | T | HOSES | 15 (not in Scotland) with special pipes (5) / (T)HOSE (15, ‘those’, not the Scottish ‘thae’) + S (special) |
| 26 | O | A BIT OFF | An aristo pens brief life story? It’s not cricket (7, three words) / A + T OFF (aristocrat) around (penning) BI(O) (biography, life story, briefly) |
| 30 | M | OMEN | Timeless second sign (4) / (M)OMEN(T) – second, without T – time |
| 31 | P | ILEA | Flier’s top parts of intestine (4) / (P)ILEA (plural of pileum, top of a bird’s, or flier’s top parts) – is ‘parts’ doing double duty here? |
| 32 | E | TREBLE | Slippery character and man backed bet (6) / (E)EL (slippery character) + BERT (man) – all backed |
| 34 | A | SOLD | In this way the young man is captivated (4) / SO (in this way) + L(A)D (young man) |
| none. | HAWKE | Thematic deduction (5) / Harry Hawke |
|
| 36 | R | CARUNCLE | 33 that is difficult to see without a cockscomb (8) / CAR (33, auto) + UNCLE(A)(R) (difficult to see, without A) |
| 37 | C | MYELON | Badly clone my spinal cord (6) / anag, i.e. badly, of (C)LONE MY |
| 38 | E | IN TOTO | Completely obsessed by kick (6, two words) / IN TO (obsessed by) + TO(E) (kick) |
| 39 | PERISARC | Fairy’s light that protects jellyfish (8) / PERIS (peri’s or fairy’s) + ARC (light) |
|
| 40 | BLEY | Fish stuff out of apple (4) / B(RAM)LEY (apple, minus RAM – stuff) |
|
| Down | |||
| Clue No | Extra Letter | Solution / Entry | Clue (definition underlined, extra letters in (), unwanted letters Logic/Parsing |
| 1 | L | DOTTED RHYTHM | Boss had heartlessly throttled my syncopated music (12, two words) / anag, i.e. boss, of HD (H |
| 2 | E | ANYHOW | That hurts after African dog jumps up randomly (6) / AN(E)YH (hyena, african dog, jumping up) + OW (that hurts!) |
| 3 | N | YGOE | Ed’s leave cancelled after day’s end (4) / Y (end letter of daY) + GO(N)E (cancelled) |
| 4 | D | CAPO | Throw a better party than the leader? (4) / If you throw a better party than someone you might CAP (better, top) their (D)O (party) |
| none. | WIDECOMBE FAIR | Thematic deduction (9, 4) / Song/poem title |
|
| 6 | M | ARGUE | Debate spread in a familiar way about university (5) / (M)ARG_E (abbreviation, or familiar term for margarine) around U (university) |
| 7 | E | SWAN UP | Arrive aimlessly and start to feed during drink (6, 2 words) / S_UP (frink) around W(E)AN (start to feed, i.e. wean off mother’s milk) |
| 8 | Y | BEN | Live a long time ago near tree (3) / BE (live) + N(Y) (obsolete, or a long time ago, for nigh, or near) |
| 10 | O | ROSED | Bill’s flushed and cross about Home Counties (5) / RO_(O)D (cross) around SE (South East – of England, the ‘home counties’ grouped around London) |
| 11 | U | ROYAL ACADEMY | Two blokes, a charlatan and bird (unknown) form a queue for London highlight (12, two words) / A queue of parts: ROY + AL (two blokes), plus A CAD (a charatan), plus EM(U) (bird), plus Y (unknown quantity, mathematics) |
| 13 | R | LAKH | Joke 200 is a huge number (4) / LA(R)K (joke) + H (200, Medieval Roman numeral) |
| 16 | G | EDIT | Do you understand one daughter is lacking change? (4) / (G)ED( |
| 18 | R | ODDS | Sticks director in to create advantage (4) / (R)OD_S (sticks) with D (director) in |
| 20 | E | SUMO | Playing with mouse could provide sport (4) / anag, i.e. playing with, of MOUS(E) |
| 21 | Y | IBEX | Animal in the same place gives a belch in Perth (4) / IB (ibidem, Latin, in the same place) + (Y)EX (Scottish, i.e. in Perth, for belch, hiccup) |
| 22 | M | POTT | Mrs May perhaps with excessive paper size (4) / P(M) (Prime Minster, currently Theresa May, as I type this!) + OTT (over the top, excessive) |
| 24 | A | HOAR | Greyish-white sea mist surrounds Ohio (4) / H_A(A)R (sea mist) around (surrounding) O (Ohio, US State abbreviation) |
| none. | STEWER | Thematic deduction (6) / Jan Stewer |
|
| 27 | R | INURN | Pot, perhaps, though runnier liquid is drug-free (5) / anag, i.e. liquid, of RUNNI(E)(R) (free of E – Ecstasy, drug) |
| 28 | E | FLOC | Fine old King overturns woolly mass of particles (4) / F (fine) + (E)LOC (cole, as in ‘Old King Cole…’, overturned) |
| 29 | FELLOE | Opposition measure inside wheel-rim (6) / F_OE (opposition, enemy), around ELL (measure of cloth) |
|
| 30 | OLEOS | Repair loose shock absorbers (5) / anag, i.e. repair, of LOOSE |
|
| 33 | AUTO | Ford, perhaps, or pull along, we hear (4) / homophone, i.e. we hear – AUTO (e.g. Ford) sounds like OR + TOW (pull along) |
|
| 34 | SNOB | Bighead partners ex-pupil (4) / SN (South and North, partners in bridge) + OB (Old Boy, ex-pupil) |
|
| 35 | AYE | Accepted the old agreement (3) / A (accepted) + YE (the, old-fashioned) |
|
A most enjoyable puzzle but unfortunately, the spelling of the various characters seems to be different wherever you look and that made it a bit frustrating.
Brewer, which is the usual “standard” reference for such matters, also disagrees with the spellings used in the puzzle.
We used to sing this at school so the tune certainly went round my head. However, I think the clue for 1d is wrong – a dotted rhythm doesn’t mean syncopation.
Chesley @ #1 – I don’t have a copy of Brewers, and can’t seem to get into it online – sorry to hear you found variations in spellings – I guess I hit lucky with Wikipedia (which I accept is not yet a generally accepted setters’ reference work!)
Tony @ #2 – hope you enjoyed having the tune in your head?! The definition of 1D says ‘syncopated music’, rather than ‘syncopation’ – does that make a difference? Splitting hairs, maybe, and I am no musical expert, but from a quick check in Chambers: to ‘syncopate’ means to (temporarily) vary rhythm/go off beat, and ‘dotted rhythm’ indicates alternating longer notes (by half a beat) with shorter notes, which to my mind seems to be close enough to make the clue reasonable – both involve varying the beat of the music?
BTW, an extra piece of information with the published solution is that Widecombe Fair ‘…takes place on the second Tuesday in September…’, which gives the timing of publication of this puzzle more relevance.