Preamble: Renowned setter Andy Lemon has been kidnapped, but his captors have unwisely allowed him to submit this puzzle disclosing his whereabouts. All but 12 clues are normal. In each of 6 clues a single misprint must be corrected prior to solving; displaced letters spell a word that indicates an aspect of his location; when re-used as indicated by this word, the 6 solutions reveal a phrase (2,6,4) which further qualifies it. This phrase must be written beneath the grid. Wordplay in 6 other clues leads to a word one letter longer than the defined grid entry; discarded letters spell the only possible alternative location, which should be discounted. To confirm the rescue party’s destination, solvers must change five letters in the completed grid to reveal two landmarks that Andy can see from his place of lonely captivity.
After treading the boards for eight consecutive days in the local amateur pantomime society’s Alice in Wonderland, I was hoping for something gentle for my blogging weekend. This crossword was far from gentle. I found it a struggle and, as evidenced below, there are a few that eluded me. And, to be brutally honest, I didn’t really enjoy it at all.
I feel that it was a trifle unfair to expect the majority of average solvers to know that ANDY LEMON is an anagram of DON MANLEY and that DM sets under a number of pseudonyms mostly playing on DON or DONALD – QUIXOTE and DUCK are two that come to mind.
Having to replace misprinted letters is hard enough but retaining the replaced rather than the replacements makes it much more difficult to cross-check one’s work.
And as for the six clues that don’t fit their spaces, I only managed to catch one or two and then only while writing this blog.
The misprints I found spelt SQUAR so I guess I missed an E somewhere (probably 30d). Even then we didn’t have the luxury of finding them in the right order.
Reverse engineering from what I worked out, that the six other clues probably spelt SLOANE but probably not in the right order.
After filling most of the grid and trying to do word search for words that, themselves had misprints, without having any real clue as to what I was looking for, I eventually saw that ROMALCOUNT might be a candidate for changing to ROYAL COURT. A search for ROYAL COURT SQUARE threw up a reference to SLOANE SQUARE.
It’s many years since I was last in Sloane Square and the main thing I remember is there being a bar on the westbound platform of the District Line. I wonder if it’s still there – I doubt it. I don’t really remember much about above ground.
Anyway, back to the puzzle. I figured that the other location was likely to be symmetrical to ROYAL COURT and, with a bit of tweaking, I came up with PETER JONES and it turns out that PETER JONES is a listed building on Sloane Square – who knew?? Well, Triton, obviously.
I’ve spent the last week revisiting the puzzle and I still can’t work out the three word phrase.
All-in-all, as you’ve probably guessed by now, this puzzle will not be making my shortlist for IQ of the year.
BUT thanks anyway to Triton. I realise that none of us can please all of the people all of the time and we should expect some misfires now and then. And, who knows, maybe I’m in a minority (of one), let’s hope so.
| Across | |||
| Clue |
Entry |
Misprint |
Wordplay |
| 1 Like chess chest congress, so taken aback by suggestion of cancellation (6) |
CISTIC | S | IT (congress) + SIC (so) rev: taken back + C[ancellation] (suggestion of) |
| 7 Put one’s Chambers back on bookcase (6) |
IMPOSE | I‘M (I am: one’s) + POS (chambers) + [bookcas]E (back on) | |
| 12 Boss careful to conceal evidence of debts (4) |
STUD | *really not sure* *not even sure that STUD is right* |
|
| 13 Sweetheart once again taken in by a term of endearment (6) |
AMORET | A + [endearmen]T (term of) containing MORE (once again) | |
| 14 Approach choking mass largely of cloudy appearance (7) |
NEBULAR | NEAR (approach) containing BUL[k] (mass; largely) | |
| 16 Love my curvy figure? (4) | OGEE | O (love) + GEE (my!) | |
| 17 One coming from nose left in hanky (5) |
ROMAL | [a]ROMA (nose) minus A (one) + Left | |
| 18 Consider lying down after skipping tea (5) |
COUNT | *really not sure* | |
| 19 Deluded about artist, not one inspired by Constable (8) |
PARANOIC | PC (constable) containing About + RA (artist) + NO[t] + I (one) | |
| 20 What keeps turning rhubarb dry? (5) |
EPARCH | EH (what) containing CRAP (rhubarb; rev: turning) *the only one of these kind of clues I managed* |
|
| 21 Boozers where one local goes to turn out nuns (4) |
INNS | *not sure of the wordplay here* *maybe leads to an extra U* |
|
| 23 Crude broadcaster about to make a lasting impression (7) |
SKETCHY | SKY (broadcaster) containing ETCH (make a lasting impression) | |
| 26 Requirement for hearing to weigh up incomplete answer (5) |
SCALA | SCAL[e] (weigh up; incomplete) + Answer | |
| 29 Wide cracks in river channel (7) | TIDEWAY | TAY (river) containing WIDE (anag: cracks) | |
| 31 Reliable tips for underwear benefit nurses (4) |
SURE | U[nderwea]R (tips for) inside SE *I can’t see how SE is benefit* |
|
| 32 Dyes all sections, including zip (5) |
ANILS | AS (all sections) containing NIL (zip) | |
| 34 Transcribe strains note for note (8) |
REMINDER | RENDER (transcribe) containing MIND (note) | |
| 37 Decline I speak out to prevent (5) |
DETER | *can’t see how this one works* | |
| 38 Likes to imagine what’s seen inside sex shop being blown up (5) |
HOPES | [s]E[x] (inside) + HOPE anag: blown up | |
| 39 Person abandoning loose shoes close to grass verges (4) |
SLIPS | SLIP[pers] (abandoning PERSon) + [gras]S (close to) | |
| 40 Issues very large digests EU got translated (7) |
OUTGOES | OS (very large) containing EU GOT (anag: translated) | |
| 41 Waving sex rat bye bye? (6) (more than one BYE) |
EXTRAS | SEX RAT (anag: waving) | |
| 42 Travel on vacation wearing lace hat (4) |
TILE | *I can see T[rave]L but not much else* | |
| 43 Determine position of plaque plague without first handing over money for one (6) |
ORIENT | Q | [t]OR[m]ENT (minus first letter) Money becomes I (one) |
| 44 Old-fashioned gum gam son collected but not daughter (6) |
SCULLE | A | Son + CULLE[d] (collected’ minus Daughter) |
| Down | |||
| 2 Cooked rat Ben with no end of bicarb to stop it repeating (7) |
ITERANT | RAT [b]EN (minus end of [bicar]B) anag: cooked containing IT | |
| 3 Returning most of stout young hooligan got at (8) |
SUBORNED | ROBUS[t] (stout; most of; rev: returning) + NED (young hooligan) | |
| 4 One speaks nastily about ditching Queen, Prince of Wales and May, perhaps (7) |
ISLANDS | I (one) + SLAND[er]S (talks nastily about; minus ER (Queen)) | |
| 5 Source of duff cocaine, over a pound (4) |
COAL | Cocaine + Over + A + L (pound) | |
| 6 Stuffed Arabian colt splits whenever mounted (5) |
FARCI | IF (whenever; rev: mounted) containing ARabian Colt | |
| 8 Flood essentially dispersed with pump, leading to this? (5) |
MOP-UP | [fl]O[od] (essentially) + PUMP (anag: dispersed) | |
| 9 Tackling a tango, likely to turn sole of foot inwards (7) |
PRONATE | PRONE (likely) containing A Tango | |
| 10 Primary indication of superannuated fish? (6) |
STENCH | &lit S[uperannuated] (indication of) + TENCH (fish) |
|
| 11 ‘Year’ and ‘here’ are misguided, ‘year’ and ‘meare’ are discounted, ‘year’ and ‘pear’ are the answer (8) |
EYE-RHYME | (personal opinion) This is one of the clumsiest and least satisfying clues I’ve ever seen YEAR and PEAR look like they should rhyme but don’t – ’nuff said |
|
| 12 Despicable person finally gets leg over (4) |
SNIP | [get]S (finally) + PIN (leg; rev: over) | |
| 15 Packer Pucker weed in cornfield (6) | COCKLE | U | (double def) |
| 21 I abused gin a lot, obtaining relief? Quite the reverse! (8) (relief stands out, intaglio is etched into) |
INTAGLIO | I + GIN A LOT (anag: abused) | |
| 22 Onset of skin-shedding concerns rattler rattled (6) |
SCARES | R | S[kin-shedding] (onset of) + CARES (concerns) |
| 24 It’s well-produced filth – regularly erotic, ultimately banal (8, 2 words) |
CRUDE OIL | CRUD (filth) + E[r]O[t]I[c] (regularly) + [bana]L (ultimately) | |
| 25 Sky-blue duvet selected after withdrawing blankets (7) |
CELESTE | duvET SELECted (hidden: blankets; rev: withdrawing) | |
| 27 Without life insurance, initially active bishop quickly passing up sandwiches (7) |
ABIOTIC | Active Bishop + CITO (quickly; rev: passing up) containing I[nsurance] (initially) | |
| 28 Before release, hawk seen from old hide on fringes of reserve (7) |
PRESELL | *I can’t see how this one works* SELL (hawk) R[eserv]E (fringes of) but the rest escapes me |
|
| 30 Section of rock press concerned with eight vices (6) |
INLIER | E | I guess that the E comes from here but I can’t really see how the wordplay works |
| 33 Rigid pole dropping from back gate (5) |
STERN | *and another one* | |
| 35 Irregularly notched English flower (5) |
EROSE | English + ROSE (flower) | |
| 36 Dodge about to avoid boozy party (4) |
RUSE | *I’m sure that I did justify this one but I can’t see it now* | |
| 38 No airline’s head habitually spends time in cabins (4) |
HUNTS | H[a]UNTS (habitually spends time in) minus A[irline] (head) | |
12ac is STUDIOUS minus the IOUs; 37 DETERIORATE minus “I orate”; 33dn Postern is the back gate.
18a cou(cha)nt
30d press = lie. Concerned with Right vices in+r
36d I struggled also. Maybe carouse is involved somehow.
I’ll comment more when I can get my hands on my copy but I did find this a toughie.
I thought I hadn’t particularly enjoyed this, but looks like I was comparatively delighted by it. I certainly have more mixed feelings and really quite liked some aspects of the puzzle and a few really nice clues (I had a positive note on 13A and 41A brought a smile). Some others I wasn’t so happy with – especially 15D – a changed word itself clued by two obscure definitions, and the theme of London geography leaves me almost as cold as horse racing, especially when we are expected to know about the location of shops. I think I worked out everything to my satisfaction apart from 33D and possibly 21A.
The two words to be found from the adjustments – EUSTON and SQUARE – are both in the correct order, which helped in a couple of places.
For 21A I think it may be IN = where with NunS minus UN (local one)
31A gives the U from USE = benefit
37A DETER-I-orate
42A gives an extra T from TIE (lace) around TL
I quite liked 11D!
28D – definition is before release, hawk and wordplay PELL around RES
Ah, just seen that Frank @1 has explained 33D – better than my definitely wrong ‘RENTS = revenue = GATE’ reversed with the pole dropped!
36D is caROUSE minus the CA = about
Still a lot to do at this point. Arranging the 6 words in a square in various order eventually I found the hidden phrase ‘on circle line’. Zero knowledge of this, but a google showed the stations included two squares, of which Euston was to be discounted.
Some enjoyable challenges, with lots of moments of satisfaction, though some frustrations too – mainly from the theme for me but I suspect others will be more familiar and less put of by this than I was. So thanks to Triton and of course to kenmac for persevering with the blog.
The other six letters don’t spell SLOANE, they spell EUSTON, the only other square ON CIRCLE LINE – the three word phrase
E in 20a
U in 31a
S in 39a
T in 42a
O in 36d
N in 38d
The phrase is found in cols 2 and 5:
COCKLE
INLIER
SCULLE
CISTIC
ORIENT
SCARES
I liked many of the clues in this puzzle, but disliked other aspects – the main one being Don Manley (not in person, just his ‘involvement’ in this).
My take on 11 D…
‘Year’ and ‘here’ are misguided – leads to Y and Here
‘Year’ and ‘meare’ are discounted’ – leads to Y and Me (‘are’ dropped, discounted)
Anagram Y, here,Y, Me – Eye-rhyme.
Am I the only one who spent quite a while trying to find Andy Lemon in the grid? I thought that the wording in the preamble of his “lonely place of captivity” must have some significance, and it seems reasonable that we should be able to see him or some indication where he’s being held (another building in Sloane Square?) if we can see both landmarks. I wondered if OSCAR in column F was some sort of cryptic representation: Oscar = O = Duck = Don Manley = Andy Lemon. Any takers? Thought not. In which case knowledge of the real setter wasn’t necessary and some of the “story” was superfluous.
I guessed ON CIRCLE LINE from the two squares and confirmed it by rearranging the six words until I found it, which I guess is the opposite of what was intended. Just as well Wiki gives the two landmarks as I’d never heard of the shop.
I did enjoy the puzzle for the challenge it presented (the clues were excellent) but was a little disappointed that there were (for me) unanswered questions at the end. Or perhaps we’re missing something? Always possible.
PS Is this the first piece of narrative to start with the word “renowned” since the Da Vinci Code?
Not the most enjoyable IQ but we eventually filled the grid. We were glad that we finally decided to ‘cheat’ by searching for help on-line. It was rather strange that you weren’t expected to work out the setter’s name. We were left wondering – Why Don Manley?
We were not sure that Peter Jones was a ‘landmark’ but agree that it is a listed building on Sloane Square.
Thanks kenmac for the blog and to Triton for for the challenge – we still appreciate the effort required!
Andy Lemon is Don Manley, who would have known? Not me, certainly. I was just pleased to get a grid fill, and spot the phrase / location and alter accordingly. I spotted quickly that as the misprinted answers were all 6 long they would make a SQUARE, but it took a whole twenty-four hours to work out that they’d also need to be sorted to make the phrase.
Pretty tough all in all, and quite entertaining I thought. Somewhat bemused by the negative comments.
I’m going to claim this as a completion even though I failed at the last step of identifying the landmarks. How on earth are mere provincials expected to be familiar with landmarks visible from Sloane Square? I could only find the Venus Fountain and the War Memorial in Wikipedia although I now see it does also include the theatre and shop as cruciverbophile@6 points out. In the end I managed to complete the grid and parse all the clues except 21a. OPatrick@3’s suggestion may be what is intended but I still can’t really see how it works. I wasn’t happy with 28d either which seems to require pluralising RE to get RES.
SQUARE and EUSTON eventually appeared during the solve and happily I suspected, and soon confirmed, that Euston Square was a station on the Circle Line and that Sloane Square was the only other one. This meant that the phrase had to be “On Circle Line”. I could see the six solutions had all the right ingredients but just couldn’t find the arrangement which gave the phrase, probably because it didn’t use contiguous rows or columns. Well done to Louise@4 and everyone else who managed to find it.
In the end I was disappointed with this crossword, particularly because Triton’s Blank Verse IQ No 1489 was my favourite in 2017. Thanks to Kenmac and others above for confirming some of the trickier parsings and to Triton for the challenge.
I was a co-solver on this and I said could that be EUROPE for one of words and Louise in Melbourne said-“looks like EUSTON” and was seeing there is SQUARE.fpr the other word.
Then I saw ROYAL COURT and she kicked the goals after that.Good fun-did Don have anything to do with it? Two squares on ON CIRCLE LINE
Thanks Kenmac and Triton-and Louise aka catflat.
I couldn’t make complete sense of the preamble at first, but I took the plunge anyway (taking ‘single misprint’ to mean ‘misprinted letter’) and managed to solve 28 of the 47 clues. With the crossers I had I might have solved half a dozen more, given more time, but there were already too many that I couldn’t parse fully, and from the special clues I had only three of the 12 displaced/discarded letters that I was certain of.
With little prospect of obtaining enough of the 12 letters to reveal anything meaningful, and with the theme such a long way off, I had to call it a day. As it turned out, I didn’t know enough or understand enough of the theme anyway.
Up to now I have always enjoyed the sort of clue manipulation that was demanded here, but for a reason I can’t explain I couldn’t fully resolve some of the special clues – or even some of the normal ones. The only other puzzle by Triton that I have encountered (no. 1546) was also a DNF – in fact a DNS because I couldn’t make sense of the preamble, and in that one I knew even less about the theme!
Perhaps this setter is not for me. I can now see what I missed, and I’m glad this was, for some, an enjoyable puzzle. Thanks to kenmac for the blog.
I “finished” this one. i.e. I completed the grid, found the word-square (which also has words in all the other columns – see Louise #4) and the phrase “on Circle Line”. I found the E of squarE at 30D, but never managed to parse the clue so thanks to Phil R at #2, though I’m still not utterly convinced – vice = in, but vices?
I also failed to find the T of EUSTON and couldn’t parse 42A, so thanks to OPatrick #3 for that.
I found a simple circle line map and spotted the two squares, was able to eliminate Euston, then found Peter Jones (I live in south London, so pass through Sloane Square quite often on the way to the Cadogan Hall).
I agonised over the other “landmark”, thinking it might be the AROMA coffee shop on the King’s Road before finding the Royal Court. I thought the O below the L of Royal court must indicate Duck (DON Manley), but now think it is actually OSCAR – same meaning.
I had an extra T in 19A, which is PC (constable) round A(bout) + RA (artist) + NO (not – I thought T was extra, but it’s OK as a definition) + I (one)
So glad this was your headache, not mine Kenmac!!
General comment – over-complicated end-game and some dubious clues!
I’m always ready to forgive a lot of heavy work with tough clues, if only I can finish the thing. Arranging the misprint-clue answers into a revelatory square seemed the hardest bit. After all, there were factorial 6 (720) possible permutations. My hopeful guess was that real words would appear in columns not forming part of the phrase, and after flirting with the first-seen anagram KIRTLE in column 4, I found that KILTER made it work.
Thanks to Triton and Kenmac — with all sympathy to the latter for having to blog this one.
Andy Lemon remained baffling until explained above (never heard of Don Manley), though I spent a little time trying to anagram him into some word meaning aquatic or sea-related plus MAN, on the optimistic assumption that the captive might be Triton himself.
I’ll start on a positive note: for me, this was one of the best preambles I have seen and left me excited to get stuck in and attempt to rescue Andy. With some teamworking with Terrier, I managed to complete the grid (without fully understanding some of the clues) and arranged the 6 words into a square. From there, however, things ground to a halt. Despite trying various configurations, staring at diagonals within the square, or the circumference of a 4×4 square contained within the 6×6… I failed to find the key phrase. Looking for potential landmarks in the grid (aware that some letter changing was required) also brought no joy. Like others, I did some online cheating to resolve things but was left feeling underwhelmed with the resolution.
Thanks to Triton for the puzzle, particularly the intriguing concept.
Parsings where they differ significantly from kenmac’s:
12ac: STUDIOUS (‘careful’) concealing IOUS (‘evidence of debts’) = STUD (‘Boss’)
13ac: MORE (‘again’) in (A (endearmen)T) = AMORET (‘Sweetheart once’)
18ac: COUCHANT (‘lying down’) after skipping CHA (‘tea’) = COUNT (‘Consider’)
21ac: UN (‘one local’) goes IN NS to turn out NUNS
31ac: USE (‘benefit’) containing U(nderwea)R = [U]SURE (‘Reliable’)
37ac: DETERIORATE (‘Decline’) missing (I ORATE) (‘I speak’) = DETER (‘to prevent’)
39ac: PERS (‘Person’) abandoning SLIPPERS (‘loose shoes’) + (gras)S = [S]LIPS (‘verges’)
42ac: T(rave)L (‘Travel on vacation’) wearing TIE (‘lace’) = TI[T]LE (‘hat’)
11dn: (Y + HERE)* + Y + (MEARE – ARE) = EYE-RHYME
28dn: PELL (‘old [word for] hide’) on fringes of RES (‘reserve’) = PRESELL (‘Before release, hawk’)
30dn: (IN R) (‘concerned with right’) grips (‘vices’) LIE (‘press’) = INLIER (‘Section of rock’)
33dn: PO (‘pole’) dropping from POSTERN (‘back gate’) = STERN (‘Rigid’)
36dn: CA (‘about’) to avoid CAROUSE (‘boozy party’) = R[O]USE (‘Dodge’)
The two sets of displaced/discarded letters in clue order spell out:
SQUARE (Iac CHESS/CHEST; 43ac PLAQUE/PLAGUE; 44ac GUM/GAM; 15dn PACKER/PUCKER; 22dn RATTLER/RATTLES; 30dn EIGHT/RIGHT)
EUSTON (20ac [E}PARCH; 31ac [U]SURE; 39ac [S]LIPS; 42ac TI[T]LE; 36dn R[O]USE; 38dn HU[N]TS)
Full set of parsings:
Across: 1 (IT SIC)< + C(ancellation); ‘chest’, displaced S, 7 I’M POS (bookcas)E, 12 STUDIOUS – IOUS, 13 MORE in (A (endearmen)T), 14 NEAR around BUL(k), 16 O GEE!, 17 (AROMA L) – A, 18 COUCHANT – CHA, 19 (A RA NO I) in PC, 20 EH around CRAP<; [E]PARCH, 21 UN goes ‘IN NS’, 23 SKY around ETCH, 26 SCAL(e) + A, 29 WIDE* in TAY, 31 USE around U(nderwea)R; [U]SURE, 32 AS around NIL, 34 RENDER around MI; ‘strain’ vt = to embrace, grip tightly, 37 DETERIORATE – (I ORATE), 38 ((s)E(x) SHOP)*, 39 (SLIPPERS – PERS) + (gras)S; [S]LIPS, 40 OS around (EU GOT)*, 41 (SEX RAT)*, 42 T(rave)L in TIE; TI[T]LE, 43 (t)ORMENT with I for M; ‘plague’, displaced Q, 44 S + (CULLED – D); ‘gam’, displaced U.
Down: 2 ((RAT BEN) – (bicar)B) in IT, 3 ROBUS(t)< + NED, 4 I + (SLANDERS – ER), 5 C O A L; duff = coal dust, 6 (AR C) in IF<, 8 ((fl)O(od) PUMP)*, &lit, 9 PRONE around (A T), 10 S(uperannuated) TENCH, &lit, 11 (Y + HERE)* + Y + (MEARE – ARE), 12 S + PIN<, 15 Two defs; ‘pucker’, displaced A, 21 I + (GIN A LOT)*, 22 S(kin-shedding) CARES; ‘rattles’, displaced R, 24 CRUD + E(r)O(t)I(c) + (bana)L, 25 ((duv)ET SELEC(ted))<, 27 I(nsurance) in (A B + CITO<), 28 PELL around RES, 30 (IN R) around LIE; ‘right’, displaced E, 33 POSTERN – PO, 35 E ROSE, 36 CAROUSE – CA; R[O]USE, 38 HAUNTS – A(irline); HU[N]TS.
PS There was never any intention (or instruction) that solvers should look in the grid itself to find Andy, let alone Don Manley – Andy Lemon is just…Andy Lemon. He is still missing, but being well cared for by his captors.
PPS Sorry that most of you didn’t enjoy the puzzle!
Maybe I’m a lone dissenting voice here, but I found this puzzle wholly acceptable for an Inquisitor – quite hard, to be sure, but a good feeling of satisfaction when I’d finished (including resolving all those tricky wordplays). I think it’s clues such as those for STUD(IOUS), COU(CHA)NT, DETER(I ORATE) which increase the difficulty – once you have the entry, reverse engineering the wordplay can be a struggle.
I guessed EUSTON early on but got hooked on the possibility that ST JAMES’S PARK could be the 2, 6, 4 phrase. With a completed grid, I spotted ROMAL COUNT and realised that the other SQUARE was SLOANE (the only other Sq on the Circle Line), with the other landmark symmetrically placed.
Having tried various permutations of CISTIC, INLIER, etc I finally found the phrase – and then discovered that Triton had been kind to us (but I had been to dim to spot it) and ensured that all the other 4 columns were real words. So, thanks to him and also commiseration to Ken for blogging a puzzle he didn’t really enjoy.
Not a fan of this puzzle at all, particularly the preamble, which for me was far too ambiguous. Least said soonest mended.
Would like to reassure Triton that I for one very much enjoyed this puzzle. I suppose I was threefold lucky: I never spotted the Don Manley anagram so it didn’t worry me, even if the name seemed a bit arbitrary; I worked out it must be “On Circle Line” having found Square and Euston, though I couldn’t find that phrase in the six by six square; and I am a Londoner – I can see that would help. A very clever and rewarding crossword imho.
I’m relieved to read this blog as I can’t recall an Inquisitor where I succeeded in filling the grid, and yet had so many ??? after the clues. Thanks to all, including Triton, who have shed light. I even failed to get to ‘square’, having taken the ‘y’ of May, assuming the island to be Man. But I’m glad I gave up, as trying to arrange the six answers would have sent me up the wall. Shame – as I really do know Sloane Square. And I fear the bar on the westbound platform of the District Line has gone the way of all drinking on the tube…
Still, I liked the preamble, and the clue to 41A.
@19a Neil Hunter Yes! I thought 41a was excellent too.
A disappointment. Didn’t enjoy the puzzle and gave up after a few sittings. I’m glad that I did – the endgame wasn’t worth the effort.
Now that I’ve had time to digest the full solution, not to mention the gamut of reactions in the comments, I must say that the idea of 11d (EYE-RHYME) was brilliant, the clue as a whole giving us both a literal and a cryptic reading. That was in my list of unclear clues, but not now.
I failed to get EYE-RHYME, having only the final E to help me, but I might have had a better chance if the hyphenation was indicated. But I accept the convention that hyphenations are not indicated, and they will go on catching me out from time to time! I also think that if the clue had ended with ‘an answer’ instead of ‘the answer’ it would have been a valid definition-by-example. Brilliant nevertheless.
Neil @19, I also had a spurious Y from May -> Man (actually, I think it was an even more spurious N, as I had temporarily forgotten it was the replaced letters I wanted), and I would say that one of the pleasures of these crosswords is learning about new words and places, except that I’m 90% sure that I’ve made exactly the same mistake and ‘learnt’ about the Isle of May before.
Thank yo to Triton for the clarifications – it took me several readings for your parsing of 21A to sink in, but now it has I can see that it’s another inventive clue to admire.
Filled the grid but didn’t finish. Having seen that I should be searching for a building named Peter Jones I’m glad I didn’t spend any more time on it than I did. I would never have guessed that.