Hi everybody. Thanks to Vismut for a puzzle which I found very tough, but which revealed at the end the story of a remarkable lady, one well worth reading about.
The preamble reads:
14 across clues have fallen to the down set; 14 down clues have jumped to the across set. Fallers contain an extra letter in the definition; jumpers have a misprint in their wordplay. When the clues are correctly ordered extra letters spell out a LADY; choosing either a misprint or its correction identifies a country; remaining corrections/misprints name an event. Solvers must change the appropriate entry to the name of the lady’s partner and highlight 10 cells to show the largest obstacle to their success. Numbers in brackets give entry length and are in normal clue order. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.
Sounds like fun! A worrying number of amended clues, with no idea where to put them, but as usual nothing for it but to crack on and try to solve some clues. A few answers fell early but then I hit a very long and very worrying sticky patch. Many clues had to be solved without knowing either checking letters or entry length before the “fallers” and “jumpers” could start to find their stable positions.
The horsey feel was apparent from very early on – indeed, I think HORSE was my first answer – but some cheeky early internet searching revealed nothing. Most of the letters had to be identified and put in original clue order before they yielded the required names. The deleted letters from the definition of the fallers, and the deleted/amended letters from the wordplay in the jumpers give:
LATA BRANDISOVA
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
GRAND PARDUBICE
This reveals the story of Lata Brandisova of Czechoslovakia, who won the Grand Pardubice steeplechase in 1937 with the HORSE NORMA, which is the entry changed in the grid. The grid also contains the most dangerous of jumps: the TAXIS DITCH. I can’t do justice to her in a summary, so will instead link to the article in the Telegraph which may well have inspired this puzzle:
The woman who defied the Nazis to win the toughest horse race in history
| Given Clue No |
Actual Clue No |
ANSWER | Clue with definition underlined | ||
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and letters appearing in the ANSWER capitalised and emboldened | |||||
| Across | |||||
| 1a | 7d | ROSE | Couples ba[c]<n>king roadhouse wine (5) | C | N |
| The pairs of letters (couples) at the edges of (banking) ROadhouSE | |||||
| 6a | SURPASS | Goad donkey quietly shifting sideways to go over (7) | |||
| SPUR (goad) + ASS (donkey), with P (quietly) shifting sideways | |||||
| 11a | 24d | SUMPHS | Quiet ape mo[v]<u>es regularly up Glaswegian flats (8) | V | U |
| SH (quiet) plus alternate letters of (… regularly) aPe MoUeS reversed (up). Scottish (Glaswegian) word for simpletons (flats) | |||||
| 12a | 26d | FRISÉE | [A]<b>aron leaves plastic saucer for salad leaves (4) | A | B |
| B (baron) leaves FRIS[b]EE (plastic saucer) | |||||
| 13a | CATASTAS | They show unpaid workers about, two Saturdays over (8) | |||
| CA (circa, about) then SAT+SAT (two Saturdays) reversed (over) | |||||
| 15a | 8d | PLAYTIME | Working, I temp covering lady losing [h]<d>ead in games period (5) | H | D |
| An anagram of (working) I TEMP around (covering) LA[d]Y missing (losing) D (dead) | |||||
| 16a | HORSE | Hack having husky voice on radio (5) | |||
| Sounds like (having … on radio) HOARSE (husky voice) | |||||
| 17a | 34d | ICON | Bit of indecent l[e]<a>g in portrayal of Virgin Mary (3) | E | A |
| The first letter of (bit of) Indecent + CON (lag) | |||||
| 18a | 5d | ALTO CLEFS | A soft c[a]<e>ll organised pitch fixers (4) | A | E |
| A SOFT CELL, anagrammed (organised) | |||||
| 19a | TATERS | Hog might store these exotic treats (6) | |||
| An anagram of (exotic) TREATS | |||||
| 21a | 19d | TENTACLES | Feelers king put out from [a]<s>top succeeded – 10 at first (8) | A | S |
| K (king) removed from (put out from) TAC[k]LE, then S (succeeded), with TEN (10) at first | |||||
| 25a | COMPLEX NUMBER | Mental condition: feeling less imaginary plus real figures tallied (13, two words) | |||
| COMPLEX (mental condition) + NUMBER (feeling less) | |||||
| 27a | 14d | SHELLS | Schooner’s to[o]<p> singular; purgatory inside hulls (8) | O | P |
| Schooner’s first letter (top) and S (singular), with HELL (purgatory) inside | |||||
| 28a | SARODS | Instruments pinpoint day in cycle of years (6) | |||
| Place (pinpoint) D (day) in SAROS (cycle of years) | |||||
| 30a | 4d | SAAME | Lapps run from ma[z]<r>e as disconcerted (4) | Z | R |
| R (run) removed from MA[r]E AS, anagrammed (disconcerted) | |||||
| 32a | 31d | ORION | [I]<c>an’s beginning to go from 34, following gold hunter (3) | I | C |
| Can’s first letter (beginning) to go from I[c]ON (34d), after (following) OR (gold) | |||||
| 33a | 20d | SARSENETS | Crafted a[l]<r>es special, nest in tissues (5) | L | R |
| AN anagram of (crafted) ARES S (special) NEST | |||||
| 35a | ASSAI | Very nutritious fruit (5) | |||
| A double definition | |||||
| 36a | 30d | SUTRA | Loc[i]<k> ignoring hard god in religion’s scripture (8) | I | K |
| S[h]UT (lock) without (ignoring) H (hard) + RA (god) | |||||
| 37a | DIET | Conference that is in vacant development (4) | |||
| IE (that is) in DevelopmenT with the inner letters removed (vacant) | |||||
| 38a | 2d | TSAR | Leader’s first to take [g]<c>old out of mark (8) | G | C |
| The first letter of (first to) Take, then C (cold) is removed from (out of) S[c]AR | |||||
| 39a | KNEECAP | Vagrant can keep protective cover (7) | |||
| An anagram of (vagrant) CAN KEEP | |||||
| 40a | 23d | UP TO DATE | With it at college to[o]<d>! Pals cutting fringes (5) | O | D |
| UP (at college), TOD (from the clue), and [m]ATE[s] (pals) without the outer letters (cutting fringes) | |||||
| Down | |||||
| 1d | SACK RACES | Heats in a bag? (9, two words) | |||
| A cryptic definition | |||||
| 2d | 15a | SALMI | Di[a]ne on this mail’s crude (4) | A | |
| An anagram of (… crude) MAIL’S | |||||
| 3d | ASTER | Top chief for plant (5) | |||
| Remove the first letter from (top) [m]ASTER (chief) | |||||
| 4d | 1a | STASH | Rough old qui[l]t a host’s produced after overcoat’s first lost (5) | L | |
| A H[o]ST’S anagrammed (produced) after the first letter of overcoat (overcoat’s first) is removed (lost) | |||||
| 5d | 21a | AMPULLAE | They carry v[a]in, American jerk – gutless ape (9, two words) | A | |
| AM (American), PULL (jerk), and ApE without its central letter (gutless) | |||||
| 6d | START | Begin stone design (5) | |||
| ST (stone) + ART (design) | |||||
| 7d | 11a | ASSAULTS | Se[a]ts upon a ship accommodating sailor eating last piece of tofu (4) | A | |
| A (from the clue) and SS (ship) containing (accommodating) SALT (sailor), in turn containing (eating) the last letter of (last piece of) tofU | |||||
| 8d | 36a | SOLSTICE | One’s 21st Dec[o] closet is extravagant (8) | O | |
| An anagram of (… extravagant) CLOSET IS | |||||
| 9d | AILEEN | Elaine’s new name for filly (6) | |||
| ELAINE, anagrammed (new) | |||||
| 10d | SOMERSET | County club chasing a few runs? (8) | |||
| SET (club) following (chasing) SOME (a few) + R (runs) | |||||
| 14d | 33a | DITCH | Parisian named children in scrap[s] (6) | S | |
| DIT (Parisian named) + CH (children) | |||||
| 19d | 27a | FITMENTS | Bill’s Du[n]es, old songs including tenor pieces (9) | N | |
| FITS (old songs, archaic word for songs) containing (including) T (tenor) and MEN (pieces). Shakespearean (Bill’s) word for dues | |||||
| 20d | 38a | BEETROOT | Go[v] this colour as ill at ease from press machine – they’re heartless (9) | V | |
| BEsET (press) and RObOT (machine) without their central letters (they’re heartless) | |||||
| 22d | MOCASSIN | Snake doctor evil bewildering immature patient (8) | |||
| MO (doctor) + SIN (evil) containing (bewildering, overcoming) CASe (patient) without the last letter (immature, unfinished) | |||||
| 23d | 40a | BANNS | Notice that couple are getting [a]wed by Poles to the right of bar (8, three words) | A | |
| NS (poles) after (to the right of, in an across answer) BAN (bar) | |||||
| 24d | 32a | PSI | Number of Hellenic pla[i]ce being reflected in display (6) | I | |
| The answer is being reversed (reflected) in dISPlay | |||||
| 26d | 18a | RARE | Like a st[r]eak through heat; briefly extraordinary (6) | R | |
| A double definition | |||||
| 29d | STOEP | European opts to change platform in East London (5) | |||
| An anagram of (… to change) E (European) with OPTS. East London, South Africa | |||||
| 30d | 30a | SORE | [D]raw flowers or Egyptian masks (5) | D | |
| FlowerS OR Egyptian hides (masks) the answer | |||||
| 31d | 12a | LION | Aslan[t] perhaps in review of new painting (5) | T | |
| Reversal of (review of) N (new) + OIL (painting) | |||||
| 33d | DISC | Show the first half round (4) | |||
| DISClose (show), just the first half | |||||
| 34d | 17a | EEL | Skinned deer left slippery [b]one (4) | B | |
| With outer letters removed (skinned), dEEr, then L (left) | |||||
Yes, very tough, hard to keep track of what preamble said we were to do with jumpers and fallers without making a note to myself. Thanks to Vismut and Kitty. I thought I got there in the end but only just realised I never saw mocassin with two S’s and one C before. No wonder what I had entered at 28A and 32A made no sense.
Kitty, thanks for the excellent blog – on an excellent puzzle which was extremely satisfying. It was quite tough in places, but I really enjoyed it. It was great to have a totally new subject, theme – and one that was so interesting.
I’ve enjoyed the puzzles I’ve seen from Vismut to date, and this was a fine puzzle too. I’ll admit I got in a muddle with the moving clues, which I found frustrating, but it all came together nicely in the end. I couldn’t find a Wiki entry in English and there wasn’t a lot of information online, but the Telegraph article referenced above was useful. Perhaps too much so, as I spent ages trying to find SCHLAGBAUM in the final grid. He was after all an obstacle in that he tried to prevent Lata Brandisova taking part and, of course, would occupy 10 cells.
I hadn’t heard of this remarkable lady before and enjoyed learning about her. Super blog from Kitty- but that’s hardly a surprise, is it?