Duck Egg by Kruger
Clues are given in alphabetical order of their answers which must be entered where they will fit. Wordplay in each clue yields an extra letter that is not to be entered in the grid; when viewed in conventional clue order, these letters inform solvers what must be highlighted in the final grid – for which four unclued entries provide some original geographical assistance. Letters in silvered cells can be arranged to give a leading contributor to the theme, to be written below the grid.
OH NO! A jigsaw. I’m always scared of them and it’s now two in consecutive weeks.
Still, let’s get on with solving the clues. At least, once I start generating extra letters I’ll be able to work out what’s to be done. WAIT A MINUTE! The generated letters can’t be read until we know where they go in the grid.
Once again, it’s time to run to the hills but thankfully, my secret weapon elmac comes to the rescue and all comes good in the end.
Unusually, we have an asymetric grid and there’s only one three-letter space so clearly it’s 37a ASS. After that, I wouldn’t say that it was plain sailing – more of a slow steady crawl – which was perfectly OK by me.
The extra letters when presented in normal clue order spell MOTOR POOL MASTER SERGEANT AND ACTOR’S NAMES.
As always, keeping an eye on the diagonals, SILVER became apparent and it didn’t take too long to work out PHIL SILVERS (nw-se). In the meantime, the silver cells looked like they wanted to spell out COLONEL something. And, sure enough, they give COLONEL JT HALL.
Strangely, the ne-sw diagonal eluded me for ages. It was only when I said, at the end, that BILKO “must” appear in the grid that I found ERNEST BILKO lurking there.
The four unclued answers are FORT BAXTER ROSEVILLE KANSAS – the fictional setting for The Phil Silvers Show where Master Sergeant Ernest Bilko (played by Phil Silvers) worked in the motor pool and reported to the beleaguered Colonel John T. Hall.
Finally, the title. DUCK=BILK EGG=O so BILK–O.
A great fun puzzle featuring one of my all-time favourite characters but I wonder why we needed the complexities of the jigsaw and the letters not being presented in the right order to begin with.
Many thanks to Kruger as we continue our unofficial Inquisitor battle.
The grid below is in the order that the clues were presented. After that there’s a grid showing answers in conventional order.
| Clue |
Grid ref |
Entry |
Extra |
Wordplay |
| • Heat shields possibly seconds from absolute all-round failure before plunging into planet (8) |
25a | ABLATORS | M |
[a]B[solute] [a]L[l-round] [f]A[ilure] + TO (before) inside MARS (planet) |
| • US watch deployed along borders of Russia (6) |
15a | ANALOG | R |
ALONG+R[ussi]A (borders of) anag: deployed |
| • Son may name mysterious unidentified person (6) |
38a | ANONYM | S |
SON MAY Name (anag: mysterious) |
| • We separately leave bony fish for Jenny perhaps (3) |
37a | ASS | R |
[w]RASS[e] (minus WE (separately)) |
| • Idiots receive just less than half of total resources (6) |
19a | ASSETS | O |
ASSES (idiots) containing TO[tal] (just less than half) |
| • Deceitful to embrace repulsive prima donna in a passionate way (6) |
26d | AVIDLY | S |
SLY (deceitful) containing DIVA (rev: repulsive) |
| • Biology classes parts of some cells (5) |
7d | AXONS | T |
(double def) TAXONS (biology classes) |
| • Songbird belonging to mountain range (5) |
11a | CHAIN | T |
CHAT (songbird)+IN (belonging to) |
| • He removes antlers from herd or one stray (8) |
14a | DEHORNER | O |
HERD OR ONE (anag: stray) |
| • Labour’s leader told fibs about fool from Perth (4) |
4d | DILL | E |
L[abour] (leader) + LIED (told fibs) rev: about |
| • Beard largely disguises member of the Lords (4) |
10d | EARL | D |
bEARD Largely (hidden: disguises) |
| • Some loud noises restrict third of helicopters in carrier (4, 2 words) |
16a | EL AL | P |
PEAL (some loud noises) containing [he]L[icopters] (third [letter] of) |
| • No longer support Scandinavian backing very large soprano (6) |
5d | ENDOSS | A |
DANE (Scandinavian; rev: backing)+OS (very large)+Soprano |
| • Magazines yesterday containing notices (4) |
34d | EYES | S |
magazinES YESterday (hidden: containing) |
| • Some people’s faces illogically bias judge (4) |
18d | JIBS | A |
BIAS+Judge (anag: illogically) |
| • Impose tax on bread in Bulgaria? Mercenary in the extreme! (4) |
31d | LEVY | M |
LEV (Bulgarian currency)+M[ercenar]Y (extremes) |
| • Rodent’s drawn to Romano (7, 2 words) |
23d | MOON RAT | O |
TO ROMANO (anag: drawn) |
| • This annual buffet excluding current Mexican nationals (8) |
6d | NAHUATLS | N |
TH[i]S ANNUAL (minus I (current)) anag: buffet |
| • Critically discriminating characteristic, as you said, is accepted (6) |
6a | NASUTE | O |
NOTE (characteristic) containing AS+U (sounds like YOU) |
| • Final chain of supermarkets in UK now defunct (4) |
17a | NETT | O |
ref NETTO (previously a chain of supemarkets) |
| • Highlander’s wailing – his grandchild has growth on the head (5) |
2d | OHONE | R |
OE (Scottish grandchild) containing HORN (growth on head) |
| • Test of scholars officially preposterous (4) |
30a | ORAL | S |
schoLARS Officially (hidden: of; rev: preposterous) |
| • Odd Scots row with Argentina (4) |
30d | ORRA | E |
OAR (row)+RA (Republic of Argentina) |
| • Secretive person’s call for attention starts to treat extreme reticence (6) |
39a | OYSTER | E |
OYES (call for attention)+T[reat]E[xtreme]+R[eticence] |
| • Newspaper proprietor once offended feeling on crime (7) |
22d | PEARSON | T |
PET (offended feeling)+ARSON (crime) |
| • Darwin’s English wife rejected cherry-coloured cosmetic (6) |
1a | POWDER | M |
POM (Englishman in Darwin, Australia)+Wife+RED (cherry-coloured; rev: rejected) |
| • Use water to clean pubs in suburbs of Reigate (5) |
29d | RINSE | N |
INNS (pubs) inside R[eigat]E (suburbs of) |
| • Supposedly, numbers of Athenians oddly swarm to Italian city (6) |
27a | SAMPIS | A |
S[w]A[r]M (oddly)+PISA (Italian city) |
| • In certain locations, scared river smells are returning (7) |
35a | SKEERED | E |
DEE (river)+REEKS (smells) rev: are returning |
| • Spy Trials novel in short supply (8) |
21a | SPARSITY | L |
SPY TRIALS (anag: novel) |
| • Scottish Premier League at no time raised former high spirit (6) |
24d | SPLEEN | R |
SPL (Scottish Premier League)+NE’ER (at no time; rev: raised) |
| • Female player succeeded overcoming constant emotional pressure (6) |
8d | STRESS | A |
A[c]TRESS (female player) Succeeded replaces Constant |
| • Plans to take action – growth’s in a terrible mess (7) |
20d | SYSTEMS | C |
MESS (anag: terrible) containing CYST |
| • Someone dealing with cinema in LA employs vacuous neighbour instead of husband (7) |
9d | TREATER | N |
T[h]EATER (cinema – US spelling with N[eighbou]R (vacuous) replacing Husband |
| • Meanwhile, not in balance (4) | 32d | TRIM | E |
[in]TERIM (meanwhile; minus IN) |
| • New Zealander’s songs were accidentally identified originally by Australian names (7) |
3d | WAIATAS | G |
W[ere] A[ccidentally] I[dentified] (originally)+Australian+TAGS (names) |
| • American sausage – it’s consumed with European wine (6) |
33a | WIENIE | T |
I’m not exactly sure how this one works. I see IT and WINE and European but no anagram indicator. |
Entries in normal grid order
| Across |
Entry |
Extra |
| 1 | POWDER | M |
| 6 | NASUTE | O |
| 11 | CHAIN | T |
| 12 | BAXTER | – |
| 14 | DEHORNER | O |
| 15 | ANALOG | R |
| 16 | EL AL | P |
| 17 | NETT | O |
| 19 | ASSETS | O |
| 21 | SPARSITY | L |
| 25 | ABLATORS | M |
| 27 | SAMPIS | A |
| 28 | FORT | – |
| 30 | ORAL | S |
| 33 | WIENIE | T |
| 35 | SKEERED | E |
| 36 | ROSEVILLE | – |
| 37 | ASS | R |
| 38 | ANONYM | S |
| 39 | OYSTER | E |
| Down |
||
| 2 | OHONE | R |
| 3 | WAIATAS | G |
| 4 | DILL | E |
| 5 | ENDOSS | A |
| 6 | NAHUATLS | N |
| 7 | AXONS | T |
| 8 | STRESS | A |
| 9 | TREATER | N |
| 10 | EARL | D |
| 13 | KANSAS | – |
| 18 | JIBS | A |
| 20 | SYSTEMS | C |
| 22 | PEARSON | T |
| 23 | MOON RAT | O |
| 24 | SPLEEN | R |
| 26 | AVIDLY | S |
| 29 | RINSE | N |
| 30 | ORRA | A |
| 31 | LEVY | M |
| 32 | TRIM | E |
| 34 | EYES | S |
My feelings regarding jigsaws are similar to yours, so I was equally pleased to see that we had two in a row. 🙂 Not as challenging as Nimrod’s, but challenging enough for me regarding a theme I know little about. BBC 2 re-ran the series years ago but I never really got into it, so Wikipedia it was again based on guesses at Roseville and Kansas. My extra letters didn’t look half as neat as yours, my solving being somewhat error-prone, but I had enough to get the highlighting. Overall I took longer than I should, but enjoyed the solve.
Shouldn’t the contributor below the grid be COLONEL JT HALL?
Another jigsaw – and I was rather glad to see word lengths with the clues in this one!
I concentrated on the first twenty clues to start with – my success or otherwise with those would most likely indicate whether I could solve the jigsaw. This turned out to be a very enjoyable phase – it involved a lot of looking up but I managed to solve all except one of them: the clue for ANALOG. I duly collected 19 of the 20 extra letters.
Those extra letters meant nothing at that stage, and I turned my attention to the remaining clues. As soon as I had the full set of 8-letter solutions I started on the jigsaw and filled about three-quarters of the grid, solving more clues along the way and getting ROSEVILLE. Looking up that name led me to the theme and enabled me to fill the other three unclued entries and complete the jigsaw.
Working on a separate grid, I forgot about the instruction to re-order the extra letters and therefore made no sense of them. I found the two names in the diagonals anyway, I already had the four-part place name, and I found the name of the ‘contributor’, Colonel J T Hall, by looking up Sgt Bilko. (I assumed that whatever was represented by the 37 extra letters was thematic in some way, but although I missed their significance it seems I didn’t miss out on any discovery.)
Thanks to Kruger for another enjoyable puzzle full of excellent clues and to kenmac for explaining everything (including Duck Egg).
I loved Bilko when I watched it ages ago and was delighted to see him as a theme. Kruger is a reliable setter who never fails to write entertaining puzzles, and I enjoyed this – with one reservation. I agree entirely with the blogger about the extra letters not being presented in the right order to begin with. This isn’t the first puzzle to add this fiddly and rather tiresome extra complication, and I’d be delighted if it was the last. Other than that great fun though.
I like jigsaws, so having 2 in a row was not a problem. My last to solve were CHAIN, NETT, and OHONE, and I never spotted the NE-SW diagonal.
Jon @1 You’re absolutely right. I puzzled for ages and finally decided that BILKO was right. Now I see that the preamble made it clear, it should be Col JTH.
I’ll fix it up a little later.
Really enjoyed doing this, since it was a programme I’d loved as a child and had forgotten, so it all flooded back to me. Bit unfair to the setters, but I can’t help being biased towards themes I’ve enjoyed, and biased against themes that don’t interest me at all. So it’s great that editors give us such a wide variety of puzzles, in case others are innately biased too.
cruciverbophile @3: I agree that the extra letters not being presented in the order in which they will be read does add an extra complication, but I don’t find it too tiresome – it means that some gratification will be deferred. (And yes, it mainly kills off the feedback loop from guessing the message part way through and using the newly revealed letters to help solve the remaining clues.)
My one quibble is that Chambers gives the plural of TAXON as TAXA but no alternative of TAXONS.
Anyway, thanks the Ken & Kruger for another round in their continuing battle.
Thanks to kenmac and Kruger
I love a good jigsaw and I remember the show so this was right up my street. I didn’t bother tracking the extra letters because it seemed from the preamble that they wouldn’t be needed until the end.
I wasn’t (still not) sure why 27a has “supposedly”.
In 33a I took “consumed” to be the anagrind as in consumed/destroyed by fire.
I didn’t notice the slip with “taxons”. Webster’s has it but perhaps that might have been indicated.
Dansar @8 re “supposedly” in 27a: in Chambers, under sampi it says “supposed name of a Greek numerical character …”; can’t offer more help with 33a “consumed” though.
Thank you HolyGhost, my Collins and SOED both list SAMPI without any “supposed”.
My big boy’s Chambers is in the post.
I loved this, and found it quite a bit harder than last week’s alphabetical. The extra complexity of not knowing the order of the hidden letters was a good thing IMO. I remember Sgt Bilko from TV as a child, and seeing SILVER on a partly complete diagonal was my way into the end game. I had to look up the location details on Wikipedia as they were long forgotten.
I spotted TAXONS wasn’t in the dictionary but that was fine with me, it seems a reasonable way to pluralize the word. I think of a dictionary as a guide to the English language, not a definition of it.
Thanks to kenmac and Kruger.