Hello and welcome to you all, with a special welcome if you are a new solver who has been tempted to dip your toes into the wonderful world of the EV. The water may feel a little bracing at first, but it’s lovely!
The preamble reads:
Some answers form BRIDGES at a point where two entries cross with clashing letters; the entry making the bridge goes over (and therefore hides) the crossing letter of the other entry. Solvers must deduce which letter forms the bridge, as both options lead to real words. For example – if FILL crosses with CLANG at the vowel, then the options are either FILL and CLING or FALL and CLANG. In the final grid, a significant link to the title (eight cells) must be highlighted. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended; one possible entry is an abbreviation.
My first impression on reading the preamble was that was that this sounds much more like a normal EV than last week. So I was optimistic for a proper end game, which for me is what barred thematic puzzles are all about.
We are not told how many clashes there are, but this kind of information isn’t something I worry about at first. The thing to do, almost invariably, is to start by solving some clues and see what falls out. In this case, just bearing in mind that one of the checking letters in any word may be wrong. Finding enough of these clashes will be the key to the next step.
The first clash that I found was at 12a/2d, but no more surfaced for some time. It didn’t seem like there would be too many. Eight clashes later, after a little grid-staring, I spotted the builder of BRIDGES:
Which will be the letters to select and the eight cells to be highlighted. Very nice – thanks X-Type!
Before I head to the clue breakdowns, I had the ear of a new solver and I’d like to share with you a couple of things arising from our discussions:
1. The eight clashes might be the eight cells to be highlighted (as indeed they proved) … but they might not have been. The letters forming the bridges could just as well be directing us to highlight something else in the grid. Sometimes endgames can be multi-step, and I am frequently bowled over by the inventiveness and ingenuity of our setters.
2. My tame newbie was confused at one point by the capitalisation of BRIDGES in the preamble. I remember that I had once been confused by the same thing. But I learned that it is just the EV house style to capitalise the title in the preamble. So now you know!
(3. Not relevant to this puzzle, but his favourite so far is the next one, EV1453, so if you are still undecided as to whether the EVs are for you do try at least the one more!)
| Clue No | ANSWER | Clue with definition underlined |
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and letters appearing in the ANSWER capitalised and emboldened | ||
| Across | ||
| 1a | DISCOMPOSURE | Club member (old) certain to create disturbance (12) |
| DISCO (club) + MP (member) + O (old) + SURE (certain) | ||
| 9a | SHAMAL | Pretended, oddly ignored earl’s wind (6) |
| SHAM (pretended) followed by even letters of (oddly ignored) eArL | ||
| 11a | SUPRA | Drink with queen and American, as above (5) |
| SUP (drink) with R (queen) and A (American) | ||
| 12a | STIR | Move around prison (4) |
| A double definition | ||
| 14a | EMBOSS | Ornament from English maiden given to chief (6) |
| E (English) + M (maiden) next to (given to) BOSS (chief) | ||
| 16a | HANKED | Caught two short fellows … (6) |
| The two short (in name) fellows are HANK and ED | ||
| 18a | DEVEL | … thump Glaswegian in development (5) |
| A Scottish word, indicated by Glaswegian, is found in DEVELopment. I didn’t expect to see a hidden word right at one end of the fodder | ||
| 19a | CIVIL | Type of servant who’s very well-mannered? (5) |
| Well, a CIVIL servant could also be a servant who is polite | ||
| 20a | DEADERS | European: sadder, troubled, finding corpses (7) |
| E (European) and SADDER, anagrammed (troubled) | ||
| 22a | HENNY | That man close to Manhattan, New York, cock (5) |
| HE (that man) + the last letter of (close to) ManhattaN + NY (New York) | ||
| 23a | ALGAL | A liberal measure of seaweed (5) |
| A (from the clue) + L (liberal) + GAL (measure) | ||
| 25a | SEEDING | Organising tennis matches: this could achieve the best lawn appearance (7) |
| Two definitions | ||
| 28a | SPURS | Urges on soccer team (5) |
| Another pair of definitions | ||
| 30a | GENRE | Information about literary style (5) |
| GEN (information) + RE (about) | ||
| 32a | ADAPTS | Madam endlessly on points (short) becomes fit (6) |
| mADAm without the end letters (endlessly) next to (on) PTS (points (short)) | ||
| 34a | RELIEF | To 14 should result in this: it’ll be a lightening of the load (6) |
| A double definition, 14 being 14a EMBOSS | ||
| 35a | GIOS | US soldiers going over Orkney primarily to find these gullies (4) |
| GIS (US soldiers) going around (going over) the first letter of (.. primarily) Orkney | ||
| 36a | APACE | Tribe cutting hearts out quickly (5) |
| APAC[h]E (tribe) with the removal of (cutting … out) H (hearts) | ||
| 37a | FLUGEL | The French Arabian territory returned grand piano (6) |
| LE (the, French) and GULF (Arabian territory) all reversed (returned) | ||
| 38a | METALDEHYDES | Lead, dye and meths could be made into such polymers (12) |
| LEAD, DYE and METHS can be anagrammed to form (could be made into) the answer | ||
| Down | ||
| 1d | DASHED | Lawyer dropped becoming broke (6) |
| DA (lawyer) + SHED (dropped) | ||
| 2d | SHAN | Ashanti contains another tongue (4) |
| aSHANti contains this language | ||
| 3d | CARDED | Pluto quit: threw away prepared wool, say (6) |
| DIS (Pluto) has gone from (quit) [dis]CARDED (threw away) | ||
| 4d | MADDENS | Enrages some ladies, leaving island and having day in (7) |
| MA[i]DENS (some ladies) without (leaving) I (island) and having D (day) added in | ||
| 5d | OSMIC | Relating to smell of particular metal (5) |
| A double definition | ||
| 6d | SUBBIE | Worker contracted by another (below second-rate, that is) (6) |
| SUB (below) + B (second rate) + IE (that is) | ||
| 7d | UPON | At height, nothing new above (4) |
| UP (at height) + O (nothing) + N (new) | ||
| 8d | EASILY | Simply lie, say, when corrupted (6) |
| LIE SAY anagrammed (corrupted) | ||
| 10d | LEAL | Poet’s faithful older ally regularly required (4) |
| Required for the answer are alternate letters of (… regularly) oLdEr AlLy. The definition indicates that this is a poetic word for (poet’s) faithful | ||
| 13d | REBEL | One revolting beer upset lecturer (5) |
| BEER anagrammed (upset) + L (lecturer) | ||
| 15d | SPINNY | Quickly circling (one might say) small woodland? (6) |
| Something spinning round might whimsically be described as SPINNY | ||
| 17d | KELPIE | Sprite taking the form of horse, or Aussie dog (6) |
| Two definitions | ||
| 21d | SUEABLE | Woman having power prone to court action (7) |
| SUE (woman) + ABLE (having power) | ||
| 22d | HEADS | It’s a toss-up as to whether you’ll see this (5) |
| A cryptic definition referring to a coin toss | ||
| 23d | ASHRAM | Tup under tree, in retreat (6) |
| RAM (tup) following (under, in a down entry) ASH (tree) | ||
| 24d | ARNICA | Treatment for bruises mixed in a car (6) |
| An anagram of (mixed) IN A CAR | ||
| 26d | DREGGY | Doctor with a particular odour – it’s foul … (6) |
| DR (doctor) + EGGY (with a particular odour) | ||
| 27d | GASSES | … and poisons good donkeys! (6) |
| G (good) + ASSES (donkeys) | ||
| 29d | STEEL | Picked up half-inch piece of metal (5) |
| A homophone of (picked up) STEAL (half inch) | ||
| 30d | GAFF | Fair gamble (4) |
| Our final double definition | ||
| 31d | FLAT | Learner occupying rich dwelling (4) |
| L (learner) inside (occupying) FAT (rich) | ||
| 33d | PLED | Local put forward an argument in case pressure may be applied to left journalist (4) |
| Local indicates a dialect word. P (pressure) + L (left) + ED (journalist) | ||
The preamble looked complicated and I wondered if this was really going to be an “easy” one. Like our blogger, I guessed that the highlighted cells might be the clashes, and that made things a lot simpler. A gentle, fun puzzle.
I think the preamble might seem more complicated paradoxically as a consequence of trying to be clearer by spelling things out more explicitly than usual. In a traditional EV I think it would have gone straight from “Solvers must deduce which letter forms the bridge” to “In the final grid …” without the intervening detail.
Enjoyable throughout. After finding three consecutuve clashes (that were later resolved into the N-E-L of BRUNEL) I guessed there would be another five, for symmetry in that diagonal, and indeed that turned out to be the case.
I liked the way the clashes were described as bridges for the sake of the theme. I also liked the fact (as told to us in the preamble) that either letter in each clashing cell would allow two valid words to cross.
The name BRUNEL seemed to stand out in the diagonal, but that was no doubt because it was bound to be come to mind pretty quickly when thinking of bridges. That made the two other clashes easy to resolve.
Thanks to both X-type and Kitty.
As has been said, a gentle offering which helpfully illustrates another common trope in barred puzzles (as well as giving a further outing to setters’ favourite engineer)
The repeat and capitalisation of the title has been an EV feature from the outset, sometimes requiring some shoehorning (“In XXXXX, every answer…) and so less insisted-on by the current editor and his predecessor. Thanks to Kitty for the blog and for demystifying another EV feature, and of course to X-type for the puzzle.
I also found the preamble somewhat confusing, and agree with Kitty’s comment at post #2. I just dove in and started filling the grid. Grids with clashing cells are often a downfall for me but thankfully the clashes here resolved quite quickly. I’m enjoying these “easier” EVs, I’m getting some of my Sunday back.
I do like the word kelpie, and it brought back memories of visiting those at The Helix, Falkirk.
My thanks to Kitty for a lovely blog and X-Type for the fun.
Yes, many thanks to Kitty for the lovely blog and to Kitty and Ifor for the explanation of the capitalisation of the word of the title that we are required (and have been since the very earliest EVs) to include in the preamble. It has the additional benefit of obliging the setter to really focus on the theme of his/her crossword with an appropriate title and relevant comments in the preamble. And thanks, of course to X-Type for another Brunel accolade.
A nicely constructed grid with all real word possibilities. Fitted nicely into the sequence of easier puzzles but no less enjoyable a solve for that. Thanks X-Type and Kitty.