Hi all. Yet another delightful puzzle from Chalicea, with a U rating for accessibility but a very high rating for enjoyment – for this solver anyway, and I’m confident I won’t be alone.
The preamble reads:
Solvers must highlight the person (3,8) who assisted 38 (unclued) in his development of his 1, 16 (also unclued), and his description of that person (11,2,6) who came AFTER STEELMAN. An extra letter not entered in the grid is generated by the wordplay in 21 clues; read in clue order, the extra letters give three expressions that were used to describe that person’s father. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.
This was an unusual EV solve for me because I went straight into grid-scouring mode after the first pass. I had decided for a little extra challenge to see how far I could get without any aids and, with the thematic entries integral to the gridfill, there would be no saving the endgame for last.
38 looked certain to be Charles BABBAGE, which immediately put me in mind of who the person (3,8) would be. I remembered Babbage’s Difference Engine, saw that ENGINE fit nicely into 16a, and pondered 1a awhile. Ah yes – with some searching of memory and examining of checkers, ANALYTICAL ENGINE. So now I was on the hunt for ADA LOVELACE.
I found her along a diagonal of the appropriate length, and kept searching for the description (11,2,6). I had no idea what it could be, but continued along the similar lines and saw that the parallel 11 letter diagonal below looked like a word. Yes, it could be ENCHANTRESS. Moving down to the diagonal 8 cells long, the rest of a likely phrase suggested itself to give ENCHANTRESS OF NUMBER.
Now all that remained was to uncover the quote about her father, Lord Byron and figure out the title. Extra letters yielded the quote: Lady Caroline Lamb had famously called Lord Byron MAD, BAD and DANGEROUS TO KNOW
Succeeding in my no-aids challenge was a most unexpected bonus. It wouldn’t have been possible without the considerable extra help provided by the thematic content. There were a few bits and pieces to check up on afterwards, but one of the joys of these puzzles is finding something you’ve deduced confirmed in the dictionary.
One fail on my part (I think there always has to be at least one!) is that I can’t understand the title. I had some half-baked ideas, but none fit to serve up here. So the space below is yours for you to supply enlightenment. Thanks in advance! And thanks again to Chalicea, veritable Enchantress of Grids, for the fun!
| Clue No | ANSWER | Clue with definition underlined | |
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and letters appearing in the ANSWER capitalised and emboldened | |||
| Across | |||
| 8a | KOS | Endless fog round Greek island (3) | M |
| Without the last letter (endless), S[M]OKe (fog), reversed (round) | |||
| 11a | BORDER | Come near person entering ship (6) | A |
| BO[A]RDER (person entering ship) | |||
| 12a | UPLEAPT | Rose to implore during university sports instruction (7) | D |
| PLEA[D] (to implore) in (during) U (university) and PT (sports instruction) | |||
| 13a | EORL | Long-forgotten title role in play (4) | |
| ROLE anagrammed (in play) | |||
| 14a | AIRMAIL | First-born son (a boy!) announced in letters sent overseas (7) | |
| Homophones of (… announced) of HEIR (first-born son) and MALE (a boy) | |||
| 18a | RECALL | Bring back to mind location for play and dance (6) | B |
| REC (location for play) and [B]ALL (dance) | |||
| 19a | OPERATE | Conduct some of opera technology (7) | |
| Some of OPERA TEchnology | |||
| 20a | OATH | Curse grain harvest principally (4) | |
| OAT (grain) + the first letter of (… principally) Harvest | |||
| 21a | DVORNIK | Mixed very ordinary drink for Moscow concierge (7) | |
| An anagram of (mixed) V (very) O (ordinary) DRINK | |||
| 24a | RADICES | Royal Artillery takes great risks in bases (7) | |
| RA (Royal Artillery) + DICES (takes great risks) | |||
| 28a | PANTONS | Gasp in front of boundlessly sonsy slippers in Troon (7) | |
| PANT (gasp) in front of sONSy without outer letters (boundlessly) | |||
| 31a | LEVE | Willingly in bygone days depart (4) | A |
| LE[A]VE (depart) | |||
| 33a | ANNULET | Removing last of wrapping, untangled messy little fillet (7) | D |
| Removing the last letter of wrappinG, an anagram of (… messy) UNTAN[g]LE[D] | |||
| 34a | ANEATH | In a lower position for Burns – an end of life (6) | D |
| AN + [D]EATH (end of life) | |||
| 36a | STORMS | Attacks small hill and outskirts of mountains (6) | |
| S (small) + TOR (hill) + the outermost letters (outskirts) of MountainS | |||
| 40a | FRAE | Jock’s from remote area oddly (4) | A |
| F[A]R (remote) + odd letters from (… oddly) ArEa | |||
| 41a | TILLITE | Hardened clay up to time that it essentially set (7) | |
| TILL (up to time that) + IT + inner letter of (essentially) sEt | |||
| 42a | EASERS | Rubbers with initial resistance lost; they make things less difficult (6) | |
| E[r]ASERS (rubbers) with the initial R (resistance) lost | |||
| 43a | OLÉ | Goalies now and then missing Real Madrid’s expression of approval (3) | |
| gOaLiEs without regular letters (now and then missing) | |||
| 44a | POP ARTISTS | Subtle patrons’ tips for painters depicting modern urbanised life (10, two words) | N |
| An anagram of (subtle) PATRO[N]S TIPS | |||
| Down | |||
| 2d | NO-ONE | Nobody’s energy after lunchtime (5) | |
| E (energy) after NOON (lunchtime) | |||
| 3d | ARRECT | On the alert, caught in an attic room (6) | G |
| C (caught) in [G]ARRET (an attic room) | |||
| 4d | YEARLY | Annually pay ultimately before expected time (6) | |
| The last letter of (… ultimately) paY + EARLY (before expected time) | |||
| 5d | TRILLED | Sang tremulously of heart of cuddles under latticed structure (7) | E |
| The middle letter (heart) of cudDles under TR[E]ILLE (latticed structure) | |||
| 6d | IURE | By law liquor regularly available at last (4) | |
| lIqUoR regularly + the last letter of (… at last) availablE | |||
| 7d | À LA | In the manner of unrestrained parlay (3, two words) | R |
| Inner letters only of (unrestrained) pA[R]LAy | |||
| 8d | KALIANS | With spirit and soul, creep very slowly up for Persian hookahs (7) | |
| KA (spirit and soul) followed by, in reverse (… up), SNAIL (creep very slowly) | |||
| 9d | OPUNTIA | Old bet is half about cactus (7) | |
| O (old) + PUNT (bet) + half of Is + A (about) | |||
| 10d | STREEK | North of the border stretch supply of food to supplement mostly (6) | O |
| ST[O]RE (supply of food) + EKe (to supplement) without the last letter (mostly) | |||
| 11d | BEDROP | Be deplorably proud to dribble (6) | U |
| BE + an anagram of (deplorably) PRO[U]D | |||
| 15d | TAHR | Teacher – occasionally a sort of goat (4) | |
| TeAcHeR, regular letters of (occasionally) | |||
| 17d | NEO | Ones circulating artificial language (3) | S |
| ONE[S] anagrammed (circulating) | |||
| 19d | ODIST | Balmoral’s fox is first of themes for poet (5) | T |
| [T]OD (Balmoral’s fox) + IS + the first letter of Themes | |||
| 22d | FANTAIL | Enthusiast to shadow type of pigeon (7) | |
| FAN (enthusiast) + TAIL (to shadow) | |||
| 23d | UNNOBLE | Deprive of high rank one local head with cruel malice ultimately (7) | |
| UN (one local) + NOB (head) + final letters of (…. ultimately) crueL malicE | |||
| 25d | CHARGER | Cleaning lady, lively, energetic person, one who attacks at speed (7) | O |
| CHAR (cleaning lady) + G[O]ER (lively, energetic person) | |||
| 26d | SLED | Leader of skiers guided means of winter transport (4) | |
| The first letter (leader) of Skiers + LED (guided) | |||
| 27d | TEE-HEES | Het up over expression of fright and singular sounds of derision (6) | K |
| HET reversed (up) over EE[K] and S (singular) | |||
| 28d | PASHTO | Casual infatuation with people of fashion for exotic language (6) | N |
| PASH (casual infatuation) with TO[N] (people of fashion) | |||
| 29d | OLM | Schoolmaster conceals blind cave-dweller (3) | |
| SchoOLMaster conceals the answer | |||
| 30d | ON HEAT | With no limits sons and husband consume food in season (6, two words) | |
| Without outer letters (with no limits), sONs + H (husband) + EAT (consume food) | |||
| 32d | EAGRES | Inordinate egos are bores (6) | O |
| An anagram of (inordinate) EG[O]S ARE | |||
| 35d | T-CART | Horse-drawn carriage; road vehicle in island race (5) | |
| CAR (road vehicle) in TT (island race) | |||
| 37d | GAEA | Gateway avoiding extremes of Tartary for divinity (4) | W |
| GA[t]E[W]A[y] without the outer letters of (avoiding extremes of) TartarY | |||
| 39d | BIO | Book One of brief history of one’s life (3) | |
| B (book) + I (one) + O (o’, of) | |||
I am very familiar with Charles Babbage, his Analytical Engine and his co-developer Ada Lovelace, although I did not know that description of her (Enchantress of Number), which I had to look up. I had a dim memory of that description of Lord Byron (mad, bad and dangerous to know), but again I had to look it up to confirm it.
The puzzle was mostly quite easy to solve – in fact my only difficulty was with four of the 21 clues from which a letter had to be extracted. I was impressed with the gridfill, the symmetry of the grid and the generous helping of longer words (8 letters or more).
My way into the theme was the top row, when a few crossers were enough to suggest ANALYTICAL, and the names Babbage and Ada Lovelace instantly came to mind.
Not surprisingly, the hidden thematic items turned up in the diagonals – all very neatly done.
Thanks to Chalicea and Kitty.
The US Department of Defense ran a competition for computer programming languages and the sequence of languages chosen went Strawman, Woodenman, Tinman, Ironman, Steelman – then the final language was called Ada, in honour or Ada Lovelace – since she is considered to have been possibly the earliest computer programmer. It seemed appropriate to use that as a title since it honoured a woman in a field that is relatively masculine. Many thanks Kitty for the lovely blog.
Lovely puzzle – thanks to Chalicea and Kitty. Nice to see the ‘Chalicea stripes’ back in action!
There is a setter’s blog over on the BD site, where Chalicea gives some background on how the puzzle/theme came into being…
Good fun as you’d expect from a Chalicea puzzle. Spotting Babbage as likely at 38 was helpful: for once, a theme I had heard of (though not the description) which made it easier. Having only some clues producing extra letters kept me guessing though so a good challenge overall. Thanks Chalicea and Kitty.
It’s also an anagram of FEMALE NET STAR and no doubt many other apposite phrases.
Very enjoyable; thanks to setter and blogger.
Delightful puzzle and blog thanks Chalicea and Kitty.
Babbage was my way in and knowing Chalicea’s trademark use of the diagonals the endgame didn’t take too long. I knew about Babbage and Lovelace but wasn’t aware she was Byron’s daughter. Fascinating.
Yes, a great puzzle. Fairly straightforward, as expected, but short of time as I was that was exactly the sort of puzzle I was looking for.
Lovely puzzle. I did not know the subject but had heard of Babbage. I enjoy the setter’s “female” puzzles. Thanks Chalicea and Kitty.