Hello all, and thanks to Kruger for the puzzle.
The preamble:
The answer to each clue must have a letter removed, wherever it occurs, before entry. Word lengths refer to definitions and wordplays to the mutilated forms to be entered in the grid. Letters removed from the left/right/upper/lower clue answers in each row/column must be entered in the corresponding perimeter cells. Solvers must fill the corners to reveal seven members of a set NOT RELATED TO CHRIS. The final member must be highlighted in the completed grid. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended; 40 is in Collins.
While solving I jot down notes to help me write this bit. I wrote, “Slow start. Steady progress”. A later comment is, “Still slow. Still steady”. So I think it’s safe to say this was reasonably challenging but nicely balanced.
As the letters began to appear around the outside I didn’t gain much of an inkling as to what the set might be; an early idea of economists (Keynes) gave way to the sense that they were places. True enough, they were, but I needed a little research to link them. (In fact, prompted by all the -TON suffixes, I found the likely entry in the grid first.) Consulting my search engine of choice, a common name appeared – and it explained which Chris was referenced in the title!
We have the second parts of the names of the eight Tarrant Valley villages/hamlets, each of which begins with TARRANT:
Tarrant RUSHTON, Tarrant MONKTON, Tarrant KEYNESTON, Tarrant RAWSTON, Tarrant GUNVILLE, Tarrant CRAWFORD, Tarrant HINTON and, in the centre of the grid, Tarrant LAUNCESTON.
| Clue No | ANSWER (ENTRY) |
Clue with definition underlined |
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and ANSWER letters in bold caps | ||
| Across | ||
| 1a | ROOINEK ROOIEK |
Englishman from East London uncovered lies in castle (7) |
| Without outer letters (uncovered), lIEs in ROOK (castle) | ||
| 6a | SPECKLE SPECLE |
Disturbed sleep pervaded by cloudy, grainy pattern (7) |
| An anagram of (disturbed) SLEEP containing (pervaded by) C (cloudy) | ||
| 11a | ALMOND ALMND |
Dancing girl almost kissing new director’s nut (6) |
| ALMa (dancing girl) without the last letter (almost) + N (new) + D (director) | ||
| 12a | MEDAU MDAU |
Slim daughter enjoys some exercise (5) |
| SliM DAUghter has (enjoys) the answer | ||
| 13a | GREET GREE |
Welcome victory (for some) (5) |
| GREE (victory (for some)) | ||
| 14a | YACK ACK |
Talk persistently about depleted casebook (4) |
| A (about) + CasebooK without its content (depleted …) | ||
| 15a | SINGULAR SIGULAR |
American girl with us somehow is good (8) |
| An anagram of (… somehow) A (American), GIRL and US | ||
| 16a | GALENA GALEA |
It’s used to produce lead helmet (6) |
| GALEA (helmet) | ||
| 17a | ACRID ACRD |
Biting, adverse comments really denigrating from the outset (5) |
| Initial letters of (… from the outset) Adverse Comments Really Denigrating | ||
| 19a | IRATE IRAT |
Furious buccaneer removing jacket (5) |
| pIRATe (buccaneer) without outer letters (removing jacket) | ||
| 21a | LECHER LECER |
Stagger backwards clutching face of contemptibly lewd man (6) |
| REEL (stagger) reversed (backwards) around (clutching) the first letter (face) of Contemptibly | ||
| 22a | CURSEDLY CUREDLY |
Odiously pickled sealyham’s heart (8) |
| CURED (pickled) + seaLYham’s middle letter (heart) | ||
| 23a | DEPRESSED EPRESSE |
Blue train possibly leaving without earl (9) |
| E[x]PRESS (train possibly) leaving X (without) + E (earl) | ||
| 28a | ERRANT ERRAN |
Endlessly, commission’s making mistakes (6) |
| Without the last letter (endlessly), ERRANd (commission) | ||
| 31a | REEVE EEVE |
First lady engages Eisenhower’s foremost steward (5) |
| EVE (first lady) surrounds (engages) Eisenhower’s first (foremost) letter | ||
| 32a | ALONSO ALNS |
Racing driver regularly railing against society (6) |
| Alternate letters of (regularly) rAiLiNg + S (society) | ||
| 34a | ROSACE RSACE |
Acers broke window (6) |
| ACERS anagrammed (broke) | ||
| 35a | NEMATODE EMATODE |
Demote a shoddy parasite … (8) |
| DEMOTE A anagrammed (shoddy) | ||
| 37a | AS OF ASO |
… from Australia in due course (4, two words) |
| A (Australia) + SO (in due course) | ||
| 38a | RELAX ELAX |
Moderate European careless (5) |
| E (European) + LAX (careless) | ||
| 39a | NOHOW NOHO |
One with little chance through being dismissed? Not at all (5) |
| NO HO[per] (one with little chance), with PER (through) removed (being dismissed) | ||
| 40a | CAMENAE CMENE |
Followers in church for Roman deities (7) |
| MEN (followers) in CE (church) | ||
| 41a | EARDRUM ERDRUM |
It’s murder changing part of organ (7) |
| It’s an anagram of (… changing) MURDER | ||
| 42a | WAGERER AGERER |
Vaguely agree to rule better (7) |
| An anagram of (vaguely) AGREE + R (rule) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1d | RAGUSA RAGSA |
Dubrovnik covered in mounting Christmas garbage (6) |
| It’s inside (covered in) the reversal of (mounting) ChristmAS GARbage | ||
| 2d | SOLSTICE OLTICE |
Citole played around December 21st, say (8) |
| CITOLE anagrammed (played) | ||
| 3d | OMAGH OMAG |
Town in Ohio erected school (5) |
| O (Ohio) + the reversal of (erected) GAM (school) | ||
| 4d | INTRUDE INRUDE |
Uninvited, enter ruined building (7) |
| RUINED anagrammed (building) | ||
| 5d | KORANIC KORAIC |
Harp-like instrument essentially depicted in certain scriptures (7) |
| KORA (harp-like instrument) + the middle letters of (essentially) depICted | ||
| 6d | SPERM SPER |
Agents upset eggs once (5) |
| REPS (agents) reversed (upset) | ||
| 7d | POKE PKE |
Kirkpatrick resides in Peru to live a secluded life (4) |
| K (Kirkpatrick) is inside (resides in) PE (Peru) | ||
| 8d | EMANATE EMAATE |
To rise, a team badly needs energy (7) |
| A TEAM anagrammed (badly) + E (energy) | ||
| 9d | LACTEAL LACEAL |
Wallace cooked without first portion of whey from milk (7) |
| [w]ALLACE anagrammed (cooked) without W (first portion of Whey) | ||
| 10d | EUKARYON EUKARYN |
Hearing about this country, Yank oddly joins part of cell (8) |
| EAR (hearing) around (about) UK (this country) + YaNk oddly | ||
| 14d | ALKYD ALYD |
Paint resin used in Italy discredited (5) |
| The answer is inside (used in) ItALY Discredited | ||
| 18d | NORSE NRSE |
Former Scandinavian university rejected by carer (5) |
| U (university) removed from (rejected by) N[u]RSE (carer) | ||
| 20d | AUREUS ARES |
Greek god ready for those from Rome (6) |
| ARES (Greek god) | ||
| 21d | CLEARANCE LEARANE |
Eviction from lands (open country) near cuckoo (9) |
| LEA (lands (open country)) + NEAR anagrammed (cuckoo) | ||
| 24d | PLESSOR PLSSOR |
Intermittently polish special gold hammer (7) |
| Intermittently PoLiSh + S (special) + OR (gold) | ||
| 25d | REALO REAO |
Romania imprisons each Green Party member (5) |
| RO (Romania) surrounds (imprisons) EA (each) | ||
| 26d | ELECTOR EECTOR |
One chooses English cleric initially overlooked (7) |
| E (English) + rECTOR (cleric) missing its first letter (initially overlooked) | ||
| 27d | ENEMATA EEMATA |
Medicinal fluids sick mate’s taken in local river (7) |
| An anagram of (sick) MATE is put into (taken in) EA (local river) | ||
| 29d | RAGTIME RATIME |
I’m into class jazzy dancing (7) |
| I’M goes into RATE (class) | ||
| 30d | ANODYNE ANDYNE |
Innocent old Queen visiting Benin? On the contrary (7) |
| ANNE (old queen) outside (visiting … on the contrary) DY (Benin) | ||
| 33d | SETTLER SELER |
Ceremonial meal left for Dutch colonist (7) |
| SE[d]ER (ceremonial meal) with L in place of D (left for Dutch) | ||
| 35d | VELUM ELUM |
Cross about thin sheet (5) |
| MULE (cross) reversed (about) | ||
| 36d | NOONER OOER |
Hoover disregarding hard and very brief encounter for him (6) |
| [h]OO[v]ER leaving out (disregarding) H (hard) and V (very) | ||
| 38d | ETUI ETU |
Raised native American’s case (4) |
| Written upwards (raised), UTE (native American) | ||
I too found KEYNES first and went down the economist rabbit hole for a while, until I too found LAUNCESTON – sadly not an economist – in the grid, and figured it out from there with all the ‘ton’s.
A nice puzzle although, in the words of a commenter on a previous puzzle, it did feel like hand to hand combat sometimes solving the clues.
I missed out last week, having the same daunted initial reaction to Kcit’s ‘carte blanche’ as the blogger did (mc_rapper67) and lacking his motive – and enough time – to persevere. But this was different, just the right level, for me anyway. A pleasant change to have all but the 12 corner letters appearing in the perimeter, including some complete words. The title made me think at once of Chris Tarrant, which helped wrap it up at the end, but hardly at the start. Many thanks to Kruger, and to Kitty for the blog, so much more strenuous a job than for the more conventional forms of puzzle.
I had a very enjoyable time grappling with the ‘removed letter’ clue manipulations and, eventually, filling the grid, having struggled a bit with my last three clues (NOHOW, NOONER and CAMENAE).
I put letters in the corners to complete four of the seven names in the most likely way, but none of those names meant anything to me in a single context. I even saw LAUNCESTON in the grid, but that didn’t get me any further. I don’t often resort to googling, but on this occasion I needed to, and a clear connection with the name Tarrant immediately became apparent, with reference to a locality in Dorset. The connection with the puzzle’s title became instantly obvious, and it all came very satisfyingly to a conclusion.
Thanks to Kruger for this well-constructed crossword puzzle and the very good set of clues. And thanks to Kitty for her usual clear blog.
see 2 above: sorry, it was of course only the FOUR corner letters that were not deducible from the clues