Enigmatic Variations No. 1607: Eightsomes by Gaston

In crossword-land, ‘Eightsome’ is usually associated with ‘Reels’, and has 8-letter words meshing, cog-like, around their clue numbers…but Gaston seems to be serving up some different types of EIGHTSOMES here…

(Apologies for the delay in posting this blog – a 4-hour power cut in North Hampshire prevented me from finishing it last night.)

The preamble states that: “One EIGHTSOME (12 words) can be found reading clockwise around the perimeter of the grid, starting at the top left cell. Four apparently nonsensical, but thematic, unclued entries make up a second associated EIGHTSOME. Unchecked letters in the perimeter could make JUST MEN HARM HER SHIP; Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.

As a blogger, a perimetral message and unclued thematics are always welcome – fewer clues to parse below! Also noted was the absence of any ‘tricks’ in the clues – e.g. extra/missing/misprinted letters giving hints/thematic messages.

I made reasonable progress through the clues, with the grid slowly filling up, and crossers starting to creep into the perimeter and unclueds. And eventually I could make out NOAH along the top, MAND down the right, PL?S along the bottom, and WIV?S up the left. With a little Wiki-oogling to flesh out my vague Sunday Skool memories, I was able to fit Noah’s three sons, SHEM, HAM AND JAPHETH down the right, and also to add PLUS THEIR THREE WIVES – none of whom gets a mention by name in the original stories, I believe. Finally, with a last few clues in the top left, and cross-checking the unchecked letters from the preamble, I came up with MR AND MRS NOAH to complete the perimeter.

So, our first EIGHTSOME on the Ark is ‘MR AND MRS NOAH, SHEM, HAM AND JAPHETH, PLUS THEIR THREE WIVES’.

And the four unclued entries fell one-by-one as pairs of male/female animals boarding the Ark two-by-two:

  • cats – QUEEN/TOM
  • chickens – HEN/COCK
  • sheep – RAM/EWE
  • deer – STAG/DOE

…giving the second EIGHTSOME.

 

An epic EV of biblical proportions! With a cast of thousands! (Well, sixteen, to be precise.) Brought to you by Cecil B De Gaston! 

Overall I felt that this was a relatively gentle EV, with a fun take on a pretty universally known story. There were a few obscure/new (to me) words, like TIRL, SHCHI, NIM, KANS as a grass, MAGIAN and ILLATIVE – but all were pretty gettable from wordplay/crossers, and just needed a quick check in the cruciverbal ‘bible’ (Chambers) to make sure they were words.

My thanks to Gaston for an enjoyable solve, and I hope all is clear below.

 

Across
Clue No Solution / Entry Clue (definition underlined)

Logic/Parsing

9 SHCHI Portion of fresh Chinese cabbage soup (5)

hidden word in, i.e. a portion of, ‘freSH CHInese’

11 FILE French girl losing pound note (4)

FIL(L)E – French girl, losing L – pound, Latin, libra

12 VIM Energy of Eastern country with no volcano? (3)

VI(ETNA)M – Eastern country, with no (Mt) Etna, volcano

13 KANSAS Grass-like state? (6)

KANS (Indian grass) + AS (like)

14 ICECAP Step back after I see area that is melting (6)

I + C (see) + ECAP (pace, or step, back)

15 J-CLOTH Judge caught reluctant cleaner (6)

J (judge) + C (caught, cricket scoring) + LOTH (unwilling)

16 WINOS Has success housing old alcoholics (5)

WIN_S (has success) around (housing) O (old)

19 NEWS Perhaps latest partnership surrounds another? (4)

N_S (north and south, a bridge partnership) around (surrounding) EW (east and west, another!)

20 ELECTRIC STORM Before noon, frisky otters circle, creating violent disturbance (13, two words)

ELECTRIC STOR (anag, i.e. frisky, of OTTERS CIRCLE) + M (meridiem, Latin, noon)

23 KILN Dry lecturer involved in relationship (4)

KI_N (relationship) around (involving) L (lecturer)

24 PADMA Both parents carrying dead lotus (5)

PA_MA (pa and ma, both parents!) around (carrying) D (dead)

27 MAGIAN In places tease Scotsman like sorcerer (6)

MAG (dialect, i.e. in places, to tease) + IAN (example of a Scotsman)

28 IN-LAWS Popular Highland hills? They’re not always so popular! (6)

IN (popular) + LAWS (Scottish hills, esp. rounded or conical)

31 ADD A small payment? Say a bit more! (3)

A + DD (abbreviation, or small, for Direct Debit, or payment)

32 TIRL Strip in Stirling? Indeed! (4)

hidden word, i.e. indeed in, sTIRLing

33 ENATIONS Outgrowths from Eastern countries (8)

E (Eastern) + NATIONS (countries)

34 SENNA Old queen’s knocked back drug (5)

ANNE’S, former queen Anne, plus contracted ‘s, all knocked back to give SENNA

Down
Clue No Solution / Entry Clue (definition underlined)

Logic/Parsing

1 ACUMEN Sharpness of people following a vocal procession (6)

A + CU (homophone, i.e. vocal, CU can sound like queue, or procession) + MEN (people)

2 DIECAST Acid reacting with set shape in mould (7)

anag, i.e. reacting, of ACID + SET

3 MONK Almost bond with married, upset brother (4)

KNO(T) (almost all of knot, or bond) + M (married), all upset, or reversed, to give MONK

4 RETAINING WALL Mixed granite in with everything; it holds back solid material (13, two words)

RETAINING (anag, i.e. mixed, of GRANITE IN) + W (with) + ALL (everything)

5 NIMS No longer takes jeans of French cut (4)

(DE)NIMS – denims, or jeans, without, or cutting, DE – of, in French

[‘nim’ being archaic/obsolete, i.e. no longer, for to take]

6 OFFAL Refuse, in US, to kill Capone, say (5)

OFF (in US, to kill) + AL (Al Capone, example of an Al)

7 ALISON Boxer’s in contact with girl (6)

ALIS (Muhammad Ali, boxer, plus contracted ‘s) + ON (in contact with)

8 HALF-TERM Holiday injury felt awful inside (8)

HA_RM (injury) around LF-TE (anag, i.e. awful, of FELT)

10 CONJECT Against rather than for starting plan to guess (7)

(PRO)JECT (plan) changing PRO (for) to CON (against) = CONJECT

17 ILLATIVE Foreign case of sick resident losing head (8)

ILL (sick) + (N)ATIVE (resident, losing first letter, or head)

[‘illative’ being a case in some Finno-Ugric languages, expressing direction into or towards]

18 ORLEANS Borders surrounding a new fabric (7)

ORLE_S (heraldic borders) around (surrounding) A + N (new)

21 SPANISH God exists in quiet national (7)

S_H (interjection, quiet!) around PAN (Greek god) + IS (exists)

22 SMIRCH Dirty raised edges associated with Switzerland (6)

SMIR (rims, or edges, raised) followed by (associated with) CH (Switzerland, Confederatio Helvetica)

25 DIANNE Princess and her sister-in-law’s girl (6)

DI (Princess Diana) + ANNE (her sister in law)

26 ENLIT Shed light on old German abandoning abbreviated GCSE subject (5)

EN(G) LIT – English Literature, GCSE subject, abbreviated, abandoned by G – German

[to ENLIGHT is archaic, or old, for to shed light on – here it is in the past tense]

29 LESS Smaller quantity in sales so… (4)

hidden word in, i.e. quantity of, ‘saLES So’

30 STOP refrain from putting up lots of cash (4)

POTS – lots of cash – put up = STOP!