Hello everybody. As this is my last 225 blog before CHARTISMS, I would like to take the opportunity to wish all you lovely people peace and joy. Now, onto the joy of another entertaining EV …
The preamble:
Wordplay in every clue yields an extra letter not to be entered in the grid. Taken in clue order, these letters give an event involving a LAND RACE and when it occurred. Losses suffered in the LAND RACE are represented in the grid in two ways. Solvers must delete the contents of ten cells (in two lines showing relevant names) and eight further individual cells; one letter in a name does double thematic duty. Ignoring the amended cells, the final grid contains only real words, proper nouns or phrases.
It wasn’t a particularly quick solve, but it was a very top-to-bottom fill. So before long I had chunks of the message clear: BRITAIN ADOPTS … CALENDAR SEVEN … and could see roughly where it would be heading. Indeed, the message proved very helpful in sorting out the later clues. It did take me a while to return to the title and spot how the LAND RACE fits in: we have a rearrangement of the CALENDAR. The message spells out the event:
BRITAIN ADOPTS GREGORIAN CALENDAR SEVENTEEN FIFTY-TWO
A quick check in the usual online resource verified that in switching from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, eleven days of 1752 had to be lost. So I immediately took a red pen (well, yellow highlighter) to all the Ds (DAYs) in the grid (noting that in most cases real words were left behind), counting as I went. With nine removed, there were two DAYs to go.
From the preamble I knew that one of the “relevant names” to be deleted would contain one of these Ds. I also marked the entries which at this stage weren’t real words to help me pinpoint where the remaining deletions would be. Even so, it took a rather embarrassing amount of grid-staring. I actually spotted DORIS at one point and moved on as she didn’t seem to be thematic …
… until I spotted ROBIN, a real facepalm moment! Those last two losses:
Happy Days – thanks Kruger!
Grid showing the eleven DAYs to be removed:
Final grid:
| # | ANSWER | Clue with definition underlined | |
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and ANSWER letters in bold caps | |||
| Across | |||
| 1a | TORERO | Rushed to carry off bullfighter (6) | B |
| TORE (rushed) + RO[B] (to carry off) | |||
| 5a | BINGIES | Superficially nourishing iberis upset stomachs of Victorians (7) | R |
| An anagram of (… upset) the outer letters of (superficially) NourishinG and IBE[R]IS | |||
| 10a | ASTRAY | Like appeal to skate off course (6) | I |
| AS (like) + [I]T (appeal) + RAY (skate) | |||
| 12a | ESNE | Slave’s contradictory support in Senegal (4) | T |
| [T]EE (support) outside (contradictory … in) SN (Senegal) | |||
| 14a | BODGIES | Teddy boys from Perth finding silver in trunks (7) | A |
| [A]G (silver) in BODIES (trunks) | |||
| 15a | BASSIST | Abruptly offer to help axeman? (7) | I |
| Without the last letter (abruptly) B[I]d (offer) + ASSIST (to help) | |||
| 17a | SUBGUM | Squash and spoil Chinese dish (6) | N |
| S[N]UB (squash) + GUM (spoil) | |||
| 18a | ANTI | Not in favour of upas being cut down (4) | A |
| ANTI[A]r (upas) removing the last letter (being cut down) | |||
| 19a | A PRIORI | Sort of reasoning one old Italian magistrate mostly did (7, two words) | D |
| A (one) + PRIOR (old Italian magistrate) + all but the last letter of (mostly) [D]Id | |||
| 21a | CADGE | Beg eccentric old man shortly to take up acting (5) | O |
| C[O]DGEr (eccentric old man) without the last letter (shortly) with the insertion of (to take up) A (acting) | |||
| 23a | DINNER | Lord contacts place near Harrow for banquet (6) | P |
| D (Dominus, Lord) + [P]INNER (place near Harrow) | |||
| 24a | RACEME | Family came across cluster of flowers (6) | T |
| RACE (family) + ME[T] (came across) | |||
| 29a | VELAR | One type of consonant produced slaver (5) | S |
| An anagram of (produced) [S]LAVER | |||
| 31a | NARRATE | Retrospectively, senior relative to think highly of Chronicle (7) | G |
| In reverse (retrospectively), [G]RAN (senior relative) + RATE (to think highly of) | |||
| 33a | ROTE | Scoundrel heading to take away medieval instrument (4) | R |
| ROT[t]E[R] (scoundrel) with the first letter of (heading to) Take missing (away) | |||
| 34a | GLOIRE | For example, French banker’s pinnacle of achievement (6) | E |
| [E]G (for example) + LOIRE (French banker) | |||
| 36a | SEA ROOM | Judge told to clean and maintain area of dock perhaps (7, two words) | G |
| SEE (judge), homophone (told) + [G]ROOM (to clean and maintain) | |||
| 37a | DREAMER | One imagines engineer made error ignoring rule (7) | O |
| Anagram (engineer) MADE ERR[O][r] ignoring R (rule) | |||
| 38a | EPEE | It’s used to fence in English antagonist of poet (4) | R |
| E (English) + PEE[R] (antagonist of poet) | |||
| 39a | SPLEEN | Without money, simple entertainment provides mirth for bard (6) | I |
| Without M (money), S[I][m]PLE ENtertainment has (provides) the answer | |||
| 40a | PARADOR | Adult talk all about endless love in converted Spanish castle (7) | A |
| A (adult) and RAP (talk) all reversed (about) + [A]DORe (love) without the last letter (endless) | |||
| 41a | ISLAND | Man, maybe confined to one country, houses last of refugees (6) | N |
| I[N]LAND (confined to one country) contains (houses) the last of refugeeS | |||
| Down | |||
| 1d | TAMBAC | Catacomb displayed no ordinary mix of metals (6) | C |
| CATA[C][o]MB anagrammed (displayed) without (no) O (ordinary) | |||
| 2d | OSMANLI | Turk vandalised Mona Lisa (7) | A |
| An anagram of (vandalised) MONA LIS[A] | |||
| 3d | EROSION | In distress, rampant big cat’s eating away (7) | L |
| SORE (in distress) upwards (rampant) + [L]ION (big cat) | |||
| 4d | RADIX | Source to register team going up (8) | E |
| R[E]AD (to register) + XI (team) reversed (going up) | |||
| 5d | BAIT | Temptation: just the thing to follow prohibition (4) | N |
| IT (just the thing) to follow BA[N] (prohibition) | |||
| 6d | IRES | Angers dreadful son (4) | D |
| [D]IRE (dreadful) + S (son) | |||
| 7d | GERBIL | Real big horrible rodent (6) | A |
| RE[A]L BIG, anagram (horrible) | |||
| 8d | ISAGOGES | Way to save non-OU splendid academic introductions (8) | R |
| ISA (way to save) + non-OU GO[R]GE[ou]S (splendid) | |||
| 9d | ENDURE | Make certain daughter’s embraced last (6) | S |
| EN[S]URE (make certain); D (daughter) is inside (embraced) | |||
| 11d | USURE | No longer take interest in European Union? Yes (5) | E |
| [E]U (European Union) + SURE (yes) | |||
| 13d | ERMINE | Moth beginning to enter room next to climbing plant (6) | V |
| The first letter of (beginning to) Enter + RM (room) + [V]INE (climbing plant) | |||
| 16d | SHARE | Commonly have to fleece back of ewe (5) | E |
| SH[E]AR (to fleece) + the last letter (back) of ewE | |||
| 19d | ADDLE | Become confused and led astray (5) | N |
| A[N]D LED anagrammed (astray) | |||
| 20d | UNPROPER | Not strictly belonging, one local saucy call-girl’s apprehended (8) | T |
| UN (one local) plus PER[T] (saucy); PRO (call-girl)’s inside (apprehended) | |||
| 22d | GRAVE | Serious former governor (5) | E |
| GR[E]AVE (former governor) | |||
| 23d | DINGLE | Needing quiet, English settled in Delaware valley (6) | E |
| Without (needing) SH (quiet), [E]NGLI[sh] anagrammed (settled) in DE (Delaware) | |||
| 25d | CARRELL | Clean ruler regularly dirtied in desk (7) | N |
| An anagram of (… dirtied) CLEA[N] with RuLeR regularly | |||
| 26d | MITOGEN | Heartlessly fomenting awful means of dividing up cells (7) | F |
| Without the middle letter (heartlessly) [F]OMEnTING anagrammed (awful) | |||
| 27d | PALAPA | Briefly suffering, friend erected a shelter from sun (6) | I |
| Missing the last letter (briefly), PA[I]n + PAL (friend) upwards (erected) + A | |||
| 28d | CRIMEA | Something deplorable buried in Florida peninsula (6) | F |
| CRIME (something deplorable) buried in [F]A (Florida) | |||
| 29d | VARDY | Very late decision unfashionable (5) | T |
| V (very) + [T]ARDY (late) | |||
| 30d | REMAND | Send back a lot of people engaged by squadron of the fleet previously (6) | Y |
| MAN[Y] (a lot of people) inside (engaged by) RED (squadron of the fleet previously) | |||
| 32d | DAMPS | Discourages mothers drinking port (5) | T |
| DAMS (mothers) taking in (drinking) P[T] (port) | |||
| 35d | ERGO | Elbow-grease boosted reserves accordingly (4) | W |
| ElbO[W]–GREase in reverse (boosted) holds (reserves) the answer | |||
| 36d | SEER | Escort gold in Delhi – about 2lb (4) | O |
| SEE (escort) + [O]R (gold) | |||
Fun puzzle especially once I twigged why DORIS and ROBIN needed to be removed. Never understood the significance of LAND RACE though so thanks for clearing that up.
One minor clue quibble re 28d, the abbreviation for Florida is FL not FA (including in my online Chambers) – ?
Oh and also, there was an Inquisitor with the same theme (and partly the same mechanic of removing Ds) not very long ago.
Thanks Kruger and Kitty!
arnold@1
I find FLA as an alternative short form for Florida in some dictionaries online but not FA.
Very enjoyable puzzle as ever from Kruger,.for which many thanks. A few new rords for me too such as Vardy and Carrell. Not too tricky to fill the grid but I spent an age on the endgame.
Many thanks Kitty for all your blogs throughout ’23. I love reading them !
Thank you! 🙂
@arnold and KVa – FA for Florida (as “Fa.”) is in my Chambers app, although not in any of the other references I checked.
[Today has been one of those days, and I’m really rather wishing I could delete the next 11!]