Hedge-sparrow flies back in for the festive(?) season.
Preamble: One letter must be removed from each of eight answers before entry so that the entry fits the available space; unjumbling these letters gives the name of a poet. A letter must be removed from each of 15 clues prior to solving: in clue order these spell the name of someone thematically linked to the poet. Solvers must complete the unclued entry and highlight a description of it created by one of the two individuals and used by the other (51 cells). Except for two abbreviations, all grid entries are real words or phrases; letter-counts refer to space available. The form at 25 is in Collins.
In rural Wales for New Year, somewhere between Storm Gerrit and Storm Henk. Two of the others went for a walk after lunch on New Year’s Eve while I made a sound start on the puzzle – interrupted by a call saying one had slipped, heard a crack, and where was the nearest A&E? (Hereford, a good hour away.) They returned plastered and on crutches 2 or 3 hours before midnight.
After an incident-free walk on NY Day I settled back down to the puzzle, finding clues with extra letters a bit easier than those whose answers had to have a letter removed. I have the impression that all the clues were very well crafted and on the hard side, but eminently fair. Nothing was emerging from either sort of removed letters but I was enjoying the challenge, solver versus setter. Called it a day in order to join in yesterday’s feast that had been delayed 24 hours.
The following day disaster loomed – country lanes had become rivers, the cottage was surrounded by a moat of at least 10 cms of water pouring off the hills, and the car wouldn’t start. (The EV’s slave battery had shorted owing to the adverse conditions.) The RAC chap didn’t show for over 5 hours, plenty time to wrap up the puzzle (which had thankfully given me something interesting to do). I no longer recall which came first, Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS or ALAUDA ARVENSIS, the Lark Ascending in the unclued column, then onto George MEREDITH, all of which helped with the last few non-standard clues/entries. Finally, FINALLY, at home, and I pick out the first two lines of the poem in the grid – really good stuff from Hedge-sparrow, impressive.
I had some trouble disentangling the wordplay for 11a FILOSE – I couldn’t convince myself that O would be clued as “wheel” – but then Jon_S helped me out by noting that the Chambers app does have “anything shaped like the letter O” under O¹. So, thanks, and happy NY to all.
| No. | Clue [removal] | Ans[w]er | Wordplay |
| Across | |||
| 1 | Half beginning to be taken in by these ultimately baseless conjectures (9) | THEORISES | ORI(gin) (beginning) in THESE (baseles)S |
| 9 | Simple truth curtailed by li[v]e broadcast (6) | FACILE | FAC(t) (truth) [LIE]* |
| 10 | Hallucination on drug is poor stuff (4) | [T]RIPE | TRIP (hallucination) E (ecstasy, drug) |
| 11 | Threadlike scrap of elastic f[a]ils to secure wheel in the van (6) | FILOSE | FILS around O (wheel) before E(lastic) |
| 12 | Beaver scratching St[u]art’s Highland soil (4) | EARD | (b)EARD (beaver) |
| 13 | Saint and sinner avoiding secret places (6) | STANDS | ST (saint) AND SINNER ¬ INNER (secret) |
| 15 | Holds on when power’s nullified by neutron beams (4) | G[R]INS | GRIPS (holds on) with P(ower) replaced by N(eutron) |
| 17 | Member of house spinning web (4) | MESH | M(ember) HSE< (house) |
| 19 | With opponents trailing, turn over card (4) | TOSE | SE (South & EAST, bridge opponents) after TO (turn over) |
| 20 | Past international blocks monetary exchange (4) | AGIO | AGO (past) around I(nternational) |
| 21 | Petitions for supplies following loss of lives (3) | SU[E]S | ISSUES (supplies) ¬ IS (lives) |
| 24 | Pull back revolutionary old guard after countryman’s [g]one (6) | UNDRAW | WARD< (guard, archaic) UN (one, dialect) |
| 25 | Immigration to Israel from Laos regrettably taking one year (6) | ALIYOS | [LAOS]* around I (one) Y(ear) |
| 26 | Vessel knocking off prow of ding[h]y (3) | ARK | (d)ARK (dingy) |
| 27 | Old rope secures b[a]it (4) | DROP | (ol)D ROP(e) |
| 29 | Trace heroin and crack (4) | S[M]ACK | triple definition |
| 31 | Sun failing to pierce impenetrable valley (4) | DENE | DENSE (impenetrable) ¬ S(un) |
| 32 | Strangely, this man Mr Nosy could be my other son (4) | THEO | [MY OTHER SON]* ¬ [MR NOSY]* |
| 33 | Me[n]tal state is linked initially with backfiring gun (6) | SILVER | S(tate) I(s) L(inked) REV< (gun) |
| 36 | Bulrush root, lacking pith, disgorged by reptile (4) | TULE | TURTLE (reptile) ¬ R(oo)T |
| 38 | One welcomed by eccentric master chef of mediaeval German court (6) | FEHMIC | I (one) in [M(aster) CHEF]* |
| 39 | Shelled pigeon pea in Scots preserve (4) | HAIN | (d)HA(l) (pigeon pea) IN |
| 40 | Dismissed unionist replaced by one leading faculty’s regulatory body (6) | OFSTED | OUSTED (dismissed) with U(nionist) replaced by F(aculty) |
| 41 | IT accessory’s well-grounded jack? (9, 2 words) | SOUND CARD | SOUND (well-grounded) CARD (jack?) |
| Down | |||
| 1 | Mad Hatter’s intimation about forthcoming [w]ill (6) | THREAT | [HATTER]* |
| 2 | NZ bird’s short song of praise exorcising gen[i]e (4) | HUIA | HALLELUIA(h) (song of praise) ¬ ALLEL (gene) |
| 3 | Courageous woman, head down, tails former journalists without a word (14) | EXPRESSIONLESS | LIONESS (courageous woman) with L moved later, after EX- (former) PRESS (journalists) |
| 4 | Tense young hooligan overturned [L]ego houses (6, 2 words) | ON EDGE | NED (young hooligan) in EGO< |
| 5 | Palm fibres for weaving are cut up: climbing sloth did it (6) | RAFFIA | AR< AI (sloth) FF (fecerunt, L, did it) both< |
| 6 | Steal intricate mediaeval helmet (4) | SAL[E]T | [STEAL]* |
| 7 | Neatly arranged stole abandoned by Chaplain (4) | F[I]LED | FILCHED (stole) ¬ CH(aplain) |
| 8 | Reporter struggling when receiving shilling a week (8) | NEWSHAWK | [WHEN]* aroung S(hilling) A WK (week) |
| 14 | Elaborate marquetry university lecturer found in trunk (6) | BOULLE | U(niversity) L(ecturer) in BOLE (trunk) |
| 16 | Hypothesis originally underpinning error function (4) | SINH | H(ypothesis) after SIN (error) |
| 17 | Note adopting O[l]d Style (4) | MODE | ME (note) around OD |
| 18 | Formal feature of brutalist architecture (6) | STARCH | (brutali)ST ARCH(itecture) |
| 21 | In Danse Macabre, appear without women’s footwear (8) | SANDSHOE | [DANSE]* around SHOW (appear) ¬ W(omen) |
| 22 | Army finally entering ru[i]ns of French seaside town (4) | RYDE | (arm)Y in R(uns) DE (of, Fr) |
| 23 | Astronomer who discovered cloud rising he[a]rd quietly to depart (4) | OORT | TROOP< (herd) ¬ P (quietly) |
| 28 | Went across Chile sat on a high seat (6) | PERC[H]ED | PEED (went) around RCH (Chile) |
| 29 | His telescopic representation misses unusual eclipse of Sirius (6) | SOTHIC | [HIS TELESCOPIC]* ¬ [ECLIPSE]* |
| 30 | Lamented fine crest that’s missing ge[m] (6) | KEENED | KEEN (fine) EDGE (crest) ¬ GE |
| 34 | Suspect stinky bit of [s]napper’s gone off (4) | IFFY | NIFFY (stinky) ¬ N(apper) |
| 35 | Bird seen ascending in denouement (4) | EMEU | (deno)UEME(ment) rev. |
| 37 | Grey country girl leaving lively dance (4) | LIAR[D] | GALLIARD (lively dance) ¬ GAL (girl, dialect) |
I thoroughly enjoyed this well-designed, well-clued puzzle. It was no trivial task to unravel and solve the three types of clue (including the 22 ‘normal’ clues) and thence to find the poet MEREDITH and the composer VAUGHAN WILLIAMS. The lark ‘ascending’ in the unclued entry was very neat, and the incorporation of such a substantial quotation was pretty amazing.
I got temporarily stuck with ALIYOS and OORT, overlooking the note in the preamble about the former being in Collins. I agree with HG that the clues with the extra letters were somewhat more tractable than the other type of special clue.
Thanks to Hedge-sparrow, and to HG for the blog (sorry you had such an incident-packed time away – glad only that it gave you some good crossword time).
Lovely puzzle and I hadn’t listened to RVW’s Lark composition before, which is really rather beautiful.
I found the rising Alauda rather fiendish, but also satisfying once it revealed itself. Not helped by my thinking the poet would be TRAHERNE rather than MEREDITH based on the first extra 5 letters I had uncovered.
Thank you both!
I agree that the clues were on the tough side, but I got there after quite a long tussle. Vaughan Williams was the key; the internet led me to the relevant poet and therefore the lark. Impressive and fair, though I still can’t see why ‘grey’ might lead one to ‘liar’, or ‘liar’ to ‘grey’.
If it introduces anyone to the piece itself, it has done a service. Thanks to Hedge-sparrow and HG.
Neil @3
‘Grey’ defines the clue’s answer LIARD [see Chambers], not the entry LIAR for this special clue.
Excellent stuff! All thanks to Hedge-sparrow and HolyGhost. As at @2, it took me a while to realize the lark was literally ascending. It was cheering to find that my 1910 selection of Meredith’s poems (leather-bound, yet) includes this one….
Alan B@1 has said it all. Also, we hope that you are now sorted HolyGhost. We are in one of the worst areas for flooding this time around but thankfully we haven’t suffered ourselves.
We needed a search on-line for help with the highlighting and confirmation of the poet.
Thanks to HolyGhost and Hedge-sparrow.
Thanks, everyone, for your kind comments, and to HolyGhost for the excellent preamble. I’m glad the puzzle was enjoyable. I wondered if anyone might comment on the clue 35d which was a hint towards the end-game, but perhaps the hint wasn’t needed. Happy New Year to you all.
Nope, 35d flew over my head. As you say, not essential, though the latin lark did take a bit of digging out. And thanks, Alan B, for explaining what should have been obvious to me.
I loved this and had to double-check JH’s POTY guidelines – this would have been a contender for a precious point. Next year …
Bravo to Hedge-sparrow for incorporating the poem’s first two lines. Wow.
I’m familiar with the musical work but not the poem itself. It was a treat to be introduced to it.
Sorry to hear of the NY travails endured by HolyGhost. Sounds like the IQ helped you through it though.
Thanks to blogger and setter for two fabulous examples of their kind and all the best for 2024 to everyone here.