Rather a long preamble for this puzzle…“Clues are in alphabetical order of their answers, to be entered where they will fit: some entries require one of their cells to contain two letters. Three clues yield entries which answer a question, and three others (clued by wordplay only) yield entries which are possible prizes. Remaining clues have an extra word (of four or more letters, to be removed before solving): second and penultimate letters of these yield, respectively, another question and a wordplay-only clue to another prize, answers to both of which also form entries. The completed grid must be (theoretically) pulled, by drawing a continuous zigzag line so that letters sharing a cell are on either side. The final prize can be seen going to the traditional winner of this seasonal contest; solvers must create their own version by colouring it in, as well as the column to its left. Enumerations give answer lengths. Chiffchaff hopes the puzzle goes with a BANG!”
People who, like me, enjoy ‘alphabetical… enter where they will fit’ puzzles have been rather spoilt lately, but this one was something special.
It is, very obviously, a representation of a cracker.
The three clues which answer a question and their answers are in blue. They prove to be cracker-style puns.
The three wordplay-only clues which yield possible prizes that one might find in a cracker (TOY SANTA, WHISTLE, YO-YO) are in green.
The second letters of the extra words yield WHAT DO YOU GET IF YOU EAT XMAS DECORATIONS? The answer, of course, is TINSELITIS. You could look this up on the internet if you didn’t know (although there was some ambiguity – not resolved until the endgame – as to whether it was spelled with an E or an I).
The extra words’ penultimate letters yield MAYBE CASPAR HUGS SNUBBED HEROINE IN BOOK, which can be parsed as KING (Maybe Caspar) [hugs] [snubbed] EYRE (heroine in book), giving KEYRING.
When the cracker is pulled, it splits the cells containing two letters. The final prize is a PAPER HAT, which can be seen going to the traditional winner – the person who gets the larger part of the cracker.
I love Christmas, and this was a festive blast jammed with thematic material. Thank you, Chiffchaff!
| Notation | |
|---|---|
| Definition | word |
| Indicator | [word] |
| Anagram | WORD* |
| ‘Combination’ anagram | LETTERS + WORD* |
| Reversal | <WORD |
| Superfluous word | word |
As always, please let me know if anything isn’t clear.
| Twosome of Wings À LA (like) R |
ALAR |
| Contracts BET (Libby) [to lead] SHORT* Christmas [revelling] (8) | BETROTHS |
| [Flipping] < {TIP (upset] W (with) O (duck), R (rook) and ROB |
BORROW PIT |
| DROP (Tot) stabs [dancing] HOST* – it could make a point (8) | DROPSHOT |
| What do Santa’s little helpers learn at school? (7) | ELFABET |
| Priest admonished [stripped] |
ELI |
| ELSA | |
| Playful N (number)[‘s cut] after {SLEEPI |
ESPIÈGLE |
| Eruptions may come from this < { |
ETNA |
| What do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire? (9) | FROSTBITE |
| Gill[‘s in] Rudolph jinGLE Now (4) | GLEN |
| Egyptian instrument RAPH |
HARP |
| That Vera woman‘s [extremely] O |
HER |
| Starlight time { |
HOUR |
| Sacred bird [seen in] miraculous garibaldI BIScuit (4) | IBIS |
| I (One) TA (thanks) <ÉTOIL |
ITALIOTE |
| Cut K (King) and ER (old Queen) cypress [lid for] F |
KERF |
| LA (The Parisian) [leaving] STEL |
LEST |
| NOEL* [blasted] [by] SS (saints) [protecting} CH (church) where monster pudding may be found? (8, two words) | LOCH NESS |
| Gospel writer briefly M |
MATT |
| Ask local wannabe <[to read over] [part of] SainT WENceslas (4) | NEWT |
| OAR | |
| Main resident excited O (over) PA (Father) |
OPAH |
| Emeralds B (bachelor)[‘s found under] OR (gold) ring (3) | ORB |
| Lowers OX |
OXEN |
| P (Priest) astonished [by] [bewildered] ATHEIST*’s translation of Bible (8) | PESHITTA |
| In Ayr, Magpie editors R (run) [away] [after throwing] PA |
PYAT |
| ROT (Decay) [on] [top of] I |
ROTI |
| S |
SAW |
| SHO |
SHOO |
| Tall soul perhaps painted Archangel lady (9) | SIX-FOOTER |
| SP (Special) wassail – ICY (chilling) and risqué (5) | SPICY |
| The way ST (saint)[‘s left] < |
TAO |
| Who beats his chest and swings from Christmas cake to Christmas cake? (8) | TARZIPAN |
| Slight < [rising] NI |
THIN |
| A (Adult) [supporting] {ANY TOTS}* [in trouble] (8, two words) | TOY SANTA |
| [Crazy] {VIX |
VITRAUX |
| WHIST (Old-time Silent) N |
WHISTLE |
| Snow [left pairs of] YOkels HOlding HOlly, and a bottle of rum! (6) | YO-HO-HO |
| <[Spinning] |
YO-YO |
| I WIN + these debugging devices, [perhaps after arranging] {PR |
ZAPPERS |
WHISTLE
The explanation is missing in the blog (must have been left out inadvertently).
Old-time silent=WHIST+LE(n)
Updated! Thanks, KVa
A truly ‘cracking’ puzzle – great grid construction, tricky jigsaw, pun-tastic humour…took me right up to the last minute, but I just got there in time to submit…thx to Chiffchaff for the challenge and Mister Sting for confirming some I hadn’t quite parsed…
Hmm..a cracking puzzle but I got confused by “some entries require one of their cells to contain two letters” which I took literally – ie for each entry only a single cell could be doubled up. Hence I put the doublers one column to the left of the answer, because this worked for the top 4 letters (all in different clues). But it didn’t work for Yoyo so at that point I was stumped.
Your answer of course makes more sense, but the cells for ITALIOTE all contain two letters, hence contradicting the preamble which I felt could have been clearer.
But thank you anyway, a challenging solve with all those extra bits going on.