Shark is giving us a bit of a clue that COLUMN 1 might contain some useful information!…
The preamble states that:
“42 is unclued and five answers must be entered with blank cells. Solvers must add 16 symmetrical bars to isolate a thematic subject, which is to be shaded grey (ignoring these blank cells). At this point, three letters are then to be added to complete two relevant names. COLUMN 1 was integral to forming the result. Real words are formed in the final grid surrounding the subject. Clue lengths refer to the available space in the grid. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”
That required a couple of re-reads, and the solve became a multi-layered and multi-day experience…
I managed to get a few of the normal entries in to start with, and a couple of candidates for blank cells – NARDOO and MUMBAI were one short of their slots, UNION two short, but it took a while before I found LAKE and GENET.
In the meantime Column 1 eventually fell into place as TESTON and PUPPET, anchoring NARDOO and UNION to start at the left of their slots, and needing a bit of punctuation for TEST ON PUPPET.
So far, so good, although I had no idea what sort of puppet we were looking for – Sooty & Sweep? Roland Rat?…Pinocchio?… As for ‘isolating’ something thematic, I had nothing obvious, although long experience (and the ‘symmetrical bars‘ in the preamble) suggested that it would probably be fairly central…
At some point I put it down (metaphorically, as I was solving from a screenshot my iPad, and I just started working on other puzzles!) and only came back to it a couple of days later., when I remembered it was my turn to blog, so I had better get it solved…
Getting FALAJ and BANJO led me to wondering about the spaces/blanks in NANDOO and UNION, and I happened to notice a possible JOHN going down from the J of FALAJ. And to the right, symmetrically, there was a BILL. Too much coincidence, given that the preamble has us looking for two names!
I experimented a bit with blocking off various rectangles around the centre, but nothing obvious stood out, until I finally got GENET and was able to determine the blanks/spaces. A flash of PDM hit me when I saw JOHN, LO?GIE and BA?I?D in that middle sector – so TRANSMIT (which had by now got enough crossers to be that), TELEFILM (linked to 42A in its clue) and TEST ON PUPPET suggested that we were in the realms of early television pioneering.
But I had to resort to a bit of Wiki-oogling to learn that JLB’s first ‘transmission’ involved a puppet called STOOKY BILL, which was used because a combination of the brightness/heat of the lights used and the colour contrast on Bill’s face made him a better candidate than a human guinea pig.
The eventual isolation of the central section (impressively leaving real words around the outside) involved 16 extra bars, the words JOHN LOGIE BAIRD and STOOKY BILL in the approximate shape of Bill’s face, with the blanks corresponding to his eyes and mouth and the rest greyed-in:
And that was that…an entertaining, challenging and educational EV puzzle – just as it should be!
Probably towards the harder end of the EV scale, with some new/obscure (to me) words, like FALAJ, LAKIN, SNELLS, RIVIERE, to name a few. With all those relatively rare letters as well, J, K, X, Y, Z, I did wonder if it would end up a pangram, but it was a W and Q short. I also learned of Ashley Banjo and his ‘Diversity‘ dance group, a cultural phenomenon that had passed me by…
My thanks to the Shark for the challenge, plus kudos for such an inventive grid design and dénouement, and I trust all is clear above and below…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution / Entry | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/Parsing |
||
| 1 | TELEFILM | 42 this masculine animation and check back (8)
M (masculine) + LIFE (animation) + LET (check, hinder) = MLIFELET, all back to give TELEFILM, something one might 42 – TRANSMIT, |
||
| 7 | ASCUS | Cell in ME city ignoring restraint (5)
( |
||
| 11 | FIXATE | Preoccupy lot encircling Roman square (6)
F_ATE (lot) around (encircling) IX (nine, a square number, in Roman numerals!) |
||
| 12 | ULNARE | Raced around breaking rubber bone (6)
UL_E (rubber) around (broken by) NAR (ran, raced, around) |
||
| 14 | SEAT | Saddle upsets cycling (4)
EATS, upsets, worries, cycling the last letter to the front = SEAT |
||
| 15 | LOAM | Heart cleared from blockage to reveal core? (4)
LO( |
||
| 16 | BENIN | Labourite welcomes independent republic (5)
BEN_N (Anthony Wedgwood Benn, or his son Hilary Benn, both labour politicians) around (welcoming) I (independent) |
||
| 17 | TINEAL / TINEA | Toenail, lacking oxygen, cracked from athlete’s foot (6)
subtractive anagram, i.e. cracked, of T( |
||
| 18 | BANJO / BAN | Diversity leader – he might play on this (5)
double defn. Ashley BANJO leads the dance group ‘Diversity’; and he, or anyone else with a musical talent – or not! – might play on a BANJO |
||
| 19 | TABLOID / LOID | Boil liquid infused in small amount that’s concentrated (7)
TA_D (small amount) around (infused by) BLOI (anag, i.e. liquid, of BOIL) |
||
| 20 | NARDOO / NARD | Aborigine fodder cooked on road (7)
anag, i.e. cooked, of ON ROAD |
||
| 23 | ISLED / SLED | Lived on key ingredients, scoffing low energy diet at first (5)
first letters of ‘Ingredients Scoffing Low Energy Diet’ [key here being an island] |
||
| 24 | PLUSH / PLUS | Prince, rich, getting fabric for his top hat (5)
P (prince) + LUSH (rich) |
||
| 26 | OILBIRD / BIRD | Cave dweller‘s libido right off (7)
anag, i.e. off, of LIBIDO + R (right) [an oilbird being a cave-dwelling bird] |
||
| 29 | UNION / UNIO | University against student’s club (7)
UNI (university) + ON (against) |
||
| 30 | LAKE / AKE | Holiday in Whitby, Ontario? (5)
double defn. – LAKE is North English dialect , i.e. in Whitby, for a holiday from work, or period of unemployment; and Ontario is one of the Great LAKEs |
||
| 35 | DASHES / ASHES | Reindeer stopped short Santa’s opening runs (6)
DASHE( |
||
| 36 | PAOLI | Obsolete bits of sacred language embodying heart of God (5)
PA_LI (sacred Buddhist language) around (embodying) O (the middle letter, or heart, of gOd) [bits here as coins] |
||
| 37 | NECK | Down half of fruit juice in front of king (4)
NEC( |
||
| 38 | IOTA | Scrap fauna and flora neglecting its origin (4)
( |
||
| 39 | ELUATE | Lift stockpiles posh washing liquid (6)
EL_ATE (lift) around (stockpiling) U (posh, not non-U!) |
||
| 40 | ACINUS | Pip‘s curtailing move because of America (6)
AC( |
||
| 41 | TISRI | Tax office to press returns in this month (5)
IR (Inland Revenue, tax office) + SIT (press) all returned to give TISRI, a month in the Jewish calendar |
||
| 42 | TRANSMIT | Unclued (8)
Unclued/thematic deduction – with generous crossing letters! |
||
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution / Entry | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/Parsing |
||
| 1 | TESTON | Supplement fashion revealing Tudor piece (6)
TE (Times Educational Supplement) + TON (fashion/people of fashion) [piece here meaning coin] |
||
| 2 | LIANA | Part of Brazilian Amazon? (5)
hidden word in, i.e. part of, ‘braziLIAN Amazon’ [an @lit? the whole of the clue is the definition and the wordplay?!] |
||
| 3 | EXTEND | Drag out to waste time replacing piano (6)
EX( |
||
| 4 | FALAJ / FALA | Practically terminate a joint channel (5)
FAL( [an Arabic word for irrigation channel] |
||
| 5 | LEAS / LEA | Delight being unclad in meadows (4)
( |
||
| 6 | MUMBAI / MUM | Foreign character with medical degree at the best place in India (7)
MU (Greek character) + MB (Medicinae Baccalaureus, medical degree) + AI (A1 – the best) |
||
| 7 | ALBS | Chapel biblists regularly wearing these (4)
regular letters, every third, from ‘chApeL biBliSts |
||
| 8 | SNELLS | Illness at sea, dropping Shark’s guts attached to fishing line (6)
subtractive anagram, i.e. at sea, of ( |
||
| 9 | CANNOLI | Dessert from tin not at all liked (picking out fly) (7)
CAN (tin) + NO (not at all) + LI(KED) (removing, or picking out, ked, or fly) |
||
| 10 | SENEDD | Education divides to propel assembly (6)
SEN_D (to propel) around (divided by) ED (Education) [the Welsh Assembly, or parliament] |
||
| 13 | RIVIERE | Jewellery from warm coastal district cut by Ebendorf originally (7)
RIVIER( |
||
| 18 | BALNEAL | Bath’s to strengthen after return of Labour (7)
BAL (return of Lab, or Labour) + NEAL (anneal, strengthen) |
||
| 21 | RUINOUS | Contact sport I sense is crippling (7)
RU (Rugby Union, contact sport) + I + NOUS (sense) |
||
| 22 | GENET / NET | Female donkey‘s offspring, born inside (7)
GE_T (the offspring, usually of animals) around NE (né, born) |
||
| 24 | PUPPET | 50% of students cherished or controlled by others (6)
PUP( |
||
| 25 | SOLLAR | Medley in senior’s upper room (6)
S_R (senior) around OLLA (olla-podrida, Spanish stew, or medley) |
||
| 27 | BASINS | Tanks singer grabbing number 1 upset (6)
BAS_S (singer) around IN (N – number – plus I – 1, upset) |
||
| 28 | DESALT | Purify deltas, potentially (6)
anag, i.e. potentially, of DELTAS |
||
| 31 | LAKIN / AKIN | Poet wanting Regina for Will’s woman (5)
LA( [(Will) Shakespeare, version of ladykin, diminutive of lady] |
||
| 32 | KHOUM | African rhino in African city – no trickery here! (5)
KH( [rhino being slang for cash, here a KHOUM is a monetary unit of Mauretania] |
||
| 33 | ZITI | Spot Italy’s pasta (4)
ZIT (spot) + I (Italy) |
||
| 34 | YEAR | It‘s not long if skipping November? (4)
YEAR( |
||