Maize sets our Saturday challenge this week….
….and what a fun challenge it was!
It was clear from the outset that the first three across entries formed a word ladder, with each entry one letter different from the one before, but it wasn’t until we were a bit further into the puzzle that we realised the ladder went right round the grid. Perhaps we should have noticed it earlier by looking at the grid, but it was an excellent PDM.
Maize helped us enormously with relatively simple clues for the twelve Word Ladder entries, plus the confirmation at 21d.
Some of the other clues were rather trickier but there are no unusual words and some great surfaces – quite a tour de force!
WORlD (subject of Geography) with the ‘l’ (left) missing or ‘out’
wORD (the previous entry) with L (Latin) replacing the first letter or ‘head’
LORd (the previous entry) with E (English) replacing or ‘covering’ the last letter
An RE VENUE might be a space (VENUE) for Divinity (RE – Religious Education)
Fascists are on the FAR R (right) + AGO (in the past)
An anagram (‘chaos’) of LATEST POLICE
cUrRiEs (alternate or ‘regular’ letters) in or kept by’ AVOIR (French for ‘to have’)
To ‘make Manx’ could whimsically be to DE-TAIL (remove the tail – Manx cats have no tail)
D (last letter or ‘back’ of England) IN IN (‘batting’ twice) G (last or ‘final’ letter of bowling)
PARmeSAN (Italian cheese) with a reversal (‘brought back’) of IT replacing ‘me’
An anagram (‘scrappy’) of WIN WAS EIGHTH
NUN (sister) round or ‘introducing’ A + CombativE missing the middle letters or ‘discontented’ + D (daughter)
VA (Virginia) N (new) U (union) AT U (university)
IN between R (radius) and D (diameter)
RINd (the previous entry) missing the last letter or ‘minus end’ + G (first letter or ‘start’ of great)
RiNG (previous entry) with U (21st letter in the alphabet or ‘series’) replacing the ‘i’ (one) – 21d is LADDER
A reversal (‘reflectively) of DRAW (illustrate)
cRAVE (badly want) missing or ‘displacing’ the ‘c’ (Conservative)
OPTIC (‘some nerve’) round or ‘keeping’ ERA (time)
An anagram (‘battered’) of FRIED and F (first letter or ‘starter’ of fish)
LO (look) + LIEU (place) TENANT (‘letter’) after R D (down)
RE (about) + an anagram (‘scattering’) of PAPER + RAISE (hike) Thanks Hovis
IN (‘hip’ – trendy) CONVENED (brought together) round an anagram (‘manoeuvring’) of NICE
L (league) ON E (Earth)
W (with) with AND (with)
F (female) RAN (led) GI (soldier) PANIc (attack of nerves) missing the last letter or ‘brief’
Last letters or ‘ends’ of overhauL tO maintaiN biG
TAX (get money from) HAVEs (the rich) with the ‘s’ (south) replaced by N (north) or ‘ultimately the opposite’
The perimeter entries (‘boundary here’) form a WORD (1ac) LADDER
WINDow (opportunity) missing the last two letters or with a ‘33% reduction’
O A (first and last letters or ‘extremes’ of Obama) + HonolulU (missing the middle letters or with the ‘content leaving’) – Honolulu is on the island of OAHU
cLUNG (held on) missing or ‘ignoring’ ‘c’ (cold)
One query on 6d: is a letter a tenant? Seems to me the letter (or more properly lessor) is the landlord/lady and the lessee is the tenant (though lettee, sadly, isn’t a word!). That very minor quibble aside, this was a super puzzle along with a super blog, thanks Maize and B&J.
Enjoyed the puzzle. Didn’t pick up on the theme immediately and needed the blog for a full understanding but it was helpful while solving which is always fun. Nho 6d and it took some time(letter?). Great clues, great surfaces, applause for B+J and Maize.
I had the same thought about ‘letter’ and ‘tenant’. In 7d, wordplay doesn’t have RE (about), so ‘about’ is best placed in the definition.
Thanks Hovis – you are correct about 7d. We both missed this.
We’ll sort this out when we get home.
A very clever bit of setting. I had thought that a letter, like a renter could be either party in the transaction, but Chambers doesn’t support it
Very neat device, including the word ladder. And lots of lovely clues as one would expect from this setter. I am another slightly thrown by ‘letter’, though, and I cannot find support in the dictionary. ‘Renter’ works to describe either party in a lease but Chambers seems pretty clear that ‘letting’ is granting to a tenant, not being one.
Thanks Maize and B&J
The same slight surprise at letter being the tenant, but what a thoroughly enjoyable crossword! Loved the device around the perimeter, and couldn’t pick a favourite from such excellent surfaces. Good start to the day
As always with this setter, this was challenging and great fun. My only quibble is that 33% is not quite one third!
Many thanks to Maize for an excellent puzzle with clever clueing throughout and great surface readings. The perimeter word ladder was a work of genius. Thanks too to B&J.
PS. A passing thought. As a setter is someone who compiles a crossword, does that make us solvers settees?
Hee hee, Rabbit Dave
Thx B&J, and nice job, Maize! Favourite TAX HAVEN.
Thanks to B&J & to all settees 🙂
Apologies for my oversight in 6d. Miserableoldhack @1 and others are quite right of course. Hope you were all still able to solve the puzzle though, and we’ll put it right in time for reprinting in the i paper…
RabbitDave@8 I suspect that is not why Sofamore@2 has chosen his monicker.
Thanks both. To be admired for originality. The mistake in LORD LIEUTENANT went unnoticed as it was one of a few I failed to parse. 33% was also near enough on a day a trip to Stratford upon Avon took centre stage, so completion was post trip and happy to rate my performance as not ‘bard’.
Thanks Bertandjoyce for explaining TAX HAVEN (best I could come up with was a CD), and LADDER, rarely seen in that sense this side of the pond. Equally rare here is the abbreviation you’ve shown for 10a, so I’d taken RE as an alternate spelling of the Egyptian sun god Ra. Congrats to Maize.
I’m a-Maized the editor didn’t spot the tenant error still, thanks all the word ladder was a nice thing. Thanks M, B&J
At first I was thrown off by the fact that 3a 6a 28a 29a didn’t have a proper definition part but I guess having it would give away the word ladder gimmick. That aside, I didn’t think I would miss only two entries (FRANGIPANI a new one, DETAIL I just couldn’t get although I’ve heard of a Manx cat before). 12a TOTAL ECLIPSE is a nice anagram!
Thanks Maize for the entertainment and B&J for the blog.