Nine entries hinted at by definitions only – three groups of three. (Definitions refer to all or part of thematic material – we have been warned.) Two thematic references to be highlighted in the grid (8 cells), the third to be written below.
The grid filled fairly quickly, particularly the top right quadrant …
… though sorting out WITGAT (at 21d) and then ORTHIAN (at 28a) took a while – how to make sense of that A? The unclued entries were fully or mainly cross-checked, so I had a pretty much completed grid before getting down to the ‘specials’. I stared at this for what must have been an hour getting nowhere fast, frustration building.
At last I spotted the links from Marsupials to WOMBATS to MOW, and from Tumblers to ACROBATS to ORCA, and noticed BATS diagonally in the grid. (Ghost → SPECTRE → RESPECT completes that group – no explicit BATS there, but we were warned.) Next came NUTS symmetrically placed in the grid, giving me a second trio of PALMYRA → PALMARY, COKER → OCKER, and GRAPE → PAGER, Grape-Nuts being an American breakfast cereal (containing neither grapes nor nuts). Finally came CREAM CRACKERS and the rest, providing the third indication of “crazy”, hence the title.
Not that hard, I suppose, but that depends on how quickly (or slowly) the thematic material revealed itself. And I guess that determines how enjoyable an experience it was …
| Definition | Answer | Group | Entry |
| Elite | CREAM | CRACKERS | MACER |
| Ghost | SPECTRE | BATS | RESPECT |
| Marsupials | WOMBATS | BATS | MOW |
| Part of Eliot title | {East} COKER | NUTS | OCKER |
| Sack | FIRE | CRACKERS | RIFE |
| Singular theme word | NUT | CRACKERS | TUN |
| Toddy source | PALMYRA | NUTS | PALMARY |
| Tumblers | ACROBATS | BATS | ORCA |
| Uva | GRAPE | NUTS | PAGER |
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Answer | Wordplay | |
| 9 | APOLLO | A + L(ine) in POLO (sport) | |
| 10 | RUAIRI | AIR (attitude) in RUI(n) (devastation) | |
| 11 | GENOM | GEN (information) + OM (Order {of Merit}) | |
| 12 | LAUF | LAU(d) (praise) + F(rench) | |
| 14 | UNSCALE | [CLUE’S AN]* | |
| 15 | RIATA | AT AIR (display) rev. &Lit. | |
| 16 | STRATUM | SUM (everything) around TRAT (restaurant) | |
| 17 | TOSA | TOP (supreme) with P(ower) replaced by SA (sex appeal, it) | |
| 18 | FINSKO | FINS (hands) KO (knock out, put down) | |
| 20 | UNWRAP | UP about N(ew) [WAR]* | |
| 23 | ENEW | (div)E NEW (not seen before) | |
| 25 | NOISOME | NO (form of theatre) IS OME(n) (something threatening) | |
| 26 | SUITE | SUIT(abl)E (appropriate) | |
| 28 | ORTHIAN | OR THIN (reedy) around A (oboe’s note for orchestra) {the longest subsidiary indication of the single letter A?} |
|
| 31 | RAGI | [GRAI(n)]* &Lit. | |
| 32 | AZOLE | OZ (Australian) rev. in ALE (beer) | |
| 33 | CHANGE | HANG (stop working) in CE (Church {of England}) | |
| 34 | ELATES | PRELATES (churchmen) − PR(iest) | |
| 35 | ANTES | ANS(wer) around T(ense) (vampir)E | |
| Down | |||
| No. | Answer | Wordplay | |
| 1 | APEX | APE (copy) + X (indication of error) | |
| 2 | LONGAS | L(eft) ON GAS (impressive object) | |
| 3 | ALMA-ATA | ALMA (essence, Italian) AT A | |
| 4 | ROBUST | ROT (corruption) around BUS (transport) | |
| 5 | YRENT | YENT(a) (gossip) around R (king) | |
| 6 | OURS | [FOR US]* − F(ellow) &Lit. | |
| 7 | CALCANEUM | CALM (still) around CANE (punishment) + U(nwind) | |
| 8 | KIAATS | A+A (articles) in KITS (young animals) | |
| 13 | STARSHINE | S(un) [NEAR THIS]* &Lit. | |
| 19 | INSTALS | INST (this month) ALS(o) (as well) | |
| 21 | WITGAT | WIT (knowledge) + GAT (gun, heat {US slang}) | |
| 22 | PENSÉE | PENS (writer’s) EE (Early English) | |
| 24 | NILOTE | NOTE (comment) around I (one) L(ake) | |
| 27 | EGEST | EG (for example, say) EST (estuary, mouth of river) | |
| 29 | INGS | I(talia)N G(arden)S | |
| 30 | ALEC | (m)ALE C(alled) &Lit. | |
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Thanks HolyGhost for the blog. We’re glad that we weren’t the only ones who hadn’t come across the A as the oboe’s note for the orchestra before! Actually we were quite intrigued as we always thought it was the violinists who tuned the orchestra so we will listen more closely next time.
We enjoyed the puzzle – we think our experience was much like yours. Quite a few unusual words along the way but all fair but that’s what we expect with Phi so thanks to him as well!
Working through my backlog, I have only just tackled this one – I thought successfully until I read Holyghost’s blog!
I got all the BATS, including the hidden theme word.
Then my first slip was to assume from the “definitions” that TUN was sufficient for the theme word NUTS. I thought of grapenuts but could not find it in Chambers, so opted for COKERNUTS, PALMYRA NUTS and CREAM NUTS (aka Brazil Nuts).
This left me with FIRE and GRAPE and I eventually came up with WILD FIRE, WILD GRAPE and, from the bottom left corner of the grid, going north-east, WILD CATS. So my word below the grid was WILD, which also indicates instability.
Not as neat as the intended solution but a plausible alternative, I would suggest. Perhaps my mistake was to tackle it on April Fool’s Day!
I was surprised that there was only one response for this puzzle. Presumably a lot of solvers completed the grid and then came to a halt.