O me miserum! Mea culpa and de gustibus non est disputandum! Late again! My apologies to Kruger and to all 15^2 readers. I hereby pledge that if another blog is late then I will donate £20 to some good cause or other. But for now, on with the blog!
I’m extra sorry that I’m late with this one, because I particularly enjoyed the endgame. The extra letters spell out SHADE E AND V CELLS ENTER THIS CROSSWORD NUMBER BELOW. I imagine that the second half of that is just to give enough letters for every clue to have one, but blow me if the E and V cells don’t spell out E and V, forming a delightful (and self-referential) tribute to the jewel in the crown that is the Sunday Telegraph’s puzzle pull-out. Plus, I love a bit of grid-shading.
Kruger’s managed to do this without unduly unpleasant clues and, although when I review the answers, there’s quite a lot of odd words in there, it really didn’t feel that way when I was solving it. It can be tiresome if there’s too high a proportion of clues that I feel that I have to ‘cheat’ in order to solve, but with this one, Kruger guides the solver to the answer.
Only two small quibbles to mention. Firstly, I assume that the clue for 10dn should read ‘principal‘, but I’m ready to be corrected. Secondly (and following on from similar comments on a recent EV), my copy of Chamber’s shows 16dn as hyphenated. These are as nought, however, next to the enjoyment given. Thanks Kruger (and sorry again)!
Notation
(xxx) = definition
[xxx] = anagram/homophone/container/etc. indicator
XXX* = anagram
< = reversal
XXX = unused letter(s)
RUSTINGMARSO=redundant letter
Please post a comment if the explanations are not clear.
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S | 2 | GRAN TURISMO | Neglected rusting mars second of doors in car (11, two words) | car: [neglected] RUSTINGMARSO* (second of dOors) |
| H | 11 | APOLLINARIAN | Accepted vote among most of wives and concubines starts to advocate nostrum sacred to patron of medicine (12) | sacred to patron of medicine: A (accepted) POLL (vote) IN (among) [most of] HARI |
| A | 12 | TRICK | Predetermined course includes one turn (5) | turn: TRACK (predetermined course) [includes] I (one) |
| D | 14 | OLID | Sex toy from the east is rank (4) | rank: <DILDO (sex toy) [from the east] |
| E | 15 | ORLON | Crease-resistant fabric not feminine for Christmas – sent back! (5) | crease-resistant fabric: [not Feminine] |
| E | 17 | MEVE | Change residence once Steve abandons street with me first (4) | change residence once: STEVE [abandons] ST (street) [with] ME [first] |
| A | 18 | VIER | He gets away from more ponderous competitor (4) | competitor: HE [gets away from] HEAVIER (more ponderous) |
| N | 19 | ICER | Cake decorator is more fastidious (4) | cake decorator: NICER (more fastidious) |
| D | 20 | IVANA | Smoking room beginning to admit Russian girl? (5) | Russian girl: DIVAN (smoking room) A (beginning to Admit) |
| V | 23 | CAVA | French lawyer twice goes after Cape wine (4) | wine: AV AV (French lawyer twice) [after] C (cape) |
| C | 24 | NEVERS | First woman to visit French National Centre for Scientific Research in foreign city (6) | foreign city: EVE (first woman) [to visit] CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research) |
| E | 25 | EOTHEN | Gambling game with name you formally introduced from the orient (according to Mr Kinglake) (6) | from the orient (according to Mr Kinglake): E O (gambling game) [with] N (name) THEE (you formally) [introduced] |
| L | 28 | IVOR | Man submerged by evil vortex (4) | man: [submerged by] evILVORtex |
| L | 31 | VIVID | See blue graphic (5) | graphic: V (see) LIVID (blue) |
| S | 32 | NÉVÉ | Seven disturbed snow (4) | snow: SEVEN* [disturbed] |
| E | 33 | VITA | A musical life (4) | life: EVITA (a musical) |
| N | 34 | ESKY | Sneaky adult’s given away damaged insulated container in Perth (4) | insulated container in Perth: SNE |
| T | 36 | MINSK | Somewhere in Belarus, Scots aim a blow at Slovakia (5) | somewhere in Belarus: MINT (Scots aim a blow at) SK (Slovakia) |
| E | 39 | BABI | Girlfriend introduces current member of sect (4) | member of sect: BABE (girlfriend) [introduces] I (current) |
| R | 40 | ILONA | In Budapest, Helen’s reversing in car – no limousine! (5) | in Budapest: <[reversing] [in] cARNOLImousine |
| T | 41 | PHONOTYPICAL | City plan photo shot of print concerning spoken language (12) | concerning spoken language: CITYPLANPHOTO* [shot] |
| H | 42 | GASTROSOPHY | Skill in eating matters – Queen has got cooking with old Shah of Persia (11) | skill in eating matters: R(Queen)HASGOT* [cooking] [with] SOPHY (old Shah of Persia) |
| Down | ||||
| I | 1 | DATA MINING | Analysing information, dig and maintain ground (10, two words) | analysing information: DIGMAINTAIN* [ground] |
| S | 3 | ROIL | Annoy American gardener at last with earth (4) | annoy American: R (gardeneR at last) [with] SOIL (earth) |
| C | 4 | ALCMENE | Cancel possibly imprisoning two-thirds of men for Heracles’ mother (7) | Heracles’ mother: CANCEL* [possibly] [imprisoning] [two thirds of] MEN |
| R | 5 | TIAR | Time monk removing head bishop’s crown (4) | bishop’s crown: T (time) |
| O | 6 | UNILEVER | International company’s torn up vile euro note (8) | international company: [torn up] VILEEURON* |
| S | 7 | RAZOR | Keen, unknown objector heartlessly pursues prince (5) | keen: Z (unknown) O |
| S | 8 | IRONIC | To hit a golf ball thus is paradoxical (6) | paradoxical: IRON (to hit a golf ball) SIC (thus) |
| W | 9 | SILICA | It makes opal the foremost of stones – washing in liquid is clearly advantageous (6) | it makes opal: [the foremost of] Stones – Washing In Liquid Is Clearly Advantageous |
| O | 10 | MAIN | Principle island in Arab country (4) | principle: I (island) in OMAN (Arab country) |
| R | 13 | RIEVE | King and Emperor continually plunder (5) | plunder: R (king) I (emperor) EVER (continually) |
| D | 15 | OVARY | It produces eggs not quite elliptical. Uninteresting! (5) | it produces eggs: [not quite] OVA |
| N | 16 | BRANDY-BALL | Sweet instrumental group includes drummer’s finale at New York dance (10) | sweet: BAND (instrumental group) [includes] R (drummeR’s finale) NY (New York) BALL (dance) |
| U | 21 | OSTINATO | Ground-bass irritated most of our station (8) | ground-bass: [irritated] [most of] OU |
| M | 22 | NOVAK | Czech composer’s a star in Macedonia (5) | Czech composer: NOVA (a star) [in] MK (Macedonia) |
| B | 26 | TIE CLIP | Ornamental clasp that’s in back of belt coloured with bright spot (7, two words) | ornamental clasp: IE (that’s) [in] T (back of belT) C (coloured) [with] BLIP (bright spot) |
| E | 27 | EIKON | Perhaps picture Ike struggling with ascendant artificial language (5) | perhaps picture: IKE* [struggling] [with] [ascendant] <NEO (artificial language) |
| R | 29 | OVIBOS | Victoria Island boors agitated musk-ox (6) | musk-ox: VI(Victoria Island)BOORS* [agitated] |
| B | 30 | REMINT | Money I found in London borough is coin again (6) | coin again: M (money) I [found in] BRENT (London borough) |
| E | 33 | VISOR | Look at old-fashioned yellow hood (5) | hood: VISE (look at old-fashioned) OR (yellow) |
| L | 35 | TAHA | Stop raising adult bird (4) | bird: <HALT (stop) [raising] A (adult) |
| O | 37 | SAYS | Appeal for help includes alas cast-off woollen fabrics (4) | woollen fabrics: SOS (appeal for help) [includes] AY (alas) |
| W | 38 | LOCH | Henry’s former vessel capsized in arm of the sea (4) | arm of the sea: <H (Henry) COWL [capsized] |
ON the subject of hyphenation in clues, I understand that this is being phased out so that future EV puzzles won’t (usually!) indicate if a word is hyphenated or not.
I thought it was Principal too.
My thanks to Mister Sting for his complimentary blog.
As Jaguar @1 says, the current EV policy is not to indicate hyphenation which brings it in line with other puzzles of this ilk. You may also have noticed that it now uses “wordplay” rather than “subsidiary indication” in preambles – again in line with IQ, Listener etc.
Yes, 10D should be “principal” – as it was in my original submission. My only defence is that this was one of the puzzles accepted and vetted by the previous editor and inherited by the current one when further amendments were made. A time of transition leading to some confusion.
Principally, I’d say that “too many cooks spoil the broth” is a relevant principle here. (But I should have spotted the mistake anyway – apologies).