This week it’s another chance to blog one of my favourite setters. Here, we had to change the appearance of ten answers with nine clues containing a word or phrase which would help with the diagnosis of Ifor’s medical problems.
After my customary first pass through the clues, I got 2ac VISION, but it still took a few minutes to realise that another VISION could be added to cross with IRATE & SONNET at 7dn & 8dn. I had seen a ‘double’ somewhere, hadn’t I? In 40ac. And just above it, 38ac made sense for ORLOP if you took out ‘hole in the’ which was now ready to be matched with HEART somewhere in the grid.
Eventually, I found the other extra words to modify answers or parts of answers elsewhere in the grid…except for SUBPOENAS at 19dn. This needed to be entered as SUOENBPAS, ie with BP lower. Thus HYPOTENSION (low blood pressure) could be used to describe that entry, rather than HYPERTENSION (high blood pressure). The title, Phenytoins, was a jumble of the 10 letters common to the two conditions. I must admit that hypotension was a new word to me since the only thing that has bothered me is hypertension!
As expected, an entertaining and satisfying puzzle from Ifor.
Legend:
Definition in clue
ABC* = anagram
ABC< = reversal
abCDef = hidden
[extra word(s)] in clues
| ACROSS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Answer/Entry | Clue and Explanation | |
| 2 | VISION entered as VISIONVISION ie DOUBLE VISION |
Force vote against one backing foresight (12) VIS (force) + (NO (vote against) I (one))< |
|
| 10 | HORNBUG | Stag beetle brought in, stopping it spinning round (7) (BROUGHT IN – IT<)*; ‘spinning’ refers to the reversal of ‘it’ and ’round’ to the anagram |
|
| 11 | STOP BY | Returned lots of money during visit to Wall Street (6, two words) POTS< (lots of money) + BY (during) |
|
| 13 | ERATO | Creator uncovered fickle muse (5) [c]REATO[r]* |
|
| 14 | TANREC | Insectivore’s ancestor evolved, less so in parts (6) (ANCESTOR – S & O (so in parts))* |
|
| 15 | LITY | See 41 | |
| 18 | STILLNESS | Quietude falls in drops? Not once opening on Sundays is accepted (9) STILLS (falls in drops) containing NE (not, once) S (opening of Sundays) |
|
| 20 | EDDO | Edible root trained down walls (4) in trainED DOwn; walls is a verb, used as the containment indicator |
|
| 22 | NOOSE | Withered remains gathering round [broken] marriage (5) NOSE (withered remains) containing (gathering) O (round) |
|
| 24 | SANTERO | Senator sacked [yellow] Caribbean priest (7) SENATOR* |
|
| 26 | ARTLESS | [Turned] callous, leaving the man unaffected (7) HEARTLESS (callous) – HE (the man) |
|
| 29 | CADEE | Messenger’s drive to stop working entirely in Scotland (5) CA (drive) DEE (to stop working); both Scottish words |
|
| 33 | CRAN | Smuggled cocaine before measure of catch (4) RAN (smuggled) preceded by C (cocaine) |
|
| 35 | SMOKE-JACK entered as SMOKE-JACK ie YELLOW JACK |
Muddled brain once absolutely filled with silly joke (9) SMACK (absolutely) containing JOKE* |
|
| 36 | TOMB | Irish girl slipped over bishop’s grave (4) MOT< (Irish girl) + B (bishop) |
|
| 37 | BOSOMY | Lad taking second order calling for large cups, maybe (6) BOY (lad) containing S (second) OM (order) |
|
| 38 | ORLOP | Men cut [hole in the] deck (5) OR (men) + LOP (cut) |
|
| 40 | PRETAX | Gross passengers charged [double] by return (6) PAX (passengers) containing (charged by) RET (return) |
|
| 41 & 5 | PERSONALITY entered as PERSONA & LITY ie SPLIT PERSONAILITY |
Remarkable individual learns nothing new in sorrow (7, 4) (LEARNS O (nothing))* in PITY (sorrow) |
|
| 42 | HEARTHSTONE entered as HE ARTHSTONE ie HOLE IN THE HEART |
North hates playing second in deciding rubber by the fireside? (12) (NORTH HATES)* + E (second in dEciding) |
|
| DOWN | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Answer/Entry | Clue and Explanation | |
| 1 | THANKLESS entered as THELKNASS ie TURNED ANKLE |
Cheers the French, internally lacking gratitude (9) THANKS (cheers) containing (internally) LE (the, French) |
|
| 2 | VOR | Will’s to warn—small pieces missing from both sides in divorce (3) [di]VOR[ce] |
|
| 3 | IRATE | Angry secretaries switched round pens (5) in secrETARIes<; ‘pens’ is a verb used as the containment indicator |
|
| 4 | IBO | Language of Han having advanced characters (3) HAN with each letter advanced one in the alphabet |
|
| 5 | DISCOUNT entered as OUNTDISC ie SLIPPED DISC |
Ignore dismal consideration for wrong starter (8) DISMAL with COUNT (consideration) instead of MAL- (wrong, used as a prefix) |
|
| 6 | NGAIOS | Trees soaring high with no trace of rain (6) (SOARING – R (trace of Rain))* |
|
| 7 | ITALA | Used Latin, stopping early before translation of bible (5) LATI[n]* + A (before) |
|
| 8 | SONNET | Short poem once sent on journeys (6) (SENT ON)* |
|
| 9 | OBESE | Gross of insects having tail up a little (5) O (of) + BEES (insects) with tail (S) up one character |
|
| 12 | PREYED entered as PREYED ie PINK-EYE |
Poet’s plundered, deeply unhappy after change of hands (6) (DEEPLY with R replacing L)* |
|
| 16 | IFOR | Yours truly, ego notwithstanding (4) I (ego) + FOR (notwithstanding) |
|
| 17 | YES | The old Sabbath statement of confirmation (3) YE (the, old) + S (Sabbath); odd that S is an abbreviation for ‘Sabbath’ in C, but not for ‘Sunday’! |
|
| 19 | SUBPOENAS entered as SUOENBPAS ie LOW BLOOD PRESSURE |
Instructions to hand over ridiculous bonuses paid without identification (9) (BONUSES PAID – ID (identification))* |
|
| 21 | MARCHESA entered as MAARCHES ie FALLEN ARCHES |
Noblewoman’s borders all in the North (8) MARCHES (borders) + A (all, northern) |
|
| 23 | OTIOSE | Nothing [fallen] is to be rebuilt without Britain unoccupied (6) O (nothing) + (IS TO BE – B (Britain))* |
|
| 25 | REAM | [Split] marks are revised on many sheets (4) (M (marks) ARE)* |
|
| 27 | LAKOTA | Native American without children turned [pink] (6) ATOKAL< (without children) |
|
| 28 | SCARPH | Make joint mark with husband holding top of pen (6) SCAR (mark) H (husband) containing P (top of Pen) |
|
| 30 | ANT | Social worker wants to drop cover (3) [w]ANT[s] |
|
| 31 | SMORE | Capital of Scotland greater in importance? Glasgow’s put out (5) S (capital of Scotland) + MORE (greater in importance) |
|
| 32 | REARM entered as REMAR ie BROKEN ARM |
Raise money to get new weapons (5) REAR (raise) + M (money) |
|
| 34 | COLON | French migrant’s collection acceptable for reading (5) COLLECTION with ON (acceptable) instead of LECTION (reading) |
|
| 38 | ORT | Radio’s beginning to badly fragment in rural areas (3) (R (beginning of Radio) + TO)* |
|
| 39 | ONE | No regurgitating before end of the drink (3) ON< + E (end of thE) |
|
Thanks for the blog Dave.
I found this really rather tricky, pretty much all of the way through, but it was a wonderfully constructed puzzle & very fairly clued – despite my struggles I still eventually managed to parse all the clues.
One minor quibble – the preamble said we had to ‘change the appearance or otherwise modify’ the 10 themed answers – which puzzled me with split personality – the entries were already split in the clue so, unlike all of the others, we didn’t change the appearance or modify its entry.
But that in no way spoilt my enjoyment of an excellent puzzle.