The old move letters into the perimeter trick this week. Letters latent with the latent letters moving. Definition and wordplay were to the full answer; we just had to work out which letter to move.
I must admit that I felt a bit hard done by this week as I zipped through the clues at a rate of knots. I started in the north-west quadrant, worked my down to the south-west, noting the large number of Ls that were being banished to the perimeter. It seemed like gobbledygook was being spelt out, but as I completed the south-east corner, the NGYLL that was in the perimeter finally gave the game away, at least for me. We had the Welsh town in Anglesey which, with 58 characters, is, à la Wiki, “the longest place name in Europe and the second longest official one-word place name in the world”:
LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH
This went round the perimeter — north, east, south, west — across the centre row and down the centre column.
An easy puzzle this week from Piccadilly, although the tight grid must have been very tricky to design. It’s nice to see Llanfair PG acknowledged.
Solving time: not much more than 45 minutes.
Legend:
Definition in clue
X = Latent letters moved to perimeter
ABC* = anagram
ABC< = reversal
abCDef = hidden
| ACROSS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Entry | Letter Moved |
Clue and Explanation |
| 1 | WILLING | L | Wife, sick in Gabon, is co-operative (7) W (wife) + ILL (sick) IN G (Gabon) |
| 4 | EQUALLY | L | Agree finally to question supporter in a fair way (7) E (agreE, finally) + QU (question) + ALLY (supporter) |
| 7 | MELODEONS | L | Musical instruments left in Maine concert halls (9) L (left) in ME (Maine) ODEONS (concert halls) |
| 11 | SEAL | L | Marine carnivore: it lives here by lake (4) SEA (where marine carnivore lives) + L (lake) |
| 13 | LITRE | L | In general, it regulates measure of capacity (5) in generaL IT REgulates |
| 14 | GOES | G | Grammar school collects Old English works (4) GS (grammar school) containing OE (Old English) |
| 15 | WEST | W | Bridge player, moderately conservative, guards spades (4) WET (moderately conservative) containing S (spades) |
| 16 | WOODLICE | W | Weak, delirious coolie devours dead isopod crustaceans (8) W (weak) + COOLIE* containing D (dead) |
| 17 | BODMIN | B | Bachelor of medicine injecting overdose in town (6) BM (Bachelor of Medicine) containing OD (overdose) + IN |
| 18 | LOYAL | Y | Faithful rag dolly a daughter mislaid (5) (DOLLY A – D (daughter))*; rag = tear in tatters |
| 24 | OKAYS | O | Sanctions book many use regularly (5) alternate letters of bOoK mAnY uSe |
| 27 | PLENUM | N | Full assembly sees lecturer, female French one backed, during afternoon (6) L (lecturer) + UNE< (one, French, feminine) in PM afternoon) |
| 30 | DRESSAGE | R | Errand getting doctor for start of modern equestrian discipline (8) MESSAGE (errand) with DR (doctor) instead of M (start of Modern) |
| 32 | GILT | G | Tips of grass in lawn turn gold-coloured (4) first letters of Grass In Lawn Turn |
| 33 | LORD | D | Nobleman’s jester almost retired (4) DROL[L]< (jester, almost) |
| 34 | NEWRY | Y | Recently made railway leads to town (5) NEW (recently made) + RY (railway) |
| 35 | NONANE | N | Hydrocarbon soon circulates new energy (6) ANON< + N (new) E (energy) |
| 36 | ANCESTRAL | L | Doctor cleans art inherited from forefathers (9) (CLEANS ART)* |
| 37 | ENTREE | R | Disturbed teenager stealing silver dish (6) (TEENAGER – AG (silver))* |
| 38 | HOSTEL | L | Publican with the Spanish inn (6) HOST (publican) + EL (the, Spanish) |
| DOWN | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Entry | Letter Moved |
Clue and Explanation |
| 1 | AMIDOL | L | Friend in France, old building developer (6) AMI (friend, French) + OLD* |
| 2 | WELTED | L | Beat twosome heartlessly, discovered in lewd posturing (6) TE (TwosomE, heartless) + LEWD* |
| 3 | IDENTITY | N | Personality faking it? Deny it! (8) (IT DENY IT)* |
| 4 | ENODAL | A | Cooked up a lie, initially without complications in story (6) DONE< (cooked) + A L (Lie, initially) |
| 5 | RUSSIA | R | Take us to continent, heading off for country (6) R (take) US + [A]SIA (continent, without head) |
| 6 | PAPER CLIP | P | Telegraph, for example, beginning to charge 51 pence for office accessory (9, two words) PAPER (Telegraph, for example) + C (beginning of Charge) + LI (51) P (pence) |
| 8 | OARSMAN | A | A Roman’s at sea – one on bireme, perhaps (7) (A ROMANS)* |
| 9 | FELONY | F | Lecturer leaves capital, absorbed by supernatural crime (6) LONDON (capital) – DON (lecturer) in FEY (supernatural) |
| 10 | SEIL | I | Rain heavily locally – raise half of brollies (4) [BROL]LIES< |
| 12 | WAKE TO | W | Become conscious of two messily eating eclair with no calories (6, two words) TWO* containing CAKE (eclair) – C (calories) |
| 19 | OILINESS | E | Unctuous quality of Neil is so unpleasant (8) (NEIL IS SO)* |
| 20 | LADY-BOY | Y | Transsexual writing song about body changes (7) LAY (song) about BODY* |
| 21 | WAKEMAN | W | Make out, amongst pale and sickly, one who guarded streets at night (7) MAKE* in WAN (pale and sickly) |
| 22 | SPEWER | R | Former officer of royal household carrying prince, one being sick (6) SEWER (former officer of the royal household) containing P (prince) |
| 23 | LEGLET | G | In Paris the government allowed decoration on lower limb (6) LE (the, French) + G (government) LET (allowed) |
| 25 | HASLET | H | Husband, American, declined eating bit of Limey dish made from entrails (6) H (husband) A (American) SET (declined) containing L (bit of Limey) |
| 26 | SARNEY | Y | Japanese money prince put up for part of packed lunch? (6) (YEN (Japanese money) RAS (prince))< |
| 28 | OUTWORE | O | Scottish grandchild’s clothing pair in ancient city grew out of (7) OE (grandchild, Scottish) containing TWO (pair) in UR (ancient city) |
| 29 | MARGAY | G | Woman touring Georgia spotted tiger-cat (6) MARY (woman) about GA (Georgia) |
| 31 | SOCA | C | Variety of Caribbean music comes to Quebec, Canada finally (4) last letters of comeS tO QuebeC CanadA) |
This was straightforward as you say, but I really enjoyed it. Fantastic construction to get the full placename into the grid. Of course an easy puzzle is often followed by a tough one…
This was the first EV I’ve tried, encouraged by the straightforward looking clues. I filled the grid, but never spotted the place name, despite, embarrassingly, having a coaster in front of me with it printed on the whole time…
Jon, congratulations on your first EV. I hope you enjoyed it, despite missing the ending. (Did you have a pint of beer on the coaster?) These things get easier with experience, so try it again soon.
Thanks, I did enjoy it. There was a pint on the coaster, intermittently. 🙂
Great crossword as always BUT please can you explain to me how Take = R ……”Take us to continent, heading off for country (6)
R (take) ……. (for future reference please).
Thanks 🙂
R= Recipe, the Latin word which means “take”.
Thanks Tony, how obscure though. I have never come across that in 40 years of solving cryptic crosswords. Just guessed the answer must have been Russia – confirmed only by the perimeter’s final answer.
You’ll come across it frequently if you do the EV,IQ, Listener or Magpie thematic crosswords, so keep it in mind, it’ll serve you well.
Thanks to Kathy and Tony for question and answer. If anyone would prefer that I went into more detail in my wordplay analysis, please comment and I’ll try to oblige.