Never knowingly undersolved
Mister Sting Half of the clues have an extra letter coming from the wordplay, and the other half have an extra letter in the clue itself. The former ‘spell out an interpretation to be placed on the grid. The latter ‘spell out what must be highlighted in the completed grid, and why five of the 17 cells involved must be distinguished from the other 12.’ The completed grid will also have ‘a thematic comment that identifies the distinguishing feature’.
How very curious.
Omitted letters from across clues – unusually along with ‘what has happened to them’ – spell out ‘an extract from a quotation’. The puzzle’s title is from the symbolised RESPONSE that is to be highlighted in the completed grid.
This is my second ‘enter where they will fit’ puzzle in a row. I normally enjoy these, but this one has an additional element on top of the cold solving – ten answers must be ‘thematically treated’.
Thinking Outside the Box is an ‘enter where they will fit’ puzzle. These typically require a lot of cold solving, so we’re (more than usually) at the mercy of the setter. If the clues are very difficult, these take a great deal of work. So how much thinking – inside or outside the box – will Piccadilly’s puzzle require?
The puzzle comes in the form of an old-style treasure map with ‘cryptic’ instructions. Buccaneers, cutlasses, captains, pirates, and booty are among the various apparently thematic elements that appear in the clues, but will they help us find the treasure or will Cap’n Gown’s hoard prove elusive?
There are 60 clues, but there are only 42 spaces in the grid. What is the resolution to this problem?
I’ve never known an EV to be slapdash, and I doubt this one will be!
This EV seems to have a lot going on. There’s a work of some kind spelled out by extra letters, which are indicated by extra words in eighteen clues. The work ‘suggests’ a number of grid entries that have two components – one of which is ‘derived’ from the answer, the other of which ‘is to be deduced’. There’s also an unclued entry.
This EV uses alphabetically listed clued that have to be slotted in to the grid. That normally means quite a bit of cold solving. The danger is that one can feel one isn’t getting anywhere. That said, I do have a soft spot for Samuel’s EVs, so I have confidence that this will be enjoyable.
Quite an ominous title this week!
There are extra letters in across clues that indicate how additional words in some down clues must be treated. That’s about all the clue we have to the theme.
I do believe I’ve done it again! I’m sorry this is late. I had ‘EVs’ written on my hand all day Friday to remind me to finish this off.
The preamble informs us of two characters – A and B – each with a belief. Seven answers are modified in line with A’s belief, but B seems to have the upper hand, as A’s name is ultimately replaced by B’s. Extra letters spelling out B’s belief should help us on our way.
Thanks to Gaufrid for stepping in!
I have switched phones and had apparently turned off email updates, alarms, and notifications (although not the messages every five minutes suggesting I buy extras)!
Appropriately, the phone I’m (mis)using is the new Bond phone. There’s obviously the possibility of a Bond reference in the title, especially when there’s a Bond film coming out soon (actually, it’s out now), but is it actually Bond-related?
Prior to this puzzle, there have been a couple of weeks where the EVs had misspellings in the clues’ definitions, which I tend to find rather hard. I’m therefore heartened to see in the preamble that this one has extra letters in the wordplay. There’s some highlighting too, which can sometimes give the puzzled puzzler an extra hint.
In Homograms IV, there are 12 clues (two sets of 6) that involve two different pairs of changes before they are written in the grid. In one set, the subsidiary indication clues a homonym of the definition, and the grid entry is an anagram of the homonym. In the other set, the subsidiary indication clues an anagram of the definition, and the grid entry is a homonym of the anagram. Clear?
The solving method was new to me. Homograms III (No.879) was published in 2009, about when I was starting to solve EVs, but I think I missed it.
“A sentence (now obsolete) that could help memorise a well-known series of objects (in the correct order) appears in the perimeter starting in the top left hand corner.”
Any ideas?