An EV from Jaguar, a second for me to blog – 3 different groups of seven to wade through. 7 unclued of a theme, 7 clues with misprints which can spell out theme and 7 with an extra letter in the wordplay giving the source of the theme. Sounds quite daunting and there’s more. One of the 7 of the theme needs to be highlighted and it’s creator’s pseudonym entered below the grid.
As always start with the clues – some very accessible ones to get you going and some trickier ones to get you thinking. My first thoughts were that this was quite straightforward but some of the wordplay required more than a little bit of a thought.
The unclued entries soon became apparent and being the father of 2 small children the theme too quickly revealed itself.
DIADEM, SNAKE, CUP, DIARY, RING, LOCKET and the one to make it all clearer POTTER or Harry Potter to put the theme into context. The misprints revealed the word HORCRUX as these were the seven receptacles of Tom Riddle’s soul in the Harry Potter books, well all of his soul that didn’t remain in LORD VOLDERMORT (making the Riddle in 8 parts).
The extra letters in the wordplay spelt out ROWLING as in J K Rowling, the authoress of the series of books – they are all well worth a read.
The pseudonym of the creator (of the horcruxes) is LORD VOLDEMORT making the required 13 letters – not to be confused with the Pseudonym of the creator of the books ROBERT GALBRAITH.
The horcrux that was never intended to be is Potter as the creation of Harry as a horcrux was an accident. Many thanks Jaguar for a very neat rendition of a contemporary theme which most people would be familiar with.
As to the clues – 28ac eludes me but nice and short as I like them.
Key:
DD Double Definition, * anagram
ACROSS
| R | 1 Poke fun at Arab’s finishing touch (4) Cod (poke fun at) + ar (arab) = CODA |
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| 4 Waste furious spy trapped in a spot (8) Fleck (spot) around (spy)* = FLYSPECK |
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| 10 Corrupted idol, given sin (9) (idol given)* = EVIL-DOING |
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| H | 12 Missing chemist initially developed analeptic pill (8) Missing chemist initially developed analeptic hill (8) (analeptic – c)* = PALATINE |
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| 13 Penetrating with successive lines of defence (7, two words) DD IN DEPTH |
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| 15 Copper penny (3) Cu (Copper) = P(Penny) = CUP |
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| 16 Cunning line about Queen (5) Ley (line) about ER(queen) = LEERY |
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| O | 17 Paint over front half of girls’ room in twinkling hues originally (6) Point over front half of girls’ room in twinkling hues originally (6) Zenana (girl’s room) – ana + ith (in twinkling hues originally) = ZENITH |
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| 18 Once paint medium in ravine (4) Lin (ravine) around m(medium) = LIMN |
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| R | 19 Proper name lost for institute that’s thick (6) Proper name lost for institute that’s trick (6)Decent (proper) swapping n(name) for I (institute) = DECEIT |
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| O | 23 Society accepted stupid people and dull ones? (6) S(society) + a (accepted) + dodos = SADDOS |
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| 24 Aged actor losing his composition (4) Histrio (actor) – his – TRIO |
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| 26 Power ‘aving more ‘eat? (6) P (power) + ‘otter (as in hotter) = POTTER |
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| 28 Is vehicle reversing away from supplier? (5) subsidiary – Rev.(is bus) = DIARY |
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| C | 30 A tool, but not the first tool (3) A tool, but not the first cool (3) Vice (tool) – v (first) = ICE |
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| 31 Scotland’s independence allowed initially, becoming another country (7)Alban (Scotland) + I + a = ALBANIA |
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| W | 32 Outlines vessel in stitches (8) Ketch (vessel) in sews (stitches) = SKETCHES |
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| 33 Porter’s rudely egocentric, losing temper at first (9) (egocentric – t)* = CONCIERGE |
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| 34 Hopefully you won’t need so long to solve this clue! (8) Cryptic definition – ETERNITY |
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| L | 35 Lady’s cycling after Penny, finding a pair (4) D(penny) + ylad(lady cycling) = DYAD |
DOWN
| R | 1 Chief engineer in Wellington, fool with a mask (7)Chief engineer in Wellington, fool with a mark (7) Ce (chief engineer) + dill New Zealand fool) + a = CEDILLA |
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| 2 Drunk admitted: “Not teetotal” (6) (admitted –tt)* = DIADEM |
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| U | 3 Change buttocks, cutting off rear — sob! (9)Change buttocks, cutting off rear — sub! (9) Alter (change) + nates (buttocks) – s = ALTERNATE |
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| 5 Look dreadfully hated and despised (7) Lo (look) + (hated)* = LOATHED |
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| 6 South defenceless, having no diamonds (5) S (south) + naked (defenceless) – d (diamonds) = SNAKE |
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| 7 Evoke priest’s name not entirely (6) Eli (priest) + cite (name) – e = ELICIT |
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| I | 8 Murderer as English king of Denmark (6) Cain (murderer) + ut (as) + e (English) = CANUTE |
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| N | 9 Maintain intense pressure (4) Keen (intense) + p (pressure) = KEEP |
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| G |
11 Climbing plant emerging from energy in US — but not Arkansas? (4) Vinegar (US energy) = ar = VINE |
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| 14 Cooking dietitian introduced (9) (dietitian)* = INITIATED |
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| 20 Assemble college inside part of ring (7) Coll(college) + ect = COLLECT |
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| 21 Last 24 of Savoy matured and passed over (7) Voy (Last 3 of savoy) + aged (matured) = VOYAGED |
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| 22 Short wisp of cotton and wool from Perth (6) Lock (wisp of cotton) – k + ket (wool – Scottish)) = LOCKET |
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| 23 Highlander’s stiff incline (6) DD STEEVE |
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| 25 Border line came to an end (6, two words) Rand (border) + ry (line) = RAN DRY |
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| 27 Commanding officer’s holding $100 for former prisoner (5) exon (commanding officer) around c ($100) = EX-CON |
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| 29 Fawn losing head and tail (4) Cringe (fawn) – ce = RING |
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| X |
30 Tewel, for example, is a passage reportedly (4) Texel, for example, is a passage reportedly (4) Homonym (Aisle) = ISLE |
Thanks twencelas
I didn’t solve this puzzle but I can help you out with 28ac:
[subsi]DIARY – is bus (vehicle) reversed and removed from ‘supplier’
Hi,
The second puzzle of mine to be published and the second that you’ve blogged — you did 1058 Principle earlier this year. In contrast to that puzzle, where I had a lot of difficulty with choosing the title and probably still didn’t get it quite right, the title came to me first on this one and after that I just had to write the puzzle to go with it! Lots of play around the number seven, which has been regarded as a magical number, but the final part being accidentally eight. How lucky that both Horcrux and Rowling have seven letters, then, which allowed the rest of the puzzle to work.
This one was written fairly quickly, at the beginning of June this year, and was never intended to be difficult. Hopefully instead it was enjoyable, and the title brought a smile to at least some solvers’ faces — and hopefully the cluing was a bit sharper than in my earlier effort. Certainly during the vetting process rather fewer changes were needed from my original clues than during the setting of Principle. I suppose I was treating this puzzle in part as a chance to work on setting decent clues with a few more constraints this time.
I’ve got one more EV definitely coming out some time next year. I believe that on the current rotation of bloggers that will be yours to blog about also.
Until next time, then,
Jaguar
Jaguar – I sit corrected – a second for me to blog. To be honest I thought I had then I looked and couldn’t find it. Not quite 50 but my memory is starting to fail me as is my ability to perform a search on the internet – a further excuse is I only wrote up the blog this morning – been a stressful few months for me in my day job.
I do look forward to your next offering and promise to remember that it is my 3rd blog if my turn coincides. It is great to see some new setters appearing in the advanced cryptic space, who can bring fresh ideas to these puzzles.
Thanks Gaufrid for the parsing of 28ac