Quite a short preamble this week:
“Six features in the final grid are thematically positioned in straight lines and must be highlighted. The six unclued entries already highlighted give hints at the theme: their unchecked/mutually checked letters could spell GROW SIDE.”
The 1 across curse struck again! I did 1A and 2D immediately, then struggled to continue and eventually Ho and I had to share answers – each of us had a few that the other had not done. Once there was a reasonable number of cross-checking letters the clues yielded a bit more easily but there were some pretty obscure definitions of normal words and well-hidden definitions in some clues.
I found the help phrase GROW SIDE useful as these letters helped to reveal the highlighted unclued words. Usually the letters act as a check for answers you already have, but on this occasion they helped distinguish immediately between clasp and clamp, and confirmed towels and horn before I had all the normal clues finished. In the list below I have highlighted the unchecked letters in red and the mutually cross-checked letter in blue .
CLASP, MADE, SPRING, GRENADE, TOWELS and HORN
The “straight lines” instruction in the rubric led me to a diagonal grid search which yielded the word THUMB starting in column 1 row 7. This led to the PDM that all the words listed above can be preceded (in “Only Connect” fashion) by the word HAND which is the theme, and links with the title “Side“.
This led me to look for four more fingers and I found INDEX in column 5, MIDDLE in column 7, RING in column 9 and LITTLE in column 11. That is five. The sixth required more knowledge of anatomy than I had, but I thought the word CARP on the bottom row might be of some significance, but I needed to add the US to it to get CARPUS which is the technical term for the wrist, suitably placed.
Still traumatised by Pointer’s hat, I still have a few concerns. The wrist is not strictly part of the hand, and I cannot see why the word “final” was italicised in the rubric. I suppose it might be because, until you had the unclued answers, you could not find the fingers – particularly RING which involved two of the unchecked letters, but MIDDLE also involved an unchecked letter. I just fear that the italics may be drawing attention to something that I have missed. If not, then the rubric would have been better without the italics!
Anyway there it is. Good puzzle from Shark with some pretty taxing clues and a nice PDM.
Across |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue (definition) | Answer | Wordplay |
| 1 | Musclemen partly go without food . . . (4) | CLEM | Hidden in musCLEMen |
| 3 | . . . vegetable gravy? Desperate need for food wanting power (8) | BRASSICA | BRASS and gravy are both slang terms for money + (p)ICA – PICA is an unnatural craving for unsuitable food minus P(ower) |
| 7 | Light novelty toilet with Indian music brings in millions (8, 2 words) | LAVA LAMP | LAV (toilet) + ALAP (Indian music) round M(illions) |
| 8 | Positive radioactive unit of light (4) | PHOT | P(ositive) + HOT (radioactive) |
| 10 | Lifeless, headless Muslim spirit (4) | ARID | MARID (Muslim spirit) headless |
| 11 | Eradicate corruption after insult about over (7) | DISROOT | DIS (insult) + ROT (corruption) round O(ver) |
| 13 | Chambers Dictionary added initially around a Chilean hotel (6) | POSADA | POS (Chamber pots) + DA (dictionary added initially) round A |
| 15 | Order for goods cycling ivory (6) | DENTIN | INDENT (order for goods) with IN “cycling” |
| 16 | Honk catches each bird, allegedly (7, 2 words) | SEA MELL | Chambers has “an alleged variant of sea mew”: SMELL (honk) round EA(ch) |
| 21 | Groups of flies returning, 70 moving east (7) | SESTETS | TSETSES (flies) reversed with S (Mediaeval numeral for 70) moving to right (east) |
| 22 | Retired gentleman shelters homeless primarily in Glaswegian gutters (6) | RHONES | SENOR (gentleman reversed) round H(omeless primarily) |
| 26 | Rude boy and I nearly fix up in cell (7) | CUBICLE | CUB (rude boy) + I + CLE(w) (nearly fix up) |
| 28 | Buck up bird to marry (7) | ANIMATE | ANI (tropical American bird) + MATE (marry) |
| 30 | Without goddess, control prestige (4) | MANA | MANAGE (control) minus GE (goddess) |
| 31 | Deprived of ecstasy in acid-house party splitting pit (8) | BEREAVED | BED (pit) round RAVE (acid-house party) containing E(cstasy) |
| 32 | Ferrari, possibly above converted racer (8) | SUPERCAR | SUP (above) + [RACER]* |
| 33 | Cat’s mouth (4) | PUSS | Double definition, though my dictionary has puss as “face” rather than mouth (derived from Irish “pus” – mouth) |
Down |
|||
| 2 | Movement from old ship under lake (5) | LARGO | L(ake) + ARGO (old ship) |
| 3 | Black tree failing to produce expected growth of flowers (5) | BLIND | B(lack) + LIND (tree) |
| 4 | Nice china, perhaps Spanish example not to be sold (3) | AMI | China is a friend, and in Nice (i.e. in France) a friend is AMI: AMIGO (Spanish china!) minus GO (to be sold) |
| 5 | It’s a surprise air attack without limits – calm down! (6, 2 words) | COOL IT | COO (exclamation of surprise) + (b)LIT(z) (air attack without limits) |
| 6 | Gets used to tetanus shot (7) | ATTUNES | [TETANUS]* |
| 9 | Under short enclosure, perhaps place trimmed shrub (7) | HOP-TREE | HOP(e) (enclosure shortened) + (s)TREE(t) – “Place” in a street name can substitute for the word Street |
| 11 | Dressed salad plants (5) | DAALS | [SALAD]* |
| 12 | Fish returning secretive in Loch Ness (4) | EELS | SLEE (Scottish word for secretive) reversed (this could have been SLEE with eels reversed!) |
| 14 | South America cut – disease concerned with its primate (7) | SAGOUIN | SA + GOU(t) (cut disease) + IN (concerned with) |
| 16 | Flies take in energy before start of summer (7) | STREAMS | R (take) in STEAM (energy) before S(ummer) |
| 17 | After losing second half, curse manager? (4) | EXEC | EXEC(RATE) (curse) minus last half |
| 18 | Almost belted criminal? Left untouched (5, 2 words) | LET BE | [BELTE(d)]* |
| 19 | Which people in Perth and Nauru? New Zealand’s kindred (6) | WHANAU | WHA (Scottish for who) + NAU (Nauru) |
| 20 | Saws wild mango tree at last (6) | GNOMAE | Plural of gnome, a pithy and sententious saying – a saw: [MANGO (tre)E]* |
| 23 | Ship’s a vessel creating steam dumping barrels (5) | OILER | BOILER (a vessel creating steam) minus B(arrels) |
| 24 | The French research lessons (5) | LERES | LE (the French) + RES(earch) |
| 25 | Moments of time: maybe seconds lacking inner elements‘? (5) | SANDS | S(econd)S could be stated S AND S |
| 27 | Cat’s jaw (4) | CHAP | Double definition: Cat is a fellow/chap and the chap is the jaw |
| 29 | College’s practically busy (3) | TEC | ”Busy” and Tec are both slang for detective: TEC(h) (almost college) |
A nicely balanced puzzle, with the thematic elements gradually emerging and helping with some challenging, but not unreasonable, cluing.
I didn’t get close to finishing this but was also intrigued by the italicised ‘final’ in the preamble. Was there a reason for that?
I don’t know – see the final paragraph of the blog!
Ah sorry Hi, I wasn’t very clear – I was agreeing with you!
I initially entered SLEE rather than EELS thinking that that the former was a more Inquisitor-ish word which held me up for a while. I also had a nagging feeling that the italicised ‘final’ meant something important that I had missed. Another fun puzzle so thanks to Shark and Hihoba.
Just passing through…
The ‘final’ is italicised to emphasise the distinction between the extra highlighting required as part of the solution and the grey-highlighted, thematic, straight-line lights already positioned in the initial grid.
Sorry if it confused.
John
A very pleasing PDM.. a week after I set it aside (thanks to noticing, at last, the thumb, and the little). Until then, the words in grey seemed utterly unhelpful.
I found this quite a toughie, the hardest this year for me. Like others, the final reference in the preamble did mislead, inasmuch as I was looking for something which wasn’t there
Some challenging clues and thanks to Hihoba’s blog, a few I couldn’t parse are now cleared up.
Thanks to Shark for the puzzle and the rewarding PDM.
Does anyone agree with me about the problem with mouth in 33A “Cat’s mouth”?
Hi @9
“Does anyone agree with me about the problem with mouth in 33A “Cat’s mouth”?”
Well, both Chambers and Collins only give ‘face’ but the COED has ‘a person’s face or mouth’ and Oxford On-line has ‘a person’s face, mouth, or expression’.
Thanks Gaufrid. I only have the first two and a very old version of the OED on CD.
I’d just assumed, or at least vaguely thought, that puss meant (the expression of) the mouth, so hadn’t bothered to check. I did briefly have CHAT at 27D, though with no French allusion I was rightly sceptical of it.