All occurrences of a letter to be removed from all down answers; Five across answers to be jumbled and a message derived from the remainder. Not finished there – the message explains how to find a phrase for fool’s mate to be written below the grid.
It was quite quickly apparent that the letter to be removed from the down clues was Z. certainly some new words in the answers for me. The relevant quotation being “Thou whoreson zed! thou unnecessary letter!” from Shakespeare’s King Lear.
The across clues requiring modification were 1; 5; 19; 34 and 35. These revealed the three daughters of King Lear in the top middle and bottom rows.
bogGONERILcs
endREGANment
rCORDELIArds
The 26th letter of each across clue spelled out REARRANGE DAD which gave an anagram of REGAL KIN which aptly describes his relationship with the three names.
Thanks Ifor – for a relatively gentle but complex introduction to 2015.
Key:
rev. reverse * anagram; DD Double definition; Underline – definition
| 1 Night flyer from Botany Bay can go north to the interior (6) Bog (can) around go + n (north) = BOGONG BOGGON |
|
| 5 Slicer chopped up abandoned corpse (6) (slicer)* = RELICS ERILCS |
|
| R | 9 No good in halogen rotting surround in headlight (6) (halogen – g(good))* = ENHALO |
| E | 11 Get completely uncovered after strip? (4) DD BARE |
| A | 12 Folly in easier independent wandering… (9) (in easier + i)* = NIAISERIE |
| R | 14 …from the less active troops carried in small vehicle (7, two words) A (active) + or (troops) in mini (small vehicle) = A MINORI |
| R | 16 Shattered father leaves anteroom to grandchild in Shetland (3) Fr (father) from foyer (anterrom) = OYE |
| A | 17 Criminal syndicate killing last of family (8) (syndicate – e)* = DYNASTIC |
| 19 Risk onset of torture after suspect name and number emerge (12) (emerge + n + n + and)* + t (onset of torture) = ENDANGERMENT entered ENDREGANMENT |
|
| N | 22 Plan to confine trouble in channel (8) Trace (plan) around ail (trouble) = TAILRACE |
| G | 27 Treacherous individual’s caught by pirates (3) Hidden piRATes = RAT |
| E | 29 Drunk that is briefly sober when disconcerted (7) (ie + sober)* = EBRIOSE |
| D | 31 Strained in sieve then emptied out (9) (in + sieve + tn (then emptied))* = INTENSIVE |
| A | 32 Relax support, knocking off a tad early (4) Easel (support) – l = EASE |
| D | 33 Carried away bringing forward number in XI (6) Eleven IX moving n forward = ENLEVE |
| 34 Take previous point to memory (6) Rec (take) + ord (point) = RECORD entered RCORDE |
|
| 35 Landowners from Edinburgh retreat without a day going West (6) Lair (retreat) + Rev. (sd – without a day) = LAIRDS entered LIARDS |
DOWN
1 Radical unable to be bolshie after leader’s given up (5)
(unable – u)* = BENZAL
2 Haig’s good to lead old soldiers (5)
Haig s – with g first = GHAZIS
3 Looking intently through, in silence (5)
In (through) in gag(silence) = GAZING
4 Raw recruit in navy turned about twice (4)
Rev. (Re/ on – about twice) = NOZZER
5 Plant bearing nuts after last leaves (6)
(bearing – g)* = ZEBRINA
6 Sit around cuddling live wildcats (5)
(sit)* about be (live) = ZIBETS
7 Madman casually caught glance (4)
C (caught) + ray (glance) = CRAZY
8 Grasp independence in view (4)
See (view) around I (independence) = SEIE
10 Traveller from abroad eating bananas (6)
(eating)* = TZIGANE
13 Worried about oxygen, no longer a gas (4)
Ate 9worried) about o (oxygen) = AZOTE
15 Racetrack Amon circulated? (4)
(amon)* = MONZA
17 Antelopes need ground with covering of reeds (6)
(need + rs)* = DZERENS
18 Rustproofs skin of iron, coating in canvas (4)
In (skin of iron) + cs (coating in canvas) = ZINCS
20 Californian’s precious object, to fill empty day (4)
It (object) in dy (empty day) = DITZY
21 Officially announce money taken from crowd around start of extra time (6)
Gate (money taken from crowd) around et (start of extra time) = GAZETTE
23 Genuine upset about one more averse to work (5)
Rev. [Real (genuine)] about I (one) = LAZIER
24 Dog could be Slavic, with tail docked barking (5)
(slavi)* = VIZSLA
25 Shakespearean cobbler’s strong fibre binding heel to shoe (5)
Coir (strong fibre) around e (heel to shoe) = COZIER
26 Ejections from nozzle in space, spinning ever so occasionally (5)
Rev en (space) + EvErSo = NEEZES
27 Casual detective could make error ignoring one of the rules (4)
(error – r)* = ROZZER
28 Wedding venue that’s upset Victorian soldier (4)
Rev. Cana (wedding venue) + ANZAC (Victorian as in Australian)
30 Dashboard light blew out with disconnected earth plugged in (4)
(blew – w)* around e (earth) = BEZEL
I thought this was an excellent puzzle. Lots going on, and much kudos to Ifor for spotting that REGAL KIN is an anagram of KING LEAR. Excellent work from one of my favourite setters.
My thanks for the blog and the kind sentiments from MD. One small point – 11ac is not a DD clue (I’m sure had that been the case the editor would have disallowed it, as the two supposed definitions are too alike in meaning) but more of an &lit: (g)E(t) “completely uncovered” after strip / BAR.
Ifor