Hello everyone. I’m happy to be here following on from Dave Hennings who has given ten years of sterling work blogging the EV. Many thanks to Dave for all his hard work and for the welcome to the team.
The preamble reads:
The perimeter contains three broadly synonymous phrases reading clockwise from 16. Each relates to three clues wherein the defined entry differs from the answer given by wordplay (nine clues in total), with numbers in brackets always giving the cells available. Unchecked letters in the perimeter each appear as a letter to be removed before solving (leaving a real word) from the clue to the nearer or only entry in the same row or column. The final grid contains some VACANT cells; Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.
After a slow start I eventually managed to fill in a good chunk of the SW corner and a handful of other entries. I found the clues with a letter to be removed more tractable than others, it being very helpful that the deletions left real words. I had a few question marks, but still no real clue as to what might be going on in the nine special clues.
At this point it looked like I could perhaps make headway with the perimeter: AIR at the end of the top row seemed to fit with the VACANT theme; even more promising was the likelihood that part of the right edge would be SPACE. And, at the very end of the sequence, _LGA_HERING. 22d had an OO not covered by wordplay, and looking that up in Chambers, I found that oo is a Scots word for wool. So all at once I had WOOL GATHERING – and some wool gathered. Lovely!
From here I’m afraid I may have headed straight for thesaurus for other terms meaning daydreaming. Quickly finding perfect fits in AWAY WITH THE FAIRIES and SPACED OUT, suddenly it all looked much more doable.
Well, mostly. It wasn’t too hard to get from there to a full grid, or to finish the WOOL-GATHERING, but the special clues would give me a little more trouble yet. It took too long to see that the defined entries were SPACED OUT evenly in the answers derived from wordplay, and I had to think carefully and re-read the preamble to be satisfied that the VACANT cells should actually be left empty.
As for the fairies, they caused me some trouble at the very end, mainly because there were also three normal clues which I hadn’t yet managed to parse (28a, 15d and 28d), and I wasn’t quite sure which was which. Remembering that the wordplay always leads to real words was the key here.
Sorting out the three remaining normal clues was the final task, and not a trivial one.
In summary, the special clues work as follows:
AWAY WITH THE FAIRIES (20a, 7d, 30d): the wordplay leads to longer words than the defined entries; they contain a fairy to be removed before entry
WOOL GATHERING (14a, 4d, 22d): the wordplay leads to shorter words than the defined entries; they need the addition of some wool
SPACED OUT (33a, 24d, 25d): the defined entries are spaced out evenly in the longer words given by the wordplay
Thanks to Ifor for a good challenge which kept me puzzled and entertained throughout, and seasonal greetings to you all, with very best wishes for 2019.
| Across | |||
| Clue No |
GRID ENTRY (defined) | WORDPLAY and treatment | Clue with [l]etters to be deleted and definition |
| Explanation | |||
| 7a | LOSER | Saddo [w]ore Levis on vacation trips (5) | |
| ORE + L[evi]S (Levis on vacation, i.e. without inner letters) is anagrammed (trips) | |||
| 9a | NARRE | Poet’s closer to arranged venue, finally taking name in va[i]n (5) | |
| ARR (arranged) plus the last letter of (… finally) venuE preceded by N (taking name in van, van being vanguard/front) | |||
| 10a | YIRKING | Year imprisoning one ruler binding for some people (7) | |
| YR (year) containing (imprisoning) I (one) + KING (ruler). Yurk/yirk is a dialect word (for some people) to bind or tie | |||
| 11a | NAIVE | In a natural state, forgetting time is easily done (5) | |
| NA[t]IVE (in a natural state) without (forgetting) T(ime) | |||
| 13a | ANTIAR | Train to [s]wallow before ingesting active toxin (6) | |
| TRAIN to be anagrammed (to wallow) before the insertion of (ingesting) A (active). Antiar is the poisonous latex of the upas-tree | |||
| 14a | DOOKETS
|
DOOS with KET inserted | Celebrations taking over Edinburgh la[w]yers’ homes (7) |
| DOS (celebrations) containing O (over). Doos is a Scots word for doves, and dookets are dovecotes.
Ket is a Scots word for matted wool |
|||
| 16a | ADPRESS | Jam spreads out (7) | |
| SPREADS anagrammed (out) | |||
| 19a | HOOP | Tire of nothing, enthralled by dance (4) | |
| O (nothing) in (enthralled by) HOP (dance) | |||
| 20a | GEAL | PERIGEAL with PERI removed | Stiffen before age somehow put in danger (4) |
| AGE anagrammed (somehow) in (put in) PERIL (danger). Geal is an obsolete or dialect word meaning congeal | |||
| 23a | ESTONIA | Rude senorita ignoring King in country (7) | |
| An anagram of (rude) SENO[r]ITA without R (rex, king) | |||
| 26a | NOTIONS | Ideas turned into sounds with ex[c]iting alternatives (7) | |
| An anagram of (turned) INTO + [s]O[u]N[d]S with alternate letters removed (with exiting alternatives) | |||
| 31a | TERETE | Cylindrical pair of supports almost hiding ru[i]ns (6) | |
| TEE TE[e] (pair of supports) without the last letter (almost), containing (hiding) R (runs) | |||
| 32a | REIKI | Hands-on treatment turning riskier without occasional input from Sister (5) | |
| The reversal of (turning) [r]I[s]KIER without, separately, the letters of (occasional input from) SR (sister) | |||
| 33a | G L A D | GOLIARD
|
Contented gaolbird, not born crook (7) |
| GAOL[b]IRD without B (not born) anagrammed (crook) | |||
| 34a | ASANA | Acting without date c[e]ases an exercise position (5) | |
| A (acting) + SA (sine anno, without date) contains (cases) AN. Any of the positions in yoga | |||
| 35a | SCENA | Part of Cinderella perhaps regularly seconded at pant[o]s (5) | |
| Regular letters of SeCoNdEd At anagrammed (pants) | |||
| Down | |||
| 1d | TORTS | Local scraps after tense poet’s injuries (5) | |
| ORTS (local/dialect word for scraps or fragments) after T (tense). A poetic word for injuries | |||
| 2d | TEIAN | Ionic compound of tin taken every now and again (5) | |
| An anagram (compound) of TIN with alternate letters (… every now and again) of tAkEn | |||
| 3d | ENGROSS | Ogre occasionally sends rustic to fatten up for b[o]ard (7) | |
| An anagram (… rustic) of OGRE with alternate letters of (occasionally) SeNdS | |||
| 4d | FANTOD | FAN with TOD added | Anxiety for some cowmen after rearing herds (6) |
| CowmeN AFter reversed (rearing) contains (herds) FAN | |||
| 5d | IRIS | Flag of nation ignoring southern border (4) | |
| IRIS[h] (of nation) without (ignoring) the southernmost letter | |||
| 6d | REVET | Make stone face turn outwards, right at the top (5) | |
| EVERT (turn outwards) with R (right) moved to the top | |||
| 7d | LINED | LINE-FEED with FÉE removed | Unlimited client wa[i]vers, with charges covered internally (5) |
| The inner part of (unlimited) cLIENt anagrammed (wavers) + FEED (with charges) | |||
| 8d | SKIER | Six runs, t[h]en dropped; Kent’s opening pair wildly hit in the air (5) | |
| An anagram (… wildly) of SI[x] R (runs) with X (ten) removed (dropped) and KE (Kent’s opening pair). A hit into the air | |||
| 12d | ANKH | Sign of life before network [a]voided hospital (4) | |
| A (ante, before) + NetworK without the inner letters (voided) + H (hospital) | |||
| 15d | EON | What’s tabled at No. 10, without leader for a very long time (3) | |
| The tenth element of the periodic table, [n]EON, missing its first letter (without leader) | |||
| 17d | PAT | Dispatched nurses exactly as required (3) | |
| DisPATched contains (nurses) the answer | |||
| 18d | SENEGAL | Country’s upper crust c[h]asing rampant embarrassment (7) | |
| SAL (the upper part of the Earth’s crust, according to some sources) containing (casing) the reversal of (rampant) GÊNE (embarrassment, French) | |||
| 21d | LINK | Connection [a]head of criminal leaving prison for the street (4) | |
| The first letter of (head of) Criminal removed from (leaving) [c]LINK (slang/street term for prison) | |||
| 22d | BOOING | BING with OO inserted | Sound of disapproval being less evident at the start (6) |
| B[e]ING without (less) the first letter of (… at the start) Evident | |||
| 24d | O R E | OURIE | Tour that is bypassing to[w]n in tangle (5) |
| [t]OUR + IE (that is) without (bypassing) T (ton). Ore is tangle/tangleweed | |||
| 25d | I T A | INTRA | Palm’s temperature ca[u]sed by stormy rain (5) |
| T (temperature) in (cased by) an anagram of (stormy) RAIN. Ita is the miriti palm | |||
| 27d | OBEAH | Charm award almost had to be returned (5) | |
| OBE (award) + HAd (almost had), reversed (returned) | |||
| 28d | TELCO | Change line without meaning to, upsetting Internet provider (5) | |
| C[hang]E + L (line) without HANG (meaning) + TO all anagrammed (… upsetting) | |||
| 29d | MEANT | Planned close finish to event (5) | |
| MEAN (close/stingy) + the last letter of (finish to) evenT | |||
| 30d | SIST | SELFIST with ELF removed | Scots legal stay, special in itself with the key point at the end (4) |
| S (special) in ITSELF with IT (the key point) at the end | |||