First of all, apologies for not alerting fellow EV solvers to the early entry date for this puzzle. Although I saw that mc had put up a placeholder last week, I didn’t think to check the closing date for this week’s entry (Tuesday, 30th).
We had another new setter here, this time in the shape of Ranunculus, someone who is perhaps equally at home in their garden as behind a crossword grid? Two types of clue faced us: across clues needing a letter to be added to the definition part before solving, and down clues needing a letter to be removed.
After my first pass through the clues, I had well over half solved. However, that is not to criticise in any way. They were solid clues with some entertaining misprints. I especially liked the clue to 17dn, and it’s a good job that I keep up with the latest music trends (22ac)!
Thus the quotation was revealed to be from Man’s Place in Nature by TH Huxley: “The necessity of making things plain to uninstructed people was one of the very best means of clearing up obscure corners in one’s own mind.” This quotation, “together with the puzzle’s title”, suggested how eight letters needed to be replaced.
Despite being sure that the reference to the Square and Compass of the freemasons was a red herring, seeing FREE diagonally in the bottom four rows and ONRY to its right did make me wonder. I also saw SILVER going up in column 7, and 7ac could change to PLATE but that seemed even more tenuous. However, it did make me concentrate on the corners as the quotation seemed to be alluding, and the strange words found in each.
Eventually, after another 40 minutes, compass directions NW, NE, SE and SW were slotted into the corners to make much more common words.
As a debut, this was a fine puzzle from Ranunculus, neat and elegant, even if not too taxing.
Legend:
Definition in clue
X = missing/extra letters
ABC* = anagram
ABC< = reversal
abCDef = hidden
ACROSS | |||
---|---|---|---|
No | Entry | Missing Letter |
Clue and Explanation |
2 | MELDER | V | Quantity of first letters of Me Exclaiming Loudly & Demanding Extra Ration |
7 | PLAST | E | in hooPLA STall |
11 | EYRIE | R | I in EYRE; reference to Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester |
12 | AEROBIC | Y | I race wildly around old barrels as IRACE* about O (old) B (barrels) |
13 | STUN | B | Knock out with NUTS< (loopy); counter = the opposite way |
14 | VIVACE | E | V (5) IV (4) ACE (one); reference to composer Carl Loewe |
16 | TOPSOIL | S | Loot I sorted out when holding proper séance, initially (LOOT I)* about PS (initials of Proper Séance) |
19 | LIPREAD | T | In the first place, I peer at the edges to see what’s I PR (PeeR at the edges) in LEAD (the first place) |
22 | NICETY | M | One ICE-T (rapper) in NY (New York) |
23 | SEVERE | E | E (east) in VERSE* |
25 | FEEDER | A | One who is FEED (paid price) + RE< (regarding) |
26 | BRACES | N | They’ll sort out BR (British) ACES (ones) |
27 | ART DECO | S | Redcoat rocking in style of Cliff’s REDCOAT*; reference to art deco style of Clarice Cliff’s pottery |
33 | UNEARTH | O | A runt he’s prepared to bring into the (A RUNT HE)* |
35 | TREMOR | F | Result of reversed in cROMER Theatre |
36 | NINE | C | 9 = Latin IX (one cross); reference to being on cloud nine |
37 | DEMERGE | L | Drizzle’s beginning to become known as D (first letter of Drizzle) + EMERGE (become known) |
38 | SCOUR | E | COURS[e]* |
39 | REEDE | A | University fellow leaving to train again in former REEDUCATE (train again) – U (University) CAT (fellow) |
40 | STEERY | R | STA (station, briefly) with A (American) replaced by (EERY (frightening); reference to Walter Scott’s novel, Waverley; I think a hyphen is needed here for both ‘bust-up’ and ‘burst-up’ as ‘commotion’ is a noun |
DOWN | |||
---|---|---|---|
No | Entry | Extra Letter |
Clue and Explanation |
1 | KEST | I | Veteran KT (knight) about ES (as in French tu es = English thou art) |
3 | ERUPT | N | Looking back, perfect time to make PURE< (perfect) + T (time) |
4 | LINSEED | G | IN SEE (eye) contained by LD (lord) |
5 | DEPORTEE | U | One forced to leave R (first letter of Rhodes) in DEPOT (warehouse) + EE (centre of grEEce) |
6 | EASILY | P | Yes, Ali works without needing to get (YES ALI)* |
7 | PRIG | T | I’m P (Pony, initially) + RIG (equipment) |
8 | LOVER | H | The first to leap on top of one getting L (first letter of Leap) + OVER (on top of); I would have thought a ? would be appropriate here, or a !, or both |
9 | ABATE | E | Moderate, as E (last letter of becomE) after A BAT (drunken spree) |
10 | SICE | O | SIC (thus) + E (first letter of Equine); reference to a chauffeur’s cap |
15 | ELDEST | B | Most (STEEL D (hint of Daring))* |
17 | INFANT | S | My nightly accommodation’s FA (absolutely nothing!) in INN (hotel) T (last letter of cesspiT) |
18 | TIER | C | Big cat’s no good for TIGER (big cat) – G (good) |
20 | PERVERSE | U | I’ll abandon pie recipe and serve shredded PIE – I + R (recipe) + SERVE* |
21 | AREA | R | Range of in shakespeAREAns |
24 | VALANCE | E | VA (Virginia, state) + LANCE (cavalry weapon) |
26 | BONNET | C | Bishop and cardinal certainly not turning up for a B (bishop) + (TEN (cardinal number) NO (certainly not))< |
28 | THEME | O | Article on Middle East gives THE (article) + ME (Middle East) |
29 | DOMED | R | March day is about like one’s (DEMO (march) + D (day))< |
30 | PRIOR | N | Prince Ferdinand, maybe, first to rebuke man in charge of P (prince) + RIO (Ferdinand, footballer) + R (first letter of Rebuke) |
31 | GREE | E | Oddly, garden close to lake is GRE (odd letters of GaRdEn) + E (last letter of lakE) |
32 | FORE | R | FROE* (regular letters of FuRrOwEd) |
34 | HERY | S | HER (lady) + Y (yard) |
I enjoyed this one from Ranunculus. The clues somehow had an Azed-y feel, and the endgame took some thinking about, but I knew I was right once I’d sussed it.
There have been a few EV debutants recently, which is nice to see. I think the last year has seen first-time puzzles from Ferret, Gaston, Gila, Artix, Ian & Steve, proXimal, Raffles, Ranunculus and Charismatix.
A few of those debutants are just new names for regular/ previous setters (Charismatix and Ian & Steve in particular), but yes, it’s good to see a few new faces and Gaston/ Ranunculus in particular haven’t set anywhere before the EV that I’m aware of.
Sorry about the missing hyphen in ‘bust-up’/’burst-up’ – it seems to have gone AWOL somewhere during the proofing process and I didn’t notice its defection.
Thanks, Mike, for your kind comments – to have the name of one of my crossword ‘heroes’ (and the only one still setting) so much as mentioned in connection with my clues is a boost.
And no, I haven’t had a puzzle published anywhere else before – this was the first complete cryptic puzzle I’d compiled (well, actually the second in the sense that the first version of The Square and Compass was rather unwisely set before I had the EV Guidelines for Setters and turned out to break a rule or two! Cue rewrite…)