EV 1476 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1476 (Hints)

After Steelman by Chalicea

Hints and tips by The Numpties

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Chalicea’s crosswords are generally welcomed because they are not too difficult and often because they have abundant thematic material in them. This one is a typical example.

Preamble: Solvers must highlight the person (3,8) who assisted 38 (unclued) in his development of his 1,16 (also unclued), and his description of that person (11,2,6) who came AFTER STEELMAN. An extra letter not entered in the grid is generated by the wordplay in 21 clues; read in order, the extra letters give three expressions that were used to describe that person’s father. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended..

There are 45 clues and the wordplay in only 21 of them is going to lead to an extra letter. That is a rather sneaky device – more difficult than having extra letters generated by wordplay in all the across or all the down clues. We realize that there are going to be three figures identified in the course of our solve and that one is going to be the father of another of them. The rather obscure title will probably help us to understand the theme (and, of course, solvers will see whether it anagrams to something helpful) but, at ths stage it is a little early to go to Wiki for help.

Across

13a           Long forgotten title role in play (4)
As usual in the hints on Big Dave’s site, the underlining of the definition part of a clue can be all the help a solver needs.

21a         Mixed very ordinary drink for Moscow concierge (7)
Unless you have a knowledge of Russian, this word is likely to be unfamiliar but, of course, Chalicea has anticipated that with a generous clue.

28a         Gasp in front of boundlessly sonsy slippers in Troon (7)
As in the above hint the solution might not be a familiar word but you are told that you have to add four letters to ‘boundless’ sonsy.

31a         Willingly in bygone days depart (4)
In order to find this archaic word you need to be prompted that we are looking for 21 extra letters in the wordplay of clues.

33a         Removing last of wrapping untangled messy little fillet (7)
We removed the last bit of wrapping here and sorted out the following word to get an unusual ‘little fillet’.

34a         In a lower position for Burns – an end of life (6)
The Scottish indicator and another reminder that we are extracting letters from the wordplay should suffice as the hint here.

40a         Jock’s from remote area oddly (4)
The solution will be immediately evident and you will need to backsolve to work out what that word ‘remote’ is doing in the clue. (Think again of the extra letters!)

41a         Hardened clay up to time that it essentially set (7)
Obscure words like this solution are almost forced on compilers attempting to construct a grid with a substantial amount of thematic material in it. The requirement is to clue such words generously whilst keeping a plausible surface reading. There are three wordplay elements that do that here.

Down

3d           On the alert caught in an attic room (6)
Another obscure word here. We need to remember the abbreviation for ‘caught’ and use that in another relatively old word for an attic room. (By this time those extra letters are probably spelling out a familiar description and you will be able to work out which letter could be extracted.)

8d           With spirit and soul creep very slowly up for Persian hookahs  (7)
There’s a crossword compiler’s old chestnut at the start of this solution, then the ‘up’ suggests how to ‘creep very slowly’ and complete an exotic name for these hookahs.

10d           North of the border stretch supply of food to supplement mostly (6)
Yet another Scottish word! The ‘supply of food’ will produce another extra letter and the ‘supplement mostly’ uses  another of those crossword compilers’ old chestnuts.

11d       Be deplorably proud to dribble (6)
An old word is used here.

19d         Balmoral’s fox is first of themes for poet (5)
This word for a fox is familiar and possibly used by most northerners in preference to the southern ‘fox’. Of course, you are still extracting extra letters.

27d        Het up over expression of fright and singular sounds of derision (6)
There are three mini wordplay elements used here to produce the sounds of derision.

28d         Casual infatuation with people of fashion for exotic language (6)
The word ‘casual’ suggests that this part of the solution is a commonly used word for ‘infatuation’.

There were several ways to discover the theme of this crossword – the title, of course, the inventive figure and his device that were unclued, or the description provided by the extra letters. That probably gave most solvers the penny-drop-moment and led to the rather astonishing star of the crossword.

Do remember that 30 letters in the grid need to be highlighted and do please send in your entry and add your comments here and to the setters’ blogs that are appearing on Big Dave’s site on Thursdays and to the detailed blogs that also appear on Thursdays on  fifteensquared.

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