EV1594
Vicinities by Stick Insect
Setter’s Blog
Initial letters of escaping words give JOSH CH TWENTY VV SEVEN AND EIGHT; TWELVE CELLS IN SIX ENTRIES. Hence, six entries are changed to the biblical Cities of Refuge.
The idea for Vicinities came, as I’m sure many crossword themes do, from looking through the ever-useful Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Around this time last year, I had the time to do some setting but no obvious idea for a puzzle, so browsed through and came across the Cities of Refuge. Six thematic items seemed about the right number for a puzzle and I didn’t think it had been done before.
Some work with the dictionary confirmed that all six could be hidden in the grid with two letter changes which instinctively felt like a reasonable challenge for the solver, as long as the theme was clearly signalled: I played around with potential messages to show the source but “Joshua chapter twenty verses seven and eight” was too many letters for the number of clues I’d have available. Abbreviating Joshua, chapter and verses then came to the rescue with the added bonus that the message wouldn’t become too obvious with a few clues solved. I did wonder if solvers might find that a bit of a stretch but the feedback I’ve seen doesn’t seem to suggest that, so hopefully it worked.
Moving a word between clues again seemed the natural way to reflect the theme of fleeing/taking refuge and isn’t a gimmick I’ve seen used too much, so that fell into place. The title – intended to indicate VI CITIES to hide IN – came to me in a moment of serendipity, which was nicely satisfying.
So grid constructed, clues written – all fine, except …. When I rechecked it, I realized it contained a howler. I had managed to misread my own handwriting in my notes and had made one of the cities Rezer not Bezer. At least Bezer could also be formed with two letter changes from a real word, but it couldn’t be shoe-horned into the grid I had. Cue some gnashing of teeth and a complete rewrite of grid and clues (well, mostly: I did manage to save a few). A useful if irritating lesson to self in taking more care with my scrawled ideas.
My thanks to all those who’ve commented here and elsewhere, and of course to the editor for the usual improvements.
++++++++
A full review of this puzzle can be seen over on fifteensquared.