EV 1596 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1596 (Hints)

Directors by Kcit

Hints and tips by The Numpties

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Kcit needs no introduction for EV solvers. Dave Hennings’ crossword database tells us that he has been setting them since 1993. We know he will give us a challenge and probably teach us something new and this crossword is no exception to that.

Preamble: Five pairs of answers clash in a single cell, in ways that cannot be uniquely resolved. Letters from across answers, read left to right, spell one name, those from down answers another. The names will guide solvers to replace each clash with the same thematic symbol, and they must then highlight what they are being DIRECTed to see. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.

We understand that there will be five clashes in our grid and that reading the letters of these will give us two separate five-letter words that will act as guides to something that we must highlight.

Across

12a           Backsliding trustee took off, making exit (6)
We saw the word that was appearing in our grid and knew what the ‘backsliding’ was telling us but needed to think about how the ‘trustee’ (briefly) ‘took off”.

17a         No longer bring back this African cereal (3)
Both the obsolete word for ‘bring’ that you have to ‘put back’ and the current one for the cereal are fairly obscure, and, like us, you may need to use the two letters that will appear as you solve and add the most likely one in the middle

24a         End tram strike, definitely (3)
The underlining of the definitions (three of them!) made us smile and will probably help solvers.

36a         Vault offering drink – finished tucking in? (6)
Another clue that earned a smile and another of Kcit’s amusingly deceptive ones. Sadly we are not involved in an alcohol freebie. Think of another popular drink and ‘tuck’ a short word for ‘finished’ into it.

37a         Like many young animals, not initially hairy (5)
Clearly we had to remove the ‘initial’ letter from what many young animals are to get a ‘hairy’ word.

Down

4d            Plume for one concerned with end of ornament (5)
We put together the three tiny clue elements and were surprised when the word they produced fitted this definition.

6d           African hut in the first group? (5)
This was another clue where we had to ‘back-solve’ to work out what the word that appeared (an African hut) had to do with ‘the first group’.

8d         Small store neglecting an English source of honey (4)
Use a letter then a word for ‘store’ – but you have to ‘neglect ‘one’ English to get that unusual word for the ‘source of honey’.

14d          Go crazy over turkey with repeated flapping (8)
We put together a word for ‘go crazy’ and what a ‘turkey’ can be (not a very successful turkey!)

21d         Latin pair about to appreciate Hungarian composer (6)
We are reminded that Kcit sets the crosswords for the BBC music magazine. The ‘Latin pair’ had to be ‘about’ the familiar word for ‘to appreciate’. That gave us the composer’s name.

31d         Gas enveloping North American (4)
Not a difficult clue to solve when you remember that Kcit likes to tease you with the deceptive nature of his wordplay but we have included it in the hints because this is another one that made us smile. You need to think about the nature of the gas here.

We appreciated the symmetry of what was appearing in our grid. Reading from left to right, first the across clashing letters, then the downs, gave us two words that were not familiar to us (Numpty ignorance) but, as usual, Wiki guided us to what we needed to highlight. Don’t forget to highlight that!

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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