EV 1600 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1600

Count by proXimal

Hints and tips by The Numpties

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With proXimal, we know that we have a familiar setter who also sets as eXternal in the IQ and Listener series (and combines with another setter as eXtent). You might know him as Artexlen in the FT and Boz in The Herald. Big Dave’s regulars will know him from Thursday/Friday Toughies and back-pagers, where he’s also normally put in Fridays (used to be Thursdays). With such a range of setting experience, you can be sure you are in safe hands.

Preamble: A letter must be reinstated in each of 43 clues. The same letter that has been reinstated must replace one of the letters in the answer before entry. In clue order, the original letters which have been replaced spell out what should replace two entries. Word COUNT refers to answers; all entries are real words or phrases at every stage. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.

We count the clues and find that there are 49 and we are prompted that something is going to be spelled out in 43 of them. We suspect that the other six will be spaces between words in the message we will receive – maybe an eight-word message then. We try to get our heads round this original explanation of what we will be doing – putting a letter into 43 clues and using that same letter in the 43 answers, replacing a letter that was in the defined word. Then we will be using the letter that was replaced to give us that 43-letter message.

Across

11a          Make holy hat everybody should wear (6)
We realized that this device was going to be tough to handle. We had no problem thinking of a six-letter word for ‘make holy’ but realized that we had to enter an answer with one letter changed. Seven possibilities came to mind if we changed the first letter and three if we changed the last (and middle ones would work too!) but one of those new letters had to go into the wordplay to create the original definition. We adjusted that ‘hat’ to produce our  new answer. Of course, the letter that we didn’t use in the answer had to go into the coloured strip we had drawn in the margin, as part of the 43-letter message.

12a         Energy to maintain run flat out (6)
Of course, that extra letter can go into the wordplay or the definition. The wordplay here, with that ‘energy’ maintaining ‘run’ gave us an answer but we had to decide how that was ‘flat out’. Then we had a second problem: we had reinstated a letter but had to somehow use it to replace one of those in the answer. It was the least likely of the six letters of the answer that we needed. (Of course, experienced solvers will already be looking at that message and working out what letter might be appropriate here.)

15a         Clubs plan to occupy vacant plots (7)
Clubs are not always of the ‘social get-together’ type. If you consider the ‘vacant’ plots you have helpful letters and need to work out how to reinstate a letter into the rest (producing an adjective) to complete the word.

22a         Picked up pace becoming more visionary in verse (6)
We were caught by a red herring here. We could see that we were being prompted about a homophone and the word in the wordplay seemed to suggest an obvious letter to produce a synonym of ‘more visionary’ but we struggled to make that letter fit and should have gone to Chambers and let the BRB prompt us with its first definition. Maybe solvers will do better than we did.

27a         Stick around entertained by massive empty threat (6)
You might, by now, be seeing words in that 43-letter message and it is useful to remember that there are gaps. We saw ‘vacant’ in 15a and now have ’empty’ which is going to ‘entertain’ or grip, say, ‘stick around’ to give the threat.

37a         Battery was on that floor of French club covered in goop (7, two words)
There is more than one possible word for the ‘goop’ that has to do the covering. (The Numpties, of course, initially opted for the wrong one.) The underlining should help solvers here as we are being prompted to define, in two words, the floor where the ‘battery’ is. There is, I believe, only one letter that could effectively be reinstated and using it gives a fine new entry.

39a         All uranium depleted down (4)
Again the ‘hint underlining’ is probably welcome since it leaves only one place where a letter is probably to go, to create part of a word for ‘down’. We checked ‘depleted’ in Chambers and it does indeed have that meaning that tells us what to do with the uranium and with another word of the clue too.

43a         Unit cites more fixed working hours (9, two words)
“Astonishing!” may well be your reaction when you run through the steps that lead initially to the two-word answer, sussing what letter has to be reinstated, then see how that letter can replace a letter of the original answer, bearing in mind that ‘all entries are real words or phrases at every stage’.

Down

2d          Hood’s girl has not taken up berthing place for boat (6)
Who is the ‘Hood’ we asked ourselves whose name should be familiar. There was little doubt about the original defined answer and the message that was appearing prompted us what letter needed to change and which one go into that message.

7d         Bee container evacuated, emptied and lined with stone (7)
We wondered whether we were ’emptying the evacuated’ or ‘evacuating the emptied’ but I don’t suppose it matters. That reinstated letter didn’t have many places where it would fit and solvers will probably, by now, be seeing what the message is spelling out and what letter is needed from that ‘lined with stone’. Chambers has a few options for that term but only one will serve our purpose.

17d        Ten at circus north of Spain regularly drink hard (4)
To understand that ‘north of” we needed to recall that this is a down clue.

22d         Answer crazy early call to prayer (4)
The four-letter word is probably familiar and the letter that needed to be replaced in the answer by the reinstated one was so helpful – it gave us our first p.d.m. For that original wordplay we put together two small clue elements – a letter and a three-letter one.

24d         Missed parcel’s instrument for surgeon (7)
This was our next bungle. Don’t do as we did and opt for the obvious ‘instrument for surgeon’. We got into a real muddle because of that error. The wordplay, when you have decided on a reinstated letter, tells you clearly what to do, and Chambers will confirm that a surgeon might use the instrument in question.

28d         Left cot in warm shed (6)
To help with this clue you need to consider the list of single-letter abbreviations that we are allowed and what ‘shed’ can mean as well as that hut in the garden. ‘Warm’ here is used in the sense of ’emotionally stirred up’.

33d        Frenchman with ails of particular type (5)
No, it isn’t the usual René but a different Frenchman who is created by the ‘with’ and two more letters.

Quite a dazzling achievement for proXimal. As we solved more and more of these stunning clues, we kept thinking “Can he really keep this up for all 43?” No easy task! Solving was ‘no easy task’ either but a thoroughly enjoyable challenge. We were told what should ‘replace two entries’. Don’t forget to do 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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