Enigmatic Variations 1616 (Hints)
Sundays Seem a Joke by Eclogue
Hints and tips by The Numpties
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Eclogue set crosswords for all the thematic crossword outlets. This is their seventeenth in the EV series.
Preamble: All ten-letter entries are unclued, each comprising two words suggested by a quotation (in ODQ8), derived from single letters, when read in clue order, to be removed from each of 17 clues prior to solving. Unchecked letters in the unclued entries could be arranged to suggest SUNDAYS SEEM A JOKE. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.
With sixty cells unclued, we realize that we are faced with a challenge. Two words will go into each of those ten-letter entries and we have no word divisions, so assume that they will be of different lengths. Nothing to do but solve.
Across
8a German ambler crushed bones in meeting (6)
Remember that we are looking for single extra letters that will be removed from 17 clues before solving. We counted 32 clues and wondered whether Eclogue would be relatively systematic in their letter removal. ‘Crushed’ suggested what we should be doing with the ‘German ambler’ remembering that ‘German’ can give us a single letter.
9a Barbarian infiltrating Council of Europe for source of oil (6)
We put a short word for a barbarian into the Council of Europe and produced a source of oil that we needed to confirm in Chambers.
13a Perhaps Harlow in group sitting, up in arms (7)
A famous Harlow had to be put into a small word for a group to produce a heraldic word. The punctuation here was deceptive (as it can be in crosswords).
18a Haggard work indeed has served (6)
Haggard’s ‘She‘ is familiar to all of us but probably not this novel. However, the wordplay spells out two three-letter words that, put together, give its name.
20a Pills containing copper? Loads in China (6)
When you remember that we are finding extra letters, this clue spells out a word for us. It was another that we needed to check in Chambers.
24a Poetic Eden endlessly fertile (7)
A tough clue. You need a classical poet whose name, here, is split into two. The first partnof the wordplay produces more than half of the answer and three letters (endlessly fertile) are added.
27a Fold lip in snarl and call to Hamish (5)
‘Snarl’ prompted us about what to do with the lip and we added a short Scots word for ‘call’.
31a Embracing the French, review of brine is being discussed (6, two words)
This is another answer where the puctuation has been adjusted. ‘Review’ prompts us (again) about what we need to do and we know what ‘the’ French can be (LE, LA, L’ or LES).
32a Egyptian soul to die for large bat (6)
We’ve hinted at an unusually large number of clues as Eclogue seem to have gone to town with obscure words. The two-word Egyptian soul gave us no problem and we know the term ‘to die for’ but the bat was new to us. Chambers again!
Down
4d Plain short girl, who God has favoured, on vessel ascendant (8)
The underlining of the definition part of the clue should help here. We checked that the meaning of the girl was ‘who God has favoured’. She needed to be ‘short’ and we had to upset that vessel that she was ‘on’.
7d Old military engine none deployed with rag (6)
When you have removed the most likely ‘additional letter’ you are left with two short words which, when ‘deployed’ give that ‘old military engine’.
14d Rowing coach to add runner under Polk (8)
This clue demanded knowledge that we didn’t have (thanks for the Internet!) but we could use a short word from the clue, Polk, and a familiar word for a runner and that produced a name that matched the letters we had in the grid.
19d Government follows one in Glasgow catching former partner spitting there (6)
We didn’t know this Scottish word for spitting but three mini parts of the wordplay, put together, gave us what we needed.
25d I name yon Greek weights (5)
By this stagenof your solve, you probably know which letter you need to remove. That leaves a short word telling us what to do with the other two of the wordplay.
There was more than one way to get to the penny-drop moment in this crossword which we found fairly difficult (and which was, we realized appropriate for this weekend). You might spot what is emerging as one or other of the words in one of the shaded lights – the one on the right, say, or the top or bottom row – or, like us, you may need the message produced almost systematically by those removed letters. We needed the Internet to confirm some of those words that went into the pairs in the unclued entries.
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I have to say that was a bitvof a slog to finish. All the clues very logical and fair, but too many needed Internet confirmation. I didn’t twig to the unclued answers until the grid was nearly complete so it was the clued answers that gave me the unclued ones. Usually it is the other way around
Thanks to The Numpties for useful pointers and Eclogue for cerebral press-ups.
I stared at the unclued entries for ages, one of the unclued downs had me fooled as it was a type of both feline and equine, The penny dropped when I recalled childhood telly