EV 1619 Hints

Enigmatic Variations 1619 (Hints)

Polyfilla by Check

Hints and tips by Phibs

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I asked Bard what the subject of a themed puzzle entitled ‘Polyfilla’ might be. He came straight back with an answer.

“A themed crossword entitled ‘Polyfilla'”, he said, “could focus on various aspects of this popular DIY product”. Among a number of exciting possibilities, he suggested:

◊   Ingredients and composition: The crossword could include clues related to the chemical components of Polyfilla, such as gypsum, resin and fillers.

◊   Applications and uses: Clues could encompass the various uses of Polyfilla, such as repairing cracks, filling holes, and smoothing surfaces.

◊   Properties and characteristics: The crossword could delve into the unique properties of Polyfilla, such as its fast-drying nature and ease of sanding.

In Bard’s hands, ‘setting’ takes on a whole new meaning. His parting thought struck me as potentially having slightly more relevance:

◊   Wordplay and puns: Crossword compilers often enjoy incorporating wordplay and puns into their creations, so a “Polyfilla” crossword could include clever clues that reference the product’s name or its applications.

Preamble: Eight clues contain an extra word to be removed before solving. In clue order, the first letters of these words produce the POLYFILLA to plug gaps in the initially filled grid left when entering a number of answers. When considered alongside the first letters, the last letters hint at a thematic item to be highlighted in the completed grid (7 cells), which contains all real words. Numbers in brackets refer to space available. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended

In terms of the initial grid (near-)fill, we can confidently enter any answers whose length matches the number of available cells; anything that is too short either needs to written down next to the clue or lightly pencilled into the grid, in the knowledge that it will probably need to be spaced out differently. The bit about ‘plugging gaps’ might suggest that the holes will not be at the start or end of a light, but if you think of the entry as being bounded by the solid bars at either end, the ‘gap’ could be anywhere. In the eight ‘extra word’ clues, fairness to solvers dictates that the bonus word will have to be removed prior to solving, ie the clue will not ‘work’ cryptically while it remains.

Across

12a    Stokes exits lavish press car worried about recordings (8)
The anagram fodder from which a single-letter abbreviation must be removed is far from obvious as the clue stands. The ‘recordings’ are perhaps more accurately ‘records’.

16a    Ian’s left-over sour cream often discarded (4)
The word ‘often’ seems inadequate on its own, and should be read as ‘every so often’ or ‘as often as not’.

18a    Endlessly contacts working sector (6)
In crosswords, ‘endless’ usually equates to ‘not finishing’, but in this instance it is used in the slightly whimsical sense of ‘having neither a beginning nor an end’.

24a    Fellow performer not rating island (4)
The ‘rating’ here is the sort that all the nice girls love.

28a    Electronic raffle money announced surprise award (4)
It’s not uncommon to see ‘announced’ heralding a homophone (eg ‘name announced’ = STILE), but here it indicates that the third element of the 1+1+2 charade is an interjection.

33a    Tyrant delaying special storage solutions (7)
In the wordplay, ‘delaying’ doesn’t itself have the required meaning and therefore needs to be pre-processed into ‘putting back’.

40a    Adjust component of trite meal (4)
One meaning of ‘of’ is ‘from’, which is how it needs to be interpreted here.

43a    In poor health, live among co-operative to lose weight (8)
Where there are words linking the wordplay in a clue to the definition, they normally come between the two, but here the ‘In’ at the start fills that role, thus producing a sound surface reading. The definition could easily have been written in a way that included the word ‘in’, but it would then have given most of the answer away. The phrasing of the wordplay might suggest that it is the word meaning ‘live’ which must ‘lose weight’, but in fact it is the one for ‘co-operative’.

Down

2d    Succeed in getting opening to release book (6)
The ‘book’ to be released is a single-letter abbreviation.

4d    Early writing correct to lower eccentricity (4)
It is a single-character abbreviation which must be ‘lowered’ within a word wherein it already appears.

9d    Retired graduate concealing second carried weapon (8)
Wordplays which contain a reversal indicator either following or followed by multiple elements are rather like mathematical formulae without brackets – does x * y + z mean x * (y + z) or (x * y) + z? Here the indicator at the start of the clue must be applied to everything that follows. You might think that ‘second’ would provide S, but in fact it leads to a slightly longer ‘informal abbreviation’.

23d    Keeps controls over former volunteers (8)
It could appear that ‘former’ is superfluous, but it is appropriate because in the UK the volunteers in question have not since 2014 been known by the name abbreviated here. ‘Over’ is used in its sense of ‘from side to side of’.

29d  Opening game push extremely deficient (6)
The ‘game’ is the type hunted for food, while ‘extremely’ is used somewhat fancifully to mean something like ‘at the extremes’.

31d    Slavers dictated orders after first sign of disagreement (6)
The homophone introduced by ‘dictated’ is of a type that I’m not overkeen on  – it produces a non-word which forms just part of the answer.

32d    French setting maintains ethical case for Algerian music (6)
The French setting (of jewellery) could also have been indicated by ‘cover with slabs’.

36d    Dark toupee left in bar, perhaps (5)
Here, the purpose of ‘bar’ could have been served by many other words, including ‘daraf’, ‘darcy’ and ‘dyne’.

Definitions in clues are underlined

Having identified the eight extra words, and thence the one formed by their first letters in clue order, we can redistribute those letters to fill the gaps. Working out the kind of thing that we’re looking for in the completed grid shouldn’t prove too difficult, and Nirvana fans will be at an advantage when it comes to identifying exactly what is wanted. Those who start by searching the Chalicea Line may not meet with immediate success but should carry on in similar vein. Don’t forget to highlight those seven cells.

One of those puzzles where the initial ‘gappy’ fill was quite tricky but progress was smooth from there on.

Phibs Toughness Rating : 🥾🥾/🥾🥾🥾 (Suitable for all except beginners, although there are one or two chewy clues)

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