EV 1632 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1632 (Hints)

No Brand by Vismut

Hints and tips by The Numpties

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This is Vismut’s nineteenth EV crossword and in the six years that she has been setting thematic cryptic crosswords, we have seen them in the IQ, EV, Listener and Magpie series. We still remember with delight her ‘Pretty Lights’ EV and know that her crosswords introduce us to activities and scenes from her home area.

Preamble: Five clues lead to thematic answers which have strayed and must be entered elsewhere. Solvers must complete the thematic name (6,8) in the central row of someone from 31a who has NO BRAND. The thematic entry at 1 down has wandered and strayed to another entry and must be returned to its correct position. The emptied entry should be completed with a thematic word to give a tidy finish. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended and has all the information required under the theme’s surname which is a headword; enumeration refers to entry lengths at clue numbers.

Since we are told that five ‘thematic answers’ have strayed, we guess that they might have somehow strayed into a redistribution of their five slots (somehow ‘changed places’). We see that we have to discover that thematic (6,8) name of a person who had NO BRAND at 24a and that 1d and 31a are also unclued, so eight clues (probably) in all are to be sussed. We note that comment about enumeration (that is always a prompt about clues possibly not exactly leading to the entry at their ‘number’ isn’t it!) Nothing to do but solve.

Across

13a          Wired network died in mountainous district (8)
There were three clue elements that we put together here: we interpreted the ‘wired’ as ‘over-excited’, the network as a computer term and ‘died’ in the usual crossword way. Remember, with many of the clues that we have chosen to give hints for, that they may be the ones that stray!

16a         Comparatively twitchy queen replacing knight in jacket (7)
We started with a name for the jacket then made that replacement, removing the ‘knight’ and replacing him with the letters we still use for the queen.

21a         Short flower from good wee boy (7)
The informal name for this ‘short’ flower is made up of ‘good’ and, as the clue suggests, a Scottish word for the wee boy.

27a         Short final bash for diminutive girl in Fife (7)
Here’s another Scottish word (partner for the wee boy hinted at above?) It’s the ‘final’ bit you need to shorten before that word for the bash.

37a        Top judge agreed about revolutionary (8)
What a deceptive clue! The convention of underlining the definition part of the clue in Big Dave’s hints should help here! Remember what ‘revolutionary’ can mean (as well as that CHE that appears too often in crosswords) and use ‘Judge’  followed by a word for ‘agreed and one for ‘about’.

Down

2d           Spectator’s left no second base in Devon’s capital city (6)
A reminder that we will be hunting for strays in the down clues too. This word was new to us. The clue is complex since that word ‘capital’ is used in two ways. You need to remove the second ‘base’ of the three that appear in Devon’s capital city. Chambers will confirm that the word means ‘Spectator’s left’.

9d           Casual hands reflected with time to blow off steam (5)
Another new word for the Numpties. We began by ‘reflecting’ those ‘casual hands’ (just a ‘casual’ way of speaking of them).

11d         Cut-off road on Kirkpatrick stretch north of the border (6)
We simply shortened that ‘road’ and consulted Chambers to confirm that Kirkpatrick would complete our answer and give us what was defined (another new word to us despite our Scottish origins – I am glad to say!)

19d        That man embarrassed gathering for City (6)
No, nothing to do with some soccer team! This lovely clue just requires you to put together three clue elements of the wordplay bearing in mind a short word that is used for ’embarrassed’.

20d        Croquet club stopping exercises on the ball likely to go wrong (8)
Again the wordplay led us to a relatively obscure answer and we smiled about Vismut’s ability to produce fine surface senses in these complex clues. Follow your instinct about how to use the ‘croquet club’ (we were surprised when Chambers confirmed it!) ‘Exercises’ and a short word for ‘on the ball’ have to include (be stopped) by that croquet club.

22d         Remote heartless rhino squashed beetle (6)
‘Squashed’ tells us what to do with the rhino and we have to add that to an unusual word for ‘remote’ to give us the beetle.

24d         Individual close to marbles Elgin collected (6)
A gentle clue but we had to comment on it because of its lovely surface reading – not a lot to do with the Elgin marbles! Consider what ‘collected’ is telling us to do with Elgin and the last of those marbles.

32d         Lower unfinished boat (4)
We used a rather unusual meaning of lower that had to be ‘unfinished’ to produce this four-letter boat.

We really appreciated the fact that this grid was entirely self-contained with the thematic names and all the thematic actions taking place within the grid (helped by that preamble) with no misprints or gimmicky message needed from the clues – so refreshing! The name that ‘appeared’ at 24a gave us the information we needed and Wikipedia, of course, then explained the NO BRAND to us. The final need to return 1d that had ‘wandered and strayed’ (consider both of those words) was entertaining and gave us that ‘tidy’ finish (with all the cells filled with real words). As usual with a Vismut crossword, the solution produced a smile and taught us more about what had previously been just a name.

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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