EV 1654 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1654 (Hints)

Verse’s Opening Line by Ifor

Hints and tips by The Numpties

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Ifor needs no introduction for EV solvers. Dave Hennings’ crossword database tells us that he has been setting them since 2010 and this will be his 46th in the series. We know that he will give us a challenge with lots of demanding wordplay and that we can expect one of a wide range of literary, scientific or theatrical themes.

Preamble: Clues are in normal order, giving every normal entry successively, in sequence. Answers must be entered routinely, in their entirety. Not all clues have orthodox solutions; seven are missing and require identifying, then answering, never straightforwardly. Highlight a phrase that identifies clues; four lines of six, symmetrically.

We were bemused by the somewhat unusual preamble that didn’t mention the Chambers Dictionary but which stressed that all but seven (unclued) solutions were to be entered in the normal way, and that a ‘phrase’ (24 letters in four symmetrical lines of six) would ‘identify clues’. Clues listed in normal entry order and separated into ‘Across’ and ‘Down’, but with no clue numbers or word-lengths, clearly rendered the solve difficult until we had a few answers in place.

Across

*          Spirit of Ifor’s much loved birthplace engaging his head
We’ve included this hint because the term for a ‘much-loved birthplace’ was new to us. Of course we knew how to ‘engage Ifor’s head’ in the word we used for that spirit. The setter’s name, here, was used in an unusual way.

*         Mac’s not matched in wheeling barrow
Again the answer was new to us, though what was clearly indicated as a Scottish word was familiar with a different meaning. The ‘in’ prompted us that we were probably looking at a ‘contained’ word

*         Plasters group of penetrating cuts superficially
The underlined definition is probably all you need to prompt you that ‘group of’ has to ‘penetrate’ a word for ‘cuts superficially’ producing an unusual word for ‘plasters’.

*         Behaving like a dog, this barking keeps Scots cows back
Full marks to Ifor here for the amusing surface sense of the clue. Here the ‘barking’ told us what to do with ‘this’ and the ‘back’ told us what to do with the short word for those Scots cows which had to be ‘kept’.

*          Passes to Mumbai are sought, with nothing going out
Another new word for us but we did find it under ‘pass’ in Bradford’s Crossword Solver’s Dictionary. The wordplay tells us three things. ‘Out’ is a prompt about what to do with the letters. ‘Going’ tells us about the ‘nothing’, and ‘are’ behaves in the usual crossword way to complete the word we need.

*         Vaughn finally taken in by extra violent clash in Jaws
Wiki tells us that Vaughn was a character in Jaws but here, we only need him ‘finally’ and he has to be ‘taken in’ by a local word for ‘extra’ to produce that ‘clash in jaws’

*         Buffalo roam at onset of autumnal winds
‘Winds’ tells us what to do in this clue with the two wordplay elements; ‘roam at’ and the ‘onset of autumn’.

Down

*         Constant untruth spinning line
Another word where we needed to confirm with Chambers. The subtle wordplay has two elements – the ‘constant’ and the ‘untruth spinning’.

*         Tap local reserve in measured volumes of liquid
A short ‘local’ word for ‘tap’ has to be added to a short term for ‘reserve’.

*        Squall in Hawick was initially beginning before heading north
Clearly this is another Scots word. We use ‘was initially’ and a short old word (prompted by ‘before’) for ‘beginning’ and all of that has to ‘head north’.

*        Rotten peeled tomato made fit homes for mites
We ‘peeled’ some words here and they had to be ‘rotten’ to produce those homes for mites.

The ‘penny-drop’ moment produced broad smiles and made the remainder of our solve a lot easier. We realised how important it is to really focus on the preamble in a thematic cryptic crossword and we were full of admiration for what Ifor achieved. It is difficult to do something truly original in a thematic crossword!

Remember to highlight those 24 cells and 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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