EV 1655 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1655 (Hints)

Assertion by Skylark

Hints and tips by Phibs

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Seeking comfort on behalf of solvers, I asked ChatGPT, “Do you think that a puzzle by a setter called Skylark is likely to be easier than one set by Pandiculator?”

I hoped that I might receive some telling insights into the psychology of the setters based on their choice of pseudonyms. I was to be disappointed.

“The difficulty of puzzles set by different setters, such as Skylark and Pandiculator, can vary significantly and is often subjective, depending on several factors [these were then listed].

Without specific information about the puzzles these setters have created, it’s hard to definitively say whether Skylark’s puzzles are easier than Pandiculator’s. However, the general consensus within a community of solvers who have experience with both setters could provide a more accurate assessment. If you have access to such a community or forums where puzzles are discussed, that could be a good place to check for opinions and experiences regarding the difficulty of puzzles by Skylark and Pandiculator.”

Seems as though we’ll just have to find out the hard – or the easy – way.

Preamble: In each clue there is an extra letter, which must be removed before solving. In order, these give two instructions: the second refers to an ASSERTION by the subject. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.

A nice simple preamble, and a gimmick that applies to every clue; once the letter is removed, the clue will then make sense cryptically but the surface reading may become nonsensical. When, as here, the extra letter can appear in definition or wordplay, you can expect a couple of dodges to make appearances. The first – dodge (i) – is the removal of the extra letter to leave a word with a single-letter abbreviation, eg ‘Could enjoy a bit of garlic‘ for CLOVE [C + LOVE], where the letter to be removed is U, leaving ‘Cold’. The second – dodge (ii) – is a letter selection where the extra letter must be lost in order to ‘expose’ the letter to be selected, eg ‘Caught strict guards heading for tea’ for HEARD [HARD around E], where the letter to be removed is T, leaving ‘ea’. Note that with this dodge the resultant word might be obscure, but it must appear in Chambers. Remember also that the relevant letter in the target word cannot be in the required position before the removal of the extra letter – in the example above, the corrected form could not be ‘heading for te’ as this is cryptically no different from ‘heading for tea’.

Across

10a    Seth loses time during crash in tactical race (6)
Here the imposter, after losing its extra letter, leads to another three-letter word which itself suffer a single-letter loss.

15a    Ignoring prank, accompany prisoner (3)
Not too hard to spot the imposter or the corrected word (I think there’s only one possibility), but finding the four-letter synonym to be removed from a seven-letter verb is trickier. I got it by working back from the answer.

26a    Clumsy, uncovered hiding gold, astound Glaswegian (13)
The wordplay here is quite tricky, with the second part of the (2+3) ‘sandwich filling’ being a Scottish (‘Glaswegian’) meaning of a word which isn’t visible in the clue as written.

29a    Self-centred individual’s endless pout cutting patronage by Tesla (6)
A word on display in the clue loses the extra letter and then both of its outer letters (I’m not entirely convinced by ‘endless’ to indicate ‘without a start or an end’, but it appears from time to time in cryptics with that meaning); it might appear that the only way that you can tell which of three possible letters is the extra one is by working back from the answer, but in fact it has to be the one which avoids any ambiguity.

40a    Vestibule in front of temple tenor’s left promptly, being replaced by alto soon (7)
The wordplay here involves one letter in a six-letter word being replaced by another, with dodge (i) delivering the letter which follows.

Down

2d    Escorted, I start east to get worm-killing substance (10)
This might not immediately look like a 4+1+4+1  charade, but that is what it is. The first element, a contracted form of a familiar five-letter past participle, is not qualified by Chambers, though Collins shows it as being ‘poetic’.

6d    Sheltering in Scotland Government gasp, finally murmuring softly outside (8)
There’s a type (ii) dodge here, and you need to imagine a comma between ‘Government’ and ‘gasp’. The murmuring is the sort associated with a particular species of bird.

9d    Craving meats, editor cooked (7)
This looks like an anagram, and there seems to be only one anagram indicator on view; as the clue is written, that is true…

18d    Displaying hat in tartan pattern with relish (10, two words)
The imposter, which ultimately delivers a two-letter preposition, may not be too hard to find, but the two four-letter words which frame it are mildly awkward customers. The first is probably more familiar as the home of a stripy creature linked to Ratty and Mole.

20d    Nationalist in hoard’s raised medicine case (4)
Despite appearances, there’s no reversal going on here, rather a single letter in a word is raised into a higher position.

24d    Press in English bases shunning Marie Claire’s good material (8)
The type (i) dodge resurfaces, the resulting single letter being removed from a word that comes directly from the French language (hence the “Marie Claire’s” bit – it could equally have been ‘good French’).

26d    Treat suave poor (7)
This 3+4 charade isn’t obvious, not so much because of the imposter but because the required synonyms probably aren’t the first ones that spring to mind.

Definitions in clues are underlined

Having filled the grid and identified the instructions (the first consisting of just two words), you might feel inclined – as I did – to take a trip on the Chalicea Line. After the first part of the assignment has been completed, it shouldn’t be difficult to work out what is required to fulfil the second part. Note that the final grid contains only real words.

A relatively straightforward grid fill, and instructions which made it very clear what was required in the endgame. Solvers should be in no doubt that they have correctly completed their mission.

Fact of the day: in 1941, Johnny Mercer wrote the lyrics to Skylark (melody by Hoagy Carmichael); a year earlier, he had provided words for Rube Bloom’s Shangri-La, which under its new title has been recorded by artists ranging from Glenn Miller to Bow Wow Wow by way of Elvis Presley. Mercer’s inspiration for the song is not hard to discern.

Phibs Toughness Rating : 🥾🥾 (A few tricky clues, but suitable for all)

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