Enigmatic Variations 1660
Border Dispute by Arcadia
Hints and tips by The Numpties
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Arcadia has not set an EV before but we have solved his Inquisitor, Magpie, and Listener crosswords previously. It seems that this will be his sixth thematic cryptic.
Preamble: Three unclued entries comprise two contributors in contention as to which takes precedence over each other and a third in a BORDER DISPUTE. Entries for the two contenders initially give rise to a DISPUTE in four cells, which must be resolved by them entirely adjusting their relative positions, in the process creating new words. Solvers must highlight two words, totalling ten letters, which describe the Border. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.
We find the three unclued 12-letter across lights and hope that getting letters of down solutions into them will give us a hint about the theme and the contenders who will disagree over four cells but ultimately ‘change places’ to ‘resolve their relative positions’. Nothing to do but solve.
Across
1 Comprehend Spenserian impression leaving mark on spelling (7)
This Spenserian word is made of two elements – remember that the ‘mark’ has to go and there has to be something leaving an impression and a short abbreviation of spelling.
10 Preys upon tea plants in lumps of prairie trees (8)
The definition word was fairly obscure here but we put a short word for tea plants into an equally short word for clumps of prairie trees.
15 Grouse about Portugal team selector (6)
The grouse was a short form of a familiar word and Portugal was the usual abbreviation. One could assume that this team selector was giving recognition to his team members.
19 Having sex during the day decimated elderly (6)
An amusing clue that actually told us nothing about randy oldies. The ‘elderly’ was a prompt that this word was an old one. A familiar little crossword term for ‘sex’ had to go into ‘the day’.
29 Word left on Rob Roy’s release (6)
Arcadia has ‘killed two birds with a single stone’ in his use of Rob Roy as a Scottish and an ‘archaic’ indicator.
35 Old-timer’s certainly contributing to birthday wishes (4)
As in the two clues mentioned above, we are warned that we are looking for an old word.
38 Members of religious sect reflect head dividing diocese (7)
‘Reflect’ here prompts us that we need to use the two wordplay elements in reverse. The ‘head’ and the ‘diocese’ are words we frequently meet in crosswords and the ‘head’ has to go into that ‘diocese’.
Down
3 Holding back from winning work in pugilism (5)
‘Work’ is the usual crossword abbreviation and it goes into a short term for pugilism producing that surprising (to us) definition.
7 Extremely saggy holding stomach in with bands (7)
The ‘stomach’ here (one a number of us dislike) must be contained in the extremes of ‘saggy’.
9 Girl removing depth charge from shell of boat (6)
We removed a short term for a depth charge from the name of a fast sailing boat to give us that ‘girl’.
18 Exposed cheat having last bit of the other (4)
The underlining will help you here. We decided the the word for ‘cheat’ that had to be ‘exposed’ needed a letter added to give ‘other’.
25 Herbivore, say, tethered by ancient stake (5)
This ‘herbivore’ wasn’t the animal kind that you would tether. The ‘say’ is the usual crossword term and a short word (obsolete) for ‘stake’ has to ‘tether’ it.
30 Stroke Association probes chronic fatigue syndrome (5)
This ‘stroke’ is a snooker shot.
Spotting a significant word that was appearing as the third unclued light was the ‘break-through’ moment for us and a familiar theme re-appeared. It is two years since we last had to worry about this dispute (in a Listener crossword) and, of course, like every theme that recurs, it was handled differently. Adjusting the relative positions of the contenders gave a satisfactory solution (depending, of course, on your own favourite contender) creating all real words and all that was left to do was to find and highlight two words describing the border.
Remember to do that highlighting 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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I found the clues quite challenging at first, but they seemed to get more gentle further down [or as I became accustomed to Arcadia’s style]. At the end-game I went off on a wild [Scottish] goose chase but the other protagonist for that didn’t fit. Then, after wondering about the shorter of the words on the third unclued line, spotting the border was the killer and it was just a matter of reconciling the 4 disputes with the overall moves to give the right [or wrong] result. Frankly I don’t understand the fuss – it’s just as good either way.
Thanks to Arcadia [I loved 16d] and The Numpties.
Some tricky clues in there; for me at least. Then I read too much into what needed to be adjusted. The penny dropped. The simple solution was almost too clever.
Thx to Arcadia and The Numpties
I was on the verge of giving up…managed to find the dispute and the border..it was guessing the words at the ends of the other 2 unglued that got me there in the end. Still don’t know the answers to 6d 27d though!
As usual I needed quite a few Numpty hints to get there, so thank you !
With apologies to The Numpties…..
6d – the barge is Italian and the footballers are Spanish [and very well known]
27d- “move” is a variant spelling of an instruction to a horse
I’ve too have got all except 6d and 27d. Anyone able to tell me at least their starting letters?
You’ve changed your alias so this needed moderation. Both aliases will work from now on.