Enigmatic Variations 1666
Drop by proXimal
Hints and tips by The Numpties
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With proXimal, we know that we have a familiar setter who also sets as eXternal in the IQ and Listener series (and combines with another setter as eXtent). You might know him as Artexlen in the FT and Boz in The Herald. Big Dave’s regulars will know him from Thursday/Friday Toughies and back-pagers, where he’s also normally put in on Fridays (used to be Thursdays). With such a range of setting experience, you can be sure you are in safe hands. We remember that as the EV editor, he set that challenging and celebratory EV no 1600.
Preamble: All clues are normal, but a letter must DROP out wherever it occurs before entry in each down answer. Dropped letters, in clue order, spell two phrases pinpointing a year when an event befell the unclued entry. In the final grid, the event must be re-enacted by replacing one entry with another leaving empty cells. All entries are real words or names at every stage (ignoring gaps). Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.
We have our suspicions in view of that very generous preamble and are already wondering about a significant event in a year long ago. DROP is the theme and the nature of the device (there’s a professional at work!) and we are given the hint that something ‘befell’ – did it drop? We would have to ‘drop it’ in the grid to ‘re-enact that drop. We notice that clue lengths for the down clues are of the original answer before it has lost that letter that will ‘drop out wherever it occurs’. That will be helpful. Nothing to do but solve.
Across
13a Backing confederation in island country (4)
The confederation that needed backing was a familiar two-word one. This island country sent me to Wikipedia – it sounds like a delightful little island nation!
15a Evasive bears start to look weary (4)
‘Bears’ was the word for the operator and there were just the two clue elements, ‘evasive’ and ‘starts to look’.
16a Men in Acapulco uncovered and outnumbered opponent (5)
These ‘uncovered’ men could be anywhere in the Spanish-speaking world. Once they are ‘uncovered’ they produce a specialist word for the outnumbered opponent.
23a In touch with South Africa about concerns there (7)
Three clue elements put together to give an informal African word for ‘concerns’. How useful that word ‘about’ is in the crossword vocabulary!
27a Satire’s cast and rex is starring (11)
You will certainly smile when the letters in the grid suggest the answer that goes in here and fits that cast (of ‘Satire’) with Rex there too.
33a I’m frightened to feed smart bird of prey (7)
An unusual sort of ‘smart’ needs to be fed by an interjection that tells you that I’m frightened. The bird of prey has an unusual name too.
43a About to thread into wrong ring on harness (6)
A familiar crossword term for ‘about’ (yes, about again!) goes into a short word for ‘wrong’ to give that ‘ring on harness’. We needed Chambers to confirm that word that was new for us.
Down
1d Fortunate unlimited grant for computer program (6)
A simple term for ‘fortunate’ had to be ‘unlimited’ to go with the brief word for ‘grant’.
4d Sport trousers which stalker might fill (8, two words)
We weren’t sure whether to hint for this clue as a charade of a word for ‘sport’ and one for ‘trousers’ or a double definition clue. Either way, that hint should help. The clue certainly produced a smile.
8d Ragged dishcloths wiping old dishes from Russia (7)
Those words ‘ragged’ and ‘wiping’ were our guides and generated an unfamiliar name for the Russian dishes. Chambers will help if you are puzzled about which letter you can drop.
12d Escapes from special cells blocked by inspector turning up (6)
Three wordplay elements with ‘blocking’ telling us what the inspector does to the ‘special cells’. ‘Turning up affects the entire clue.
20d Engineer alters a driveable road surface (7, two words)
Here’s a clue where the Big Dave convention of underlining the definition will help. We were left with the words ‘Engineer alters a’ …
26d Compare fungus and alga living symbiotically in auditorium (5)
The auditorium was the prompt we needed as we knew the term for that fungus and alga living symbiotically.
31d Coloured glass well filled with liquor (6)
Two wordplay elements: a short word for ‘well’ needs to be filled with alcohol to produce that coloured glass.
32d Somehow strive to host Australian raves in Perth (7)
We don’t know whether it is the Scottish or Aussie Perth that has these raves but it doesn’t matter as the wordplay tells us what to do and which letters to use.
34d Virtuous person having reversal of direction speaks to Milton (5)
The hint is that we need a Miltonic word. The wordplay spells it out for us since we know the crossword term for that ‘virtuous person’ and there has to be a reversal of direction in the answer.
Quite an impressive achievement for proXimal. As we solved more and more of these down clues with real words both before and after those letters were ‘dropped’, we kept thinking “Can he really keep this up?” No easy task! Solving was ‘no easy task’ either but a thoroughly enjoyable challenge. Our original suspicions about the year were almost confirmed, though we had set our minds on the wrong (possibly better-known) event of that year.
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I found the across clues tough going but 22a got me going and on the wavelength. Down clues were easier and the first phrase dropped out fairly easily. The second phrase was looking like gobbledegook to start with as I had a few anomalies, but it turned out to be a phrase you wouldn’t use in everyday speak and the penny finally dropped. And at the bottom…I thought I must have gone wrong somewhere with letters 3 and 4, but no! Satisfying endgame. What a very clever puzzle! Thanks to Proximal and the Numpties! (If you are new to these puzzles Bradford’s CS Dictionary makes life so much easier! )
I had a similar experience to Seymour and agree with his assessment. “Real words at every stage” is the key to getting this one done. I was hesitant to make the final replacement, wanting the replaced entry to have more significance, but then re-checked Chambers and the lights went on. Very clever indeed and timely too.
Thanks to The Numpties and proXimal.
I had anticipated the possibility of one of the events before even buying the newspaper, so felt a bit smug. That is until I got to some of the clues. The first phrase was easy enough, but with the first three letters of the second I was looking at the central character of a book. Until I got the last three and down the line of the complete opposite, which was apposite considering the events. Once the unclued light was deduced the end game was obvious. But hats off to proXimal for such an almost too clever puzzle
Once again it’s taken me nearly a week. The penny actually dropped early doors, leaving me to sweep up the clues piecemeal that I couldn’t get at first.
Thanks you for the hints TN and proXimal for the fun challenge. I’ve now learnt a lot about that pinpointed year! 👍