EV 1675 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1675 (Hints)

Self-Similarity by Luxor

Hints and tips by Phibs

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Hexagonal grids are far from unknown in the world of the themed puzzle, and they are more common now that there is software out there to create and fill them, but I can’t find any record of a hexagonal EV having appeared previously, at least not in recent years.

If you’ve never come across a hex grid before, it might look daunting, but it’s really just a barred puzzle where the lights come in three different orientations rather than the two of a rectangular grid. If the hexagons are ‘pointy-end down’ you get lights running from west to east, but if (as here) they are ‘flat-side down’, the lights run from NW to SE, from SW to NE, and from N to S. Just as in a rectangular puzzle, the solid bars (and the edges of the grid) form the barriers.

Preamble: Clues are presented in alphabetical order of their answers. They must be entered into the grid where they will fit, in straight lines in any of six possible directions. The answer to the first clue starts in the asterisked cell. Wordplay in each clue provides an extra letter not to be entered into the grid. Read in clue order these give an instruction to complete the pattern of SELF-SIMILARITY. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended; an alternative spelling for one answer is in Collins.

So it’s a jigsaw, and we note that each entry can be made in either of the two possible directions, so for instance the vertical lights can be filled either top-down or bottom-up. We might think that the setter has been kind in telling us where the entry for the first clue starts (and therefore that its light runs from SE to NW), but since the grid has vertical symmetry we would otherwise have had no way of knowing which side was which. We’re going to have to blind-solve quite a few clues; strictly speaking, we don’t have to solve the first clue in order to start populating the grid, because if we can deduce its first letter we can put that straight into the asterisked cell, but having five letters in the grid would be better than one. Things are made quite a bit trickier by my least-favourite gimmick, the wordplay in every clue delivering an extra letter which is not part of the answer. So for the clue ‘Figures sex on Aga absurd with husband (8)’, the wordplay gives H + (SEX ON AGA)*, the answer is HEXAGONS, and the extra letter is A. Don’t forget that the clues are in alphabetical order of their answers, which can be helpful once you’ve solved a few, and that when you can work out the instruction you will know what the extra letter is for any unsolved clues.

There is a school of thought which suggests that in clues with a gimmick such as this there should be no ‘link words’ between the wordplay and the definition on the grounds that each leads to a different sequence of letters, so to say that (for instance) wordplay ‘produces’ defined entry is inaccurate. The rule is rarely enforced, and in this puzzle there are a number of clues that include link words.

Clues (numbered for reference only)

1  Active generation commandeering island and vanishing (5)
This was the last clue which I solved, perhaps because of the absentee comma between ‘island’ and ‘and’ in the cryptic reading. The ‘generation’ is three letters long, with a further three letters being generated by the last three words in the wordplay.

2  Breaking tool, leader of band replaces last minute warning light (5)
The tool can be used for purposes other than breaking, including fixing (though only as a last resort for fixing electrical equipment). The ‘last’ is there to indicate which occurrence of a particular letter must be replaced.

8  Is entirely suitable to ignore start of loud ringing (5)
The word meaning ‘is entirely suitable’, which must lose a letter through cryptic manipulation before yielding another as the bonus letter, could also be defined by ‘fits in’.

9  Bright girl beginning to catalogue everything about Egyptian deity (5)
Three wordplay elements come together here in a (1+3+2) pattern. When you see a definition consisting of ‘girl’, ‘boy’ or similar preceded by an epithet (in this instance, ‘bright’), you can be confident that the ‘Some first names’ section of Chambers will show that the required name has the meaning indicated. So ‘lordly lad’ would be CYRIL and ‘pure girl’ GLENYS.

14  Record imaginary drug in Surrey town (5)
Four letters (initially) are contributed by the drug, which is both real and imaginary, the name having being coined by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World.

20  Reform regularly forgotten area behind back of kiosk in old picture house (6)
The wordplay delivers a (3+1) combination which is to be put behind a (1+2) combo, including a word taken directly from the clue.

24  Confines learner oddly once request rejected in court (7, two words)
The first word in the wordplay leads to a single-letter abbreviation, while the subsequent pairs contribute 2, 3 and 2 letters, with ‘in court’ leading to a two-letter adverb of many meanings.

25  Idiot regularly takes flowers (7)
There are a few alternate letter selection indicators in this puzzle, but ‘regularly’ here isn’t one of them – it combines with the word following it to define a four-letter word.

27  Ravens disturbed eating last of brimstone butterflies (6)
Not a difficult wordplay, but the surface reading establishes a nicely misleading context which may lead to a d’oh! moment regarding the definition.

28  Ends of games that might be cause of disappointment in playground (7)
Sometimes setters need to use a plural form of a word in Chambers that is regularly formed but may never occur in the wild, such as the that of an uncountable noun like ‘boredom’. The answer here probably falls into that category, while the wordplay leads to a single expression that suggests a deficiency in basic playground equipment (almost certainly the result of a Health & Safety risk assessment). Don’t forget that in barred puzzles hyphenated answers are enumerated as single words, so WORD-FINDER would be shown as ‘(10)’.

29 Cost covering yellow iris root (6)
Collins gives the six-letter spelling required here, but Chambers only offers the more common five-letter form. The ‘cost’ originally contributes five letters, but the first of these is donated to the bonus pot.

30  Very big Asian capital (4)
I got the answer and the two letters answering to ‘very large’, before working back back to the ‘Asian’, whose name is very similar to that of their country.

31  Public excess (4)
A double-definition clue leading to two words, the first of which is probably easier to get from its definition here than the second, which leads to the noun form of a word more familiar as preposition, adverb, adjective, or even interjection.

34  Crack in entrance discovered (4)
The whimsical indicator ‘discovered’ means that the word for an entrance or appearance must lose its outer letters before yielding up the bonus letter.

41  Dry parish raised umbrella shapes above shrines (4)
I’m pretty sure that the three-letter word which must be ‘raised’ here is not the same thing as a parish, the latter being a division of the former, but I must confess that my knowledge of things ecclesiastical is distinctly patchy. The word ‘dry’ leads to a two-letter abbreviation that precedes the other element, though not before it has coughed up a letter.

42  Crown attorney initially pursuing NZ bird artist (5)
A single letter follows a three-letter word (coincidentally the name of a large travel company) and precedes a two-letter abbreviation.

Definitions in clues are underlined

I blind-solved every clue before starting the grid fill, but if you’ve got the first answer and the six seven-letter answers, you will be able to enter one of those seven-letter answers in the rightmost cells of the grid; if you also have the nine-letter answer, then you can enter the nine-letter word and from there complete the perimeter. After that, the grid fill will not exactly be plain sailing, but things should progress steadily until the grid is full. Having started to implement the instruction, you will appreciate the elegance of the puzzle, and completing the task will prove satisfying. If I were being unreasonably churlish, I might point out that the instruction could be carried out in different ways, but you will be in absolutely no doubt when you have identified the correct pattern.

The perceived difficulty of this puzzle depended almost entirely on how hard one found the clues. The completed grid was a rather splendid thing.

Phibs Toughness Rating : 🥾🥾🥾/🥾🥾🥾🥾 (A lot of blind solving is required)

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