EV 1695 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1695 (Hints)
Responsible by Kruger
Hints and tips by Gabriel / Jpeg

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Kruger has been setting EV puzzles for almost 30 years now. What do our AI friends think about this one? Trying Gemini again, I gave it the preamble…

Preamble: Clues are given in alphabetical order of their answers which must be entered where they will fit. Eight thematic entries are clued without definition and thirteen other clues contain a superfluous word which must be removed before solving. Seven of these extra words can each be matched, in a RESPONSIBLE way, with seven of the thematic entries. First letters of the remaining six extra words can be used to form a word associated with the previously unmatched thematic entry. Solvers must highlight the originally unmatched entry and write the associated word below the grid. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended; the asterisked answer is in Collins.

Gemini seemed fixated on the idea of Relationships of Responsibility but this was not particularly helpful. I even gave it the clues and it proceeded to struggle with both the extra words and what Responsible could imply.

With alphabetical answers and clues of three types (wordplay-only, extra word, and normal) this adds some difficulty and requires cold-solving for a bit. Luckily there are only 2 10-letter and 2 8-letter entries, so solving those provides a way into the grid.

Clues:

• Sailor and SA man left India before onset of alarming indecisiveness (7)
  A charade in 5 parts. A common abbreviation for the sailor, a less common one for the SA man, then 3 individual letters for a rather clinical term. 
• Hollow Parisian lawyer visiting York? (6)
  The definition is not too hard. An abbreviation for a foreign word is contained in a general term for something specific (note the question-mark).

• New island tea (4)
  As seen in the underlining, this clue is a double-definition, neither of which is the first definition that came to our minds.

• Running down of French paradise easy (8)
  An extra word complicates this one, whose wordplay consists of a 2 letter foreign word followed by a 6 letter synonym.

• Take bed away from one who hinders Madonna? (7)
  The underlining gives away the extra word here. The wordplay is more of a cute alternate definition. For bed, think outdoors, not indoors.

• Rank gallery’s preposterous (4)
  We are looking for a word of foreign origin for which another definition first came to mind. The wordplay requires reversing the name of a particular location.

• Three Germans despair drinking most of inferior spiced drink (5)
  The spiced drink is more Scandinavian, but a one letter abbreviation in triplicate surrounds a short word dropping its last letter.

• Australia imports last of goods giving support to Greece (5)
  The lack of underlining identifies the category for this clue. A two letter abbreviation, followed by containing one letter within a two letter shorthand.

• Look into hospital returning Nigerian bread (6)
  One three letter word inside of another reversed one, keep in mind that bread could refer to something other than food.

• Queen and Empress given little space (4)
  Another clue without underlining. A two letter word for a type of space is contained inside two other letters.

• In some stories, dogs are so reticent over a good term of expert training (6)
  These dogs could be of the Old English variety, or they could just be irrelevant. The wordplay is a short word that contains three individual letters, the last of which was a little harder to justify.

• Ill and in France without insurance essentially (7)
  Underlining missing here too! Wordplay consists of one four-letter word and a two-letter word containing one other letter.

• It’s most common to pursue four crotchets in a bar with instrument (7)
  This one was extremely difficult to parse. A charade in three parts, two instances of one letter followed by a five letter instrument. The second letter took some digging in the BRB but is actually a straightforward signifier.  We needed to understand the theme for the penny to drop here.

Definitions in clues are underlined

On the positive side, there were a large number of fairly straightforward clues. Once we found a way into the grid, we could fill most of it out. However, the theme of this puzzle completely stumped us (and not just Gemini) for a while. But once we figured out some of the wordplay-only clues and noticed a, well, Relationship of Responsibility with the extra words, we were on our way. However, even there there was some confusion because we could find multiple relationships in some cases. The endgame definitely added difficulty to this one.

Toughness: 3 out of 4 on the difficulty scale (the new normal it seems).

 

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