EV 1701 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1701 (Hints)
Odd Couples by Luxor
Hints and tips by Gabriel

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So we need to find 6 clues in acrosses and downs respectively that have their definitions swapped. At least this means that enumerations are always correct for wordplay (which is the entry).

As per usual, I asked Gemini for their help – which I must say is steadily improving. Well, not actually helpful this time but didn’t indulge in hallucinations. For instance, “Implications for Solvers: You can’t rely solely on the definition in the clue you’re looking at. If an across clue seems to have a definition that doesn’t quite fit the wordplay, or if a down clue has an extra or strange definition, it’s a strong hint that you’ve found one half of an ‘odd couple’.”

Which is exactly what I was going to say.

Preamble: The definition part of six across clues has been exchanged with that of a linked down clue. These six pairs of entries make ODD COUPLES which solvers must highlight in different shades. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.

I couldn’t get Jack Lemmon and Walther Matthau out of my mind, which meant that I had Hollywood on my mind at first. Hint: irrelevant (of course, now you won’t be able to get that out of your mind – sorry).

Clues:
Across
13 Extortionist catching game with American ward (5)
I struggled with this, though the wordplay pattern is just a 3-letter game followed by a 2-letter abbreviation (starring George Clooney). At first I thought “catching” was superfluous. This clue is harder of course because of the mismatch between definition and wordplay.

14 Doubt expressed after bolts fractured in aircraft (7)
I noticed early on that there’s a wordplay parsing that doesn’t make sense definitionally. Turns out I was wrong initially since there’s another parsing that also doesn’t make sense. Anyway, it’s thematic and wordplay is a 5-letter jumble (there’s another one that produces valid output) followed by a two-letter interjection.

17 Make joint decision swapping centre of Leek for a grave location (4)
Last one in. Which was surprising since it’s not thematic. The underlining reveals the definition but of course I didn’t have that hint! Note that the little “a” serves a literal purpose.

24 Stone wall uncovered following work (4)
Not a particularly difficult clue nor thematic – but wanted to note that I’ve seen countless different clues over the years for this answer.

Down
5 Entity behind this puzzling series quits (5)
Wordplay is a two-letter self-referential abbreviation followed by a Latin term that’s a frequent crossword contributor.

9 Somewhat fierce para gives backing for Brazilian waterway (7)
My Amazonian geography leaves much to be desired – I wasn’t familiar with the waterway in question. And the relevant indicators are “geographically” separated which made this slightly harder.

26 Refund money invested in counterfeit rubies (7)
Straightforward wordplay (usual initial inside a jumble) but you’re probably more familiar with the answer having a 2-letter prefix.

30 First working day with essential computer search programme (6)
The wordplay is a straightforward charade of a common 3-letter abbreviation followed by a synonym. For a moment I thought (in spite of being a so-called professional) I had encountered a new technical term – only to remember this was a thematic puzzle.

36 Loud husband is first to casually overawe in Texas (4)
The wordplay is two common single abbreviations with “first” as a postfix position indicator. The definitional underlining will reveal that this is thematic – it has two qualifiers both of which are justified in Chambers.

Definitions in clues are underlined

In a couple of cases, the wordplay was obviously correct but the definition made no sense which helped. At some point, I noted that they all seemed to name animals. And the title made me think we were combining them perhaps. Of course, “linked” in the preamble hints strongly at “combining”. Once I had more or less confirmed this theme, the rest of the puzzle was a lot more tractable.

Toughness: 2 out of 4 on the difficulty scale

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