EV 1703 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1703 (Hints)
Opening by Gaston
Hints and tips by Gabriel and Jpeg

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

Gaston to my middlebrow brain hints at Beauty and the Beast – of which my main memory is that of my son sitting on my lap when the Disney film was released and since he was so excited he…

Gemini wasn’t much help: e.g. “Solve the regular clues first. This will give you crossing letters for the unclued entries.” That is true but also obvious.

Preamble: Five unclued entries, read in the correct order, give an OPENING of seven words. Once the grid is completed, solvers must find a regular shape whose perimeter of 32 cells should be shaded, giving the OPENING (also of seven words) in its original state. Two answers are abbreviations. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.

From the preamble it is unclear what this opening could possibly be. I associate Gaston with the occasional French clue in a puzzle, but this could refer to anything from chess to musicals. Maybe we will achieve clarity after working through the clues.

Clues:
Across
8 No longer seize missing children’s field (4)
Having the definition underlined helps here as I got stuck thinking the definition was the other end. Remove 2 letters from an obsolete word to get a common one.

12 Organ is brief treat (5)
The definition here is the most obscure for the word in question. But the wordplay requires dropping the ending from a particular verb.

14 Legally hinder earl turning over masses of cash (5)
An obscure legal word is formed from a common abbreviation and some gambling winnings.

16 Harry’s rival stars (5)
One might say this rival acts in bad faith, given his last name. There is a second definition to help.

22 Woman born one-eyed, not viewed oddly (3)
See what we said about Gaston in the intro.

23 Government department once regularly changing name to Lambert (5)
This obsolete regulatory department can be found from a synonym for regularly with the substitution of a letter.

28 Men in Jo’burg work without pressure (3)
Easier to work out the wordplay than the definition, but consider an artistic work and drop a letter.

43 King stuck in safe? Accidental and abnormal! (13)
To form this long word, place an abbreviation for king inside a slang word for safe, and follow it up with a 7-letter synonym for something not planned ahead.

Down
2 Gamer’s precursor to eleven distinct parts of journey? (4)
I needed a “phone a friend” lifeline to figure out the wordplay – which is a reference to a well-known game typically played by a group of people in a big hall and involves calling out numbers.

3 International half stupid to be concerned with part of eye (6)
This adjective can be formed from a one letter abbreviation and half of an absurd 10 letter word.

6 Puzzle over broken vase and Gregorian cadences (7)
This fun clue is a charade of three, including a certain appropriate two letter abbreviation, a common one letter one, and an anagram, yielding an esoteric musical term.

11 Key currency in Cape Verde (3)
Two times an abbreviation, as seen by the underlining, though Euros are also widely accepted in Cape Verde.

19 That is a game mounting snake symbols (5)
To find these Egyptian symbols, reverse a charade of 3: a 2 letter abbreviation, an article, and another 2 letter abbreviation.

26 Aggressively tackle a mate in EastEnders? (5)
EastEnders is an indicator for a particular kind of slang definition. The wordplay consists of another slang term followed by one more letter.

29 We hear the woman’s attraction is limping gait in Oban (6)
The homophone indicator for a two word phrase leads to, obscure for us, a Scottish word.

30 Design created bygone scorn (6)
An anagram leads to an obsolete word that tends to show up fairly frequently in cryptic crosswords, probably because of its arrangement of consonants and vowels.

33 Gaston leaves older gentleman (5)
The gentleman here is of Spanish origin.

34 Take in twofold alloy (5)
This shortening of a brand name for an alloy comes from containing a one letter abbreviation inside of an adjective.

Definitions in clues are underlined

Okay, now with the puzzle mostly done, the opening to be highlighted appears fairly predominantly, and that allows filling in the gaps. To be honest, I’ve never seen the version in the unclued entries before, only the highlighted one.

If you’re still stuck, you might want to read some historical comics, keeping in mind what we said about Gaston at the beginning. The originator of this opening could be the antagonist. Despite the large number of hints this was fairly straightforward to work through.

Toughness: 2 out of 4 on the difficulty scale

Could new readers please read the Welcome post and the FAQ before posting comments or asking questions about the site.

As this is a Prize crossword, please don’t put any ANSWERS, whether WHOLE, PARTIAL or INCORRECT, or any ALTERNATIVE CLUES in your comment.

Please read these instructions carefully – they are not subject to debate or discussion. Offending comments may be redacted or, in extreme cases, deleted. In all cases the administrator’s decision is final.

---