EV 1713 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1713 (Hints)
Lost in Translation by Nudd
Hints and tips by Gabriel

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Gemini really wasn’t much help when I submitted the preamble. It just kind of regurgitated – garbage in and garbage out. Though It did volunteer an example of an extra word in a clue but completely bungled the attempt – it even suggested following on with a prompt for it to: “explain how to detect an extra word” with some byzantine, complicated and incorrect analyses. When I responded with “that’s nonsense”, it abjectly and politely apologised for wasting my time and proceeded to simplify its explanation by further complicating.

Preamble: In 29 clues an extra word must be removed before solving. Initial letters of these words give a piece of verse (in ODQ) whose following line suggests what might be LOST IN TRANSLATION and how solvers must adapt 16 symmetrically placed answers before entry. Enumerations give space available in the grid. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended. 

Most but by no means all clues have an extra word but we don’t know which ones. A typical setter “trick of the trade” is insert the extra word in the middle of the wordplay, e.g. <anagram fodder> <extra word> <anagram indicator>” as in “rope incredibly tangled” for REPO. This is especially common when the answer is hidden (once the extra has been removed).

I don’t actually own a version of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, I just rely on Google full-text search. Symmetry will be helpful given that some answers need to be “adapted” for entry, hinting at “mutilation” – which could be anything from jumbling, reversal, decapitation, systematic insertion and the like. The preamble notes “enumerations give space available in the grid” which usually implies that the answer is too long for the grid . In particular, it’s unclear if the mutilated entries are real words – likely, but we don’t know yet. We shall see.

Clues:
Across
1 Steadily advance against American plant (5)
The first clue whose answer needs mutilation. Fortunately, the wordplay is a charade of a 5-letter synonym, a 4-letter synonym and a common abbreviation. The mutilation does in fact involve “losing” (something thematic).

6 Very recently received the rod ordered (6)
The wordplay is clearly signalled but the definition might not be the first that comes to mind

14 Greece usually protects local waterway that is discharging even more (4)
I struggled with this clue since I was unfamiliar with the “discharge” and the only “local waterway” I could think of was EA. Wordplay is a two-letter abbreviation for the obvious country around a 4-letter synonym and the usual 2-letter synonym. And of course to make this harder, we have both an extra word and mutilation.

18 Trail round after introducing this late harvest transport (4)
Another extra/mutant hybrid. I found the grid entry long before I decoded the answer for which I needed a lifeline from a friend. The wordplay is a charade of a 3-letter non-English synonym followed by a 5-letter reversal. This of course reveals the length of our interloper which of course is thematic.

20 Praiseworthy case of new chapter which can be revised (7)
Yet another extra/mutant hybrid – henceforth we will call them “extrants”. Since the wordplay is a 2-letter “container” with an 8-letter synonym, we know the imposter is a 3-letter thematic word.

21 Broth perhaps shared out for starters at school (4)
Americans (myself included) won’t be very familiar with the wordplay element that is defined by “at school”.

23 Hollow farewell interrupts being able to bond with another tiresome couple (4)
Another extrant though the underlining gives away the interloper. Wordplay is of the “post-fix operator” style – meaning the cryptic indicator follows its fodder. Don’t forget to categorise the remnant.

27 Only seconds after seeking information about Northern Ireland completed results (4)
And another extrant whose wordplay comprises a common single letter abbreviation preceded by a 7-letter synonym containing a national 2-letter abbreviation. So now you know the length of the remnant which is thematic of course. I needed my “phone a friend” lifeline to figure this out.

39 The highest pitch fashionable with English teenage girl (6)
Two points: firstly, “the highest pitch” is a 3-letter example, hyphenated and beloved of setters since it has pretty common letters. Secondly, I personally don’t like the definition since it’s very general (there are many names to choose from) but it’s a common enough mechanism and the wordplay is straightforward once you remove the intruder.

Down
5 Docker reveals less cod is at sea (4)
Another extrant with very straightforward wordplay.  Again need to categorise the remnant.

8 Offspring performing ten rumba dances after start of disco (7)
Also extrant. The wordplay is pretty obvious once you identify the imposter. And we were warned about enumerations in the preamble. So assuming entries are all words (not mentioned but worth assuming until proven otherwise), there were only two options given the crossing letters I had discovered so far. And the preamble also helpfully noted that mutilated entries are symmetrically disposed.

13 Small role amounted to nothing (5)
The answer is the wordplay which explains the wordplay part of the clue. That might not be  a useful hint but it made sense to me at the time.

24 Nut plants for some peoples’ starters (7)
Some people doesn’t include Americans who consider them mains. Wordplay is a 2-letter nut commonly found in crosswords with some big plants.

30 Trump’s only piebald horse‘s suffering with temperature (5)
Unusual definition where Trump is a geo-indicator. I wasn’t familiar with this kind of horse in spite of it being ostensibly American. Maybe this will be his only legacy. Again the underlining helpfully indicates the interloper.

36 Prince Igor runs from Jamaica (4)
Almost my last clue solved. I had to look up A in the dictionary. Again (a running joke among my friends is that for someone who supposedly likes English, I seem to struggle with the meaning of “a”.)  Anyway, wordplay is 2 single-letter abbreviations followed by a 2-letter abbreviation.

37 Child got up with time to make part of Seder (4)
Well, it helps having attended more than a few Seders. The wordplay is pretty straightforward: two-letter abbreviation, five-letter synonym and the usual single letter. 

Definitions in clues are underlined

I was hoping/expecting that the two clue types (extra word and entry mutilation) would be mutually exclusive. That wasn’t to prove the case. Thus the need to invent the term “extrant”.  Oh well.

This was solved over several sessions (due to an exhausting travel schedule), as a result I lost my train of thought – it felt like the message and theme emerged very slowly. You’ll note that there are a fair number of hints supplied, hinting at the relative difficulty. At some point, as the thematics are revealed, you’ll start to notice categories and together with the line of poetry, Google (if not ODQ) will clarify everything.

Toughness: 4 out of 5 on the difficulty scale – largely due to the difficulty solving extrants.

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