Enigmatic Variations 1723 (Hints)
Order, Order by Kcit
Hints and tips by Gabriel / Jpeg
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Kcit, AKA Phi (also on offer in this week’s EV) or Pedro, has set us a mostly-orderly puzzle. But what kind of order could this be? Prompting our favourite language model with categories comprising eight things that have some order lead it to suggest either abstract algebra or Linnaean biology. Let’s see what we can make of this. Order Up!
Preamble: Clues are given in the correct ORDER, but there are eight unclued entries. In the initially completed grid, two of these are out of ORDER, and must be swapped, retaining real words in the grid. In eight clues there is a redundant exemplary word; the initials of these words in clue order provide a hint to the rule behind the order. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended; the answer to the asterisked clue is in Collins.
Clues are unnumbered and there are no letter counts but that doesn’t really matter much since the grid is barred and we know this is an orderly puzzle! So the only wrinkle is that there are some unclued lights. But hopefully we can reason our way through the entry method
Clues:
* Noble stuff interior area denied to part of Spain
Remove one letter from a word to get an exemplar of the definition.
* More than one bird departs from marsh plants
Remove one letter from one plural noun to get the definition? Which letter? Read the clue phonetically.
* Arms manufacturer’s pressure, substantial pressure, applied to African seafarer
Combine a short proper noun with two of the same one-letter abbreviation to get the name of a particular manufacturer.
* Marking death, of course, with Rector passing
Of course “of course” doesn’t imply the obvious definition here. Remove a single letter abbreviation from an adjective to get the definition.
* One uncertain about egg failing to open salt
The receiver of this egg might be pleased with parts of it but loses his first letter to yield a type of salt.
* Moved smoothly? Moved smoothly, but not there
Remove a whole word from one word that means the definition (often for certain animals) to get another.
* Old Observers? Online publication ditching unknown number
Just remove a common single letter abbreviation from a modern shortened term to get an archaic plural noun.
* Omani native supporting a King’s crime
A particularly destructive type of crime is formed by having a short word for native after two single letters. Don’t forget interlopers.
* Copy relations when going up summits
One of two valid plurals for this word, the wordplay is a charade of two words, the second one reversed. “Going up” is a hint that we are going down now.
* Pointless moving alto instrument in India
Not a sitar. One could imagine that the other end of the clue is the definition and the wordplay would still be valid as in both cases we have a word with a letter shifted.
* Hands-on therapy – rarely beautiful, and heartless
Remove the central letter from a word more often used as a noun to get an acronym.
* Difficult to secure 1990s dance music
I admit I’m the wrong generation to be familiar with this kind of music (nor techno, nor house, nor…). Wordplay is just a charade of two familiar terms. Only mentioning since you’ll need Collins to confirm.
* Leader in Canberra upheld Australian news as source of inspiration
This amusing clue requires a charade of one letter and a three letter informal word reversed.
Definitions in clues are underlined.
A few things help in solving. Because the clues are in order we can roughly guess where the acrosses end and the downs begin and once that is figured out we know how many unclued we have for each kind. Cold solving some of the longer down clues also helps to know where words go. And at that point it becomes easier to know exactly where the unclueds fit and what the needed word lengths for remaining clues are.
When all the answers are ordered into the grid and the unclueds resolved, there should be something noticeable between those and the initials from the extra words. That helps resolve the last switch needed to determine the final order.
Not too difficult, though for some of the clues the wordplay took a bit to resolve.
Toughness: 3 out of 5 on the difficulty scale.
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A bit of a tricky one not knowing which were the unclued answers. Solved by working on it top down. Nice change for the type of theme.
Thx to Kcit, Gabriel and Jpeg
A three pipe problem for me, definitely 4*. Despite not solving the dance music clue and having 9 superfluous “exemplaries”, making no obvious sense I had a stab at filling the grid, starting with the first long one down – bingo – it all went in, revealing the dance craze [a new one on me] and the unclued answers [with one ambiguity]. Still none the wiser about the theme, despite having just read David Crystal on Linguistics, a quick Google came up with the goods, revealing my inability to parse “Noble stuff…” accurately.. Quite an achievement [the Setter’s, not mine].
Thanks to kcit and to Gabriel for useful hints to several clues.