EV 1726 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1726 (Hints)

Gripping Yarns by Luxor

Hints and tips by Phibs

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I asked Claude, “A themed crossword puzzle has the title ‘Gripping Yarns’. On the basis that this title is unlikely to refer to riveting tales, what might the theme of the puzzle be?”

Claude kept his answer rather shorter than usual:

“Ah, clever! If “Gripping Yarns” isn’t about riveting tales, it’s likely a play on the literal meanings of both words:

Gripping = holding, grasping, clutching. Yarns = threads, fibers [sic] used in knitting/weaving.

So the theme is probably about knitting, crocheting, or textile crafts! The puzzle answers might include terms like NEEDLES, CROCHET, KNITTING, WOOL, STITCHES, PATTERN and SKEIN.

Or perhaps the theme is even more specific: crossword entries that are literally things that “grip yarn” – like knitting needles, crochet hooks, or hands doing fiber work. It’s a delightful pun – playing on “yarns” as both stories and literal thread, with “gripping” working perfectly in both contexts!”

His closing remark that “Claude is AI and can make mistakes. Please double-check responses” did not ooze confidence. You have been warned.

Preamble: Two clues are provided for each of the shaded rows. Solvers must reorder the letters of their answers to give two creatures which might feature in GRIPPING YARNS. These are to be entered consecutively. Solvers must highlight a three-word phrase (13 cells in a straight line) describing the overall theme. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.

All clues are normal, but the answers to the ‘twin’ clues cannot be entered directly – the 13 letters which are yielded by the two answers must be rearranged to form two thematic entries of unspecified length, each identifying a ‘creature’. One approach is to attempt to blind solve these clues, but even if we can crack both clues in a pair there is no guarantee that we will be able to work out the grid entries. The alternative line is to concentrate on the other clues and hope to get enough crossers to be able to guess two or three of the ‘creature’ words, which may be sufficient to reveal the theme. Although the latter strategy represents something of a ‘brute force’ approach, it is the one which I will be adopting.

Across

1a (2)  Count section or entire fleet of military vessels? (8)
There are several ways to interpret this clue cryptically, none of which seems to me entirely satisfactory. The wordplay leads to a (3,5) expression which might conceivably be a count of all the vessels of a certain type in a fleet.

22a  Chilled performer shaved following opening of festival (6)
Chambers suggests that ‘shaved’ should describe the removal of an outer covering, but here it indicates that just the last letter should be removed from the sort of performer exemplified by Marshall Mathers III.

26a  Current liable to be felt with first instance of temperature dropping (6)
The first instance of a particular letter in a relatively uncommon word meaning ‘relating to or derived from the sense of touch’ is not so much ‘dropping’ as ‘dropping out’.

31a  Yell, perhaps, recited passage (4)
Deciphering the definition in this homophone clue is facilitated by a knowledge of Scottish geography.

41a  Can sample garment tacked at the front (6)
A 5+1 charade, the key element of which is a thin cotton or linen dress material which would be used to make up a garment either for fitting or as a template.

42a (2)  Cool with breeze above southern capes (6)
A 3+2+1 charade yields a word for capes of the papal type, formerly known as ‘orales’.

Down

3d  Trunk full of ordinary old pennies or counterfeit ones? (6)
Two single-letter abbreviations are contained by the sort of trunk more likely to be seen in an arboretum than an attic or an elephant house.

4d  Plug in rim of large drain (4)
Two letters answering to ‘plug (often indicated in cryptics by ‘notice’ or ‘bill’) are contained by a pair of letters from a word in the clue. Chambers may be required to verify the answer.

6d  Start to repel piercing insects that buzz round? (5)
The tricky bit in this clue is the definition, which refers to a number of similar things which might collectively constitute a ’round’.

7d  Exchange ratified ignoring Sweden (5)
The key element of the wordplay here is a six-letter word which means ‘ratified’ in the way that a bargain or deal might be.

9d  Trainers, perhaps, extremely cute for all to see in circuits of track (7)
A two-letter selection and a single-letter rating from the British Board of Film Classification are contained by a four-letter word. Don’t forget that in barred puzzles hyphenated answers are enumerated as single words, so SHOO-INS would be shown as ‘(7)’.

20d  Relatable upset after board neglected to make prepayment to local (4)
The ‘board’ here should probably be “board’s”, which would make it clearer that a sequence of letters is to be removed from the anagram fodder.

24d  Court accepting long drug case (6)
The word which forms the answer will be familiar to all solvers, but its sense of ‘a covering of paste, gelatine, or other digestible material, enclosing (nauseous) medicine’ may not (I didn’t remember coming across it before).

25d  American canine that hurt island rodent (7)
This 1+1+4+1 charade involves three single-letter abbreviations and an interjection.

28d  Fatty crust covering Hawaiian dish (6)
The two three-letter elements involved in the wordplay are a word that might describe what a crust is for a pie and a term for a Hawaiian paste of fermented taro root.

37d Exposed moral principles before long, once (4)
A six-letter word for generally accepted principles, often those of the moral variety, is ‘exposed’.

Definitions in clues are underlined

A few of the clues to unshaded entries were quite tricky, but the double entries at 15 and 35 have only two unchecked letters in total, which makes them susceptible to being guessed even without all the crossers. Some of the emerging entries appear not to be ‘creatures’ as such, which suggests that they might be varieties of creature. Having identified the general pattern of the shaded rows, the gaps shouldn’t be too hard to fill – if verification is sought, a reference other than Chambers will be needed in two instances. The answers to the ‘twin’ clues provide a further check on the shaded entries. Regular EV solvers (especially Chaliceans) will know where to look for the ’13 cells in a straight line’, and the three-word phrase should come as no surprise.

I was pleased that I adopted the strategy of focusing on the normal entries, which enabled me to complete the puzzle to my satisfaction. I then solved the clues for the shaded rows – I thought one or two of them were pretty tricky even when one knew the 13 letters yielded by each pair; I would be interested to hear if anyone cracked the theme by solving those clues and rearranging the resulting letters (without electronic assistance). What of Claude? I suppose he was on the right track, but his train of thought needed to go a couple more stations down the line.

I wish all EV solvers and setters (not to mention ‘Santa’ Claude) a very happy festive period with plenty of good food, good drink…and good crosswords, of course.

Phibs Toughness Rating : 🥾🥾🥾 (Suitable for all except barred puzzle novices)

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