EV1727
Complete by Stick Insect
Solution
Clashes involve two incomplete sets of the 26 letters of the alphabet; changing QUAD to QUAY and CONE to ZONE completes the sets.
Setter’s blog
Not a lot of complications involved for this puzzle. The initial idea was simply to create a pangram emerging from clashes in the grid and my first attempt did that but the letters replaced were just a random set. Having created that, I thought it would be a better puzzle if both sets formed a pangram so decided to rework the grid. That was achieved but with a non-symmetrical grid, which again on reflection I thought could be improved so I worked on a third grid and finally got to something I was happy with. The symmetrically placed QUAY and ZONE as the final changes persisted through all three versions but I don’t think much else did. The title also changed – originally I was going with Easy (as in Easy as ABC), but that didn’t seem to work as something that could also appear in the preamble.
Sorting those various grids and then writing clues – quite nice for once writing a set that didn’t involve any gimmicks – took about a fortnight. As usual for me, I then put the puzzle aside for about a month and came back to it to see how it looked from a bit of distance – strange how many clues you don’t remember and even struggle to solve after only a few weeks. A few months later, the usual editorial improvements came back and the puzzle was ready to go.
Thanks to all who’ve commented and a Happy New Year to all.
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A full review of this puzzle can be seen over on fifteensquared.