EV 1733 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1733 (Hints)
All’s Well That Ends Well by Kruger
Hints and tips by Gabriel

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Submitting the preamble to Gemini proved useless: it was convinced that the theme was Shakespearean (a naive assumption due to the title). Also, it decided that “has the other” comment referred to a medical condition so it obsessed about viruses and bugs. The rest was very self-confident unfounded speculation. It did a far better job explaining to me how to replace the battery in my brand-new Shark vacuum robot. This is not a hint.

Preamble: A problem has arisen due to one of the unclued entries having the other and this is manifested in a number of entries. However, ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL because the problem was short-lived as demonstrated elsewhere in the grid. Numbers in brackets refer to the space available and the final grid contains real words, phrases or proper nouns. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended. 

The instruction “… having the other…” is mysterious to us if not to Gemini. Let’s hope that some solving will reveal what this means. Fortunately, no need to scan the grid to identify the unclueds since they are pre-highlighted – thanks! (if only The Spectator editor would take heed). Of course, we are warned that not all entries will fit but we don’t know if they will be too long and/or too short. But at least we know that any mutilation will result in valid terms.

Clues:
Across
12 Derivatives of pungent gas since found in pit? On the contrary (6)
Not a hard clue but it’s worth recalling that “on the contrary” is often used to indicate that the wordplay description should be inverted, so in this case the container and fodder swap roles.

15 Pole – it’s of oak, perhaps (7)
Only once I had solved this (the definition is 4 letters) did the relevance of the unclued top row become clear.

17 Rarely dumbfounded priest on middle of pew to be introduced to dwarf (4)
The answer is (7) so needs to be thematically mutilated for entry.

21 Absent Scotsman’s afraid to return in part of February and March (4)
Remember that there are other calendars, e.g. lunar.

22 Limited festival no longer broadcast (7)
Answer is actually (4) and wordplay involves an archaic term and a homophone.

33 With a dense and iridescent glaze damaged – blamed fire on both sides (4)
Answer is (8).

42 One Italian regularly adjusted interferometer (6)
Wordplay is an anagram whose fodder is 3-letter literal word, followed by alternate letters. Unless you’re an expert, you’ll need to check the definition in Chambers.

Down
1 About to finish off quick puzzle – ultimately, a piece of it’s easy (8)
The answer is too short for the light, but by now I had cracked the applicability of the top row. Wordplay is just the normal two-letter abbreviation, followed by two single letters.

4 Group of composers fewer than nine (6, two words)
Clever clue that involves Roman numerals. Incidentally I had only heard of the relevant composer group due to Yet Another cryptic – perhaps The Listener.

8 Money beginning to profit mischievous child (4)
There are two possible wordplays – but only one that matches the definition. At first I wasn’t sure how to resolve, since I was suspicious that some definitions would not match. But it turned out that this clue isn’t thematic.

11 Colt (thoroughbred) eating first of mash before Jose’s surprised expression (4)
Answer is (7).

19 Long-term plan to confine renegade, say, in pen (5)
The wordplay will generate an 8-letter word.

28 Marcel hands out potential means of quelling riot (7)
The answer is (4) of which my sister just got a taste of since she had the temerity to attend an anti-ICE protest – you’ll recall that we all have two hands and each has a single letter abbreviation that is to be removed.

35 Nancy’s captivated by crooked spire (5)
Nancy isn’t a woman in this case but a geotag – much the same way that nice isn’t always pleasant.

Definitions in clues are underlined.

While solving, I discovered several clues whose wordplay seemed clear but the definition seemed to mismatch. Also, cases in which the wordplay was slightly amiss. You’d think this’d be a clue! So I built a “possible thematics” list. This was sort of premature.

The top unclued of 3 words eventually started to emerge during the middle game though it took me some time to understand its relevance. Once understood, decoding the bottom row shortly followed. The theme indeed is applied to entries in two different but consistent ways. Take to heart the preamble’s observation that “numbers in brackets refer to the space available’ which invariably means that answer lengths will be too short and/or too long.

Toughness: 2 out of 5 on the difficulty scale. The clues weren’t very hard except for the thematics due their mutilated nature.

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