EV 1745 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1745 (Hints)
Omissions by Kruger
Hints and tips by Gabriel

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The theme of OMISSION had me thinking that we’re going to have a lot of entries that aren’t real words – but the preamble is silent on that subject. 

Preamble: Clockwise from the bottom left corner, the perimeter contains six members of a larger set with the same OMISSION in each case. Eleven clues contain an extra word of four letters or more that must be removed before solving; in clue order, the first letters of these together with the four unclued entries hint at the theme. The OMISSION is a normally clued entry which must be highlighted in the grid. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.

Gemini wasn’t particularly helpful – simply restated the instructions but did suggest the ”larger set” might be “planets, chemical elements, Shakespeare plays”. Turns out that the last suggestion is vaguely appropriate.

At least we know exactly how many non-normal clues we have (11) and thus the vast majority are normal – which removes some uncertainty. Obviously we’ll need to keep track of both classes.

Clues:
Across
13 Language inclusive to American business (4)
The definition might be more familiar to you as a “people” rather than a language. Wordplay is just a 3-letter abbreviation followed by a single letter abbreviation. Don’t forget we have 11 interlopers.

17 Excited call, the second from Donald, accepted by First Lady (4)
Not a hard clue – just mentioning that this has nothing to do with The Donald nor Melania. Thank goodness.

19 What draws attention when initially covering 12 spots of colour (6)
Sometimes a number really does just refer to another clue’s answer. As you already no doubt know.

28 Box in truck from Perth reversing into rear end of Glaswegian’s Audi (4)
A rather wordy clue for a only four-letter answer! Anyway, reverse a three letter synonym and append a single final letter. Note that “into” doesn’t indicate containment but simply concatenation. And finally the definition is quite vague (we need a specific kind of box).

36 Curmudgeon from GB, in Australia, has fellow standing in for a day (7, two words)
I have yet to be called, affectionately or otherwise, this term by my children but I doubt that day is very distant. The wordplay replaces a single letter in an Australian term for Great Britain that is in fact in Chambers (but unfamiliar to me).

Down
3 Peacekeepers suppressing uprising – the worst parts give renewed sight of terrorist (6)
Peacekeepers are the usual 2-letter acronym and followed by a reversal of a 4-letter synonym. Underlining reveals the intruder.

8 Murderous King can only save one knight errant (6)
Knowledge of Greek mythology and werewolves might help understand the definition. The wordplay is an anagram where the fodder loses a single abbreviation.

22 Injury to US medic is hampering front of neck in the end (6)
Rather surprising definition since we tend to think of these two terms as quite different but Chambers will clarify all. Wordplay requires insertion of a single letter inside of a common two-letter word followed by a Latin abbreviation. 

26 Daughter attending top hospital discharged directly (4)
My LOI (last one in) and it’s important to solve correctly for the endgame. The definition is a rather surprising (to me) meaning where the wordplay is a charade of the usual single-letter abbreviation followed by a decapitated 4-letter synonym.

29 Handle Indian pony without introductory pair of reins (5)
The wordplay is a two-letter pair inside a three-letter shortening of a six-letter synonym. Interestingly “without” indicates containment rather than removal.

Definitions in clues are underlined.

I guessed at two of the unclued entries early on – both having a fairly obvious 5-letter word partner (for instance, a very popular hymn) – together with the part of the message that had already emerged from the extra word initials, eventually (with the help of wiki/google) I arrived at some understanding of the theme.

To me it was terribly obscure since I don’t closely follow UK book and TV series. For those of you in a similar plight (aka Americans), I hope I’m not revealing too much by mentioning the police. Once the relevant series has been identified, the perimeter falls into place since the “omission” is an oft-repeated titular word (which is in plain sight in the grid).

Overall, the clues weren’t unusually hard but I really struggled with the theme thus the difficulty level. I can imagine someone more au fait with the genre finding this somewhat easier.

Difficulty: 4/5

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