Enigmatic Variations 1747 (Hints)
Group of Four by Ifor
Hints and tips by Gabriel / Jpeg
I-four has set us a four-midable challenge today. Although one can imagine many appropriate musical groups of four, our favourite AI model has suggested a particularly noteworthy four-piece band as a common thread for various song titles that could affect modes of entry. Said band is also the first that came to our minds. It also is pretty confident in what the three-word title might be.
In the spirit of last week’s admission by our blogger that he went to school with Tony Miles, I’ll just note that my teacher in primary school was Miss Pringle who knew someone who knew someone in this band in London. I suspect this was biblical knowledge but I was only 5 at the time so I was unaware of any subtext.
Preamble: Every across entry is formed by changing its answer in one of four ways. All enumerations refer to entry lengths. Each successive GROUP OF FOUR contains one of each type (the order being different in each case), one of which is a non-word. Each type relates to a song title whose last or only word is particularly relevant to the entry method. These titles may be formed from the single extra words appearing in alternate down clues. The short three-word title which describes how each down answer is to be entered must be written under the grid. All titles are by the same GROUP OF FOUR. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.
So a piece of cake, right? We just need to find the right hints and confirm these song titles by cold-solving enough clues to figure out how to enter all these entries. When we are told that there are multiple entry methods, we typically start thinking about the usual cryptic suspects: jumbling, reversal, cycling.
Clues:
Across
1 Transport hub direct to Prestwick, keeping parking outside of offer (7)
We are looking for a hub for a particular kind of transport. The wordplay consists of a term of Gaelic origin with an abbreviation plus a pair of letters inside.
6 Voracious male wolf making a comeback around pine forest (5)
This term for someone who likes to eat can be formed by surrounding a word of Russian/Tatar origin for a swampy place with a short reversed animal.
14 Authorised financial transfers take in previous bids (6)
There is another word for authorised financial transfers that is only one letter different. There is a Latin-based one-letter abbreviation that can be here contained in another word to form the wordplay.
15 Seat for clergy reflected effective restraint in diocese (6)
This singular for a usually plural noun can be made by putting one reversed short word inside of another (there is a “Holy” one at the Vatican).
16 Belief in small buoys causes crew to be taken off (4)
Put a short word inside one denoting a specific type of a part of a nautical safety kit to get a verb.
20 Turning serious, with temperature knocking one out of heat in Arizona (7)
One of a decent number of anagrams today, this one refers to a biological sort of heat. It turns out that the answer and the entry mean the same thing (differing by a single letter – take heed of the US indicator).
25 Grass lacking in anything providing a definition (4)
Treat both ends of the clue as a noun instead of a verb and remove a prefix from one to yield the other.
28 Sends back needs insistently expressed, right over donor’s head (4)
For this verb, take a plural noun and replace its first letter
31 Hide, acting as shield (6)
The defining word usually refers more to a ball than a shield. The wordplay is a charade of a synonym and an abbreviation.
32 Buffalo are becoming the focus of trauma when running wild (7)
You can get this animal native to the Philippines from putting a letter inside an anagram.
34 Without any wavering, legendary criminal individual taking crown jewels (6)
This subtractive anagram leads to a subtractive person (who might make some solvers cringe, though frequently this individual focuses on horses!).
Down
6 Old people get in line, taking ages shuffling around (5)
This particular group of people can be formed from an anagram of an abbreviation and a word.
8 Capital Gold went back up on top (6)
There is more than one six letter capital ending in this particular chemical symbol! This one needs a verb before it.
11 Will’s love charm appropriate to support fairy (7)
This amulet can be formed from a charade of a noun and an adjective.
25 Man handles skilfully with one dropping ounces, say (6)
The definition is not a measure of weight or volume but something else. The wordplay involves shifting the placement of one letter.
26 Sailor in unoccupied sunken rear of ship (5)
Use of one of the common cryptic terms inside of the outside letters of another word for this variant of a nautical term.
27 First slice of sirloin is cut lean (5)
Form this adjective with a letter plus a synonymic verb.
Definitions in clues are underlined.
Our AI figured the theme out again, but this time it just confirmed our own suspicions. All you needed were two extra words from down clues. However, solving all the clues was quite a workout. And the relationship between some of the songs and entry methods were non-obvious.
If you need some extra hints, note that two of the four songs lead to equivalent methods of entry for acrosses.
Finally, the preamble is again silent on the subject of “real words” in the grid.
Difficulty: 4 out of 5
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