EV 1750 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1750 (Hints)

Protégées by Vismut

Hints and tips by Phibs

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I felt there was enough in the preamble here to give Claude a fighting chance, so I asked “In a themed crossword puzzle , we are told that the completed grid includes a nickname (13 letters) and the names of three protégées to whom the nickname refers (35 letters in total); the completed grid also contains three ‘study groups, one of which is hanging upside down’, associated with these protegees. What might the theme of the puzzle be?”

Claude was keen to share his thought process, which seemed to ignore the fact that ‘protégées’ is a specifically feminine form. The edited highlights went something like this:

“Let me work through the clues systematically.

The nickname (13 letters). A famous nickname of 13 letters that refers to someone with multiple protégées… LITTLEMASTER fits perfectly [except that it’s 12 letters] — this is the nickname of Sachin Tendulkar, the legendary Indian cricketer, who mentored many younger players. But wait — let me think about the “study groups hanging upside down” clue, which is the real key.

Three study groups, one hanging upside down. A study group in crossword/puzzle terms = a POD (as in a pod of students, or more precisely a pod of whales — but pod is the key word here). Three pods… and one is upside down = DOD. Now rethink: what has pods, where one is inverted?

The nickname, 13 letters, with three protégées…GODFATHER OF SOUL — no, that’s 15 letters. Let me recount: THE PIED PIPER = 11 [more like 12, I’d say]…MENTOR — too short. Actually: think pods more literally — a pod of whales. Three whale names, and one word reads upside down as a whale type?

Most likely answer: The theme is SPERM WHALES / MOBY DICK — or more precisely: the theme is whales and their calves — but let me land on what I think is the strongest answer: the theme is HUMPBACK WHALES or the theme revolves around whales, where the “study groups” are pods. One pod reversed (DOD / POD upside down) is part of the wordplay

Most confident answer: the theme is likely Sachin Tendulkar and his protégées (cricket), with the three “study groups” being PODS — and one POD reversed in the grid. The puzzle theme would be: “The Little Master” — Sachin Tendulkar (THELITTLEMASTER, 13 letters… that’s 14) — Hmm.” [Actually, I think you’ll find it’s 15]

That seems pretty clear – we’re looking for James Brown, Sachin Tendulkar and Captain Ahab.

Preamble: Eight across clues have an extra word to be removed before solving; its position in the clue indexes which of its letters to select. When read in clue order these letters might be a description of someone and when unjumbled what they were interested in. A nickname occupies the top row of the grid and the names of the PROTEGEES it refers to run around the rest of the perimeter. The unclued entries should be completed with their study groups, one of which is hanging upside down. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.

A single gimmick, affecting just eight across clues. The extra word will be of the ‘sore thumb’ variety, needing to be removed before the clue can be properly solved. So if a clue were “Six public corporations backed setter (6)”, the wordplay gives VI + TUMS<, the answer is VISMUT, and the stowaway is ‘public’; since this is the second word of the clue, its second letter (U) is the one which forms part of the message.

Across

9a  Throw up drill sons dropped from flats (3)
Two instances of the same abbreviation are ‘dropped from’ the ends of a word for mudflats, the clue being made harder by the presence of a stowaway. The answer may spring more readily to the minds of those who have been watching the French Open tennis championships.

22a  Relative taking in Ursula’s lemur first, pushing forward new nutlet (6)
The wordplay here, which includes a stowaway, has a single letter being contained by a word that has one of its five letters, an abbreviation of a word in the clue, moved forward.

24a  Walk heavily rubbing split skin away (4)
This tricky clue involves the letters of SKIN in two separate groups (ie ‘split’) being removed from an eight-letter word.

30a  Adore salade say, starter at La Coeur (7)
It’s many years ago now, but I still remember Listener crossword editor Roger Phillips pointing out to me the error of indicating ALOE in a clue by ‘Vera, perhaps’ – ‘Vera’ isn’t an aloe any more than ‘Stockholm’ is a syndrome or ‘French’ is a dressing. The seven-letter word which is key to the wordplay here isn’t a ‘salade’ either, rather it is the adjective applied to a particular sort of salade, and it must have its first letter moved to its ‘coeur’.

32a  More hackneyed, heartless letter encapsulating row (7)
The ‘letter’ here is the sort who grants temporary use of something to someone in return for a fee, while the ‘row’ is a verb which refers to a method of propulsion and the particular implement associated with it.

33a  Green leaves it to stablewoman (5)
This one becomes more straightforward once you’ve identified the definition and ignored the ‘to’ in the 2+3 charade.

Down

2d  Fit and healthy, stripped and shaken, twitch (8)
A word in the clue undergoes two manipulations before having an involuntary movement, less common in crosswords than it once was, tacked onto the end.

5d  In Perth later than Australian farm-servant (5)
A comma needs to be inferred between ‘Perth’ (not the one in Western Australia) and ‘later’; the wordplay comprises an abbreviation and a four-letter Scots word that might put you in mind of Sir Francis Drake’s most famous flagship.

6d  Fruity wine never drunk, clutched by snubbed collector (10)
The ‘collector’ that must be ‘snubbed’ (ie lose its last letter) is the agent noun of a familiar word, on occasion seen prefixed with ‘go-‘.

19d  Crisp meal bar left to be fed to pack of hounds (7)
The ‘bar left’ in the wordplay equates to “except for the abbreviation of ‘left'”, while the words of D’ye Ken John Peel may help with the pack of hounds.

25d  Spoke fondly of spoilt king’s shed (5)
The wordplay revolves around a six-letter word for ‘spoilt’ which I have only seen used in this sense when referring to a chess problem that has a fatal flaw.

29d  Hartebeest’s dam chasing god about (5)
A two-letter ‘childish contraction’ of a word for ‘mother’ (ie ‘dam’) follows a word from Ancient Egypt for a god and the single-letter abbreviation of ‘about’.

Definitions in clues are underlined

As the grid fill proceeds, and with the odd hint from the extra words, the three unclued entries in the main grid should become clear; the extra letters, both in clue order and when rearranged, will confirm the general nature of the theme. I didn’t know the nickname, but I was familiar with two of the three protégées – a bit of googling led me to their mentor, the nickname, and the name of the third member of the group.

There were a few challenging clues, but a good helping of more friendly ones and the restricted scope of the gimmick meant that the grid fill proceeded steadily, the main hold-up being a couple of tricky parsings. After the clues had all been fully solved and the gaps in the ‘study groups’ filled in, the remainder of the endgame was swiftly completed.

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

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