EV 1766 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1766 (Hints)

On Board by Luxor

Hints and tips by Phibs

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This is Luxor’s twelfth EV, and I have had the pleasure of doing the hints and tips for ten of them.

The subject of the first of these (First Born, Luxor’s EV début back in November 2023) was Dolly the sheep, while the most recent puzzle was June’s Double Crests, on the theme of Hokusai’s The Great Wave of Kanagawa. Her puzzles, though never simple, are generally towards the less intimidating end of the difficulty spectrum.

Preamble: The wordplay in every clue generates an extra letter, not to be entered into the grid. In clue order these letters provide a name (initial and surname) and an instruction which solvers must take ON BOARD. Chambers (2016) is recommended.

A nice short preamble (good) and the old ‘wordplay delivers an extra letter’ gimmick in every clue (not so good). If a clue were “Setter trapped by thunderbox ultimately turning over (5)”, the answer would be LUXOR [hidden reversed in (thunde)RBOX UL(timately)] and the extra letter would be B. So it’s a matter of ‘solve clue, note extra letter, enter answer in grid, repeat’.

Across

10a  Invalid cover leaving a coupon oddly lacking specific application (7, 2 words)
The ‘leaving’ here should really be ‘leaves’, because a word for a cover is to be removed from the first word in the clue to produce the initial four-letter element of the answer.

11a  Swamped by bills that aesthete called penury (5)
The word ‘that’ is required by the wordplay, leaving a definition (wherein the ‘aesthete’ is John Ruskin) which can’t legitimately indicate a noun — but it does.

13a  Ed’s to alleviate age securing support and energy (6)
The answer has a word from the clue containing a three-letter word for a support, with the last word in the clue yielding the letter which is surplus to requirements. ‘Ed’ is of course Edmund Spenser.

17a  No end of mud afflicts parts of farm machinery (6)
The ‘mud’ (a term used to describe any filthy substance) which starts off this two-part charade loses its last letter and then surrenders the extra letter, such that it only contributes two letters to the answer.

22a  Dribble ball finally behind Edwin, perhaps (5)
The ‘Edwin’ here is the subject of a Dickensian mystery; appropriately, once the extra letter has been yielded up, he is left unfinished.

30a  Skilful contralto matriarch avoiding start of rehearsal (5)
A single-character abbreviation combines with a six-letter (originally) ‘informal’ word for a relative who certainly could be a matriarch, deprived of a specified letter.

32a  Cork roll of parchment concealing hard edge (7)
A four-letter word containing a single-letter abbreviation precedes a three-letter (prior to deductions) word. The first of these elements could be cryptically indicated by ‘Pressure the Spanish lecturer’.

41a  Relax genuine spell of abstinence sharing lager initially (6)
The last letter of one four-letter word overlaps the first letter of another one, producing a seven-letter string from which the bonus letter must be removed.

Down

2d  A commotion about clean coat with protective finish (7)
A word from the clue and a five-letter word corresponding to one sense of ‘commotion’ contain a two-letter word meaning ‘[to] clean’ which older readers may associate with one of Mrs Mopp’s two famous catchphrases in the radio programme It’s That Man Again (ITMA), the other being ‘TTFN’.

7d  Liberal agenda devised inspection of cloth (6)
The answer is an anagram of the usual abbreviation for ‘Liberal’ plus AGENDA (minus extra letter); the answer is shown by Chambers as ‘obsolete’, but this is not indicated in the clue.

8d  Felt caps — sides swapped in drizzle outdoors (8)
Before deductions, the wordplay elements are provided by ‘felt caps’ (five letters) and ‘drizzle with ends swapped’ (four letters). Remember that in barred puzzles such as the EV hyphenated answers are enumerated as single words, so BAIN-MARIE would be shown as ‘(9)’.

28d  Gum down under carbon copy that is cut beforehand (6)
A charade where the order of the elements in the answer is ‘carbon copy’ + ‘cut’ + ‘that is’.

Definitions in clues are underlined

The simple preamble leads to a straightforward endgame. If, like me, you aren’t entirely confident about some of the items in the middle, you may need to have recourse to the source material, which is widely available. Follow the instruction (10 rows are affected), and it’s job done.

A nice denouement to a puzzle that despite the gimmick affecting all clues was very accessible.

Phibs Toughness Rating : 🥾🥾 (Suitable for all)

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