EV 1697 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1697 (Hints)
The Name of the Game II by Ranunculus
Hints and tips by Gabriel

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The original “Name of the Game” by Ranunculus (EV 1502) was blogged on this very site by its author.  As far as I can tell, I didn’t solve it. I wonder (perhaps someone can chime in) whether solving it would have expedited resolving this puzzle’s endgame which found me somewhat clueless. By the way, I don’t own a copy of the ODQ (note to self: must find online reference), so I make do with Chambers and a well-known search engine.

Preamble: Twelve clues have each lost a letter which must be reinstated before they can be solved. These letters, in clue order, identify the author of a quotation (in ODQ). Part of the quotation appears reading clockwise around the perimeter, starting and finishing in the same cell. Having initially filled the grid, solvers must extend the quotation, ending with THE NAME OF THE GAME, all numbered entries remaining real words. Solvers must also highlight a thematically appropriate 5-letter entry. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended. 

As per usual, I asked Gemini what they made of the preamble.  To be fair, they actually proposed a pretty helpful plan of attack (which I won’t repeat here) but I recommend investigating yourselves.  In particular, they resolved something that I was actually unsure of: “Real Words: Importantly, even after extending the quotation, all numbered entries in the grid must remain valid words. This suggests the extension might involve shared letters or clever placements”.  This confirmed my suspicion that the prescriptive “must extend the quotation” instruction was literal rather than figurative (as I had initially assumed).

 

Clues:
Across
14 Old couple making for exits (4)
At some point, the answer became clear and the “old” qualifier confirmed it was archaic. The wordplay misled me for a long time.  I was oh so sure that it involved a literal word in the clue.  But I had latched on to the incorrect word.  “Exits” plays its frequent role as a removal indicator.

17 Last of unicorns essentially vanish out of the ark (6)
The last 4 words in the definition provides a somewhat clumsy archaic indicator but I suppose helps the surface reading a bit.  Wordplay pattern is just a charade of a single letter followed by a two word phrase.

21 Yen to go after eight rhino in Tashkent (4)
As far I know there are no rhinoceroses in Uzbekistan. Rhino has another very crosswordish meaning that’s usually associated with another continent.  Once you’ve figured out the answer, the wordplay, whose pattern is 3 + 1, will become apparent and you’ll be able to back yourself into identifying the missing letter.

31 Bank bought back Waterloo public houses (4)
Full disclosure: I had completed the grid but was struggling with the end game – specifically, working out the author’s name. The culprit was lurking here in this clue: hidden, absent, under the surface.

34 Metallic compound isn’t in red loco, tin one (7)
The wordplay is a simple anagram once you remember that “tin” is an element and you don’t forget that clues lack a letter.

Down
1 Skin disorder spread round nurses at college (5)
The wordplay pattern is a 2-letter word inside of a reversal. Consider how Brits describe what Americans usually mean by “at college”.

3 Causing hurt to old leader, devious replacement doing U-turn on energy (10, two words)
Some wags will no doubt say that the answer here is a fair description of what this puzzle is to many of its putative solvers. The wordplay is a charade of anagram, followed by a 3-letter reversal and the usual one-letter abbreviation,

5 Surly judge voided unlawful charges (5)
The surface reading is already quite smooth so finding the missing letter was a bit difficult.  Recall “voided” literally means “emptied” and “charges” can be an insertion indicator.

8 Rotting wrapper on salmon sandwich breaks (5)
Another missing letter and another reverse engineering from the author’s name required to decode the wordplay: a reversal of a charade comprising 2-letters followed by a 3-letter synonym.

16 Ended gripes about wig (5)
This too required some reverse engineering from the emerging author’s name. The wordplay is a 1-letter abbreviation contained within a 4-letter verb. Unfortunately in my opinion there’s a missing archaic indicator qualifying the “containment” indicator not to mention a missing letter.  And a somewhat unusual definition.

26 Absurd how each section of the Jubilee line terminates (5)
If you say the answer out loud as the answer the question posed then it will make a lot of sense.

Definitions in clues are underlined

You might notice that 16a is unclued and is 5-letters. Figuring out the unclued perimeter proved to be quite hard; it could start anywhere.  Finding the quote proved somewhat hard since I wasn’t completely sure about the author. But after guessing some missing letters in both the quote and its author, it began to make some sense. It will help to know that the quotation fragment starts and ends in the middle of the top row. 

That said, I was rather confused even once I had understood the author and completed the perimeter.  But the power of Google (obligatory plug), namely, combining the answer to the unclued 16a and the extension to the quotation (two words, ignoring the leading two-letter preposition) led to a satisfying self-referential description of 16a.  And it was reassuring that when you make the substitution of the “extension”, you are in fact left with real words as Gemini noted.

Toughness: 3 out of 4 on the difficulty scale (I personally love the harder puzzles!)

 

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