Jigsaw puzzles like this add a new element to solving a barred crossword, because you have to solve a significant percentage of the clues before you can start placing them in the grid.

Olympic Jigsaw added another element of difficulty by making the answers to nine of the clues (indicated by italics) a word which was not entered into the grid.  Instead you had to work out the theme and enter words relating to the theme.

The first thing to do was to solve these themed clues - thankfully, most of them were very straightforward.

The solutions to the italicised clues were as follows:

B(LO)OD

CHA-RIOT

D-RINK

HE-ADDRESS

PHYSICIAN - (any chip is)*

F(l)OOD

M(ESSEN)GER

T(R)EE

T(WIL(d))IGHT

Presented with this list, and the reference to Olympic in the title, it didn’t take much to work out that we were looking for examples of the above that could be linked to Gods (food of the gods, twilight of the gods etc).  At first, I thought we were only looking for words linked to Greek mythology, but it soon became apparent that other mythologies were involved.

The next thing I worked out was the lengths of the missing words.  By looking at the lengths of the answers to non-italicised answers, I could see that I needed 2 five-letter words and 3 six-letter words across and 2 seven-letter and 2 eight-letter words down.

I now had a list of nine “clues” to mythology-related words, and maybe 15 of the other answers ready to be put into the grid.  The easiest place to start was the two eleven-letter words, as they would hopefully help with the placement of other words.

The eleven-letter words were:

CAR(RAGE)E-NAN - a food additive; and

COTTAGE PIES - (nice potato egs)* minus ON

I also had the two four-letter words going down (UNCI - hidden backwards in “atomIC NUmber” and AN(N)A), so it was obvious that UNCI and COTTAGE PIES went in in the south-west corner and ANNA and CARRAGEENAN in the north-east.

After placing in a few more words, I began to try to find out what the entries for the nine italicised clues were, and one or two came easily.  Eventually, by working out more words from checked letters, I had everything bar the across word in the east side of the top line, but I did have ?IMA?A, and the only two letters left from the RUN V BIONIC MAN mentioned in the preamble were V and N, so I could work out VIMANA.

The nine God-related words were therefore:-

ACROSS

VIMANA - a Sanskrit word with several meanings, one of which is “CHARIOT of the gods”

PAIAN - one of many spellings of Paean, the Greek PHYSICIAN of the Gods, according to Homer

AMRITA - a DRINK of immortality in Hindu mythology

MODIUS - a divine HEADDRESS

ICHOR - the BLOOD of the Gods

DOWN

MERCURY - the MESSENGER of the Roman gods

AMBROSIA - the FOOD of the Greek gods

RAGNAROK - in Norse mythology, the TWILIGHT of the Gods, a battle which would see the death of all gods

AILANTO - the TREE of heaven

One last thing needed to be done to complete the puzzle.  In normal grid order, the clues’ initial letters gave a hint to a six-letter word which needed to be highlighted in the completed grid.

The hint was ASGARD LOCATION IN TWO THOUSAND AND TWELVE.  My thinking on this was ASGARD is roughly the equivalent of OLYMPUS, and London will host the Olympics in 2012, so I looked for LONDON in the grid, and lo and behold! there it was - third column letters 4-9.

A very enjoyable solve, all in all!!

The title refers to a French rococo painter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Honor%C3%A9_Fragonard) whose name I eventually guessed once I had all the letters. But I did find this one pretty tough, and I don’t think it was just my hangover. Some good clues though.

ACROSS:

1. WITH STAND.  One of the last to fall into place.

9. SUNSET BOULEVARD (ASSURED NOVEL BUT*). One of a pair of long titles, suggesting a novel theme - but in this case novel is part of the anagram fodder. Wilder (lower-case)  is the anagram indicator, but Billy Wilder also wrote and directed the film. Not sure if it’s +lit - was there a novel first?

10. RAYS. Hom. ‘raise’. Economical clue. ‘Light’ a slightly inexact definition, perhaps?

11. ALL RIGHT. As in none on the left.

15. THE F T. Quite complicated, but I think the F and T are the first and last of ‘first’ and ‘last’ respectively.

18. FRAGONARD. (FOR A GRAND*). Again, an anagrind (rococo) that contributes to the definition.

21. S TUN (NUT<). The union being appropriate to the clue.

25. LORD PETER WIMSEY (PEER, MOSTLY WEIRD*). This time it is a novel, but with ‘novel’ doubling as anagrind it can be considered +lit - though he’d more usually be called ‘eccentric’ than weird. Very neat.

26. SLA(N)G.

27. DUB LINERS. Nice word division.

DOWN:

1. (which)WESER(ve). I find this a bit problematic, partly because it’s not properly hidden, and partly because I don’t think it’s well-known enough to be clued just as ‘river’ - I’m not sure I’d know it had I not been on a school trip to Bremerhaven aged 14.

2. TIN TYPE. A new word for me, but fairly clear from the wordplay.

3. SLEW. Double meaning.

6. EXEC RATION.  

7. S(ho)P ANGLE.

12. CLOT(HE)S P EG. Like the definition - ‘online device’.

13. C ON FR(ON)TED. Good construction - I was trying to make a word out of ’ON’ in ’POPE PA TED’.

17. A(US T)RIA.

19. A.R. ‘TIS T.E. Ref the book ‘Tis, by Frank McCourt.

24. G.I., G.I. A ‘grunt’ is an ordinary soldier.

Very tough, as we’ve come to expect from Scorpion. I actually managed to fill the grid pretty quickly - about 30 mins - but, as you’ll see from the blog, there was a lot I didn’t understand so a number of answers were filled in as guesses, or from the definition and/or crossing letters.

Solving time:  21 mins.       Held up for some time by thinking a very well-known actress had a U in her name though there was none in the anagram fodder (6 across).

In line with recent practice, will comment on just a few of what seemed to me the trickier clues, but happy to explain any others if asked.

< = reversed

ACROSS

8 BRUISE    “Brews”

10 PIT I (LES) S      Definition = stony     ditch = pit

16 OB (Old Boy = former pupil) LATE   et al <

DOWN

2 FLEECE     Double definition

4 W (OR = Other ranks = soldiers  M = beginning to move (first letter) ) HOLE

21 PU (up< “ascending”)  FF (ff  very loudly - music)

This is one of those characteristic Cinephile puzzles with a theme that carries through the longest entries and into a few of the short ones. Spot the theme quickly as I did and you can make very good headway — indeed I finished this puzzle more quickly than any in recent months. The theme may be more readily divined by oldsters like myself who were around in the days of Bill Haley and the Comets.

Across
1. SKIMMED MILK — cryptic definition. Maybe because I know Cinephile so well I got this right away — or maybe it is just very easy?
7. TOP - double definition
9. ADAPT - AD (commercial) + A (one) + PT (point)
11. INHERENCE - HERE (this area) in INN (pub) + CE (church)
12. LEGIT - double definition
13. UNLUCKY - UN (a French) + K (1,000) in LUCY (girl)
15, 18. SIDELONG - SIDE (homophone of SIGHED) + LONG (yearn)
20. CHEVRON - CHEVRO[let] (American car) + N (pole)
26. GYMNASIUM - anagram of SAMMY IN UG[anda]
27. GRAND - G (good) + RAND (currency — of South Africa)
28. RUN - cryptic double definition
29, 24. SEE YOU LATER ALLIGATOR - anagram of AU REVOIR CU LATE RALLY. How clever to work in “au revoir” like this. When I was a boy I actually used the expression!

Down
1. SCABIOUS - SCAB (blackleg) + IOUS (notes)
2, 10. IN A WHILE CROCODILE - anagram of I ALLOWED CINE CHOIR.
3. MOTOR - MOT (test) + OR. MOT is the “Ministry Of Transport” test for vehicles in the U.K.
4. DECENCY - DEC (month) + ENCY[clopedia] (Britannica)
5. ISOMERS - I (one) + SOMERS[et] (county unfinished)
6. KNOWLEDGE - K (king) + NOW (right away) + L (left) + EDGE (advantage).
7. TWINGE - WIN (success) in anagram of GET
8. PLENTY - P (quiet) + LENT (fast) + Y[ou]
14. CROSSWAYS - CROSS (bad-tempered) + WAYS (habits) — but, please, someone tell me what Carfax refers to here! I have no idea.
16. PROTRACT - PRO (expert) + TRACT (propaganda)
17. INTRUDER - IN + T (during tea, say) + RUDER (with worse manners). Straightforward but this one took me a while.
19. GRANITE - anagram of TEARING. Aberdeen is famous for its granite.
20. COLOMBO - LO (look) in COMBO (jazz group)
21. MUGGER - I am unsure how to categorize this clue but the MUGGER concerned relates to the theme and is a large crocodile (Crocodilus palustris) of southwest Asia. This was the only word I did not know - in the meaning concerned, that is.
22. CAYMAN - like 21, a cayman (or more usually caiman) is another type of croc and the Cayman Islands are largely coral.
25. GOGOL - GOOGOL (a large quantity) with one O (nothing) removed