From FT 23rd June 2008

Common abbreviations used
dd = double definition
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
* = anagram

Definitely an easy way and quite painless way to start the week. Dante, as usual, gave us quite a few of the devices that are his hallmarks; the cryptic definitions and the smooth surfaces of his clues.

Sorry about the delay in posting this. Just got off the plane from a short holiday in Thailand.

Across
1 BUMPER dd a bumper issue of a magazine and a bouncer of a cricket ball
4 SCHOONER Ins of CH in sooner (I would rather a dentist to be drilling than to …)
9 CASH UP Simple cha
10 FITTED IN Smooth dd
12 OVERLAID cha of over (left) rev of dial (face of a clock)
13 TIRADE Ins of I in trade (traffic)
15 FOIL Another really smooth dd
16 ANTITHESIS *(is hesitant)
19 SKEPTICISM Clever cd disguised like a Scottish shopkeeper
20 LENS Abbreviation of Leonard’s to Len’s
23 UNWEPT *(up went)
25 CONTEMPT Cha of CON (study) TEMPT (attract)
27 TRIANGLE a punny definition?
28 CANOES *(once as)
29 REDESIGN Simple cd
30 GENTRY Cha of GEN (intelligence or low-down) TRY (attempt)

Down
1 BACK OFF Simple cha
2 MESMERISE Cha of M (1000 or many) ESME *(seem) RISE (increase)
To mesmersie is to hypnotize; to fascinate, dominate the will or fix the attention of; to put in a trance, to entrance
3 EQUALS *(squeal)
5 CHIT dd
6 OUTRIGHT Cha of OUT (rejected) RIGHT (just)
7 NADIA Rev or AID (give a hand) AN
8 RUNNERS Another smoothie dd
11 PINNACE Ins of NAC *(can) in PINE (wood)
14 BIG SHOT A punny description of a close photographic snap
17 STEAMBOAT *(a mast to be)
18 STIPENDS Ins of TIP (gratuity) in SENDS (posts)
19 SAUNTER *(natures)
21 SATISFY Smooth dd
22 AT EASE A tease (kid)
24 WEIRD weir + d
26 FLOG rev golf

An unusually easy Phi today, it seemed, apart from one or two that I can’t explain properly. Rather more full anagrams than one might expect.

I found this very easy but very enjoyable, as always from Nestor.

Computer failure - will try to post by tonight but if anyone wants to step in with a blog of their own please do.

We were told that the answers to five across clues had to be jumbled before entry. To complicate matters further, we were also told that the letters in these five answers would share their cells with the letters from the intersecting down clues. As a result we would be able to read a closely packed quotation in the grid. The length of the quotation was not given, but I made the assumption that it would be restricted to the cells of the five thematic clues. I thought it would be too difficult for Kea to spread it across normal cells as well as thematic cells, but crossword compilers never cease to amaze me and I realised that anything was possible.

We were told additionally that all but one of the remaining across clues had an extra letter packed in. We were not told whether this additional letter would be in the definition or in the wordplay. Indeed it transpired that the additional letters affected the definition and wordplay in different clues. The extra letters could be arranged to form the name of the speaker of the quotation.

The most immediate effect of all this was to realise that these five important across clues would have to be solved cold unless the theme dropped out of the puzzle quickly. In my case I was able to cold solve a couple of the five clues fairly easily but the real breakthrough was deriving the speakers name from the majority of the extra letters, and hence deducing the appropriate variant of the quotation. From that point the remaining thematic solutions fell out without too much difficulty.

The five thematic clues and the colocated letters from the intersecting down clues were: led to:

The extra letters in clue order in the relevant across clues were: ANACREONTIC . Very impressively, this is a word in Chambers, as are all the words that remain in the clues when the extra letters are removed.

I think I was lucky in that I quickly spotted ERIC as a possible Christian name and that led to the surname of CANTONA and the associated thoughts of seagulls and trawlers. At the time of the quotation, Eric Cantona was a Manchester United footballer.

The quotation used in the puzzle is:

WHEN SEAGULLS FOLLOW A TRAWLER IT IS BECAUSE THEY THINK SARDINES WILL BE THROWN IN TO THE SEA

As can be seen this is formed consecutively from the pairs of letters falling in the thematic cells. I am not sure that the quotation as used is exactly what Eric Cantona actually said but it is very close. I think there was an extra “the” before seagulls, “the” was used instead of “a” before trawler and “it is” was “it’s”. However that’s nitpicking and the packing of a quotation of this length into a grid in this manner is is very impressive. There is a You-Tube video of Eric Cantona saying it at a Press Conference after his following his conviction for assault following his infamous kung-fu kick on a Crystal Palace supporter after he was sent off in the game at Selhurst Park in 1995, as well as plenty of videos of the kung-fu kick.

The quotation therefore was restricted to the thematic cells.

Looking at the letters in the down clues alone, I think it was possible to detect the full quotation especially from the letters of seagulls and follow. These letters were:

HESGULFLOAALRISECSEHYHKSDISWLBHONNOTEE

I enjoyed this. The clueing was impressive with excellent surface reading and misdirection. The clues with extra letters made sense with and without those letters. There were a couple of clues where I am not sure that I fully understood the wordplay (see below) but I think I have got the solutions right in both cases.

It’s interesting how some words I have never seen before suddently come up in bunches. LOGY meaning ‘dull’ was new to me, but it came up again in a recent Magpie puzzle (I had of course forgotten about the meaning already and had to find it again!) and RAKEE is another new one (to me) that I have come across twice recently.