Schadenfreude is back again.
I paraphrase: “Each of 18 clues has a redundant word with one letter in common with its answer. These letters define the phrase to be entered in empty cells. Lengths of grid entries are indicated.”
A novel device to generate a helpful phrase, plus some answers are shorter than the corresponding entries. The start was OK, about par for the course, and a couple of the deficient entries were apparent: PARSE at 32a would become PARSEC, soon confirmed by ENATION at 23d leading to ENACTION, and LEANT at 35a, destined for LEAN-TO. But before too long things stalled, big time. However, I did have a fair number of the redundant words in ‘special’ clues and the letters contributing to the phrase.
I assumed (correctly) that, when the empty cells were filled, real words would be left in the grid, and this helped with entering the deficient answers appropriately. Some breakthrough happened, somewhen (I don’t recall), and the defining phrase emerged as BRITISH ARMY NCO RANK, and from my reasoned guesses at how to fill the empty cells this defined LANCE CORPORAL. (Tidying up was now a simple matter.) Only then did it become obvious that the now-filled empty cells formed a V shape, the insignia of said rank – V.neat.
My early thoughts were that the title was something to do with lower ranks being “cannon fodder”, but it was simpler than that: Weapon = LANCE and Material = CORPORAL. Enjoyable solving – thanks Schadenfreude. (Standard of clueing right up there … 4½/5.)
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Answer / Entry |
Extra word | Wordplay | |
| 1 | CUT-UPS | UT (as) in CUPS (competitions) | ||
| 5 | QABALAH | Q(uestion) A(bout) BALA (Welsh town) H(ospital)< | ||
| 11 | ABAC | B | unboxed | AB (sailor) A C(oloured) |
| 13 | TYPEFACE | [EMPTY CAFE − M(ike)]* | ||
| 14 | PAVANES | [ENVER PASHA − HER]* | ||
| 15 | INCA | INCH (island, Irish) − H(enry) + A (one) | ||
| 16 | _EERY | R | church | BEERY (under the influence) − B(ishop) |
| 17 | DORADO | DO (impersonate) R(omeo) + ADO (difficulty) | ||
| 18 | E_RRING | I | kid | RE< (on) RING (telephone call) |
| 20 | RESE_T | T | capital | E(arl) in REST (reserve fund) |
| 23 | EOIN | I | girl | EIN (one, German) around O (zero, love) |
| 24 | MAS_ON | S | deserted | MA (mother) + SON (child) |
| 25 | SH_UTS | H | holiday | SH (quiet) T(ime) around U(niversity) + S (seven) |
| 29 | _ALE | A | man | L (railroad, American) in AE (aged) |
| 32 | PARSE_ | R | writing | PAR(agraph) + S(ubtl)E |
| 33 | E_ASING | E(uropean) [GAINS]* | ||
| 35 | LEANT_ | LE (the, French) ANT (soldier) | ||
| 37 | SHCHI | SHIP (vessel) − P(riest) around CH(inese) | ||
| 38 | RIEM | M | pump | IE (that’s) in RM (room) |
| 39 | DUTEOUS | UTE (American people) after D(emocratic) + OUS (men, S Afr) | ||
| 40 | DESIROUS | [OUR SIDE’S]* | ||
| 41 | DRAT | DR(iver) A(bsent) + T(errible) | ||
| 42 | UREDINE | (q)UINE (girl, Scot, “lass from Wick”) around RED (colour of rust) | ||
| 43 | ERINYS | Y | youth | Y (unknown) in ERIN’S (Ireland’s) |
| Down | ||||
| No. | Answer / Entry |
Extra word | Wordplay | |
| 1 | CAP_ES | double definition: CAPE (promontory, bill) | ||
| 2 | TAVER_S | ERS (climber) after TAV (foreign character, Hebrew alphabet) | ||
| 3 | PINYIN | PLINY (Roman scholar) − L(eft) IN (at work) | ||
| 4 | STERN | N | pain | double definition |
| 6 | APHORISE | [O(ld) HARPIES]* | ||
| 7 | BEAR | double definition | ||
| 8 | LANDE_ | L AND E (=LE, the, French) &Lit. | ||
| 9 | ACCO_STS | ACTS (book) around CO(mpany) + S(ociety) | ||
| 10 | HEA_TH | double definition | ||
| 12 | CARRA_TS | C | complex | CAR (Charles) STAR< (brilliant) |
| 19 | GOYLE | O | John | GO (leave) + ELY< (see) |
| 21 | SL_OSHES | LO (see) S(ection) in SHED (part) | ||
| 22 | CAVALIER | R | our | ALI (boxer, Muhammad A.) in [CARVE]* |
| 23 | ENA_TION | A | sharks | [N(orthern) EA(t) INTO]* |
| 26 | UNICORN | N | statesman | UN (one, dialect) I(ndependent) CORN (preserve) |
| 27 | ÉPERDU | PER (by) D(uke) in EU (Evangelical Union) {“Nancy’s” means “French for” …} |
||
| 28 | KREESE | K | cooking | ERK (aircraftman) around SEE (city) all< {def: “pink” = stab} |
| 30 | _ASTER | ASTERN (behind) − N (knight) | ||
| 31 | AGISTS | A GIT (fool) around S(econd) S(on) | ||
| 34 | _OUSE | O (zero, duck) + USE (take advantage of) | ||
| 36 | NORI | MORIA (irrigation equipment) − A(bout) | ||
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Our experience was just the same as yours by the sound of it. Our initial flurry of solves were the same as yours HG. Then at each ‘sitting’ over coffee, lunch, tea, a meal in the evening and last thing at night, we steadily completed a few more clues.
We were amazed that we hadn’t noticed the V sign which was formed until the very last moment. We really like puzzles which reveal something else right at the end but we did wonder whether we should have noticed this pattern earlier!
When we saw that it was Schadenfreude setting the puzzle, we were expecting a treat and that was exactly what we had. Many thanks.
Thanks also to HG for the blog.
I enjoyed this one. I made things difficult for myself by assuming, with no justification whatsoever, that the spaces would be in unchecked cells which caused a bit of head scratching until it gradually fell in to place. (I didn’t know ‘erk’ for aircraftman so almost got caught out by creese/kreese for the umpteenth – well, second – time.)
For some reason I didn’t keep track of the position of the empty cells so, like bertandjoyce, the insignia did not appear until the very last second and it was all the more welcome for that. Thanks to Schadenfreude for a lovely puzzle and HolyGhost for the blog.
I got the thematic elements in the reverse order – I saw the likely V-shape first, then found LANCE CORPORAL, which confirmed it, and used this to work out what the definition was going to be.
I did enjoy it – a few headscratchers, 28D had me stumped for a while and the US at the end of 39A had me looking the wrong way in the parsing for a long time. However, I found that once I’d sorted out the thematic elements I was still left with several patches of unsolved clues, some of which were quite obscure. This part felt a bit like hard work, knowing there were no more surprises to come, and it was just pride that kept me going ’til the end.
Loved every aspect of this puzzle. Perfect.and very nice blog.
As a struggler and as one who tends to look at the answers to try to gain some knowledge -14a/c-how is the removal of her from the anagram indicated and 11a/c-I thought sailor was AB where does the unboxed fit in
Sorry-forget my query re 11a/c-however I did find much of this puzzle incomprehensible re some clue parsing
Re 14 across. with her could make = if you added her to the letters of the answer you could get Denver Pasha.
Or even Enver Pasha. Sorry it automatically corrected and I didn’t check.
What I meant was what is in the clue to indicate that the letters of ‘her’ are to be withdrawn from Enver Pasha
Gordon @9 – “These dances with her could make Enver Pasha excited,” should be read as: These dances (PAVANES) with her (plus the letters of HER) could make Enver Pasha excited (could make an anagram of ENVER PASHA).
This is known as a composite anagram and features quite a bit in Azed puzzles and competitions (Observer newspaper) and elsewhere (though perhaps to a lesser extent).
I often struggle with Schadenfreude’s puzzles but this one wasn’t too bad and had a fine finish. Thanks Schadenfreude.