This was a very enjoyable exercise in ‘thinking outside the box’.

Solvers were told that by disregarding convention they would discover three words, and were told further that given the position of any of these words, a puzzler’s maxim would be suggested. This maxim was to be exemplified by a non-word that had to be entered at one of the two unclued entries, which were 1 across and 39 across. The other unclued entry, which was stated to be a real word, was described as an arrangement of the non-word, and had to have a connection to the title of the puzzle.

The numbers in brackets at the end of each clue related to the length of grid entries, not necessarily equal to the length of answer to the clue.

There was a minor misprint in numbering the across clues, but it was fairly obvious that 2 across should have been 6 across. All clues were normal in that wordplay and definition led to the same word.

However, it fairly soon became apparent that there were a number of clues, twenty-one in all, that generated solutions that were one letter long than the space available. Crossing answers led to the deduction that these twenty-one answers had to be entered without either their first or last letters. It wasn’t immediately obvious, to me at least, what the logic was behind the dropping the first or last letters.

I have to admit that I had completed the grid before the penny finally dropped. I had been looking at the letters omitted in clue order and had looked at first letters and last letters separately. I noticed that REFLECT was nearly spelt out by the last letters and the word POND appeared within the first letters. It was the realisation that the all the answers with dropped letters abutted the edge of the grid that caused the penny dropping moment.

By ignoring convention and writing the missing letters in their ‘correct position’ outside the grid, the three words - PONDER, REFLECT and COGITATE - became apparent by reading clockwise round the outside of the grid, or box.  The maxim therefore was ‘think outside the box’.

An analysis of the checking letters available for 1 and 39 across showed that seven of the eight letters had to be EIMNORS.  This led to 39 across being INERMOUS which means unarmed and fits well with the title of ‘ARMLESS FUN.

This left only 1 across to be entered.  The word MUSE (meditate, ponder, be absorbed in thought) stood out from the eight available letters, leaving INRO (a small Japanese container [box] for pills or medicine) in the middle , leading to MUINROSE which could be interpreted as ‘think, outside the box’.

The surface reading of many clues was very well designed to mislead the solver.  A clear focus on the constituent parts of the clues was required to solve them.  Indeed one often had to think outside the box to solve the clues.

Solvers were told that nine answers represented a song sequence, in clue order, but with a different and much happier ending.  The preamble also stated that the first answer, representing the eventual target, was to be entered normally.

My initial reaction on reading the title was to say to myself that ’There was an old woman who swallowed a fly”, but I couldn’t find reference to nine distinct insects/animals in any version of the rhyme, so I thought for a little while that my initial reaction was wrong, but eventually it was proven to be right.  I have to admit that the goat was new to me - in my childhood I seem to remember it was the cow that swallowed the dog.

As I solved the clues, it became readily apparent which of the them related to entries that were different from the answers.  I think it was the .GOA.A. and the B.O.AY that I had got to in 9 and 10 down that finally caused the penny to drop. At that point the location of BIRD, CAT and DOG became fairly obvious  and the whole thing then dropped into place fairly rapidly.  She swallowed the spider to catch the fly; the bird to catch the spider etc.  It is always the generic ‘CAT’, ‘DOG’, ‘GOAT’ etc that is caught by a word associated with the catcher.  The associated word may be a specific example of the catcher, e.g. epeira (spider) or tehr (goat), or it may  be something that requires more lateral thinking, e.g. pluto (dog)

If I had analysed the preamble more thoroughly on first read through I might have realised sooner that the FLY made two appearances, once in its normal form as TZETSE and once caught by a spider.

The eight ‘treated’ entries were clued to generate the catcher alone  - e.g. 21 across SESPIDERALARK is a clue for SEA LARK only

I am left unsure exactly why the ending is much happier.  Clearly there is no reference to the old woman being dead and, of course, that must be a cause of happiness, but I can’t help thinking that she still can’t be that thrilled whilst being stuffed with fly, spider, cat, bird, dog, goat, cow and horse.  I was left wondering whether there was another word to be highlighted in the grid signifying great happiness or joy,  or living happily ever after, but I can’t find anything obvious; nor was there any instruction to look for such a word.

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed

The Independent continued its trend of trying out less well-known compilers for the Monday puzzle. Radian was another new compiler for me, although I don’t know if it’s actually a debut crossword or not. The theme was plants, so how well you fared with the puzzle depended to an extent on how green-fingered you are.

A couple of unfamiliar words had me scurrying to the dictionary, e.g. PSITTACOSIS and I’m still not sure about a wordplay or two. Par for the course. Updated based on comments.

Across

Down

I’m looking for someone to join the Independent bloggers team. If you’re interested, please email me at blogging@fifteensquared.net.

Neil