Spectator 2760: Metalwork by Madrigal

Another circular Spectator puzzle – fairly rare I believe,  so interesting to see two come along in quite close succession, after Fieldfare’s 2754 with Dante’s circles of Hell…looks like Madrigal is asking us to do some METALWORK this time…

The preamble states that:

“Twenty radial lights run from rim to centre, twenty from centre to rim. The circuit next to the outer one contains, clockwise from radial 1, a quotation attributed to the name appearing in the inner ring. The italicised clues contain the definition and a mixture of the solution (beginning at the beginning, or ending at the end of a word) including an extra letter. In clue order, these eight letters provide the source of the quotation. 11 is in Collins.”

So far so pretty standard for a circular – there is often a quotation or series of items in a ring towards the outside, and often a source or a work at the centre.

Although it may look daunting at first, there is actually a lot of assistance from the grid – the inner letters are shared among each group of four, and the next two are shared amongst a pair of entries, so once you have a couple of answers in a set of four, any common starting/ending letter is likely to be in the middle, and once a clue is entered you have three ‘crossers’ for one of its neighbours.

One of my first steps on my working copy was to put some ‘dividers’ between the sets of four clues, to focus the mind on where the shared letters should be.

I had a good start with the first four, with 1 BILLOW and 2 INFLOW sharing three letters inwards, and the W determining that 3 WRISTS and 4 WRITHE must head outwards. This gave the first four letters of the quotation as INTH… Maybe ‘IN THE…’ or ‘IN THIS…’?

The second set didn’t yield so quickly, but the third and fourth started to take shape, and the quotation seemed to continue ‘…RLD AMA…’ Something like ‘IN THIS WORLD A MA…’, maybe?

And so things progressed, with some of the italicised clues proving a little ‘chewy’.

I eventually had enough of the quotation to do a little e-research and find:

‘IN THIS WORLD A MAN MUST EITHER BE ANVIL OR HAMMER ‘

from ‘Hyperion‘, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

Hence the ‘metalwork’ of the title, and I learned that the analogy was also used by Martin Luther King in some of his sermons/speeches.

At this point, focussing so much on the quotation, I had forgotten about the inner ring – which would have led me to Longfellow anyway! I was then able to fill a few gaps in the quotation itself, and this, along with the name of the work, helped me ‘retro-solve’ some of the italicised clues and also to confirm some others, to end up with:

 

 

[NB. I see I have lost the clue numbers, and also put 15 NAMING as NAMINC, but it was quite fiddly to create the grid, and I am not sure I have the bandwidth to fix it…hopefully you get the idea!…]

This was a very enjoyable solve, and educational along the way – my thanks to Madrigal for the entertainment and enlightenment, and I trust all is clear below…

 

Across
Clue No	Extra Letter	Solution	Clue (definition underlined) Logic/Parsing
1		BILLOW	Sick in front of boat – swell! B_OW (front of boat0 around ILL (sick)
2		INFLOW	Information of little value is evidence of leak? INF (information) + LOW (of little value)
3		WRISTS	Weight stirs faulty watches found thereabouts? W (weight) + RISTS (anag, i.e. faulty, of STIRS)
4		WRITHE	Feel acute shame, languish, with rector taking four steps back WITHER, languish, with R (rector) moving back four places = WRITHE
5	H	DISTAL	Farthest from The Wash tidal drift italicised clue – letters from ‘waSH TIDAL’, minus H
6		LATISH	Two females are leaving plaice perhaps that’s somewhat overdue? (F)LAT(F)ISH, plaice, losing two Fs (females leaving)
7	Y	LECHWE	Chewy leftover antelope italicised clue – letters from ‘CHEWY LE’, minus Y
8		LECTOR	Reader of scripture’s one making cross after start of evensong a LECTOR, church reader, would become an ELECTOR, one making a cross as their vote, after E, the start of Evensong
9		OSCARS	Awards no marks? O (zero, nothing, no) + SCARS (marks)
10	P	OSCULA	Paul’s conned suckers italicised clue – letters from ‘PAUL’S COnned’, minus P
11		ONEIDA	Single woman’s tribe ONE (single) + IDA (woman’s name)
12		ONE-DAY	Brief timespan for Nicholls’ narrative double defn. (ignoring punctuation) – ONE-DAY is a brief timespan, e.g. one-day wonder; and David Nicholls wrote a book called ONE DAY
13		EMETIN	Extreme Tinder content – it makes you sick! hidden word in, i.e. content of, ‘extrEME TINder’
14		MARTIN	Flier’s endlessly stinging? (S)MARTIN(G), stinging, endlessly
15		NAMING	Specifying North American dynasty? NA (North American) + MING (Chinese dynasty)
16		AMTMAN	Scott Lang’s mass for first new magistrate Scott Lang is marvel superhero Ant-Man, and changing the first N (new) to M (mass) gives AMTMAN (Northern European magistrate, Germany, Switzerland, Scandinavia)
17	E	DURING	In the course of ephedrine drug italicised clue – hidden letters in ‘ephedrINE DRUG’, minus E
18		ASKING	Making a request while ruler AS (while) + KING (ruler)
19		A’THING	All about night raving A (about) + THING (anag, i.e. raving, of NIGHT) [A’THING being a Scottish contraction of ALL’THING, everything, all]
20		MENING	Will’s complaining one abandons purpose ME(A)NING, purpose, abandoned by A (one) [to mene being Shakepearean, i.e. Will’s, for to moan, complain]
21	R	FERVID	Very hot driver fans herself italicised clue – letters from DRIVER Fans’, minus R
22		FERITY	Feminine lady, losing head, showing rare wildness F (feminine) + (V)ERITY (woman’s name, losing head)
23		FLASHY	Uniform cut short is momentarily dazzling FLA(T) (uniform, cut down by one letter) + SHY (short of)
24		FLAMED	Edmund’s exacerbated lie to himself FLAM (whimsy, trick, lie) + ED (Edmund Spenser, himself!)
25		ENGIRD	Surround English Nationalist network whose content is revolting E (English) + N (nationalist) + GIRD (gRId, network, with content revolting, or mixed up)
26	I	ENGOBE	Biogenetic slip italicised clue – hidden letters in ‘BIOGENEtic’, minus I
27		FERINE	Free in wild? &lit – anag, i.e. wild, of FREE IN, the whole clue being wordplay and definition
28		FAMINE	Scarcity of popular celebrity sandwiches FAM_E (celebrity) around (sandwiching) IN (popular)
29		LATENS	Losing page in parts of printing presses causes delays (P)LATENS, parts of printing presses, losing P – page
30		AVITAL	Ancestral mount in the Golan Heights double defn. – AVITAL means ancestral; and, with a capital A, Mt Avital is a mountain in the Golan Heights
31	O	LINTEL	Support for opening Bristol line italicised clue – hidden letters in ‘brisTOL LINE’, minus O
32		FLOTEL	Accommodation at sea, housing a large number, almost totally dire F_EL(L), fell, dire, almost totally) around (housing) LOT (a large number)
33		PONTAL	New laptop reduced, needs reconfiguration relating to connections? anag, i.e. needs reconfiguration, of N (new) + LAPTO(P), reduced [connections as in bridges]
34	N	BRUTAL	Burnt almond is coarse italicised clue – hidden letters in ‘BURNT ALmond’, minus N
35		PHONAL	Vocal friend catches term of endearment P_AL (friend) around (catching) HON (honey, term of endearment)
36		CARNAL	Take in the groove, bodily CA_NAL (groove) around R (Latin, recipe, take…)
37		OPTIMA	Most favourable points are with German chamber on reflection A (are, metric land measurement) + MIT (with, German) + PO (chamber pot), all reflected to give OPTIMA
38		OPTIME	Work rate of Cambridge’s honoured mathematician OP (opus, musical work) + TIME (rate) [optime being a second-ranked mathematician at Cambridge, behind a wrangler]
39		NEXT TO	Almost circulating SMS containing number – on the contrary! (4,2) N_O (number) around (containing) EXT_T (text, or SMS, circulating first letter to the end) – i.e. not NO in EXTT, on the contrary [almost, as in ‘next to nothing’]
40		OTTARS	Fragrant oils piscivores broadcast homophone, i.e. broadcast – OTTARS, fragrant oils, can sound like OTTERS (piscivores)!