Await Further Instructions by Henri
Hello from a bright and friendly corner of a damp and grey York. A copy of the puzzle is available here.
I’d noticed the italicisation of instructions in the title and wondered why. Once I got to 32a/4/19d/13 its italics jumped out at me, so I cottoned on pretty quickly to what was going on and did get the message: our instructions are to:
READ BETWEEN THE LINES
Knowing that the solver needed to find these mysterious instructions, I had been keeping a close eye on the grid for anything nina-ish and it was already emerging. From the cells between the lines of the across answers I extracted:
LAST LETTERS OF ALL THE DOWN CLUES
I love these multi-step endgames. It was wise not to choose first letters as canny solvers may well have checked the initial letters of the clues already! Taking the last letters of the down clues – including “See 32 across”, which pleased me – gives:
GO SEE HENRI SAY HELLO
A “small prize” was offered for the first fully correct solution; this turned out to be a copy of Unch magazine. The winner was Matthew Marcus, who has won one or two other little things in the past such as the Times Crossword Championship. Other solvers on the day also had good things to say about the puzzle, although at least one managed to enjoy it without finding the further instructions. Sometimes good things also come to those who don’t await …
Very neatly done, and lots of fun – thanks Henri!
| # | Clue with definition underlined | ||
| ANSWER — Explanation, with most quoted indicators in italics and ANSWER letters in bold caps | |||
| Across | |||
| 1a | Dreaded one singer stifling second alto (5) | ||
| RASTA — RAT (singer) surrounding (stifling) S (second) + A (alto) | |||
| 4a | See 32 across | ||
| 10a | Quiet number inspired by country music fan (4) | ||
| PUNK — P (quiet) + N (number) inside (inspired by) UK (country) | |||
| 11a | Destroyer of old queen, a tyrant – not the first time (10) | ||
| ERADICATOR — ER (old queen) + A + DIC[t]ATOR (tyrant) without the first T (not the first time) | |||
| 12a | Are cinemas playing ‘Total Recall’? Mine isn’t (8) | ||
| AMNESIAC — A (are) + an anagram of (… playing) CINEMAS | |||
| 13a | See 32 across | ||
| 15a | Emergency with case of burglary on street (5-2) | ||
| STAND-BY — AND (with) plus the outer letters of (case of) BurglarY on ST (street) | |||
| 18a | Westbound satnav prediction good stuff in resort (7) | ||
| MARGATE — Going right to left (westbound) ETA (satnav prediction), G (good) and RAM (stuff) | |||
| 20a | Bad acting by Short, forgetting final line (7) | ||
| ABYSMAL — A (acting) + BY + SMAL[l] (short) omitting the last L (forgetting final line) | |||
| 22a | Beryl’s jacket and summer bag (7) | ||
| BLADDER — BeryL’s outer letters (jacket) and ADDER (summer) | |||
| 24a | Stomach diamonds? Elton John had one in the 80s! (5) | ||
| BEARD — BEAR (stomach) + D (diamonds) | |||
| 26a | Briefly lurk in the place cited returning dad’s headgear (8) | ||
| SKULLCAP — Missing its end (briefly) SKULl (lurk) + LC (loco citato, in the place cited) + backwards (returning) PA (dad) | |||
| 31a | Unstable pal has duel and begins to win (5,5) | ||
| PULLS AHEAD — An anagram of (unstable) PAL HAS DUEL | |||
| 32a /4/19d/13 |
Sadly most of The Beatles were in need – get the message! (4,7,3,5) | ||
| READ BETWEEN THE LINES — An anagram of (sadly) all but the last letter of (most of) THe with BEATLES WERE IN NEED | |||
| 33a | Terrible to live with singer Rick, having no end of trouble (7) | ||
| BEASTLY — BE (to live) with ASTL[e]Y (singer Rick) missing E (having no end of troublE) | |||
| 34a | Players perhaps fine to enter Suriname (5) | ||
| SMOKE — OK (fine) going into (to enter) SME (Suriname, IVR) | |||
| Down | |||
| 2d | Initially locked up in Australian jail’s extreme ‘Absolute Bastard Wing’ (5) | G | |
| ALULA — Initially Locked Up in A (Australian) and jaiL’s last letter (extreme) + A (absolute) | |||
| 3d | Assumed Brown hugging Starmer, half-cut? No (5,2) | O | |
| TAKEN ON — TAN (brown) surrounding (hugging) KEir (Starmer) with half removed (half-cut) and NO | |||
| 5d | Row naked in one of the Great Lakes (4) | S | |
| ERIE — sERIEs (row) without outer letters (naked) | |||
| 6d | In audition if husband yields to wife (7) | E | |
| WEARING — [h]EARING (audition) if H is replaced by W (husband yields to wife) | |||
| 7d | As if bitten by rhinoceroses, to a degree (5) | E | |
| EROSE — Partially (… to a degree) rhinocEROSEs | |||
| 8d | What Henri does with group of friends on Sabbath (4) | H | |
| SETS — SET (group of friends) on S (Sabbath) | |||
| 9d | Take care of accident at aerodrome (2-2) | E | |
| TA-TA — The answer is in (of) accidenT AT Aerodrome | |||
| 14d | Following everyone’s lapse into sin (4) | N | |
| FALL — F (following) + ALL (everyone) | |||
| 16d | Go heading off to get 34 in Byker (3) | R | |
| TAB — With the first letter removed (… heading off), sTAB (go). 34a is SMOKE; “in Byker” indicates the regional usage | |||
| 17d | Dull book on upcoming cinematic AI (4) | I | |
| BLAH — B (book) on reversed (upcoming) HAL (cinematic AI) | |||
| 19d | See 32 across | S | |
| 21d | Wanders with sons to capture pooka? (7) | A | |
| STROLLS — S S (sons) taking in (to capture) TROLL (pooka) | |||
| 23d | Education elevated with my university master’s propriety (7) | Y | |
| DECORUM — ED (education) reversed (elevated) + COR (my) + U (university) + M (master) | |||
| 25d | Infer no right to impoverish (5) | H | |
| EDUCE — There is no R in (no right to) [r]EDUCE (impoverish) | |||
| 27d | Joint Head of KGB born in Nice (4) | E | |
| KNEE — The first letter of (head of) Kgb + NEE (born in Nice) | |||
| 28d | Batters first of lunch fish special (4) | L | |
| LIDS – The initial letter of (first of) Lunch + ID (fish) + S (special) | |||
| 29d | Core principle of eleventh proposal? (5) | L | |
| PLANK — PLAN K (eleventh proposal?) | |||
| 30d | Starts to weep at ugly lover, boo-hoo (4) | O | |
| WAUL — Initials of (starts to) Weep At Ugly Lover | |||