I approached this like a golfer about to tee off over a pond…’Don’t think about the water!‘, ‘Ignore the water!‘, ‘Just hit the ball like a normal tee shot!‘…’Don’t think about the fact that it is an Enigmatist!‘, ‘Ignore the name Enigmatist at the top!‘, ‘Just solve it like a normal jigsaw!‘…
…for a jigsaw it is. In fact not just a jigsaw, but a jigsaw with a few extra pieces, as the preamble tells us:
“Clues are listed in alphabetical order of their answers, 31 of which are to be entered in the grid jigsaw-fashion where they will fit. The wordplay in each clue to seven otherwise undefined thematic answers (entered unconventionally in the grid) ignores a single letter of its answer. These seven letters may be arranged to form the answer to the remaining clue, which is to be entered below rather than in the grid.”
I slipped into my usual jigsaw solving mode, with some preparations before any actual solving:
- annotate entry lengths around the edges of the grid, nearest their entries, so the top row had a 6 on the left and a 7 on the right, etc.
- this helps when trying to fit a solution of a certain length
- scan the enumerations and create a checklist/cribsheet of groups of underscores of the same length
- so the two 3s are _ _ _, _ _ _ ; the 4s are _ _ _ _, _ _ _ _, etc.
- cross-reference and analyse the above to identify any possible starting points
- there are two 3s, and two each of 8s, 10s and 12s, so once they are solved there shouldn’t be too many permutations, and any crossers should resolve things
- there is only one 9, and there are no 9s in the grid, so this must be one of those extras referred to in the preamble
- similarly there are 16 7s, but only 10 in the grid; and three 6s, but only two in the grid
- lastly, I created the grid and annotations in an Excel spreadsheet and transcribed (copy/paste from the PDF) the clues , to make it easier to guess, stab in the dark and undo any wrong turns
- I added columns of ‘original order’ and ‘length’, so it was possible to sort the clues/answers by either of these attributes
- this helps with alphabetical ordering and/or clue length groupings
And so on to the solving, which was mostly cold solving for the first few runs through. The two 3s, DUN and ELT, came out quite early on, as did TWEENIES and STERN. This meant that DUN had to be at 14A and ELT at 23A, to accommodate TWEENIES at 18D. This helped to make a few educated guesses – STERN at 17A, ARID at 8D and TEST at 24D.
NO-PRESSURE had to be either 4D or 13D, and if it was at 13D it could cross with NAPA at 16A and TEENY at 22A, so I bunged these in (a jorum?) and got lucky that they seemed to open up a few likely other entries, and SKYLINER/LOFFLER helped to start things moving in the top right quadrant.
Each entry that matched some speculative crossers help to validate the previous educated guess, and each new crosser helped to give some sort of assistance with some of the unsolved clues. However, there was a lot of trial and error and copy/paste/undo-ing before I gradually started to fill the grid and parse most of the clues I was solving – apart from NAPA and SHANKAR, which defied any parsing until I was writing up the blog.
All well and good – normally once you have fitted all the pieces together you have finished a jigsaw. But not an Enigmatist jigsaw!
It had started to become clear which of the 7s were probably the undefined thematics, plus that solitary 9 and the remaining 6. However they held out for a while, until I worked out that where someone ‘goes’ in the White House, just after ICE FLOE, must be ‘the JOHN’, and there was an extra ON, so maybe the ignored letter is S and we have a JOHNSON?
And there – hidden in plain site in the seventh Across row was (MES-)JOHN + SON(ANCE). Obviously there are many famous Johnsons – Dr Samuel; Amy; several US Presidents; our blonde-buffoon ex-PM Boris; the boxer Jack…but just below that was (CROM)BEC and KER(SEY), and the most famous Becker I know is the tennis player – another Boris.
And as the scales lifted from my eyes, I saw them all, split into two or three parts in the Across rows:
- SPASSKY
- KARLOFF
- GODUNOV
- PASTERNAK
- YELTSIN
- JOHNSON
- BECKER
- and the ignored letters from each made up the final answer: BORISES!
To return to the golfing analogy from earlier, I usually can’t take the pressure, and end up skying or scuffing the ball into a watery grave. But in this case, with all my jigsaw methodology, a few lucky breaks and a lot of application, I managed to complete the puzzle on the day of publication – extremely rare for an Enigmatist puzzle, let alone an Enigmatist Genius. It was the cruciverbal equivalent of sending the ball soaring over the pond, bouncing on to the green and trickling in for a hole-in-one!
CROMBEC, KERSEY and TWEENIES were new to me, and it took a little bit of e-research to conflate Löffler with Loeffler for the bacteriologist, but apart from those I found most of the clueing (of the normal clues) fairly gettable, and those pairs of just two 3s, 8s, 10s, 12s also helped reduce the permutations once some of their answers fell.
So, unless I’ve missed anything glaringly obvious, or deviously subtle, I think that is that, and it only remains for me to offer my thanks to Enigmatist for an entertaining and challenging solve, and I trust all is clear below…
| Clues | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Ignored letter | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/Parsing |
|
| * | AKEE | A board devoid of soft fruit (4)
A + KEE( |
||
| * | ARID | Donations for poor housing run dry (4)
A_ID (donations for the poor) around (housing) R (run/runs, cricket notation) |
||
| * | ASIA | Superb appeal over extensive area (4)
AI (A1, superb) + SA (sex appeal) = AISA, all over to give ASIA |
||
| * | ASUNDER | In pieces, like 35 of the clues? (7)
AS (like) + UNDER (the remaining 35 clues are all ‘under’ this one, in alphabetical order, if not in appearance on the PDF/printed version) |
||
| * | BECKER | B | Resolve to cede power (6)
( [Boris Becker, former tennis player (and jailbird!) – undefined, B ignored in wordplay] |
|
| * | BORISES | Knight takes women away from wise guys (7)
BOR_S (Sir Bors, one of two knights of Arthurian legend) around (taking) ( [Entry below the grid – made up of ignored wordplay letters] |
||
| * | BY-FORMS | Word variants, say ‘times’ instead of ‘minutes and seconds’ (2-5)
BY (times, multiplied by) + FOR (instead of) + MS (minutes and seconds) |
||
| * | CROMBEC | Vocal flier caught by Big Bird ringing gong (7)
C (caught, cricket notation) + RO_C (large mythical bird) around (ringing) MBE (award, medal, gong) [the crombec being an African warbler, so a vocal bird!] |
||
| * | DUN | Brown finished broadcast (3)
homophone, i.e. broadcast – DONE, finished, can sound like DUN (greyish brown) |
||
| * | ELT | Local pork supplier thought fine unnecessary (3)
( [elt being dialect, or local, for a young sow, hence a pork supplier!] |
||
| * | FALL BACK ON | In difficulty have recourse to Irish jockey clinching bet (4,4,2)
FALL_ON (Irish jockey, Kieren Fallon) around (clinching) BACK (bet on) |
||
| * | FREE DELIVERY | Diner’s right to promote uniform, perk when meal is brought to your door (4,8)
FREE_DE (FEEDER, diner, ‘promoting’ R – right – up to the second letter, for a Down entry) + LIVERY (uniform) |
||
| * | GODUNOV | O | Shot horse – the fifth (7)
GO (shot, attempt) + DUN (horse) + V (regnal number, Xxxx the Fifth) [Boris Godunov, 16th C Russian regent and tsar – undefined, O ignored in wordplay] |
|
| * | I ASK YOU | It’s unbelievable, a broadcaster intercepting note from creditor (1,3,3)
I_OU (note from creditor) around (intercepting) A + SK_Y (TV broadcaster) |
||
| * | ICE FLOE | Mass detached corps from assorted police forces (3,4)
subtractive anagram, i.e. assorted, of ( [or ‘detached’ could be part of the definition, as an ice floe is usually a large sheet of ice detached from its glacier?] |
||
| * | JOHNSON | S | Here in the White House a person goes on (7)
JOHN (US slang for toilet, so where a person might ‘go’ in the White House) + ON [Boris Johnson – undefined, S ignored in wordplay] |
|
| * | KARLOFF | R | Following answer received by people in retirement (7)
F (following) + FOL_K (people) around (receiving) A (answer) = FFOLAK, all in retirement to give KA_LOFF [Boris Karloff, English actor, most famous for Frankenstein, 1931 – undefined, R ignored in wordplay] |
|
| * | KERSEY | Dresser periodically cuts essential cloth (6)
KE_Y (essential) around (cut by) RSE (periodic letters of ‘dReSsEr’ [kersey being a coarse woollen cloth, perhaps from Kersey in Suffolk] |
||
| * | LOFFLER | Dotty fell for bacteriologist (7)
anag, i.e. dotty, of FELL FOR [Friedrich August Johannes Loeffler, or Löffler, German bacteriologist and co-discoverer of the cause of diphtheria] |
||
| * | MES-JOHN | Workforce keeping mum about beloved Scots minister of the kirk (3-4)
ME_N (workforce) around (keeping) S_H (sh, silence, keep mum), itself around JO (Scottish sweetheart) |
||
| * | NAPA | Leather, even after stripping (4)
( [LOP] |
||
| * | NO PRESSURE | Relax public relations? One’s horribly confident about that (2,8)
NO_ES (anag, i.e. horrbly, of ONES) around PR (Public Relations), plus SURE (confident) |
||
| * | NOSE | Reportedly is acquainted with beak (4)
homophone, i.e. reportedly – is acquainted with, or KNOWS, can sound like NOSE (beak) |
||
| * | OVATE | Like egg a pair of avocets returned to incubate? (5)
reversed hidden word in, i.e. incubated by and returned in, two avocets paired: ‘avocET AVOcet’ |
||
| * | PASTERNAK | E | Former admiral, perhaps having experienced an upset (9)
PAST (former) + RNAK (rank, of which admiral is an example, with AN upset to give RNAK) [Boris Pasternak, Russian poet/novelist – undefined, E ignored in wordplay] |
|
| * | SHANKAR | The instrument he played has loop over it (7)
S( |
||
| * | SINAI | Italian’s all right taking in a Red Sea location (5)
S_I (yes, alright, in italian) around (taking) IN + A |
||
| * | SKYCLAD | Naked but for ripped frock, sadly discomfited (7)
subtractive anagram, i.e. discomfited, of ( |
||
| * | SKYLINER | Busy railway links with East Tokyo train service (8)
anag, i.e. busy, of RY (railway) + LINKS + E (East) [the Skyliner being Tokyo’s equivalent of the Heathrow or Gatwick Express airport train services] |
||
| * | SONANCE | Run filters through lousy announcer’s sound quality (7)
subtractive anagram, i.e. lousy, of ANNO( |
||
| * | SPASSKY | S | Where water is aerated and blue (7)
SPA (where water is aerated) + SKY (blue) [Boris Spassky, Russian former World Chess Champion – undefined, S ignored in wordplay] |
|
| * | STERN | Hard back (5)
double def. – STERN can mean hard, grim; and STEN can mean the rear, or back, e.g. nautically |
||
| * | TANGO | What Oscar’s after in tonight’s dance (5)
to, the first two letters of ‘tonight’, can be represented phonetically as TANGO, oscar |
||
| * | TEENY | Undersized safety net made tight but not fast (5)
subtractive anagram, i.e. made tight, of ( |
||
| * | TEST | Critically examine southern chalk stream (4)
double defn. – to TEST can be to critically examine; and the River TEST is a Southern chalk stream (which runs past a couple of miles away from your blogger!) |
||
| * | TWEENIES | Maids, the least significant, with time rising to the top (8)
WEENIES( [a ‘tweeny’ being a ‘between-maid’, a servant subsidiary to two others] |
||
| * | VESPAS | Making way along drives past scooters (6)
hidden word in, i.e. making way along, ‘driVES PASt’ |
||
| * | VISITING TIME | Am I strong enough to drink G&T, one after 5 hours with inpatient? (8,4)
V (five, Roman numeral) + ISITIN_ME (am I strong enough? is it in me?), around (drinking) G_T (G&T) + I (one) |
||
| * | YELTSIN | I | With year left, new fashion to back (7)
N (new) + STYLE = N_STYLE, all backwards = ELYTS_N, then moving Y to the left, for an Across entry, gives YELTS_N [Boris Yeltsin, former Russian president – undefined, I ignored in wordplay] |
|
Good blog. The key for me was spotting that the 12-letter clues could go only one way, then spotting PASTERNAK and GODUNOV sitting in the middle of the grid. Very fine puzzle.
Thanks Enigmatist and mc_rapper67.
Good puzzle with a great device, matched by a great blog!
31 lights, 39 clues. 7 of 39 are missing a letter in wordplay – all undefined being themesters.
The answer to the 39th clue has no place in grid, so space for entering it separately outside the grid.
Obviously, the seven themesters are sharing the lights with the 31 normal clues.
How, I didn’t know.
By Sunday night, I had only a third filled.
VESPAS (6) VISITING TIME (8, 4) KERSY (6) FREE DELIVERY (4, 8). These were enough to start filling, the perimeter.
Then made good progress on Monday.
When I got JOHN ON, I already had MES_JOHN and SONANCE in row 12.
So S was the missing letter.
In row 10, I had TEENY ELT SINAI; straddling these was YELTSIN.
So I thought, ‘Presidents’ maybe the theme.
Not so fast. In row 8, I had:
NAPA STERN AKEE
That settled it, PASTERNAK.
So, I looked for more folks with BORIS as given name. I found the rest. They also helped me with solving their associated normal clues.
Quite a few new to me of which MES-JOHN was the hardest to find. GODUNOV was not included in WiKi list of people with given name Boris. The clue was clear enough; had to Google him separately to confirm.
The missing letters gave up BORISES.
I got pro-tip for the parsing of the 39th clue – I did not know Sir Bors.
Quite a challenge; so eminently satisfying.
Well, I just re-checked WiKi and found GODUNOV listed right on top – under Aristocracy, but not in the alphabetic list.
I usually find Enigmatist hard and I didn’t solve many clues when I first looked at this puzzle and only started trying to enter answers in the grid after I had finished solving other monthly puzzles on Thursday 29th. The first answers I entered were VISITING TIME and VESPAS because I had solved enough to know that the other 12-letter answer couldn’t start with the same letter as a 6-letter answer and then MES-JOHN was the only 7-letter answer starting with M but after this I started guessing and managed to fit most of the answers I had found and get some checking letters to help solve more.
Like the blogger, I only spotted the thematic entries after I had completed the normal entries and wondered if other solvers could have the same experience since I trouble with some of the wordplay-only clues even when I knew what the answers had to be, and thought the normal clue to BORISES was also hard because I wouldn’t normally expect an answer to be the plural of a given name and didn’t know Sir Bors.
The spelling Loeffler seemed to be more common online but he appears as Löffler in Chambers Biographical Dictionary. Of course, some would argue that if you can’t write Ö for some reason then it should be replaced by OE not O, but that doesn’t seem to be the convention in crosswords. I first thought that Ö could be entered in the grid since it was unchecked but then realised it would “clash” with KARLOFF.
Thanks, mc_rapper67 and Enigmatist.
At the time of solving I saw Prospero note that he had encountered a similarly themed puzzle in the past. With a little searching I found it… it was Genius 195 by Chandler which dates from 2019 and which I hope I’ve successfully linked. All the borises again present and correct. The blogger was duncanshiell.
Thanks to Mike for a great blog, I was most impressed by your disciplined approach to jigsaws!
The first missing letter clue I got was SPAS-SKY, so I spent the next two days trying to fit chess players into the grid. Then I saw PA-STERN and spent another two days looking for Russians. Then I saw JOHNSON and I twigged the common link. A very pleasant crossword indeed.
Thanks mc_rapper67 and Enigmatist.
I also thought it was going to be Russians and was slightly thrown when JOHNSON emerged. Then suddenly everything made sense.
Many thanks to Enigmatist and mc_rapper67 (very impressive blog).
Well, I’ve learnt many new words – AKEE, CROMBEC, ELT, KERSEY, NAPA, SKYCLAD and more, and I’ve learnt to be as thorough and methodical as our marvellous blogger, but the main thing I’ve learnt is that I’m a very long way off from being able to have a decent go at an Enigmatist Genius crossword!
But thank you to Enigmatist and mc_rapper67, and well done to all who managed to finish.
I’m away for a lie-down …