Solution to June Journey by eXternal

 June Journey by eXternal - Solution

Correct letters give SCOTSWOOD ROAD, PARADISE, COLLINGWOOD STREET; incorrect letters give BALMBRAS, MECHANICS HALL, ARMSTRONG’S FACTORY. These are locations in the song BLAYDON RACES in which the narrator receives a broken NOSE and two black eyes.

NOTES:

Across

SB 1 spaing/bpaing PAIN in B(ein)G

CA 6 discus/disaus hidden BonDI’S AUStralian 

OL12 transport/transplrt TR+(R,PLANTS)*

TM13 apart/aparm PA<,ARM

SB14 situla/bitula BIT,UpLeAk

WR15 winy/riny RAINY-A

OA16 amours/amaurs A,MA(U)RS

OS17 in order/insrder DINERS*,R

DM18 adds/adms ADAMS-A

RE21 uglier/ugliee U,GL(I)EE

OC23 goes in/gcesin G,CE,SIN 

AH27 phng/pang PH,NG

DA29 abraded/abradea A,BRA,DEA{d}

PN31 sold up/soldun S(OLD)UN

AI32 agha/aghi AG,cHaIr

RC33 atonec/atoner AT ONCE with C moved back

AS34 bacon/bscon BS,CON

DH35 demivolte/hemivolte HE,MI(VOL)TE

IA36 aspire/aspare AS,PARE

SL37 fusils/fulils F(UL)ILS

Down

EL2 pepino/plpino PL,PIN,O

CA3 clansmen/alansmen ALAN’S,MEN{d}

OR4 nomady/nrmady NR,MAD,Y

LM5 galleon/galmeon GA(L)ME,ON

LS7 ilium/isium AMBITIOUS*-BOAT*

IT8 spirals/sptrals S(P(TR)AL)S

NR9 unlime/urlime {s}UR{e},{s}LIM{y},{b}E{d}

GO10 stao/stag OATS<

WN11 waring/naring AN<,RING

OG19 diadochi/diadgchi DI(AD)G,CHI

OS20 oogonia/osgonia AI,NOG,SO<

DF21 unbuild/unbuilf BOUNTIFUL*-TO*

SA22 easing/eaaing E,AGAIN with G down

TC24 thetes/chetes CHE,SET<

RT25 Irn Bru/irnbtu I,RN,BUT{e}*

EO26 reheel/rehoel RE(HO)EL

ER28 cleve/clevr CLEVER-lower E

TY30 taha/yaha HAY<,A

Crossword Centre Prize Puzzle July 2021

 Map by Urchin

PDF version

The grid represents a map which solvers must identify. Some answers clash. In 11 clues redundant words must be removed before solving. Their initial letters indicate which letter replaces the clashes, usually leaving non-words. Solvers should colour the clashing cells appropriately and draw 2 lines through them, each touching the perimeter at both ends. Finally, solvers should write, below the grid, the next destination south. Numbers in brackets indicate grid lengths.

Across

2 Ate sandwiches diet - the bard's erased (6)

7 Little dog entertaining one with games, say? (6, 2 words)

11 Survey ends of cul-de-sac in Ruairidh's yard (5)

13 Mum's piece of skirt (4)

16 Pussy is cruel playing with mouse endlessly (8)

17 Roofing cover settled back in a length of wall (7)

18 Jock's aim - necking spirit with no money (5)

19 After starter in albergo? (5)

21 Your local is possessed by god of the deep seas (4)

23 Moldovan ready with reading lesson in Glasgow (4)

24 Fashionable card game in exciting spot (6)

26 Priestess regularly displays crowning qualities (3)

27 Receding trade plans reformed and spruced up (13)

31 Officer's lass hiding blemish? Just the opposite! (3)

32 Nothing less than crazy to man consumed by dig (6)

34 Rock song with a special composition (4)

37 Big wooden box captures African tribe (4)

39 Elements of Chromosomes - a book steeped in sex (5)

41 Ed's bounded over one track (5)

42 Ingenuity about opening for Californian flier (7, 2 words)

45 Following ridge in the country, fix something that's essential (8)

46 I can't understand a French negative (4)

47 Rust found in section of structure oxidising downwards (5)

48 Reversing rank between Sweden and Germany is settled (6)

49 Officers repaired flag with rigid fastener (6)

Down

1 Clumsily slurped little bits of fruit (7)

3 Symbol in dictionary that's lost key law (4)

4 Spies hiding over tails (5)

5 Man in the bible who made trousers (4)

6 Elbow Mourinho out of top of the league (4)

7 One making bundles must take measure with advanced electronic device (5)

8 Time to enter odd reply with impudence (6)

9 Londoner's boat races picked up islands (5)

10 Scottish singer coming up with worried scream (7)

12 With most of festive season an oriental bloomer (5)

14 Junkies taking heroin from court officials (5)

15 Before a meal in Pierre's I play a trick (4)

20 Dictator's successor could be broadcast (3)

22 Primates getting setter in a Jamaican farm (4)

24 Jag worries cycling official (4)

25 Perform part of play (3)

28 Sportsman shot pistol over nothing (7)

29 Play before midday? Not for a Sicilian. (3)

30 Passing bedroom I crashed into garderobe (7)

31 Little piece of mosaic, smaller retreating in network (5)

32 Game I must get computer in to flog (6)

33 An affectation of superiority's new in Leith's clubs (5)

35 Prison officers move around (4)

36 Sort of family with father in the sticks (5)

38 Jerry in offer for stand (5)

40 Amphibians manage to rise in extremes of aquaria (5)

42 Old penny for a sail (4)

43 Routine act elaborated for emission (4)

44 Cross judge could be banned (4)

To enter this competition, send your entry as an image or in list format describing the completed grid and the word under the grid to ccpuzzles@talktalk.net before 8th August 2021. The first correct entry drawn from the hat will receive a book from the Chambers range, which has been donated by Chambers.

Crossword News June 2021

 Crossword News June 2021

The May Prize Puzzle was Confusion Down Under by Flowerman. This was probably the toughest puzzle of the year. Clashes could give either ARTHUR or MARTHA, a phrase used in Australia to show a state of confusion. Letters extracted gave ALLOSOMES IN GRID. Allosomes are sex chromosomes. Males are XY and females XX. There is already one X in the grid and ENACTED can be changed to EXACTED, thus resolving the grid as female and MARTHA to be the resolution of the clashes. There is nowhere that a Y can be used.

Here are some of the comments from solvers.

This crossword has kept me entertained for nearly 3 weeks!  I repeatedly got stuck but after a break more progress was made.  My ideal crossword - difficult but always offering encouragement.  I had to google to discover the Australian phrase and with SHE and MRS in the grid I was pretty certain that I was looking for another X to go with the one in AAXES.  When I lighted upon ENACTED that easily changed to EXACTED I could not help but feel a bit of an anti-climax.  Or, have I picked the wrong entry to change?  I certainly had no need to check it out in Chambers, so maybe I have.  Apart from that final doubt, this was a superb puzzle. Thank you Flowerman.

The puzzle's end-game took a long time to resolve. The Arthur/Martha 'confusion' was revealed part of the way through the grid-fill. The instruction that 'five sets [of three consecutive letters] can be arranged' set me off seeking 9,2,4 anagrams the 15 letters - about 20000+ possibilities.... ! Realisation dawned a week or so after the grid-fill and ALLOSOMES IN GRID emerged, but then I couldn't find 'ALLOSOME' in Chambers either as a separate entry or under 'ALLO-'. Googling produced the word as an alternative to 'Chromosome'. So........ I hope that by changing 'ENACTED' to 'EXACTED', giving me two 'X's in the grid has allowed MARTHA to emerge triumphant.......Clever stuff indeed! Thanks to Flowerman and the Crossword Centre for a challenging puzzle.

Well, I waited until the last minute to submit this entry, hoping that a more satisfactory solution might occur to me, but no!!  The phrase I identified was "allosomes in grid" (is that even correct?).  Besides my eventual entry, I also considered various other possibilities that might indicate Male (Arthur) or Female (Martha) or perhaps a bit of both, including some that seemed to be hinted at, but I couldn't discern anything else that was remotely feasible!  In the end, changing 21D ENACTED to EXACTED to give two X's in the grid (indicating XX = female = MARTHA) was the best I could come up with!  Many thanks to Flowerman for a great workout, and I look forward to finding out the real solution soon.

There were 29 entries, of which 8 were marked incorrect. The lucky winner, picked from the electronic hat, was Philip Wood, who will be receiving a prize of Chambers Crossword Dictionary.

A full solution with notes is available at https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2021/06/solution-to-confusion-down-under-by.html

You still have until 8 July to send an entry to this month’s puzzle, June Journey by eXternal.

The July Prize Puzzle will be one of mine. I hope you will enjoy Map by Urchin.
***
I am sure you will enjoy this Indie puzzle by Rodriguez as solved by Simon Anthony on Cracking the Cryptic. A fantastic grid!
https://youtu.be/NEMRKMA1vLA
***
I have mentioned the puzzles compiled by Dave Gorman in earlier newsletters. You can find out much more about the setter, Bluth, in this interview with Alan Conor.
***
I have been alerted to this letter in Private Eye complaining about a clue in the Cyclops crossword.

Sir,
Having fondled a few scrotums in my time, I dispute the answer to 15 ac in Eye crossword No. 701. They are WRINKLY not CRINKLY. Crinkly can only be used to describe crepe paper. I would get out more but the country has gone nuts.
Danielle
London

Cyclops writes: The dictionaries I use (Chambers and Collins) have crinkly and wrinkly as more or less interchangeable. They also show both as meaning “an old person” . Sadly, “scrotum” is not cited as an example, so I based my secondary definition on personal observation. (OK, maybe my skin in that particular location is like crepe paper.) I hadn’t noticed when clueing that the first letter of the answer did not cross with another answer – so, I have to concede that either CRINKLY or WRINKLY would have fitted.

In the next issue there was this comment in Pedantry Corner.

...I don’t get out much, so my sheltered life has never required me to use the plural form of “scrotum”. However, surely it should be “scrota” rather than “scrotums”?
John Swan, Whitley Bay.
***
On the Clue-Writing Competition the results are in for the April task, a clue to ODYSSEY. This was a resounding win for Don Manley with a neat anagram and extraction clue which echoes current government advice.

Do say yes to travel, but not a long journey (7)

Voting is about to end for clues to TOERAG. What are the odds on Azed choosing the same word for his June competition! It will be interesting to compare the winning clues.

The June challenge is for a Right & Left clue to NELSON/PRINCE. Entries close on 30 June.
http://www.andlit.org.uk/cccwc/main.php

There are now 234 members on the Google mailing list.

Best wishes

Derek

 

Solution to Confusion Down Under by Flowerman

 Confusion Down Under by Flowerman - SOLUTION

Two names, ARTHUR and MARTHA, can be formed from the possible sequences of letters in the six contiguous clashing cells suggesting that the confusion might be about gender. The expression “to not know whether one is Arthur or Martha” meaning to be in a state of confusion, not necessarily about gender, is an expression apparently originating in Australian and New Zealand (hence the title). Sequences of letters removed from clues can be arranged to form ALLOSOMES IN GRID. This confirms that the confusion is about gender as allosomes are sex chromosomes, identified as X and Y in humans, with females described as XX (cells containing two X chromosomes) and males described as XY (cells containing one of each). A single X was present in the initial grid fill rather than a pair of allosomes, meaning that the misprint must have involved either an X or Y being changed to another letter. ENACTED can be changed to EXACTED whereas no words can be changed to a new one in Chambers with a Y. Having identified the grid as female, clashes were to be resolved to show MARTHA.

Clue Explanations

Letters removed from wordplay are given after clue numbers where relevant.

 

Across

1 EMPLACE (t)EMPL(e) ACE

6 DISC DIS(a) C

10 COCOBOLO BOL in COCOO(n)

11 CHAS CHA(let)S

12 LASCARS LA CRASS*

14 WANT W (A N(eeding) T(raining))

15 LAAGER REGAL< around A

16 TIU (q)UIT<

17 MONTU MON TU

18 MANET MAN ET

20 AT SEA (c)ATS EA

22 crack[ING] AGAPE (tw)AE around GAP

24 RUNIC RUN I C 

29 RIMER (p)RIMER

31 LAM LAM(e)

32 BATAAN BATAVIAN – (V I)

33 li[MES] AMOS SOMA(li)<

34 ELOCUTE E COL< (m)UTE

35 GUAN GUN around A

36 EBENEZER BREEZE* around E(aster)N

37 SINS SIN(bad)’S 

38 USER IDS US EDI(to)RS*

Down

1 ECLATS EATS around (C L)

2 mang[O SO]on MOANING I in (MANG ON)*

3 LOCUM LOLIUM with C replacing LI

4 ABALONE AB ALONE

5 CORONET (TENOR OC)<

6 DONAH HAD< around ON

7 SHAGS SHA(m) GS

8 CANEH (kitc)HEN A C(opper)<

9 b[RID]e OSTREA (O ARE (be)ST)*

13 SCUM SC UM(ps)

14 WRIT WIT(h) around R

19 HUMBLES HUM (SE< after BL)

20 ANEMONE (ph)ENOMENA<

21 b[ALL]et ENACTED ((b)ET DANCE)*

22 AMBAGE A (MAGE around B)

23 POMS POM(e)S

25 CLOU CLO(d) U

26 UMBERS (c)UMBERS

27 RAMUS (manage)R (M in AUS)

28 STOAI SAI around TO

29 A-AXES XE in AAS

30 RICER RIC(h)ER 

Crossword Centre Prize Puzzle June 2021

 June Journey by eXternal

PDF version

Wordplay in each clue gives the answer with a misprinted letter, forming the entry. Each set of correct and incorrect letters in clue order spells out three locations on a journey. In the final grid, solvers must highlight four cells in a vertical line and add some shading in two nearby cells to represent what was received en route to the destination, which must also be highlighted (12 cells in a straight line).

Across

1 Suffering in being empty staying at health resort (6)

6 Characters seen in Bondi’s Australian sporting event (6)

12 Convey exotic river plants to east of Turkey (9)

13Father turned weapon aside (5)

14 Regularly picked up leak on little old bucket (6)

15 Wet overlooking area resembling port? (4)

16 Loved ones are united dividing spoils (6)

17 Diner’s made spaghetti recipe that’s appropriate (7, two words)

18 Introduces second US president, not the third (4)

21 Universal joy being around one less attractive (6)

23 Enters church caught between good and evil (6, two words)

27 Violent pain no good after pub (4)

29 Adult underwear not totally expensive wore down (7)

31 Flogged everything antique in possession of star (6)

32 Commander’s silver chair oddly scratched (4)

33 Person making amends immediately putting cape back (6)

34 Discontented bohemians against meat (5)

35 Half-turn from that man feeding volume to small child (9)

36 Eagerly desire and like shave (6)

37 Son in Calais hiding case of unlawful guns (6)

Down

2 Place nail over S American plant (6)

3 Maybe Shearer’s correct to snub family members (8)

4 Near insane, Yankee’s unsettled state (6)

5 Pursuit around loch on boat (7)

7 Troy engineer ambitious taking out makeshift boat (5)

8 Winding courses of ship bearing friend taking in tour on vacation (7)

9 Removing all covers, sure slimy bed is free from sticky stuff (6)

10 Served up cereal for male animal (4) 

11 Previously avoiding an upset group (6)

19 Bill involved in excavation with Greek character finds ancient rulers (8)

20 Excellent drink thus made upright reproductive organs (7)

21 Pull down unusually bountiful bar to rent (7)

22 European further downing gallons and relaxing (6)

24 Greek serfs having revolutionary uprising ready (6)

25 Current sailors on Bute mostly ordered Scottish drink (6, two words)

26 Fix base of house in midst of wind (6)

28 Ingenious extracting inferior earth in local hillside (5)

30 Weaver bird put article beneath overturned dry grass (4)

To enter this competition, send your entry as an image or in list format describing the highlighting and shading to ccpuzzles@talktalk.net before 8th July 2021. The first correct entry drawn from the hat will receive a book from the Chambers range, which has been donated by Chambers.

Crossword News May 2021

 

Crossword News May 2021

The April Prize Puzzle was Round Robin XIII. The theme of Round Robin XIII is prime ministers of the UK and celebrates 300 years since ROBERT WALPOLE became the first in April 1721. (300 appears in larger print in the title.) The letters given in the preamble had to replace letters in the grid to form ROBERT WALPOLE and the surnames of 11 other PMs. As a hint, circled letters in the grid can be arranged to form a 13th – DISRAELI. 

Here are some of the comments from solvers.

A very interesting thematic concept nicely executed, the real brilliance being in the grid design which was excellent, accommodating so many changes in words to give effect to the theme, sans any outlandish entries to boot.  Lovely apposite anagram from the replacement letters as well. As was to be expected in an RR, there were different styles to the clues with some outstanding ones.  Solving didn't pose too many problems, identifying the theme and slotting in the changes took more time!

A lovely grid and very neat and successful inclusion of so many thematic members. The anagram of Disraeli allowed the theme to come readily, which was a great help. Great to have a range of clue setters - provided variety in style of clueing, which added to the challenge.  Many thanks for the consistently entertaining grids.

As usual with the Round Robins I enjoy the eclectic mix of clues from the write-ins to the real puzzlers. I needed the circled letters to finally crack the theme and then I enjoyed hunting the remaining 7 PMs in the grid. I definitely needed the replacement letters in their appropriate anagram to finish - some of the more obscure (older) ones (Petty, Lamb, Temple) being the last to come to light.

I enjoyed the puzzle and the theme. Bolding 3...0...0 in the title (presumably a reference to the 300th anniversary of the start of Robert Walpole's term as PM) was a nice touch.

There were 61 entries, of which 4 were marked wrong. The lucky winner, picked from the electronic hat, is Time Anderson, who will soon be receiving a prize of Chambers Crossword Dictionary donated by Chambers.

A solution is available at https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2021/05/solution-to-round-robin-xiii.html

Solvers could vote for their favourite clues and when the points were added up there was a clear winner.

42 Frequent flyer heads for Paris, lucky to be there in central location (6)

32 of the clues received votes and the top scores were.

1st - 22pts - 42a - PETREL - Simon Griew

2nd - 16pts - 13a - TERM-TIME - Phylax

3rd - 15pts - 8d - NETTY - Sprout

4th - 13pts - 31d - GLAIR - Tim Anderson

5th= - 11pts - 37a - REMAND - Satyen Nabar

5th= - 11pts - 7d - IAMB - Josie Barnes

I will be sending a prize to Simon.

You still have lots of time to tackle the May challenge, Confusion Down Under by Flowerman.

The June puzzle will be June Journey by eXternal. Steve Bartlett sets barred puzzles for the Listener and Inquisitor under the pseudonym eXternal; his first published puzzle was an Inquisitor in December 2012. Since then, he has expanded his repertoire to include a variety of puzzle formats for outlets such as The Independent, The Financial Times, The Telegraph and The Herald. He has also edited the Enigmatic Variations barred-crossword series in The Sunday Telegraph for the past two years, where he sets puzzles as proXimal. The June puzzle will be his third for the Crossword Centre. 

Steve grew up in Buckinghamshire and after university moved to Kent, where he still lives. He trained as a professional buyer and worked for several businesses over the years. He is an exercise enthusiast attending gym, HIIT sessions and kick boxing under normal circumstances. His current focus is on running, as he is training for the rescheduled 2020 London Marathon due to take place in October this year.

As a postscript to Cracking! by Soup, the setter has sent this explanation.
Some people asked about how I went about constructing the grid for ‘Cracking’. I’d originally started with safe contents which had about 40 letters, which I think was a bit ambitious! In the end I needed 28 letters for the three items in the safe, which is the same as the number I’d get from a ’normal’ perimetrical jigsaw puzzle (where black and white squares alternate round the perimeter), so I knew it was likely to be possible.  So, I started with the contents of the cracked safe, then (using a little computer program I wrote, in the same way that one of the solvers wrote an Excel macro) I started twirling the rings until all the scrambled letters fell over white squares – and then simply tried to fill the grid. If I couldn’t get it to fall out with sensible words, I nudged the letters a bit more, and tried again, and eventually I got something that worked. I’m mildly annoyed that I there wasn’t a letter of the contents in the outer ring, but I hadn’t even noticed that until I saw the comment! I’m so pleased people enjoyed it; it’s always fun to play about with new ideas. Hamish/Soup
***
Last month I noted the passing of CG Rishikesh, the Indian crossword setter who regularly submitted clues to our Round Robin puzzles. There was a nice obituary in The Hindu, the newspaper where he published crosswords under the name Gridman.
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/gridman-goes-off-the-grid-crossword-community-loses-a-giant/article34330053.ece
In his Give Me a Clue section in the i paper, John Henderson also gave a tribute to Rishi.

The late Hindu sage CG Rishikesh, who gave us “Single-minded fellow” for BACHELOR and “TT wear” for DOUBLET, also contributed clues to the collaborative Round Robin puzzles on the excellent Crossword Centre website. Derek Harrison, the site’s founder and curator, offers these examples: “Censure priest failing to give shelter again (6)” and “Furious about escapes from Syrian city cell (5)”.

Also in a Round Robin, Rishi wrote this nice clue.

More than one spoke of terrible raid around capital of Iraq
***
It is worth noting that John Henderson took over the role of editing the Inquisitor crossword exactly ten years ago, following the death of then editor Mike Laws. He started helping when Mike became ill and was hospitalised. When asked to take over he, apparently, said yes but just for a couple of weeks! He has maintained a high standard and an excellent series. Congratulations, Enigmatist.
***
Will it be possible to have a computer that can solve crosswords? With American-style crosswords the answer is definitely yes. Matt Ginsberg has devised a program that can solve clues and fill grids. In fact, it had a lot of success in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament this year.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56934716

This year the ACPT was an on-line competition. The winner was Tyler Hinman. In the final play-off he completed a perfect grid in 3 minutes! Full results are here.
https://www.acptonline.com/prizes
***
With a new series of Inside No. 9 beginning this month, Steve Pemberton has posted a new Sphinx crossword to give some clues about the series.
https://twitter.com/SP1nightonly/status/1389189205784514561?s=20
***
On the Clue-writing Competition, the May challenge is to write a normal cryptic clue to TOERAG (6). The  competition is open until 29 May.
http://www.andlit.org.uk/cccwc/main.php

The competition for March, a clue to CORNFLAKES, was won by Steve Hicks with this neat anagram and &lit.

Crazy folk near South Carolina?
***
There are now 227 members on the Google mailing list.

If you want to receive newsletters and clue-writing information in your in-box you should sign up to the new Crossword Centre group on Google. You can join this group at https://groups.google.com/g/crosswordcentre

Crossword News will, as usual, be available on the Crossword Centre http://www.crossword.org.uk/newsletter.html and on the blog https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/

Best wishes

Derek

Solutions to Rishi’s clues
RE-ROOF reproof minus P
ASCUS Damascus minus MAD reversed
RADII anagram RAID + I(raq)

Solution to Round Robin XIII

 Solution to Round Robin XIII

The theme of Round Robin XIII is prime ministers of the UK and celebrates 300 years since ROBERT WALPOLE became the first in April 1721. (300 appears in larger print in the title.) The letters given in the preamble had to replace letters in the grid to form ROBERT WALPOLE and the surnames of 11 other PMs. As a hint, circled letters in the grid can be arranged to form a 13th – DISRAELI.