Clues and Grid by Shark
Enter the prize draw by 31 October.
The background for this puzzle is a Bernard Spragg photo of a small wooden church surrounded by trees displaying autumn colours.
This puzzle by Shark uses a 7x5x5 grid with a couple of additional cells providing 8-letter rows in the top and bottom layers. It celebrates 100 years since the birth of this 16ba lady, born in 15ba. Her father was involved in 19ac and her assumed surname was 7ac. Her long run ended in the 22ac,24aw-2.
Solvers must locate in the grid what she wrote (6), appearing as a contiguous string of six cells in one layer and intersecting with another thematically relevant clued entry. Contiguous here means that consecutive letters appear in cells meeting at an edge or a corner. Solvers should also take note of 9to and 20aw. The entries at 16ba (7) and 7ac (7) are unclued and must be included with entries along with what she wrote (6).
There is an enormous elephant trap in this puzzle, and being an enormous elephant I jumped in with all four feet. The defining characteristics of the lady in question are deliberately vague and there are two very famous women born in the same month of the same year who fit the description. They differ in the assumed surname 7ac, but it turns out that there are two plausible answers to Days 11 and 12 differing only in the letter in the cell marked 8, and the different choices lead to the different answers to fit in 7ac.
If you have picked the wrong lady then you should find yourself utterly baffled by trying to identify what she wrote (6). On the other hand, if you pick the correct lady then, taking note of 9to and 20aw, the answer should be clear.
Shark has constructed a fiendishly clever puzzle. The friendly setting belies the dark deeds that are regularly taking place. Make sure you detect the correct lady and the solution will follow.
Day 3
Retrograde moon orbiting finally in reverse (5)
Nicely confusing clue given the similarity of retrograde and reverse. It is a classical word for moon that is retrograde and orbiting suggests it is going round another part of the clue. Finally, ‘in’ gives you a single letter to be orbited leaving you with a solution which means reverse. [JP]
Day 6
No need to copy most paltry casket (5)
In terms of money, think of the most paltry (8 letters). Remove the three consecutive letters which suggest copying another person’s movements and you have another word for casket. [GS]
Day 10
Barrier is to include right grid! (5)
The word Barrier here is rather misleading. Not so much a fence or moat but an entrance (to a garden for example, 4 letters). Insert the letter r and we are largely tho’ not exclusively in the world of barbecues. [GS]
Day 11
Man finds edge of lush area … runs next to railway (5)
An apparently straightforward clue: we get one letter each from “edge of lush”, “area” and “runs” and then the final two from “railway”. The answer is a man’s name. But there are two edges to “lush”. Both work equally well. Kane or Olivier? It’s your choice… [NI]
Day 12
Hospital trusts finally accepting whistle-blower’s hunches (5)
… but your answer for Day 12 has to begin with the same letter as your answer for Day 11. You need two letters from “hospital trusts finally” and between them you must insert an abbreviation for a whistle-blower (not the usual one, but another sporting official). But should “finally” apply to both “hospital” and “trusts”, or only to “trusts”? The answer means hunches (in the sense of Quasimodo or Richard III). Depending on your choice you should end up with a word associated with either camels or sugar. There are two pairs of answers to Days 11/12, both equally valid, but leading to different answers to 7ac and hence to different ladies. You must choose the lady for whom “what she wrote (6)” makes sense. [NI]
Day 13
Dames (before classically) raving mad? (7)
I believe this to be an &Lit clue. This is a clever construction which is not divided between wordplay and definition. Instead, the entire clue makes up the wordplay, but the entire clue can also be read as the definition. Raving mad suggests an anagram, but dames does not have enough letters, so we add an abbreviation for the Latin word for “before”. The answer refers to the frenzied female followers of Bacchus. [NI]
Day 17
US prison finds state copper (5)
A three letter abbreviation for prison in the USA followed by the two initials of a state named in two words. Coming back home gives us a unit of money before decimalisation. [GS]
Day 18
Diplomacy cutting impudence in hot topics (8)
The answer may not always be diplomatic perhaps! Cutting in this instance tells you to cut the end off a short word for impudence and put this in an anagram (hot) of topics to give you the solution. [JP]
Day 20
One royal tracking sweet deer (5)
Not a single royal but the royal impersonal pronoun. Not the royal ‘we’ (subject pronoun), but the object pronoun following (tracking) a short informal term for (a) sweet. This will give you types of South American deer (the world’s smallest). [JP]
I am grateful to the other members of the Hints & Tips team: Garry Stripling (Gin) and Jim Pennington (Philostrate).
Happy solving!
Nick Inglis (etc)