Sequence 6

Another in our Sequence series for 1 Across magazine, it appeared in the October 2020 edition of the magazine as Crossword No. 1989: Sequence 6 by Eclogue.  It was introduced by the rubric:

Unclued lights provide the names of all of the holders of an office to be deduced.  Most clues contain an extraneous word, to be removed before solving.  The initial letters of these words, read in clue order, provide some help for solvers.

Solution Grid

The unclued lights are the names of all holders of the post of United Nations Secretary General, starting with the earliest: Trygve LIE, Dag HAMMARSKJOLD, U THANT, Kurt WALDHEIM, Javier Perez DE CUELLAR, Boutros BOUTROS-GHALI, Kofi ANNAN, Ban KI-MOON and currently Antonio GUTERRES.

Feedback

Disappointing. Worked out theme quicly and got all secretary generals placed. Still can’t solve 7a, 11a, 15a, 9d. Seem very obscure.

 Very good.

 Enjoyable. I think it was Waldheim which set me on the right track. Did have to check out the various UN Sec Gens and how to spell them.

 However, Eclogue’s puzzle was filled with obscure words that meant we needed to guess and then use a dictionary lots of times which was not so enjoyable.  There also appeared to be many surplus words in the clues which may have been a clever addition but, if so, went way above our heads.  The UN Secretary General theme was not too difficult to discover and we did eventually finish, we think.

 Eclogue defeated us but we managed just over 90% (no recount allowed) of the answers, including all the UN leaders.  It appeared there were superfluous words in many of the clues but we couldn’t work out the connection or reason for omission and nothing in the rubric to help.  Kudos for getting HAMMARSKJOLD into a puzzle.

 To be honest, I didn’t get on well with Eclogue although I did get the theme and the names quite early on. I couldn’t parse a lot of them so will look forward to the answers. Some clues seemed to have unnecessary words in them to me - 13, 39, 42 Across and 4, 10, 23 Down. There were also more unknown words for me than I am happy with - I don’t mind a few!

 They have set themselves a stupendous construction task: getting those long foreign names in and still filling the grid is amazing. I regularly try to compose clever thematic barred puzzles, and almost always give up. The odd obscurity is inevitable, but what is Chambers there for? I did it in a couple of hours (Mrs K/C was out and it was dark, so I just bashed right on) and enjoyed it. Lots of work for that organisation over the next fifty years: I hope they are supported in all the right places.

 An impressive feat to accommodate this set of names in the grid! The trend seems to be towards more sparing information above the puzzle, which I for one appreciate. The more obscure entries were unambiguously clued. Artfully constructed for a pleasing solve.