Preamble
A partition surrounds exactly one-third of the grid whose cells
contain letters up to and including a certain letter alphabetically. Clues to the 24 solutions which do not cross
the partition yield an extra letter in their wordplay. When read in clue order these letters suggest
the depiction of the partitioned area in the final grid which solvers must identify
and colour appropriately.
Solution
Extra letters in wordplay to the 24 clues which do not cross the
partition spell “A SIGN DISPLAYED ON A VEHICLE”. The partition forms a large letter ‘L’
covering 48 of the 144 cells, which should be coloured RED to illustrate an
L-Plate.
Solver feedback:
"Inquisitor 1603 Partition by Eclogue
Hi Eclogue,
I enjoyed your puzzle in the i this weekend. After a few reads through the preamble I had a
couple of ideas of how the theme would develop, and L was one of them. A little story.
One of my jobs is teaching chess to school children, and I have a particular
way of teaching “the 4 move checkmate.” This is popularly known as “Scholar’s Mate,” but the trouble is that
the word “scholar” has changed its meaning significantly since that was coined.
Nowadays to the target audience it has connotations of “a clever person”
instead of meaning a “school child” and so I explain it differently. I draw a
big red L inside a square on the whiteboard and ask the children what it is.
Usually at least one of them knows. I then explain that 35 years ago I was
really proud to have an L-plate on my car, but I would feel very silly if I did
so now. And the “L-Plate Mate” is
just like that: something to learn as a beginner, but move on from as you
become a more experienced player. The End (of first chapter – the second
chapter is “Harry Potter and the Deadly
Diagonal” but that’s not relevant here!)
I liked the device that you used for identifying the
“partitioned area” and the fact that it only had up to letter L inclusive. The
purist in me wanted to see an H and a J too, but it wasn’t necessary, of course,
and the extra constraint may have led to a worse grid with lower average entry
length. I noticed that my favourite clues were all acrosses and mostly early
ones at that. I loved 14 “Bride, teased about start of union, reddened” and
noted 17, 19 and 35 as of note too. I nearly entered an unfortunate Malapropism
at 1A (“ROMPER ROOMS” does not have quite the same meaning it seems!)"
