Plain Speaking

Submitted to 1 Across, 30/11/19

Clues are listed in alphabetical order of their solutions and should be fitted into the grid where they will go.  The perimeter forms a quotation which the unclued entry completes.

Solution Grid

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple” – Oscar Wilde from The Importance of Being Earnest

Solver's Comments:

The number on the left is the mark (out of ten) given and the Rman numerals represent the number of solvers giving that mark.

7 II

7.5 I 

8 IIIII

8.6 I

9 III

 

ROUSE - It reminded me of our love for both rose and red wine! [Er… that’d be ROUGE]

ROQUET Lovely surface and it fold me as it can’t be an anagram with a Q in it. 

OXER

IRRITANT - it kept me guessing. I had to look up TIRR to check its meaning. 

ROUGE - The last one I did! Good way of getting rid of the S. A neat, clever clue. 

RASCALLION - economical and not easy to spot definition. Clues not that special in general. 

OXER II - taught us a new Scottish word / Because Hamish is in it! [blush] 

REPACKAGES - just because of ACKERS for money

TARP - Liked the surface and wordplay

KRUSCHEV - nicely constructed. Clue made sense and flowed nicely as well as providing aclear answer. 

JEREMIAD - Taught me a new word 

UMPIRE - love a cricket ref. 

 

Enjoyed this puzzle but not sure about one of the answers. [They don’t say which one!]

 

A difficult grid to fill. I had six of the eight 10 letter solutions and struggled to get started. Finally realised one of them was incorrect and got going. Once the circumference was solved most of the others fell into place. Several new words - ANOA and OYER and a few I haven’t fully parsed. A good enjoyable struggle. Also enjoyed the clues for KHRUSCHEV, GAUZE and HOARSENESS. Many thanks. 

 

Really enjoyed this and found the quotation quite quickly which always helps solve some of the more taxing clues. A good mix of challenge and enjoyment. There were a couple of clues which I’m not sure about - 24/25d - but hope I got them right. [Yes]

 

Some v clever clueing. Not too difficult and fun to do. Thank you. 

 

Very approachable nicest clues. Took a couple of hours - neither wasting a week, nor leaving you feeling ‘so what - a good balance for a competition. The two J clues gave the start - one 4 letter could only fit there (alpha order being a useful aid) and then when 5 10-letter ones had been solved they could be put in asa. Working hypothesis. And Robert’s your pawnbroker. 

 

We hadn’t solved for long before we realised that Eclogue was filling a pangrammatic grid. However, unlike some of those, it didn’t lead to an overdose of obscure words though OXER was the last one we ’Scots’ entered.

 

I thought this was a well-constructed puzzle with lots of good taut clues.  My only serious reservation is that there is overly much reliance on unfamiliar Scots words.  Where uncommon words appear in the grid the wordplay needs to lead relatively straightforwardly to the answer (which can then be checked in Chambers - and it would have been appropriate here for the rubric to have referred to the advisability of using Chambers) if the clue is to be fair to the solver.  In the case of 25D (SYKE) the wordplay relies on an unfamiliar word used by Spenser, and the clue was, for me at least, impossible to solve without guesswork and the Chambers app wordsearch facility, and in the case of 24D (OXER), the wordplay uses another Scots word.  A couple of minor points: (a) in the clue for 18A (ROUGE), I think UGH is an expression of loathing rather than a feeling of it, (b) in the clue for 8A (TOUR), clueing OU by reference to an unfamiliar word, and encasing it in an IVR for a country whose car identification plates are rarely seen in the UK is, I think, pushing things a bit in a jigsaw-type puzzle where most of the clues have to be solved in the absence of checked letters.  I thought the clue for 13D (KRUSHCHEV) was admirable - not a word I'd like to tackle myself - and it was good that the quotation was sufficiently well known for it to be readily guessable after about half the answers had been entered in the grid.  Thank you, Eclogue.

 

 

Good puzzle

 

 

A nicely constructed puzzle made slightly easier by the quotation. I was unsure about OXER, which Chambers describes as a fence, being the ‘check’ required but it fitted well with OXTER without the T for time. I’m always impressed when setters manage to include the whole alphabet and only the small number of obscure words stopped this being 10/10.

 

Took quite a long time to put any answers in the grid so getting the quote was difficult. Some odd words (roquet, syke), but all in all good fun. 

 

HURRAH I FINISHED ONE. Must have been easy if I did it. 

 

 

Sixes and Sevens III

Appeared in the June 2020 issue Crossword Club magazine as the First Puzzle.

Eight otherwise unconnected lights are unclued.  Eight extra words in clues provide anagrams of words connected one way or another by a six-letter word.  Their number and the connection, when considered with the words of the title allude to which and how many adjacent cells solvers must highlight (the start point of which is also thematic). 

 

Solution Grid

The EIGHT extra words anagram to words meaning or connected to SQUARE, indicating the form of the EIGHT cells to be highlighted, spelling DISORDER clockwise from cell 36 (being six-SQUAREd), linking back to (at) SIXES AND SEVENS.

(4 x 6) LASHER = ASHLER, LANOSE = SLOANE, RISQUE = SQUIER/SQUIRE, CREDIT = DIRECT,

(4 x 7) ASSUAGE = SAUSAGE, EXTINES = SIXTEEN, PREFECT = PERFECT, HOOTERS = SHOOTER

Solvers' comments

“I can’t see the significance of the unclued lights.” 

“Made rather easy to solve by the very open grid. Difficult for the compiler.” 

“Amazingly few bar lines! Not too difficult.” 

“An enjoyable puzzle The gridfill was easier than I expected, mainly because of the generous amount of checkability. The endgame was much harder. First I had to hunt through the clues for extra words previously unnoticed. I found more than eight words which seemed to me to be unnecessary for the clues to wor . This can be a pain with extra words. Then some had more than one anagram. Eventually it occurred to me that some of them had a more or less vague connection with the word SQUARE, and after a frit amount of grid-staring spotted DISORDER. Many thanks.” 

“You can’t get a more traditional square crossword than this. Squares everywhere, in the diagram and the clues. Even unclued lights are squared. Very clever to have ‘disorder’ start on a square — and of 6 too! Four (another square!) sets of challenges to complete and very satisfying to complete. Than you, Eclogue.” 

“We found this an interesting and enjoyable challenge. It was very impressive to fill the grid solely with 6– or 7-letter words. We didn’t manage to ma e all the connections and loo forward to seeing the solution to fill in the gaps.” 

“Quite a feat of construction. 13 × 13 free of unches offering some new words/ meanings but strangely, fairly easy to solve — than goodness!” “For a long time I had DILUTED, but it suddenly came together. I never got more than seven ‘extra’ words, and oddly enough it was ASHLER that made me think of SQUARE. I’m not entirely sure what the rest of the preamble is on about, but there are eight cells in a square around the bloc in the middle that spell DISORDER from 36, which is six– and seven-y enough.” 

“A fairly straightforward solve, although I don’t thin it is necessary to identify the six-letter word. Even so, the highlighted word doesn’t take much spotting.” 

“One of those you just plod through. Couldn’t see the point of the unclued lights and didn’t feel inclined to search 

very hard. A bit square!” 

“It must be difficult to create an entirely unchless grid, but I am at a loss to understand why that method was chosen here and what it achieved. Is there some significance to the four cells in unclued entries? EIGHT-SQUARE in Chambers suggests we should be expecting an octagon: does a square with internal as well as external sides count? To cap it all, I’ve no idea what the connection to SQUARE is in 36dn.” 

“If highlighting DISORDER is all that is required the preamble is a very convoluted way of telling us to do that.” 

“All round excellent. I claim that I have solved all the intricate niceties — although I’m not sure why I bothered since I don’t seem to have to demonstrate it! Should we not at least have had to write the word SQUARE under the finished grid? And why unclued lights if (as appears to be the case) they are indeed unconnected?! Many lovely and witty clues.” 

“I have the solution, but am not totally confident of the path to it. What is the function of the unclued entries!” 

“Don’t see 4D, 6D and 10D. Cross checks say there are right but never happy when I can’t see why.” 

“Enjoyable puzzle but not clear why there are unclued lights. Spotted DISORDER before the connection of the anagrams of SQUARE.”