Head to Head

Published in Crossword Club Magazine issue 210, October 2020.

Preamble

All solutions are of six letters.  Counting the rings from outmost inwards, the second ring provides a quotation (in ODQ) between two protagonists going head-to-head in ring four.  Half of the radial entries are entered inwards, half outwards.  Chambers does not include two proper nouns.

Ring 2 reads “I hae brocht ye to the ring, now see gif ye can dance” spoken by William Wallace to Edward I (who go ‘head-to-head’ in ring 4) before the Battle of Falkirk in 1298.

Battle of Falkirk 1298

Solvers' Comments

"Och ay, we can dance! - and we enjoyed the dancing.  The quote eluded us until we had almost completed the ring.  Well-crafted clues made this a pleasure to solve."

"Not having the ODQ7 I found it difficult to find the corrrect spelling of the Scots version of the quote.  Still enjoyable."

"Circulars are always welcome visitors.  Some easy starters gave a false sense of security until the difficult clues set, along with (for me) an inaccessible Burns' quote - despite a broad Scottish son-in-law.  The head to head was a neat touch."

"Quite a quick start, with Braveheart revealing himself early.  Progress was then much slower as I don't have the right ODQ.  Googled it when BROCHT appeared.  Quite slow solving after that, with tricky clues and obscure (to me) answers in the top left.  Never heard of 'garden woman'.  Then quarrelled with CYPRIS sounding like CYPRESS - the last answer to go in.

An enjoyable puzzle for which I thank you."

"A very entertaining and satisfying puzzle.  Many straightforward clues to get us  going, then some impossible-looking combinations of letters till the name Wallace appeared!  I had a struggle with some radials at the end but I think I cracked them all eventually.  Many thanks."

"An entertaining quotation, thanks."

"For a 'first' puzzle this was pretty straightforward, the only hold up was confirming the Scots dialect quotation.

Thanks for a neatly constructed puzzle."

"Not Eclogue's best.  No PD moment - just a search to find the archaic Scots quotation.  Very friendly clueing."

"Am I getting better or are they getting easier?!  This was enjoyable, aided by a relatively swift spotting of Wallace and knowledge of Scots dialect.

Initially snooty about 19, I forgave it on the basis that the two words have totally different etymologies.

I'm embarrassed at how long it took me to work out how 22 worked!"

"The quotation took some digging out, but that made it more of a challenge.

Many thanks."

"Good one.  All dropped into place once quotation identified - except for clue 40, which took too long."

Eclogue's response

Many thanks to all solvers who passed comment with the vast majority offering a single malt rather than sharpening their skean-dhu.  The observant solver will have noticed the presence of the word “ring” in the quote which led to the circular treatment of this puzzle. By 1298, King Edward was the only monarch of that name, of course, so we latched onto this small piece of historical licence by omitting his regnal number in the grid, allowing everything to fit rather neatly.  For Club puzzles, we will always try to offer a book reference where possible (here ODQ7), so while Eclogue have access to a couple of ODQ editions, the quotation (which may well appear in other editions too) was equally supported through the usual internet sources.  Are we getting easier?  This charge has been levelled at us on a couple of recent occasions, but we’d like to think that we can provide puzzles across the spectrum of solving abilities and hope that every solver picking up an Eclogue crossword will find something to interest or challenge them.  Haste ye back (as they apparently say north of the border).