Listen With Others

A quick check of the Crossword Database shows that Zero has produced some really good puzzles over the last three years. My favourites have been ‘Lay — Out’ with that blasted map of Italy that I made a pig’s ear of; ‘What’s It Going to Be’, an EV puzzle that combined the mechanics of a FRUIT MACHINE with A CLOCKWORK ORANGE; and ‘Proceedings’ an Inquisitor that was based on the Carry On films and included OOOOOOH MATRON hidden in the grid requiring highlighting. ‘Elitism’ looked as though it was also going to require some jiggery-pokery in its last step, and fear of failure loomed large in my head (as it does most weeks).

So, on to the clues: a mixture of omitted letters in the wordplay and extra words in the clues … no indication as to which was which of course. Oh, and some normal ones as well for good measure. A quick scan through all the clues resulted in a grid with about half a dozen words in it. This is going to be tough, methought. I’m not sure exactly how long it took me to finish the diagram, but it was significantly longer than the 90 minutes or so that Enigmatic Variations seems to be taking these days (thankfully, otherwise I’d have bars before my eyes).

Suffice to say, some great surface readings, especially the four involved in a bedroom romp and surfing the net once all the sex has been removed. Real novelty in some of the clueing as well, such as decreasing amounts of ‘when nutruition’s available’ to give WHENUA, a Maori word for land.

A short detour here, aimed primarily at novice solvers. It’s something I’ve only started doing in the last year or so, but a short note to the setter enclosed with a puzzle is much appreciated. I think both positive and negative reactions are accepted. John Green forwards them all, but please put your name and address at the top, otherwise John does it for you, and he has enough on his plate. Many setters reply individually to such comments … an added bonus. While I don’t do this every week, I try and make a point if I have time, and especially if a puzzle has been particularly satisfying.

So back to Elitism. And with the grid finished, the omitted letters from each across clue in order gave MAEECECRMDER with another nine meaningless letters in the downs. But then that’s not what we were asked to do. It was the letters involved, so doing a quick highlight of them in the grid revealed only fourteen actually involved, top to bottom: MAEEECLECRMDER (if only I’d done it left to right I’d have saved 20 minutes). Nothing sprang to mind, and the thought of another latin phrase began to worry me. Eventually, however, all those Es began to fall into place, and CREME DE LA CREME finally popped into view.

And, of course, cream rises to the top. Two options here: all the letters in the column rotate round to put the phrase in the top line, or each of the letters moves to the top with the others falling like sand in an houglass thus filling the empty cell. Sometimes (I’m sure it’s masochism) I do what I think is the wrong one first: so I did a couple of diagrams before getting the correct grid with THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE in rows 5 and 8. A bit further down there was BRIGHT AS THE SEA, whatever that may mean. And there’s still those extra words to explain.

Although I knew I now had all the elements for a correct solution, it’s always a good idea to understand everything, and this took a bit of time. So who wrote the book? Muriel Spark, and Chambers list of first names gave the meaning of Muriel as ‘bright as the sea’, and all the extra words are definitions of ‘spark’. Finally, the end of chapter 1: ‘”If only you small girls would listen to me I would make of you the crème de la crème”‘.

An excellent workout from a setter whose puzzles you can really look forward to.