EV 996 Medium Rare by Jaques

[dr b]

Nice puzzle, certainly an impressive grid construction. It took a while for the penny to drop, so for a while I was baffled by answers that seemed right but didn't seem to fit! Finally getting the message of the extra letters helped.

Cold cold rain rain here in StL; good thing there's plenty of football on TV.

[kayakamina]

I agree dr b a very clever construction. Oddly enough Jaques is the least favourite setter of one of our fellow posters.

We have Pittsburg/Cincinnati at 5.30 here, where it's also raining!

[DocHH]

Hello dr b,
I also took a while finding the method of adjustment to the normal clues. I wrote them in and all of a sudden spotted what they had in common, but I did have the last 8 superflous letters! Easy going after that.

Coolish here, but quite mild compared to this time last year.

[novalis]

Agree with the comments so far. The superfluous letters towards the end certainly help. This reminded of a novel by H.G.Wells. Noticed that I've managed a prize on a recent Spectator crossword and just hope I remembered to circle "dictionary" as the latest edition of CHambers would come in hany.

[DocHH]

Congratulations Novalis on your Speccie win! Surely the prize money will cover the cost of purchasing a new BRB! I'm operating on the Ninth Edition, issued in 2003! The most up to date version might prove beneficial.
How's the marking moderation these days?

[pjwillcox]

Congrats to Novalis, but afraid to say that the £20 when it arrives from the Speccy (which takes ages) doesn't quite run to a new BRB (RRP £40, but abt £25 on Amazon), altho it was enough to persuade me to splash out. The nice thing is that with my newly-arrived cheque (for a puzzle from early September) was a note asking for bank details as "in future we would like to pay you by BACS into your account". I hope their expectation of my future success is justified!

[AndrewG-S]

Many congratulations Novalis. Yes this was certainly a puzzle where the entry method needed to be spotted. Thankfully with a few easyish clues for the "normal" ones a bit of staring yielded the required action and all fell into place. Impressive construction, particularly being left with words in BRB, makes you wonder how many words fit this category and how you go about finding them- beyond my capabillity I am afraid.

[slaney]

Well done Novalis on winning the Spectator.

I got a new Chambers last week, but have gone back to using the 11th Edition.
What are solvers (and setters) going to do without the first Appendix?!

Agree with everyone - excellent construction in this EV.

[kayakamina]

Only just become aware of your success Novalis - very well done.

[novalis]

Thanks everyone for your kind comments.