The Oldie 268

[crockshard]

Any Geniuses out there?
Complicated one, but in starred clues,' cryptic indications omit reference to parts of the answers to be entered: these parts should be shaded in to reveal the name of the 9 (unclued) who was involved in the 2A 10 16 20 (unclued)...'. I have completed the grid. There are 14 starred clues, and I have 18 letters to play with which were missing from the clues: RAAONGARUNIIIYUGIR. The answer, I know, must be Yuri Gagarin, and Yuri can be spelled IURII. But there are still too many letters (even if only one each from the 14 starred clues). His middle name was Elexeyevich (not useful!). I assume letters from all of the starred clues have to be used.

[bibblebub]

If the O and one of the As were both S then you could get Russian but that is straw-clutching.

[crockshard]

Your face has changed yet again, B!
I am new to this crossword, and the cues are not numbered, but definitely 14 of them are starred. I have two starred clues for which I may have the wrong extra letters which I have included in my 18 to play with:
'Part of brief unusual charity event' (3,3). I have FUN RUN, with the RUN added to my list of spare letters.
'Smear silly nit after drama' (6): I have ANOINT, with ANO as spare letters.
'Russian' is a good straw-clutcher, but the answer required would only appear to be a name, and the pre-amble to the puzzle doesn't say that only some of the letters from the starred clues should be used. Totally foxed!

[bibblebub]

Sorry to have taken so long to get back to you (connection problems at the moment) but for the 2nd one wouldn't just the A be spare since 'silly nit after drama' = no int ? I don't have the crossword to check any of this.

[crockshard]

Sorry also for delay - on the phone!
Okay. So I now have ARUIIIYUR to spell 'Yuri', annd maybe the R & U are redundant from the clue I mentioned above....
P.S. Are you currently Charlie Sheen?

[bibblebub]

Possibly ...brieF UNUsual... would mean that RN are the spare letters but I don't seem to be getting any closer to a proper answer for you.

And yes it is him.

[bellabee]

i think bibblebub is probably right with fun-u- and -noint so maybe you should reassess all of the others - maybe you will end up with just the letters fo yuri gagarin.

[crockshard]

But I need to keep an N for gagariN...!
This is very frustrating, and I may need to put it away for a few days and join my husband in front of the TV with a G&T. Having got this far, I intend to submit it (might win another Chambers dictionary!!!), but have got until 21 April! Any other ideas, please let me know! Just hate to be defeated.
PS 'Genius' refers to The Oldie cryptic crossword, as opposed to the 'Moron' one on the same page.

[crockshard]

Bellabee, thanks for your response.
My main problem is that there are 14 asterisked clues which contain the letters needed for the 'name' required. It needs to be Yuri Gagarin, with an alternative spelling (unless something was left out of the pre-amble for the puzzle). I am pretty certain that the letters I have are correct, apart from in the 2 clues I mentioned earlier. There must be another spelling for Yury that I can't find, or thhhe pre-amble to the puzzle was incomplete.

[bellabee]

there is just a possibility that you could make an n somewhere else - but maybe you are 100% on those....just a suggestion, i don't do that crossword myself. [or the other one]

[crockshard]

Bellabee - I am 100% on RGAIIIYUGIR as some spare letters. Another asterisked clue is 'Nothing on reflection protecting east of range'. ANDEAN is the answer (and it fits in the grid), and I have N as the spare letter (using E(ast) + NADA (=nothing).
None of the clues are numbered in this puzzle - you have to do the answers first, then juggle them into the grid.

[bellabee]

yes crockshard that clue minus n seems perfect - if only you could lose an i and swap the other i for a ........... it's so close!

[crockshard]

Eureka! It suddenly all makes sense when you physically shade-in the extra letters: some of the letters overlap in the words inserted in the grid, reducing the letters to the 11 required for the cosmonaut!

[bellabee]

great - well worth the effort i'll bet!

[crockshard]

Whew! I hate to be defeated! And thanks for all your (and Bibblebub's) time!