EV 973 Shade by Samuel

[dr b]

For the second week running I found the EV tougher than the Listener! Having the extra letters in the wordplay rather than the clue makes them harder to spot. I got the quote about 2/3 of the way through and worked backwards the rest of the way.

Very clever puzzle - BUT: Are there not 34 extra letters, leaving 10 "further" clues and one normal clue? That threw me for a while. Also, I can't claim I completely understand 7d and where the extra letter comes in.

[turnerjmw]

Hi dr b, I'm not sure if it was tougher than the Listener, but certainly a similar standard. Much easier when one has the quote.

Typically well done by Samuel, BUT: I agree that there are 34 extra letters, so it does seem a slight structural weakness to have just a single nomal clue. Strange how many of the letters in the source of the quote appear on the left hand side. Possibly an attempt to hide him had to be abandoned.

I thought 7dn was fine, using a variant spelling of a Dutch word meaning My Lord, extended to mean an Afrikaaner. The normal spelling is in Bradford's under Lord and Afrikaans

[dr b]

OK, 7d makes sense now. Shame on me for not knowing my variant Dutch spellings!

[TheBear69]

Well, I do not understand 7d...I can only find one word that fits the pattern I've inferred from the crossing entries but I do not see it defined in the clue.

[dr b]

Bear, I believe the definition (1st 2 words) is sports-related.

[turnerjmw]

Indeed, dr b, and most impressive knowledge from across the pond. Makes up for your woeful Dutch variant spellings!

[TheBear69]

OK, Google confirms that...By the way, in Chambers CD-Rom, when I search (full search) for the Dutch word (the one that IS in Bradford's), the only word it finds is that word itself. I.e. it does not find the variant. But the variant is in there with the definition "n same as XXXXXXX". Annoying...

[AndrewG-S]

Good fun this week, thought it was a similar level to L. drb well done on getting 7dn - you must follow English sport just to help you with the crossword. Thanks Samuel.

[dr b]

While I would love to claim a comprehensive knowledge of British sportsmen through the ages ("Fun fact: William Pitt the Elder was a wicked spin bowler"), I'm afraid it was the Wiki's disambiguation page that did it for me.

[Christiana]

Hello all. Funny how we all vary. I finished last week's EV Saturday night, after struggling all week, and started this week's late Sunday, finishing just now. Was also thrown by the 34 'extra letter' clues leaving just one 'normal' one. I was convinced for a while that there were 6 and 5, rather than 5 and 5 'further ' clues. Overall I enjoyed it but thought it was much easier than last week's offering.

[kayakamina]

I was late getting started this week - too much tennis to follow, and then spent too long on 25d looking up Kingsley & Martin Amis!

An enjoyable offering from Samuel, and to me not as difficult as his Listener.

[turast]

Strange how the presence of that one normal clue, which I didn't twig until right at the very end, and only confirmed when I checked in here, seemed to mar the whole thing for me. Up to that point I found it enjoyably challenging and very well constructed. It was very lucky that, when checking one of the key words in the ODQ index, the quotation came so early in a very long list. Ed's word had me baffled for ages.