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Crossword 13 of 16 in List
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Title Mixed Doubles
Setter Shackleton
Series The Listener
Number 4339
Date 28/03/2015
Grid 13×13 carte blanche except for three blocked squares on the leading NW–SE diagonal.
Preamble The grid has mirror symmetry about the main diagonal (marked by blocks). Individual clues for the across and down entry of each symmetrically located pair are presented in tandem (across always preceding down). Clue numbers give the horizontal/vertical distance of the entries' starting cells from the main diagonal; clues with the same number are listed in order of their across entries (top to bottom). In standard across order, the last letters of across clues spell out an instruction and first letters of the corresponding down clues give a phrase from a song. Each of four individual clues contains an extra word that must be removed before solving; the answers to these clues must be entered, in part, symbolically (numbers in brackets are entry lengths). Guided by these extra words, straight lines or circles must be drawn through six elements from the song (one less specific, one arguably more apposite than the original), and the phrase must be rendered by erasing everything except the lines and circles drawn, the symbols entered, and the results of applying the instruction. The Chambers Dictionary (2014) is the primary reference.
Solution Notes
(Hide Solution)		Last letters of across clues spell out fully extend each block N,S,E,W; first letters of down clues give "The animals went in two by two". Circles through ELEPHANT and KANGAROO and lines through ANT/WASP/BEE and BEHE/MOTH form letters for a 2×2 crossword. Definitions for ZO ("hybrid", "cross") and OX ("steer", "buffalo") are extra words in appropriately positioned clues.
KeywordsAGC The animals went in two by two ELEPHANT KANGAROO WASP BEE BEHEMOTH ZO OX fully extend each block
Acknowledgements Preamble and solution notes © 2024 The Times. Reproduced with permission.
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