EV 946 Message by Rustic

[dr b]

Good afternoon all. This was certainly a nice challenge. The theme was not surprising but getting to the message took a bit of work - double clues and missing letters! I don't understand the wordplay on 13d and got hung up for a bit by placing the 5d/28d combo in the wrong cells. But I endorse the message and wish it for all the N&Cers.

Merry Christmas everyone!

[turnerjmw]

Afternoon, dr b. I also thought this was much trickier than normal. I think 13dn is an anagram (i.e. preposterous) of a four letter word for skin. But I'm baffled by 18ac, as the footballer is spelt differently, there's no homophone indicator in the clue, and why there is a Z with a hacek above it rather than an e eludes me. Heigh ho. Season's greetings one and all!

[slaney]

And a Merry Christmas to all from me too!

Some tough cluing in this EV, and I was glad of the help afforded by guessing the message.
I presumed that the last word of 18a was a misprint for "eclair". and there is a much earlier footballer with a similar name - not that I'd ever heard of him.

[AndrewG-S]

Seasons greetings one and all!! Yes a challenging but fun offering this week with a few dodgy moments I fear. Helped to guess the bulk of the message fairly quickly. Is there an EV next week or will we have a break until the New Year?

[turnerjmw]

Good spot, slaney. It must be referring to Harry, who played for England over 100 years ago, not the other one. The things one is expected to know!

[Jogler]

Good news; we were allowed to make lots and lots of new friends on the M1 last night. What jolly fun we had... It allowed us to discover a new (to us) hotel not far from Junction 13 and we were persuaded to leave all the festivities and enjoy a large glass of wine and a comfy bed.

We have now reached our destination and unfrozen the BRB. Looking forward to tackling this, and the Listener, in due course.

[dr b]

I agree with slaney - I eventually came around to assuming the funny Z should be an e. I was not hampered by prior knowledge of any footballers at all, so I just Googled the presumed answer and got right to Harry (and a few others).

[turnerjmw]

Ignorance is bliss, dr b. It would be nice to think that Harry was getting long overdue recognition in EV, but I fear it's just a blunder. This spelling should have been clued as an Oxford college. There is a homophonous player who is now a well-known BBC anchorman. Reached his half-century last month, and famous for never being booked or sent off in his career. I hesitate to say this to one from across the pond, but solvers might reasonably have be expected to have heard of him. As famous as Joe Montana or John Elway in the other form of the game.

[AndrewG-S]

Even I (as a football heathen) have heard of the latter, but I have never heard of the former.

[dr b]

I had heard of the BBC guy, vaguely. To be fair, when I Googled "footballer (grid answer)" Google came back with "Did you mean 'footballer (BBC guy)' "? So even Google knows who he is. But if you were to ask an average American to name 3 soccer players, you'd get Pele, Beckham and a blank stare. So perhaps he's as famous over here as Phil Simms would be over there.

[trux]

Enjoyable, neatly constructed and not too taxing (some clues perhaps more so than usual EV fare) with a very guessable message which is "heartily reciprocated" (as my Grannie used to say) to all EV & AB addicts

[copelander]

Christmas greetings to all..very white and snowy here in N.I..Agree with all the comments about 18a, and still stuck on 1D, but a good crossword.

[dr b]

copelander, the sea is the one found in Central Asia and many crossword puzzles; since you probably have the first letter of the message, Chambers Word Wizard can do the required anagramming. You will then discover that the answer is an alternate spelling of an obscure word! So, 1d was my last in as well.

[copelander]

Thanks, DrB, all clear now!

[ulysses100]

A bit fiddly this one, but managed to get there in the end. My only problem is that the extra letter in 10a which is an "i" does not match with the "t" as the letter in the message ; one with which I agree and look forward to more EVs in 2011

[turnerjmw]

Hi ulysses100, I had LY(T)IC for 10ac, with CI and LY being the skin (outer letters) of Cicely "injured", i.e. anagrammed, and the T extra.

[serpentinew]

Turnerjmw - your version of the clue is different to mine (website) "injuring cicely's skin cusing breakdown" - is yours the printed copy?

[ulysses100]

Thanks turnerjmw. My reading of it was that lysis was hidden within the the two words with the "i" missing resulting in the noun "breakdown" rather than the adjectival "lytic". meaning causing breakdown.

[novalis]

Not had chance to look at EVs ( or, for that mattter, many crosswords ) recently but I'm just popping in to wish all EVers the sort of Christmas you would wish for yourselves no matter what you are doing or what your favourite tipples are.

[bobbycollins]

Glad That I persevered with this - very satisfying in the end.

I would suggest that the incorrect soccer spelling was down to sloppiness.

Regards to all

[copelander]

Happy Christmas to all EVers!