The Undertones? by Schadenfreude

Gareth Rees, 2010-04-07

Clashing lines: CAM 59 crossword.

CAM 59 Crossword: The Undertones? by Schadenfreude (Lent 2010)

Cambridge Alumni Magazine is a glossy publication sent out three times a year to alumni of Cambridge University in an effort to drum up donations. Recently it’s been publishing a thematic crossword, similar in difficulty and variety to the Listener crossword, and set by experienced Listener setters. It ought to be known a bit more widely among thematic crossword enthusiasts, since it’s published on the web. Indeed, if you want to have a go at Schadenfreude’s puzzle, then avert your eyes from the spoilers below, get a copy of CAM 59, and turn to page 48.

The preamble said, “Overcrowded cells are to be replaced by a single letter (A to L), corresponding to one of the thematic elements which lack a common definition.” There were twelve lettered clues lacking definitions, and clue K, “Our quiet society is corrupt,” was clearly an anagram of OUR QUIET S and yielded TURQUOISE. Several other colours emerged, but this shed no further light on the theme.

There were twenty-four clues whose enumeration exceeded the entry length. The first one I solved was 39a TILT HAMMER, which had to fit into a five-letter entry. Clearly HAMMER had to be replaced by a letter corresponding to a colour. The word YELLOWHAMMER suggested itself: perhaps the theme was simply words or phrases containing colours? I pencilled in ‘L’ for YELLOW tentatively.

The next thematic clue I got was DILLY BAG, which had to fit into a four-letter entry, so five letters had to be replaced. But what colour goes with DILLY? Perhaps GREEN, as in the song, “Lavender’s green, dilly dilly”. But this seemed very implausible.

Then I got JUBILANCE, with four letters to be replaced, and a crossing L indicated that it had to be JUBI. And the crossing entry was AGLEE, with three letters to be replaced. Well, you can have a GOLDEN or SILVER JUBILEE, but none of the colours were GOLDEN (or GOLD) or SILVER.

Then the penny dropped (I’m sure you’re all ahead of me here). The London Underground has a JUBILEE Line, and that’s coloured GREY. HAMMER must be part of HAMMERSMITH (& City Line), which is PINK. And DILLY must be part of PICCADILLY, which is BLUE. And so on for the other London Underground lines: each appeared in a clashing cell, and was to be replaced by the letter of the clue whose answer was the colour of that line as it appears on Underground maps and signage.

There were a couple of further notes in the preamble. “An ongoing change to the underlying theme had altered the status of one item, but its thematic link remains valid.” This referred to the former EAST LONDON line, which was closed in 2007 for reconstruction as part of the London Overground network.

“Five characters which follow two thematic items have been ignored but are given by single extra words in the clues to four normally entered answers.” The five characters must be those in & CITY which follows HAMMERSMITH and WATERLOO. But where were the extra words? I found an extra “city” in 11d, but nothing else in the “normally entered answers” stood out as superfluous. There was an extra “and” in 49a, but that was a thematic entry. So this part of the puzzle didn’t work for me. (Also it seemed unnecessary, since it didn’t contribute anything to the grid.)

There was one clue I didn’t understand. 26a “Cases before a censor” is CATO (all letters checked, so no doubt), but how does the wordplay work?

Here are explanations of all the thematic clues.