There are usually one or two points of interest in an Observer barred puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if you would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Gemelo 50 ‘Anagram Act’

This puzzle is available at https://content-api.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/api/mobile/v1/puzzle-data/5cbe834e-63fb-4836-82a7-b6fd228ca2f5/file/puzzle.pdf.

Preamble: Anagram Act • In order to solve each clue, solvers must act to unscramble a word that has been anagrammed; first letters of the de-anagrammed words explain what must fill the unclued entries. I was pleasantly surprised to discover Chambers recognises “anagram” as a verb, but “de-anagram” is yet to make it – the petition starts now.

Please give your own G-rating for this Gemelo puzzle by clicking on the relevant star above, with one star representing a very straightforward solve by your own standards (Gentle) and five stars indicating a seriously tough one (Gnarly). Note that hovering over the ‘graph’ icon will show you the full breakdown of votes for the current puzzle.

Your rating for Gemelo 49, based on 39 votes, was a nice round 2, significantly lower than the 2.6 for G48 and the 2.8 you awarded to G47. I put it a little higher than 2.0 myself, but it certainly wasn’t one of Gemelo’s more challenging excursions.

This puzzle was very nicely constructed. Too often with themed puzzles like this the gimmick appears to have been retrospectively applied to a set of normal clues, such that the surface reading makes very little sense and the modified word is easy to spot. Here the gimmick had clearly been built into the clues when they were initially written. It was a relatively straightforward gimmick to deal with, hence Gemelo didn’t need to make too many concessions in terms of the difficulty of the ‘de-anagrammed’ clues; I will be interested to hear how you rated it for toughness. But wouldn’t it have been an excellent basis for a clue-writing competition, the challenge being to produce a clue in the style of the others to the entry at 21a, perhaps?

After the observations on individual clues I have included a checklist of the words which have been anagrammed in the printed clues.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at the techniques for writing this sort of clue. You might be lucky and find that there is an anagram (as at 32a here) of a word which can form the definition (or part of the definition) of the answer. In only five of the clues in this puzzle is the definition affected, and two of the most useful mechanisms are on display – the distorted qualifier (6d), which could be employed in a definition like ‘Dance in loos’ for HALLING [Oslo], and the definition by example (15d), as in ‘alpines?’ for DOG [spaniel]. In most instances, though, you will be focusing on the wordplay, and here there are also two key ‘tricks’. One is the disguised indicator (often an anagram indicator, largely because there are so many of them), as seen in 27a/20d or in a wordplay such as ‘teacher wary’ for HECTARE [awry]. The other involves a word which leads to an abbreviation, usually a single-letter one, as in 18a or in a wordplay like ‘oceanic fish’ for CLING [cocaine = C]. The important thing is to try not to overuse any one technique, and a review of the clues in this puzzle will show that Gemelo has mixed things up nicely. Note that although the examples here relate specifically to the ‘anagrammed word in clue’ gimmick, similar devices can be employed in clues where, for example, a word in the clue gains or loses a letter, or has one letter replaced by another.

Across

6a Trifle almost covering pistachio’s earth flavour (5)
A five-letter word meaning ‘trifle’ (in practice, both it and ‘trifle’ would be accompanied by ‘with’) missing its last letter (‘almost’) contains (‘covering’) a single letter selected from the word ‘pistachio’.

12a Maybe what is put into empty sandwich case (6)
A four-letter word which roughly equates (‘maybe’) to a de-anagrammed word in the clue is contained by (‘put into’) the outer letters (’empty’) of ‘sandwich’.

13a Select nutriments to go through ground (4)
A double-definition clue where both of the words will be familiar but one of the definitions involves the anagram.

14a Drink affecting head minutes before outburst on midterm projection (10, 2 words)
A three-letter abbreviation for ‘minutes’ and a four-letter word for an outburst or high wind follow (‘on’) a word for a projection, such as a camel would have, which has been deprived of a letter. The answer is (7,3).

18a Nectar consumer shortly dropping Royal Institute for real (6, 2 words)
A seven-letter word meaning ‘shortly’ gives up (‘dropping’) a two-letter abbreviation in favour of (‘for’) a single-letter abbreviation. The answer is (3,3).

24a Having learnt, say, about nitrogen covered in metal (6)
A five-letter word which might describe an animal (Rudolph, perhaps) having a particular sort of appurtenance contains (‘about’) the chemical symbol for nitrogen.

26a Informal thing, being together naked (4)
Here the anagram is in the definition, while the wordplay has a six-letter word meaning ‘being together’ losing its first and last letters (‘naked’).

34a Indifferent beans (groan!) eaten by you once the wrong way (7)
A four-letter word for beans of a particular type plus a single-letter abbreviation (according to Chambers, although it’s surely a symbol), contained (‘eaten’) by an archaic form (‘once’) of ‘you’, is all reversed (‘the wrong way’). The answer is hyphenated, 4-3.

Down

3d Doc suffering, we hear it’ll go down with glasses? (9)
The answer is a homophone (‘we hear’) of a (4,4) phrase which can be established once the necessary de-anagramming has been done.

4d One ton chosen by the people to pin the thing rising sharply (6)
A four-letter word whose indication includes the anagram contains (‘to pin’) a two-letter word for ‘the [very] thing’.

6d Mayor’s so taking to ancient porticos (5)
Rearranging the first word here produces a name which tells us that we are looking for a Scots form of the word ‘so’ to contain (‘taking’) the letters TO (from the clue).

7d Current measure – coteries with outsiders indulge it (3)
A five-letter word for coteries or factions is deprived of (indicated by the de-anagrammed word) its first and last letters (‘outsiders’).

8d Concealing, shortly, no great admiration through small, positive thing (11)
A shortened form (‘shortly’) of a two-letter word that isn’t ‘no’ is followed by a four-letter word for ‘great admiration’ (or a sect) contained by (‘through’) a six-letter word for a positively-charged particle (ie ‘small, positive thing’).

17d Committee’s tedious rule after date on the market? (8)
A five-letter word for a board or committee (a transferred meaning based on what they would be gathered around) contains (the de-anagrammed word) the single-letter abbreviation for ‘rule’ and the two-letter abbreviation for ‘after date’.

20d Apple product is scarier put in a cask with energy (6)
The letters IS (from the clue) contain (the de-anagrammed word) a three-letter word meaning ‘[to] put in a cask’ and the usual abbreviation for ‘energy’. The answer is an example of lower camel case (although it could more generically be described as an InterCap).

25d Earnest presenter promoting last character in group? (5)
A single-letter abbreviation (de-anagramming required) is followed by a four-letter word for a presenter (such as might appear on a chat show) with its last letter moved upwards (‘promoting last’).

(definitions are underlined)

Anagrammed words

Across: 1 – strap; 6 – earth; 11 – den; 12 – what; 13 – nutriments; 14 – midterm; 16 – pool; 18 – real; 24 – learnt; 26 – thing; 27 – ride; 29 – stale; 31 – Ruth; 32 – cowers; 33 – stream; 34 – groan.

Down: 1 – handouts; 2 – lies; 3 – Doc; 4 – ton; 5 – related; 6 – Mayor; 7 – indulge; 8 – no; 9 – Reform; 10 – race; 15 – nod; 17 – tedious; 20 – scarier; 22 – sued; 23 – mocha; 25 – Earnest; 28 – Eton; 30 – item.