Ev 1440

[hankir]

Normal clue or wordplay missing one letter or misprint in def. Plus clashes.

6. Little dog starts to urinate regularly on pitmen’s tree (8)

16 Surrendering old criminal career in North Carolina? On the contrary (9)

20. 0 Having tenth of rubbish dumped into valley (7)

26. Jock’s nap hampers revolutionary plan to catch fish, say, in port (8)

Thanks.

[novalis]

6 - Three letter shortened form of a dog breed + UR + miners' union
16 - anagram of career NC + unclued letter
20 - Misprint in tenth
26 - The answer is the Belgian name of a port and there is an unclued letter.

[hankir]

Thanks novalis.
Had the misprint in 20. Still not sure what word for rot.
It may be a saw with teeth. Looks like 2 or 3 clashes.

[novalis]

Tat in a word for valley

[ProfessorMaisie]

'Rubbish' is 'tat' this time, hankir.

[hankir]

Thanks novalis and ProfessorM.

I had the word and did not parse it properly.

A long way to go.

[novalis]

The Enigmatic Variations is to be discontinued from August. Please contact the Telegraph to ask for this decision to be reversed.

[Neveracrossword]

There was a thread - on the ending of EV - started yesterday morning.

[novalis]

Thanks Neveracrossword. I find it a shocking decision and I just hope that the Telegraph will reconsider.

[Neveracrossword]

Thanks, Novalis. The thread yesterday was titled 'Ev To End' and there's a little bit more information on there. (I don't do links, sorry!) Yes, it'll be a shame to lose what is a mostly excellent puzzle.

[dannyk13]

Nac, must have been well below the crossword.I just loaded it but it was not visible.Was any reason given?

[Neveracrossword]

No, Danny, I don't think any reason was given. Roslyn provided the information from a notice she'd seen in the Crossword Centre's newsletter.

[Mamyalynne]

Mentioned on here.

https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/


I did read that it only gets one tenth of the entries of other puzzles, that may be a reason but sad for devotees.

[dannyk13]

OK, thanks.

[novalis]

Apparently they get only about 10% of the entries for this than they do for the other crosswords. To me that is spurious because by its very nature that is bound to be the case.

[Neveracrossword]

Mamya, thanks for that. I don't know how 'niche' the thematic puzzles are, but some obviously flourish more than others, attract more solvers than others.

[novalis]

Thanks for the link Mamya.

[Mamyalynne]

I don't do thematics but I know they have their fans and it's always a shame when a favourite gets ditched - get campaigning and good luck.

[dannyk13]

Unfortunately when the Telegraph had a reorganisation, a few months ago, I lost my contact there who would have been able to throw some light on the,matter.At the moment, due to Covid19, the phones are not being manned and they take ages in answering e-mails.

[dannyk13]

Don't know if it will do any good but I have E-mailed the Telegraph re this.Will post any reply that I get.

[novalis]

I intend emailing as well and could be tempted to follow it up via snail mail.. As you say Danny the current situation won't help.