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Passacaglia with Variations – solution

I remain very pleased with this grid, even after nearly three decades.  There’s a lot going on, with nine fairly specific (five unavoidable) themewords, interacting with 12 with latent letters, which have a degree of positional limitation.  There are quite a few shortish entries, and some ‘old friends’ (HA-HA, ETHE, INGE…), but somehow it all hangs together.

The ground bass was DSCH-DSCH-DSCH.  DSCH was the musical monogram of Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH (22a), but the letters also form the initials of the suits in a pack of cards (Themewords B).  TREY, KING, JACK and ACE are all cards (Variations C).

ACROSS

1              STICKER; s ticker

12           PRELIM; miler p (all rev.)

13           AIA; a(r)ia

14           AARON; a + Nora (rev.)

15           INCEPTS; anag.

18           HA-HA; Ha(t)ha(way)

19           ETHE; cf. thee

20           DIAN; I in dan

25           BALL; b all

27           AMEN; a men

28           INGE; (s)inge(r)

30           ALIT; al(l) it

33           GUARANA; guaran(tor) a

36           RAZOR; (c)zar (rev.) +_ or

37           ORD; or d

38           CACHET; ache in c,t

39           SATES; a for I in sites

40           SEEKERS; ker(nel) in sees

DOWN

2              (S)TRAIT; St. RA it

3              CLOT(H); Cloth(o)

5              (S)EMI; Semi(tes)

6              RANSA(C)KER; ran sacker

7              C(H)ICANO; chican(e) 0

8              LA(D)E; lad E

9              UN(S)PARING; anag. + (h)aring

10           BATHE; b a the

11           SAS(H)AY; SA’s hay

16           S(C)HOLIAST; sch(m)o + I in last

23           TABAR(D)S; bar in tads

25           BA(D)GES; bad (a)ges

26           ALULA; palindrom

29           GRO(C)ER; re corg(i) (all rev.)

31           BRAE; bra(C)e

34           ROE; 0 in re

 

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This is the website of Paul Henderson, who sets crosswords for The Independent (London) under the pseudonyms Phi, for the Daily Telegraph (London) under the pseudonym Kcit, and anonymously for The Times (London) amongst many other outlets. For a more detailed biography see the About Me page.

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