What if the word we’re pinching letters from has an even number of letters, and no single “character” in the middle? That’s what’s going on in this one from Anto:ĥd Girl from the middle of Panama becoming saint (5) Setters are prone to talking directly to us, and to referring to themselves. So we make an anagram (“sad”) of the word LOVERS, add the middle of “mis sing” and we get SOLVERS (that’s “you”). An example from a setter who is a heart surgeon when he is not creating puzzles, Philistine:Ģ1aSad lover’s essentially missing you (7) When Paul says “character in the centre of”, he is simultaneously being utterly explicit about making us look for a central letter and appearing to describe something else entirely.Ī word that solvers rapidly get used to interpreting as “take the middle letter” is one that directs you to the core – or perhaps the essence – of a word. This is a synonym for “name” (as a verb: DUB) the clue’s “a” becomes the answer’s A … and then “character in the centre of b ig” gives us an I: the Gulf state we’re looking for is DUBAI. Here’s Paul:Ģ4aName a character in the centre of big Gulf state (5) It takes a moment to realise that “musical” belongs to the wordplay and not to the definition, and that kind of ambiguity is why we do these things. So we take a word for celebrity (STAR), and make it “hold” the middle of the word “mus ical” (I), which gives us our instrument: SITAR. 31aCelebrity holding middle of musical instrument (5)
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