A Themed Cryptic Crossword

[Simond]

Because I spent July in Italy, this Guardian crossword passed me by. I thought I'd go back to ones that I missed whilst I was away. I'm still working on it but I thought it might be of interest to other members of this parish (for reasons which gradually become apparent).

https://uploads.guim.co.uk/2023/06/28/Genius_241v2.pdf

[Simond]

OK, so I put this on the Forum knowing that most people wouldn’t be interested in a cryptic crossword, particularly if English isn’t their first language. At the time of writing, 45 views, 0 responses. But, there was an obvious reason that I did post it here – it rapidly became apparent to me that it was a Pink Floyd themed crossword. Having now completed it, I thought I’d share its sheer brilliance with you. You don’t need to know anything about cryptic crosswords to follow the rest of this.

The first part was a fairly normal crossword. You just had to solve the clues BUT it said to remove a word of at least 2 letters before doing so (ie. the words removed were redundant with respect to the clues). I’ve underlined in red the words I removed – so US in the first clue, THE in the second clue, SKY in the third clue, etc. It was whilst doing this that some of the words stood out - MONEY, TIME, BRAIN, DAMAGE, etc – which made it obvious that it was going to be Pink Floyd related. That’s the point at which I posted the puzzle here.



Having solved all the clues, it said to fit the answers in the grid “jigsaw-wise, as they will fit”. This was fairly straightforward as, for instance, DISCARDS (at 1 across) was the only 8 letter answer which allowed two 6 letter, a 9 letter and an 11 letter answer, starting with D, S, A and D respectively to start in positions 1, 2, 3 and 4 Down. So the grid got filled.

And this is where the magic began!

It said to take all the words removed from the clues (those underlined in red) and put them in the order of the clues that they came from, as entered in the grid. So 1 Across DISCARDS had the word Speak removed; 5 Across had To removed; 9 Across had Me removed; all the way down to 27 Across which had Gig removed. Then back up to the Down solutions. 1 Down had In removed; 2 Down had The removed; all the way down to 22 Down which had Eclipse removed. So, in the sequence indicated, the removed words were…..

Speak To Me
Breathe In The Air
On The Run
Time
The Great Gig In The Sky
Money
Us And Them
Any Colour You Like
Brain Damage
Eclipse

The instruction said “produce a list that reveals the theme of the puzzle and SOMETHING ABOUT THE GRID”. Well, the icing on the cake was, spelled out “about the grid”, starting at the bottom left-hand corner and, working clockwise, highlighted in yellow THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON.

I’m sure that, even if you’ve no interest in cryptic crosswords, you’ll appreciate the ingenuity of Jack in the setting of this particular crossword. I wonder if ‘Jack’ is on this Forum?

[Son of Nothing]

Well, I admit I didn't follow the link in your original post because I'm usually reading this late at night (or at least as a quick glance through in the evening). So tackling an actual cryptic crossword is not my agenda. So thanks for posting the solution; I wouldn't have got to it. And you are right, that's a very cleverly set puzzle. So not just a cryptic crossword but multiple layers of puzzle.

[Journey Man]

I’ve avoided looking at your solution as I'm going to give it a go myself. I’m a regular solver of cryptic crosswords so this looks very intriguing. Thanks for posting and also the answers too so that I can check my completed grid in due course.