Inquisitor 1333: Gamble by Gila

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This Inquisitor by Gila brought back a few memories of evenings sat in front of the television.

 

 

 

There was a fairly lengthy preamble that stated "Three across and three down answers share a common thematic definition and are clued by wordplay only.  Wordplay in remaining clues generates an extra letter.  In order, those from across clues provide details of the gamble being undertaken; those from the down clues provide information relating to the six thematic entries.  Single letter clashes in the grid must be resolved to show – reading left to right – the result of the gamble, which must be highlighted.  Finally solvers should write the alternative outcome of the gamble under the grid."

I just dived in hoping all would come clear as I solved the puzzle.  First entries in were ACRID (18 across), SWOOSH (25 across), TIPPLE (33 across), SINICAL (35 across), EMPATHIC (4 down), LOUSE (7 down)  and RESELL (28 down).  I always try to solve each clue cold before looking at intersections.  Possibly not the best strategy for speedy solving, but one that tests the brain cells initially.  These initial entries gave me one clash at the first letter of 28 down where I had the H of SWOOSH and the R of RESELL.   

The first thematic entries I solved were SKITE (30 across) and GLANCE (6 a cross) but that wasn’t enough to give me the theme.  It was the third one, LAUNCH (2 down) that gave me the first inkling of the theme when I noticed the word ‘dart’ appearing in the various definitions of the thematic words.  I had enough extra letters from the across clue wordplay to suggest that BULLSEYE was going to be the first word in the message.  The word CLUE also looked likely as the first word in the down message.

Eventually the penny dropped and the quiz / darts programme BULLSEYE came to mind.  A little bit of research reminded me that finalists had the chance to gamble for BULLY‘s STAR PRIZE.. The message in the across clues was actually BULLSEYE STAR PRIZE.  The down message was CLUE NOS GIVE SCORE.  In the programme the winning contestants could gamble all the prizes they had won to date for a chance to win the STAR PRIZE.  To win the two players (darts player and quiz question player) had to score 101 or more with 6 darts.

Looking at the clue numbers of the six thematic answers that all involve ‘dart’ somewhere in one of their definitions we have

Across: 6 GLANCE, 20 WHEECH, 30 SKITE

Down: 2 LAUNCH, 15 STEN and 24 COOK.

Taken together we have 6+20+30+2+15+24=97 which means we fall short of the required 101.  

There were only 3 clashes in the grid, symmetrically spaced BISCUIT / CRATER at 22 across and down, TOPLOFTINESS / ACONITE in the cell starting 21 across and the aforementioned R/H clash.

Clearly one of the words was CAR and the other had to be BFH.  Back to the research then which showed BFH as an abbreviation for Bus Fare Home if you didn’t win the STAR PRIZE  The final grid therefore highlighted the B, F and H with the word CAR to be written below the grid.

The puzzle was a pleasant stroll down memory lane with very fair clues.  None of the extra letters were particularly difficult to identify although I didn’t get them all immediately as I filled the grid.  On writing the blog it all became clear.

The most obscure entries for me were IACHIMO (11 across), MUSROL (14 across) and SCISSEL (37 across) in the acrosses, plus TOPLOFTINESS (5 down) and ENLEVE (10 down) in the downs.

The final grid looked like this;

Inquisitor 1333

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                               CAR

The title of the puzzle, GAMBLE is self-explanatory given the preamble and the context.  

Across

 

      
No Clue  Wordplay Letter Entry

1

 

Old woman is horrible when in a huff (7)

 

BLACK (horrible) contained in (in) PET (huff)

P (LACK) ET

B

 

PLACKET (archaic [old] term for a woman; old woman)

 

6

 

New candy boxes (6)

 

GLACÉ (sweet) containing (boxes) N (new)

GLA (N) CE

 

 

GLANCE (to dart a reflected ray)

 

11

 

Cry of joy welcomes one in a much-evolved Shakespearean role (7)

 

IO (cry of joy) containing (welcomes) (I [one] contained in [in] an anagram of (evolved) A MUCH)

I (ACH (I) M*) O

U

 

IACHIMO (a villain in Cymbeline; Shakespearean role)

 

12

 

Control manual covering ships (6)

 

GLOVE (manual covering as in covering the hand [manual]) + RN (Royal Navy; ships)

 

L

 

GOVERN (control)

 

13

 

Pipe aficionado about to get ready to play (6, 2 words)

 

(PULE [to pipe, whimper or whine] + NUT [aficionado]) all reversed [about]

(TUN E UP)<

L

 

TUNE UP (get ready to play)

 

14

 

Old band seen around The Nag’s Head write music with non-electronic parts (6)

MUS (music) + (ROLES [parts] excluding [non] E [electronic])

 

S

 

MUSROL (obsolete [old] word for a bridle [the band round the nag’s head])

 

17

 

Doctor gets disrupted by every single bladder complaint (9)

 

(Anagram of [doctor] GETS containing [disrupted by] ALL [every]) + ONE (single)

G (ALL) ST* ONE

E

 

GALLSTONE (bladder complaint)

 

18

 

First bit of cheese dairy manufactured is pungent (5)

 

Anagram of (manufactured) (C [first letter of {first bit of} CHEESE] and DAIRY)

 

Y

 

ACRID (pungent)

 

20

 

Husband hugged by number one companion (6)

 

(H [husband] contained in [hugged by] WEE [number one in excretory slang]) + CH (companion)

W (H) EE CH

 

 

WHEECH (to dart [through])

 

21

 

Boiling action initiates extremely effective poison (7)

 

Anagram of (boiling) (ACTION and EE [the first letters of {initiates} each of EXTREMELY and EFFECTIVE])

 

E

 

ACONITE (a poison)

 

22

 

A bit of Hibiscus I trimmed is pale brown (7)

 

BISCUIT (hidden word in [a bit of] HIBISCUS I TRIMMED)

 

S

 

BISCUIT (pale brown colour)

 

25

 

Water initially shoots all over the place, making this noise (6)

 

Anagram of (all over the place) (W [first letter of {initially} WATER] and SHOOTS)

 

T

 

SWOOSH (noise made by water shooting all over the place)

 

30

 

Supplies London area houses (5)

 

SE (South East; London area) contains (houses) KIT (supplies)

S (KIT) E

 

 

SKITE (to dart or glide obliquely)

 

31

 

A nasty little opening cut in the belly (9)

 

A + BAD (nasty) + (NOMINAL [small; little] excluding [cut] the first letter [opening] N)

 

A

 

ABDOMINAL (in the belly)

 

32

 

One drawing a large bird about to be eaten by a dinosaur (6)

 

(ROK [large bird from Arabian legend] reversed [about]) contained in (eaten by) T-REX (tyrannosaurus rex; dinosaur)

T RE (K O<) X

R

 

TREK-OX (an animal that draws a wagon)

 

33

 

Dump fruit not accepted for a drink (6)

 

TIP (dump) + (APPLE [fruit] excluding [not] A [accepted])  NB: any one of the three Ps could be the extra letter

 

P

 

TIPPLE (drink)

 

34

 

Ineffective person to go around EU chain stores (6)

 

(EU + CH [chain]) containing (stores) (RUN [go] reversed [round])

EU (NU<) CH

R

EUNUCH (ineffectual person)

 

35

 

Stupid politicians opt to take leave of a function (7)

 

Anagram of (stupid) (POLITICIANS excluding [to take leave] OPT) NB: any one of the Is could be the extra letter

 

I

 

SINICAL (related to the SINE trigonometrical function)

 

36

 

Retired old Russian criminal about to come back for another shot (6)

 

RET (retired) + ([ZEK {an inmate of a prison or labour camp in the former USSR.; Russian criminal} + A {about}] all reversed [to come back])

RET (A KE)<

Z

 

RETAKE (another shot)

 
37 In India, they drive around and mostly sell scrap metal (7)

(SICES [chauffeurs, especially in India; in India they drive] reversed [around])  + (SELL excluding the final letter [mostly] L)

SCIS< SEL

E

SCISSEL (scrap metal left when blanks have been cut out)
Down    

 

  
No Clue  Wordplay   Letter Entry

1

 

Ancient Briton grasped a cutting tool (6)

 

PICT (ancient Briton) + SAW (understood; grasped)

 

C

PITSAW (cutting tool)

 

2

 

Washerwoman scrubbing clothes for children (6)

 

LAUNDRESS (washerwoman) with DRESS (clothes) excluded (scrubbing) and replaced by (for) CH (children)

 

 

LAUNCH (to dart)

 

3

 

Gum chomped while in church (6)

 

Anagram of (chomped) WHILE contained in (in) CE (Church [of England])

C (HEWI*) E

L

CHEWIE (chewing gum)

 

4

 

Getting into the spirit, I chat ’em up when drunk (8)

 

Anagram of (when drunk) I CHAT EM UP

 

U

 

EMPATHIC (feeling the spirit of something)

 

5

 

Cover and somehow stifle one’s arrogance (12)

 

TOP (cover) + an anagram of (somehow) STIFLE ONES

TOP LOFTINESS* NB: either E can be omitted

E

 

TOPLOFTINESS (haughtiness; arrogance)

 

7

 

Contemptible person primarily loves being worthless (5)

 

L (first letter of [primarily] LOVES) + NO USE (worthless)

 

N

 

LOUSE (contemptible person)

 

8

 

No Turkish bread is served up when eating stew – it’s aromatic (9, 2 words)

 

NO + ([LIRE {Turkish money; Turkish bread} reversed {served up}] containing [when eating] OLIO [a savoury stew])

N ER (OLI O) IL<

O

 

NEROLI OIL (an aromatic oil distilled from orange flowers)

 

9

 

Companion cut and arranged old horse’s hair (6)

 

(CRONY [intimate companion] excluding the final letter [cut] Y) + SET (arranged)

 

S

 

CRONET (the hair growing over the top of a horse’s hoof.)

 

10

 

A nurse very overwhelmed with joy gets carried away (6)

 

EN (Enrolled Nurse) + (V [very] contained in [overwhelmed with] GLEE [joy])

EN LE (V) E

G

 

ENLEVÉ (carried away or kidnapped)

 

15

 

Knock back some Cabernet Sauvignon (4)

 

STEN (hidden word [some] reversed [knocked back] in CABERNET SAUVIGNON)

STEN<

 

 

STEN (dart of pain)

 

16

 

Manage return of money for Ford, for example (9)

 

PRESIDE (manage) + (TIN [money] reversed [return of])

PRESIDE NT<

I

 

PRESIDENT (reference Gerald FORD [1913 – 2006], PRESIDENT of the United States from 1974 to 1977)

 

19

 

High as a kite, criminal acts tense during vice bust (8)

 

(Anagram of [criminal] ACTS + T [tense]) contained in (during) an anagram of (bust) VICE

E (CSTA* T) IC*

V

 

ECSTATIC (over-excited; high as a kite)

 

22

 

Ancient bowl found alongside river (6)

 

CREATE (establish; found) + R (river)

 

E

 

CRATER (variant spelling of KRATER [a larchaelogical {old} large two-handed bowl for mixing wine]).

 

23

 

I’m British and enjoy getting wet (6)

 

I’M (I am) + BR (British) + USE (enjoy)

 

S

 

IMBRUE (wet or moisten)

 

24

 

Heads of college ought to get an endorsement (4)

 

CO (first letters of [heads of] each of COLLEGE and OUGHT) + OK (okay; endorsement)

 

 

 

COOK (Scottish word meaning to dart in and out of sight)

 

26

 

Reasonable amateur photos showing African mammals (6)

 

OK (okay; reasonable) + A (amateur) + PICS (photographs)

 

C

 

OKAPIS (animals of Central Africa, related to the giraffe)

 

27

 

Tablets manufactured to ease onset of lumbago (6)

 

Anagram of (manufactured) (TO EASE and L [first letter of {onset of} LUMBAGO)

 

O

 

STELAE (upright stone slabs or tablets)

 

28

 

Research relating to Latin market again (6)

 

RES (research) + RE (relating to) + LL (Late or Low Latin)

 

R

 

RESELL (market again)

 

29

 

Old woman about to be overcome by fumes (5)

 

C (circa [about) contained in (overcome by) SMOKE (fumes)

SMO (C) K

E

 

SMOCK (obsolete word [old] for woman or wench)

 

 

12 comments on “Inquisitor 1333: Gamble by Gila”

  1. “And remember, your charity money is safe!”

    How easily we were enthralled. The second star prize would be something like a set of teflon cooking spatulas. The third, a rack to hang – and display – them in.

    Bizarrely, the star prize was sometimes something like a jetski power boat sort of thing.
    And, when won, went home with a couple from somewhere like Dudley.
    I often wondered how they went on about sharing it.
    Did they ask the show producers if they could have the cash value instead?
    If this wasn’t possible, did they try to flog it?
    Or, possibly, ever actually use it?

    Could this possibly be a scenario for a touching/comedy drama?

  2. We never watched the programme but thankfully Bert vaguely (he’s like that really!) remembered something about the show. He even remembered the presenter’s name and some of the visuals. Joyce has serious concerns about the state of his mind at times!

    We found it quite a tough puzzle overall. We had to check BFH as that was one part of the programme that Bert didn’t remember.

    Thanks to Gila and also to Duncan who we had the pleasure of meeting recently at the Derby S&B.

  3. The biggest confusion for me was the F, I fully expected it to be in the same row as the B and H (to the left of 25) this left me looking for answers to 22a ending with F. Still, I got there in the end.

    Anyway, those days are now behind Jim Bowen since taking up his new position a year ago: Jim Bowen’s New Job

    Good fun puzzle – thanks to all.

  4. I did think about leaving the clashing cells blank (‘there’s nothing in this game for two in a bed’), but it was a valuable reminder to always check the discarded letters to see if they are of use after all. Now let’s see what we could have won – prosecco!

  5. Yes, a nice trip down memory lane, with indolent winter Sundays topped off by “you can’t beat a bit of Bully”.

    I don’t recall the BFH bit but do remember, like JonSurdy@1 the power boat prize: I used to have visions of tow-path walkers on the Leeds-Liverpool canal drowned by the bow wave of said star prize.

    Thanks to Gila for the fun – I hadn’t come across TOPLOFTINESS before, what a wonderful word – and Duncan for the blog, I got the darts connection, like Duncan first and then the Bullseye PDM afterwards.

    In the inimitable words of Jim Bowen, I thought the puzzle was “smashing, lovely, wonderful” !

  6. I found this the hardest I’ve done for a while…so many extremely obscure words, and difficult (but not unfair) clues, but the PDM when it finally came was brilliant. I love the six darts giving the score! Great idea. For some reason I entered ’emphatic’ in the grid instead of ’empathic’ and that really messed me up for a while. The trouble with having clashes in the grid, is that you can’t positively confirm an entry to be correct until you’ve figured it all out.

    I must say, if I didn’t use dictionaries/internet etc, I wouldn’t have been able to make any sort of progress…I really am amazed that some people attempt these without ‘artificial aids’. Their vocabulary must be immense!

    My wife and I have watched some ‘Bullseye’ on Challenge (TV channel) lately, so I didn’t need to research it. I must say, it hasn’t aged well! Although Jim Bowen seemed to me to be ancient when I first watched it as a kid, but he still looks exactly the same now! I wonder what skin cream he uses?

    Bravo Gila, and thanks to Duncan.

  7. Not too much trouble with this one as I got the DART connection quite early, and was held up at the end only by justifying RETAKE at 36a (never come across ZEK before) and CRATER at 22d – with the leading clash.

    Was the outcome designed from the start, or did Gila just add up the clue numbers of the DART answers & let matters resolve themselves, I wonder? I guess the setter had to avoid slotting them in at 23, 29, etc. Anyway, I appreciate the effort …
      … and thanks for the blog.

  8. Hi all,

    Thanks all for the comments and to Duncan, who has now expertly blogged as many Gila puzzles as have been published!

    Bullseye was as much a part of my childhood as washing up after the Sunday roast whilst listening to the charts on the radio, and I’d toyed with trying to set a puzzle around some of its stranger elements (revolving boards, staying out of the black and in the red, nothing for 2 in a bed, etc, etc.) for a while before finally deciding on the 6 darts and 101 idea.

    In an ideal world, I’d have loved to have the full BUS FARE HOME clashing with some ludicrous prize of equal letter value (FORD CORTINA, for example!), but having to have 6 thematic entries and a fixed number of clues for the extra letters already put a lot of constraints on the grid. I’m sure that’s also why the F ended up not being on the same row as the other clashes and we had a higher than average number of obscure words. I hope the clueing was fair in that respect. I’m still very new to this whole setting lark but am fairly harsh with myself and prefer not to settle on a clue unless I think it reads reasonably well as a normal sentence. This may make some of them tough (I sometimes re-read them and have no idea what the answer is!)

    And, yes, it was always my intention for the gamble to fall agonisingly short, which also made creating the grid a little bit trickier as all of the clue positions needed to be possible one-dart scores (and I insisted to myself that one of them be 20..!). The gamble failing also ensured that all 6 darts had to be used, which wasn’t always necessary…..

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIvAh7e3XSk

    Love Jim’s reaction there. Good arrers…!

    Til the next time (fingers crossed),,,,

    Ali/Gila

  9. Couldn’t break through on this one at all. Never mind.

    Hate watching darts, hated Bullseye, hated “Great, smashing, super” Jim Bowen. Sorry.

  10. I found another advantage to being expat since 1978, having no idea what this was all about and having to google to find out. What did I miss?

  11. You missed the best TV game show ever invented. And remember – stay out of the black and in the red; there’s nothing in this game for two in a bed.

  12. Lovely puzzle, and all news to me. Failed to find BFH, even though I was looking and had the second two clashes, mainly because I convinced myself the answer to 25a was Whoosh (never thought of Shoosh), and that therefore there was an S/W clash to take into account. I suppose that can easily happen when you know there are some clashing cells. Thankfully, there’s this blog.

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