Ken Mackenzie asked for a stand-in to do this week’s Inquisitor blog, hence another appearance from me out of the normal four week cycle.
There was a fairly short preamble to this puzzle by Wan who was making his second appearance as an Inquisitor setter.
The preamble stated that "the wordplay in all but two across clues contains an extra letter which must be removed before solving, and which should help identify the start and finish of a popular pub crawl following the direction in which it is normally undertaken. Solvers should highlight a top pub (ten cells) that forms part of the crawl, plus a set of items (5,6,6,8) that might prove useful in it."
As I was solving this, I didn’t get some of the missing letters correct initially which led me to think that the missing letters were going to form an anagram. Eventually I realised that the missing letters were spelling out the start and finish villages on the crawl in reverse order up the page. That helped me correct a couple of the missing letters and fill in the remaining ones before I had solved all the across clues. That in turn helped solve those remaining across clues.
The theme was the PENNINE WAY, a 268 mile National Trail, predominantly in England, which is most often walked from EDALE in Derbyshire to KIRK YETHOLM in the Scottish Borders. That direction of walking is favoured to ensure that the wind is more likely to be behind you than into your face. I live just over 10 miles from KIRK YETHOLM and I have frequently walked parts of the last 20 miles of the route up on the Cheviot Hills. I can’t claim to have walked much of the rest. I’ve done a some round Kinder Scout, near EDALE and other bits around Haworth, Malham Tarn, Hawes, Alston, Hadrians’ Wall and Bellingham, probably less than 50 miles in total.
I found parsing some of the wordplay quite challenging and there are a few where I am completely or partly defeated.
The ones that completely defeat me are ENSEW at 35 across, and EGIS at 34 down. I can get a small foothold in each of those but overall I can’t see how either work. I have given ideas for 11 down PENNINE WAY and 30 down DOGMA, but I’m not 100% certain of my suggestions.
I suppose that the PENNINE WAY can be considered a pub crawl in that walkers will be looking for a drink each evening, but it’s a very strenuous crawl. When I camped at Bellingham and saw quite a few hardy souls walking through, many of them looked fairly exhausted and there would still be two days to go with the final day being particularly tough in bad weather
Given that the walk is described as a pub crawl, the starting pub would be the OLD NAG’S HEAD in EDALE with the finishing one being the BORDER HOTEL in KIRK YETHOLM.
The highest pub on the PENNINE WAY, indeed the highest inn in the British Isles according to Wikipedia, is the TAN HILL INN on a rather remote part of the WAY, a few miles south of the main A66 that runs from Penrith on the M6 to Scotch Corner on the A1. The letters of TAN HILL INN are highlighted straddling the middle of the PENNINE WAY in the grid below.
I found three of the four helpful items in the grid fairly quickly – FLEECE in column 2, RUCKSACK in column 4 and ANORAK in column 1. That made me think the fourth item would also be in a column so I initially thought that LIGHT would be the one we wanted. I was a bit doubtful though as LIGHT was an entry in its own right and the others were hidden across entries. Once I started writing the blog and studying the grid more closely, I found BOOTS in row 5 and decided that was a more likely contender for a useful item. I suspect TORCH or HEAD TORCH would have been a better word for LIGHT anyway.
In terms of the clues that I could parse, I found it quite challenging to get on the setters wavelength. More often that not I deduced the entry and then had to think quite hard about the wordplay. However that appeals to my preference for analysis over creativity so I got satisfaction over deriving the wordplay in the end [well for most of the entries anyway].
The filled grid looks like this.
The title Pub Crawl has been explained above.
|
Across |
|
||||
| No | Clue | Amended clue for Wordplay | Letter | Wordplay | Entry |
|
2
|
Drinking very warm , foul beer? Lord, this is the end! (11, 2 words)
|
|
|
Anagram of (foul) BEER LORD containing (drinking) HOT (very warm) BORDER (HOT) EL* |
BORDER HOTEL (The site of the bar in Kirk Yetholm at the northern end of the Pennine Way)
|
|
10
|
Lewd brat and old muse (6)
|
brat and old use
|
M
|
IMP (mischievous child; little devil’; bat) + URE (obsolete [old] word for use)
|
IMPURE (lewd)
|
|
12
|
Lovers of sex portrayed in an ancient alphabet (6)
|
Overs of sex
|
L
|
O (overs in cricket scoring notation) + GAMIC (sexual; of sex)
|
OGAMIC (portrayed in an ancient alphabet used in Celtic and Pictish inscriptions)
|
|
13
|
Franco left Spain outside European Community and king in a spot (7)
|
Franc left Spain outside European Community and king
|
O
|
(FR [franc)] + L [left] + E [International Vehicle Registration for Spain]) containing (outside) (EC [European Community] + K [king]) FR (EC K) L E |
FRECKLE (spot)
|
|
15
|
Gadget trading group hand money to local stray (5)
|
Gadget trading group and money
|
H
|
GISMO (gadget) with G [group] changing places with [trading] M (money) MISGO |
MISGO (dialect [local] word for to go astray)
|
|
18
|
Language tends to be clipped from northern friend (6)
|
ends to be clipped from northern friend
|
T
|
I can get the friend bit with the last letter [end] M being excluded from [clipped] CHUM but I’m not sure how the leading MAN bit is derived. Is it MANX (relating to the Isle of Man which in the north in relation to may places in England and Wales, but it is South of many more in England and Scotland) with the end letter excluded (clipped)?
|
MANCHU (the language of members of the Mongoloid race from which the NE Chinese region of Manchuria took its name)
|
|
19
|
Synthetic fibre sealant beats expectations at the outset (8) |
sealant bats expectation at the outset
|
E
|
Anagram of (bats) SEALANT + E (first letter of [at the outset] EXPECTATIONS) ELASTAN* E |
ELASTANE (a synthetic fibre used in the manufacture of underwear and hosiery)
|
|
21
|
Take off the day to wander around centre of Bacup (6)
|
the da’ to wander round centre of Bacup
|
Y
|
Anagram of (wander) THE DA containing (around) (C middle letter of [centre of] BACUP) DETA (C) H* |
DETACH (take off)
|
|
23
|
Glide in like pals huddled together (7)
|
lie pals huddled together
|
K
|
Anagram of (huddled together) LIE PALS ILLAPSE* |
ILLAPSE (glide in)
|
|
25
|
Poorly rate chronicles during public debate (7)
|
Poorly ate chronicles during
|
R
|
Anagram of (poorly) ATE + CH ([Book of] Chronicles) + IN (during) TEA* CH IN |
TEACH-IN (public debate)
|
|
26
|
Time to return having collected grain compound (6)
|
Time to return having collected gran
|
I
|
EON (large division of geological time) reversed (to return) containing (having collected) NAN (gran). Another interpretation would be to say that the whole construction is reversed as NAN is palindromic. NO (NAN) E< or (NO (NAN) E)< |
NONANE (hydrocarbon; compound)
|
|
30
|
Local farm worker and daughter are entering with monkey nuts (8)
|
and daughter are entering with money nuts
|
K
|
Anagram of (nuts) ( D [first letter of {entering} DAUGHTER] and A [first letter of {entering} ARE] and W [with] and MONEY) It could also be D + (A contained in the anagram of [W and MONEY]) On reflection, this is the more likely construction DEY-WOMAN* or D EYWOM (A) N* |
DEY-WOMAN (dialect [local] word for dairy maid; local farm worker)
|
|
32
|
Entirely topless,eat in conservatory (6)
|
Entirely topless at
|
E
|
CLEAN (entirely) excluding the first letter (topless) C + TO (in)
|
LEAN-TO (conservatory)
|
|
35
|
Ed’s come after letter somebody’s written about wanting Oscar Wilde (5)
|
letter somebody’s written about wanting Oscar wide
|
L
|
I can’t see what’s going on here. EN is a letter of the alphabet, W is wide in cricket scoring notation but how SE is constructed from something excluding [wanting] O [represented by Oscar in international radio communications] I just don’t know.
|
ENSEW (Edmund Spenser’s [Ed’s] word for ENSUE [come after])
|
|
36
|
A ruminant with a bit of aid escaping clasp of stone mason (7)
|
A ruminant with a bit of id escaping
|
A
|
A + (GIRAFFE [example of a ruminant mammal] excluding I [first letter of {a bit of} ID])
|
AGRAFFE (a hooked clasp used by stonemasons to hold blocks together)
|
|
37
|
Tendency to go fast possesses driver (6)
|
to go fast possesses river
|
D
|
STEAM (go fast) containing (possesses) R (river) ST (R) EAM |
STREAM (tendency)
|
|
38
|
Dalek’s least taken by more chilling forms more repulsive (6)
|
Dalek’s last taken by more chilling
|
E
|
K (last letter of [last] DALEK) contained in (taken by) ICIER (more chilling) IC (K) IER |
ICKIER (more repulsive)
|
|
39
|
The start of a long day out with a drop of ale in Slough (11, 3 words)
|
|
Anagram of (out) (A LONG and D [day]) + (A [first letter of {a drop of} ALE] contained in [in] SHED [slough]) OLD NAG* S HE (A) D |
OLD NAG’S HEAD (a pub in EDALE, very close to the start of the PENNINE WAY)
|
|
| Down | |||||
| No | Clue | Amended clue for Wordplay | Letter | Wordplay | Entry |
|
1
|
Exceptionally clever Yank’s swindled out of rupees (6)
|
|
|
GRIFTED (American slang for swindled) excluding (out of) R (rupees)
|
GIFTED (exceptionally clever)
|
|
3
|
Norma is one worker lacking height (5)
|
|
|
OPERATOR (worker) excluding (lacking) TOR (hill; height)
|
OPERA (Norma is an OPERA by Vincenzo Bellini)
|
|
4
|
Fight inside a mass of people (4)
|
|
|
RUCK (fight)
|
RUCK (mass of ordinary people) double definition
|
|
5
|
Devious types rest briefly when climbing (4)
|
|
|
(SLEEP [rest] excluding the final letter [briefly] P) reversed (when climbing; down clue) EELS< |
EELS (devious people; devious types)
|
|
6
|
Nice man‘s dwelling with family after getting married (5)
|
|
|
HOME (a habitual dwelling-place, or the place felt to be such; the residence of one’s family) containing (getting) M (married) HOM (M) E |
HOMME (French [Nice being a town in France] word for man)
|
|
7
|
Old West Indian forward entertaining in athletic ground (5)
|
|
|
TO (forward) containing (entertaining) (an anagram of [ground] IN and A [athletic]) T (AIN*) O |
TAINO (a member of an extinct [old] Indian tribe of the W Indies)
|
|
8
|
Day without much alcohol (5)
|
|
|
LIGHT (if it’s LIGHT it’s day time, unless your under the midnight sun)
|
LIGHT (containing little alcohol) double definition
|
|
9
|
Seek to justify comprehending old northern dialect (6)
|
|
|
‘SCUSE (excuse [seek to justify]) containing (comprehending) O (old) SC (O) USE |
SCOUSE (northern dialect spoken in and around Liverpool)
|
|
11
|
Theme pub found heading north with a lot of sheep indeed (10)
|
|
|
The best I can come with here is (W [with] + EEP [three of five [a lot] letters of SHEEP + N [North] + INN [pub]) somehow rearranged as an anagram of container & contents and then reversed [heading north?], but I’ve already used the north for N) + AY (yes; indeed) PE (NNI N) E W)< AY I look forward to being shown exactly how this is parsed. I think the numeration should be (10, 2 words) |
PENNINE WAY (theme of the crossword) |
|
14
|
Makeshift hut college built for nothing in Hawaiian wattle (6)
|
|
|
Anagram of (built) (HUT and KOA [Hawaiian acacia {wattle}] with C [college] replacing [for] O [nothing]) KUTCHA* |
KUTCHA (variant spelling of CUTCHA [makeshift, of dried mud])
|
|
16
|
Ass’s tail has to acquire a tuft of hairs (5)
|
|
|
S (last letter of [‘s tail] of ASS) + COP (acquire) + A
|
SCOPA ( brushlike tuft of hairs on the hind legs of bees)
|
|
17
|
Run away from Navy before time is served (4)
|
|
|
FLEET (division of a Navy) excluding the last letter (before … is served) T (time)
|
FLEE (run away [from])
|
|
20
|
Telephone line in lady’s private room (6)
|
|
|
L (line) contained in (in) BOWER (lady’s private room or boudoir) B (L) OWER |
BLOWER (telephone, though not a word used in this manner very much these days)
|
|
22
|
Bits of Asia Scots visit so far (5)
|
|
|
TAK (Scots word for TAKE [visit]) + AS (so far)
|
TAKAS (standard monetary units [coins, notes; bits] of Bangladesh part of Asia])
|
|
24
|
Celebrated overturning an obstacle (4)
|
|
|
SANG (celebrated) with AN reversed (overturning) SNAG< |
SNAG (obstacle)
|
|
25
|
Magical object in the box seldom emptied (6)
|
|
|
TELE (television; box) + SM (letters that remain in SELDOM when all the central letters are emptied out)
|
TELESM (talisman; magical object)
|
|
27
|
To admit blame essentially shows guts (6)
|
|
|
ENTER (admit) + A (middle letter of [essentially] BLAME)
|
ENTERA (guts)
|
|
28
|
Magnificent operatic piece of work composed by various writers (5)
|
|
|
CENTO (hidden word in [piece of] MAGNIFICENT OPERA)
|
CENTO (composition formed by joining bits and pieces from various authors)
|
|
29
|
Having a joint on leg of walk’s last thing one must have (5)
|
|
|
K (last letter of [last] WALK) + NEED (lack of something which one cannot well do without; necessity; must have)
|
KNEED (having a joint on the leg)
|
|
30
|
Settled opinion of man and child’s mother (5)
|
|
|
DOG (term of contempt for man or boy; man and child?) + MA (mother) alternatively DOG (a man, as in a jolly DOG) + MA (child’s mother) |
DOGMA (settled opinion)
|
|
31
|
Member of leaderless rum bunch of unscrupulous crooks (5)
|
|
|
M (member) + (TAFIA [type of rum] excluding the first letter [leaderless] T)
|
MAFIA (secret criminal society originating in Sicily; bunch of unscrupulous crooks)
|
| 33 | Start to undress and put on sun protection (4) |
EGI (?) + S (sun) I can’t see where the EGI bit comes from in the word play. I see no link between EGI and ‘start to undress’ |
EGIS (variant spelling of AEGIS [patronage, protection]) | ||
|
34
|
Trail up a hill up north to take a view all over (4)
|
|
|
RAKE (Northern dialect [up north] word for a track, esp up a hill or in a gully or a pasture)
|
RAKE (take a view all over or completely through.) double definition
|
EGIS is (B)EGI(N)+ S. Not a great clue if you ask me.
I’m likewise stumped by the parsing of Pennine Way.
ENSEW my be ‘ES’ (letter) with ONE’S written about, less O, + W
For me, this was one of those very very rare occasions when the lightbulb flashed on when reading the preamble. Perhaps because in my early teenage years I spent almost every Sunday rambling round Kinder and Edale. And, more than once, camping round there. So, I wonder if 11D would have been better left include? I knew the answer but found this the hardest solution to parse. Here’s my attempt:
Pub heading north= NNI (INN reversed).
In crawl. CRAWL= PEN ( See definition2 in Chambers).
EW = a lot of sheep (most of EWE).
AY = indeed.
For 33D (not 34!):
Start = BEGIN. Undress, is remove its outer covering, which gives EGI. Then add S for sun.
For 30D. DOG is a definition of man in Chambers. Which also gives MA as ‘ childish contraction for mamma’.
Sorry for typo above. Comment on 11D should have read ‘unclued’.
I enjoyed this puzzle because it had some fairly easy stretches,which were a relief between some the quite challenging sections that could easily have made one want to give up. Worse still, there was the almost irresistible temptation to lapse into dreadful puns when posting here. Thank goodness, I have managed to avoid that.
PS. It would have been a nice touch if the prize for this puzzle, for those who successfuly completed it, was a pint rather than prosecco.
Thanks Duncan
For 18ac, Manchester is normally considered to be a northern city so I had it as MAN[c] CHU[m] (Manc is in Chambers as a short form of Mancunian).
starburst @ 1, jonsurdy @ 2 and gaufrid @ 3
Thanks for all the comments about the wordplay I struggled with. I am now clear on EGIS.
I think for DOGMA one of my suggestions was OK
I note that I wasn’t the only one to struggle with PENNINE WAY and can see the logic in jonsurdy’s parsing.
For MANCHU and Manchester, cue my regular boring mutterings about Northern references to places a couple of hundred miles South of where I live.
For ENSEW, I can see what starburst is suggesting, but I’m not wholly convinced that there are enough reversal indications for that parsing.
Not sure I agree about the parsing of PENNINE WAY. ‘Crawl’ would be fine, were it not for the fact that it doesn’t appear in the clue! And I can’t accept there’s any suggestion that we should somehow be using the ‘Crawl’ from the title.
Starburst, crawl does appear in the clue.
I don’t think there’s any need for reversals for ENSEW.
I parsed it the same way as starburst@1
EN (letter) + anagram (written about) of ONE’S (somebody’s) – O + W.
I’m not sure where I got CRAWL from now but I parsed Pennine Way the same way as jonsurdy@2.
Almost gave up on this due to the misleading enumeration for that clue but got there in the end and rather enjoyed the struggle.
Many thanks to Wan and Duncan.
jonsurdy@8
That would explain it then !
Me@8
I think you need to rethink ENSEW …
FWIW I parsed ENSEW very much like starburst, ES+ONE is written about ie reversed – O, +W. Although, I do admit to just getting it from the definition.
Thanks to Wan for the puzzle and Duncan for the blog.
@jonsurdy
I can’t check my paper but I’m fairly sure ‘crawl’ doesn’t appear in my version.
If, as I think you’re suggesting, we’re meant to replace ‘Theme’ in the clue with ‘Pub crawl’, it still wouldn’t make sense, since it would read: Pub crawl pub found heading north with a lot of sheep indeed.
I’m not trying to be difficult, I just don’t see it. If it’s in the paper, my bad and all apologies etc etc
Starburst @ 12
I think I’m to blame for the confusion here. I see that I have forgotten to type the words ‘in crawl’ in the clue above. It should read … heading north IN CRAWL with a lot of….
That omission probably contributed to my own difficulties in trying to parse the clue.
This took me a while, but I got there in the end, and I was very pleased with myself for doing so since Wan’s previous offering was one of the few Inquisitors I’ve tried that utterly defeated me. I remember having real difficulty with the clues (they were very long for starters, which always makes them more difficult for me), and I struggled again with these, but, for me, Wan has definitely dropped the difficulty level a notch or two.
I agree with jonsudy’s parsing of Pennine Way, although I’d had it filled in in the grid for several days before I managed to parse it myself!
On the whole a very enjoyable challenge, and I thought the grid construction was brilliant. Thanks Wan and Duncanshiell.
Sorry, *jonsurdy*
Quite an enjoyable puzzle, even though the theme was revealed quite early on (having solved OLD NAGS HEAD). And a bit put off by the indicator for PENNINE WAY not saying 2 words.
Haven’t walked much of it, just the portion that coincides with St.Cuthbert’s Way from Kirk Yetholm heading towards Wooler. (Stayed at Cross Keys House across the green from the Border Hotel where we had dinner – both are recommended.)
The wordplay for 30a DEY-WOMAN is D(aughter) + A(re) in [W(ith) MONEY]* where “are” is the metric unit of area. All Duncan’s other queries have been covered above.
Not mentioned so far, Wikipedia informs me that the final section of this National Trail was declared open on 24 April 1965 – so 50 years before the publication date. I echo eXternal‘s thanks @11, to Wan for the puzzle and Duncan for the blog.
Thanks HG for pointing out the fifty years anniversary. I now remember being vaguely aware of catching odd snatches of programmes that mentioned the Peninne Way – but this never registered when doing the puzzle.
And thank you Duncan for a great blog, and wan for the challenge.
I saw FLEECE, BOOTS, RUCKSACK and ANORAK in the grid … but then reasoned that it would be downright stupid to take with me both a fleece AND an anorak, so highlighted LIGHTS instead of ANORAK, on the basis that, having fallen into a ditch and broken a leg, I could at least show the rescue helicopter where I was, as it approached through the dusk.
My sister, in her seventies, broke a leg on a remote forest track in Ireland a few years back … and neither ambulance nor helicopter could get anywhere near to where she was. Maybe that’s what influenced my foolish decision.
In retrospect, I should have realised that choosing to ditch ANORAK might have been just as wrong as choosing to ditch FLEECE, and thus they were both to be highlighted. A tiny bit more preamble info, though, would have avoided any ambiguity ?
Nevertheless a great puzzle … does any remember Tiger’s wonderful Listener, from some years ago, involving a trip down the West Highland Railway Line, stopping off at all the distilleries along the way ?
Murray, I think the hidden words should have included MOBILEPHONE and GPS.