It’s another in the Clue Two sequence. How will eXternal follow up the Pac-Man maze?
Preamble: The unclued top row gives a thematic location. An answer to one down clue per column (apart from end columns) must have a letter dropped to the bottom row before entry to identify a protagonist, always leaving real words. Wordplay in eight other clues omits a letter of the answer, identifying five cells monitored by a guardian. In the final grid, solvers must identify the protagonist in the location and highlight alternate cells on the shortest unmonitored route (moving vertically and horizontally) to escape at the bottom right cell. The remainder of the highlighted quote must replace the bottom row, thereby updating the protagonist’s status.
I made surprisingly good progress with this, many of the clues being on the gentle side I thought. (Maybe this presages difficulty later, when it comes to finding the shortest unmonitored route to escape … we’ll see.) Two things I’d noted: five monitored cells from eight clues means that three of those cells are checked and the other two aren’t; dropping a letter from some down answers but leaving real words as entries is going to help identify the letter to drop (and of course we then know that the other clue in the same column is straight).
The grid was filling up nicely, but even though I had quite a few letters in the unclued top row, and more than just a handful at the bottom, it was not quite enough for me to make a stab at how to complete either of them. Until … I solved 1d PELHAM, and the veil of ignorance was lifted: PORTMEIRION goes in the top row, and, as those of certain vintage & disposition know, this Italianate village on the coast of North Wales was the location for the late 1960s TV show The Prisoner (completing the bottom row). With all this in hand, the rest of phase 1 of the puzzle was soon finished off. So put it away to tackle phase 2 tomorrow.
The Prisoner himself is known as Number 6 so the escape route starts at the first I in PORTMEIRION, and as he continually repeats “I am not a number” that is what the path will spell. Each of the monitored cells contains O, representing the large white balloon that keeps the prisoners from escaping. The ‘obvious’ best path is blocked at the intersection of GEORGIAN & ICE SHOWS, and the second best is blocked by NOSTOS. (To be honest, I can’t see what role HOME is playing.) So we wiggle SW (avoiding MANOAO/MAMBO), then less of a wiggle but generally SE (avoiding SMOOTHS/TAILOR), and finally due East.
I had initially not remembered the full quote that starts with “I am not a number” but then the rest of it came to me: “… I am a free man” – so that is the replacement for the bottom row.
Thanks eXternal – no time for animation this week, sorry. But really enjoyed the puzzle.
| No. | Clue | Ans[w]er | O | Wordplay |
| Across | ||||
| 9 | Stink from right foot with toe damaged (5) | FETOR | [R(ight) F(oot) TOE]* | |
| 11 | Plant acting US agents to cover cases (6) | ACACIA | A(cting) CIA (US agents) around CA(ses) | |
| 13 | Zigzags over special small mobile (7) | SLALOMS | [O(ver) S(pecial) SMALL]* | |
| 15 | King with English residence (4) | HOME | O | HM (His Majesty, king) E(nglish) |
| 16 | For all to see, one wearing smartest clothing, journalist is _____ (8) | BESUITED | U (for all to see) I (one) in BEST (smartest clothing) ED (journalist) | |
| 17 | I must be overcome by love in excessive desire for shrub (6) | MANOAO | O | MANIA (excessive desire) with I replaced by O (love) |
| 18 | Conductor’s one written composition (5) | ANODE | AN (one) ODE (written composition) | |
| 19 | Cleric ordered rector to leave Barking crematorium (5) | IMAUM | [CREMATORIUM]* ¬ [RECTOR]* | |
| 20 | East European tent not totally huge (8) | GEORGIAN | O | GER (tent) GIAN(t) (huge) |
| 23 | Part of building links to ancient keeps (4) | STOA | (link)S TO A(ncient) | |
| 24 | Grasshopper from rainy area (4) | WETA | WET (rainy) A(rea) | |
| 27 | Dieter’s one accepting new drink curbs (8) | ENCHAINS | EINS (one, Ger, Dieter’s) around N(ew) CHA (drink) | |
| 30 | Head coverings pages, perhaps, picked up (5) | CAULS | homophone CALLS (pages) | |
| 32 | Oil from fringe of tourist wearing boater (5) | OTTAR | T(ouris)T in OAR (boater) | |
| 34 | Recalled institute probing experiences from drugs and alcohol (6) | SPIRIT | I(nstitute) in TRIPS (experiences from drugs) all< | |
| 36 | Poison housing officer ignoring tenant in suburb (8) | BANLIEUE | BANE (poison) around LIEU(tenant) (officer) | |
| 37 | Border monitor leaves traps (4) | ORLE | (monit)OR LE(aves) | |
| 38 | Ship carrying four-winger planes (7) | SMOOTHS | O | SS (ship) around MOTH (four-winger) |
| 39 | Seizure of fancy rare stone (6) | ARREST | [RARE]* ST(one) | |
| 40 | Supplier to pub bar with early signs of growth (5) | BREER | BREWER (supplier to pub) ¬ W(ith) | |
| Down | ||||
| 1 | Bit clumsy under shower scrubbing bottom (6) | PELHAM | HAM (clumsy) after PEL(t) (shower) | |
| 2 | Register not in launch (7) | ROLLOUT | ROLL (register) OUT (not in) | |
| 3 | Climbing insect carrying yellow mineral (5) | TRONA | ANT (insect) around OR (yellow) all< | |
| 4 | Voodooist mother finally downgraded (5) | MAMBO | O | MAMA (mother) with last letter A ↓ B |
| 5 | Frame treacherous person disregarding Number One (5) | EASEL | (w)EASEL (treacherous person) | |
| 6 | With no time, switches off performances involving gliders (8, 2 words) | ICE SHOWS | O | [SWITCHES ¬ T(ime)]* |
| 7 | Edging meadows in different places (6) | I[N]CHING | INCH (meadow, Scot & Irish) ING (meadow, dialect) | |
| 8 | Rogue unashamedly knocking out lush spoiling celebration (7, 2 words) | NAME DAY | [UNASHAMEDLY]* ¬ [LUSH]* | |
| 10 | Abridged the article on upcoming hospital and military facilities abroad (6) | T[H]ANNAS | TH(e) AN (article) SAN< (hospital) | |
| 12 | Give up race, we’re told (4) | CEDE | homophone SEED (race) | |
| 13 | Comparison of metric measurement and imperial one (6) | SIMILE | SI (Système International, metric measurement) MILE (imperial …) | |
| 14 | Determined to surround a tent village (4) | D[O]UAR | DOUR (determined) around A | |
| 20 | Painted sign with rare paintbrushes (7) | G[R]AINERS | [SIGN RARE]* | |
| 21 | Nationalist quiet with really uplifting Greek verse (6) | NOSTOS | O | N(ationalist) ST (quiet) SO< (really) |
| 22 | Note piercing Mongol warrior, a horn blast (6) | [T]ANTARA | N(ote) in TATAR (Mongol warrior) A | |
| 25 | Caudal fin attached to river fish (6) | TAILOR | O | TAIL (caudal fin) R(iver) |
| 26 | Section around uniform, note, is gilded (6) | AUR[E]ATE | AREA (section) around U(niform) TE (note) | |
| 28 | One fixes drink that woman consumes (5) | H[E]ALER | ALE (drink) in HER (that woman) | |
| 29 | Couples with rubles raised capital (4) | [P]ARIS | PAIRS (couples) with R(ubles) earlier | |
| 31 | No longer lazy, tiler resolved to cover hotel (5) | LITHE[R] | [TILER]* around H(otel) | |
| 32 | Regularly seen Joe Blow on electronic instrument (4) | OBOE | (J)O(e) B(l)O(w) E(lectronic) | |
| 33 | Ian’s box is hidden in overturned container (4) | BU[I]ST | IS in TUB< (container) | |
| 34 | Cash in Rome once missed short shot (4) | SEMI[S] | [MISSE(d)]* | |
| 35 | Issue for Britain (4) | PROB | PRO (for) B(ritain) | |
A great puzzle on one of my favourite TV shows. ? It looks like I messed up the highlighting (I went for the A diagonally right below the T), but enjoyed nonetheless.
Nice puzzle again from eXternal. I missed the significance of the other balloons as I found the correct path out straight away and looked no further. I was not an avid follower of The Prisoner, though I had seen it long ago and the theme and the pictures of the extraordinary Pormeirion stay with you. I had forgotten about the balloon though!
Thanks to setter and blogger.
As I had failed to finish the previous one in this series, it was good to complete this one. I had to resort to some online resources to help me find the thematic quotation, but I remembered Rover and Number Six. Great fun to be reminded of this iconic series.
Jon S @1: I’ve had a look at your blog and it seems to me that your path is in fact shorter than the one HG has used, and is therefore correct!
bridgesong @4: that move from the T at the end of 2d ROLL OUT to the A at the beginning of 29d ARIS would go through either the bar below the T or the bar above the A and so is not valid.
I probably should have paused and recollected the two or three famous things about The Prisoner, but memory traces of previous iterations of this series had primed me to cut and run, which is what I did between the completion of the grid and the fourth furrow-browed rereading of the rubric (‘monitored by a guardian’?) As so often, it’s a little easier than it seems, when you understand the instructions.
Thanks to eXternal and HolyGhost
The theme of this puzzle was familiar to me as I watched most of the original TV series and remembered it well enough not to have to look anything up.
I completely missed the hint given by the prisoner’s name (Number 6), finding the path easily enough without it. It was a neat touch, though, in a well-constructed puzzle.
A few times previously I have come across the device whereby letters are dropped from some solutions to one of the edges to form a key, and I enjoyed this implementation of it. The thematic design cleverly exploited the equal letter counts of the name at the top, the protagonist at the bottom and the part-quote to overwrite the title of the protagonist (and of the series).
(The O of OTTAR was potentially missing from the wordplay T in TAR [instead of TT in OAR], but the same O in OBOE was part of its wordplay, and there were already five Os!)
Thanks to eXternal and HolyGhost.
HolyGhost @5 I didn’t consider that we might have to avoid bars, as it wasn’t mentioned in the preamble, though avoiding them is consistent with other puzzles in the series.
Did anyone else consider that the protagonist could be the second I in PORTMEIRION? As in “trapped” in an IRON curtain?
“The Prisoner himself is known as Number 6 so the escape route starts at the first I in PORTMEIRION”
I’ve read this statement about 6 times and still can’t see the logic! Can someone please explain it to Mr Thicky here?
I sort of guessed what needed to be done and that IAMAFREEMAN would be the final substitution but couldn’t (and still can’t) really understand the ‘route’ instructions. What specifically is meant by an unmonitored cell? Why is the shortest route not, for example, going from the I in the top row to the C directly below it? And why are the cells in pink highlighted so? These aren’t rhetorical questions by the way….
Bingy @10: I will try to explain. Patience …
Bingy @10: The top row gives the location PORTMEIRION, the bottom row identifies the protagonist The Prisoner, who is known as Number 6. The rubric says “solvers must identify the protagonist in the location and …” so the escape route starts at the first I (cell labelled 6) in PORTMEIRION.
The route has alternating vertical & horizontal moves but is not allowed to pass through the cells marked with O as these are the “five cells monitored by a guardian”. (I also assumed that the route can’t cross bars.) The cells highlighted in green are the alternate ones that give the first part of the quote and I used pale pink to indicate the cells that the route goes through from one green cell to the next. Much of the path is forced though there are a couple of ambiguities (down then across or across then down), each leading to paths with the same length & cells to highlight.
Is that OK now?
Thanks HG. I hadn’t picked up that 6 was where the I was. I worked out the alternate letters stuff just after I posted but thanks for the explanation
Managed to solve everything except the replacement for ghd bottom line. I had “MYLIFEISMYOWN” making use of the black squares in the corners for the M and N.
Hugely enjoyed this one — thanks all round! I guessed what was happening (not seriously but as a wouldn’t-it-be-nice-if whimsy) at an early stage when I had no letters in the top row and saw the bottom row was set to start with THE. Maybe my subconscious registered the hints “Number One” (5D) and “Village” (14D). Wasted some time looking for sinister monitoring connected to answer Number Two — well, I suppose ROLLOUT is sort of what Rover did — but all those Os finally made the connection. A happy solve.
My progress was pretty much like HG’s except that I spotted THE PRISONER first and then immediately saw PORTMERION (being another of “that generation”). I agree the initial clue solving was quite gentle but I appreciated the two key words to facilitate the rest of the fill. I loved the devious misleads in some clues, 27A and 40A in particular. There is nothing in the preamble about not crossing bars so my escape route was like Jo’s, which is shorter. However, it does involve the only need to cross a bar.
And I never did manage to fully understand the last episode!
Thanks to eXternal for an enjoyable puzzle and to HG for his usual thorough job.
Dave W @16: Any route that starts in column 8 of row 1 and finishes in column 13 of row 12 having visited column 4 has at least 13 horizontal moves (4 west, 9 east) and 11 vertical moves (all south) giving a total of 24 moves. The path indicated in the blog (alternating green & pale pink) has 24 moves and therefore cannot be improved on.
What an enjoyable series of puzzles this is – thanks and congratulations to eXternal for continuing to come up with new maze concepts and long may they continue!
Similar to others have commented, once PORTMEIRION emerged in the top row things fell into place relatively quickly although it did take me a while to finish the bottom right corner. Knowing where the last few letters of the message had to appear was a big help with that.