Shark has set a number of Inquisitor puzzles and each has been very satisfying.  I blogged one focused on Socrates and his comment that he didn’t know there were so many things he could do without.  Having glanced at many catalogues and websites over the Christmas period, I can tell him that nothing has changed.

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I rather enjoyed Ferret‘s two previous Inquisitor puzzles – and I enjoyed this one too, though it proved less difficult than it first seemed. The grid is 9 × 13, and essentially split into left & right with almost negligible overlap. Clues are paired, separated by an extra word, the first answer being entered on the left, the second in the mirror image slot on the right.
 
“All entries are consistent with the theme so solvers will have to make one square do double duty and will need to withdraw some entries entirely.” {Remove, or enter R to L? That’s for us to discover.} Initial letters of the extra [separating] words define a phrase (4,4) to be entered in the barred off central column.

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Preamble: Across and down answers clash in 10 cells. Read from left to right, these give a case of mistaken identity, which must be resolved in favour of the correct identity, the mistaken one being discarded. One clued entry gives leading information. Eight across and twelve down clues contain a superfluous letter or word to be removed before solving. Across removals give the title of the thematic work; down removals give the creators of two highlighted literary examples of similarly correct identities.

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A new setter this week – eXternal (not quite sure why the strange capitalisation).  Standard rubric with wordplay leading to extra letters which led to a quote and the quoter. We had to find a group (including the quoter) in the grid.

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Rasputin is the pseudonym of a group of three crossword setters (Artix, Chalicea and Ilver).  I only know that because Chalicea admitted to their composition by commenting on a previous Inquisitor crossword by Rasputin.  This is Rasputin’s third apperarance in the Inquisitor series (previously 1170 and 1223).

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Having aggregated the “votes” for the most favoured Inquisitor puzzles of 2012, I can now reveal the outcome:
 
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2012 was, I hope you’ll agree, a great year for the Inquisitor Crossword. As we roll on into another year and with plenty more excellent puzzles already in production, I hope you won’t mind my recording thanks to all the brilliantly inventive setters involved, from the “old hands” like Schadenfreude, Lato and Kruger, to the “new kids on the block” like Shark, Jambazi and Gila; as well as bloggers, commenters, editors and my invaluable solving team.

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Haven’t seen Glow-worm for nearly a year now, so welcome back. I’ll be hiking on Gran Canaria when this comes out, and won’t be checking any comments until I return.
 
Each of seven clues has “ingested” an object, just like the 18a. Each object forms the first element of a two-part phrase, the second element of which provides one of the shaded (not!) spaces in the grid. In conventional order, the “ingestions” lead to an inevitable outcome: 1a, 36a!

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Preamble: In nine cells (adjacent or diagonally adjacent), letters clash. These clashes must be resolved appropriately so that all entries are real words. The resolved clashes, starting in the top row, define 37 in the context of the completed grid.

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Wow Lato! Another in this latest series of superb Inquisitors.

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Although Jambazi has appeared in the Independent daily puzzle series, this is his first Inquisitor puzzle.

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Eclogue is a setter new to the Inquisitor, though I gather from Dave Hennings’ Crossword Database that they have featured in Magpie over the last couple of years. (I say “they” because a Google search indicates that Eclogue is a partnership comprising Eclipse & Logogriph.)
 
All clues have an extra letter to be removed before solving; these letters spell out a question, to be resolved by changing 12 letters to give the submission grid. (The letter in cell 5 completes the question.) Other thematic material is to be found at regular intervals throughout the clues.

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Preamble: Several clues contain words to be extracted before solving. These surplus words fall into 6 consecutive blocks of 4, each block providing material to define two further words: one of each pair is an otherwise unclued grid entry, the other a word that differs from that entry in a consistent way. Filling in the central square, solvers must highlight two names – the pseudonym of one, in conjunction with other features of the puzzle, will reveal the setter of this puzzle to be entered over the grid, while the equivalent remnants of the pseudonym of the other must be highlighted in an unclued entry.
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Ferret’s only previous crossword in this series was 1213 earlier this year – Twenty blocks and twenty bars – and the rubric mentioned 90 degree symmetry. This time it was the more conventional 180 degree symmetry involved, but with a splendid twist which made this a most unusual grid. So thanks to Ferret for a very clever offering. The grid must have been very difficult to compile!

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Schadenfreude is a prolific setter who produces interesting puzzles which almost always have real words in the solution even after letters have been added to or changed in the grid.  This Inquisitor maintained these standards.

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