Inquisitor 72 — Neighbours by Lato

I nearly didn’t finish this puzzle. I was a page turn from giving up despite having completed the grid. I had no idea what the theme was and with a couple of ambiguous answers from the misprinted definitions I was uncertain that I had a correct grid. I reasoned that if I understood the theme then I would be able to resolve the ambiguities.

The preamble was a little confusing. Three local 32s and then several ways to get to them or with what they are associated. Why the multiple routes? If the 10 misprinted definitions are enough then why the 6 extra words. To start with I decided to ignore the theme and just hammer away at the clues. I managed to get all the answers due to the fair, if occasionally tough, cluing. My only error was writing in NERD at 15, seeing REN as a variation of RUN. This held me up on AINUS at 1 for longer than the clue warranted.

When I decided that 32 was WRITERS I wondered what ‘local writers’ could possibly mean. Local to where. So, the next step was to plug away at the misprinted definitions. There were a lot of ambiguities in these, deliberately I assume. For instance, I had Nard = Lard = GREASE (wrong misprint, wrong answer) and Old dish = Old dosh = BRASS (right misprint, wrong answer). When I finally got the first misprint as a J I had enough to guess at a phrase: JUST LOOK UP.

I spent the next few minutes looking up the vertical columns hoping to see something. I didn’t. Now, I often do the Inquisitor with a photocopy or scan of just the puzzle. Had this been the case here I would never have got this one. This time, however, I had the original but I had it folded in half on my crossword clipboard (yes, very sad). The penny dropped: JUST LOOK UP THE PAGE! I unfolded the sheet and, Yes!, three writers at the top of the page, the three games columnists—neighbours of the crossword setter.

So I got it, but only just. This would clearly not have worked as an online puzzle despite my desire to see the Inquisitor available online. I also take it that Lato would have needed Mike Laws to arrange for it to be published when the three standard columnists are up there. Over all an enjoyable if frustrating puzzle. I still don’t fully understand how all of the 6 extra words help, see below for tentative explanations, but hopefully someone out there will or the solution will make it clear.

Here’s the solution explained part by part, misprinted definitions first:

J	Goes on Jet	EMPLANES	for a while I tried to fit EMULATES or EMBLAZES
U	Punch briefly	MAG	short for magazine, as Punch was.
S	Place near Neston	RABY	at least I assume RABY is near Neston.
T	Stout material	MOREEN
L	Fold mark	CREASE	I considered ‘foot mark’ for a while, ref. cricket.
O	Lyon’s handle	NOM	French name.
O	Old dosh	RHINO	old slang for money.
K	Nark	GRASS	slang for informer.
U	Dunny	JOHN	dunny = toilet.
P	Puller	TOWER

 

Six of these led to each of the three writers via a homophone, one very dodgy!—but the preamble warned about this, of their first name and an anagram of their surname:

CREASE RABY	Chris Bray
JOHN EMPLANES	Jon Speelman
MOREEN RHINO	Maureen Hiron

 

The other four led to the games they wrote about via different word plays:

NOM MAG	Backgammon (reversal)
GRASS	Chess (a type of grass)
TOWER	Bridge (Tower Bridge)

 

The six extra words are, I think: VICAR’S, PLACE, CLIMB, HILL, HELLO, HARRY. I think that as pairs they lead to the surnames, again, but I have two different interpretations, neither of which I am 100% certain about. In clue order these could be:

VICAR’S PLACE	Bray	ref Vicar of Bray
CLIMB HILL	Speelman	CLIMB = speel, how does HILL = man
HELLO HARRY	Hiron	HELLO = hi, how does HARRY = ron

 

I just can’t quite tie these together so an alternative explanation is:

VICAR’S PLACE	Bray	ref Vicar of Bray
CLIMB HARRY	Speelman	CLIMB = speel, HARRY is a man, but is this enough?
HELLO HILL	Hiron	HELLO = hi, Ron HILL was a famous runner but is he famous enough?

 

This is the one unsatisfying aspect to the puzzle for me, though it might be my stupidity or I might have messed up one of the extra words by misinterpreting one of the clues.

Finally, just to make things a little tougher, the clues to 3 and 4 were printed against the wrong numbers and 41 was 8 letters long rather than 7 as enumerated.

Across
10	HILAR	HILAR(y)	Hilary is one of the legal terms and a term in at least one old university.
11	MERELY	ME+RE(al)LY
12	INWRAP	IN+W+RAP
13/14	AGAMID	GAM in AID	VICAR’S is the extra word here.
15	NURD	(‘D RUN)<	NERD is the spelling I know so I made it fit for a while.
16	DEMISTER	(M1+DESERT)*	“largely deserted” is a little on the vague side meaning 5, 6 or 7 letters.
17	SCAUR	U in SCAR
19	ATHEISE	IS in A+THEE	THEE is used by the Quakers when addressing people at meetings, though to me it is how my grandad used to speak, thee, thy, and thou are not as common as they used to be in the Yorkshire dialect but they still crop up among older speakers.
21	SHOG	GOSH*	PLACE is the extra word here.
25	ROC	“rock”	rock is a danger.
27	WRICK	R in WICK	Wick is a town in northern Scotland.
29	SELSEY	LESS* + YE<	Selsey is a town in southern England.
31	ENOW	E+WON<	ENOW is a Scots word meaning “a moment ago”.
34	ORMER	fORMERly
36	JEANETTE	A+NET in JETE	JETE is a ballet jump.
37	OVER	(r)OVER	CLIMB is the extra word here.
38	HAVANA	HAVANA(t)	Havant isn’t as far as I know a hill town so HILL must be the extra word here.
39	DECREE	DE+CREE
40	SAVES	S(l)AVES
41	SNORTERS	(N+RESORTS)*
42	LAWS	(f)LAWS
Down
1	AINUS	IN in AUS	the Ainu are a Japanese people who are, apparently, hairier then normal.
2	YARDAGE	AG in READY*
3	GRADUS	GRA(n)D+US
4	EMPEROR	PER in ROME<
5	MERMAN	R+M(ean) in MEAN	HELLO is the extra word here.
6	LEGSHOW	LEG+(WHO’S)*	what a strange concept. I guess it’s an older equivalent of pole dancing?
7	ALATE	AL+ATE	Al Capone.
8	EMIR	(p)RIME<
9	SUDDEN	S(o)UNDED*
18	COWL	COW+L
20	SECO	EC in SO	EC = Eastern Central post code area comprises EC1, EC2, EC3 and EC4, and includes the City of London.
22	HOER	HO(m)ER	Homer Simpson.
23	EINE	E(qu)INE
24	REENACT	REE+(CAN’T)*	REE is a female Ruff, a wading bird.
26	CLOTHES	LOT in CHES(s)
28	REMOVAL	REM+OVAL	REm is a US rock band, the OVAL is a London cricket ground.
29	SWINGS	WING in SS
30	OSTLER	ST(a)LE in OR	OR = Other Ranks = men.
33	TAMER	(R+TAME)*	very clever clue here HARRY is the extra word “Potter’s term” gives R and Weasely serves as a reasonable anagrind given what it adds to the surface.
35	RENEW	WEN(g)ER<	ref. Arsene Wenger, Arsenal manager.