Inquisitor 83 – Rockery by Charybdis

The preamble for this puzzle was fairly short, comprising only two sentences.

We were told that eight unclued entries were all instances of the second half of 45 across. One of the instances was to be formed from two of the unclued entries (1 down + 38 across).  One of the instances of the second half of 45 across was the whole of 45 across.  This got me thinking about areas of botany or biology where plants, birds or creatures are given latin names which can be constructed of two identical words – e.g. cygnus cygnus (whooper swan).  It turned out that I was thinking vaguely along the right lines, but the reality was a bit simpler once the second half of 45 across was deduced as PLANTS.

Secondly we were told that the completed grid would hold nine examples of what could be found in a rockery. These nine examples had to be highlighted before submission, so Hihoba’s comment on the Inquisitor of last week, that you don’t always have to solve the final step win the prize, doesn’t apply in this case. However, given my problems with this last bit, perhaps it would have been better for me if we didn’t have to highlight anything.

The clues were not difficult to solve. Indeed, I found this one of the easiest grids to fill for some time and completed the grid in under two hours.  That’s fast for me.  Many of the clues wouldn’t have been out of place in a daily cryptic of the kind blogged elsewhere on Fifteensquared.

The eight unclued plants were deduced as follows:
18 across: PERIWINKLE
23 across: PETUNIA
31 across: CRAB
39 across: ANEMONE
45 across SHRIMP PLANTS
1 down, 38 across: BLADDER NUT
28 down: LETTUCE

With the grid completed, it was now the time to seek the nine rockery examples of lengths 4, 4, 6, 6, 6, 7, 10, 10 and 12.  This was the most challenging part of the puzzle for me and I am not sure that I have got the right nine examples.  Initially, I went looking for species of alpine plants or heathers that might be found in a garden rockery but the appearance of MUSSEL (edible shellfish) in row 2 and LIMPET (mollusc that clings to rocks) in row 6 soon convinced me that we were being asked to look for examples of creatures or other living organisms that can be found in rock pools.

I felt that these would be located left to right across or vertically down, but I also had a good look at right to left, and up, as well as studying all sorts of diagonals in both directions.

It became apparent that some of the unclued entries would have to double duty as plants and creatures or seaweed in the rockery as the only way of getting 10 and 12 letter examples seemed to involve PERIWINKLE (as an edible gastropod with a shell), SEA-LETTUCE (seaweed) , and BLADDERWRACKS (more seaweed).

The only relevant seven letter word that I could find was ANEMONE (in its meaning as sea-anemone or soft-bodied polyp).

This left a six letter word and two four letter words for the rockery.

On the grounds that WINKLE was part of  PERIWINKLE, I plumped for SHRIMP (shellfish) as the remaining six letter word.

There is another six letter possibility in RED-EYE which is a rudd or roach. I think though that a roach is a freshwater fish and therefore unlikely to be found in rock-pools.

One four letter word, again doing double duty as a plant and a rock pool inhabitant, was CRAB (shellfish)

For the final four letter word, from the vaguely relevant words available, I had a choice of FISH (row 2) and LANT (row 13).  I decided that FISH was too generic, so I plumped for LANT which is another word for LAUNCE (an eel-like fish that buries itself in the sand at ebb-tide).  I am a bit unsure though whether the LANT ventures into rocks or just lives in open sand.

If you dig a bit further, and look at back-words and up-words as well, you can see KEEL (row 11), CERO (column 2), TIDE (column 9 up). and SEAL (column 13)   I couldn’t find anything relevant on any diagonal.  I am sure there are many rusted and broken KEELs lying abandoned on rocks all over the world.  A CERO is a large tropical West Atlantic fish, so probably not a frequent inhabitant of rock pools.  The TIDE comes in and out every day, creating rock pools along the way.  On holiday this year I saw many SEALs basking on rocks just by the shoreline as the sea crashed around them.  SEAL however is already part of SEA-LETTUCE.  

I have submitted my nine rockery inhabitants as BLADDERWRACK, SEA-LETTUCE, PERIWINKLE, ANEMONE, MUSSEL, LIMPET, SHRIMP, CRAB and LANT but I don’t feel confident.

When this blog goes live, I shall be camped on a farm in Cropredy, along with 20,000 others attending this year’s Fairport Convention annual festival, and won’t have access to a computer until Sunday.    I hope the weather holds out for the end of the week, but it’s not looking hopeful.