Inquisitor 1207
An unusually shaped grid this time. Also, it turns out, some of the bars and borders were missing from the published grid, which is a shame. On inspection, the grid is actually 13×13 with 8 squares missing. A quick email to our editor and I had a proper copy of the grid:
OK, so the preamble tells us that we need to remove two letters from each of ten rows (rows 3 through 12) and we need to remove one letter from nine columns (columns 3 through 11 – c through k in my grid.) The first of these letters in each row has to be moved to the leftmost column (labelled A) and the second to be moved to the rightmost column (labelled B.) The extra letters in the columns have to be moved to the bottom row (labelled C.) After all this jiggery-pokery we’ll be able to find five thematic names and, cryptically, 1 across (unclued) is the starting point.
Schadenfreude is one my favourite setters and his clues are always sound. With the removal of letters, I found some of the clues a bit tricky. A couple of the answers are girls’ names, which always make things a bit more awkward.
As things were revealed, I began to see FOURTEENTH and OF DECEMBER appearing in columns A and B. Coupled with the title, I had a look to see what happened on December 14th 1911 and sure enough, I find that that’s the day that Amundsen reached the South Pole. He started his journey from the BAY OF WHALES, which I find
lurking in 1 across – aha, makes sense now!
The finished grid reveals Roald AMUNDSEN(g5), Olav BJAALAND(e5), Helmer HANSSEN(c6), Sverre HASSEL(k7) and Oscar WISTING(i6) standing (like poles) just above SOUTH POLE in row C (13 in my grid) with Amundsen (the expedition leader) in the middle.
A nice puzzle but I would have preferred the title to be a bit more cryptic. Is it me or have Inquisitor titles become a bit too obvious recently?
Anyway, thanks Schadenfreude.
| Across |
Displaced
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|||||
| No. | Clue (definition underlined) | Answer | Left | Right | Entry | Wordplay |
| 8 | Female soldiers captured by resistance group try to escape | RUN FOR IT | RUN FOR IT | F(emale)+OR (soldiers: other ranks) inside R(esistance) UNIT (group) |
||
| 11 | A digger in favour of King and Queen | FORKER | F | ORKER | FOR (in favour of)+K(ing)+ER (Queen Elizabeth II) |
|
| 12 | Newspaper material out of South Africa | ORGAN | O | RGAN | ORGAN[za] minus ZA (South Africa) |
|
| 14 | A Viking profligate regularly seen with Olaf |
SEA WOLF | O | F | SEAWL | S[e]E[n] (regularly)+W(ith)+OLAF (anag: profligate) |
| 15 | Rail without afternoon transport service | SORBUS | U | SORBS | SOR[a] (rail) (minus A(fternoon))+BUS (transport) |
|
| 16 | Awfully rude, like street dances | RUEDAS | D | RUEAS | RUDE (anag: awfully)+AS (like) |
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| 17 | Research covering hard powdery crusts | REHS | R | EHS | H(ard) inside RES[earch] | |
| 18 | King of Scotland lacking energy gets stuck | JAMS | JAMS | JAM[e]S (Scottish king) (minus E(nergy)) |
||
| 20 | Desolate tenor occupying local head’s pad | WASTE | E | WAST | T(enor) inside WASE (head) | |
| 21 | Percussion instrument in a black light metal | ATABAL | T | AABAL | AT (in)+A+B(lack)+AL[uminium] (metal) |
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| 23 | Christian monogram denoting “hand” in speech | CHI-RHO | C | HI-RHO | CHIRO- (denoting hand) (homophone: in speech) |
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| 24 | Take nurse round US city | RENO | E | RNO | R (take)+EN (nurse)+O (round) | |
| 25 | Nick in India hasn’t time for a woman | ANNA | ANNA | [t]ANNA (no T(ime)) | ||
| 27 | Wendy regularly sat in hospital chair | SEDAN | E | SDAN | [w]E[n]D[y] (regularly) inside SAN[atorium] (hospital) |
|
| 28 | Wall climbing without coloured helmet | SALADE | E | SALAD | S[c]ALADE (wall climbing) (without C(olour)) |
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| 30 | Note my Parisian base | MESE | M | ESE | MES (my in France)+E (base) | |
| 31 | Former local earl has escaped from violent attack | ONST | N | OST | ONS[e]T (E(arl) has escaped) | |
| 32 | Bliss, close to ecstasy, shocked the old crones | SYBILS | B | SYILS | BLISS+[ecstas]Y (close to) (anag: shocked) |
|
| 34 | Wheat extract judged to inhibit sexual activity | SEITEN | T | E | SEIN | IT (sexual activity) inside SEEN (judged) |
| 35 | Last king to appear in French coin | DERNIER | DERNIER | R (king) inside DENIER (French coin) |
||
| 36 | Gardener holding new edger | HONER | H | R | ONE | N(ew) inside HOER (gardener) |
| 37 | Dutch financier and director retaining European tax | DANEGELD | DANEGELD | E(uropean) inside D(utch)+ANGEL (financier)+D(irector) |
||
| Down | Displaced | ||||
| No | Clue (definition underlined) | Answer | Down | Entry | Wordplay |
| 1 | Bishop stood up to catch old Macdonald’s matrimonial race | BROOSE | BROOSE | O(ld) inside B(ishop)+ROSE (stood up) |
|
| 2 | Orkney’s dissolute young men of old | YONKERS | O | YNKERS | ORKNEYS (anag: dissolute) |
| 3 | Share trading facility during exchange | OFEX | OFEX | OF (during)+EX(change) |
|
| 4 | Rambling rose planted in flat ground of wooded area | FORESTAL | T | FORESAL | ROSE (anag: rambling) inside FLAT (anag: ground) |
| 5 | He screens infectious diseases caught by that woman | HIDER | HIDER | ID (infectious diseases) inside HER (that woman) |
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| 6 | The French women seen in very up-to-date stockings | LEGWEAR | LEGWEAR | LE (the in French)+W(omen) inside GEAR (very up-to-date) |
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| 7 | Rocks stand up undivided splitting ship | SANDSTONES | SANDSTONES | STAND (anag: up)+ONE (undivided) inside SS (ship) |
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| 9 | A second time with this girl can make Nostradamus happy | ROSAMUND | ROSAMUND | NOSTRADAMUS is an anagram of: A+S(econd)+T(ime)+ROSAMUND |
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| 10 | Associate with showy exterior in the manner of some Ethiopian Jews | FALASHAS | FALASHAS | A(ssociate) inside FLASH+AS (in the manner of) |
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| 13 | Illustrious woman, quiet, in leather | ROSHAN | S | ROHAN | SH (quiet) inside ROAN (leather) |
| 19 | Note produced by second stringed instrument | SHARP | P | SHAR | S(econd)+HARP (stringed instrument) |
| 21 | Melodious air rendered by soprano in the beginning and end of Otello | ARIOSO | ARIOSO | AIR (anag: rendered)+S(oprano) inside O[tell]O (beginning and end) |
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| 22 | Neckwear absent for weak rowing fanatic | BOATIE | BOATIE | BOW TIE (neckwear) with A(bsent) substituted for W(eak) |
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| 26 | Moorland grass spread northwards over delta | NARD | NARD | RAN (rev: northwards)+D(elta) |
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| 27 | Money German invested in very good vintage malt liquor | STINGO | O | STING | TIN (money)+G(erman) inside SO (very good) |
| 29 | Ground enclosing posh poet’s grassy place | LAUND | U | LAND | U (posh) inside LAND (ground) |
| 30 | Life hasn’t begun for this woman | ELLIE | L | ELIE | [n]ELLIE (life) (hasn’t begun) |
| 32 | Female supporting special psychotherapy | SHEN | H | SEN | S(pecial)+HEN (female) |
| 33 | Blind happiness for some | SEEL | E | SEL | double definition |
I thought this was a majestic offering from Schadenfreude, all those Scandinavian surnames standing neatly on the South Pole.
Shifting letters left and right, &/or up and down, seems to be something of a trademark of his. Does anyone recall setters other than Schadenfreude using this device in an Inquisitor puzzle?
And yes, the title wasn’t in the least bit cryptic (just as some of his others this year).
PS Ken: Your row-column indications for AMUNDSEN(i6), BJAALAND(g6), HANSSEN(e7), HASSEL(m8) and WISTING(k7) are somewhat squiffy.
Rats! A bit early on the Christmas sherry!!
Fixed now.
Thanks H___ G____
I thought this was pretty stunning too. I got to it by a slightly different route, finding BAY OF ?H???? on the top row. I had never heard of the Bay of Whales before my delve into Wikiland, knew no details at all of Amundsen’s expedition. It clearly could easily have gone as badly wrong as Scott’s! You do get educated doing the Inquisitor!
Thanks for the blog Kenmac – it’s not easy to cope with all that displacement activity in tabular form.