Inquisitor 1234: NIMROD’S UNIQUE NIGHT OUT by Nimrod

10 comments on “Inquisitor 1234: NIMROD’S UNIQUE NIGHT OUT by Nimrod”

1. I thought this was one of the cleverest puzzles I’ve ever done.

   I wrote CAPITAL QUIZ under the grid but I’m not sure that was right.

   Nimrod sets quizzes. I presume on the evening in question he made the fascinating discovery that the only countries to have unique initial letters in their capital city’s names are Ecuador, Mongolia, Pakistan and Croatioa; Q, U, I and Z, respectively. I find this discovery amazing — as Nimrod did.

   I spotted in the grid quite early on a few countries so tried to work out where some others could go. I then spotted the unclued letters Q, U, I and Z were in the corners of the grid. I made the connection with the capital cities and then I had a great penny-dropping moment when I realised he’d hidden all the capital cities diagionally in the grid.

   I think it’s the work of a genius!

2. I too struggled with this one. I’m just glad that it wasn’t my week to blog. I had no idea how the wordplay in 2a worked, so thanks Hi(HoBa) for that. Like you I would have had no idea what to write under the grid, there seemed to be no indication in the preamble. It was a rather long preamble so maybe some wording had to be cut due to space constraints. I always find it disappointing if there’s ambiguity or lack of instructions for the end game 🙁

   And I failed to make the “fascinating discovery” that they are the only word capitals that start with those letters. I’ll be amazing all my friends with my new-found knowledge! 😀

3. Yes – this one took a long time to finish. (I’d rate it 4 on the 1–5 scale.)

   Not only are QUITO, ULAN BATOR, ISLAMABAD and ZAGREB the only capitals to start with Q, U, I & Z respectively, but, as Tramp indicates at Comment 1, no other letter of the alphabet leads to a unique capital city – so I just wrote QUIZ below the grid.

   The wordplay for 32a NEMN (via ONE MAN – never heard of it) took an age; and I’m still not cpmpletely convinced by the wordplay for 6d DENY. (As for “leaves” in the clue for 1d, Hihoba’s comment “Couldn’t find any reason for this word.” seems apt.)

   But a very impressive grid construction. Thanks, Nimrod.

4. Amazing indeed. Managed to fill the grid but completely missed the capital cities and even with Hihoba’s excellent explanations of the substitutions find it difficult toget my head around it. 🙂

5. I put QUIZ CORNER as it seemed to be apt, but I agree that a bit more guidance about what was required would not have gone amiss (number of words, or letters, say).

6. Thanks to Hihoba for an excellent blog which revealed all. I’m afraid this puzzle was too tough for me (as are most IQs lately!)but, when I see the solution, I can see what a superb construction it was. My thanks and admiration to Nimrod.

   I think the original “Henderson Scale” was 1-3 (much too crude) and was unofficially adapted by bloggers to 1-5. I would definitely give this one a 5.

7. I also failed the wordplay test for the countries – luckily that didn’t stop me filling and highlighting the grid.

   I feel the rubric was unambiguous: “…key event should be named under the grid… The event’s letters are ignored in wordplay…” So QUIZ should be written under the grid.

   Thanks to Nimrod – very ingenious – and definitely to Hihoba for sorting everything out so clearly.

8. Many thanks Hi, Ho & Ba for a pretty thorough blog.

   It was certainly a ‘moment’ to discover that there are four and only four capital letters that lend themselves to each single capital, and then to find out they could be arranged as QUIZ, one of which I was running at the time (somehow I wasn’t alert to it at the setting stage!). The gradual dawning on me is reflected in the saving of this puzzle until the date of IQ 1,2,3,4 arrived.

   Individual clue comments/justifications:

   1dn (Q)UANTUM: ‘leaves’ is verbal – if you kick about (the letters of) AUTUMN, you ‘leave’ a word meaning ‘the smallest amount’.
   7ac PL(U): not much to work with here, but I hoped the clue abbreviations led to the abbreviation of Labour Party.
   43ac: IT, usually the minority, whether s/he is doing the catching or the avoiding. Cornish upbringing!
   6dn: density is how closely the molecules/atoms are packed in an entity – ‘how close’ seems fair to me.

   Finally, as John L says at #7, I can see no ambiguity with QUIZ being the necessary entry below the grid.

   Thanks for the great blog and kind comments (Tramp, you flatter me!) on this site and elsewhere, and also to Mark Goodliffe for performing many of the proof solving/editorial duties for this puzzle.

   John H

9. Another Inquisitor tour de force. Thanks Nimrod.

   It was only a sleepless night on Bert’s behalf that enabled us to solve the puzzle. Lying awake desperately trying to think of connections, the penny suddenly dropped. It was then frustrating not being able to write things down to confirm everything. Joyce was oblivious to all of this frantic brain activity and was somewhat shell- shocked when all was revealed (so to speak!) the next morning.

   Why we have never sent our completed entries off is sometimes a mystery – the challenge we suppose is in the solution and this certainly was one if those that left us amazed.

   Thanks again to Nimrod and Hihoba for the blog.

10. How about A – Z QUIZ to go under the puzzle?

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