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.
Samuel usually produces fun puzzles and this was no exception. The device for generating extra words/letters was one I don’t remember seeing before and, for me anyway, made the puzzle a little tougher.
I managed to confuse myself because I was convinced we were looking for 8 clashes and also I was trying to read them left-to-right, top-to-bottom. Once I reread the preamble, I took an educated guess that there was one clash per column from column b to column k, which made it a bit easier to decide which entries didn’t clash.
After I had enough of the answers intersecting with the first unclued entry, JUST WILLIAM became a possible answer and I could see NAUGHTY BOY forming out of the clashes along with RICH as an extra word, in 1 down, led me to RICHMAL CROMPTON (1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10 and 17 down) who I knew was the author of the Just William stories. The last unclued entry took me a little longer as I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of HORRID HENRY. Horrid Henry was written by FRANCESCA SIMON (19, 23, 26, 28 and 32 down.) In a penny-dropping (or was it forehead-thumping) moment I realised that the alternate clashes formed THE MESSIAH. Of course, it’s a reference to LIFE OF BRIAN (11, 12, 18, 19, 27, 28, 29 and 35 across) when Brian’s mother says, “He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy!” the lead role, Brian, was played by Graham CHAPMAN (14 across) – the one clued entry giving us “leading” information.
This leaves us with the title, I guess it has a double meaning, BRAIN being a transplant (anagram) of BRIAN and having a brain transplant presumably might turn a messiah into a naughty boy.
This puzzle gets my vote for the best puzzle of the year so far 😉
HAPPY NEW YEAR everybody.
| Across |
|||||
| No. |
Clue (definition) |
Entry |
Superfluous word/letter |
Clash |
Wordplay |
| 11 | In recession, blag mostly solitary type | CASLON | L |
SAC (rev: in recession)+LONe (solitary; mostly) |
|
| 12 | Handkerchief’s no good if after watery liquids | NOSE RAG | IF |
NO+SERA (watery liquids)+Good | |
| 13 | Demands two sections carrying beer … | SALES/YALES | S/Y |
ALE (beer) inside Section+Section | |
| 14 | … traveller who supplies them clubs Chinese carrying torn map | CHAPMAN/CHHPMAN | A/H |
MAP (anag: torn) inside Clubs+HAN (Chinese) |
|
| 16 | Girl going topless for island | IONA/BONA | I/B |
fIONA (girl; topless) |
|
| 18 | Workers start to eat from beets |
ANTS | E |
ANTeS (bets) minus Eat (start) | |
| 19 | Passion in Seville’s about during tribute | DUENDE | O |
END (abut) inside DUE (tribute) | |
| 20 | Desire pastor departing settle | ITCH/INCH | T/N |
pITCH minus Pastor |
|
| 21 | Scots advocate vegetable – tons! |
PEAT/PHAT | E/H |
PEA (vegetable)+Tons |
|
| 25 | Great cockfight! | MAIN/GAIN | M/G |
(double definition) | |
| 26 | Boat returned old chant | YO-HO/YO-YO | H/Y |
HOY (boat; rev: returned)+Old |
|
| 27 | Melt over sister holding feast for one who cares | NURSER | F |
RUN (melt; rev: over)+East inside SR (sister) |
|
| 28 | Brock died after search and rescue |
SARD | B |
SAR (search and rescue)+Died |
|
| 29 | Gentlemen jeer missing bit of TV special | SIRS | R |
STIR (jee) minus Tv (bit of) |
|
| 30 | Chap marks all but unknown mineral for Australian reef | BOMBORA/BOMBARA | O/A |
BO (chap)+Marks+BORAx (mineral) minus X (unknown) |
|
| 32 | Ring hospital leaving journalist covered with plants | ALOED/ALOUD | E/U |
hALOE minus Hospital+EDitor (journalist) |
|
| 33 | Administrative trainee mixed brain drug | ATABRIN/ASABRIN | T/S |
AT (administrative trainee)+BRAIN (anag: mixed) |
|
| 35 | Eye up Ian in action for people who got blunt |
PAYEES | IAN |
EYE (anag: up) inside PAS (action) |
|
| Down |
|||||
| No. |
Clue |
Entry |
Superfluous letter/word |
Clash |
Wordplay |
| 1 | Judge ceremonies with rich fellow quitting unions |
JUNCTIONS | RICH |
Judge+fUNCTIONS (ceremonies) minus Fellows | |
| 2 | Band’s always up north pulling out of excursion |
SASH/SASA | H/A |
SASHay (excursion) minus AY (always; N. Eng.) |
|
| 3 | Beatings with mace are from beaks | WARMS | M |
With+Ace+RMS (Residential Magistrates (plural)) |
|
| 4 | Palma’s part of sunlit area | ITA | A |
sunlIT Area (hidden: part of) |
|
| 5 | Plan’s exotic, with love at first for women |
LAYOUT/LASOUT | Y/S |
Love (at first)+wAYOUT (exotic) minus Women |
|
| 6 | Drab girl | ISABEL/ISAIEL | B/I |
(double definition) | |
| 7 | Caught out, appeal to least unimportant | ALL ONE | L |
cALL ON (appeal to) minus Caught+East |
|
| 8 | Initially censure empty needless existence | ENS | C |
Ensure (initially)+NeedlesS (empty) |
|
| 9 | To be forgotten, disturbed Van Gogh severing top of visage |
GO HANG/GO HATG | N/T |
vAN GOGH (anag: disturbed) minus Visage (top of) |
|
| 10 | End romp with priest for bit of added intensity |
DEPTH | ROMP |
DEaTH (Priest replaces Added (bit of)) |
|
| 15 | Accepted fish as curry ingredient |
ACHAR/ACEAR | H/E |
Accepted+CHAR (fish) | |
| 17 | A ton love having English at the forefront with variable weather forecasting |
AEROMANCY | TON |
A+ROMANCE (love; English moves to front)+Y (variable) | |
| 19 | Drum’s nearly raised floor before France’s kick-off |
DAIKO | FRANCES |
DAIs (raised floor; nearly)+KO (kick-off) |
|
| 22 | Hospital dry out one cold, full of damp | HYDRIC/HHDRIC | Y/H |
Hospital+DRY (anag: out)+I (one)+Cold | |
| 23 | Car comic footballer’s got over canyon |
ARROYO | C |
AR+ROY (comic footballer: Roy of the Rovers) |
|
| 24 | Publisher is plaintiff |
ISSUER/ISSEER | U/E |
IS+SUER (plaintiff) | |
| 25 | Low-down, the German kind in history | GENDER/MENDER | G/M |
GEN (low down)+DER (the in German) |
|
| 26 | Beginning to yell as cat decapitated Bruce’s fish? |
YABBY | AS |
Yell (beginning)+tABBY (cat; decapitated) |
|
| 28 | I’m to fail member trapped by frame | SMASH | IM |
Member inside SASH (frame) |
|
| 31 | Adult fled island | ARAN/ORAN | A/O |
Adult+RAN (fled) | |
| 32 | Leap on explorer trapping primate |
APE | ON |
leAP Explorer (hidden: trapping) |
|
| 34 | Ground vulgar figure | SOD/TOD | S/T |
(double definition) | |
We would agree with you kenmac that this puzzle by Samuel is the best so far this year – although there’s still a lot of enjoyment to come!
The penny dropping moment was brilliant, especially as we are avid fans of Monty Python. Joyce is still reading their biography when she can’t sleep at night! The missing letters and words made it more difficult but definitely more intriguing.
Thanks Samuel for an excellent puzzle and kenmac for the flashy blog – we do love them!
This is Samuel‘s second Inquisitor puzzle with “Life of Brian” as the theme (the previous one was Legacy from May-10), and a good start to the year; hats off to him for ensuring that the correct resolutions to the clashes result in real words both across and down – my initial concern with the apparent failure at 31d was allayed when I discovered that ORAN is a major city in northwestern Algeria.
Ken – thanks for the blog, but your grid needs C in cell 2g (not G). And I suggest that the wordpaly for 3d is W(ith) + A(ce) + RAMS (beaks) − A(re).
Re #2
Ah, thanks H___ G____. Looks like a small transposition error crept in there. I’ll fix the grid tonight.
As for 3d, I admit that this one eluded me for ages, I was convinced it was WORMS until a friend helped me out. His explanation satisfied me but I can see that yours is better. It would be intersting to see if Samuel is lurking, perhaps he’ll supply the “correct” answer.
Agreed – a lovely puzzle, if perhaps at the easier end of the scale. But a nice introduction to the New Year nonetheless.
I parsed 3d in the same way as HolyGhost, although it took me quite a while and I only really got it once I’d worked out the additional letter to complete the theme.
A lovely puzzle. This is the first barred-grid puzzle that I’ve done with clashes and I thought it was hard but unbelievably clever. I’d love to know how he filled the grid with the clashes so that they make real words in both directions when resolved.
Super stuff
A fine puzzle.
If you haven’t heard of Horrid Henry that can only mean you don’t have any sons. The audiobook versions by the wonderful Miranda Richardson, seem to have been the soundtrack to my driving for the past 4 years…
Thanks, Kenmac, for the blog, and I’m pleased that solvers enjoyed the puzzle.
HolyGhost’s parsing of 3dn is correct – W (with) + A (ace) + R(a)MS, a RAM being a ship’s beak, according to Chambers. And, Tramp, in answer to your question – with difficulty!!