In 21 clues, a word in the definition was cut short, and wrongly corrected with a different ending. The first letters of each original correct string reveal a quotation that points to 10 unclued entries. We have to highlight “the appropriately numbered grid entry”.
A novel device to generate the letters in the quotation, which would seem to make matters more difficult …
There appeared to be more clues than usual, but maybe that was because of the new format with a larger font. (More on this later.) Managed to solve a fair number of clues on the first pass, and find several letters in the quotation, particularly helpful being those from consecutive clues for the later across answers. The bottom right quadrant was coming along well, and just before breaking for dinner it looked like 49a would be (Amy) WINEHOUSE. Just as I sat down to eat, it came to me: the quotation had to be HOPE I DIE BEFORE I GET OLD (from “My Generation” by The Who).
Back from dinner, and very quickly (Robert) JOHNSON, (Brian) JONES, (Jim) MORRISON, (Janis) JOPLIN, (Kurt) COBAIN, and (Jimi) HENDRIX slotted in. Googling the first few ‘popular musicians’ made it clear that the link is that they all died aged 27; that led me to discover the 27 club, and hence the other three (who I’d never heard of): (Gary) THAIN, (Leslie) HARVEY, and (Alexandre) LEVY. The remaining clues yielded promptly (so nowhere near as difficult as I first thought it might be), and I was done, apart from digging out the final 3 or 4 correct endings. (I suspect many solvers would have baled out before doing so – a possible weakness in the puzzle? – having found the quotation, completed the grid, and highlighted the appropriately numbered grid entry: 27 DEAD.)
Back to the new format. On the plus side, it’s clearer and easier to annotate; on the minus side, the quality of the paper is lower (my pencil now cuts through), and the newsprint on the back obtrudes – plus the puzzle no longer fits into my boxed collection of the previous 330 Inquisitor puzzles – what a nuisance! (But we bloggers welcome unclued entries having numbered slots – it makes our life that bit easier – thanks.) John H (ed.) on the Crossword Message Board has some comments, and also refers to “[Nudd’s] extremely polished puzzle” – this led me to return to my completed puzzle to look for the ‘polish’. It was only after a while that I spotted a hidden depth: in all the (mis)corrected clues, the switch occurs immediately after the 27th character. So, hats off to Nudd, good on you – but if you wanted most of us to see that, a hint in the preamble would have been useful.
PS What a shame there was no room for Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, a founding member of the Grateful 27a.
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Answer | Correct definition |
Wordplay | |
| 1 | ICE CREAMS | H | Perth buckets … | ICE (diamonds) + C(arbon) + REAMS (much paper) |
| 8 | ÉLAN | ELIAN ({Charles} Lamb-like) − I(ndependent) | ||
| 11 | JOPLIN | unclued | ||
| 12 | BONCE | double definition {BONCE = large marble = PLONKER} | ||
| 14 | BLAGGER | O | scrounger | B(arre)L + AGGER (mound of wood) |
| 15 | THAIN | unclued | ||
| 16 | MAE WEST | EWE (crone) in MAST (part of schooner) | ||
| 19 | JONES | unclued | ||
| 20 | PISTACHIO | [H(enry) + APOSITIC]* | ||
| 22 | ÉTUI | (perp)ETUI(ty) | ||
| 25 | COSMOS | P | complex system | [MOSS]* after CO(mpany) |
| 27 | DEAD | DAD (father) around E(mployment) | ||
| 28 | EXACT | E | absolutely correct | EX(tra) + ACT (decree) |
| 29 | NERVE | R(uns) in NÉVÉ (granular snowfield) | ||
| 30 | NAPA | (J)APAN(ophile) rev. | ||
| 32 | HANSOM | [MASON]* after H(ot) | ||
| 34 | DREW | I | pulled string | D(utch) + REW (regret, poetic {Spenser}) |
| 36 | RANSOMERS | D | … price for freedom | RAN (chased) + SOME (a quantity of) + RS (rupees) |
| 38 | RISEN | I | turned hostile | [SIREN]* |
| 40 | CANTRIP | E | trickery … | CANT (inclination) + RIP (criticise) |
| 43 | IN-LAW | B | new husband might … | INLA (republican group) + W(omen) |
| 44 | ARCHAIC | E | no longer … use | ARCH (roguish) + CIA (Compañía, company, Sp.) rev. |
| 46 | ARENA | ARCANA (secret remedies) − CA(lifornia) around E(uropean) | ||
| 47 | HARVEY | unclued | ||
| 48 | LEVY | unclued | ||
| 49 | WINEHOUSE | unclued | ||
| Down | ||||
| No. | Answer | Correct definition |
Wordplay | |
| 2 | COBAIN | unclued | ||
| 3 | CLAW | LAW (share of expense, obs.) after C ($100) | ||
| 4 | RIG | F | set up to defraud | (un)RIG(ht) |
| 5 | ENGS | NG (no good) in ES (El Salvador, IVR) | ||
| 6 | ABET | ABLET (fish) − L(ake) | ||
| 7 | MORRISON | unclued | ||
| 8 | ECHOED | O | followed suit | H(earts) in E(ast) + COED (student, US) {ECHO is not really “follow suit”, so maybe my ‘corrected definition’ is wrong} |
| 9 | LEAN | GLEAN (gather leftovers) − G(ood) | ||
| 10 | ADIEU | R | cheerio | AU (African Union) around DIE (go west) |
| 11 | JUMP | E | jerk | J(udge) + UMP(ire) |
| 13 | INSIDER | INS(urance) + [RIDE]* | ||
| 17 | ESCAPE | (s)E(a)S(i)C(k) + APE (primate) | ||
| 18 | EASTERN | I | from the orient | EA (river, dialect) + STERN (iron) |
| 19 | JOHNSON | unclued | ||
| 21 | HOGAN | G | log home | HAN (Chinese) around OG (own goal) {why capital L for Loons’ in clue?} |
| 23 | TERMER | TEER (plaster, dialect) around R(oo)M | ||
| 24 | HENDRIX | unclued | ||
| 26 | MAHARANI | E | spouse of … state | [MARINA + HA(rbour)]* |
| 31 | AWEARY | T | once fatigued | AWE (dread) + ARY (any, dialect) |
| 33 | PRICES | PS(alm) around RICE (grass) | ||
| 35 | RINSE | O | wash by pouring … | RISE (surface) around N(oon) |
| 37 | SPRY | L | agile | R(iver) in SPY (beagle, obs.) |
| 39 | SLAV | S(tate) + LAV (lavatory, can) | ||
| 40 | CRAN | D | fresh landed … | CRANE (winch) − last letter |
| 41 | ACHE | CACHE (hiding place) − C(ollege) | ||
| 42 | TARO | R(oasted) in TAO (proper way) | ||
| 45 | HAH | HH (very hard) around A | ||
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Many thanks to Nudd and Holy Ghost.
Agree wholly with what you say about the 27th character cut-off point- what a shame this wasn’t somehow woven into the preamble although I appreciate this would have been difficult without giving the game away completely. As such this subtlety and the skill involved in the clue construction was virtually invisible and would have led many, myself included initially, to think the clue structures were somewhat arbitrary. Most of the pleasure came in unravelling the clues and wordplay ‘ex-post’, after the grid was complete: similar to this week’s puzzle.
Thanks for the blog. It wasn’t that easy a solve at first but things soon went in fairly smoothly until a few names became visible and Google did the rest. I must say that the 27th letter trick passed me by, and was maybe not really worth the compiler’s time and effort, since I imagine very few solvers will have noticed or even bothered to look.
I don’t think that it is a bad thing that solvers realise a puzzle was better than they thought when seeing the solution. (I might say that though as a similar thing happened on one of my puzzles just this week!) Anyway I don’t see how it could have been worked into the preamble without giving the game away. The gimmick seemed odd to me and if something is odd it is usually for a reason and as solvers of themed puzzles we should know to look deeper. It is rare to see gimmicks tied into the theme because it isn’t easy to do so Nudd should be applauded.
I agree with Norman @2
It always strikes me that if setter intends solver to discover something then solver should be forced to prove it somehow. Since there was no need to prove understanding of the 27th character cut-off (which completely passed me by) then its inclusion in the puzzle was a complete waste of time for most solvers. Likewise, I never bothered to work out the quotation.
The rest of the puzzle was great, the PDM on realizing that we were looking for member of the “27 Club” and that 27a was DEAD was excellent.
We really enjoyed this one. We guesed a few of the unclued entries early on and realised that they had all died young. Near the end we had a few gaps in the ‘set’ and decided to google some of the names. Thankfully the first hit on a random combination of about 4 members of the set led us to the connection. The rest as they say is history.
The quotation was easy to spot given it comes from one our favourite tracks from the 60s. Joyce’s stomach always suffered after live performances by the Who as it vibrated in time with the bass. It didn’t spoil the enjoyment though. One of the best live bands ever!!
Congratulations to Nudd and many thanks for the blog HolyGhost.
We’ve just read your blog in more detail and missed the comment about the 27th letter. To us it doesn’t seem like a waste of time as Nudd obviously wanted to set himself more of a challenge. We are sorry we missed it but our appreciation of the construction behind the theme has increased a notch! Well done Nudd and HolyGhost for spotting it!
Many thanks to all for your comments so far, and to HolyGhost for the blog. Sorry about Pigpen, I did try … and I’d also hoped to get Canned Heat’s Blind Owl Wilson in there but had to give up on both.
I’m particularly impressed that you revisited and unearthed the ‘cut short at 27’ in the thematic clues – I could not think of a smart way to allude to this without giving the game away, so it was just in there as a late Easter egg.
No Norman @2 and kenmac @4, doing that was far from a waste of time from my perspective. As Bertandjoyce suggest, it gave me an extra setting challenge plus the satisfaction of creating clues true to theme.
Besides which, once I had the idea, I just had to see it through, as a doff of the cap to Radix, a great advocate of thematic clueing (and of course one who has unselfishly given of his time and expertise in helping many a fledgeling setter).
My thanks again to all.