Inquisitor 1284: A to Z by Schadenfreude

Anyone who thought that Schadenfreude might be getting tired – think again!
 
I find it impossible to paraphrase the preamble, so here it is in full:
      “One letter must be changed in the definition part of eight clues. The new letter must be removed from the answer before it is entered in the grid in titular fashion. Each of these grid entries is a jumbled example of a 10dn 1ac. The initial letters of the unjumbled examples can be arranged to form another example (X), for which (disregarding 19) the title cryptically provides temporal confirmation. An instruction relating to X which will enable grid completion is spelt out by single letters to be removed from the other 34 clues, never leaving a non-word.”
 
Quite a lot going on here!

I can’t say that progress was fast (but it wasn’t too slow either). I finally discovered my first of the ‘8 specials’ when I solved 34d – the very last clue – the answer being SHOAT, the S to be removed, and the rest entered in alphabetical order (“titular fashion”): AHOT. A little later I also had 39a MAROONED and 7d RAIL-BORNE. Since each of these entries was “a jumbled example of a 10dn 1ac”, I guessed OATH (right), DOORMEN (wrong), and AIRBORNE (right). Then I got 35a LOOKER, entered as EKLOR, for which I had no guess.

The “letters to be removed from the other 34 clues” were shaping up to read HIGHLIGHT … … KNIGHT’S then probably MOVES (reminiscent of Schadenfreude’s Inquisitor #28, from July 07), which we’d need to do in order to complete the barred off central cell. I had a few letters in “10dn 1ac”, but not enough until I solved 17a as ABUTTERS, leapt to DERBY WINNER, and the penny more or less dropped. So, thus far I had OATH, ORMONDE, AIRBORNE, and RELKO; I needed another 4 and by now it was pretty clear which were the associated clues.

Armed with this, and the letters already in 9d, 12a, & 40a, it wasn’t too much of a task to figure out the associated Derby winners NIMBUS, CREPELLO, & HENBIT, then back out the answers to the clues: OMNIBUS, COMPELLER, & BENIGHT. Now I could look for “X”, the 9th winner, for which I had 7 of the 8 letters from the initials of the winners I’d found: this gave me CORONACH, which won in 1926 (disregarding “19” leaves “26”, i.e. “cryptically temporal confirmation” from the title A to Z). So the answer to 26d had a spare N, leading me to the CORNICE, and the final winner CICERO.

All done, except for following the “instruction relating to X” to HIGHLIGHT IT IN GRID USING KNIGHT’S MOVES. The different letters in CORONACH occupy no fewer than 68 of the 168 filled in the grid so far! But given that the tour had to pass through the central cell there were only three possibilities for our ‘knight’ to jump into and/or out of there, so thankfully the route from row 5, col.13 to row 6, col.3 wasn’t too hard to dig out, depositing the N in the middle empty cell.

In summary, apart from CORONACH (1926), the Derby winners are:

CICERO (1905)
OATH (1999)
RELKO (1963)
ORMONDE (1886)
NIMBUS (1949)
AIRBORNE (1946)
CREPELLO (1957)
HENBIT (1980)

There were a couple of Schadenfreude’s trademark references in the clues: ‘sex’ in 5a and ‘toilet’ in 36a, but no ‘vomit’ this time round. Thanks go to him for a great puzzle – really, really enjoyable to solve.

Across
No.	Answer	Removal /       Correction		Wordplay
1	WINNER			unclued
5	SQUABBY	H:	hit	QU(een) in SA (sex appeal, it) + BABY (young child) − A(bout)
10	DISCO	I:	musical parity (def.)	DISC (record) + O(rdinary)
11	EMBLIC	G:	rungs	[CLIMBER]* − R(uns)
12	COMPELLER		maker	COMER (one showing promise) around PELL (roll, obs.)
13	BEAMY	H:	herring maybe	[MAYBE]*
14	ERBIA	L:	less	SERBIA (Balkan country) − S (ess)
15	ELOIGNS	I:	moves to a fair place (def.)	[IN L(uxembourg) GOES]*
17	ABUTTERS	G:	song	BUTTER (flatter) in A(nonymous) + S(on)
19	BAROQUE	H:	hold	O(ld) in BARQUE (small ship)
21	ARRECT	T:	dealt	RR (Right Reverend, bishop) + E(arl) in ACT (deal)
22	EARCON	I:	icon	(n)EAR (close to) + CON
24	CROMBEC	T:	tending to panic	C(aught) + B(aron) in ROME (European capital) + (pani)C
31	ACOLYTES	I:	irate	SET (rate) rev. after A COL (pass) + Y(ankee)
32	ENCHASE	N:	sent with jewels (def.)	EN (enrolled nurse) + HAS (experiences) E(cstasy) around C ($100)
33	APHRA	G:	Hebrew glass (def.)	AP(parently) + [HAR(d)]*
35	LOOKER		lovely girl, perhaps	OK (all right) in [ROLE]*
36	BIOGRAPH	R:	slater	BOG (lavatory, John) + RAP (slate) + H(enry) around I(ndependent)
37	FLIRTS	I:	mashies (def.)	[L(earner) + FIRST]*
38	MUIRS	D:	mud	MU + IS around (ou)R
39	MAROONED		left alone on island	[DEMON + OAR]*
40	BENIGHT		bring gloom	EN (space) in BIGHT (bay)
Down
No.	Answer	Removal /       Correction		Wordplay
1	WICE	U:	Scouts of sound mind (def.)	W(ith) + ICE (illicit drugs)
2	NIEBUHR	S:	American theologians (def.)	NIE (approach, obs.) + R(ector) around HUB (nave) rev.
3	ÉCLATS	I:	castile	[CASTLE]*
4	ROOMETTE	N:	basins	ROOT (basis) around ME (us) + T(h)E
5	SUPERB	G:	logan	PER (a) in SUB (loan)
6	UMBOS	K:	sunk	S(un) after (d)UMBO (dimwit)
7	RAIL-BORNE		carried on rails	[IRON BARREL]* − R(iver)
8	BLAGS	N:	linen	BAGS (plenty) around L(ine)
9	OMNIBUS		tome	OM (old measurement) + NIBS (point’s) around U(niversal)
10	DERBY			unclued
16	SCENTS	I:	noises (def.)	SENT (transmitted) + S(outh) around C(onstant)
17	APACHE	G:	gone	A (one) + P (soft) + HE around A(mateur) + C(lubs)
18	GEMSHORN	H:	hearth	M(ike) + SHORN (stripped) after GE (earth)
20	AEROBOMB	T:	tom	[OM + BOB ARE]*
23	CATHARI	S:	surge on	CA (urge on, Scot) + R(iver) in THAI (Asian)
25	RANKLE	M:	mutter	RANK (utter) + LE (the, Fr)
26	CORNICE		crest of snow	ROC (bird) rev. + N(ature) ICE (reserve)
27	PLAGUE	O:	course (def.)	LAG (delay) in PE (exercises) around U(niversity)
28	LERPS	V:	perv	[PER]* in SL (solicitor at law) rev.
29	SCLIM	E:	corpse	C(orps) in SLIM (only slight)
30	YARTO	S:	story	[A(dult) TORY]*
34	SHOAT		young sow perhaps	[HAS TO]*