Inquisitor 1300 … setter Schadenfreude … are we in for a treat?
I paraphrase the preamble: Ten clues with an extra letter in the wordplay, and eleven with a letter missing from the wordplay; these letters spell out the first 3 words of a 7-word phrase. The full phrase appears in the grid (Left to Right, Top to Bottom) & is to be highlighted, revealing the last 4 words in an alternative way.
The first thing I notice is the asymmetric grid, but that’s OK. And does the editor’s piece (“The regulars #4”) contain a veiled warning of difficulty? Anyway, time to start solving.
Progress was faster than ‘moderate’ and many of the ± Letters yielded quite soon. It was finding the Q missing from QUILL at 14a that led me to INQUISITOR CROSSWORD …, and I was well on my way. ARIANE at 39a and ROTTANS at 27d were the last two clues to succumb – I was held up by miscounting the extra/missing letters, and marking the wrong clue in one case (silly me).
Grid now filled and so on to the endgame – bounce through the grid, picking out the letters of INQUISITOR CROSSWORD NO, and see “13” emerge in block form (top left & top right); continuing in the natural way (bottom left & bottom right), we highlight ONE THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED tracing out “00” – all very neat. (How does he do it? So many constraints!) Not at all that difficult, but quite enjoyable. Happy Alphanumeric centenary to all.
24d has one of Schadenfreude‘s trademarks: THE OTHER = IT (sexual activity) … but no CAT = “vomit” this time around.
And I wasn’t too happy with 18a BOLSHY = ANARCHIST: Kropotkin was definitely the latter & equally definitely not the former.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Answer (Missing letter) |
± Letter | Wordplay (Extra letter) |
| 1 | AGOG | I | GI (American soldier) after A(bout) GO (die) |
| 5 | BLACKTOP | LACK (shortage) TO (of) P(arking) after B(ritish) | |
| 12 | ROSIER | N | [PRISONER]* − P(riest) |
| 14 | QUILL | Q | U(nionist) + ILL (bad) |
| 15 | CRESCENDO | END (finish) in [SOCCER]* {I loathe CRESCENDO = CLIMAX as opposed to the build-up to one … but it’s in Chambers} |
|
| 16 | AGATES | U | AU (gold) GATES (entrances) |
| 17 | GORCROW | GO (leave) R(ook) + C(loudy) ROW (bank) | |
| 18 | ANARCHIST | I | [CHRISTIAN + A(cademy)]* |
| 21 | ENEWS | S | E(uropean) + NEW (blue) |
| 22 | NORD | I | IRON (strength) rev. + D(emocratic) |
| 26 | CEDRELA | [CLEARED]* | |
| 29 | FIERE | FIE (slightly mad) RE (about) | |
| 31 | OONS | OS (Ordinary Seaman, sailor) around ON (acceptable) | |
| 32 | URETHRA | T | [THREAT]* after UR (ancient city) |
| 34 | ROSTRUM | [STOR(k)]* + RUM (unusual) | |
| 36 | OBAS | O | B(lack) AS (like) |
| 37 | DATE | ATE (worried) after D(irector) | |
| 39 | ARIANE | [RAIN]* in AE (aetatis, aged) {ref.: European rocket launch vehicle, from the French} |
|
| 40 | DELHI | I LED (showed the way) rev. around H(ot) | |
| 41 | ROUNDEL | R | ODE (elaborate lyric) around UN (a, French) L(ine) |
| 42 | DREDGE | DR(ive) + EDGE (border) | |
| 43 | DAMSEL | [M(ike) LEADS]* | |
| 44 | SAWYER | SAW (observed) YE (the, old) R(ule) | |
| Down | |||
| No. | Answer (Missing letter) |
± Letter | Wordplay (Extra letter) |
| 1 | ARCANE | C | CAR (vehicle) + CAN (tin) E (base … of natural logarithms) |
| 2 | GORGONEION | R | GOGO (lively) I (one) in NEON (gas) |
| 3 | GISTS | IS in GT (gran turismo, sporty car) + S(outh) | |
| 4 | DECEASE | DEC (last month) + EASE (quiet) | |
| 6 | LONGAN | O | NG (no good) in LAND − D(epth) |
| 7 | AND/OR | A N(ationalist) DO (party) R(epublican) | |
| 8 | KUTCH | K(ing) H(enry) around UT (as, Latin) C(omplicated) | |
| 9 | TIGRINE | S | GIT (idiot) rev. + RINSE |
| 10 | OLIO | S | SOLO (for one) around I(taly) |
| 11 | PLOW | W | LO (look) after P(ressure) |
| 13 | SEALED | A(thletic) L(ecturer) in SEED (race) | |
| 19 | NILS | O | N (knight) OILS (painting) |
| 20 | SIRRAH | R | [HAS]* around IR(eland) |
| 23 | OERSTEDS | DS (Detective Sergeant, plainclothes copper) after [STEREO]* | |
| 24 | DITONE | D | IT (sexual activity, the other) ONE (single) |
| 25 | YEASTIER | TIE (bond) in [YEARS]* | |
| 27 | ROTTANS | N | SAT (bore) rev. after ROT (collapse) |
| 28 | AUMAILS | A(re) MAIL (letters etc) in US (America) | |
| 30 | BRIARD | BARD (poet) in around R(ex) + I (one) | |
| 31 | OSMIUM | [MUSI(c)]* in O (eleven) M(inutes) | |
| 33 | EXEDRA | EX (former) DR (doctor) in EA(ch) | |
| 35 | RONDE | O | R (recipe, take) [END]* |
| 38 | OLDY | MOLDY (lousy, American spelling) − M(oney) | |
|
|
|||
Yes, not too difficult but nonetheless enjoyable as is usual for Schadenfreude.
I had (unusually) filled the majority of the top half before the bottom half and found “13” fairly easily. I was then convinced that for “00” we were looking for ONE THREE ZERO ZERO (without taking the trouble to count the number of letters – d’uh!) I soon realised my mistake leading to the finished puzzle.
Thanks H___ G____ for the blog.
Blast…I thought I was on four completed Inquisitors in a row, but I got ‘Tigrise’ instead of ‘Tigrine’, giving ‘So’ (which I thought was abbreviated ‘Solution’). Oh well, that’ll teach me for being cocky.
Great puzzle anyway.
Thanks for the blog, HG. A really nicely constructed puzzle from Schadenfreude – much easier than JH’s comment ‘near the top of our 5-point Inquisitor difficulty scale’ suggested (perhaps based more on the setter’s track record than on this specific puzzle?) – but an enjoyable solve with a neat endgame. I initially threw myself off looking for MCCC in the final grid rather than 1300 – but then realised the puzzle wouldn’t be “Alphanumeric”.
Why does O mean “eleven”?
I got sidetracked for too long trying to make 2d from an anagram. That and rottans and a couple of others I never finished, but this is the furthest I ever got with a Schadenfreude.
Re Matt – O is in Chambers, it is a symbol (as a medieval Roman numeral) for 11. It’s been in a couple of crosswords recently.
I enjoyed this crossword which turned out to be less difficult than I expected.
Well, well – we learn something new every day. O is Eleven.
As for 2d, did anyone else spend far too long trying to get an anagram of “one wearing”? Trouble is, there are too many letters in common with “gorgoneion” (a word that’s new to me) for it to be obvious I’d made a mistake in my reasoning until late on in the solution process.
Matt,
I thought it was an anagram of ‘one wearing’ too. Then I went out and bought a Chambers Dictionary and all was revealed. I didn’t realise how important a Chambers is…I’ve being attempting these crosswords for years and I’ve always used a Collins, and I realise now how difficult I’ve been making it for myself!
As for the 2d clue, I like clues where they ‘accidentally’ hint at an anagram, or whatever, and then you find (after several days of beating your head against a metaphorical brick wall) that the answer requires a completely different interpretation…You can’t make any assumptions with an Inquisitor!
Very impressive stuff. Spent about twice as long identifying missing/extra letters as I did with the clues.
Thanks.
Yes, Dan at #7, (the latest edition of) Chambers is the reference source for themed puzzles such as Inquisitor, Listener, Enigmatic Variations though it won’t necessarily be specifically indicated each week. Also for Azed.
Like other posters, I found this is a bit easier than anticipated. The highlighting reminded me of last year’s puzzle “Barred” by Nutmeg in which a four-character name was revealed across the grid after the removal of a significant number of letters.
Great stuff, thanks to Schadenfreude and HolyGhost
As you say Holy Ghost, how does he do it? An amazing final solution. Thankfully we spotted what we were looking for in the bottom half of the grid as we were really stuck for a while.
We couldn’t find ROTTAN in the dictionary but checking online we found a reference to Robert Burns. This was our last one in.
Thanks to setter and blogger. We’ve had some great puzzles to solve on our return from holiday!
Bertandjoyce @11: As you were late to this one (and might not check for a response) I tried to respond directly but my e-mail to you bounced back – ROTTAN is in Chambers: it says “same as RATTON” which itself says “(now N Eng) a rat”.
I guess you enjoyed your holiday.
— H___G____
Thanks Holy Ghost! We were using our ipad Chambers dictionary and having checked it this morning we found it! Must have been the jet-lag. Thanks, the holiday was good but was also rather wet in Washington State!!
Not sure why the email bounced back though.