Preamble: Mistakes made in the construction of the grid have resulted in some answers being too long for their allotted space and an equal number being too short. Fortunately, by transferring parts of the long answers to the short ones, the grid can be completed – transferred sections and resulting entries all being real words. Numbers in brackets refer to grid entries, but indications of multiple words refer to the original answer.
This is one of those puzzles that comes along now and again, where the theme is stated in the preamble. The only things that are not apparent are whether the shortened answers are curtailed only at the end, how many characters are involved in each answer and how many answers are involved
There’s not really much else to say except that there were six pairs of answers involved: 1a/26a, 12a/40a, 18a/29d, 28a/23d, 37a/33d and 1d/4a. The strings are: MEN, PART, RING, FOR, OVER and ABLE, respectively.
Not knowing exactly what we were looking for undoubtedly was the challenge but I felt that it made the puzzle more of a slog than a fun experience – sorry Kruger 🙁 .
Anyway, the entry date for Inquisitor 1312 is December 27th thus this will be the last blog before Christmas, so please enjoy the festive message below. And I’ll “see” you in 2014:
| Across | |||||
| No. |
Clue |
Entry |
Moves |
Wordplay |
|
| 1 | Short pastry is wrong | TORMENT | (from 26a) | TORTe (pastry; short) | |
| 6 | Taxes about to be taken from secret locations | CESSES | reCESSES (minus RE (about)) | ||
| 11 | Eagle’s anterior feather almost absent | AQUILA | Anterior+QUILl (feather; almost)+Absent | ||
| 12 | Before boarding jolly ship … | RAMPART | (from 40a) | A (before) inside RM (jolly; Royal Marine) | |
| 13 | … case port (subject to legal constraints) | BIND OVER | BIN (case)+DOVER (port) | ||
| 14 | Riotous activity accepted Hindu music | RAGA | RAG (riotous activity)+Accepted | ||
| 15 | Estate manager’s assistant leaned over topless model | LAND REEVE | LEANED oVER (topless) (anag: model) | ||
| 18 | Scotsman’s tax allowance | STRINGENT | (from 29d) | (double def) | |
| 20 | Heartlessly advise working for a long time | AEON | AdvisE (heartless)+ON (working) | ||
| 22 | Understanding, catch daughter leaving around noon (beginning to elope) | ENTENTE | dETENT (catch) containing Noon+Elope | ||
| 24 | After last of beer has gone, fluid in late brew is undistinguished drink | TABLEWINE | (to 1d) | IN LATE BrEW (minus beeR (last of); anag: fluid) | |
| 26 | He deplores person with cerebral disability being housed in the centre of Palermo | LAMENTER | (to 1a) | AMENT (person with cerebral disability) inside paLERmo (centre of) | |
| 28 | Arrange forecast by foremost of meteorologists | PERFORM | (from 23d) | PER (by)+Meteorologists (foremost of) | |
| 29 | Defendant’s response is semi-inoffensive | PLEA | PLEAsant (inoffensive; semi) | ||
| 30 | Subdued by tiredness and worry, heave uncomfortably when leaving hospital | OVERWEARY | WORRY hEAVE (minus Hospital; anag: uncomfortably) | ||
| 34 | A collector of name-labels, brother is absorbed by extra literature | EX-LIBRIST | BRother IS inside EXtra LITerature | ||
| 36 | Ban novel about passing over | TABU | ABoUT (minus Over; anag: novel) | ||
| 37 | Record uproarious noise without previous beginning | DISCOVER | (from 33d) | DISCord (uproarious noise) minus ORD (beginning) | |
| 38 | Conceited individual, say, has inflammation of the ear. It goes, given time | EGOTIST | EG (say)+OTitIS (inflammation of the ear; minus IT)+Time (coincidence?? It’s also an anagram of IT GOES T) |
||
| 39 | Origin of strong church | SOURCE | SOUR (strong)+CE (church) | ||
| 40 | River submerges Cameron currently holding pictures at National Trust’s office | DEPARTMENT | (to 12a) | DEE (river) containing PM (Prime Minister; Cameron) containing ART (pictures)+NT (National Trust) | |
| 41 | Rustic dances with stags – retrospectively, that’s not right | HAYSEED | HAYS (dances)+DEEr (minus Right; rev: retrospectively) | ||
Down
| Down |
|||||
| No. |
Clue |
Entry |
Moves |
Wordplay |
|
| 1 | Cross in good condition? Not quite | TABLEAU | (from 24a) | TAUt (in good condition; not quite) | |
| 2 | Watery overflow reaches New York | RUNNY | RUN (overflow)+New York | ||
| 3 | Look over theologian’s clutter | MIDDEN | MIEN containing DD (Doctor of Divinity; theologian) | ||
| 4 | Precious stone lost at event | NAVETTE | AT EVENT (anag: lost) | ||
| 5 | Jack maybe is in middle of road | TREE | sTREEt (middle of) | ||
| 7 | At last, farm workers (and other people outside) make cheese | EMMENTAL | farM (at last)+MEN (workers) inside ET AL (and other people) | ||
| 8 | Brad’s to appear less often in the end | SPRIG | SPRInG (appear) minus ofteN (in the end) | ||
| 9 | For that reason, bad-tempered person’s upset | ERGO | OGRE (bad tempered person; rev: upset) | ||
| 10 | Specify pinch of cinnamon included in spice | STACTE | STATE (specify) containing Cinnamon (pinch of) | ||
| 16 | Australian tree is gnarled in rocky edge | ARETE | Australian+TREE (anag: gnarled) | ||
| 17 | Sandy hill in small valley | DENE | (double def) | ||
| 19 | Fruit of whitebeam germinates upside down | REGMA | whitebeAM GERminates (hidden: of; rev: upside down) | ||
| 21 | Vessel to capital shortly cut off by bad weather | SNOWED IN | SNOW (vessel)+EDINburgh (capital; shortly) | ||
| 23 | Defence beneficial to Turkey followed by Knesset, essentially | FORTRESS | (to 28a) | FOR (beneficial to)+TR (Turkey)+knESSet (essentially) | |
| 25 | Bird (rook) nesting in big city | WREN | Rook inside WEN (big city) | ||
| 26 | Female scholar is saving clothes | LARISSA | schoLAR IS SAving (hidden: clothes) | ||
| 27 | A hundred were concerned about National Theatre | CANTRED | CARED (were concerned about) containing NT (National Theatre) | ||
| 28 | Intoxicated by drugs, perhaps Harry’s right giving way to Penny | POTTED | POTTEr (Harry; minus Right; plus D (penny)) | ||
| 29 | Call American about awfully poor description of trunk? | RING-POROUS | (to 18a) | RING (call)+US (American) containing POOR (anag: awfully) | |
| 31 | Corps holds out for marching orders | ROUTE | RE (Royal Engineers; corps) containing OUT | ||
| 32 | Old coin in forged silver (not schilling) | LIVRE | sILVER (minus Schilling) anag: forged | ||
| 33 | Those in community reached by advertising chap with mania | COVERAGE | (to 37a) | COVE (chap)+RAGE (mania) | |
| 35 | Hamish’s joint is mostly supple | LITH | LITHe (supple; mostly) | ||
We’ve had such a great run of Inquisitors recently but would agree that this puzzle didn’t quite carry on the trend! It was a good challenge however, so thanks Kruger.
There were a few we couldn’t quite parse. We should have checked whether SNOW was a vesssel though. We didn’t appreciate that ORD could be added to DISC and are stll not totally happy about STENT being a double definition.
Thanks kenmac for the blog and the festive greetings from all the Inquisitor bloggers. Happy Christmas to all of you!
STENT (def 1) = “same as STINT” = allowance
STENT (def 2) = “a tax”/”to tax” (Scottish)
Thanks kenmac, how did we miss that?
I think you have missed one – the FOR of FORTRESS (23d) goes to PERFORM (28ac)
Laphria
Thanks Laphria @4. I’ve updated the blog, I’ll do the grid at home tonight. 23d was one answer I wasn’t entirely happy with.
Only managed to get a handful of answers to this. It seems that I use the letter count too much when getting an answer and only managed to get one of the mangled answers.
But I’m confused. One of the answers I did get was 20ac and this is shown in the grid one square to the right of where I put it which messes up the down answers. Am I missing something, or is this just a typo?
I was more than usually pleased to finish this one as the preamble almost put me off altogether. It would have been nice, for example, to have had a hint that the transferred parts were of three or four letters only. In the end that wasn’t such a big issue and there were only two I couldn’t parse – 37a and 8d. While filling in one of the latter I remarked to my wife that “I solved it but didn’t understand it” and she remarked, not unkindly I hope, that she would put it on my gravestone.
Dormouse@6: I’m sure 20a must be a typo in the grid.
Thanks kenmac and Kruger
Many thanks to Kenmac for the excellent blog which confirmed a few parsings for me. And, of course, to Kruger for the puzzle itself.
I enjoyed this after the event, not so much while I was doing it, as others seem to have, mainly because I was getting the transferred words in the grid first and then doing the parsing (or not, in a couple of cases) afterwards, so a little unsatisfying I felt.
That said, I did admire the grid construction and ingenuity of some of the clueing (favourite ‘transfer’: T(ABLE) WINE to TAU). Wonder if there’s a real-life football transfer puzzle on similar lines to be devised ?!
Merry Christmas to all the bloggers, setters and solvers.
I see what kenmac means about the “challenge” and “more of a slog than a fun experience” but it was nevertheless satisfying to finish this puzzle – so thanks Kruger.
Dormouse @6 & Howard L @7: yes, the first 6 letters in row 6 should be AEONST.
kenmac @5: what’s the problem with 23d? It seems OK to me.
And while you’re fixing the grid, the letter in cell 10b should be C since OVER moves from 33d COVERAGE to make the entry at 37a DISCOVER, as you say in the blog.
Thanks for the blog Kenmac – and the very nice graphic greeting.
Happy Christmas to you, and everyone.
‘except that there were
fiveSIX pairs of answers involved’I spent a couple of hours trying to resolve a connection between the words assuming that there must be more to the puzzle than moving six unrelated words. I am fan of Kruger and this won’t put me off, but for me this puzzle wasn’t up to the usual standard I am afraid.
My thanks to Kenmac for his (as always) excellent blog and to those who have contributed.
It would seem this puzzle was not everyone’s cup of tea. My apologies – I hope you’ll appreciate and enjoy the next one more.
Got off to a great start, but found it very tricky at the end. I was convinced that ‘ringporous’ was ‘phonoporous’ and that really threw me. Also I couldn’t parse the ‘coverage’ clue, and ended up putting in ‘rage’, so my submitted entry was wrong…no champers for me!
I found it very enjoyable, but the lack of a real ‘Penny drop moment’ did perhaps temper the excitement.
Thanks to Kruger and Kenmac