Inquisitor 1329: Insert Cut by Augeas

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This is Augeas’ third Inquisitor puzzle, but the first one that I have blogged.  Holy Ghost blogged the previous two.

 

 

 

We had a fairly short preamble this week – Seventeen clues each consist of a definition to the full answer, wordplay to part of it and a letter-count which gives the length of the grid entry.  Solvers must determine how to enter these answers.

I made steady progress through the normal clues, only realising that they were normal when I found that the wordplay and definition both led to entries that filled all the available space in the grid.  

I got my first foothold in the thematic entries in the top right hand corner where VER seemed to be omitted from a number of wordplays at 5 across VERTEX, 5 down VERTIGO, 7 across TAIVERT and 9 down VERTU.  However VER wasn’t helpful elsewhere in the grid.  

I wanted 12 across to be ORANG-UTAN and 38 down to be DOOR but still the penny didn’t drop, partly because my first solution for 44 across was HAURIENT.

With the grid almost full of the allowable number of normal entries, I could see that a lot of the wordplay in the remaining clues led to only 1, 2 or 3 letters.

Finally, I got the intersection of LIGULES at 43 across and VIRGULES at 34 down.  For some reason, presumably crossword related, the word GULES rang a heraldic colour bell and the theme became clear.

The colours, OR, VERT, GULES, AZURE, ARGENT and SABLE have to be entered in full in appropriate cells.  In many cases these colours form part of across and down entries, but not always.  SABLE enabled me to choose between DISABLE and DISARM for 33 across.  ORAN at 17 across and ORGAN also have the colour in an unchecked cell.

I didn’t solve this puzzle in one sitting.  Indeed I had to return to it three or four times before it all fell into place.

There were some fairly obscure meanings lifted out of Chambers – e.g. MY for THE at 14 across, GAN for DID at 41 across and TAG for ANYTHING MEAN at 19 down.

I have blogged an Inquisitor once before where sometimes only one or two letters of the entry were clued in the wordplay.  That technique wasn’t universally popular then, so I will be interested to see the reaction to this puzzle.

My favourite clues were those for SUBZERO (40 across for its clever omission of FOUR), EARTHWARDS (1 down, for the word picture) and VIRGULES (34 down, but that’s the scientist in me showing through).

Some of the thematic clues I struggled with for a time included TAIVERT where AI is also a Japanese fish, and the ARGENTINA / MARGENT intersection until I realised what was going on.

The final grid looked like this:

Inquisitor 1329

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The title of the puzzle,  INSERT CUT is an anagram of TINCTURES (shades, colours)

Blog number 300

Across

 

      
No Clue  Part or Full Wordplay Entry

1

 

Splayed recess built from parts of berm (5)

 

Part

 

EMBR (anagram of [built from] BERM)

 

EMBRAZURE (a recess of a door or window which splays out on the inside)

 

5

 

Top one’s former husband, perhaps (3)

 

Part

 

EX (person’s former husband [or wife])

 

VERTEX (top or summit)

 

7

 

Japanese fish bewildered in Loch Fyne

 

Part

 

TAI (Japanese sea bream)

 

TAIVERT (Scottish [Loch Fyne] word for bewildered)

 

10

 

Aged Scottish archbishop’s heading eastbound (4)

 

Full

 

AULD (reference Archbishop William LAUD, Archbishop of Canterbury 1633 – 1645.  He was imprisoned for the final 5 years of his time as Archbishop before his execution in 1645, with the first letter (heading) L moved to the right [eastbound])

 

AULD (Scottish word for old / aged; aged Scottish)

 

11

 

Headless screw in old style flap (7)

 

Full

 

(JAILER [prison warder; screw] excluding the first letter [headless] J) + ON (in obsolete usage, ON meant ‘in’)

 

AILERON (a flap on an aeroplane wing tip for lateral balancing)

 

12

 

A German fanatic has captured an ape (8)

 

Part

ANGUTAN ([{A + NUT} containing {has captured} G {German}] + AN)

A N (G) UT AN

ORANG-UTAN (a reddish-brown, tree-dwelling anthropoid ape)

 

14

 

A case from my facetious accountant (5)

 

Full

 

THE (‘my’ in a facetious or informal sense) + CA ([Chartered] Accountant)

 

THECA (sheath,case or sac)

 

17

 

American navy port (3)

 

Part

 

A (American) + N (navy)

 

ORAN (port city in Algeria)

 

18

 

Light upon something that pleases the public (3)

 

Full

HIT (to come by effort or chance; light upon)

 

HIT (something that pleases the [public)  double definition

 

20

 

Regularly starve of such food – not kosher (4)

 

Full

TREF (letters 2, 4, 6 and 8 [regularly] of STARVE OF)

 

TREF (forbidden as food, not kosher)

 

21

 

Will’s cutting city in heart of Cook’s tours (4)

 

Full

 

EC (post code of the City of London) contained in (in) ST (middle letters of [heart of] COOK’S TOURS)

S (EC) T

SECT (Shakespearean [Will’s] word for a cutting)

 

22

 

One making music with Rex sitting on Zambia’s African plateau (5)

 

Full

 

KAZOO (musical instrument; one making music) with R (Rex) replacing [sitting on] the Z (International Vehicle Registration for Zambia)

 

KAROO (a high inland pastoral tableland in South Africa)

 

23

 

Horn perhaps starts to annoy preacher in Church (4)

 

Full

AP (first letters [starts to] of each of ANNOY and PREACHER) contained in (in) CE (Church [of England])

C (AP) E

CAPE (reference CAPE Horn, the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile)

 

26

 

Hint for repulsing small fly (4)

 

Full

TANG (hint) reversed (repulsing)

GNAT<

GNAT (small fly)

 

27

 

Minor thoroughfare generally isn’t (5)

 

Full

 

B ROAD (minor thoroughfare)

 

BROAD (wide; a B ROAD is more likely to be NARROW than BROAD)

 

29

 

Bird, hare, bats (4)

 

Full

 

Anagram of (bats) HARE

 

RHEA (a small flightless S American bird)

 

30

 

Car-hire firm returns this destroyer (4)

 

Full

 

AVIS (car hire firm) reversed (returns)

SIVA<

SIVA (the third god of the Hindu triad, destroyer and reproducer)

 

32

 

Rorqual is back circling Spain (3)

 

Full

 

IS reversed (back) containing (circling) E (International Vehicle Registration for Spain)

S (E) I<

SEI (a kind of rorqual)

 

33

 

Deprive of power top investigator (3)

 

Part

 

DI (Detective Inspector; top investigator)

 

DISABLE (deprive of power)

 

35

 

American challenge puts back round mark (5)

 

Full

 

PUTS reversed (back) containing (round) M (mark, former German currency)

STU (M ) P<

STUMP (an American term for a challenge to perform a feat)

 

37

 

Detour is disorienting stranger (8)

 

Full

 

Anagram of (disorienting) DETOUR IS

 

OUTSIDER (stranger)

 

40

 

Negative head of staff anticipating UB40, quartet getting sacked (7)

 

Full

 

S (first letter of [head of] STAFF) + [in front of; anticipating] (UBFOURZERO [UB40] excluding [getting sacked] FOUR [quartet])

 

SUBZERO (negative)

 

41

 

Instrument did for poet (4)

 

Part

 

GAN (used poetically in the sense of ‘did’)

 

ORGAN (instrument)

 

42

 

Country belonging in Austria (4)

 

Part

 

IN (belonging to) + A (International Vehicle Registration for Austria)

 

ARGENTINA (country)

 

43

 

Scales League One (3)

 

Part

 

L (league) + I (one)

 

LIGULES (scales at the top of the leaf-sheath in grasses)

 

44

 

Old rising that is not enclitic (5)

 

Part

 

I.E. (id est; that is) + N’T (-N’T is the enclitic form of NOT. enclitic is descriptive of a word, especially a particle without accent or stress, behaving as if not a separate word, presumably this means isN’T, couldN’T etc)

 

ORIENT (an archaic [old] word for rising)

 
Down    

 

  
No Clue  Part or Full   Wordplay Entry

1

 

Human body parries movement of scientist’s apple (10)

 

Full

 

EARTH (the human body) + WARDS (parries)

 

EARTHWARDS (the direction of the apple falling from the tree as viewed by Isaac Newton when having his eureka moment about gravity)

 

2

 

Russian peasant‘s calling attention for first one among background notes (6)

Full

 

MUZAK (continuous background music as played in restaurants, malls etc) with HI (a word to call attention) replacing (for) A (first letter of the alphabet [first one])

 

MUZHIK (Russian peasant)

 

3

 

Blow old farm building half away (4)

 

Part

 

STABLE (farm building) excluding (away) STA (the first three letters of six [half])

 

BLORE (archaic [old] word for a violent gust of wind; blow old)

 

4

 

A new sky-blue (3)

 

Part

 

A + N (new)

 

AZUREAN (sky-blue)

 

5

 

Giddiness? One may have a turn (4)

 

Part

 

I (one) + GO (turn, in a board game for instance)

 

VERTIGO (giddiness)

 

6

 

Wash woodwind instrument (leading note down a semitone) (5)

 

Full

 

FLUTE (woodwind instrument) with F (leading letter, and musical note) replaced by (down) E (musical note, a semitone below F)

 

ELUTE (wash with a solvent)

 

7

 

Courier, in the wrong, leaked odds (9)

 

Full

 

(RAN [leaked] + SP [starting price {odds}]) contained in (in) TORT (wrong, injury)

T (RAN SP) ORT

TRANSPORT (courier)

 

8

 

Perfect pub temporarily fixed sounds (6)

 

Full

INTACT (sounds like [sounds] INN [pub] TACKED [temporarily fixed])

 

INTACT (unimpaired; perfect)

 

9

 

Universal taste for curiosities (2)

 

Part

 

U (universal)

 

VERTU (variant spelling of VIRTU [taste for curiosities])

 

13

 

Expecting fantastic ornament I gasp for breath (10)

 

Full

 

ANTIC (extraordinary figure or ornament) + I + PANT (gasp for breath)

 

ANTICIPANT (expecting)

 

15

 

Endless sensual focus of activity on a palm (9)

 

Full

 

CARNAL (sensual) excluding the final letter (endless) L + HUB (focus of activity) + A

 

CARNAHUBA (a Brazilian palm)

 

16

 

Tree that’s in leaf – Araucaria? (5)

 

Full

 

AFARA (hidden word in (in) LEAF – ARAUCARIA)

 

AFARA (a type of West African tree having a light-coloured, straight-grained wood)

 

19

 

Anything mean in stages (3)

 

Full

 

TAG (hidden word in (in) STAGES)

 

TAG (anything mean)

 

20

 

Pat accepting sons’s wish for health (5)

 

Full

 

TO A T (with perfect exactness; pat) containing (accepting) S (son)

TOA (S) T

TOAST (to wish someone or some people good health)

 

24

 

Rivers and their destinations, first to last (3)

 

Full

 

SEA (destination of rivers) with the first letter [first] S moved to the end [to last]

 

EAS (rivers)

 

25

 

Crazy is a hit for these groups of worshippers (6)

 

Full

 

Anagram of (crazy) IS A HIT

 

THIASI (groups of worshippers collected together to sing and dance in praise of a god, especially Bacchus)

 

28

 

Lower in rank, called up to patrol east of zone (6)

 

Full

 

(NAMED [called] reversed [up; down clue]) containing E (last letter of [east of] ZONE)

DEM (E) AN<

DEMEAN (lower in status / rank)

 

31

 

Restricted by his seizure, did FDR lock him up? (5)

 

Full

 

ISSEI (hidden word in [restricted by] HIS SEIZURE)

 

ISSEI (a Japanese immigrant in the US, originally one to the USA or Canada after 1907, who did not qualify for citizenship until 1952.  This period covers the Presidency of Franklin D Roosevelt [FDR])

 

34

 

Slashes old elements of Ohm’s Law (4)

 

Part

 

VIR (Ohm’s Law can be summarised as I = V/R where I is current in amperes, V is volts and R is resistance.  The word VIR is therefore formed from elements of Ohm’s Law)

 

VIRGULES (slanting lines; slashes)

 

36

 

Jerk fails to start drive (4)

 

Full

 

SURGE (jerk) excluding (fails) the first letter [start] S

 

URGE (drive)

 

38

 

Prepare means of approach (3)

 

Part

 

DO (prepare)

 

DOOR (means of approach)

 

39

 

Maiden over the edge according to rimer? (2)

 

Part

 

M (maiden over in cricket scoring notation)

 

MARGENT (archaic word edge or border; rimer is an archaic word for rhymer or pet who may well have used the word MARGENT)

 

 

13 comments on “Inquisitor 1329: Insert Cut by Augeas”

  1. Thank you duncan for very lucid blog.

    Just a few thoughts.
    What did the puzzle title mean? Just the obvious process of inserting something where something else had to be cut?
    33A. DI . . . . not really a top (rank) investigator.
    And, I was looking for the colours to maybe reveal a heraldic device.

    But. thank you very much for the parsing of 34D. I shied away from this. For many years I always avoided opening envelopes with OHMS on because I thought they were from the taxman.
    And they were.

  2. Thanks for the detailed blog Duncan. Your parsing of 2d is much better than ours! We wondered whether it had something to do with ‘sounding like’ MUSIC with HI being substitued for I.

    We had to check THE=MY. We’d never come across it and were quite surprised that we hadn’t seen it used in crosswords before.

    We thought it was a good Inquisitor and were quite happy with the odd entry where only a limited number of letters were clued. We did however need to google heraldic colours to help us find GULES to complete 34d and 43ac.

    Thanks Augeas for the challenge,

  3. jonsurdy @ 1

    I hid my interpretation of the title between the picture of the solution and the top of the detailed blog.

    I think it simply that INSERT CUT is an anagram of TINCTURES. I thought there might have been an anagram indicator in the title, but when I have difficulty understanding a title, I always try an anagram.

  4. ‘The colours, OR, VERT, GULES, AZURE, ARGENT and SABLE have to be entered in full in appropriate cells’.

    I would have thought (it is what I did, with a key below the grid) that just colouring the cells appropriately would have been adequate. There have been similar puzzles where numbers were entered as numbers to indicate strings – e.g. 1 for ‘ONE’.

  5. I had Cerulean at 4 down (and Embrasure at 1 across), but since Cerule and Azure both mean sky blue, I just filled the cell with blue and didn’t worry about it. I am surprised that Azurean exists too – I never though to check!

    I agree with Laphria @4 – just filling in the colours seems to suffice. I also think that the Argent square should be white as that is its heraldic meaning.

  6. This one beat me. I almost filled the grid, but made lots of errors on the thematic words. Instead of virgules, argentina, vertex, azurean, embrazure and disable, I had riv(es), (ch)ina, (ap)ex, (cy)an, embr(asure) and di(vest). All of these pretty much fit with the clues, but with no knowledge of heraldry, I didn’t have enough info to make the link.

    I spent days trying to work out what the connection was between es, ch, ap, cy, asure and vest!

    Thanks to duncanshiell (by the way, I think 5 down should be vertigo, not vertiga) and Augeas.

  7. Sorry duncan, I missed your explanation of the title under the grid. And many thanks for the advice on always considereing title to be an anagram.

  8. Laphria @ 4

    You could well be right that it is just the colours that are required. Although I said spell out the colours in the blog, that was just my opinion as a blogger. It will be interesting to see what the editor says in the solution in the paper on Saturday. I went for the belt and braces approach in the solution grid in the blog by using words and colours

    However as Dan @ 6points out I have a typo in that grid – the blog detail has the correct entry VERTIGO.

  9. A gentle trot. I simply coloured the relevant cells as did Laphria @4, using “silvery-white” for ARGENT (see John Lowe @5). ORAN at 17a took a while to dig out, and I didn’t understand the title, so thank you Duncan for the explanation. And to Augeas too for the puzzle.

  10. I had mixed feelings about this one. I found it a real slog until I made the VERT/OR/ARGENT mental connection and the rest fell into place quickly after that, except for ORAN which I had down as ARGENTAN at first befre checking that the latter is quite a distance inland in N. France and not even classifiable as an inland port!

    There’s no doubt that not getting the theme would have meant not completing the grid. So, a genuine PDM for me.

    On the other hand, like jonsurdy@1, I was looking for a colourful portrayal of some heraldic device so was left feeling slightly short-changed.

    I’m in the camp of those who just went for the coloured cells and, eventually, went, like Duncan, for the anagram route for the title….when all else fails etc.

    On balance though, what started as a slog turned out to be quite an enjoyable puzzle so thanks v. much to Augeas and to Duncan for the blog.

  11. I got sidetracked by Libra for 43a and Apex for 5a, so spent considerable time in confusion. I had several ORs which looked common to both ac and dn clues, so wondered whether “virbra” was a really obscure word for “slashes” or something. A word meaning faintness starting “ap” was of course never going to happen — and then the penny dropped with “vertigo” and instantly it was “of course — heraldic colours!” Thence Vertu, Virgules, Argentina, Azurean (I was originally trying for cyan, and even had “anil” at the back of my mind) fell in quick succession.

    Unfortunately I never made much headway with the left hand side of the puzzle at all, so was unable to complete. But the theme was neat and satisfying, and I enjoyed it.

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