XXXX by Wiglaf
Preamble: 15 clue answers must be thematically shortened before entry in the grid. Their clues contain a definition for the full answer; wordplay and letter-counts refer to grid entries, not always real words. Each of 12 other clues contains a misprint in the definition; in order, correct forms of misprints spell a normal clue whose full answer must be highlighted in the final grid.
Strange title – XXXX – I do hope that it’s not a misprint or a filler for the real title. Or, even worse, a naughty word. Also it reminds of this quote from Inspector Morse: http://imdb.to/1UYJoni an oblique reference to Castlemaine.
With a lot of three-letter entries, it means that there are a lot of clues (22 acrosses and 28 downs.) Thankfully, most of them were relatively easy however, I managed to mess myself up by entering 37a as PREMIER.
With the grid steadily filling I began to panic as I hadn’t found any of the thematically shortened answers, and corrected letters were thin on the ground. 4d desperately wanted to be LAVA but I couldn’t find LAVA as a skirt (or a shirt or skint, etc.) Eventually I found LAVA-LAVA as unisex skirt. 30d soon followed and I was flying. Apart from 37a (as mentioned) the answer that caused me the most grief was 43a.
With a watchful eye on the diagonals as always, I actually found the answer to be highlighted before I’d completely formed the clue. The corrected letters spelled NORMAL SCORES, the answer is TWENTY-TWENTY being normal vision and also two scores (score being twenty.) The title can be read as XX (twenty)followed by another XX (twenty.)
Wiglaf is a new setter in The Inquisitor series so welcome sir or madam (or collaborators) thanks for giving me a puzzle that was not too taxing.
| Across |
||||
| Clue |
Entry |
Misprint |
Corrected letter |
Wordplay |
| 1 Cases involving criminal gangs left for dead (6) |
TRIALS | TRIAdS (gangs) Left replaces Dead | ||
| 7 Disperser of ancient language, beginning to go extinct (5) |
OPTIC | dispeRser->dispeNser | N |
cOPTIC (of ancient language) minus first letter |
| 11 It’s an old Greek coin, one claims (6) |
STATER | (double def) | ||
| 12 Tug getting one across the Pond? (4) |
YANK | (double def) | ||
| 13 Chinese dunce late to develop (4) |
TAEL | Dunce->Ounce | O |
LATE (anag: to develop) |
| 14 Heartlessly making dope for use by seamen (6) |
EARING | Dope->Rope | R |
EARnING (making) minus middle letter |
| 15 Become entangled in performing internals, taking it out (7) |
ENSNARL | iNtERNALS (anag: performing; minus IT) | ||
| 20 Amazonian turtle, lustreless one (4) |
MATAMATA | MAT (lustreless)+A (one) | ||
| 22 Orange-shaped conk (6) | OBLATE | Conk->Monk | M |
(double def) |
| 23 What disparages Catholic’s awkward gait (4) |
TAIG | GAIT (anag: awkward) | ||
| 24 German nut discovered a Persian poem (6) |
GHAZEL | German+HAZEL (nut) | ||
| 26 Water-plants in open ditch covered by water running from village (6) |
ELODEA | LODE (open ditch) inside EA (running water) | ||
| 31 Cord twisted round French art books (4) |
TOSE | cOrd->cArd | A |
I’m sure I completely justified this one at the time but I’m struggling now. I can see OT=Old Testament=books but nothing else. |
| 33 Does one date sporting neckwear? (6) |
TIDIES | I (1:one)+Date inside TIES (neckwear) | ||
| 34 Setback for base after American’s unofficial absence (4) |
AWOL | LOW (base; rev: setback) after American | ||
| 37 Problematic epimere? Early delivery is required (7) |
PREEMIE | (double def) | ||
| 39 Write name on banner (6) | PENNON | PEN (write)+Name+ON | ||
| 42 Bout of sucking eggs with son in the lead (4) |
SNIT | suCking->suLking | L |
NITS (eggs) with letter S(on) moved to the front |
| 43 A lot of raw charm (4) | GREEGREE | GREEn (raw; a lot of) | ||
| 44 Put to sea, adrift, leaving us in vessel with cory? (6) |
TEAPOT | coRy->coSy | S | PuT TO sEA (anag: adrift) minus US |
| 45 Old idlers run into sex symbol of yesteryear (5) |
DORRS | [Diana] DORS (sex symbol of yesteryear) containing Run | ||
| 46 Scottish island without use for bingo (6) |
HOUSEYHOUSEY | HOY (Scottish island) containing USE | ||
| Down |
||||
| Clue |
Entry |
Misprint |
Corrected letter |
Wordplay |
| 1 Before Avignon summer festival, eat and chat (9) |
TETE-A-TETE | TET (festival)+EAT+ÉTÉ (Avignon [French] summer | ||
| 2 War torn and devastated country (6) |
RWANDA | WAR (anag: torn)+AND (anag: devastated) | ||
| 3 Titan, striking as ancient spear thrower (3) |
ATLATL | ATLas (Titan) minus AS | ||
| 4 Ms McDermid’s taken up a unisex skirt (4) |
LAVALAVA | VAL [McDermid] (rev: taken up)+A | ||
| 5 Guy drops a filthy plate (3) |
STY | plaTe->plaCe | C |
STaY (guy) minus A |
| 6 English like to mount horse (3) |
GEEGEE | English+EG (like) rev: to mount | ||
| 7 Rosa Luxembourg tortured, with no end of cross examination (4) |
ORAL | ROsA+Luxembourg minus croS (end of) anag: tortured | ||
| 8 Drunken old pal eating your wintergreens (6) |
PYROLA | OLD PAL (anag: drunken) containing YR (your) | ||
| 9 Maybe old-fashioned bird got rid of fellow (4) |
TAIL | fEllow->fOllow | O |
cockTAIL (old fashioned is a cocktail) COCK (bird) got rid of |
| 10 Congenital local troublemaker (6) |
INNATE | INN (local)+ATE (troublemaker) | ||
| 16 Hardy novels for starters are good (3) |
NAG | harDy->harRy | R |
Novels (first letter)+Are+Good |
| 17 Torpedo shaft (3) | RAY | (double def) | ||
| 18 Description of graphs with non-linear scales, truncated or inverted (3) |
LOGLOG | GOLd (OR) truncated; rev: inverted | ||
| 19 Measurement of distance and time’s easy? Not new area (9) |
TELEMETRY | Time+ELEMEnTaRY (easy; minus New Area) | ||
| 21 Fly at top speed every so often (3) |
TSETSE | Top SpeEd (every third letter) | ||
| 25 Had short meeting with bogus lord (3) |
HAWHAW | HAd (short)+With | ||
| 27 Sweeper repaired boiler (6) |
LIBERO | BOILER (anag:repaired) | ||
| 28 Meal doubling the size of eater’s gut (6) |
DINNER | DINER (eater) with middle N doubled | ||
| 29 A police sergeant picked up potential killer (3) |
ASP | A+Police Sergeant (rev: picked up) | ||
| 30 A ferocious person residing in desert area (3) |
TARTAR | deserT ARea (hidden: residing in) | ||
| 31 Beggar losing rag in New Zealand grass (3) |
TOETOE | TOErag (beggar; losing RAG) | ||
| 32 Muslim woman carrying two tons (6) |
SHIITE | SHE (woman) containg II (two)+Tons | ||
| 35 Lid having unit radius (4) | ONER | liD->liE | E |
ONE (unit)+Radius |
| 36 Host frightfully successful people (4) |
HOTSHOTS | HOST (anag: frightfully) | ||
| 38 Foreign worker spends a little time on old dhow (4) |
EXPO | Dhow->Show | S |
EXPaT (foreign worker; minus A)+Old+Time |
| 40 Bablah pods finally in decline? Not totally (3) |
NEBNEB | iN (finally)+EBb (decline; not totally) | ||
| 41 Make indecisive noises set up musical effect (3) |
WAHWAH | HAW (make indecisive noises; rev: set up) | ||
| 42 A tiny amount of money for savings scheme (3) |
SOUSOU | (double def) | ||
Yes, welcome Wiglaf – and thank you kenmac for the blog.
I parsed 31A as ‘twisted round’ = reversed. ‘French art’ = ES.’Books’ = OT.
I seemed to remember ES being a French word for ‘art’, but having looked up translations I can’t find it.
Tu es in French is Thou art
Yes, “tu es” in French translates to thou art in old English in 31A. I got the theme early from atlatl which I had to look up as I’d never heard of it, but it appeared close to atl on a dictionary search.
Nice entry from Wiglaf. Loved the shaded sqares in the diagram kenmac!
I really enjoyed this – lots of nuggets of fun along the way, particularly with the revelation of TWENTY TWENTY and the link to the title.
It did take me a while to sort out the full 15 double answers. For a long while I only had 13, but eventually realised HOUSEY should be HOUSEY HOUSEY and, after even longer pondering it, saw that LOGLOG made more sense of the clue than just LOG.
I think 31A is es as a French translation of art, as in ‘thou art’, to be.
Actually this is Wiglaf’s second Inquisitor – see 1290 from July 2013.
I did find this rather an easy puzzle; on the first run through I found 31d TOE(TOE) en passant – all letters crosschecked – and with about half the across clues solved I got to bottom right corner & there was 46a HOUSEY(-HOUSEY). I guessed the theme, checked the diagonal, saw that TWENTY-TWENTY would fit and that it confirmed the title XXXX. So … just the down clues and the rest of the acrosses to go! (Yes, I did slow up a bit on some of those. And did enjoy quite a few of the clues.)
For me, 36d HOTS(HOTS) was the trickiest ‘special’, being of a different style to the others. And I’m not sure that I ever fully explained 9d (cock)TAIL – so thanks. I recalled “atlatl” from a holiday in Mexico 8 or 9 years ago; and should I be surprised that kenmac doesn’t seem to know about Gris-Gris, Dr. John’s debut album, which I must have bought in the late 60’s/early 70’s?
Anyway, thanks to blogger, and to Wiglaf for an entertaining, tho’ not difficult, puzzle.
Yes, like others, I didn’t find this too taxing but I really enjoyed it.
Like HG@5, 43A brought into mind the ‘Night Tripper’ himself. I also cottoned on to ‘old-fashioned’ in 9D, Now whose favourite tipple was an OF ? Think it might have been Don Draper’s ?
Many thanks to Wiglaf (I remember you from a previous IQ) and to kenmac
A thumbs up from me too; thanks Wiglaf. For once I spotted the theme relatively early: HOTSHOTS and TARTAR were too of the first clues I solved and while at first I wasn’t certain which letters could be removed, I did assume that the thematic answers would all feature repeated letters (though I didn’t assume at that point that they would all follow the XX pattern).
Thanks to kenmac for the blog and explaining some of the clues that didn’t fully understand. I didn’t manage to work out what the corrected misprints would spell but once I had spotted Twenty-twenty appearing it didn’t seem to matter.
And 3 in a row completed for me – first time I’ve managed that.
Thank you kenmac for the wonderful blog and everyone who commented. As HolyGhost says this is my second Inquisitor. I also made by debut in the daily Indy on Monday.
Not too taxing after picking up the theme relatively quickly for my normal head scratching standards. The last double in for me was wah wah. My extra letters spelt ‘normal scopes’ and I had been wondering what that meant. Rats! Of course…. Great how these blogs clear up stray errors such as this. I had changed Hardy to harpy rather than Harry. Many thanks for the puzzle and blog both
A general inquiry: if the Independent closes what will happen to the Inquisitor?
OPatrick@10: just a guess, but since the intention is apparently to become a web-only newspaper, then there’s no reason why the Inquisitor shouldn’t continue in an online-only version. Here’s hoping.
A nice puzzle. Mystifying until the the first themed answer fell, then a gentle run to the finish. Thanks to W and KM.
Re O’Patrick@10 and bridgesong@11, perhaps the IQ could appear in the Saturday “i”, if there were a chance that the separate owners could come to some arrangement. This would certainly increase the hard copy distribution of this terrific weekly challenge.
It would be great if the IQ did appear in the i – I hope it can continue in a print version somewhere.
Like many others, I got the theme relatively quickly, thanks to hotshots, confirmed by geegee. But struggled for some while to confirm the definition of twenty twenty. One sleepless night I convinced myself that it had to be about “No Score Draw”, which seemed to fit XXXX.
Very nice puzzle, and very helpful blog, thanks.
Inquisitor’s the only reason I buy the Independent on Saturday, so I pray it will continue in some format…
Congratulations to Kippax@7 on the hat trick of solves and on winning the prosecco two weeks after us. We found this to be very much a puzzle of two halves. I did the entire left half in an hour, getting the theme from “tse” and “lava”, but failed to spot “twenty” and couldn’t break into the right half. Mrs T then had a look at it and got things moving again. Once we became aware of “twenty”, we could complete the diagonal and everything fell into place quite quickly and there was no need to identify all the misprints, especially as the title confirmed the theme. Keep them coming, Wiglaf.
No problems with this … great idea, beautifully realised.
“Je suis I am a pot of jam. tu es thou ART an apple tart” ! Old rhymes die hard.
HOTSHOTS made me think of another 20/20 connotation … that baseball-like version of cricket where slogging is mandatory.
Signed Dave Tilley’s petition today … urge all who haven’t yet, to do so. I seem to remember an occasion when the future of the Listener was in doubt, and a question was even raised in The House ?
Just in case anyone’s still looking in. You may want to visit (and sign) this petition: https://www.change.org/p/the-independent-newspaper-and-its-owner-alexander-lebedev-the-independent-crossword
Visited and signed – thanks for organising. Fingers crossed a suitable solution can be found
Still trying to catch up on the Inquisitors, only 3 behind now…
Welcome Wiglaf, 20 marks out of 20 from me, please come back soon! Only failed on TOSE, but I’m kicking myself now I see the solution.
Here’s hoping that Wiglaf et al get a chance to come back after Easter. Thanks to Kenmac too.