Preamble: Thirteen solutions must be entered in an unconventional way. Their clues provide a hint.
The shortest preamble ever? It’s certainly a contender.
Experience tells me that “in an unconventional way” means “backwards” so it was with this in mind, I set about tackling the puzzle.
First to fall was 14a – a nice gentle anagram. In fact I felt that all the clues were gentle and so was the crossword itself, overall. 14d came next followed by 10d and 8d. Then came 7a which wouldn’t fit conventionally but it would fit backwards so, theme cracked – we’re on our way!
After a while, having moved to the NW corner, 13d wanted to be BOO-HOO and coupled with the title to tear up (though it’s not in Chambers as such) means to cry, hence BOO-HOO!
By now I had loads of O’s and H’s in my grid but still no clear idea of what’s going on. Another visit to the title, TO TEAR (anag: up) gives us ROTATE, aha, my backwards idea is back to being hot favourite.
I still didn’t have 1 across and hadn’t really been near the SE corner. A candidate for 1a was SHOSHONI (backwards) but I couldn’t make it fit the word play. That’s when I read the clue to 45a and realised that SHOSHONI would fit there. So that’s it, the grid has to be rotated to allow 1a to be entered upside down at 45a. That explains the abundance of O’s, H’s, S’s, I’s and N’s. They are letters that read the same when rotated through 180°.
Then there’s the business of the thirteen clues involved. What on Earth do they have in common? By now I’d realised what thirteen clues were involved. Not knowing how to proceed and with a near empty SE corner, I left it for the night. Next morning the penny dropped. The first letters of these clues (1, 7, 15, 16, 17, 24, 26, 30, 39, 40, 41, 44, 45) spell ROTATE THE GRID. So, as I see it, we have to enter those thirteen words, rotate the grid and then fill in the rest. So, 1a is entered at 45, 7 is entered at 44 and so on.
I finally managed to crack 1a (entered at 45) which allowed me to complete the puzzle.
Really enjoyable stuff from Chalicea, gentle clues, a good fun theme and a not-too-hard end game.
| Across |
|||
| Clue |
Entry |
Relocate to |
Wordplay |
| 1 Rowdy, disorderly place with no special provisions essentially for disease (8) |
ZOONOSIS | 45 | ZOO (disorderly place)+NO+Special+provISions (essentially) |
| 7 Oz’s louts hold over nuclear ship (5) |
HOONS | 44 | HOld+Over+NS (nuclear ship) |
| 12 Spit! All primarily gone for nothing in lottery (7) |
TOMBOLO | TOMBOLa (lottery) All (primarily) replaced by O (nothing) | |
| 14 It’s to drunkenly stagger on Speyside (5) |
STOIT | IT’S TO (anag: drunkenly) | |
| 15 Term in geometry’s shorthand describing reflex angle (4) |
SINH | 41 | SH (shortand) containing IN (reflex angle) |
| 16 Aromatic plant – rocket? (5) | ONION | 40 | (doble definition) |
| 17 Theatrical huntsman’s call provided moderation (4) |
SOHO | 39 | SO (provided)+HO (moderation) |
| 18 Bird gets the French biscuit (5) |
TUILE | TUI (bird)+LE (the in French) | |
| 21 With varied amplifications, not horribly final, this might be congenial (9) |
SIMPATICO | AMPlifICaTIOnS (minus FINAL (anag: horribly)) anag: this might be | |
| 22 Massage system in article followed by medical officer (4, 2 words) |
ANMO | AN (article)+MO (medical officer) | |
| 23 The box’s demise, ultimately, after service returns (4) |
TELE | demisE (ultimately) follows LET (service; rev: returns) | |
| 24 Eternally revolving king in sad expiation (not entirely at first apt, maybe) (5) |
IXION
(a king punished by being attached to an eternally revoving wheel) |
30 | Anagram of eXpIatION with first letter E and letters of APT missing. See comments for more. |
| 26 Thick soup that’s said to drive away animals (5) |
HOOSH | itself | (double def) |
| 30 Hopeless, they are representing bushranger Kelly’s death? Not entirely (5) |
NONOS | 24 | |
| 31 Heaven’s only half ready for near-eastern dwellers (4) |
PARA | PARAdise (only half) | |
| 32 Former month in beginning of ancient holy book (4) |
ABIB | Ancient (beginning of)+BIBle (holy book) | |
| 34 Odd recital principally even if long poem’s correctly pronounced (9) |
ORTHOEPIC | Odd Recital (principally)+THO‘ (even if)+EPIC (long poem) | |
| 37 Doughy mass of aluminium rejected before mercury mixture sent back (5) |
MAGMA | AMalGAM (mercury mixture; minus ALuminium; rev: sent back) | |
| 39 Emergency expression absorbs meaning, at heart, for these children (4) |
SONS | 17 | SOS (emergency expression) containing meaNing (at heart) |
| 40 Glaswegian footwear husband wears willingly (5) |
SHOON | 16 | Husband inside SOON (willingly) |
| 41 Regularly pricing on casks for taverns (4) |
INNS | 15 | prIciNg oN caSks (regularly) |
| 42 Valuable material in unionist lectures (5) |
ISTLE | unionIST LEctures (hidden: in) | |
| 43 Tristan suffering pressure according to poet (7) |
STRAINT | TRISTAN (anag: suffering) | |
| 44 Italian teatimes once, now mostly applied to Sabbath (5) |
NOONS | 7 | NOw (mostly)+ON (applied to)+Sabbath |
| 45 Display twice, briefly, northern independent Indians (8) |
SHOSHONI | 1 | SHOw+SHOw (twice; briefly)+Northern+Independent |
| Down |
||
| Clue |
Entry |
Wordplay |
| 2 Unacceptable disheartened trade association overturned (4) |
NON-U | UNiON (disheartened; rev: overturned) |
| 3 Number going round institute after old measurement for aggregate value (6) |
OMNIUM | OM (old measurement)+NUMber containing Institute |
| 4 Unit of perceived loudness of offspring on ecstasy (4) |
SONE | SON (offspring)+Ecstasy |
| 5 Sciences facetiously rebuilding igloos with last bit of ice (7) |
OLOGIES | IGLOOS+icE (last bit; anag: rebuilding) Of course, you can’t read this one without thinking of dear old Beatie (Maureen Lipman) – on YouTube here. |
| 6 Blind bend – nearly died! (4) | HOOD | HOOk (bend; nearly)+Died |
| 8 Bad-smelling, loud, without a hint of imagination (4) |
NOSY | NOiSY (loud) minus Imagination (hint of) |
| 9 Poet’s using oil to smear mortar after tip-off (7) |
OINTING | pOINTING (mortar; “tip” off) |
| 10 Ordinary optics company reorganised, involved with ear examination (9) |
OTOSCOPIC | Ordinary+OPTICS+COmpany (anag: reorganised) |
| 11 Modicum of necrosis as primarily indicated on facial feature (6) |
NASION | Necrosis As (modicum of)+Indicated (primarily)+ON |
| 12 Front of toe regions raised in shoe component (6) |
T-STRAP | Toe (front of)+PARTS (regions; rev: raised) |
| 13 Great wave to advertise Scots expression of concession (6) |
BILLOW | BILL (advertise)+OW (expression of concession – Scottish) |
| 14 Quiet primate’s condition (5) |
SHAPE | SH (quiet)+APE (primate) |
| 19 Precedence in Paris with word of scepticism for foreign leader (5) |
PASHA | PAS (precedence – French)+HA (word of scepticism) |
| 20 Neurochemical getting doctor involved in frenzied phone-in (9) |
ENDORPHIN | PHONE-IN containg DR (doctor) (anag: frenzied) |
| 23 Organic compound, see it used up around hospital (5) |
THIOL | LO (see)+IT (rev: up) containing Hospital |
| 25 Tangling in roots containing an NO group (7) |
NITROSO | IN ROOTS (anag: tangling) |
| 27 Determines position of recalcitrant new Tories (7) |
ORIENTS | New+TORIES (anag: recalcitrant) |
| 28 Staff in New Zealand supporting SE Asian with expression of pleasure (6) |
TAIAHA | TAI (south east Asian)+AHA (expression of pleasure) |
| 29 Russian region out of bounds finally (6) |
OBLAST | OB (out of bounds)+LAST (finally) |
| 30 Knotty, any old how occasionally and unserviceable (6) |
NODOUS | aNy OlD hOw |
| 31 In error keep consuming old tea (5) |
PEKOE | KEEP (anag: in error) containing Old |
| 33 Succeed in securing beginnings of nookie and intimacy on opening of oriental brothel (6) |
BAGNIO | BAG (succeed in)+Nookie Intimacy (beginnings of)+Oriental (opening of) |
| 35 On the subject of falsettos oddly withdrawn (4, 2 words) |
AS TO | fAlSeTtOs (minus odd letters) |
| 36 Rising up without resistance or gravity, happening under certain conditions (4) |
NISI | rISINg (rev: up; minus Resistance and Gravity) |
| 37 Half N African Muslim living in the Philippines (4) |
MORO | MOROccan (north African; half of) |
| 38 Note on lifting hemp garment (4) |
MINO | MI (note) ON (rev: lifting) |
2 Unacceptable disheartened
trade association
overturned (4)
Kenmac, I think you have got your rotations mixed up. I think the “unconventionally entered” solutions should be entered in the rotated grid. So your first two images should be presented in the other order and the final grid will have all real words, though some must be viewed in the rotated grid.
24a is IXION – (eXpIatION (minus ((Entirely at first + APT) anag: maybe))) anag: sadly.
I don’t understand the wordplay for 30a.
I enjoyed the crossword – thanks to Chalicea and to Kenmac for the blog.
I agree with John@1 on all counts – rotation, IXION and the inability to parse 30a. Because I didn’t spot the significance of the letters comprising the rotated entries, I thought the most likely entry for 30a was NONGS as it seemed to fit what I thought was the definition better. NONOS is clearly correct though.
I think this is the second Inquisitor in a row where there has been ambiguity in the solution. Perhaps this preamble was a little too terse.
Thanks to Kenmac and Chalicea.
Yes, great fun in the end although it took a little time for the penny to drop that rotate meant turning the grid upside dowmn.
NONOS has to be right, I think the wordplay in 30A is a reference to the way in which Ned Kelly was killed – the NOOS(E), with presumably the second O represented as NO ?
Many thanks to Chalicea and to kenmac for the blog.
I didn’t have time to have more than a brief go at this on the train, so can’t comment too much on the puzzle. I did enjoy what I filled in.
I didn’t get to solve 30A, but my interpretation would be Ned’s head N represented in an almost complete NOOSE. A little indirect, but it could be the parsing.
Thanks to Chalicea and kenmac
JL @1 – ah yes, IXION is correct. I did wonder why there was no X in the puzzle, since it’s clearly a contender; though the wordplay seems to be lacking something.
As for 30a, I thought of NOOSE playing its part but, once again, I feel that there’s something missing from the wordplay.
I’m sure that Chalicea, herself, will pop in at some stage to assist.
As for the rotated grid – I guess all that matters is that the final grid is correct. Other than (maybe) changing INION to IXION, I will leave it as it is.
Kenmac, I think you should revise the grid. 1 across should read INOHSOHS and 3 across SNNI to make sense of 2 down. The point of the rubric is that the thirteen entries should be entered in the rotated grid; you have them entered in the unrotated grid.
kenmac, many thanks, as always for the warm review. Yes, it was my clever editor JohnH who adapted a very simple clue of mine and put Ned Kelly’s head in the truncated NOOS[E] at 30ac.
I had a lot of input from Shark in my original version of this one as I was simply inverting the grid, and, of course, that isn’t the same as ROTATING it. As John Lowe is saying, the final grid has INOHSOHS and SNOON on the top row and SNOOHS and SISONOOZ on the bottom row, thus the 13 affected clues are entered in a rotated grid – the ‘unconventional way’. I think you might call this cryptic crossword ‘trickiness’ rather than ambiguity – I hope so, anyway.
This leaves only real words in the final grid, with, for example NON-U and OMNIUM at 2d and 3d BAGNIO and MINO at 33d and 38d.
I’ll revisit the grids later tonight. I must admit to confusing the H out of myself while putting them together and not knowing if I was standing up or sitting down – thanks Chalicea, as if my life wasn’t confusing enough already! 😉
I must admit, the clueing (or maybe it was the obscurity of so many answers?) not quite gentle enough for me, given the trickiness of the concept. I didn’t get close.
Enjoyed this one a lot, and am very relieved that my interpretation of ROTATE THE GRID seems to have been right. NONOS stayed uncertain for a long time but the NOOS(E) construction eventually came to mind after a quick Wikipedia refresher course on how the great armoured nong actually died. NONGS was terribly tempting for a while but got eliminated because of G not being “rotatable” like other unconventional-entry letters – very neat, that. I wonder how many solvers had a moment of thinking “Oops: logically the rotated letters need to be entered upside down, so I have to … oh gosh, that Chalicea is clever!”
I’m with Neil Hunter @9 – I made a promising start with a few quick entries, but got nowhere near to filling the grid, nor understanding what was going on. I’m still not entirely sure that I understand it now!
Fine puzzle indeed, but I was unclear, at the end, whether the hint should be also seen as an instruction. I ended up with a rough-copy grid identical to Kenmac’s final IXION grid, but then entertained the thought that I should perhaps rotate the final empty grid 180 degrees before entering the letters. This would have had the happy result of the answers tallying with their original clue numbers, although, on the rotated grid, these numbers would now be upside down and on the right of lights.
Thus, I’m afraid I was one of those lesser mortals for whom the difference between rotating and inverting was indeed “ambiguous” rather than “tricky”, and this sadly discouraged me from fulfilling my duty of helping to keep the Derry St. postbag numbers at an acceptable level.
I thought that this was an enjoyable (and doable) puzzle. I spotted ROTATE as an anagram of “to tear” before even looking at any clues. I had the same trouble as others with NO-NO’s but my Listener friend figured it out – not a great clue by any means. (Chalicea – next time tell John H not to interfere.)
I’d finished off before going back to look at “Their clues provide a hint.” and seeing the message from initial letters – I never considered anything other than rotating the answers to the 13 ‘specials’. On thinking about this later, I concluded that a better phrased message would have been “rotate the word”, as that’s what we’re doing.
Thanks to Chalicea & kenmac. (For once I think the grid animation hinders rather than helps. Especially as it doesn’t all fit on my iPod’s display anyway.)
We’ve just checked the blog after a busy day. We completed the puzzle but reading through the blog we couldn’t remember how we solved 30ac. Looking back at our solution we made a note that we couldn’t parse it, so thanks to kenmac and others for the blog and explanation. One step too far for us over a busy weekend.
We worked out that answers had to move but it all seemed a bit weak until the penny suddenly dropped and we realised the relevance of the title and the hint from the clues.
Well done Chalicea.
One of the more straightforward IQ’s we’ve had, but thoroughly enjoyable.
Like Neil Hunter @9 I didn’t find the clues gentle. I filled about half the grid but did not solve enough to work out which entries were unconventional or how they were to be entered. I did notice some symmetry appearing in the answers I had but not enough to figure out what was going on.
A bit of a disappointment to discover most people thought it an easy puzzle!
@16 – I too am flabbergasted at the number of people who seemed to think this was easy! If you clicked with what was going on early, then possibly, but otherwise it was a frustrating exercise, and it certainly was for this solver. To describe it as straightforward is bizarre. Like at least one other poster, I’m still not entirely sure what was going on even having read the blog, which to me is not a ringing endorsement.
Many thanks to all. You know that we follow the blog and postings with great interest. Bingybing I’ll have to take you to task and to attempt to earn your endorsement (even if only faintly tinging) since questions of grid orientation and symmetry and so-on are so important in the solving (and setting) of crosswords. As I said earlier, I was initially having trouble too with that question of rotation but a couple of wiser people explained to me what is truly relatively simple (please don’t be offended!) Imagine your grid is like a plate on a flat surface (Give it corners ABCD to make it easy to follow). If you ROTATE it, A becomes D (the opposite corner) and NOXHSI are spun but can all still be read. If you INVERT it, corner A becomes corner C, the letters NOXHSI, though ‘turned upside down’, can still be read but, for example M also becomes W, and W becomes M. The issue here was to get a grid where all would still be real words when the grid was ‘spun’ or rotated for those 13 words. I hope that helps in retrospect.
Inversion is also a rotation. It depends on the axis. If the axis is vertical to the plane of the paper you get the required ‘rotation’, but if it is in plane of the paper you get ‘inversion’. The context of the puzzle made it clear which was the appropriate choice here.
Oh dear, yes! Thanks Naked Fiddler!
As a non-topographist, I have to bow to Naked Fiddler’s pronouncement about rotation not being the same as inversion. But it seems to me that, if you roll the grid into a HORIZONTAL cylinder, then ROTATE it, and unroll it, you will get one of my two original variants, with ZOONOSISHOONS across the top and NOONSSHOSHONI across the bottom etc. with non thematic answers entered upright in their symmetrically opposite lights. As I explained before, I worried that ROTATE THE GRID might have to be seen as an instruction, for entry method, as well as merely a hint for understanding what was going on.
I still think that much of the confusion arose from using the word “grid” in ROTATE THE GRID. The grid is not what is rotated – it is the answers to the 13 ‘specials’ that are rotated and then entered in the diametrically opposite location. (And it is certainly not the clues that are rotated, despite what it says in the solution published last weekend.)
I’m with HG on this one, as to us the instruction suggested changes rather more complex than were actually required. Because of this confusion we spent a lot more time on the puzzle than is desirable and we were also disappointed by the lack of a theme in the usual sense. Nevertheless, we appear to have got the rotations all right only to fall down on the first cell of 1a, as we opted for SHOSHONE, the alternative spelling of SHOSHONI.
I completed this OK well in time before the deadline, having guessed the device from first-pass cold solving and the title. All, that is, except for 30. I assumed that NONOS was the answer as it fitted the definition better than NONGS, but couldn’t get the wordplay for it. Hence I did not enter. Having had the clue explained, I think it is unfair – somewhat of a “clue to a clue”. I spent ages trawling the Internet trying to find references to Ned Kelly having his nose cut off, and such like. N in NOOS(E)? Definitely a no-no in my book. I’d have been very unhappy with this replacement if I’d set the puzzle, and asked if I could come up with an alternative.