Haven’t seen Poat for a long time – early last year in fact. (And that after a break of 6 years.)
Preamble: Wordplay in eight clues leads to the answer (which is entered normally) with a single incorrect letter. The eight correct-incorrect letter-pairs will enable solvers to ‘decrypt’ two separate groups of cells in the grid to reveal two names connected by a supposed means of demise; crossing entries altered by this decryption remain real words. The letters of two other answers must be rearranged before entry so that a relevant six-word quote from a classic movie can be seen in the grid; this must be highlighted (20 cells).
I found this one rather tough going, certainly at the start. I think I solved only 3 or 4 clues first time through. (Sitting in a traffic jam on the way to a wedding reception in the New Forest on a hot Saturday afternoon doesn’t help the ability to concentrate very much.) But I chipped away, and bit by bit things started to sort themselves out and the upper half was complete, along with a smattering down below. So, the first answer to be rearranged was 12a, entered as DIP THE – not a lot of use at this stage.
The lower half yielded in time, but I was having a bit of a problem with the last couple of clues in bottom the right corner. Nevertheless, with the other answer to be rearranged at 32a, entered as IN THE, this seemed a good time to look for the six-word quote. APPLE was suggestively embedded in 20a, so I was looking for DIP THE APPLE IN THE …. (and counting accurately to 20 would have helped here since I was fixated by “in the honey” for a while). Google swiftly helped me to DIP YOUR APPLE IN THE BREW, a line spoken by the Queen in Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs from 1937.
OK – so what to make of the decryption? By now I had 7 of the 8 correct-incorrect letter-pairs: 1a WG, 14a HL, 31a IO, 37a TB, 6d TG, 18d UA, probably 26d ??, and 34d IA. 
So I stared at the grid, then I stared some more. And then I realised that 4a SNOWGLOBE could become SNOW WHITE whilst still leaving real words, and that the changed letters and their substitutes were GLOB and WHIT, namely the first four letter-pairs. All I had to do now was find GA?A to change to TU?I and connect the replacement with SNOW WHITE. And there it was in the penultimate row: ALANG-ALANG had to change to ALAN TURING. (Finally, knowing the remaining letter-pair was RL helped me sort out the wordplay for 26d.)
The connection, of course wasn’t some other string of letters in the grid, but poisoned apples. The apple in Snow White’s throat was dislodged when the pall-bearers stumbled; Alan Turing wasn’t so lucky. Thanks Poat for giving us a good run for our money; and how elegant of him to notice that changing four consecutive letters in ALANG-ALANG gives ALAN TURING – v.neat.
Added after publication of solution: the title is explained in Turing’s case by the German word “Gift” meaning “poison”.
| Across | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue | Answer | letter pair |
Wordplay | |
| 1 | Kindle black piece of wood (4) | BLOW | W | G | B(lack) LOG (piece of wood) |
| 4 | Kiss soft part of ear, holding wife in wintry microcosm (9) | SNOWGLOBE | SNOG (kiss) LOBE (soft part of ear) around W(ife) | ||
| 11 | Beer drunk in the course of birthday treat in Ireland? Could be (10) | ICEBREAKER | [BEER]* in CAKE (birthday treat) in IR(eland) | ||
| 12 | Smeared with resin, cored and cut the marrow (6) | PITHED | PITCHED (smeared with resin) − middle letter | ||
| 13 | Ogre accommodates many such, being valiant in conflict (7) | LATVIAN | [VALIANT]* {ref: Ogre, town in Latvia} | ||
| 14 | ‘Fatal’ fruit missing heart, having trouble around extreme points (7) | APHELIA | H | L | APPLE (‘fatal’ fruit) − middle letter + AIL< (trouble) |
| 17 | Woman in Paradise pursuing heart of St Christopher, maybe (5) | REEVE | EVE (woman in Paradise) after (st)RE(et) {ref: Christopher R, American actor} |
||
| 19 | Baldric could be this blue if taking cocaine recklessly (6) | RIBALD | [BALDRIC − C(ocaine)]* | ||
| 20 | Two knights apparently turned white, missing a bit (just a bit) (8) | KNAPPLED | K(night) (k)N(ight) AP(parently) PALED (turned white) − A | ||
| 22 | Forbidden section of centrefold (4) | TREF | (cen)TREF(fold) | ||
| 24 | Posh girls recoil, grasped by eccentric codgers with limbs entwined (11) | CROSS-LEGGED | GELS< (posh girls) in [CODGERS]* | ||
| 26 | Fleet snow goose changing direction at the front (4) | NAVY | WAVY (snow goose) with N for W | ||
| 27 | Cross character backed ‘surprise’ theatre opening (8) | TRAPDOOR | ROOD (cross) PART (character) all< | ||
| 31 | Having given away runs, Australian no longer feeling hopeless (6) | ANOMIE | I | O | A(ustralian) NO MORE (no longer) − R(uns) |
| 32 | Your antiquated mobile needs last bit of charge (5) | THINE | THIN (mobile) + (charg)E | ||
| 35 | Tanner’s equipment not far advanced in liquid reservoir (7) | SUNLAMP | NL (non lange, not far) A(dvanced) in SUMP (liquid reservoir) | ||
| 36 | Shiny, happy people of Kerala reversing round a dead tiger in the van (7) | RADIANT | NAIR< (people of Kerala) around A D(ead) + T(iger) | ||
| 37 | Pluto: small dog running back, farthest from the centre (6) | DISTAL | T | B | DIS (Pluto) LAB< (dog) |
| 38 | Coarse grass in good stream flowing back repeatedly (10) | ALANG-ALANG | G(ood) NALA (stream) all<, repeated | ||
| 39 | Mistakenly segregate secret code sequence – that’s a laugh (9, 2 words) | EASTER EGG | [SEGREGATE]* | ||
| 40 | Bridge partners prepare a punch? (4) | BREW | BR(idge) EW (East+West, partners) | ||
| Down | |||||
| No. | Clue | Answer | letter pair |
Wordplay | |
| 1 | Obscure plot linked with Arab over disreputable house (8) | BEDARKEN | BED (plot) + AR(ab) + KEN (disreputable house) | ||
| 2 | Run north, covering one’s tracks (6) | LOIPEN | LOPE (run) N(orth) around I (one) | ||
| 3 | Publisher without editors attends to Will’s fool (5) | OUPHE | OUP (publisher) HEEDS (attends) − EDS (editors) | ||
| 4 | Helps out, protecting college fellow of no importance (6) | SCHLEP | [HELPS]+ around C(ollege) | ||
| 5 | Almost never of woman born (3) | NÉE | NE’E(r) (never) | ||
| 6 | Bind by a favour, acting in place of one devotee (6) | OBLATE | T | G | OBLIGE (bind by a favour) with A(cting) for I (one) |
| 7 | Big fellow, now retired, packing goods for receipt (7) | GETTING | ETTIN (giant, archaic) in G(ood)+G(ood) | ||
| 8 | Wash worn-out laundry, covering ‘wet’ part with edges of valance (4) | LAVE | LAUNDRY with UNDRY (‘wet’ part) replaced by V(alanc)E | ||
| 9 | Using hounds, hunted bird of prey in Bangladesh (7) | BEAGLED | EAGLE (bird of prey) in BD (Bangladesh) | ||
| 10 | Poet’s longed to be placed in a repository, it’s said (5) | ERNED | homophone of URNED (placed in a repository) | ||
| 15 | Hero may have to struggle through this yellow wood (6) | ORDEAL | OR (yellow) DEAL (wood) | ||
| 16 | Trim hem of orange skirt (5) | PAREO | PARE (trim) O(range) | ||
| 18 | Part of Feargal’s territory? (6) | ULSTER | U | A | (Fearg)AL’S TER(ritory) |
| 21 | Antiquated monarch all but rejected Aussie PMs (5) | ARVOS | SOVRA(n)< (sovereign, archaic) | ||
| 23 | For Eminem, maybe stick in a groove, fill EP with old rubbish (8) | FIRE-PLOW | R | L | [FILL EP W(ith) O(ld)]* |
| 24 | Plant fibre in Romance language needing name translated (7) | CANTALA | CATALAN (Romance language) with N(ame) moved | ||
| 25 | This vegetable tip could be appetising when cooked (7) | SPINAGE | [APPETISING − TIP]* | ||
| 28 | Secretly take neat overcoat nearby to be retailored (6) | RUSTLE | [ULSTER]* {18d, overcoat nearby} {not a big fan of this cross-referencing to the answer of another clue} |
||
| 29 | Glutton at hotel changing ends – I’m starving! (6) | PINING | PIG (glutton) INN (hotel) exchanging last letters | ||
| 30 | Show reverence, but lowering head as a measure of resistance (6) | OHMAGE | HOMAGE (show reverence) with first letter moved | ||
| 31 | Such characters may be socially OK in rough area (5) | AURAE | U (socially acceptable) in [AREA]* | ||
| 33 | Informal chat in the country kitchen? (5) | TATER | cryptic definition?: TATER (potato, informal; potato=chat, dialect) |
||
| 34 | Here’s one indication the song won’t start (4) | HINT | I | A | (c)HANT (song) |
| 37 | Groom sheep for a day in Sweden (3) | DAG | double definition | ||
|
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Thanks HolyGhost for the blog & Poat for the puzzle. I made a decent start and filled the SW corner relatively quickly. Unfortunately I soon ground to a complete halt with only a couple more answers entered in. I’m confused by 36a – RADIANT. That’s one of the clues I did manage to solve from the crossing letters, but I still don’t understand where ‘in the van’ fits in?
Re comment #1, I think ‘tiger in the van’ may mean first letter of tiger ie T
Thanks nmsindy….but I’m still confused 🙁 Why would that signify the first letter? Oh hang on… as in vanguard?
Really enjoyed this. Tough but fair and , in my case at least, enlightening, as I hadn’t been aware of how Alan Turing died
kippax – van simply means front
This was one where I made good progress, until slowly grounding to a near-halt. Entering 16D as Saree – with the P as incorrectly clued – helped not at all. And hadn’t read the preamble with sufficient clarity to understand why 12a and 32a were looking so unlikely. I was hoping the eight correct – incorrect pairings would help, once I’d got them – but they didn’t. Now I understand, I rather like it.
Many thanks to Poat and HolyGhost.
Kippax at #3 – yes, that’s it, I think.
I thought this IQ was quite brilliant but very tricky, with one of the longest solving times this year. The bottom half of the grid took an age to piece together with many blind spots. Easter egg was notable for its shin-kicking moment. I found the end game enjoyable, and like HolyGhost had identified Snow White first. Alan Turing’s penny dropping moment raised a chuckle and a sigh of admiration. Bravo Poat. Lovely stuff. Perfectly constructed preamble too when looking back on things.
A very enjoyable puzzle, and thorough blog – thanks to setter and blogger. I got SNOW WHITE quite early on – mainly from the DIP THE APPLE quote, as I didn’t have all the encrypting letters and I wasn’t as rigorous as HG in keeping them in order, which might have helped.
However, I then got fixated on ‘KIP’ just below the I of WHITE – and decided that this was the (physically/literally) connecting ‘demise’ – well, she did fall asleep, although I maybe got a bit mixed up with Sleeping Beauty?…so I spent a silly amount of time trying to encrypt RIBALD or TRIBALD or TRIBAL, etc. in that row to get the other name, connected to the KIP…
Needless to say, a penny drop and face-palming D’OH ensued…eventually.
Yes, slow going for a long while but a very satisfying solution. DIP THE was the key, leading straight to SNOW GLOBE becoming SNOW WHITE and then a hunt for TURING. In retrospect it seemed very neat that the four “decryptions” from across clues gave WHITE and the four from down clues gave TURING. Also that, with the letter sequence ALAN actually appearing in clear, the N was crossed by HINT! Nudge nudge, wink wink …
Yet another in my increasing list of failed endgames this year !
I started by jumping to the wrong conclusion … The Enemy’s Gift immediately said Trojan Horse( “et dona ferentes”, etc.) to me, and the film of the same name. Having seen TRAPDOOR, this made me even more sure, since, just as the original had a trapdoor through which Greek soldiers dropped, the film had a trapdoor under the vaulting horse leading to the escape tunnel workings. Did anyone else think Trojan Horse.
Identifying the quotation then led me to the correct movie, and SNOWHITE for SNOWGLOBE, but my next mistake was to assume that the other person “connected by a supposed means of demise” was in the same movie, e.g QUEEN or GRIMHILDE. I then guessed, correctly, that the substitution was likely to be within ALANGALANG, but, by that stage, still lacked two of the four correct-incorrect pairs, and gave up.
Of course ALAN TURING now makes perfect sense … but not having seen any of the recent films or TV programmes about him, I had no idea that his demise too might (or might not have been) connected with an apple.
I have remarked before on the current trend in endgames of requiring solvers to make sometimes quite obscure connections … and blame this on the popularity of the panel show hosted by David Mitchell’s wife ! Please no comment about sour grapes.