Inquisitor 1449: Pleasant Spot by Shark

by

Shark sets an Inquisitor puzzle about twice a year.

 

 

 

The preamble in Inquisitor 1449 stated that the wordplay in thirteen clues leads to the answer with one letter missing.  In clue order these letters suggest a place located between the unclued entries.  One entry is to be completely altered to reveal the location and solvers must highlight 43 cells to reveal seven thematic examples.  As a result of this alteration, several final grid entries will no longer be real words.

First ones in were BARKEEP (1 across), ARNO (15 across), LOUT (16 across), THORAH (34 across) and WESSEX (44 across).  These entries revealed just one missing letter in the wordplay, the W of WESSEX.  The first ones to fall in the Downs were BEEPER (1/41), PROPER (5/41), APEX (9), IMAGED (24) and DANTE (32 down).  There were no additional missing letters from those so it wasn’t going too well initially.

Eventually, I got some traction in the South East corner and had enough letters in the grid to identify the river TIGRIS as a possible entry for the unclued word in column 11.  A quick look at the length of the other unclued entry in column 1 suggested the river EUPHRATES and so the mystery location, BABYLON became fairly obvious as it was located between those two rivers.   I still wasn’t having much luck with missing letters in the wordplay though.

A bit more plugging away at the clues and the missing letters began to appear such that ANCIENT seemed likely for one of the words in the suggestion.  At that point WONDER came to mind for the remainder of the hint and HANGING GARDENS seemed a likely final step.  The exact positioning of all the missing letters took a bit of working out and I had to look at the entries to find occurrences of one or two of the letters that were omitted from the wordplay.  I got them all in the end and the detailed bog table below shows where I think they are.

I reckoned there were two strong contenders for where BABYLON would be revealed – 19 down or 26 across as both were centrally placed 7 letter entries.  I was a bit confused by the preamble that used the words ‘completely altered to reveal’.  I’m not sure that just writing in BABYLON is actually revealing it.  Initially I was looking for links between LEGUMES (26 across) or SARUSES (19 down) and BABYLON and then I considered whether anagrams of entries were required.  In the end though I just replaced the likely parts of the grid with the word BABYLON and looked at new words that were formed across or down.

With hindsight I should have realised quicker that the GARDENS were likely to spell downwards given that they are HANGING.  The end game therefore required us to replace LEGUMES at 26 across with  BABYLON and highlight seven words with meanings of or connections to GARDENS   Again hindsight might have homed in more quickly on LEGUMES as plants in GARDENS.

The 43 cells that have to be highlighted are in columns 4-10 and all use one letter of BABYLON.

We have:

Column 4: ARBOUR (6)

Column 5: ORCHARD (7)

Column 6: BAGH (4) [Indian word for garden]

Column 7: ROSARY (6)

Column 8: CURTILAGE (9)

Column 9: POTAGER (7) [vegetable garden laid out in a decorative pattern]; and

Column 10: EDEN (4)

I found the clues quite challenging, even when writing up the blog.  Often Inquisitor clues seem much easier at the blog stage.  I didn’t find that the case with this puzzle.  I struggled with some of the wordplays initially, but I reckon that I’ve got them all there or thereabouts.

After the initial solve, the grid looks like this.

Inquisitor 14491

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After revealing BABYLON, the grid changes to:

Inquisitor 14492

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think the title Pleasant Spot relates to the fact that GARDENS are an ideal place to relax and admire nature.

Good fun and a good challenge.

Across
No Clue Wordplay Letter Entry

1

 

In saloon,he serves water taken aback after cough (7)

 

BARK (cough) + (PEE [urine; water] reversed [taken aback])

BARK EEP<

 

 

BARKEEP (variant on BARKEEPER [person who serves drinks in a saloon])

 

6

 

Cheese from thematic location to be consumed (6)

 

ASIA (the theme is based on BABYLON, in ASIA) + GO (to be consumed [off the premises], as in ‘I’ll have a coffee to GO‘)

 

 

 

ASIAGO (Italian cheese)

 

11

 

Judge’s cycling keeping trim rubber? (7)

 

(REF [REFeree [judge] with the R moved to the end by cycling the letters) containing (keeping) FACE (to trim)

EF (FACE) R

 

 

EFFACER (person or thing that rubs out; rubber)

 

13

 

Typeset capital from Monotype interrupts head editor (6)

(M [first letter of {capital from} MONOTYPE] contained in [interrupting] COP [top or head of anything]) + ED (editor)

CO (M) P ED

 

 

COMPED (a typesetter COMPOses his / her work)

 

15

 

River flowing through Kilmarnock (4)

 

ARNO (hidden word in [flowing through] KILMARNOCK)

 

 

 

ARNO (river in Italy that flows through Florence)

 

16

 

Yahoo‘s head of commerce removed from power (4)

 

CLOUT (informal term for power) excluding (removed from) C (first letter of [head of] COMMERCE)

 

 

 

LOUT (a Yahoo is a brutal or boorish LOUT)

 
17 Peter ultimately spent a penny – not now! (4)

Having studied my Chambers, the only wordplay I can come with is:

PENIS [third definition of peter] excluding the final letter [ultimately spent]) S

 

 

PENI (Spenserian [i.e.old, not now] spelling of penny)

 

18

 

Alter chromosome hybrid in wing cases (6)

 

Anagram of (hybrid) ALTER and Y (one of a pair of chromosomes associated with sex-determination in mammals, the other being the x-chromosome)

ELYTRA*

 

 

ELYTRA (beetle’s forewing modified to form a case for the hind wing)

 

20

 

Ruptures almost all of rami before sex is over (6)

 

RHEA (another name for rami [a plant of the nettle family long cultivated in China]) excluding the final letter (almost all of] A + SEX reversed (is over)

RHE XES<

 

 

RHEXES (ruptures, especially of blood vessels, plural of RHEXIS)

 

21

 

Arguing until reaches dentist (6, 2 words)

 

TO (until) + DDS (Doctor of Dental Surgery)

 

A

 

AT ODDS (at variance; arguing)

 

22

 

Sceptic putting peeled sweet cicely in noodle soup (6)

 

YRR (MYRRH [sweet cicely] excluding the first and last letters [peeled] M and H) contained in (in) PHO (Vietnamese noodle soup)

P (YRR) HO

 

 

PYRRHO (reference PYRRHO [360 – 270 BC], Greek philosopher and sceptic)

 

23

 

Developed abysmal tax office returns (7)

 

(DEEP [abysmal can be defined as very DEEP] + IR [Inland Revenue; tax office]) all reversed (returns)

(RI PEED)<

N

 

RIPENED (developed)

 

26

 

Plants tree in open country before the start of spring (7)

 

(GUM [example of a tree] contained in LEE [variant spelling of LEA {open country}]) + S (first letter of [start of] SPRING

LE (GUM) E S

 

 

LEGUMES (plants)

 

28

 

Obstacles about endless confusion (7)

 

RE (with reference to; about) + MORASS (confusion) excluding the final letter (endless) S

 

 

 

REMORAS (figurative term for obstacles)

 

29

 

Top stories in press recalled by administrative trainee (6)

 

AT (administrative trainee) + (SIT [press] reversed [recalled])

AT TIS<

C

ATTICS (top floors; top stories)

 

31

 

Dead buried in smooth earth / soil (6)

 

(D [dead] contained in [buried in] SMUG [smooth]) + E (earth)

SMU (D) G E

 

 

SMUDGE (soil)

 

34

 

Rabbi’s reading ancient Hebrew primarily in pursuit of God (6)

 

THOR (Scandinavian God of thunder) + AH (first letters [primarily] of ANCIENT and HEBREW)

 

 

 

THORAH (variant spelling of TORAH [Mosaic law of Judaism, a book that a rabbi will read frequently)

 

36

 

Instructress is keen on moving Academy on (6)

 

EAGER (keen) with the A (academy) moving further along the word (moving on)

EGERA

I

 

EGERIA (female adviser; instructress)

 

37

 

In Scotland bury poet having been decapitated (4)

 

BARD (poet) excluding the first letter (having been decapitated) B

ARD

E

 

EARD (Scots form of bury)

 

38

 

Dweeb flipping whistled having dumped chick at last (4)

 

(DRUNK [whistled] excluding [having dumped] K [final letter of {at last} CHICK]) reversed (flipping)

NURD<

 

 

NURD (alternative spelling of NERD [clumsy, foolish, socially inept, feeble, unathletic, irritating or unprepossessing person]; dweeb is defined similarly)

 

40

 

 Fury about land of Yeats (4)

IRE (fury) reversed (about)

IRE<

N

 

ERIN (dative case of the Irish word for Ireland, homeland of the poet W B Yeats)

 

42

 

One of several local birds from roughly 25 sending out letters (1st and 2nd class) (6)

 

Anagram of BESHAME (entry at 25 down) excluding A and B (letters denoting first and second class)

SMEEH*

T

 

SMEETH (dialect [local] name for various ducks, such as the smew, pochard, wigeon and pintail)

 

43

 

India finds Queen Victoria being St Martin’s evil (7)

 

I (India is the international radio communication codeword for the letter I) + VR (Victoria Regina; Queen Victoria) + ESSE

 

 

 

IVRESSE (drunkenness; St Martin’s evil is drunkenness)

 

44

 

El Salvador … it’s an ancient kingdom (6)

 

ES (international vehicle registration for El Salvador) + SEX (it)

 

W

 

WESSEX (ancient Kingdom in Southern England)

 

45

 

Head of public company records depositor (7)

 

P (first letter of [head of] PUBLIC) + LEDGER (document containing the principal financial records of a company)

 

 

 

PLEDGER (one who gives something as security; depositor)

 
Down
No Clue Wordplay Letter Entry

1/41

 

Perhaps export boxing games – it may be alarming (6)

 

BEER (export is a type of strong brown beer) containing (boxing) PE (physical education; games)

BEE (PE) R

 

 

BEE[PER] (small alarm)

 

2

 

Uncovered half-day mix-up … Mac’s honest (5)

 

Anagram of HALF-DAY excluding the outer letters (uncovered) H and Y

AFALD*

 

 

AFALD (Scottish [Mac] word for honest

 

3

 

Philosopher with dexterity finally lost weight (6)

 

KANT (reference Immanuel KANT [1724 – 1204], German philosopher) + ART (dexterity) excluding the last letter [finally lost] T

 

 

 

KANTAR (varying unit of weight in Turkey, Egypt, etc)

 

4

 

Wild cheer surrounds conscientious objector (a stripped figure) (7)

 

Anagram of (wild) CHEER containing (surrounds) CO (conscientious objector)

E (CO) RCHE*

 

 

ÉCORCHÉ (figure in which the muscles are represented stripped of the skin, for the purposes of artistic study)

 

5/41

 

Genuine brooch on the Queen (6)

 

PROP (slang for tiepin or brooch) + ER (Elizabeth Regina; queen)

 

 

 

PRO[PER] (genuine)

 

7

 

Heartless South African people (5)

 

SOUTH excluding the middle letter [heartless] U

 

O

 

SOTHO (alternative word for BASOTHO [Bantu people of Lesotho])

 
8 Checks limb and then feet (having only one pedal between them) (7)

I think the word play is constructed from:

IMP (limb can be defined as a mischievous child [IMP]) + PEDES (plural of the Latin PES [foot], a reference to metrical feet in poetry) with only one of the Ps [pedals] being required for the entry (having only one pedal between them)

IM PP EDES —-> IMPEDES

 

 

 IMPEDES (hinders; checks)

9

 

Prior to kiss, take off top (4)

 

APE (mimic; take off) + X (symbol for a kiss)

 

 

 

APEX (top)

 
10 Johnnies, over and done with prevent society births (7)

GEESE (simpletons; johnnies] + S (society)

where an obscure meaning of [over and done with] PREVENT is precede

N

 GENESES (creations; births)

12

 

Cooks fish hearts now and again (6)

 

FRY (small fish) + ERS (letters 2, 4 and 6 [now and again] of HEARTS)

 

 

 

FRYERS (cooks)

 

14

 

Twice ruin a Sheikh’s cover (9)

 

DISH (ruin) + DASH (smash; ruin, again [twice]) + A

 

 

 

DISHDASHA (long robe with long sleeves, worn by men from the Arabian peninsula; sheikh’s cover)

 

16

 

Large lake running up past tropical plant (6)

 

(AGO [past] + DAL (pea-like plant cultivated in India; tropical plant)

(LAD OGA)<

 

 

LADOGA (name of the largest freshwater lake in Europe, on the outskirts of St Petersburg in Russia)

 

19

 

Cranes manoeuvre infiltrating army regiment (7)

 

RUSE (manoeuvre) contained in (infiltrating) SAS (Special Air Squadron; army regiment)

SA (RUSE) S

 

 

SARUSES (Indian cranes, birds)

 

24

 

Setter’s getting on as seen in the Mirror? (6)

 

I’M (said by the puzzle setter talking about himself) + AGED (getting on in years)

 

 

 

IMAGED (as seen in the mirror)

 

25

 

Show up old charlatan in gathering (7)

 

SHAM (imposture [old word for fraud or charlatan]) contained in (in) BEE (a gathering of people for a specific purpose, e.g. a spelling BEE)

BE (SHAM) E

 

 

BESHAME (disgrace; show up)

 

26

 

Old site of shrine, within reach, supported by saint? (7)

 

(UR [old city; old site] contained in [within] LODE [reach of water]) + S (saint)

LO (UR) DE S

It’s not completely clear to me where the wordplay ends and the definition begins or whether they are intertwined.  Is it an &Lit clue, if so ‘within reach’ doesn’t seem to fit within the definition.

 

 

LOURDES (shrine in France to the Blessed Virgin Mary)

 

27

 

Brewed tea before actor leads to stand in Cannes (7)

 

Anagram of (brewed) TEA + GERE (reference the American actor Richard GERE [1949 – date])

ETA* GERE

 

 

ÉTAGÈRE (French word used in English to describe a display stand with shelves for small objects or ornaments)

 

30

 

Decked earl in clothes (6)

 

E (earl) contained in (in) TIRE (attire; clothes)

TI (E) RE

D

 

TIERED (comprised of different levels of decking within a single stand; decked)

 

32

 

Tercets chiefly having been penned by European – this one? (5)

 

T (first letter of [chiefly] TERCETS) contained in (penned by) DANE (example of a European)

DAN (T) E

 

 

DANTE (reference DANTE Alighieri [1265 – 1321], Italian poet who wrote [penned] some tercets [group of three lines that rhyme together or are associated by rhyme with an adjacent set of three], especially in his Divine Comedy)

 

33

 

Dropping temperature, triplets bathe (5)

 

TRINS (triplets) excluding (dropping) T (temperature)

 

E

 

RINSE (bathe)

 

35

 

Riches of mine seized by Croesus (4)

 

OES (hidden word in [seized by] CROESUS)

 

R

 

ORES (minerals which may contain valuable components; riches of mine)

 

39

 

Topless holiday maker!  An excellent sight on Bondi beach (6)

 

TRIPPER (holiday maker) excluding the first letter (topless) T

 

 

 

RIPPER (Australian term for a person or thing especially admirable; an excellent sight on Bondi beach)

 

41

 

See 1/5/39

 

PER (the last three letters of the compound clues at 1/41, 5/41 and 39/41)

 

 

 

PER (no specific definition as the letters are part of longer words)

 

 

10 comments on “Inquisitor 1449: Pleasant Spot by Shark”

  1. Thanks as always. Similar experience here – fairly hard slogging but a satisfying reveal. Wasted a certain amount of time (on the urging of my wife the classicist, who saw EUPHRATES before I did) looking for MESOPOTAMIA or a substitution that would reveal it. The seven adjacent Hanging Gardens make for a very impressive finish, though BAGH was new to me …

  2. Like David @1 I was obsessed with MESOPOTAMIA for ages. Later I started looking for lighthouses and colossuses but then realized that that would likely have used more than 43 cells.

    In the end, as you say, it had to be one of LEGUMES or SARUSES but it couldn’t be SARUSES because the A would have remained thus disobeying the instruction to “completely alter.”

    Great stuff from Poat and thanks to Duncan.

    (PS Happy Birthday – but I won’t tell anyone 😉 )

  3. Again, as more often than not these days, completed grid but failed on endgame. Like others, I guessed at BABYLON as replacement for either 26a or 19d, but then started looking for “seven ancient wonders” inc. hanging gardens, having spotted PHAR + contiguous E, in l.h. column. Since we didn’t have the usual luxury of real words resulting, this made spotting the seven thematic words extra hard. Had I twigged hanging = vertical, and looked for gardens, then I might just have prevailed, but my 2005 Bradford doesn’t have “curtilage”.

    Congratulations to DL and Kenmac. and of course our expert blogger.

    Here’s a suggestion to setters for a puzzle that will really test the ability of those, like you, who still find these new, far harder, IQs well within their impressive capabilities.

    1. A carte blanche grid.
    2. Extra letters in clues giving a cryptic hint for a Playfair keyword.
    3. Answers thus encoded, to be entered as knights’ moves, wherever they will fit.

  4. I thought this was very fair, with a nice endgame.

    Couldn’t quite crack all the clues, but Babylon was clearly suggested and not so hard to spot given its position, and as it has seven letters, and there were seven thematic examples, I think we were given a fair crack. Not that I spotted every garden, but by then I was happy?

    Are IQs getting harder? I’m not sure. I remember some evil ones.

    Thanks to Shark and duncanshiell.

  5. Thanks to Shark and Duncan for a very satisfying puzzle and another excellent blog.

    I think IQs are indeed getting harder but that this is an entirely justifiable response by the setters to the ready availability of electronic aids such as word search and anagram solvers, and, above all, to Google and Wikipedia. I’ve been attempting these puzzles for around 20 years now and in the early days only completed a few each year mainly because I was unfamiliar with many of the themes used. A purchase of the ODQ helped considerably, but it was not until Google and Wikipedia came along in the early noughties that I began solving them regularly. Now I expect to solve them most weeks given enough time but only because I can easily research whatever themes are used. Of course, this week’s puzzle was one where that wasn’t necessary.

  6. Thanks Duncan for parsing 8d – we should have checked LIMB inChambers. Also we were puzzled by 26d as well. No-one else has commented about this one but it would be good to hear how others parsed the answer.

    Once we saw the possibility of EUPHRATES and TIGRIS we guessed that we would be looking for ‘hanging gardens’. Mind you, so many of them were very obscure that it didn’t really help looking for a place to insert BABYLON. Once it was identified, we wondered why we hadn’t checked possible gardens that would be formed sooner.

    Overall, a tough but enjoyable IQ. Finding the endgame should have been quicker!

    Thanks to Shark for an enjoyable solve.

  7. I totally agree about the availability of internet data… when I started this caper in the early 80s the last resort was a trudge through the rain to the public library, only to find that the reference books one needed were “out”.

    What is now making puzzles harder and/or more time consuming is the combination of delayed gridfilling due to first having to solve most clues in order to find a “redundant letters instruction” … followed by end games requiring us to make often very obscure thematic links, á la THAT TV panel game.

    Sadly there is no information made available on the postbag numbers of respective IQ puzzle entries over past and current times… which would help prove or disprove the increasing difficulty theory. I have always been happy to spend up to three of four hours of weekend time on a puzzle, but when it exceeds that, then family matters tend to take precedence.

    If it’s just evolution, so be it. Panta rhei, ouden menei.

  8. Thanks to Duncan for the wordplay for GENESES which I couldn’t dig out. (And I agree with his parsing of IMPEDES.)

    B&J @6: I think that the entire clue for LOURDES at 26d gives the wordplay (UR=old site of shrine, in LODE=reach, + Saint) and the first part (old site of shrine) is the definition &ldots; but that took a while.

    And it took me a quite some time (why?) to give up on SARUSES and turn to LEGUMES as the one to alter to BABYLON – but then, what a reveal! Nice one Shark. So, thanks go to him & to Duncan.

    PS I’m finding some puzzles harder, but I’m not sure if that’s me or the puzzles.

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