A large 14×14 grid and lots of clues (50) to solve this week. And anagrams galore! The rubric read:
All grid entries are real words or phrases. In each across clue, a jumbled word or phrase must be restored before solving. Each down entry is a jumble of its clue answer (to which enumerations refer). Starting in the top row of the filled grid, a closed curve must be drawn through 36 contiguous cells, defining an apt everyday six-letter word to be written below the grid.
Reading through the across clues, some of the anagrams were pretty obvious – regal–>large, Nile–>line, cinerama–>American etc. The last one gave me my first across solution – American composer, John CAGE (of the 4’33” of silence), and immediately the first down – 11D, IMAGES->AGEISM. After some considerable time (at least it was raining, preventing me from doing some much needed gardening), and much reference to my electronic Chambers, I completed the top half. This left only two or three helpful letters in the bottom half, so it was almost like starting again!
Much time later, having found that “disagreements” was an anagram of demagnetisers and that “tier” was a Tasmanian word for a mountain range, among many other snippets of information, I had a completed grid, except for three four letter words. I eventually twigged that T-REX was the rock band and that STEN was hidden after changing elastic to raciest, and that it had a strange Scottish meaning, but was bamboozled by OSSA, the sitar clue, until Monday morning.
So I had an almost complete grid, and decided to sleep on it, after watching Avatar again (still a good film even when not in 3D).
The “closed curve” started at the top of the grid and, assuming that it was symmetrical, reached the bottom and climbed back to the top. This meant that 28 of the 36 characters were already used up, so only 8 more characters could be horizontally adjacent. It seemed unlikely that there could be more than four letters together at the top and bottom, so the first words might be A THIN. If so the symmetrically placed G would end the last word – commonly, ING ends words, so RING was a possibility for the last word, the closed curve being a circle? If this was so then the third word would begin CRI, which was at least possible.
My old online version of Chambers allows me to look up words contained in the definitions, so a search for “thin & ring” gave me the definition of JUMBAL as “A thin, crisp, sweet cake, formerly made in the shape of a ring”. BINGO!! Remove the two words “formerly made” and we have the ring-shaped definition. In addition. JUMBLE is an alternative spelling for jumbal and this is the “apt everyday word” (which incidentally appears in the rubric) to be written below the grid.
How our setters get their ideas for these puzzles is a source of amazement to me, a rather unimaginative former scientist and computer consultant. A definition of JUMBLE and fifty anagrams in one puzzle! The last Inquisitor I blogged seemed to lack the WOW! factor in its PDM, but this one had it in spades. Thank you, Ploy.
Across |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue (definition) [original] new | Answer | Wordplay |
| 1 | [Regal] Large nation is turning in grass (6) | RUSSIA | RUSA (grass) round IS reversed |
| 8 | [Nile] Line on some maps has isle south of bank (6) | ISOBAR | I(sle) S(outh) O(f) + BAR (bank) |
| 13 | Baroque [lap dances] landscape showing vigour and style (4) | ELAN | Hidden in BaroquE LANdscape |
| 14 | Rock band’s totally up front [act] cat (4. 2 words) | T REX | T(otally) + REX (cat) |
| 15 | [Cinerama] American composer initially capturing the hearts of clearly angry men (14) | CAGE | C(apturing) + cleArly anGry mEn |
| 16 | Locally, one abandoned [gander] garden he’d got around without shelter (11) | UNHARBOURED | UN (locally one) + ARBOUR (obsolete word for garden) in HE’D |
| 17 | Those correctly pronouncing “photoresist” going to [top] pot (11) | ORTHOEPISTS | [PHOTORESIST]* |
| 18 | Middle of road hump [felt] left by military police in Hawaiian island (4) | OAHU | rOAd + HU(mp) (left by MP) |
| 19 | [Arabist] Barista may prepare this, varying processes out of Cuba (8) | ESPRESSO | [PRO(c)ESSES]* – remove C(uba) |
| 23 | In recession, city and country [rescue] secure you and me in the customary way (7, 2 words) | AS USUAL | LA USA (city and country) round US (you and me) all reversed |
| 24 | Removing entrance to pit reveals [sitar] tarsi, perhaps (4) | OSSA | (f)OSSA is a pit – remove first letter |
| 26 | Repeat court proceedings return [icons] coins (8) | RETRIALS | RET(urn) + RIALS (coins) |
| 29 | Enigmatist, lacking a [crate] trace of superior rum, is sending out (8) | EMITTING | [ENIGMATI(s)T]* – remove S(uperior) |
| 31 | War Office taken aback after US airman recruit is [narked] ranked (4) | A-ROW | AR (US Airman recruit) + W(ar) O(ffice) reversed |
| 36 | Old Albanian [urns] runs in an unusual auto (7) | ARNAOUT | R(uns) in AN + [AUTO]* |
| 39 | Peers’ lands to be acquired from sea Lord adrift with [dealer] leader in Madeira (8) | EARLDOMS | [SEA LORD + M(adeira)]* |
| 40 | [Elastic] Laciest entrée covers bound for Scotland (4) | STEN | Hidden in lacieST ENtrée |
| 41 | Individualists frequently independent in retrograde pedigree, rounding errors [expected] excepted (11. 2 words) | FREE SPIRITS | FR(equently) + I(ndependant) in STIRPS (pedigree) all round E(rrors) E(xcepted) |
| 44 | [Demagnetisers] Disagreements Edison’s otherwise admitting not specified, I start to suspect (11) | DISSENSIONS | [EDISON’S]* round N(ot) S(pecified) I + S(uspect) |
| 45 | [Ray’s] Ayr’s tiny amount about to be pocketed by a French person with no income (4) | UNCE | C (about) in UNE (a French) – not sure about the person with no income |
| 46 | [Study] Dusty drone parking in a small Dutch town (4) | DORP | DOR (obsolete word for drone) + P(arking) |
| 47 | [Muscly] Clumsy lama’s soul (4) | ALMA | [LAMA]* |
| 48 | Bighead with [wider] weird big toes bowled out (6) | EGOIST | [(b)IG TOES] remove B(owled) |
| 49 | [Spectre] Respect meets with rebuttal following end of séance (6) | ESTEEM | MEETS reversed after (séanc)E |
Down |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue (definition) | Answer | Grid | Wordplay |
| 1 | Gold remitted by leader of opposition – judge sent back letter of thanks (6) | ROOFER | REROOF | OR reversed + O(pposition) + REF (judge) reversed |
| 2 | Set up strange academy catalogue for someone making wall decorations (8) | MURALIST | ULTRAISM | RUM (strange) reversed + A(cademy) + LIST (catalogue) |
| 3 | Disturbance in Perth — content to request a shield (7) | STASHIE | SAITHES | Hidden in requeST A SHIEld |
| 4 | Home for departed Irish grandma in best part of Tirol with German (8) | TIR-NA-NOG (or Tir-nan-Og | IGNORANT | NAN (grandma)in TIRO(l) (best part of …) + G(ermany) |
| 5 | Speed up advanced supersonic transport carrying girl? The opposite (6) | HASTEN | ATHENS | AST (advanced supersonic transport) in HEN (girl) |
| 6 | Recipe suitable down under – thrilled! (4) | RAPT | TRAP | R(ecipe) + APT (suitable) |
| 7 | She’s entitled to succeed, he succeeded twice bearing keen resentment (7) | HEIRESS | HERISSÉ | HE + S(ucceeded) + S(ucceeded) round IRE (resentment) |
| 9 | A great quantity of nitrogen is in the casing of this (4) | TONS | SNOT | O(f) N(itrogen) in T(hi)S (casing of this) |
| 10 | Worn-out singing voice in “Grease” outwardly yielding to bass and tenor (6) | BREAST | BAREST | {worn-out = obsolete}: (g)REAS(e) (outwardly yielding) with B(ass) replacing G and T(enor) replacing E |
| 11 | I’m a long time forming ideas (6) | IMAGES | AGEISM | IM + AGES (a long time) |
| 12 | Turned left, turned left (this is superfluous) (6, 2 words) | DE TROP | RED TOP | PORTED (turned left) reversed (turned left!) |
| 20 | Striking faces seen at first in the unlikeliest photographic studios (4) | TUPS | PUTS | T(he) U(nlikeliest) P(hotographic) S(tudios) |
| 21 | A clothing style to agree in New York (5) | A-LINE | ELIAN | ALINE = align in American English |
| 22 | Adult in converse form of divorce (5) | TALAK | KATAL | A(dult) in TALK (converse) |
| 25 | Field officer involved with rusty sword thrust (4) | FOIN | FINO | F(ield) O(fficer) + IN (obsolete word for with) – involved seems redundant to me |
| 27 | Underachieving horses, maybe, potter ineffectually round top of Hanover Square (8) | THINKERS | RETHINKS | [TINKER]* (potter ineffectually) round H(anover) + S(quare) |
| 28 | An alumina-silicate limestone’s all over the place, apart from Norway (8) | MESOLITE | LOSE TIME | [LIMESTO(n)ES]* remove N(orway) |
| 30 | Sugar, for some, must smell (7) | MANNOSE | NAME-SON | MAN (alternative spelling for mun, meaning must) + NOSE (smell) |
| 32 | Tasmanian mountain range’s celebrated male hawk (7) | TIERCEL | RETICLE | TIER (Tasmanian mountain range) + CEL(ebrated) |
| 33 | Pulped food always served up in dessert (6) | PUREED | PERDUE | EER (always) reversed in PUD (dessert) |
| 34 | Detesting end of torrent, switched to river running very swiftly (6) | HARING | RAHING | HATING (detesting) with (torren)T replaced by R(iver) |
| 35 | Coroner finally arrives in Paris and stays (6) | CORSET | TRESCO | COR(oner) + (arrive)S + ET (and in French) |
| 37 | Author goes into well-known publisher to become more communicative (6. 2 words) | OPEN UP | UNPOPE | PEN (author) in OUP (well-known publisher) |
| 38 | Glaswegian laments pecuniary resources reportedly (6) | MEANES | ENSEAM | Sounds like MEANS (resources) |
| 42 | Literal precursor of sin overturned in church services (4) | RESH | REHS | Resh is the 20th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, sin (or shin) is the 21st: hidden reversed in churcH SERvices |
| 43 | Pupil‘s environment in school primarily blocked by religious instruction (4) | IRIS | SIRI | I(n) S(chool) round R(eligious) I(nstruction) |
I filled about three quarters of the grid, but I’m afraid that time constraints got the better of me and I got no further. There did seem to be a lot of clues to solve. 🙂 Good fun though while it lasted.
I filled about 90% the grid but the remaining clues were just too hard for me. Thanks to Ploy and Hihoba.
Wow! How on earth did Ploy manage to engineer all those Down anagrams and manage to fit them to his closed curve? Clever clues, a bit of education with the obscure words and a wordsearch which I could actually do eventually (unlike eXternal’s offering in IQ 1457, which had been great till I was defeated by that final task!) Unfortunately, I did not find JUMBLE, my own fault since, after reading Hi’s excellent analysis, I googled “thin crisp sweet cake” and there it was. Thanks to Ploy and Hi.
Ploy is indeed “getting around” … I failed on the endgame of his Listener a fortnight earlier, but this was a delight, not least because it was a wonderful relief from the pervasive “misprints giving an instruction.” The mixture of anagrams in across clues and real-word anagrams of answers to down clues led to continuing pdm satisfaction. (An evil setter would have made all these anagrams much harder to unravel by adding an extra letter?) The one word I was very relieved to find in Ch. was RAH, as a v. int., thus rahing !
The 36-cell closed curve sounded suspiciously similar to IQ 1456’s “Vicious Circle”, and I assumed it would be symmetrical, so finding the “thin crisp sweet” etc. definition was easy … and my first guess was to look up “jumble” in Chambers. As you say, Bingo. I found some mouthwateringly attractive pictures of jumbals in Google, but haven’t yet got round to finding an online purchasing source.
We still have a very old pack of TREX, pace 14a, in our fridge so maybe that could be used in making some ?
Thanks Ploy and HiHoba.
I found this hard going and indeed only finished literally as the next week’s copy was being kindly delivered to my bed. The solving experience itself felt a bit of a slog, with additional know letters in the down clues being relatively little help, but the pleasure for me came in admiration for the remarkable construction and satisfaction at finally completing it all – a definite sense of achievement.
I too am still mystified by the ‘person with no income’ in 45A, and because of this hadn’t spotted the anagram of RAY -> AYR as I was still expecting there to be an anagram elsewhere in the clue to make sense of it, and I gave up on the parsing of 41A – stirps is new to me. I also thought ‘RAHING’ was a stretch.
However, I should reiterate my admiration for the construction, which more than compensates for these few quibbles in my eyes. Thanks to Ploy and to Hi.
Very neat, indeed. I finished the grid eventually but blanked on the message. So I praise its revealed cleverness through tightly gritted teeth!
Made this much harder for myself by not noticing the first sentence of the rubric until I’d solved all the clues and figured out for myself that the entries were all real words. And finding the “closed curve” also took me an age to get going as I didn’t assume symmetry; but I guessed that it would end in RING and that some of “RAHING” would be involved (else why include such a ‘stretch’ as OPatrick says @5). Symmetry emerged, and I got there is the end.
So, thanks to Ploy and Hihoba.
45a: look in Chambers under E and you will find “a person who has no regular income or who is dependent on state benefit”. So the wordplay is C (about) in [UN (a French) + E (person with no income)].
OK, so did Ploy have a special insight into this week’s Bake Off?
Well we failed at the last hurdle. We could blame it on the fact that we were very busy but we we really should have realised that COOKIE was a bit too general and didn’t fit in with what the puzzle was all about!
Thanks Ploy for the fun – it took some sorting and the PDM did not come until all the clues were complete which was good.
Thanks Hihoba for your blog and for showing us the error of our ways.
Thanks HG (#7) for clearing up 45a. I never thought to look under e, and, even after your pointer, found it hard to find!
Re (#7) and (#10), I think E harks back to the old demographic and socioeconomic classification system, A B C1 C2 D E, which advertisers used back in the 60s to define their target markets, and then create appropriate messages for them. I was always amused by the perceived need to have two categories of C.
Having been out of that business since 1986, I guess it must have long since been replaced with something much more politically correct ? If so, I would love to know how the primary target markets for “Great British Bake Off” and “Hive Minds” are respectively defined. Horses for courses … my life has been transformed by the current BBC2 afternoon repeats of “Hi-de-Hi”. As they used to say of the News of the World, all human life is there.