Preamble: Solvers must complete the grid, including a health warning which applies to both grid and clues. Each clue is contaminated by a thematic letter, appearing as a misprint in the definition part.
Before we get started, in case anyone missed it, fifteensquared was 10 years old on November 1st. More here. Seeing that inspired me to try and track down the first Inquisitor blog and here it is. Then, of course, I had to track down my first blog which is here. My, how things have changed – all for the better, I hope.
OK, back to this puzzle. What on Earth does “solvers must complete the grid” mean? Isn’t that always the intent?? Aha, there’s two barred off cells – that explains it.
First one to fall was 23d, a simple anagram though the definition took me a few seconds to work out. Then 10a, 2d, 1a, 15a, 3d. With a few in the NW, it wasn’t too long before that corner was mostly done including WALNUT, HICKORY and LITCHI, all unclued.
All the rest of the unclued entries were also nuts. The entire list, in alphabetical order is: ACORN, BETEL, BRAZIL, CASHEW. HAZEL, HICKORY, LITCHI, PILI, WALNUT.
Looking in the diagonal containing the barred off cells it wasn’t difficult to find the “health warning” – MAY CONTAIN NUTS.
There were no instructions as to what to do with the “contaminated” letters so I started recording the replacements next to the clues but when I found the sequence AAUIA from 2-7 down I began to have my doubts. So the next thing to do, of course, is note the originals. With a few wrong guesses in the first few clues, nothing was making sense. Then I spotted the possible DEVOTEE and FANATIC towards the end.
The full list is AFICIONADO, BUFF, FIEND, ENTHUSIAST, DEVOTEE and FANATIC all of which, in their own way, could be described as NUTS. I imagine that there are a few aficionados, buffs, fiends, enthusiasts, devotees and fanatics reading this – no offence!
Good fun stuff from Nutmeg, as usual.
| Across |
|||
| Clue |
Entry |
Original letter |
Wordplay |
| 1 Potential feature of grave grove discontented Wesley’s church (4) |
WYCH | A |
WesleY (discontented)+CHurch |
| 4 Gets few new teachers in county putting RE first (8) |
RESTAFFS | F |
RE+STAFFS (Staffordshire: county) |
| 10 Kept witch watch for a week with a varied diet (7) |
AWAITED | I |
A+Week+A+DIET (anag: varied) |
| 12 Stuff behind centre of vent resembling coil foil, possibly (6) |
ENSATE | C |
vENt (centre of)+SATE (stuff) |
| 13 Bring up case for garment – one not designed for the fat fit! (7) |
CATSUIT | I |
CAT (vomit: bring up)+SUIT (case for garment) |
| 15 Scots snogger snigger’s underwear stripped off (6) |
NICKER | O |
kNICKERs (underwear; stripped) |
| 17 Ed’s wine wide container seen regularly in bar (5) |
BASEN | N |
BAN (bar) containing SeEn (regularly) |
| 18 “Brain Bruin” from India revolutionised University workroom (4) |
BALU | A |
University+LAB rev: revolutionised |
| 19 Famous model catered for retiring dandy handy (4) |
DEFT | D |
(model) T+FED (catered for) rev: retired |
| 20 The Queen’s followed outside and stopped stepped (8) |
TERRACED | O |
ER (The Queen) inside TRACED (followed) |
| 21 Water pipe beside inn, short but put in position (6) |
INDUCT | B |
INn+DUCT (water pipe) |
| 26 Russian car returns, carrying a team facing brunch branch (7) |
ADAXIAL | U |
LADA (Russian car; rev: returns) containing A+XI (team) |
| 27 Old band of musicians playing fife wife, perhaps (7) |
CONSORT | F |
Double def. |
| 29 He won’t live if in old mate gets bird (6) |
EXTERN | F |
EX (old mate)+TERN (bird) |
| 30 Wise guy, amusing when poet’s barely any fun sun (8, 2 words) |
OWL LIGHT | F |
OWL (wise guy)+LIGHT (amusing) |
| 33 The other interminable din den of retreat (4) |
NOOK | I |
NOOKy (sex: the other; interminable) |
| 35 Stele stole originally placed in Greek island unfinished (5) |
CREPT | E |
CRETe (Greek island; unfinished) containing Placed (originally) |
| 36 Strangle straggle, using special unrefined line (6) |
SPRAWL | N |
SPecial+RAW (unrefined)+Line |
| 38 Term describing Italy’s former high diver liver? (7) |
STYLITE | D |
STYLE (term) containing ITaly |
| 39 Mark received by graduates, third in Greek, best bust in Latin (6) |
MAMMAE | E |
Mark inside MA+MA (graduates)+grEek (third letter) |
| 40 Brood on review of current capacity to do damage by night sight (7, 2 words) |
EVIL EYE | N |
LIVE (current; rev: review of)+EYE (brood) |
| 41 Late note about small unknown herb set back garden tests pests (8) |
PSYLLIDS | T |
PS (late note) containing Small+Y (unknown)+DILL (herb; rev: set back) |
| 42 Hasty nasty charge prevails, without European backing (4) |
SLUR | H |
RULeS (prevails; minus European; rev: backing) |
| Down |
|||
| Clue |
Entry |
Original letter |
Wordplay |
| 2 Snug snag collar (5) | CATCH | U |
(double def) |
| 3 Some distribute these without trouble, by post poet (4) |
ETHE | S |
distributE THEse (hidden: some) |
| 5 Like tick tuck book confiscated by magistrate? (6) |
EDIBLE | I |
Book inside EDILE (magistrate) |
| 6 Manx minx resident’s extreme content (5) |
TEASE | A |
residenT (extreme)+EASE (content) |
| 7 Serials aerials featuring princess in mountain climbing (8) |
ANTENNAE | S |
ETNA (mountain) containing ANNE (princess) rev: climbing |
| 8 Van used by toffs involved in crash (titters sitters here in cinema) (8) |
FAUTEUIL | T |
FAIL (crash) containing UTE (van)+U (toffs) |
| 9 Dense tense son spat (5) | STIFF | D |
Son+TIFF (spat) |
| 11 Orkney estate supporting a docked feline resembling Mae Man’s puss (7) |
ACAUDAL | E |
A+CAt (feline; docked)+UDAL (Orkney estate) |
| 14 Chav chat’s account hacked by tourist on vacation (6) |
TATTLE | V |
TALE (account) containing TourisT (vacated) |
| 16 Reserve black pack animal as carrier for oats eats (6) |
ICEBOX | O |
ICE (reserve)+Black+OX (pack animal) |
| 21 Poet poem with difficulty keeping diary clear (5) |
IDYLL | T |
ILL (with difficulty) containing DiarY (clear) |
| 22 Picked up bread for Georgian otters ottars, say (6) |
SCENTS | E |
Sounds like (picked up) CENTS (currency: bread in Georgia (United States)) |
| 23 E.g. better bitter sweet provided by man, stony broke (8) |
ANTONYMS | E |
MAN STONY (anag: broke) |
| 24 Like some fibs sibs from dreadful liars men love puncturing (8) |
SORORIAL | F |
LIARS containing OR (men)+O (love) |
| 25 Crocks going up with a bang bung (7) |
STOPPED | A |
POTS (rev: going up)+PER (a) |
| 28 Carbon trials involved oil extracts from line lime perfumers use (7) |
CITRALS | N |
Carbon+TRIALS (anag: involved) |
| 31 Edith Wharton’s first novel, bound, in stacks sticks (6) |
WITHED | A |
EDITH+Warton (first) anag: novel |
| 32 Pounds in bank that’ll maintain tailor sailor on course (6) |
TILLER | T |
TIER (bank) containing L+L (pounds) |
| 34 Precisely no northward drift draft across the pond (5, 2 words) |
ON TAP | I |
PAT (precisely)+NO rev: northward |
| 37 Crude prude source of radium in unforged metal block (4) |
PRIG | C |
PIG (unforged block) containing Radium (source of) |
A fun, fairly straightforward puzzle, where I guessed fairly early on what the health warning was going to be. Thanks for the puzzle and blog. 🙂
Lovely puzzle, and thanks for the blog…
To paraphrase the old saying: ‘You don’t have to be ‘nuts’ to blog/comment here…but it helps!’
Much enjoyed. I spotted the metaphorical nuts from misprints (AFICIONADO etc) a long time before the actual unclued ones … the rest came in a rush on filling out the NW corner, with the diagonal immediately following.
Because this appeared on 5 November I was vaguely expecting a fireworky “health warning”, and spent a little time scanning for something to do with lighting the blue touch-paper and retiring. Oh well!
I found it easier to spot and choose the nuts than work out the words caused by the contamination.
Nice puzzle, thanks for the blog for teasing out remaining queries.
I agree – it didn’t take a sledgehammer to crack this one. I got off the ground with CASHEW, HAZEL & BRAZIL in the SE corner.
Ken: I hope you didn’t spend long trying to track down the first Inquisitor blog – all you had to do was click Inquisitor Index in the left-hand side bar menu and 2 more clicks would take you there.
And I think the replacement word in 12a is “foil” (sword) not “soil”; and in 11d it’s “Man’s” (IoM, Manx cat) not “mac’s” – clever of Nutmeg to get the capitalisation of both correct.
Thanks for the blog, and to Nutmeg for a gentle Sunday stroll.
A gentle but enjoyable interlude. I had the same route in as described by HolyGhost, with a tentative CASHEW immediately confirmed by BRAZIL and HAZEL and then the diagonal wrote itself in. There’s always that slight feeling of choriness following an early PDM (and I had a couple of question marks over some of the clues (13A, 8D), though I think I had same parsings as kenmac’s given in the end), but there was enough interest in sorting out the other nuts to keep me motivated to the end.
Thanks to Nutmeg and kenmac – things have indeed come a long way, but I can’t see how they could go much further.
H___G____ @ 5:
12a was a tryping errot – thanks.
11d had me flummoxed and I meant to mention that.
All corrected now.
I thought this was a lovely puzzle. It was rather gentler than some of the head-scratchers we’ve had recently, but that’s fine by me! It was very satisfying to be able to enter the final touches with confidence. Thanks, Nutmeg.
Just writing up the blog for next week, and on the radio come I, Ludicrous with ‘Preposterous Tales in the Life of Ken McKenzie’. (Good old Gid Coe on 6 Music.) They’ll be playing live in Brighton on 18 December, I hear.
HG, not just our solving experiences that are similar then – an enjoyable half hour’s listening as I worked this morning, starting at I, Ludicrous.
Thanks Kenmac and Nutmeg. A very enjoyable puzzle and a break from having my brain pummelled. I liked the health warning idea, it allowed the instructions to be short and vaguely worded but still had an unambiguous outcome. Well done there.