An Inquisitor puzzle from Kruger, who is now closing in on Lato and Loda as the third most prolific setter of Inquisitor puzzles since the rebranding 10 years ago.
Preamble: This puzzle depicts a well-known portrayal of a famous event. Wordplay in each clue yields an extra letter that is not to be entered in the grid. In clue order, these letters identify an entity that must be removed from the completed grid. Eight answers must be treated in one of two thematic ways before entry. Word lengths refer to grid entries.
I didn’t solve too many clues on the first pass through, but the upper half was distinctly more yielding than the lower. 
At first I couldn’t decide whether to enter THESAURUS (the answer to 1a) as TAURUS or SAURUS (to leave a word or not), but 14d SOUTHERNER wouldn’t be a word whichever letters I chose to omit – so I opted to leave out THE from both, confirmed a bit later by RUTHENE at 22d. By now I had enough of the extra letters in the wordplay to take a punt on GOT OUT OF STALAG LUFT …, which brought to mind THE GREAT ESCAPE. In passing, this suggested that one of the two ways of thematically treating some (4?) answers was to omit THE, and the other was to omit some synonym of GREAT which would justify leaving CRACK out of 6a CREAM CRACKER.
The down clues seemed to be leading me to names – the only actors that I could recall being in the film were Steve McQueen (with his baseball and glove in solitary) and Donald Pleasence (the forger, who was nearly left behind because of his failing eyesight) – but we were probably looking for characters anyway. Some e-checking gave me VELINSKI (with an E, not an A), and the other successful escapees DICKES and SEDGWICK. Since the former was in the middle of the central column (and was destined to be removed from the grid – leaving real words I noted), it had to be the latter coming from the extra letters in the other down clues.
So by now I had most of the pieces and there was just some tidying up to do: finding one more THE and the remaining GREATs, and figuring out a couple of tricksy wordplays. MASTHEAD at 9d arrived later than it should, and then in a clatter came 16d VERBIGERATE, 37d INTEGRAND, and 42a CONFINEMENT. As to the wordplays, INTEGRAL → ENTERAL at 8d had puzzled me for a while (the “commonest” device), and for ages I just couldn’t see how to generate the spare W from ERNEST at 43a (with help I got there in the end – maybe I should have paid attention to the lack of hyphen between “two” & “thirds”).
In the film, only those three POWs make it to safety; many are shot dead, and some are returned to the camp. I guess the three who make it are the “Non-returnable”, but I’m not sure if that’s what the title refers to. I did spend some time looking for items such as tunnels or barbed wire in the grid, but the preamble suggests it’s just Dickes we’re looking for. Not too taxing a puzzle, but a few tough clues; thanks Kruger.
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue | Answer | Extra letter |
Wordplay |
| 1 | Guess author is unhappy removing front cover of Oxford dictionary (6) | THESAURUS | G | [GUESS AUTHOR]* − O(xford) |
| 6 | Thrash grumbler snaffling last piece of choc biscuit (7, 2 words) | CREAM CRACKER | O | CREAM (thrash) CROAKER (grumbler) around (cho)C |
| 11 | Questionable antics hide connection to a ring (9, 2 words) | SIDE CHAIN | T | [ANTICS HIDE]* |
| 12 | Strengthens rollers (4) | MANS | O | MANOS (rollers) |
| 14 | Copper confronts more promising crook (7) | CROSIER | U | CU (copper) + ROSIER (more promising) |
| 15 | Poet’s donkey held by young child (5) | TASSO | T | ASS (donkey) in TOT (young child) |
| 17 | Frame setter possibly visiting restaurant without female (5) | CADGE | O | DOG (setter possibly) in CAFE (restaurant) − F(emale) |
| 19 | He eats a lot – it’s a festival (6) | EASTER | F | FEASTER (he eats a lot) |
| 20 | Maybe buyer of violin about to backtrack (6) | TRADER | S | STRAD (violin) RE< (about) |
| 21 | Shakespearean leaves to Ecuador – it’s a long way! (6) | PARSEC | T | PARTS (leaves, Shakesp) + EC(uador) |
| 25 | Smile: astronaut taking off – acceleration good (4) | GRIN | A | GAGARIN (astronaut) − A(ccelaration) & G(ood) |
| 27 | Participating in casual sex repelled one of twins (4) | ESAU | L | (cas)UAL SE(x)< |
| 28 | Fruit bat alas nearly eaten by huge ape (6) | KALONG | A | ALA(s) in KONG (huge ape) |
| 29 | Dog ran right around county once (6) | RADNOR | G | [DOG RAN R(ight)]* |
| 33 | Wayfarer displaying bottle in front of hill (6) | VIATOR | L | VIAL (bottle) + TOR (hill) |
| 35 | Jazz sure in material used by Grappelli (5) | RESIN | U | [SURE IN]* |
| 38 | Object if a rabbi uses Jewish priest’s mitre (5) | TIARA | F | (objec)T IF A RA(bbi) |
| 39 | Condemn confining Chinese in ancient dance halls (7) | CASINOS | T | CAST (condemn) around SINO (Chinese) |
| 40 | Protection, say, provisionally to take effect after Navy departs (4) | EGIS | I | EG (say) NISI (provisionally to take effect) − N(avy) |
| 41 | Old King’s book left out material (9) | GEORGETTE | I | GEORGE (old king) TITLE − L(eft) |
| 42 | Being shut up, men suffering with infection (7) | CONFINEMENT | I | [MEN + INFECTION]* |
| 43 | Man following raptor at first sees two thirds of new kites (6) | ERNEST | W | ERNE (raptor) S(ees) + (ne)W & (ki)T(es) {third letters} |
| Down | No. | Clue | Answer | Extra letter |
Wordplay |
| 2 | First-rate equipment apparently beginning to spot breaks in circuits (7) | AIRGAPS | I | A1 (first-rate) RIG (equipment) AP(parently) S(pot) |
| 3 | Pasta cook kept in barrel (4) | UDON | T | DO (cook) in TUN (barrel) |
| 4 | Burglar finally lifted items close to hand – Jock’s to receive loot (5) | RESET | H | (burgla)R THESE< (items close to hand) |
| 5 | Stripped old ploughs in outhouse (7) | SHEARED | S | EARS (ploughs, obs) in SHED (outhouse) |
| 6 | Detective Inspector’s anxiety over knitted garment (5) | CARDI | E | DI (Detective Inspector) after CARE (anxiety) |
| 7 | Mob purged by National Guard (4) | RING | D | RID (purged) + NG (National Guard) |
| 8 | Commonest of enemas relieving entry to intestines in whole of the gut (7) | ENTERAL | G | INTEGRAL with E (commonest letter in EneEmas) for I(ntestines) |
| 9 | May’s first worrying date was originally heralded in banner (5) | MASTHEAD | W | M(ay) [DATE WAS H(eralded)]* |
| 10 | Result from getting rid of towels initially from bathroom (5) | ENSUE | I | EN SUITE (bathroom) − T(owels) |
| 13 | Perhaps residents of Birmingham rudely scorn us there (8) | SOUTHERNERS | C | [SCORN US THERE]* |
| 16 | Repeat certain words in broadcast – give breaker time! (8) | VERBIGERATE | K | [GIVE BREAKER T(ime)]* |
| 18 | Food from South Africa and region of India (4) | SAGO | A | SA (South Africa) + GOA (region of India) |
| 22 | Again engaged in secret Ukrainian dialect (4) | RUTHENE | N | THEN (again) in RUNE (secret) |
| 23 | Reservation of rising artist framing worthless stuff (7) | STORAGE | D | DEGAS (artist) around ROT (worthless stuff) all< |
| 24 | Be concerned about exam – it’s not to everyone’s taste (7) | CAVIARE | V | CARE (be concerned) about VIVA (exam) |
| 26 | Some Filipinos go to sire in distress (7) | IGOROTS | E | [GO TO SIRE]* |
| 30 | Friend’s mostly hobbling – I give way (5) | AMIGO | L | LAM(e) I GO (give way) |
| 31 | Drink liquid in raid (5) | DRAIN | I | [IN RAID]* |
| 32 | Poet’s to pay for conscientious objector stopping several machine guns (5) | ESCOT | N | CO (conscientious objector) in NEST (several machine guns) |
| 34 | Foreigner to remain in hospital no longer (5) | ALIEN | S | LIE (remain) in SAN (hospital, old inf) |
| 36 | See inside low still (4) | EVEN | K | V (vide, see) in KEEN (low) |
| 37 | Function involved detraining (4) | INTEGRAND | I | [DETRAINING]* |
|
|
||||
I managed to get DICKES out of the camp but I failed to complete the grid. I was looking for VALINSKI not VELINSKI which was part of the problem, but in the end there were too many obscure words with tough clues for me to finish completely. I expect that I could have got there using computer-aided word searches and other such brute force attacks but it seemed fairer to admit defeat.
Thanks to Kruger for an entertaining puzzle and to HG for explaining it all.
I did finally get there, after assuming ERNEST at bottom right, but not being able to justify it for ages. It was VELINSKI that initially set me on the right track. Unlike PeeDee I resorted to word searches for what I assumed had to be VER(BIG)ERATE since it was not in my decrepit twelfth edition Chambers … and was then taken aback when it did not come up, either, on the current Chambers Word Wizard. (Is it in the latest edition of Chambers ?)
Coincidentally, after the previous week’s Wellesley/Blucher puzzle, the real life hero of the actual event, Squdn. Leader Roger Bushell, was, during the 1920s, in Wellesley House at the same school where I spent so much time in close proximity to a Blucher statue.
Thank, “Oom Paul”, for puzzle and HG for definitive blog.
A win for the setter this week. I had most of the grid complete, but just couldn’t work out how I was supposed to thematically treat the remaining clues, and threw in the towel.
Murray Glover @2: “verbigerate” is in my (paper) copy of Chambers 7th edition (dating from the early 1990’s) – look under the headword verb.
(And it took me a little while to understand your ref to “Oom Paul”.)
I found this hard and fiddly, but ground it all out in the end and, as often seems to be the case, time has already mellowed my opinions and I can’t see anything that I’m unhappy with, excepting perhaps the seeming clumsiness of 43A. I found there wasn’t any great PDM, but rather a series of mini-reliasations which built to a satisfying whole. As HG suggests, though, I was expecting to find those three tunnels or a wooden horse somewhere in the grid.
Thanks, HolyGhost. Have looked in my 12th. ed. Chambers, and it is indeed there, but under headword VERBAL rather than VERB. And I have just tried Word Wizard again, on my laptop, and it does come up on that too. Like a lot of people, I guess, I was stuck on words like REITERATE and REVERBERATE, before I twigged that it was “great” synonyms we were looking for. One of our joys is discovering new words ? I will try and “use it in my next essay”, as the old saying went.
I tried thanking Kruger once or twice before in Afrikaans, but I think he actually has no connection with that beautiful but troubled country.
Thanks to both Kruger and HolyGhost. Like others I found this rather hard going but was pleased to make it to the finish and release DICKES. The title seemed to point clearly enough at those who got entirely away. 43A took forever to justify.
I’d love to know whether 42A was a deliberate trap. Before solving anything else in that quadrant I quite confidently pencilled in ENMURED, from “men suffering” (ENM) plus the plant infection UREDO, with O left over. Since this not only gave the wrong surplus letter but clashed with five down answers, an agonizing rethink had to follow.
One other thing: I had “GET OUT OF…” rather than “GOT OUT OF…” with CREAKER instead of CROAKER. I think HG’s version is the better one.
David @7 – I wasted a lot of time trying to shoehorn ENMURED into the grid too. It looked so right.
Some very tough clues in this one, but we managed to fill most of the top half fairly quickly, including three of the answers from which “the” had to be omitted but not the “cream cracker” one, which remained a mystery for a long time. When it became apparent that the extra letters in the across clues were leading us towards “Stalag Luft”, we decided the theme had to be either “The Wooden Horse” or “The Great Escape”. Once we’d got a few of the down clues we were able to identify one of the latter’s heroes and it was plain sailing thereafter, although we never understood ERNEST.
A good challenge, but for me it’s a weakness that whilst the removal of DICKES left real words in the grid, most of the thematic alterations did not.
Thanks to HolyGhost for the explanation for 43ac – we puzzled over the answer for ages and could not sort out the parsing.
As others have already said, a good challenge – thanks Kruger.
I had the same trouble as others with 43a and 8d. Ho sorted them out for me, though he didn’t do the rest of the puzzle.
I was strangely dissatisfied by the denouement. I was hoping for more than a six letter name. Like HG I was hoping for tunnels or motor bikes!
Serendipitously topical, given Boris’ comments this week about Brexit and POW camp punishment beatings for trying to escape!
Perhaps we could re-cast the movie with politicians from Europe and the Leave and Remain camps…although with Boris and Farage involved it would probably end up looking more like an episode of ‘Allo ‘Allo…
A belated thank you to HG for the blog and all subsequent comments.