A difficult one from Nutmeg this week, especially if poetry isn’t really your thing. So much to keep track of and so much cold solving to do if you didn’t know the perimeter theme. The rubric read:
One letter from each answer must be entered, out of place, in the outer edge of the grid; the perimeter should then be completed to give six associated names, clockwise from the top left corner. Their collective name must be highlighted in the completed grid, as must a seventh name loosely associated with the group (18 cells in all).
The problem with moving one letter is that you have no idea which one, but I soon realised that the moving letter could not be the last one on the right or bottom edge or the first one on the top or left edge. This enabled me to put at least some letters into the grid, particularly when the T of WHORT (30A) and the N of YEARN (32A) were adjacent, giving HEARTN for 19D with the E in the perimeter. TORPOR (23D) and STEEPER (28A) followed. I can’t point to a particular breakthrough for the rest, but the grid gradually filled with lots of two-letter alternatives in squares and few certainties in the perimeter.
A breakthrough eventually occurred when the W(or E) of WELSH (18A) and ER from 28A and 30A gave me a possible WATER in the first part of the second perimeter clue. Good “advice from AA” – DRINK WATER. By this time I had also surmised THOMAS from the letters of the last perimeter entry. Now there was a John Drinkwater, playwright and Edward Thomas, a poet, so I googled “Drinkwater and Thomas writers” and the article headed “The Georgian poets Abercrombie, Brooke, Drinkwater, Gibson and …” came up. This looked promising and referred to the Georgian Poets, published in a series of five anthologies entitled Georgian Poetry 19??-19?? ( the George was George V). Now the names GIBSON, ABERCROMBIE and BROOKE all fitted the perimeter along with DRINKWATER and THOMAS. I had five of the six names, but could not find any reference to the last one (five letters starting at the top left) in the Georgian Poets group.
So I went back to the original google and looked further down the list. There was an article about the DYMOCK POETS, a group of poets comprising Robert Frost, Lascelles Abercrombie, Rupert Brooke, Edward Thomas, Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, and John Drinkwater, some of whom lived near the village of Dymock in Gloucestershire in the period between 1911 and 1914. Eleanor Farjeon, who was involved with Edward Thomas, also visited. So the missing entry was FROST.
Usually the diagonals contain the missing information to be highlighted, and on the top right to bottom left diagonal was DYMOCK POETS and on the top left to bottom right diagonal was FARJEON.
Job done. I now know that if I had googled Thomas and Drinkwater writers (just transposing the names), I would have gone directly to the Dymock Poets without the distraction of the Georgian poets, and that if I had read the entry for John Drinkwater carefully enough it would have led me directly to Dymock. Ah well.
Thanks to Nutmeg for quite a hard workout and a well constructed grid.
Perimeter Clues |
||
|---|---|---|
| Clue (definition) | Answer | Wordplay |
| Coldness of relations . . . | FROST | definition-ish |
| . . . repelled elder child | GIBSON | BIG (elder as in big sister) reversed + SON |
| Advice from AA . . . | DRINKWATER | DRINK WATER |
| . . . that is tailing suspect car bomber | ABERCROMBIE | [CAR BOMBER]* + I.E. |
| Sound made by bear . . . | BROOKE | Sounds like BROOK (bear or endure) |
| . . . somewhat barbaric – we backed off | THOMAS | [SOM(ew)HAT]* |
Across |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue (definition) | Answer | Grid | Wordplay |
| 9 | Appreciation Dad expressed for continental food? (5) | PASTA | SPATA | PA’S TA (Dad’s thank you) |
| 10 | Nonconformist Sir Humphrey possibly about to quit (7) | SECTARY | SECTAYR | SECRETARY (Sir Humphrey Appleby – Yes Minister – see here for the explanation of the term secretary!) minus RE (about) |
| 11 | Chemical that could kill – first litre disposed of (5) | ETHAL | AETHL | LETHAL (that could kill) minus first L(itre) |
| 12 | Barrister claiming first-class robing room’s due to fate (6) | KARMIC | KARMCI | KC (barrister) round (claiming) AI round (robing) RM (room) |
| 13 | Sons dash back after church for cosy chat (7) | SCHMOOZ | MSCHOOZ | S(ons) + CH(urch) + ZOOM (dash) reversed |
| 15 | Tool for breaking lead in the past preserved (7) | PICKLED | PICLEDK | PICK (tool for breaking) + LED (lead in the past tense) |
| 16 | German Johnnie tucked into dish a Kuwaiti originally cooked with lentils (7) | DHANSAK | HDANSAK | HANS (German Johnnie) in D(ish) A K(uwaiti) |
| 18 | Fail to pay for race (5) | WELSH | ELSHW | Double definition |
| 20 | Disease British leading lady contracted (5) | ERGOT | TERGO | ER (British leading lady) + GOT (contracted) |
| 22 | Divided crop on outskirts of Bristol (7) | PARTITE | PRTITEA | PARE (crop) round TIT (Bristol – yes that sort!) |
| 24 | Leg not good – long, boring affliction (7) | LEPROSY | ELPROSY | LE(g) + PROSY (long, boring) |
| 28 | More inclined to return deputies accepting minor post (7) | STEEPER | STEEPRE | REPS (deputies) reversed round TEE (minor post) |
| 29 | What’s at rainbows end in Oz? Peace, ultimately in violent storm (6) | MOTSER | OMTSER | (peac)E in [STORM]* |
| 30 | How horticulturalist protects fruit (5) | WHORT | WHOTR | Hidden in hoW HORTiculturalist |
| 31 | Unfavourable position for Murray’s record (7, 2 words) | SET DOWN | OSETDWN | Murray (tennis player) is in an unfavourable position if a set down, and set down means record |
| 32 | Long succession of months, unspecified number (5) | YEARN | YERNA | YEAR (succession of months) + N(umber) |
Down |
||||
| No. | Clue (definition) | Answer | Grid | Wordplay |
| 1 | Team must go under before chairmen do it (7) | PRESIDE | RPESIDE | SIDE (team) under PRE (before) |
| 2 | Adult coati doctored – it produces no offspring (6) | ATOCIA | OATCIA | [A COATI]* |
| 3 | Going in towards the back, look up (5) | ALOFT | TALOF | LO (look) in AFT (towards the back) |
| 4 | Interim funds raised by a parting medic (7) | STOPGAP | GSTOPAP | POTS (of money – funds) reversed + GP (medic) round A |
| 5 | Cream cheese about to be put on upturned roll (5) | CABOC | BCAOC | CA (about) + COB (roll) reversed |
| 6 | Bogies, namely ugly dwarves circling (8) | TROLLIES | STROLLIE | TROLLS (ugly dwarves) round IE (namely) |
| 7 | A second underwear “shortie” affects antiquarian (6) | AMOVES | OAMVES | A + MO (second) + VES(t) (short underwear) |
| 8 | Studied at one time in icy conditions (5) | YCOND | NYCOD | Hidden in icY CONDitions |
| 14 | Extremely het up at being interrupted by off-key singer (8) | ANGRIEST | ANGRESTI | AT round [SINGER]* |
| 17 | Last of cork lines weighing machine and industrial timer (7) | KRYTRON | KRYTRNO | (cor)K + RY (railway lines) + TRON (weighing machine) |
| 19 | Judge and cardinal cheer (7) | HEARTEN | HEARTNE | HEAR (judge) + TEN (cardinal number) |
| 21 | Stock vehicle with delegate in front (6) | REPUTE | RPUTEE | REP (delegate) + UTE (vehicle) |
| 23 | Lack of enthusiasm for splitting rubbish up (6) | TORPOR | TOPORR | PRO (for) in ROT (rubbish) all reversed |
| 25 | Animals having large feet, one amputated (5) | LAMBS | LAMSB | L(arge) + IAMBS (feet) minus I (one) |
| 26 | Enclosed base housing elements of very basic game (5) | BOXED | OXEDB | BED (base) round OX (elements of noughts and crosses) |
| 27 | First person in Notre Dame rather mocking religion (5) | JEWRY | JEWYR | JE (first person in French) + WRY (rather mocking) |
This sorted the men from the boys. And I wasnt man enough. I solved at least 20 of the clues and rearranged some so they fit but the only thing I could see was Abercrombie. Google only returned the clothing company.My anagram scrambler didnt give me ATOCIA-dont think it gave me MOTSER either. Never heard of YCOND-or the Dymock Poets.I had heard of Robert Frost though.
So thanks muchly for the blog and hope this post gives comfort to fellow failures!
I didn’t find this as hard as some other recent puzzles and I really enjoyed the structure of the solve. It was initially daunting, but on realising that the first or last letters of each word were fixed and finding a couple of crossing letters that confirmed the positions of other letters, it seemed to fall into place faster than I’d expected. I was briefly disappointed that Google hadn’t heard of the Mock Poets, but Wikipedia soon pointed me in the right direction.
A really good balance of theme and cluing, with each bit helping out at some point. The only exception was the final highlighting of Farjeon, which didn’t ring any bells at all.
I battled on and off with this for over a week and it was only Monday lunchtime that I finally made a breakthrough. I’d probably got about 1/2 the grid entered but nothing around the perimeter. I guessed that THOMAS was appearing on the left but that wasn’t much use on its own. It was only when guessing – and then googling – FROST and GIBSON from the potential letters I had along the top that I was able to grasp the theme. Once the perimeter was in, it was a fairly rapid finish and spotting the phrases in the diagonals also allowed me to fill in some gaps.
The method of moving one letter to the perimeter brought back memories of an earlier IQ – I looked it up and that was by Nutmeg too: IQ 1404 – Rise and Fall.
Thanks to Nutmeg and Hihoba.
Very difficult to get started, with uncertainty about which letter had to be moved, but in the end I just started entering answers into the grid in pencil, and erasing / moving letters when crossing answers didn’t fit. A bit hit and miss, but it worked for me. With a few letters fairly certain in the top row I managed to get the first two poets, Googled them, and swiftly filled in the perimeter. From then on it was pretty plain sailing. This still took me about twice as long as an Inquisitor usually does though. Overall very enjoyable and satisfying to complete.
Forgot to ask – does anyone know what the title refers to?
I got lucky on this one. I had read two biographies of Edward Thomas and at the time of solving was planning how to fit in a visit to Robert Frost’s house in Vermont next week while my wife and I are on a visit to New England. So, I saw coldness as the first word of the perimeter clues and thought: frost; Robert Frost; six of them; the Dymock Poets! Eleanor Farejeon making up the numbers as Thomas’s companion. Game over.
Thanks to Nutmeg and Hihoba.
A joy to be able to start grid-knitting without having to solve all the clues first. One could then cross-check across and down entries to start entering perimeter letters. I saw DYMOCK fairly early on, and wondered if it was going to be about gardening experts like the lovely Charlie … then I got DRINKWATER and wondered whether the title HEX might lead us to a group of poor witches once burned at the stake. But then Googled Dymock + Drinkwater, and it was game, set and match.
Kippax, I think HEX may mean we are dealing with a hexad of poets round the perimeter ? Hexad might even have been her original title ?
No great problems with excellent clues. A kind touch to give us clues for the perimeter names as well …others might not have done. a two-session solve this one, hugely enjoyed, as always with La Bella Myristica ! Brava, and thanks HiHoBa
Thank heavens for Google! Part way through the solve we guessed a couple of the names from tbe crossing letters but it wasn’t until near the end that we found the missing link.
We had IN COURT pencilled in for 31ac for a while until we realised that we were having difficulty solving other clues in the SW corner!
We thought Hexed also related to the fact there were 6 poets but wondered whether we were miss8ng something else.
Thanks Nutmeg and Hihoba.
Nut-meg-s are also Hex-agonal, but that might be a twist too far. Magic, anyway.
I didn’t see the original puzzle but having, enjoyed Nutmeg’s recent Guardian offering, turned to this blog out of curiosity. I live near Dymock and am a member of Friends of Dymock poets so I’m much intrigued by this solution. Although I can probably reconstruct the original puzzle from the information in the blog I would like to get hold of the as-published version. I can’t seem to find my way to it on the Web. Can any kind soul point me in the right direction please?
hillwalker @10
The Inquisitor isn’t available online, however you will shortly have mail.
#10,11 – If you can access http://library.pressdisplay.com/ you can get it.
Enjoyed this a lot after a slow start. I had only about three perimeter letters when I saw DRINKWATER / ABERCROMBIE — which, since Nutmeg generously gave us the lengths of all those answers and the starting point, usefully filled in a great chunk of the edge. “Aha! Georgian poets!” and BROOKE soon followed, but DYMOCK took quite a while longer. Thanks all round.
On a personal note, I didn’t visit Fifteensquared on Wednesday because I was awaiting (minor but amazingly effective) laser eye surgery. Now for the first time this year I can see the Inquisitor with both eyes!
DL #13. Glad the laser surgery went well. I have two friends whose lives have been transformed by the same surgery. A great advance in treatment!
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one to be red-herringed by the Georgian Poets.