Wiglaf is an irregular but welcome setter in the Inquisitor series. His two previous puzzles date from 2013, a literary puzzle and 2016 XXXX which resolved itself to be 20/20. Both were well received by their bloggers (Kenmac and me), and this one was nicely pitched too.
The rubric read: Five thematic unclued answers consist of a player (two words) and his four aliases. Each of 14 clues contains a misprint in the definition; in order, correct forms of misprints spell out the real name of the player. The name of the pretence and its creator must be highlighted in the grid. Unchecked/mutually checked letters of thematic answers can make A UK YUCCA FEAT. The definition at 3 may be verified in Collins.
I must say that I didn’t bother to check the YUCCA stuff, nor to get my Collins out for 3D. It all fell out quite nicely without these extras.
I solved most of the top half and some of the bottom right corner in two sittings without getting any idea of the theme. I had ?R??KSH??? for the down unclued entry starting top left, and ?OSH?A for 6D. These were clearly names – CRUIKSHANK and JOSHUA. I also had ??N????D and D?LE for two of the other three unclued entries. I weakened at this point and googled “cruikshank joshua” getting references to unreasonable numbers of Joshua Cruikshanks. I added the word “game” to my google and got a reference to the film Charade. Now I knew the music (Henry Mancini score), and the protagonists – Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn – but have never seen the film, so I read on.
Charade concerns BRIAN CRUIKSHANK played by CARY GRANT (the top across unclued entry), who has three aliases, PETER JOSHUA, ALEXANDER DYLE and ADAM CANFIELD, which fit nicely into the vacant spots in the grid. Cary Grant’s real name was ARCHIBALD LEACH, (no wonder he changed it!), which was spelled out by the corrected misprints, several of which I had to reverse engineer. These included the I in 26A (hadn’t heard of a yippie) and the B in 31A (a nice definition once you got it).
Only the highlighting to find, and the top left to bottom right diagonal contained CHARADE DONEN, the film’s title and the name of its creator, director Stanley Donen. The extra highlighting of the unclued entries in the grid below is for information only.
So job done. Thoroughly enjoyable, Wiglaf. A nice PDM and some excellent clues. Just the right level of difficulty for an Inquisitor on the easier side.
{HiHoBa news: Ba (Barnie Baker) left the triumvirate a couple of years ago, so Ho (Jo Horwood) and I (Hi – George Hill) soldiered on together. I do the writing, Ho helps out when I’m stuck, checks my parsing of the clues and proof-reads the final blog text and amends it as necessary. This week Ho has been unable do anything due to a particularly nasty fall, resulting in a seriously broken femur and complications thereafter. I hope he will be back soon and I’m sure we all wish him well, but meanwhile this is a solo effort, so please forgive any shortcomings.}
Across |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue (definition) [misprint] correction | Answer | Wordplay | X |
| 6 | Co[o]al Hardy character overlooked at the end (3) | JUD | JUD(e) (the Obscure) endless | A |
| 8 | Artist framing what, on reflection, could be a Titan (4) | RHEA | RA (artist) round EH (what!) reversed | |
| 9 | Sp[l]rays arse outrageously during avant-garde solo? Quite the reverse (8) | AEROSOLS | [SOLO]* (avant-garde = unconventonal = anagram) in [ARSE]* | R |
| 11 | Copper has to try being superlatively clever (6) | CUTEST | CU (copper) + TEST (try) | |
| 13 | Cool flower season (5) | INURE | In Chambers, season = inure: IN (cool) + URE (flower) | |
| 14 | Religious instruction will take place at the end of this busy month (6) | TISHRI | [THIS]* + R(eligious) I(nstruction) | |
| 15 | [B]County hunter finally engulfed by lake one day when swimming (7) | KILDARE | (hunte)R in [LAKE I (one) D(ay)]* | C |
| 18 | A lot of hard pieces for one performer (4) | SOLI | SOLI(d) (hard) | |
| 20 | Checks photo featuring earl with son (6) | SNEAPS | SNAP (photo) round E(arl) + S(on) | |
| 21 | [K]Herb close to charity shops needing repairs (6) | HYSSOP | (charit)Y in [SHOPS]* | H |
| 26 | Perhaps y[u]ippie will bring LSD back through western Libya (7) | RADICAL | ACID (LSD) reversed (back) in LAR (Lybia) reversed (western) | I |
| 28 | German scientist, home around the centre of Schorndorf (6) | NERNST | NEST (home) round (Scho)RN(dorf) | |
| 29 | Thick milk-based food, gallons hidden in tent (5) | YOURT | YOGURT (thick milk-based food) minus G(allons) | |
| 31 | Singer in confusion and “[s]borrow” for profiteering? (6) | PIRATE | RAT (singer = informer) in PIE (confusion) | B |
| 33 | Wimps coming round for swe[e]at (4) | STEW | WETS (wimps) reversed | A |
| 34 | A bit of work in desert area (3) | ERG | Double definition | |
| 35 | Drunken sots swaggered around, extending over urban area (9) | CROSSTOWN | [SOTS]* in CROWN (= crowed, swaggered) | |
Down |
||||
| No. | Clue (definition) | Answer | Wordplay | X |
| 1 | Are you at last adapting an old temperature scale? (4) | RÉAU | scale named after RÉAUMUR: [ARE (yo)U]* | |
| 2 | Beast of burden‘s ta[s]lk (3) | YAK | Double definition | L |
| 3 | Form of algae that‘s hoo[f]d-shaped (5) | GALEA | [ALGAE]* (helmet-shaped in Chambers) | D |
| 4 | [D]Log on 22 (6) | RECORD | RE (on) + CORD (22D, string) | L |
| 5 | Note written in 12 seconds expressing ideas (7) | NOTIONS | TI (note) in NOON (12) + S(econds) | |
| 7 | Extremist involved in unlawful trade (5) | ULTRA | Hidden in unlawfUL TRAde | |
| 10 | Mussels served in a local before ten (4) | UNIO | UN (a local) + IO (= 10) | |
| 12 | Elton‘s twin messed up ar[i]ea in Los Angeles (10) | TINSELTOWN | [ELTON’S TWIN]* | E |
| 16 | Lives between fourth-grade and top-grade orchid (4) | DISA | IS (lives) between D (fourth-grade) and A (first-grade) | |
| 17 | Accran bre[e]ad could create order in the Star Wars universe after change of leader (4) | CEDI | Ghanaian currency: JEDI with leader changed | A |
| 19 | My special song for 31 (7) | CORSAIR | 31 is pirate: COR (my!) + S(pecial) + AIR (song) | |
| 22 | Gazing without a [w]cord (6) | STRING | ST(a)RING (gazing) | C |
| 23 | Gently move ladies’ coat stands (6) | EASELS | EASE (gently move) + L(adie)S | |
| 24 | Some irregularity in Shevardnadzes cas[e]h (4) | LARI | Georgian currency: Hidden in irreguLARIty | H |
| 25 | Out-of-date sulphur compounds supplied by fellow at a premium, say? (5) | HEPAR | Only works as a down clue. HE above PAR (above par is “at a premium”) Excellent clue! | |
| 27 | Term for holy fathers going around as couples . . . (5) | DYADS | (hol)Y (term = end) in DADS (fathers) | |
| 30 | . . . till old nuns stop removing clothes (4) | UNTO | (n)UN(s) (s)TO(p) – removing clothes = minus outside letters | |
| 32 | Erhard’s programme + is translated into French (3) | EST | Double definition | |
I too saw CRUIKSHANK as a likely name going down, and then (with initial ‘C’) the name going across starting with ‘C’ could have been CARY GRANT, although I had no idea there was a connection between them. But seeing ‘real name’ and ‘player’ in the preamble made Cary Grant a likely candidate for the central player.
The remaining themed answers and the two names going diagonally down the grid came readily on looking them up, but only Cary Grant and Charade were known to me.
This is my third Inquisitor, and I very much enjoyed getting my head round the misprints – a device reminiscent of the missing (rather than misprinted) letters in a puzzle by Phi a few weeks ago. I appreciated the nice, tight clueing of this puzzle, as with the other two that I have completed.
RADICAL was my last to confirm as correct because I had not come across ‘yippie’ before, although I should have seen the not-very-difficult LAR for Libya much earlier.
Thanks to Wiglaf, and to Hi for the comprehensive blog, highlights and all, produced in more challenging circumstances. I know neither of you (Hi and Ho), but I wish Ho well and a full recovery.
Thoroughly enjoyable. I didn’t know the film, but got Cary Grant and the unclued entries without too much ado, and confirmed both them and the name from the misprints via Google. Nicely pitched, as you say, for a not too tricky Inquisitor.
All the best to Ho for a speedy recovery.
I liked this one too, one of the few I’ve been able to finish without the help of Google. I was held up for a while by the assumption that it was Player One (rather than Cary Grant) across the top, from the recent film, involving a game of VR and various avatars. It fitted rather well and seemed to make sense (to me). But then Archibald Leach disclosed himself, and the game was up. Quite a few clues I couldn’t pass, so thanks to Hihoba, and to Wiglaf for an entertaining puzzle.
Many thanks Wiglaf, fun to solve and not too difficult. Several of the misprints were nicely disguised, I thought.
From the first few misprinted letters identified, I was sure that RICHARD was emerging as the forename so was rather thrown when A appeared at the start. I am not familiar with the film so Google was needed to help me out with some of the names (JOSHUA was clear on its own). Like Alan B @1, I think that 26a was my last one in too. LAR and Yippie were both new to me.
I enjoyed this. The puzzle was particularly topical as my daughter and I have been having a bit of an Audrey Hepburn season on our home cinema recently. Charade is now added to the program and the DVD waiting on the shelf. Thanks all.