Inquisitor 1578: Taking Liberties by Dysart

14 comments on “Inquisitor 1578: Taking Liberties by Dysart”

1. I struggled a little with this one and the PDM took some time to arrive. Once it did, the unclued cells were soon filled. I think it was Nicaragua which opened the door for me.

   I couldn’t parse 2D so thank you for clearing that one up, Hihoba.

   19D was indeed a lovely clue, with a nod to Henry II also I thought.

   I’ve been away all month on my travels so my Inquisitor entries haven’t been posted throughout Jan. I would have gone green for the shading.

   Thanks again to Hihoba for the blog and to Dysart for the fun.

2. Definitely green for Parnell.

3. We were fortunate in spotting the possibility of countries without ‘i’ fairly early on. It didn’t spoil our enjoyment. Actually, we were quite pleased as we had been away and had two IQs to solve!

   Hihoba – we also thought of CELLAR but as we couldn’t parse it we left the squares blank which was unusual for us so it didn’t cause problems with other clues.

   If we had submitted an entry (we hardly ever bother – the solve is a prize in itself) we would have coloured the ‘i’ green.

   Thanks to S&B.

4. Thanks as usual to Dysart for a nifty challenge — some very neat clues, as already noted — and Hihoba for explication. Definitely green for Parnell, I thought. CALLER gave me most trouble owing to musical ignorance. I vaguely thought the key phrase explaining the unclued entries was IRISH FREE STATE.

   I’m glad to see R in the top centre square, and hope the official solution will follow suit because I fretted perhaps unnecessarily about this. If you ask which country features in the top row, Parnell confirms Ireland, becoming RELAND. But if you phrase it as “What letter goes at top centre?”, Parnell could be said to confirm C (from ICELAND) because that’s his initial — Charles Parnell.

5. This is the first Inquisitor since no. 1572 last year that I have had the time to make a serious attempt at, and my rustiness seemed to take its toll as I made heavy weather of it. I twice put it down thinking I would have to give up, but I got some encouragement from seeing five theme names taking shape in the bottom half of the grid and was eventually able to tough out the whole grid, and the endgame, to a finish.

   I appreciated the theme very much and liked the choice of thematic names – and the fact that they made a symmetrical pattern, both with and without the hidden name PARNELL (which duly confirmed [I]RELAND in the top row).  I also appreciated your remarks about this theme, Hihoba.

   The clues in this puzzle were generally excellent. I was glad that 34a DROOB and 6d LEMEL (you mentioned the latter, Hihoba) were the only examples of the ‘double obscurity’ kind of clue – one that has an obscure or unfamiliar word for its solution and another in its wordplay. This matter came up on the blog two weeks ago and is something I am always aware of (and sensitive to). Sparing use of clues like these, as here, is no bad thing – it’s their over-use that tends to take the fun out of solving.

   ELEANOR was indeed an outstanding clue.  I liked CALLER too as it was so deceptively simple.

   Thanks to Dysart and Hihoba.

6. Surely not green? Parnell was a Protestant.

7. Thanks Hihoba & Dysart. Quite a slow start for me, but a fast finish. Very enjoyable (and the symmetry is noted & appreciated). I didn’t agonise too long over which colour to use – the preamble simply says “the name must be coloured” but doesn’t say “appropriately” – and went for green.

8. A very neat and enjoyable puzzle. I might have grumbled about the rather vague colouring requirement if I sent puzzles in, but I don’t so I didn’t. I guessed at green though green, white (if that’s possible) and orange would have been a valid alternative. Thanks Dysart.

9. Quick to start but particularly slow to finish here. Because, basically, I made a guess at 14ac I meant to check later, completely forgot about it, and then took an age to find the final shading. Oh well… A good puzzle, enjoyed, nevertheless.

10. I got this through Argentina, but it was still slow progress to the (incomplete) end. Particular problems in the south-east, as I couldn’t find either Droob or Amniote in my Chambers. Perhaps I need to go online more…

    Nice puzzle (I always had a soft spot for Parnell, victim of dirty tricks as he was), thanks to Dysart and Hihoba.

11. Oddly, just before starting this I’d been thinking about the potential for a crossword to use the changing names of a country (e.g. Serendip -> Ceylon -> Sri Lanka) in some form, so it seemed a bit spooky when I realised what the theme was. Perhaps my subconscious had picked up on the ‘earlier state’ in the preamble – I’m fairly sure it wasn’t conscious, as I had an ‘oh’ moment reading the blog where Hi points to this, which I thought I hadn’t even noticed.

    I found it quite tricky, but then can’t think of the last time when I hadn’t thought that. But an enjoyable challenge (ditto). The 100th anniversary of the Dail did hint strongly at Ireland being the obvious choice, and Parnell certainly jumped out, but even so I spent a while checking up on Icelandic history just to make sure. Anyone else Google ‘Rusneas Iceland’, or other combinations of likely looking letters?

12. I enjoyed this and got to the PDM late which increases the enjoyment for me.

    In the end I left the name uncoloured. The next bit is intended only as feedback as I really did enjoy the puzzle:

    I think it would have been better for the instructions to say “highlighted” rather than “coloured”.  Coloured implies that a specific colour is required but there is no indication in the puzzle what colour to use other than a vague and subjective pick-your-favourite-colour type instruction.  What colour is associated with Independence anyway (the deficiency/what was won)?  Better to leave this out altogether.  Also the “looks like an I” felt a bit vague too.  Without the decorating bars top and bottom it just looks like any other down light.  Again better to have left this out altogether.  Up to this point the puzzle and instructions were solid and spot-on.  The last bit felt like the setter was trying to milk the scenario rather than stopping while he/she was ahead.

    Thanks to Hihoba and Dysart.

13. PeeDee @12

    As always, I enjoyed reading your take on this puzzle.  I agree with what you say about coloured (‘must be coloured’): shaded might even be as good as highlighted as a suitable and more normal alternative.  As you say, the colour should not be significant, but the use of that word made it seem so.

    I did, however, like the I-shaped name down the middle, believing it matched the phrase ‘representing cryptically’ very well, with the added bonus that it took part in the overall symmetry of the theme as displayed.

    The theme was not a complex one, and I thought it was executed well.  The clues and instructions were indeed solid and spot on, and that is what made it for me, as so often.

14. Alan B – thinking again on the I down the middle: we have been asked to remove a letter I from each unclued lights so this shape does directly indicate the deficiency.  It does not fall into the same category as the subjective colour instruction,  I had overlooked this.  That part of the instruction is indeed clear and unambiguous.

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