Apt is a new setter for the Inquisitor series, so there is no history from which to gauge how difficult the clues and end game may be.
The preamble was very short: " In the completed grid, four items commonly measured on a 28 scale must be highlighted, each in an appropriate colour – as suggested by one letter in the item which is omitted in the wordplay for its entry or entries"
For me, this was just a question of solving the clues and deducing whether any of them were lacking a letter in the wordplay. In the end I found five occurrences of answers that needed an extra letter to form the entry. Two of these were in unchecked positions. These being the A in PERUSAL at 10 down and the A in FATEFUL at 19 down. The G in GARBE at 30 down, was checked by the unclued preamble entry, TRAFFIC-LIGHT. Finally the R in both TRILLO (23 across) and RATES (24 down) was unreferenced in the wordplay for each. These three letters represent the colours RED, AMBER or GREEN used in TRAFFIC-LIGHTs
A study of the grid around the unreferenced letters shows the four vertical strings FAT (column 1), SATURATES (column 3), SUGAR (column 10) and SALT (column 12)
The theme is therefore revealed as the TRAFFIC-LIGHT assessment of some foods on sale in supermarkets and other stores. The percentage of FAT, SATURATES, SUGAR and SALT are listed numerically on the packaging and also indicated in Red, Amber or Green colours where Red indicates a high percentage of the ingredient, Amber a medium percentage and Green a low percentage.
Using the appropriate letter to highlight the ingredient, the final grid looked like this
The title, RAG-TAG Group, is based on the RAG (Red, Amber, Green) labelling (TAG)
I think the clues were towards the easier end of the Inquisitor spectrum, but that’s not a criticism. It’s good to get a good mix of puzzles over the year.
As ever in crosswords, I learnt some new words – JACK-UP, STUBNAIL and QINTAR being among them. I liked the surfaces of many of the clues, especially the use of UPS in the delivery at 15 across.
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. |
Clue |
Wordplay |
Letter |
Entry |
| 1 | Relatively affectionate male dumped in favour of one more guarded (6) |
WARMER (relatively affectionate) excluding (dumped) M but replacing it with (in favour of) I (Roman numeral for one) WARIER |
WARIER (more guarded) | |
| 6 | Sailor out of his bunk in accommodation at sea (6) |
JACK (term for a sailor) + UP (out of his bunk) JACK UP |
JACK-UP (offshore oil rig or accommodation platform, etc secured by legs that are lowered from the platform to the seabed) |
|
| 11 | Flies group of six over to guard squadron leader (7) |
SESTET (group of six) reversed (over) containing (to guard) S (first letter of [leader] SQUADRON) T (S) ETSES< |
TSETSES (small flies of the African genus Glossina that transmit trypanosome parasites and cause sleeping sickness and nagana) |
|
| 13 | Long stretch of bachelordom (4) |
ACHE (hidden word in [stretch of] BACHELORDOM) ACHE |
ACHE (long [for]) | |
| 15 | Shipping company aim to deliver to the top floor? (6) |
UPS (United Parcel Service, an American multinational package delivery and supply chain management company, active in Britain with distinctive brown vans) + END (aim) UP S END |
UPSEND (to SEND or deliver UPwards, possibly to the top floor) | |
| 16 | Not half of grim repute! (5) |
O (OF excluding, F, one letter [of two]; not half OF) + DOUR (grim) O DOUR |
ODOUR (repute) | |
| 17 | Swimmer whose diet is meat and tea with lemon juice? (8) |
CHAR (type of fish) + ACID (lemon juice is ACIDic) CHAR ACID |
CHARACID (any carnivorous [flesh / meat eating] freshwater fish of the family Characidae, usually small and brightly-coloured, including the piranha. |
|
| 18 | True salary devised with an astronomical scale? (12,2 words) |
Anagram of (devised) TRUE SALARY and (with) AN NATURAL YEARS* |
NATURAL YEARS (another term for ASTRONOMICAL YEARS [years as measured by the time between two occurrences of the same equinox or solstice, ie the time taken for one complete mean apparent circuit of the ecliptic by the sun, ie 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 46 seconds]) |
|
| 19 | Rage about what heads let slide (5) |
FUME (rage) containing (about) L (first letter of [what heads] LET) F (L) UME |
FLUME (chute with flowing water down which people slide to a swimming pool) |
|
| 21 | Unfounded terror surrounds small, inferior god (6) |
PANIC (great terror, often without any visible reason or foundation) containing (surrounding) S (small) PANI (S) C |
PANISC (an inferior god, attendant on Pan) |
|
| 23 | Register old notes sequentially (6) |
TILL (cash register) + O leading to the answer TILLO, However, there is a letter omitted which is required for the entry TILL O |
R |
TRILLO (rapid alternation of two notes a tone or semitone apart, commonly ending with a turn) |
| 26 | Peer quits (5) |
EQUAL (peer) EQUAL |
EQUAL (evenly balanced; quits) double definition | |
| 28 | See preamble (12) | Unclued | TRAFFIC-LIGHT | |
| 33 | Istanbul cobblers making old shoe fastener (8) |
Anagram of (cobblers) ISTANBUL STUB–NAIL* |
STUB-NAIL (old horse shoe fastener) | |
| 34 | Raw meat changes hands (5) |
FLESH (meat) with L (left) amended to R (right), changes hands FRESH |
FRESH (raw) | |
| 35 | Fill it – reservoir holds thousands of cubic centimetres! (6) |
LITRES (hidden word in [holds] FILL IT RESERVOIR) LITRES |
LITRES (there are 1000 cubic centimetres in one LITRE) | |
| 36 | Skin tender near tail of koala bear (4) |
(NURSE [one who tends; tender] excluding the outer letters [skin] N and E] + A (last letter of [tail of] KOALA) URS A |
URSA (Latin for bear as in the constellations URSA Major and URSA minor) | |
| 37 | Gruesome proverb a campaigner recalled in part (7) |
MACABRE (reversed [recalled] hidden word in [in part] PROVERB A CAMPAIGNER) MACABRE< |
MACABRE (gruesome) | |
| 38 | A Paul T. cryptic’s home to all manner of daft ideas (6) |
Anagram of (cryptic) A PAUL T LAPUTA* |
LAPUTA (reference the flying island of LAPUTA in Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift. All manner of strange and daft things occur on the island) | |
| 39 | Most extraordinary information taken from a paper’s contentious source? (6) |
RAIN FOREST (paper is derived from trees. Deforestation is a contentious topic. Paper manufacturers often say that they are replacing trees as fast as they cut them down thereby creating sustainable forests) excluding (taken from) INFO (information) RA REST |
RAREST (most extraordinary) | |
| Down | ||||
| 2 | Old tree put a stop to road surfacing (7) |
ASP (archaic [old] word for ASPEN [type of tree]) + HALT (put a stop to) ASP HALT |
ASPHALT (bituminous substance used for road surfacing) | |
| 3 | Raised weapon and tried to pass again (5) |
TASER (small gunlike device which fires electrified darts or barbs, used to immobilize or stun eg an attacker; weapon) reversed (raised; down clue) RESAT< |
RESAT (tried to pass an examination again) | |
| 4 | Once more, Latin couple tours Burundi (6) |
ITEM (term used to describe two people [a couple] having a romantic relationship) containing (tours) RU (International Vehicle Registration for Burundi) ITE (RU) M |
ITERUM (Latin for once more) | |
| 5 | Bird‘s dead, in summary (6) |
D (dead) contained in (in) RECAP (summary) RE (D) CAP |
REDCAP (goldfinch; bird) | |
| 7 | Avoiding controversy on day one beginning to drop off at work (7) |
Anagram of (at work) ON DAY and ONE excluding the first letter [beginning to drop off] O ANODYNE* |
ANODYNE (descriptive of something that avoids argument or controversy) | |
| 8 | He’s hardly a gentleman I judge (4) |
CAD (man who lacks the instincts of a gentleman) + I CAD I |
CADI (magistrate in Muslim countries; judge) | |
| 9 | "No way!", uncouth extremists repeated (4) |
UH (first and last letters of [extremists]) UNCOUTH + UH (first and last letters of [extremists]) UNCOUTH i.e. repeated UH UH |
UH-UH (sound used in place of ‘no’ or to express disagreement) |
|
| 10 | Revised rules following head of personnel’s careful scrutiny (7) |
P (first letter of [head of] PERSONNEL) + an anagram of (revised) RULES leading to the answer PERUSL However, there is a letter omitted which is required for the entry P ERUSL* |
A |
PERUSAL (careful scrutiny) |
| 12 | Maybe a course project (4) |
SAIL (an act or distance of SAILing; a course?) SAIL |
SAIL (to project) double definition | |
| 14 | Depression accelerates after emptying contents of several cans? (5) |
COL (depression or pass in a mountain range) + AS (letters left when the central letters are removed from [emptying] ACCELERATES) COL AS |
COLAS (possible contents of several of drink cans) | |
| 19 | Important newspaper to encourage going electronic-first (7) |
FT (Financial Times; newspaper) + FUEL (encourage) with the letter E [electronic] moving to the first position [going … first] leading to the answer FTEFUL However, there is a letter omitted which is required for the entry FT EFUL |
A
|
FATEFUL (important) |
| 20 | Mythical sickness of the soul superficially treated (7) |
Anagram of (treated) OF THE and SL (the first and last letters of [superficially; on the surface] SOUL) ELFSHOT* |
ELFSHOT (a prehistoric flint or stone arrowhead, supposed to be used by elves; sickness attributed to it; mythical sickness) |
|
| 22 | Dismisses having spent seconds or minutes in Lyon (7) |
CASHIERS (dismisses from a post especially in the armed forces, in disgrace) excluding (having spent) S (seconds) CAHIERS |
CAHIERS (reports of the proceedings of meetings; minutes) | |
| 24 | More than one piece of land hadn’t established property levy (5) |
ESTATES (plural form, so more than one piece of land) excluding (hadn’t) EST (established) leading to the answer ATES. However, there is a letter omitted which is required for the entry ATES |
R |
RATES (property levy) |
| 25 | Bit of circuitry involved in recognising letter shapes in the eye (6) |
ULA (uncommitted logic array; bit of electronic circuitry) contained in (involved in) OCR (optical character recognition; means of recognising letter shapes electronically) OC (ULA) R |
OCULAR (of the eye) | |
| 27 | Change overseas TV series before new pitch (6) |
QI (TV series, originally chaired by Stephen Fry, now chaired by Sandi Toksvig) + N (new) + TAR (pitch) Q IN TAR |
QINTAR (Albanian monetary unit; change overseas) | |
| 29 | Time Out article (4) |
Anagram of (out) TIME ITEM* |
ITEM (newspaper or magazine article) | |
| 30 | Clumsily bear from the field a bundle of arms (5) |
Anagram of (clumsily) BEAR leads to the answer ARBE. However, there is a letter omitted which is required for the entry ARBE* |
G |
GARBE (sheaf of wheat; could be carried from the field as a bundle in one’s arms) |
| 31 | In Scotland left over sour cream’s served every so often (4) |
ORRA (letters 2, 4, 6 and 8 [every so often] of SOUR CREAM) ORRA |
ORRA (Scottish word for the odd one, the unmatched one or the one left over) | |
| 32 | Biblical character caused unlimited suffering (4) |
Anagram of (suffering) CAUSED excluding the outside letters [unlimited] C and D ESAU* |
ESAU (elder brother of Jacob; biblical character) |
This was my first experience of a puzzle by Apt, and I enjoyed it. The clues were up to the usual high standard of Inquisitor puzzles, and I liked JACK-UP and RAREST particularly. It was good that the theme could have been cracked in two ways: by discovering the theme-word first (as I did this time) or by finding likely thematic items.
When I had about 60% of the grid complete, mostly in the top half, I had three crossers (I, I, H) of the theme-word at 28a. I thought of putting a T at the end, and that made SALT going down, using -SAL from 10d whose clue had a letter missing. TRAFFIC-LIGHT became a possible, even a likely, theme at that point, and, when I found SUGAR beginning to crystallise near the SALT, the theme-word was virtually confirmed. Completing both the grid and the endgame was a pleasant and relatively straightforward task.
I got temporarily stuck early on with two clues. 6a JACK-UP and 8d CADI. I first thought 8d had to be LADY until I realised that the clue could not be one of the special ones because my ‘missing’ letter S was meaningless. In the event, I got JACK-UP before CADI, and together they made the grid complete.
Many thanks to Apt and Duncan.
A thoroughly enjoyable IQ, fairly straightforward, but as you say there’s nothing wrong with that. Just right for a sunny Bank Holiday weekend.
I had to google ‘salt’ ‘sugar’ and traffic light, which annoys me in retrospect because I see the setter was kind enough to place them all symmetrically.
As others said, relatively gentle (though I had a struggle with the middle section), and a nice theme, dependent on all four words containing a G or R or A.
thanks to Apt and Duncan.
Maybe a straightforward solve but we stared at the grid for ages before the penny finally dropped and the foods revealed themselves, We then spent quite a while kicking ourselves for not working it out earlier.
Thanks to Apt for an enjoyable solve. Thanks also to Duncan for the blog.
I enjoyed this and it was a pleasure to have something that didn’t pummel my grey matter quite as much as the usual IQ offering! Thanks to Duncan and Apt.
Very grateful for a gentle one over the Easter weekend, since I was at a science fiction convention in a Heathrow hotel and didn’t have my trusty Chambers to hand. Guessing STUBNAIL as a plausible anagram was especially pleasing. Echoing others above: thanks to Apt and Duncan.
Very enjoyable, thanks Apt!