Another new setter. Welcome Skylark!
Simple rubric: Twenty-one clues contain an additional letter in the wordplay which should be removed before solving. In clue order these (with the insertion of an apostrophe and six commas) hint at how to fill the top and bottom rows, leaving real words or names. Solvers should highlight four names and a title (28 cells in total).
I was able to solve most of the normal clues quite quickly, but found the extra letters quite hard to find. I struggled with some of the parsing initially, particularly with 1A, ACTABLE, which seems so obvious now! I’m still not sure about HARDOKE though. I had NEURONE instead of NEURITE which held me up for a while, but I soon had most of the grid filled.
Unfortunately my inadequate set of 12 extra letters required some extra work. I had to revisit every clue to ensure that I had spotted the extra letters, and eventually found them all, starting BAND’S NAMES PLUS. The remaining letters were DESHOPS which made little sense, so I thought about the six commas, and realised that these were to make the last 7 letters separate and essentially meaningless. So BAND’S (or BANDS’) NAMES PLUS D,E,S,H,O,P,S – the positioning of the apostrophe was not clear. So I guessed that we had to fill in the top and bottom rows with four names, leaving seven squares to be filled with the letters DESHOPS. But was it four bands or one band with four members?
At this point the grid looked like this.
I started by filling in the top row with possible letters to make real words for the associated down answers. The two top left letters must be JO, the fourth was one of eight possibles, then the sixth was E or O. In the second word it was S?A but quite a choice for letters 5 & 6. This did not seem to be getting me very far, but I did try looking up band names beginning with JO, and could only find Joy Division, which led me towards band member names, rather than bands.
A similar exercise on the bottom row led nowhere. So I thought that I would have to find the hidden title referred to in the rubric. I followed the “solver’s rule”, when looking for hidden data – look on the diagonals. Nothing on the NW to SE diagonals, but I spotted ABBEY ROAD on the SW to NE diagonal which starts at square 36.
It was easy from there. Abbey Road is the Beatles penultimate album with the famous cover of the four on the Abbey Road pedestrian crossing. We were clearly going to enter JOHN, PAUL, GEORGE and RINGO in the blank squares. The names make a total of 19 letters, so the extra 7 (DESHOPS) made up the 26 required for two rows of the 13×13 grid. ABBEY ROAD is 9 letters, making up the 28 to be highlighted according to the rubric.
By a process of elimination of impossible words I identified that the top row was JOHNHOPSPAULD, and the bottom was GEORGEERINGOS. With highlighting the final grid was:
The Beatles Abbey Road album was released on 26th September 1969, so the crossword appeared within two days of its 50th anniversary. It contains the George Harrison track Something to which I assume the title refers. Nicely done Skylark.
Across |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue definition [extra letter] | Answer | Wordplay | X |
| 1 | [B]eating Conservative for the first time is appropriate to do (7) | ACTABLE | AT TABLE (eating) with the first T(ime) replaced by C(onservative) | B |
| 6 | Guard [a]rose, returning after conflict (6) | WARDER | WAR (conflict) + RED (rose) reversed | A |
| 10 | Will’s plant’s strong and fine when docked (7) | HARDOKE | HARD (strong) + OKE(y-dokey) (fine docked) – seems a lot to dock, but OKEY is not in the dictionary by itself | |
| 11 | Old Scottish porter caught ac[n]e alongside river (5) | CADEE | C(aught) + A(ce) + DEE (river) | N |
| 12 | Journalist pursuing author struck (5) | PENED | PEN (author) + ED (journalist) | |
| 15 | Cleric’s stimulus absorbs Queen (4) | CURE | CUE (stimulus) round R(egina) | |
| 16 | The Sun’s output switched note[d] fiction (4) | YARN | RAY (sun’s output) reversed + N(ote) | D |
| 20 | Quick fix methods employed by little one after scoff (13) | RAILWAY-STITCH | RAIL (scoff) + WAYS (methods) + TITCH (little one) | |
| 21 | [S]old new policy using the internet (6) | ONLINE | O(ld) + N(ew) + LINE (policy) | S |
| 23 | Lozenge-shaped heraldic bearing scholars sculped occasionally (6) | MASCLE | MAS (scholars) + sCuLpEd (occasionally) | |
| 24 | Plain ring I dropped pursuing la[n]ds suitable for families heading west (13) | UNEMBELLISHED | BELL (ring) + I + SHED (dropped) after MEN (lads) + U (suitable for families) reversed (heading west) | N |
| 27 | Tipsy people spill a third of Pernod jug (4) | OLPE | [(pe)OPLE]* (PEOPLE minus PE – a third of PErnod) | |
| 31 | Child with fish for tea (4) | CHAI | CH(ild) + AI (fish) | |
| 33 | Son backing anger about Australian harem (5) | SERAI | S(on) + IRE (anger) reversed round A(ustralian) | |
| 34 | People like supporting retrograde ro[a]d (5) | ARABS | AS (like) round BAR (rod) reversed | A |
| 35 | Touch a water-carrier for Spooner’s tobacco twist? (7) | PIGTAIL | TIG (touch) + PAIL (water carrier) for Spooner | |
| 36 | Not [m]any against occasionally eventless books (6) | NOVELS | NO (not any) + V (against) + evEntLesS | M |
| 37 | Bent over, last to receive can[e] conceals regret, showing some nerve (7) | NEURITE | (receive)E + TIN round RUE all reversed (bent over) | E |
Down |
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| No. | Clue (definition) [extra letter] | Answer | Wordplay | X |
| 1 | According to Oscar, American’s short and hairy (8) | ASPEROUS | AS PER (according to) + O(scar) + US (american) | |
| 2 | [S]cold female singer (4) | CHER | C(old) + HER (female) | S |
| 3 | Lifted special [p]age on metric measurements (4) | ARES | S(pecial) + ERA (age) all reversed | P |
| 4 | Hardly lively Californian’s happy-go-lucky with heart lifted (4) | LOGY | YGOL is the heart of happY-GO-Lucky and is reversed (lifted) | |
| 5 | [L]east weak regularly returning supplement (3) | EKE | E(ast) + EK (wEaK regularly) reversed | L |
| 6 | Shows wife attention with flowers finally (5) | WEARS | W(ife) + EAR (attention) + (flower)S | |
| 7 | Overturned motor on chap’s spine (6) | RACHIS | CAR (motor) reversed + HIS (chap’s) | |
| 8 | E[U]’s on about yen – weird (4) | EERY | E + RE (on) reversed (about) + Y(en) | U |
| 9 | Rejecting silver, accept[s] Jock’s enclosure (3) | REE | AGREE (accept) minus AG (silver) | S |
| 11 | Has do and small functions round Me[d] (8) | CONTAINS | CON (do) + TANS (small functions) round I (me) | D |
| 13 | Fixed up, din[e] lavishly with ale (6) | NAILED | [DIN ALE]* | E |
| 14 | Bending of body among features of Sussex player’s movements (8) | DOWNBOWS | BOW (bending of body) in DOWNS (features of Sussex) | |
| 17 | [S]play in ungainly way around East Barking (5) | AYELP | [PLAY E(ast)]* | S |
| 18 | Without force get royal engraver (6) | ETCHER | FETCH (get) minus F(orce) + ER (royal) | |
| 19 | Revolutionary duke’s crazy diet’s explosive (8) | CHEDDITE | CHE (Guevara – revolutionary) + D(uke) + [DIET]* | |
| 22 | Drink in Miami regularly and pout over Spain (6) | IMBIBE | mIaMi (regularly) + BIB (pout – a fish) + E (Spain) | |
| 25 | Round Pacific city records snakes (5) | ELAPS | EPS (record) round LA (Los Angeles, Pacific city) | |
| 26 | Passing [h]at, getting at first halfpennies then rupees inside (4) | THRO | TO (at) round H(alfpennies) + R(upees) | H |
| 28 | Sharpen up Auntie’s boss, perhaps into drugs (4) | EDGE | DG (Director General of the BBC – Auntie) in EE (2x ecstasy – drugs) | |
| 29 | Highly valued in Egypt g[o]od journalist returns (4) | DEAR | RA (Egyptian god) + ED (journalist) all reversed | O |
| 30 | Jack’s middle-of-the-road [p]al (4) | SALT | AL in ST (road) | P |
| 31 | [S]lav is able (3) | CAN | Double definition really, CAN = lav and is able | S |
| 32 | In Perth own top class taxi organisation finally (3) | AIN | A (top class) + (tax)I (organisatio)N | |
Yes, a very good debut from Skylark that I found to be on the easy side. My only moment of alarm came when the instruction descended into a list of random letters, but well, they were supposed to be!
For the second week in a row there was a new setter to meet. At the start it was good to be told how many special clues there were. I managed to solve all the clues and extract the required letters. The brief message made sense, although (like you, Hihoba) I didn’t quite know whether to put the apostrophe before or after the ‘S’.
I then tried to visualise names that might go inside the four blank spaces, but there were simply too many possibilities. I assumed that was the way into the theme, but I got nowhere except for JOHN, possibly, in the top left. I also looked in the grid, both across and down, for a title. I came to a stop at that point and mentioned this puzzle to a friend who had also been working on it. She advised me to carry on!
As noted above, and as everyone knows, I should have looked in the diagonals. I saw ABBEY ROAD and kicked myself for not dwelling a bit longer on the name ‘John’. I’m lucky that this is one of only two pop or rock bands whose members I can name (with only one John among them), and ABBEY ROAD is one of the few album names I know. Entering the thematic content into the top and bottom rows was now a doddle and had the effect also of correcting one of my 21 letters.
Thanks to Skylark for a well-designed and entertaining puzzle. I appreciated the way the words across the top and bottom rows could be entered forming new words going down. And thanks to Hihoba for the blog and for clearing up the wordplay in a couple of clues (HARDOKE being one of them).
Thanks Hihoba, and welcome Skylark. I enjoyed completing this but really struggled with the ending and needed a pointer.
The puzzle did brought back fond memories of Inquisitor 1257, which happened to be the first one I completed (https://www.fifteensquared.net/2012/12/05/inquisitor-1257-cover-version-by-jambazi/; time for another Jambazi puzzle, surely?).
I also saw Abbey Road – reasonably early – but it didn’t drive me to assume the fab four were filling the top and bottom. Liked the puzzle, the formation of new words – but something vaguely random about it all frustrated me.
Thanks to Skylark and Hihoba.
Regarding 10a HARDOKE, Chambers has: oke^2 (informal) adv a clipped form of OK.
I also found this debut from Skylark was somewhat on the easy side, and discovered the theme without too much difficulty (possibly because this anniversary had been well-trailed in the press). Nevertheless, thanks to Skylark for the puzzle – finding dictionary entries that embedded those forenames and formed new real words with the down entries was probably quite a challenge – and to Hihoba for the blog.
BTW, Skylark‘s debut Listener came out in mid-August, also with a musical theme and an anniversary.
Good clues with nicely hidden extra letters. Totally stumped on the endgame (I also thought of Joy Division) until I spotted Abbey Road far too late, then downhill most of the way. An enjoyable puzzle.
Thanks to Hihoba and thanks and welcome to Skylark.
BTW Alan @2, please put us out of our misery, which is the other band? My two are Stones and Pink Floyd, the second of which have oft been featured in the Inquisitor.
Dave @6
[The answer is the Bee Gees. I can remember only two names from the Stones and two from Pink Floyd (and yet in my younger days I was a big fan of Pink Floyd, having two of their albums).]
Alan @7. Thanks – at least the common surname helps with the B-Gs!
For no obvious reason, I didn’t greatly enjoy this. Perhaps it was a slight uncertainty about which were the additional letters – there were a few clues I thought were ambiguous, like 8D and 19D, both of which seem to have an extra s. I then didn’t entirely trust the odd-looking, though as it turned out largely correct, message – I kept wondering if DES SHOPS had some mangled Franglais meaning. I eventually found Abbey Road and so did manage to fill the grid, but not with any great relish. Looking over it now, I think I must have just been in a bad mood, as there’s plenty to enjoy – the well-disguised additional letters in particular.
Thanks for all the lovely welcomes. Delightful creating puzzles based on a few of my passions, and still pinching myself that kind editors have published them.
Nice puzzle, Syklark. I can’t believe that I never looked at the diagonal and thus never found what the top and bottom rows were supposed to be.
I fell into the same traps as others; I had NEURONE rather than NEURITE and spent ages looking for bands beginning with JO. Even when I twigged what was going on it took a while to find ABBEY ROAD, even though I’ve been doing these puzzles long enough to know that the diagonals are a good bet when looking for things in the grid.
Not my favourite topic to say the least, but what matters in these puzzles is the implementation of the theme rather than whether one likes the subject or not. This was neatly done and unambiguous with good clues, the only (minor) drawback for me being the rather arbitrary nature of the extra letters (DESSHOPS). It would have been nice if the extra letters had some thematic connection. Perhaps they did, but I’d have thought someone would have spotted it.
I did have an oblique connection to the extra letters, hence the arrangement.
In another Beatles’ song, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, about Desmond and Molly Jones, Des shops for a twenty carat golden ring to give to Molly.
But I’m afraid that’s as far as it goes.
Re ‘Des shops’: it was actually DESHOPS (2 S’s, not 3).
So, ‘Des hops’ into a shop for a ring for Molly.
Good point, Alan B.
Belatedly: I enjoyed this too! Thanks all around. As a musical ignoramus I’m always extra pleased when I can handle a music-themed IQ without heavy googling. Of course it helped that mentions of a Beatles anniversary had been floating around for a while. Seeing SPAULD was the big breakthrough — didn’t catch up on ABBEY ROAD until all four names were in.
Another catch-up puzzle. I enjoyed solving the clues but didn’t get anywhere with the end game, word-searches are not my favourite thing. Also, I’m possibly the only person in the world who can’t see what is so great about the Beatles. Never mind.
Thanks to Skylark and Hihoba.