Inquisitor 1620: The Last Resort by Ifor

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I fully expected something on the “Fall of the Berlin Wall” today, given that the puzzle was published on the 30th anniversary.
 
Preamble: Every down clue contains a consecutive pair of letters to be hidden before solving; the common designation of what they spell out must be written under the grid, followed by a single word. This word can be split, and the two parts read as an instruction to be applied to some across clues before solving. Thematically-placed letters in these clues as originally written spell out the word. Finally solvers must make what is described under the grid literally disappear from within it, rendering it invisible. 32 cells are affected. All changes to grid and clues leave real words or proper nouns.

I resisted the temptation of looking for an anagram of “The Last” and made a start on the down clues, since they might have helped with what to do to “some across clues before solving” – they didn’t. I’d solved 1d PORK, 7d ING, 17 ROCOCO plus two or three others on the first pass but given the huge gaps there was no way to guess what the removed letters would spell.

More joy came from the across clues as I rather quickly solved four of the ‘specials’ by removing th in each case. A quick flick back to the title and I saw that a “Resort” of “The Last” would give STEALTH and so the instruction would emerge as steal th.

Some to-ing and fro-ing between the downs and the acrosses, and the lower half was done apart from the four 4-letter entries bottom right, but the upper part was proving more stubborn. I had the second half of the list as USA NON-IMMIGRANT VISA, and after a concerted push I’d pretty much got the remaining clues resolved with the first part of the list being BELARUS AVIARIB..LA..N

I still had one or two th‘s to steal. The one in 10a had to be [th]inning, which I felt at the time was a somewhat odd anagram indicator, and the one in 13a had to be [th]ought, a rather indirect wordplay indicator of O: ought^2 a non-standard corruption of naught = zero. The wordplay for 14d INNING (again!) was causing me trouble, but when I finally discovered that B2 is the designation of a USA non-immigrant visa, and also the two-character IATA code for Belarus Avia, it became apparent that my missing piece was RIBOFLAVIN, aka vitamin B2; and that meant having gi[vi]ng as an anagram indicator in 14d, which I found rather brow-furrowing. {See comment #7.}

A check of the ‘special’ across clues as originally written reveals that their 2nd letters do indeed spell STEALTH, so we write B2 STEALTH below the grid and get the eraser out of the drawer. Eliminating all occurrences of S, T, E, A, L, T, H from the grid produces a collection of now empty cells in the shape of a Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit, also known as the Stealth Bomber.

Thanks Ifor – a bit disappointing for me, which I’m sure is partly down to me for having expectations that evaporated.
 

Across
No. Clue [✗] 2nd. Answer Wordplay
1 Holding axes in grip, chopped up dark patch of grass (8)   PIXY-RING XY (axes) in [IN GRIP]*
7 Player of music in school coming after one (4)   IPOD POD (school) after I (one)
10 Assessor fed [th]inning fish (4) s ORFE (assess)OR FE(d)
11 Giving a job to one endlessly grafting earlier outside (8)   IMPONING IMPING (grafting) around ON(e)
12 Travellers wandering about, going to the east (4)   ROMA ROAM (wandering) with A(bout) moving later
13 Starting in lines, [th]ought to test network (5) t OPING O (ought) PING (test network)
16 Old type of authority, not complete at the start (6)   MINION DOMINION (authority) ¬ DO (complete)
17 Search in the earth returned too[th] left in unguarded area (6) e ROOTLE TOO< L(eft) in (a)RE(a)
18 Head of penny, perhaps covering two more (6)   COPPIN COIN (penny, perhaps) around PP (two more …)
20 Satisfy [th]rough tea and sympathy originally (4) a SATE [TEA S(sympathy)]*
22 Small car inimitable in reverse gear, with enough power after it to burn (4)   MINI INIMITABLE< ¬ ABLE (with enough power) ¬ IT
23 Play[th]ing once – one of several things used to create a diversion (4) l CONE [ONCE]*
25 Letters and other things succeeded after learner’s given up (4)   ETAS ET AL (and other things) S(ucceeded) ¬ L(earner)
27 O[th]er lad foolishly trying experience … (6) t ORDEAL [OER LAD]*
28 … [th]at clipped the wings for all Scots (6) h A’THING AT (t)H(e) (w)ING(s)
29 Metal ruler left in court (6)   COBALT OBA (ruler) L(eft) in CT (court)
33 Clouds about Ireland, one way and another (5)   CIRRI C (circa, about) IR (Ireland) IR< (… and another)
34 Cross over swinger blocking entrance, perhaps (4)   DOOR ROOD< (cross)
35 Nationalist rigid on moving Republican from Paris (8)   GIRONDIN [N(ationalist) RIGID ON]*
36 South American growth from burger chains (4)   OMBU (fr)OM BU(rger)
37 Open wounds festering without bandaging (4)   UNDO [(w)OUND(s)]*
38 Super Bowl venue drawing better in Sussex? (8)   GOODWOOD GOOD (super) WOOD (bowl)
 
Down
No. Clue [✗] Pair Answer Wordplay
1 Dead pig in lots of bits, [be]headed by men under pressure (4) BE PORK K (kilobyte, lots of bits) after OR (other ranks, men) after P(ressure)
2 Press a[la]rm in a casual way (4) LA IRON double definition ???
3 [Ru]st, easy to be mistaken for fungi (6) RU YEASTS [ST EASY]*
4 Mayhem provoked in[sa]ner characters in sortie (4) SA RIOT [(s)ORTI(e)]*
5 Fill previously [vi]sited in simple terms (7) VI IMPLETE (s)IMPLE TE(rms)
6 Mooning around b[ar]eheaded, point to side of face (6) AR GONION [(m)OONING]*
7 Rings min[ib]us covering rich green area to the north (3) IB ING (r)ING(s)
8 Spicy sauces [of] weeds for tea (9) OF PIRI-PIRIS double definition
9 Event in [la]goon spoilt by onset of gales (7) LA ONGOING [IN GOON]* G(ales)
14 Pub’s grand in gi[vi]ng gathering for farm hands (6) VI INNING INN (pub) [G(rand) IN]*
INN (pub) replaces G(rand) in GING
15 Flier from Oz that’s moribund, u[nu]sed and dead (9) NU MOUND-BIRD [MORIBUND]* D(ead)
17 Grotesque[s a]bashed Morocco after rejecting its leader (6) SA ROCOCO [(m)OROCCO]*
19 Box office on the spot stopped by do[no]r backing composer (7) NO BORODIN BO (box office) IN (on the spot) around DOR<
21 Aggregated fruit ration, mostly ba[ni]shed with errors excepted (7) NI ETAERIO [RATIO(n) EE (errors excepted)]*
24 London borough’s commercial activity no longer having di[mm]ed (6) MM EALING DEALING (commercial activity) ¬ D(ied)
26 Mere appearance of advantage inst[ig]ated in display (6) IG SHADOW AD(vantage) in SHOW (display)
30 Hospital d[ra]ins endless boils on the backside (4) RA HIND H(ospital) [DIN(s)]*
31 Derelict conclusion to fro[nt] after mischief (4) NT HOBO (fr)O after HOB (mischief)
32 Sometimes [vi]car funds anything worthless (4) VI CRUD C(a)R (f)U(n)D(s)
33 Murmur[s a]bounded in school following Henry’s expulsion (3) SA COO (s)CHOO(l) ¬ H(enry)
hit counter

 

15 comments on “Inquisitor 1620: The Last Resort by Ifor”

  1. Almost but not quite. I had absolutely everything sorted and filled in except for the two deleted letters in the clue to 7d, and I just could not see what the whole lot might spell out. Gah!!!

  2. Despite spotting the anagram in the title straight off this took an absolute age. Not in the grid fill, which was pretty rapid, but in trying to sort out what the message in the consecutive letters removed was trying to tell us. Some of the references were pretty obscure, and the airline seems to be more commonly known as Belavia which made untangling the first bit pretty tricky. Having considered the Berlin Wall and leading myself up a blind alley probably didn’t help. The way the letters from STEALTH were grouped in the grid totally passed me by until I went looking for them, so that was a pleasant surprise at the close. Overall though a frustrating solve, mostly due to my own incompetence.

  3. I thought this was excellent, but given the obscurity of the B-2 references other than RIBOFLAVIN, I’m not sure it was quite kosher to indicate the airline as BELARUS AVIA rather than by its actual name, BELAVIA. At least a search for the former offers up the latter, but I’d have found it slightly more satisfying if the correct name had been used. (If the planespotters among you tell me that both names are current I’ll gladly stand corrected).

    Other than that, jaw-to-the-floor admiration for Ifor managing to confine some of the commonest letters to a relatively small area of the grid, and the STEAL TH idea was terrific too.

  4. The definition in 16a is well hidden because the inclusion of the word “of”. But that means the clue doesn’t quite work for me.

  6. When we saw it was Ifor we knew we were in for challenge.

    We filled the grid in a very reasonable amount of time and were quite pleased with ourselves. We then ground to a halt. We had ESTA for the non-immigrant visa so were totally flummoxed. We struggled with 8d which was one of our last one ins but thankfully we spotted the vitamin so worked out the extra letters.

    Each coffee or tea time we looked at the grid again. Eventually, Joyce caved in and looked for a nudge on another site – sorry Ifor! When B2 was revealed as the correct answer, the rest fell into place quite quickly.

    Thanks Ifor – we think we enjoyed some of your other puzzles more but we still had fun. You set the bar very high in terms of grid construction.

    Thanks also to HolyGhost.

  7. I think that the word play for 14d is “INN is G(rand) in GING” – replace the first G in Ging with Inn. So you can perhaps unfurrow your brow, HG.

  8. Grateful thanks to all as usual.  A few clarifications: the airline is indeed Belavia, but their call-sign is Belarus Avia and IATA code B2, which I think is fair enough as a (deliberately vaguely-stated) “designation”, especially as googling the second immediately gives the third.  John – thank you for the clarification of 14d.  Tony – in a double def clue there is conventionally no connective (or possessive) so the structure has to be simply A B, not A’s B or A to B, A for B and so on – whence the superfluity of “of”.  I will admit to being very pleased when a workable pair of letters could be made to hit a clue for such an intractable word – and then when it turned out to have two meanings as well… sometimes setters deserve a bit of good fortune.  And Joyce – I absolve you from your sin.

    Ifor

  9. Thanks all round. I wasn’t at all disappointed, and indeed pleased to guess B2 STEALTH from the vitamin and title without Googling the other two B2s (though I did that later for confirmation). Also a happy moment when I saw the central mass of letters to be erased, after some fruitless peering at likely diagonals etc. A good one.

  10. Thanks to blogger and setter, as ever. This was amongst the toughest IQs of the year for me. It took a long time to make sense of the extra letters and a lot of googling to finally hit upon B2. Doffed cap to Ifor for the final grid, very impressive. For more impressive Ifor grid construction, I can recommend Sunday’s EV1409

  11. Thank you, Phil.

    Can I ask you kind souls out there for some help? After resetting my phone I now can’t find the 15^2 app to reinstall it. Advice welcome!

    Ifor

  12. Ifor @11

    I think you may be looking for something that doesn’t exist. I have been the administrator of 15² for the last 11 years and I am not aware that there is an app. If someone has produced one without my knowledge, what function does it serve?

  13. Gaufrid/Ifor @11/@12

    I wonder if Ifor means the facility on iPhone (maybe Android too) where you can “bookmark” a page by creating an icon on your home screen.

    On iPhone – iOS 13, touch the “little square with an upward arrow” icon and scroll down to “Add to Home Screen” then touch the plus sign on the right hand side.

  14. Thanks Ifor, I really enjoyed this. A lovely pdm when I twigged that the letters of Stealth only appeared in the centre. I’m always impressed when that technique is used to produce a shape/message.

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