Eclogue averages about three Inquisitor puzzles a year of late.
Preamble: When read in clue order, the last letters of extraneous words in every clue provide a partial definition and visual context of a three-word phrase indicating the change required to a number of clue answers before entry in the grid. Solvers must complete and highlight the cryptic representation of that phrase in the completed grid (two words). 32 is in Collins.
I started quite late on Saturday evening, and solved all the clues in the top left quadrant rather quickly It was immediately apparent that some of the answers had to be changed before entry: the rationalisation was 12a SHOUT became SOUTH, 15a SHIN became SINH, and 3d HEART became EARTH – in all these three cases, the H moved to the end (& created a new word). Time for bed.
Picking the puzzle up again, 9d ALMAH caused a delay – the H was already at the end! But then 6a THORA/TORAH arrived, so it wasn’t necessarily H moving to the end, just moving (to make an alternative word). I was doing OK with the partial definition from the extraneous words (TO ALTER THE RULES …) but the clues were falling so thick and fast that I barely had time to check the rest until the grid was nearly full. It was when I saw that the last 5 letters spelt RUGBY that I was hit by the blindingly obvious: of course the three-word phrase was MOVING THE GOALPOSTS, with a capital H resembling the goalposts on a rugby pitch.
I did note in passing that “East London” was used twice (12a & 29d) to indicate South Africa, and OUT was clued twice (13a & 23d) by “dismissed”; and SH appeared twice, once for “quiet” (13a) and then again for “shut up” (26d). I hesitate to call this laziness, but a lack of invention maybe?
Anyway, we have to complete and highlight the cryptic representation of that phrase in the completed grid (two words). Looking on the main diagonal we find _OSTAGE PLOT_ which has a lot of characters in common with THE GOALPOSTS – in fact all of them, but with an H & S spare. One goes in the top left cell and the other in the bottom right to give HOSTAGE PLOTS … which I guess fits in with the title of the puzzle.
Thanks Eclogue – not too difficult at all really.
| No. | Clue [extraneous] | X | Answer | Wordplay |
| Across | ||||
| 1 | Arizona ridge signals [alert] volunteers (6) | T | CUESTA | CUES (signals) TA (volunteers) |
| 6 | Edmund’s then an artist [also] for Scandinavian girl (5) | O | THORA | THO (then, Spenser) RA (artist) |
| 10 | County [area] relative for Barbarian? (5) | A | CONAN | CO(unty) NAN (relative) {ref.: C. the Barbarian, 1982 film} |
| 11 | Ticks a [small] motor’s papers with authority to begin with (7) | L | ACARIDA | A CAR (motor) ID (papers) A(uthority) |
| 12 | Compete better than East London man [servant], unimportant having lost independence (8) | T | OUTRIVAL | OU (man, S Afr) TRIVIAL (unimportant) ¬ I(ndependence) |
| 13 | Call dismissed after quiet [time] (5) | E | SHOUT | OUT (dismissed) after SH (quiet) |
| 14 | Occasionally, guruism with [familiar] marks for tale-telling brothers (5) | R | GRIMM | G(u)R(u)I(s)M M(arks) |
| 15 | Letter to Israel having error involving [trust] hospital (4) | T | SHIN | SIN (error) around H(ospital) |
| 16 | Officer of Australia ordered aid for [British] tunic worn by women in the East (5, 2 words) | H | AO DAI | AO (Officer of Australia) [AID]* |
| 17 | Nervous [impulse] in even parts of hey-de-guy (4) | E | EDGY | (h)E(y-)D(e-)G(u)Y |
| 18 | Milton’s said to have covered game [character] and put on show (6) | R | STAGED | SED (said, Milton) around TAG (game) |
| 20 | [Pilau] meat jellies for old poet’s hooded cobras (6) | U | ASPICS | double definition |
| 22 | Hawaiian annexe wanting [local] island timber (4) | L | LANA | LANAI (annexe, Hawaiian) ¬ I(sland) |
| 27 | In Paris you kiss [attractive] showy person (5) | E | TULIP | TU (you, Fr) LIP (kiss) |
| 29 | Check [class] opts out (4) | S | STOP | [OPTS]* |
| 30 | Wild goats primarily travel [solo] around Himalayan reserve, scavenging (5) | O | TAHRS | T(ravel) A(round) H(imalayan) R(eserve) S(cavenging) |
| 31 | Emile reeled [off] fragrant resin (5) | F | ELEMI | [EMILE]* |
| 32 | Poor mess [Australia] organised for fertilised ova (8) | A | OOSPERMS | [POOR MESS]* |
| 33 | Astaire danced for [imposing] precious stone (7) | G | ASTERIA | [ASTAIRE]* |
| 34 | 13’s spades becoming clubs for blackmail [vendetta] in India (5) | A | CHOUT | SOUTH (13a) with C(lubs) for S(pades) |
| 35 | Ancient giants in muscle-tensing [problem] to some extent (5) | M | ETENS | (muscl)E-TENS(ing) |
| 36 | Like solid [granite] masses no longer steal around too much (6) | E | CLOTTY | CLY (steal, old sl) around OTT (too much) |
| Down | ||||
| 1 | Jokes about [alpha] particle rising in solids (7) | A | CONOIDS | CODS (jokes) around ION< (particle) |
| 2 | Local ones set up browser for [staff] not given due recognition (6) | F | UNSUNG | UNS (ones, dialect) GNU< (browser) |
| 3 | Organ [point] to pick up tempo initially (5) | T | HEART | HEAR (pick up) T(empo) |
| 4 | Greek character [wore] cossies for swimmers (7) | E | TAUTOGS | TAU (Greek character) TOGS (cossies) |
| 5 | About time, [Laver] played winning serve and played a part (5) | R | ACTED | ACED (played winning serve) around T(ime) |
| 6 | [Kiwi] sailor with firearm on operation for removable roof (8, 2 words) | I | TARGA TOP | TAR (sailor) GAT (firearm) OP(eration) |
| 7 | Rending in [light] verse, having four in circle (6) | T | RIVING | IV (four) in RING (circle) |
| 8 | Author Douglas, for example, when covering [South] Bank (5) | H | ADAMS | AS (when) around DAM (bank) |
| 9 | Dancing-girl [Isadora] mounting back of thigh on pillar, almost (5) | A | ALMAH | HAM (back of thigh) LA(t) (pillar) all< |
| 10 | Spenser’s to stop chapter being [tedious] (5) | S | CESSE | C(hapter) ESSE (being) |
| 16 | Those blaming cast curses on [pub] air-conditioning (8) | B | ACCUSERS | [CURSES]* after AC (air-conditioning) |
| 18 | [Culture] shock’s randomly aimless (7) | E | SEISMAL | [AIMLESS]* |
| 19 | Group of ancient Greek soldiers to [ring] old enemy vigorously, exhausting energy (7) | G | ENOMOTY | [TO O(ld) ENEMY]* ¬ E(nergy) |
| 21 | Elizabethan’s identified final [coypu] in Peru (6) | U | PLASTE | LAST (final) in PE (Peru, IVR) |
| 23 | Dined in [drive-in] restaurant – stewed tea dismissed (6, 2 words) | N | ATE OUT | [TEA]* OUT (dismissed) |
| 24 | Blackfly regularly appearing in camp [pester] thrips (5) | R | APHIS | (c)A(m)P (t)H(r)I(p)S |
| 25 | Old colonnades most of source of ermine on European [bureau] (5) | U | STOAE | STOA(t) (source of ermine) E(uropean) |
| 26 | Shut up inside [cooking] acquired Indian meat (5) | G | GOSHT | SH (shut up) in GOT (acquired) |
| 28 | Old [drab] poet somewhat disgustingly rich (5) | B | LYRIC | (disgusting)LY RIC(h) |
| 29 | Perhaps bolsters up for East London [muddy] water channel (5) | Y | SLOOT | TOOLS< (e.g. bolsters) |
First to comment! A first for me! Anyway, not until I had deciphered the diagonal message did the title make sense. Which I suppose was by design.
As a crossword-solving experience this was excellent, and I thoroughly enjoyed working through the clues, shifting the H’s and building up a complete message from the extra letters.
I never got the answer to the clue in the message, but I was lucky enough to end up with a completed grid looking like the above. The only possible letters I could think of to go in the two corners were H (because hostage is related to ransom, whereas postage is not) and S.
Thanks to Eclogue for the puzzle and to HolyGhost for pointing out the obvious.
Yes, a straightforward, but enjoyable solve. Like HG the word RUGBY triggered the H goalposts and pointed out the anagram.
Thanks also HG for parsing 9D. I’d always referred to the back of my thigh as my hamSTRING and it didn’t occur to me to shorten it. Also LAT as a pillar had passed me by!
Thanks to setter also.
I agree with Alan B @ 2 – and also failed to spot the anagram, and left the bottom right square empty (the top left was clear enough). Like scoring a try but failing to convert.
Thanks to Eclogue and HG.
Completed but for the life of me couldn’t manage to google my way to a definition of 21D’s PLASTE, though of course it had to be that. Can anyone shed any more light on the definition / context for me please?
R… @5: Chambers gives plaste as the past participle of place used by Spenser, an Elizabethan; and under place you will find identify.
Pretty easy going for the Inquisitor, but thoroughly enjoyable too with no major problems encountered here. Apart from, oh, failing miserably to spot the significance of the title!
I really enjoyed this – seems to be about my level of difficulty – a bit challenging but not impossible. Many thanks to all for the elucidations. I finished the grid apart from “lana” which I didn’t know as a word for wood, and my Hawaiian wasn’t up to identifying “lanai” as annexe ;-). I got the theme once I saw “rugby” + most of the definition, and managed the follow-through after spending longer than necessary considering “sostageploth” and not seeing the very obvious! I agree with HolyGhost that repeating elements of some clues twice was a little unfortunate – it meant I was foxed twice by East London, but luckily the answers I entered were right anyway. The other repetitions made the puzzle a little easier perhaps than need be. That’s a minor quibble though as the whole thing was a lot of fun – thank you Eclogue.
Belated thanks to Eclogue and HG (I failed to tune in last week). My progress through this one was almost exactly as blogged, so nothing to add really.