Vagans – a newbie.
Preamble: A serious ascent is being made, in three stages, which requires excess baggage to be shed. Wordplay in 25 clues generates an extra letter not to be entered in the grid. Representing the excess, these letters spell in clue order the three stages. Solvers should highlight a title and two principal characters in the completed grid (27 letters). One answer is an acronym.
Not too difficult to make a good start on this one, the long anagrams at 23a, 37a, and 3d being resolved without too much bother: SUICIDOLOGIST, STRIPPED ATOM, LACTESCENCE. I thought that the cluing was on the gentle side on the hole, and before too long I had about 80% of the grid filled.
As ever, the remaining 20% took just as long, if not longer. It began to appear that the letters in the three stages were in groups of consecutive clues (which helped), and the third one was heading for PARADISE … until the final letter turned out to the O from H[O]E at 25d, and so it became PARADISO. And then it clicked that the first one was INFERNO, and all those half-forgotten snatches of radio programs about DANTE I’d heard during the week weren’t a coincidence: this week saw the anniversary of the Italian poet’s death on 14-Sep-1321.
Of course, the middle stage of the ascent is PURGATORIO, and the title of the work that is to be found in the grid is not The Divine Comedy, but, in keeping with the three stages being given in their original Italian, we find DIVINA COMMEDIA. All that’s left is for me to look for the second main character and I hunt for VIRGIL – nothing doing there, and my knowledge of the poem is now exhausted so I turn to the usual online tools. I’m looking for an 8-letter name (assuming no intersections) so obviously Saint Bernard of Clairvaux isn’t it, but BEATRICE will do nicely, thank you very much.
And that’s that. Thanks Vagans – you can come again.
| No. | Clue | Answer | X | Wordplay |
| Across | ||||
| 2 | Flag escorts show old trimmings in favourable light (12, 2 words) | COLOUR GUARDS | COLOUR (favourable light) GUARDS (trimmings, obs) | |
| 10 | British Indian clerk held back by drunk monastic deputy (8) | SUBABBOT | B(ritish)+BABU (Indian clerk) rev. in SOT (drunk) | |
| 12 | Cut greeting in Communist party (4) | CHIP | HI (greeting) CP (Communist party) | |
| 13 | Dissolute epicure (Home Counties) affected woman (9) | PRÉCIEUSE | [EPICURE]* SE (Home Counties) | |
| 15 | Returning bird grabbing rear beetle (6) | ELATER | I | REE (bird) around TA[I]L all< |
| 16 | Merchant Navy has sickening concoction of items spread on net (7) | MEMETIC | N | M[N] (Merchant Navy) EMETIC (sickening concoction) |
| 17 | Refer to adjustment of size in church (4) | CITE | F | [F]IT (adjustment of size) in CE (church) |
| 19 | Combined, that is incorporating noble element (5, 2 words) | IN ONE | E | IE (that is) around N[E]ON (noble element) |
| 21 | Injure current youth travel organisation (5) | BUNAC | R | BU[R]N (injure) AC (current) |
| 23 | Kamikaze expert disturbed logic in studios (13) | SUICIDOLOGIST | N | [LOGIC I[N] STUDIOS]* |
| 25 | Holy place barrier regularly held by resistance unit (5) | HAREM | O | (b)A(r)R(i)E(r) in [O]HM (resistance unit) |
| 28 | Landscape recognised in conversation (5) | SCENE | homophone SEEN (recognised) | |
| 30 | And so said the Bard in ancient history (4) | THIS | (ancien)T HIS(tory) | |
| 31 | Emphatic damage given to senator (7) | MARCATO | MAR (damage) CATO (senator) | |
| 33 | American spare horses clear crop round soft earth (6) | REMUDA | P | REA[P] (clear crop) around MUD (soft earth) |
| 34 | Wicked spirit was back after expected note (9) | DEMI-DEVIL | U | LIVED< (was) after D[U]E (expected) MI (note) |
| 35 | Countryside river (4) | URAL | R | [R]URAL (countryside) |
| 36 | Chanted back after chief commander wearing flowery stem (8) | CICINNUS | G | SUN[G]< (chanted) after CIC (chief commander) IN (wearing) |
| 37 | Tiny amount of charged matter ruffled trapped Maoist (12, 2 words) | STRIPPED ATOM | A | [TRAPPED M[A]OIST]* |
| Down | ||||
| 1 | Teacher includes favourite college feature (6) | ASPECT | T | AST (teacher) around PE[T] (favourite) C(ollege) |
| 2 | Fancy twist complicated curio clue (8) | CURLICUE | O | [CURI[O] CLUE]* |
| 3 | Crescent lace recreated milkiness (11) | LACTESCENCE | R | [C[R]ESCENT LACE]* |
| 4 | Charmed old boy’s ego before festival (5) | OBIED | I | OB (old boy) I (ego) E[I]D (festival) |
| 5 | One-time Bucharest language opportunity on radio soon cut off (6) | ROUMAN | O | homophone ROOM (opportunity) AN[O](n) (soon) |
| 6 | Mike follows out-of-date use of waste retention in US (6) | UREMIC | MIC (mike) after URE (use, obs) | |
| 7 | Rarely insincere right-hand figures in European executive (8) | RHETORIC | RH (right-hand) TORI (figures) in EC (European executive) | |
| 8 | Turned very angry missing first share (4) | DIVI | (l)IVID< (very angry) | |
| 9 | Ex-drug dealer shot training senior nurses? (6) | SPICER | P | PIC (shot) [P]E (training) in SR (senior) |
| 11 | European capital holding up a council of island (8) | BERMUDAN | A | BERN (European capital) around A+DUM[A]< (council) |
| 14 | The setting of the sun: criminal captures true soldiers (11) | BENIGHTMENT | R | BENT (criminal) around [R]IGHT (true) MEN (soldiers) |
| 18 | Attention is given to God in charge of Mediterranean islands (8) | BALEARIC | A | EAR (attention) in BA[A]L (god) IC (in charge) |
| 20 | Park about to cut short economist’s elaborate fugue (8) | RICERCAR | D | REC< (park) in RICAR[D](o) (economist) |
| 22 | Plant bladder made up of cells with mass of polyps but no corm (8) | ASCIDIUM | I | ASCI (cells) (corm)[I]DIUM (mass of polyps) |
| 24 | Former spies concealing memos containing disagreeable element (6) | OSMOUS | S | OSS (spies, forerunner of CIA) around MOU[S] (memos) |
| 25 | Take charge of a N Irish party after weed (6, 2 words) | HEAD UP | O | A DUP (N Irish party) after H[O]E (weed) |
| 26 | Housemate’s zero honour in endless grief (6) | ROOMIE | O (zero) OM (honour) in (g)RIE(f) | |
| 27 | Salsa spread over too (6, 2 words) | AS ALSO | [SALSA]* O(ver) | |
| 29 | Newspaper chief in design up for magazines? (5) | MEDIA | ED (newspaper chief) in AIM< (design) | |
| 32 | Scottish quarter in fair town (4) | AIRT | (f)AIR T(own) | |
After last week’s tour de force from Artix, the brevity of the rubric was very welcome, and the answers just flowed for the first third, whereupon I began to suffer from ‘word blindness’ that even a large G&T couldn’t alleviate. So I retired for the day, and returned to the job on Sunday, whereupon all of the remianing clues yielded, and so, for the first time in a few weeks, a correct finish was recorded. Hoorah! I enjoyed this one a lot, some nice punchy clues in there to grapple with. My only stumbling block was that I was unable to parse 2A to my satisfaction, essentially as I took ‘in’ as a containment indicator … perhaps ‘after a’ might have been a more appropraite choice of wording in that clue.
All in all towards the easier end of the difficulty spectrum I felt, very enjoyable none the less. Thanks to both setter and blogger – keep up the good work.
Many thanks to Vagans and HG. Another enjoyable outing — I’m always happy to see the brain-bursting challenges varied with an occasional gentler IQ. Maybe because I’d recently read the late Alasdair Gray’s new translation of The Divine Comedy (which is fun and moves faster than most English verse adaptations), I guessed the endgame from the preamble. Lucky me.
The beginning of 3D offered a LA to go with DIVINA and COMMEDIA, keeping open the possibility of VIRGIL with 27 letters highlighted — I spent some time looking for him (maybe lurking in some diagonal?) before giving up and quickly finding the lady.
Not a serious quibble, but maybe the instructions should have started “A serious journey” rather than “A serious ascent”, since it’s downhill all the way to the end-of-level boss in Inferno …
This was a meaty puzzle, and I found the top right quadrant the hardest to complete. It was at that point that I had a good look at my incomplete set of letters and saw that I had most of the letters of INFERNO and PURGATORY (or PURGATORIO as it turned out to be). The full set of three ‘stages’ then helped me to solve the remaining sticky clues.
I already knew what elements I expected to find. After finding BEATRICE I looked for VIRGIL, but it was DANTE that turned up instead. DIVINA COMMEDIA (in modern Italian) was of course a perfect match for the names of the three stages, as HolyGhost pointed out.
After completion I appreciated the way that the letters of each stage name were extracted from consecutive clues, with equal gaps between names, and with equal gaps also at the beginning and the end of the list.
Me_Sat… @1
Regarding 2a COLOURGUARDS, Chambers gives ‘to set in a favourable light’ for ‘colour’ (as a verb), and I think the setter used that to make a cryptic definition of the answer (following the straight one).
David @2
In the Divine Comedy, Dante’s journey is an ascent, guided first by Virgil out of the Inferno and then by Beatrice through Purgatory and into Paradise.
Thanks to Vagans and HolyGhost.
Alan B @3 : Aaaah … thanks for the explanation, it makes sense now.
Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch’entrate
About the only Italian I know
I thought it was one descent then two ascents but its been a while.
Shame Virgil couldnt make it to the show
Thanks all-new translations might slip Rupert Murdoch below Boniface but the bugger still hasnt died!
An enjoyable debut – not too difficult on the IQ scale, but refreshingly so. Did anybody else confidently enter COLOUR SCREEN for 2ac before belatedly realising that it made a complete mess of that corner of the grid?
I finished this and enjoyed the theme, though I was left with several parsing problems and, having a full grid and all the thematic entries, did not pursue them to the end. So I missed RICAR(D)O who I’d never heard of and MOU (ditto) also (comp)IDIUM.
So thank you HG for the blog and Vagan for an enjoyable start.
I enjoyed this. I wasted a lot of time becoming fixated on the idea that this was about The Pilgrim’s Progress. I should have abandoned the idea and spotted the more obvious Divine Comedy long before I finally did so.
Thanks to all.
Jon_S @6 : Not me personally, (see @1, @3 & @4) … I read the first two words of the puzzle and for some reason I immediately thought of Melvill VC & Coghill VC @ Isandlwana (they might not have been the actual colour guards, but they definitely died trying to save them) … but I can see where you’re coming from. Last week I had a similar experience, and was convinced that ANEW was ALSO … and that totally scuppered the whole NE quadrant for me for quite some time.
It happens … and I guess that’s the real beauty of the Inquisitor … lead them off in the wrong direction, thinks the setter. I can almost hear his/her evil laugh as I pay for my paper on a Saturday morning!
I suspect that none of us can solve these things perfectly all of the time … well, I certainly can’t, anyway … and I’m more than happy to admit that. That’s part of the fun.
This was a half-finish for me, after a few attempts, and there were so many words/usages unknown to me that I doubt I’d have got much further. Spicer, ricercar, cicinnus, ascidium, memetic, remuda ( though that does ring a vague bell) … all too much for this solver! Plus usages in the wordplay that wouldn’t have occurred to me, complicated by the excess 25 letter hitch. I guess I’m in the minority here in thinking of this as being high on the difficulty level – the theme I didn’t even come close to, but congratulations to those of you who did!