Ifor is a fairly prolific Inquisitor setter who often introduces different devices into his clues. Today he has given us three different types of clue over and above the standard ones.
The preamble was fairly short and told us that seven clues comprise wordplay to the entry but a definition of a shorter word containing only some of the entered letters. Solvers must highlight the remainder, so spelling out a remark (in ODQ) and its speaker which explains the changes that must be made to single words in each of two further groups of seven clues before solving.
So there we have it, 21 of the 45 clues to the puzzle are non-standard. We simply have to identify them in three groups of seven and then highlight a phrase in the completed grid!
There were three clues that gave me an early indication of how things might work. These were 1 across where the wordplay led to AMICABLE with CABLE defined by telegram in the clue, 12 across where the definition led to VERTIGO which could be anagrammed if a D was omitted from ‘tired‘ in the clue and 27 across where the clue could be solved if the letters FRI were to be omitted from the word FRIENDS in the clue.
Of the three, FRI was the most useful as it seemed to be an abbreviation for a day of the week and ‘BATTUES‘ in the clue at 22 across looked an odd word. Further searching through the clues showed there was at least one occurrence of every other day of the week.
There were a couple of other clues early on in the acrosses that looked like they may contain unnecessary letter Ds.
ASCIDIAN was the next wordplay for one word and definition for another (ASIAN) to fall. There was then the beginnings of a pattern for the quotation to be located in three letter chunks in odd rows going across and down the grid.
The AMI CID in rows one and three hinted a Latin phrase.
In the end everything fell into place with the highlighted phrase being AMICI DIEM PERDIDI (Friends. I lost a day) said by TITUS. We are in fact losing quite a lot of days, with the SUN, MON, TUE … series and another 7 Ds (days). Apparently, the Emperor TITUS [39-81] said this because whilst sitting down for dinner, he realized he had done no favours for anyone through the entire day.
| Clue No | Phrase | Clue No | Day of the week | Clue No | Letter D |
| 1 across | AMI | 15 across | WED | 6 across | D |
| 14 across | CID | 22 across | TUE | 10 across | D |
| 18 across | IEM | 27 across | FRI | 12 across | D |
| 24 across | PER | 31 across | SUN | 40 across | D |
| 33 across | DID | 13 down | THU | 4 down | D |
| 37 across | ITI | 21 down | MON | 5 down | D |
| 41 across | TUS | 34 down | SAT | 20 down | D |
The original clues and the amended clues are shown in the detail of the blog below.
I enjoyed solving the clues and thought there were two possible parsings for BAAL at 6 across as shown in the below. Because of ‘poorly in the clue at 15 across I spent a long time trying to fit ‘ILL‘ into the entry.
You will see that I have not been able to parse BOOK-DEBT at 20 across so hope that someone can help me out by explaining how it works in a comment.
The final grid looks like this:
For the title NOD TO YOUR MATES, I can link MATES to the FRIENDS part of the quotation. I’m guessing that NOD can be interpreted as a greeting or command to your FRIENDS.
A good fun Inquisitor puzzle with some interesting twists to the clues. Thanks to Ifor for the challenge.
| No | Clue | Letter(s) | Entry |
| Across | |||
| 1 |
Telegram came with a bill, mainly rent (8) AMICABLE / CABLE (telegram) Anagram of (rent) CAME and A BILL excluding the final letter L (mainly) AMICABLE* |
AMI | AMICABLE |
| 6 |
Devil almost able to overwhelm a false god (4) Evil almost able to overwhelm a false god (4) BAAL (a false god) I think there are two ways of parsing the entry BALE (evil) excluding the final letter E (almost) containing (to overwhelm) A OR An anagram of (evil) ABLE excluding the final letter E (almost) containing (to overwhelm) A BA (A) L or BA (A) L* – either A could be the one contained |
D | BAAL |
| 10 |
Eland struggling in channel (4) Elan struggling in channel (4) LANE (channel) Anagram of (struggling) ELAN |
D | LANE |
| 12 |
Lack of balance tired Government out (7) Lack of balance tire Government out (7) VERTIGO (whirling sensation experienced when the sense of balance is disturbed) Anagram of (out) TIRE and GOV (government) VERTIGO* |
D | VERTIGO |
| 14 |
Florid in literature once as India moves, accepting compliance (8) ASCIDIAN / ASIAN (formerly in literature or art, florid) (AS + an anagram of [moves] INDIA) containing (accepting) C (compliance, abbreviation used in physics) AS (C) IDIAN* |
CID | ASCIDIAN |
| 15 |
Poorly newlywed taking sides left this mostly up in the air (6) Poorly newly taking sides left this mostly up in the air (6) THINLY (poorly) Anagram of (up in the air) NY (outer letters of [sides] of NEWLY) and L (left) and THIS excluding the final letter S (mostly) THINLY* |
Wed | THINLY |
| 17 |
Grandma’s guts twisted in knots (5) GNARS (knots) I’m not sure how this clue works, but the letters GRAN and S form the outer letters of GRANDMA‘S or the letters that remain when three of the inner letters DMA are removed [gutted?]. An anagram of (twisted) GRANS is GNARS* KNARS would also fit the definition but I can’t see where a K would come from GNARS* |
GNARS | |
| 18 |
Criminal nemesis, since forgotten (7) SIEMENS /SENS (obsolete [forgotten]word for ‘since’) Anagram of (criminal NEMESIS SIEMENS* |
IEM | SIEMENS |
| 19 |
Prime features in Arabic music from N Africa (3) RAI (modern, North African form of popular music, blending traditional Arabic and Spanish with Western dance rhythms) Letters 2, 3 and 5 [first three prime numbers] of ARABIC RAI |
RAI | |
| 20 |
Seller’s record of lost profit, keeping limits of bank deed in order (8) BOOK-DEBT (sum owing to a seller, as shown in the seller’s business-books) I can’t the get the parsing of this right. I have: BOOT (obsolete [lost] word meaning profit) containing (keeping) KDEB but I can’t relate KDEB to ‘limits of bank deed in order’ other than to say we have B and K which are the outer letters or limits of BANK and the letters DE BOO (K-DEB) T |
BOOK-DEBT | |
| 22 |
Battues made killing easy at the start (3) Bats made killing easy at the start (3) MAD (crazy; mad) MADE excluding (killing) E (first letter of [at the start] EASY) MAD |
Tue | MAD |
| 24 |
Dipstick initially showing spare liquid (6) ASPERS / ASS (stupid or foolish person; dipstick) Anagram of (liquid) S (first letter of [initially] SHOWING and SPARE) ASPERS* |
PER | ASPERS |
| 27 |
Friends in need dedicate motto to God (3) Ends in need dedicate motto to God (3) DEO (to, for or with God) DEO (last letters of [ends in] each of NEED, DEDICATE and MOTTO DEO |
Fri | DEO |
| 29 |
Looked down on finished Scotch after glugging small mouthfuls back (8) DESPISED (looked down upon with contempt) DEED (Scottish word for dead [finished]) containing (after glugging) SIPS (small mouthfuls) reversed (back) DE (SPIS<) ED |
DESPISED | |
| 31 |
Sundry parts of speech regularly ignored (3) Dry parts of speech regularly ignored (3) SEC ([of wines] dry) SEC (letters remaining in SPEECH after PEH (letters 2, 4 and 6 [regularly]) are excluded (ignored) SEC |
Sun | SEC |
| 33 |
Informal opening in any old wedding venue (7) CANDIDA / CANA (biblical wedding venue where Jesus is said to have turned water into wine) CANDID (unposed, unrehearsed, informal) + A (first letter of [opening in] ANY CANDID A |
DID | CANDIDA |
| 35 |
Genuinely make an effort to box until losing all heart (5) TRULY (genuinely) TRY (make an effort) containing (to box) UL (letters remaining in UNTIL when all the central letters NTI are removed [losing heart]) TR (UL) Y |
TRULY | |
| 36 |
On its own a now-forgotten slander with no right to success (6) A-PER-SE (archaic [now forgotten] term for the letter a by itself) ASPERSE (slander) excluding (with no) S (right hand letter of [right to] SUCCESS) A-PER-SE |
A-PER-SE | |
| 37 |
Slightly reduces size of limit held in foreign capital (8) PARITIES / PARES (diminishes by small amounts; slightly reduces size of) TIE (limit) contained in (held in) PARIS (foreign capital) PARI (TIE) S |
ITI | PARITIES |
| 38 |
First male social worker not prepared to give ground (7) ADAMANT (unyielding; not prepared to give ground) ADAM (first man) + ANT (social insect; social worker ANT) ADAM ANT |
ADAMANT | |
| 39 |
Being trapped inside encourages selfishness (4) ESSE (actual existence; being) ESSE (hidden word in [inside] ENCOURAGES SELFISHNESS) ESSE |
ESSE | |
| 40 |
Fuel cadged by bolder vehicle-owners (4) Fuel caged by bolder vehicle-owners (4) DERV (diesel engine fuel oil) DERV (hidden word in [caged by] BOLDER VEHICLE-OWNERS) DERV |
D | DERV |
| 41 |
Mountain range in mistake was located outside America (8) SERRATUS / SERRA (mountain range) (SAT [was located] containing [outside] ERR) + US (America) S (ERR) AT US |
TUS | SERRATUS |
| Down | |||
| 1 |
Winged, acting dead (5) ALATE (winged) A (acting) + LATE (dead) A LATE |
ALATE | |
| 2 |
Mounting set upon filling in gold tooth (7) INCISOR (tooth) SIC (alternative version of SICK, in this case meaning ‘to set upon’) reversed (mounting) and contained in (filling) (IN + OR [gold tincture]) IN (CIS<) OR |
INCISOR | |
| 3 |
Australian day by day went ahead in confusion (6) ADDLED (muddled; in confusion) A (Australian) + D (day) + D (day) + LED (went ahead) A D D LED |
ADDLED | |
| 4 |
Fail to disturb time off (believed on vacation) (7, 2 words) Fail to disturb time off (believe on vacation) (7, 2 words) LEAVE BE (do not disturb) LEAVE (time off) + BE (letters remaining in BELIEVE when the central letters ELIEV are removed [on vacation]) LEAVE BE |
D | LEAVE BE |
| 5 |
Herd not comprehending merit in poetry (3) Her not comprehending merit in poetry (3) ERN (spelling of EARN [merit] used by John Milton [1608 – 1674], English poet; merit in poetry) ERN (hidden word in [comprehending] HER NOT) ERN |
D | ERN |
| 7 |
Fighting force in marriage,leaving the right pair shaken (6) AIR-ARM (branch of the fighting services that uses aircraft) Anagram of (shaken) MARRIAGE excluding the two rightmost letters GE [leaving the right pair] AIR-ARM* |
AIRARM | |
| 8 |
Bethlehem’s bread marketplace, now closed (5) AGORA (in ancient Greece, an assembly, place of assembly or marketplace) AGORA (Israeli [Bethlehem is a town in Israel] monetary unit, 1/100 of a shekel; bread [slang for money]) double definition AGORA |
AGORA | |
| 9 |
Died in pain after cuts weighted towards the left, maybe (8) LOPSIDED (leaning to one side, e.g. to the left) LOPS (cuts) + an anagram of (in pain) DIED LOPS IDED* |
LOPSIDED | |
| 11 |
Remains here after fire hydrant breaks when means of escape (7) ASH-HOLE (a hollow, especially under a fireplace, to receive ashes; remains here after fire) H (hydrant) contained in (breaks) (AS [when] + HOLE [means of escape]) AS (H) HOLE |
ASHHOLE | |
| 13 |
Canthus isn’t flickering (4) Cans isn’t flickering (4) TINS (cans) Anagram of (flickering) ISN’T TINS* |
Thu | TINS |
| 16 |
Marriage ceremony with husband covered by black veil (5) NIKAB (veil covering the face, worn by Muslim women) NIKAH (Islamic word for a marriage contract or marriage ceremony) with H (husband) replaced by (covered by) B (black) to form NIKAB NIKA B |
||
| 20 |
From this, could sedated body occasionally be stirred? (8) From this, could sedate body occasionally be stirred? (8) BEDSTEAD (you might be able to wake up [stir] a quietened or calmed [sedate] body lying on a BEDSTEAD) Anagram of SEDATE and BD (letters 1 and 3 [occasionally] of BODY) BEDSTEAD* |
D | BEDSTEAD |
| 21 |
Leader of monarch’s faction in private (5) Leader of arch’s faction in private (5) ASIDE (privately) A (first letter of [leader of] ARCH) + SIDE (team; camp; faction) A SIDE |
Mon | ASIDE |
| 23 |
Exclusions of pathogens from venomous snake once found in northern sea (7) ASEPSES (exclusion of micro-organisms including pathogens that cause disease) SEPS (a very venomous snake mentioned by classical writers; venomous snake once) contained in (found in) SEA (reversed; down entry) so SEA is reading north after reversal) A (SEPS) ES< |
ASEPSES | |
| 25 |
Hydrocarbon shut up before seeing temperature rise (7) PENTANE (a hydrocarbon) PEN (shut up) + ANTE (before) with the T (temperature) moved up this down entry (seeing temperature rise) to form TANE PEN TANE |
PENTANE | |
| 26 |
Supporter of monarchy in dire straits (7) TSARIST (supporter of Tsars [emperors and kings; monarchs]) Anagram of (in dire) STRAITS TSARIST* |
TSARIST | |
| 28 |
Facetious eye intended as humour when judge retires (6) OCULAR (Chambers defines OCULAR as a facetious word for eye) JOCULAR (intended as a joke) excluding (when … retires) J (judge) OCULAR |
OCULAR | |
| 30 |
Confusion over support more like a tube (6) PIPIER (more like a pipe [tube]) PI (pie [confusion]) + PIER (support of an arch or bridge) PI PIER |
PIPIER | |
| 32 |
Eat in before engaging cook to turn up (5) ERODE (eat [away]) ERE (before) containing (engaging) DO (cook) reversed (turn up; down entry) ER (OD<) E |
ERODE | |
| 33 |
Shellfish? Assume one is scrubbed (4) CLAM (type of shellfish) CLAIM (believe; assume) excluding (is scrubbed) I (Roman numeral for one) CLAM |
CLAM | |
| 34 |
Those opting for satay originally expect skewers to be included (5) Those opting for ay originally expect skewers to be included (5) YESES (people who vote for something) (YES [ay] containing (to be included) ES (first letters of [originally] each of EXPECT and SKEWERS) Y (ES) ES |
Sat | YESES |
| 37 |
Step softly, moving to the head of snake (3) PAS (a dance step, especially in ballet) ASP (snake) with the P (pianissimo; softly) coming to the front of the word [moving to the head] to form PAS PAS |
PAS |
The nod in the title is “no d”. An inventive and very enjoyable crossword. Many thanks to both the composer and the blogger.
In your list of phrases and days, PER should be at 24A (not 25A) and the first listed D at 6A (not 5A).
I completed this week, but was also unable to parse 20A.
I did get 20A to work, but then had removed too many D’s (eight instead of seven). Here’s how :
Sellers record = BOOKDEBT; of lost (i.e. archaic) profit = BOOT keeping (containing) limits (i.e. extreme letters) of bank (BK) and DEE (DE) in order (i.e. BKDE anagram).
This required the loss of the terminal D from DEED though.
So have we got another D by mistake I wonder? (I found the identical seven to duncan).
Have we got one that we can keep (perhaps devil/ evil or cadged/caged) … or is actually just this another error in the clue?
A really enjoyable puzzle this – very cleverly done – thanks for blogger and setter.
I parsed 20a as per Me_sat_at_home, but in 40a I left the hidden indicator as cadged not caged, and thus still only had 7 lost D’s.
I also parsed 20a as per Me_sat_here_at_home@2, but unlike Lousie@3 it was the “devil” in 6a that I kept intact – in Chambers as verb “season highly and broil” which seems plausible for an anagram indicator (although even better as “to worry or pester” but that’s qualified as N.American). Thanks to Ifor for a great puzzle and to duncanshiell for blog.
I saw (AMI)CABLE straight off then my Crossword dictionary arrived and under FLORID I saw ASIAN so I was on my way
For the othetr clues I got days of the week OK but didnt get all the Ds sorted so I will read this blog in full\
Thanks Duncan and Ifor
I enjoyed this puzzle very much for its thematic design, the originality of some of the manipulations used in the clues and its Latin flavour.
The title most often does not help, but as soon as I got my first two ‘remainders’, AMI and CID, I saw how ‘amici’ could relate to ‘mates’, and I was then in a hurry to find the next few letters from a clue a bit further on, if possible. SIEMENS gave me IEM, and I now had two words strung together: ‘Amici diem’. As it happens, ‘diem’ is in the index to the ODQ, with a reference to Titus Vespasian, but not knowing that at the time I looked up ‘Amici diem’ online and found what I wanted. The full quote ‘Amici, diem perdidi’ explained of course the loss of D or a day of the week from those 14 clues.
I was slow to spot the days-of-the-week trick. What I had were parsing queries, one clue looking as if it belonged to another crossword, but FRIENDS and then CANTHUS finally unlocked that particular device, and the puzzle came to a very satisfying conclusion.
The much-discussed BOOK-DEBT was my only query.
Thanks to Ifor and duncanshiell.
The only way that 20a BOO-KDEB-T works is by losing the D at the end of “deed”, as one or two others have said. So “devil” is the anagram indicator at 6a rather than “evil” as CranberryBoat @4 says. And I agree with Stumper @1 that “nod”” in the title comes from “no d”.
Not as hard as usual for a puzzle from Ifor, despite the rather daunting preamble. Thanks to him for an enjoyable interlude, and to Duncan for the blog.
BTW – re duncan’s comments regarding 17A: I took Grandma’s to be GRANS and twisted (i.e. reversed) the guts (i.e. all of the inner letters, so RAN become NAR), to give GNARS (and not KNARS).
After a fairly daunting preamble, this turned out to be on the easier side for an Ifor puzzle. I made good progress in the SW corner and, solving 27A & 31A, jumped to the wrong conclusion that one of the further groups had a day missing from the definition and the other with a day missing from the wordplay. Then, of course, I could not find another 12 days but locating 6 (including the 2 Mons) was a great help and I eventually spotted the redundant Ds. An entertaining journey with a very neat finish which, as a pleasant change, needed no research to complete, although I did have a quick peek at my ODQ to reduce my ignorance of the quote.
Thanks to Ifor and Duncan
(BTW, regarding 17A, I agree with Me-etc @8.)
Excellent puzzle. I got the days without too much grief – nice penny-drops – but really struggled with the ‘remainders’. But looking at the empty cells in the grid strongly suggested a pattern, and that was the key. I do appreciate patterns!
Many thanks to Phi and duncanshiell.
Neil @ 10 : You’re not the only one … I had a similar experience to you, and found very few of the constituent parts of the quotation until I was getting quite close to completion. The more centrally located ones took me by far the longest. I wasn’t helped by initially solving 25D as METHANE, using HEM as a synonym for shut which I reversed (up) to give MEH and then raising the T of ANTE even higher than was necessary. Took me quite some time to rectify that mistake. A bit like my ALSO and ANEW faux pas of a few weeks ago. Oh, the joys of the Inquisitor … it never ceases to amaze me how differently we can all read the clues at times. I find that the comments to be found here every week can be really eye opening, as well as quite instructive – and provide some good learning lessons for me.
A fun puzzle that was easy going for Ifor. The letters to highlight being in a diagonal was a gift for those of us who hadn’t correctly identified all the definitions.
My usual grateful thanks to Duncan for a typically exhaustive blog, and to those who commented. Reading what’s been said I can confirm that the various expositions of contentious clues are as I intended, as is the interpretation of the title. And I certainly agree that this was from the less challenging end of the Ifor spectrum. A pity, I thought, that while some days could be decently disguised (friends), others (canthus) left little or no room for manoeuvre.
Obviously I understand what you mean by ‘decently disguised’, but there should be no reason to regret having to just do your best with the less friendly examples (‘battues’ being another). Your best is good enough, and I’d like to speak up for solvers who like variety and love to see less well disguised examples as well as the ones you obviously like best!
Thanks, Alan. I fear you know me only too well!
Too busy to visit Fifteensquared yesterday, and now everything has been said — but I enjoyed this very much, so all thanks to Ifor (and duncanshiell). I twigged the three-letter days rather sooner than the missing Ds, then saw TITUS and was pleased to find the quote under “day” in my elderly and usually unhelpful ODQ. No naughty Googling this time!
As David says @16, it’s pretty much all been said now, but I’d just like to add that this was an enjoyable puzzle for me too. I didn’t quite finish it, and after a few days, couldn’t resist checking a certain online site, where I got the answer to one clue, plus the info that the quotation was in Latin in blocks of three letters – immediately ami jumped out at me and then cid and so on – seems obvious now, and I can’t think why I couldn’t have figured it out for myself, but there you go. I Googled the first 9 letters, which got me to Titus, plus I finished the grid. The first part of the preamble was the hardest to figure out – the days of the week and missing ds came quite easily. Thank you to Ifor and to Duncanshiell. PS I also found bookdebt hard to parse, and didn’t understand nikab, never having heard of nikah – we live and learn!
Apologies for the late comment. We started solving the puzzle on the Saturday it was published and struggled to get started. We had a busy weekend and progress was slow. It wasn’t until the following weekend after a hectic week that we realised we hadn’t finished it! Ifor is one of our favourite setters so the puzzle had to be completed before we started the new IQ.
Thankfully we managed to chip away at the clues and before long we realised what was happening.
We were concerned about an extra ‘d’ too so glad to read the blog. For once, we also sorted out the relevance of the title.
A highly enjoyable (once we got going) puzzle. Thanks to Ifor and Duncan.