Inquisitor 1763: Speechless by Nudd

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Speechless by Nudd

Solvers must highlight in the grid a well known speaker, together with a six-word quotation wrongly attributed to him. Two of his long-term associates also appear, one of whom is responsible for a later comment, spelt by corrections to single letter misprints in the definition of 29 clues – with unspoken consequences.

OK, let’s dive in. 12a and 8d, both simple anagrams and both with straightforward definitions, fell first.

The rest of the puzzle contained a few obscure words or, at least, obscure definitions.

As the corrected misprints started to fall out, it took me quite a while to work out what they were spelling and it wasn’t until I’d found the hidden message in the grid that I actually managed to complete it.

The message in the grid was, as the preamble states, wrongly attributed to a cricket commentator. The commentator’s name is Brian Johnston and he was apparently known as “Johnners”.

The apparent quote, one for us overgrown schoolboys to giggle about, is “THE BOWLER’S HOLDING, THE BATSMAN’S WILLEY.” To be found in rows 1, 3, 6, 8, 10 with JOHNNERS in row 12. This was reputed to be when Michael Holding of the West Indies was bowling to Peter Willey of England in a Test match at The Oval in 1976.

The last few letters of the generated message seemed to suggest LEG OVER (now boys, a bit of decorum please) and this made me think of the quote by Ted Lowe, which I’d always heard as, “Fred Davis at 74 years old has trouble getting his leg over and he prefers to use his left hand.” But Wikipedia goes with the gentler, “… is getting on a bit and is having trouble getting his leg over.”

However, it seems that the quote we’re looking for is HE DIDN’T QUITE GET HIS LEG OVER also by Brian Johnson, talking about Ian Botham failing to step over the wicket after overbalancing. It seems that he shared the commentating duties with Jonathan Agnew who is, apparently, known as “Aggers”. AGGERS can be found in column l.

However, it seems that the quote we’re looking for is HE DIDN’T QUITE GET HIS LEG OVER by Jonathan Agnew, talking about Ian Botham failing to step over the wicket after overbalancing. Jonathan Agnew is, apparently, known as “Aggers”. AGGERS can be found in column l.

The last piece of the puzzle is to highlight Bill Frindall, The Bearded Wonder, also known as “Bearders”. These cricketing types are pretty inventive with their nicknames!

I don’t think Bearders has had any leg over problems, at least none that I could track down. But BEARDERS is in our grid in row 5.

OK, time for me to calm down and stop the giggling before I get sent to the naughty step. And many thanks to Nudd for giving me one of the most fun Inquisitors for a long time.

Across
Clue Entry Corrected
Misprint		 Wordplay
1 Small part of local common land hosts void Test Match (5) TYTHE TYE (common land; dialect) around T[est matc]H (void)
5 Eats Hats bass with retired smugglers (7) BOWLERS H
 Bass+OWLERS (smugglers; obsolete)
11 African man heading for inland Jamaica moans means to communicate (5) OUIJA E
 OU (African man)+I[nland] (heading for)+JAmaica
12 Fall short – that’s oddly feasible (4) FAIL   F[e]A[s]I[b]L[e] (oddly)
13 Special shopping arcade successfully putting depth within compact plot (12) SMALLHOLDING   Special+MALL (shopping arcade)+HOLING (successfully putting; golf) around Depth
15 Super complex – molten metal’s protected projected there (5) SPRUE J
 SUPER (anag: complex)
16 Representative piercing smell that might feature in Chinese soap soup? (7) TREPANG U
 TANG (smell) around REPresentative
18 Accumulation of brittle bristle barley died (5) BEARD S
 BEAR (barley)+Died
20 Some Highlanders employ this (4) ERSE   highlandERS Employ (hidden: some)
(I’m not sure how to describe this clue. Is it &lit.?)
22 Born indexer, regularly overlooked (3) NEE   [i]N[d[E[x]E[r] (alternate letters)
23 Darwin’s eccentric African ruler’s a dope tope (6)
(I initially changed dome to dome), which I think could have worked		 DAGOBA T
 DAG (eccentric; Australian)+OBA (African ruler)
25 Number three’s wrong (5)
(Ah! It’s not number, it’s number!)		 ETHER   THREE  (anag: wrong)
27 Non-accidental injury with end of stiletto penetrating temples (4) NAOI   [stilett]O (end of) inside NAI (non-accidental injury)
29 Difficult for Callas Dallas – plug in guitar? (6) BADASS D
 BASS (guitar) around AD (plug)
32 Animals living among doggers diggers coming back to wound local man (7) NUMBATS I
 STAB (wound)+MUN (man; dialect) rev: coming back
35 Minister’s above abode switching names (5) MANSE D
 NAMES (anag: switching)
36 Pay Pan for heating – advance settlement on counter (4) ETNA N
 ANTE (advance settlement) rev: on counter
39 Soil covering over Scots dyke tyke (5) SMOUT T
 SMUT (soil) around Over
41 It might cover guilt quilt up to the time of taking wicket (5) TWILL Q
 TILL (up to the time of) around Wicket
42 With irregular wear, the old back’s an awful sight (7) EYESORE   (I’m sure I solved this one at the time but I can’t see it now)
43 East Anglian gilly gully taken by sea urchins (3) EAU U
 sEA Urchins (hidden: taken by)
44 Mix-up leaves clothes basket in monumental Irish hall hill (4)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_Hill,_County_Wexford		 TARA I
 [pi]TARA (clothes basket) minus PI (loosely a mix-up as in PIE def’n 2)
45 Drawn out, turn over metal bar (5) TOZED   TO (turn over)+ZED (metal bar)
46 Bottle of Cologne that is new imprisoning grotesque emoji (8) DEMIJOHN   EMOJI (anag: grotesque) inside DH (das heisst: that is; German)+New
47 Stokes pursues hesitant declaration that might appear weedy? (3) ERS   ER (hesitant declaration)+Stokes
Down
1 Pinch Pitch Japanese dogs before leaving (4) TOSS T
 TOS[a]S (Japanese dogs) minus A (before)
2 Tasty! Hamper for just a few lifted up when passing a crust crest (6) YUMPED E
 YUM (tasty)+PED (hamper; dialect)
3 Soak up Wales’s second triple crown (5) TIARA   RAIT (soak; rev: up)+[w]A[les] (2nd)
4 Eastern beer’s evil, as previously stated staged? (4) EALE G
 Eastern+ALE (beer)
5 Bishop has a hot time following broad bread to Phuket (4) BAHT E
 Bishop+A+Hot+Time
6 Antique festival supporting women’s the best in the north (4) WALE   Women+ALE (festival; archaic)
7 Ham’s Hat‘s foul-smelling after opening (3) LID T
 [o]LID (foul smelling) after opening: with top taken off
8 Lamb-like alien’s beaten up (5) ELIAN   ALIEN (anag: beaten up)
9 A stranger to Ed abandons female to care hare for him (5) RENNE H
 [f]RENNE (stranger; Spenser) minus Female
10 German cracks sinks in which pots are packed (7) SAGGERS   GERman inside SAGS (sinks)
12 Cameron’s progressively in favour of radical (6) FORRAD   FOR (in favour of)+RADical
14 Complaint from soldier carrying trumpet (5) LURGI   LUR (trumpet)+GI (soldier)
17 After vehicle’s removed, reprimand toff tiff (3) PET I
 [car]PET (reprimand) with CAR (vehicle) removed
18 With head covered, snatched absorbing cricket practice (8) BONNETED   BONED (snatched) around NET (cricket practice)
19 Australian grabs grass Filipino dish when uncovered (3) DOB S
 [a]DOB[o] (Filipino dish) minus first and last letters
21 Something for smoothing main marks on paving stone (7) SEAMSET   SEA (main)+Marks+SET (paving stone)
24 Flour, eggs and milk stirred over well-seasoned chub club (7) BATTERO L
 BATTER (flour, eggs and milk stirred)+Over
26 One making curtain certain is unfortunately leaving nurseries in a mess (7) ENSURER E
 NURSER[i]E[s] minus I & S (IS; unfortunately) anag: in a mess
28 Expression of doubt after turning up in second cycling competition (6) OMNIUM   IN+MO (second) rev: after turning up+UM (expression of doubt)
30 Masons freely touch tough guy! (6) SAMSON G
 MASONS (anag: freely)
31 Diver Dover starts to submerge near slimy mud (6) SNOOZE O
 S[ubmerge] N[ear] (starts to)+OOZE (slimy mud)
33 Needing top of cooker, sea food not roasted in the open oven (5) BALTI V
 BALTI[c] (sea) minus C[ooker] (top of)
34 Judge Italian car driving up Omani channels (5) AFLAJ   Judge+ALFA (Romeo; Italian car) rev: driving up
37 Cross with academician beginning to examine a bract brace on muir? (4) TWAE E
 T-cross+With+Academician+E[xamine] (beginning to)
38 Nanny accepted cry of derision (4) AYAH   Accepted+YAH (cry of derision)
40 Scatters glass grass around busted squash bottles (4) TEDS R
 busTED Squash (hidden: bottles)

 

14 comments on “Inquisitor 1763: Speechless by Nudd”

  1. A fairly gentle offering, though I did need Google to help with the quote to be highlighted, having got that from the misprints (which is apparently by Jonathan Agnew – AGGERS – at least according to Google again). I didn’t spot BEARDERS in the grid, but understood the preamble to mean that we had to highlight the quote and JOHNERS, but not the other two associates? To complicate matters there’s also SAGGERS to the NE. 🙂

  3. Lovely puzzle. And a few thematic surfaces as well. Nicely timed now that Willey Junior is regularly taking on de Kock.

    Sorry.

  4. I remember listening to this at the time; I recall it was like a depth charge, no one noticing for a short while, and then the giggling started. I also remember how they kept trying to resume, and kept failing. An amazing piece of radio history. Weirdly, long before I had nearly enough evidence, I had an inkling this would be the theme, I guess it’s the subliminal clues.

    An Inquisitor highlight, thanks to Nudd and kenmac (I also don’t see 42a)

  6. I enjoyed working through this puzzle as there were several excellent clues. When I had the bottom half pretty much filled I spotted the theme – not with BATSMAN, WILLEY and JOHNNERS (despite their being in plain sight) but with the corrected letters from the clues, which gave me ‘… DNTQU … IS?EGOVER. I recognised it, and after referring again to the preamble I guessed what the other quotation would be, plus the two protagonists JOHNSTON and AGNEW from those old BBC radio commentaries on cricket. I spotted AGGERS and JOHNNERS in the grid, but not BEARDERS (the one I didn’t know).

    I imagine this puzzle could have been tough for those for whom this example of peculiarly British humour was a closed book.

    Thanks to Nudd and kenners.

  7. Count us in as another two who thoroughly enjoyed the puzzle. Bert guessed the context as the misprinted letters were found. We did have to google though to find out the nickname – BEARDERS – of the final associate.

    So, lots to enjoy, more fun in remembering so thanks to Nudd for compiling the IQ.

    Thanks kenmac – see you in York. We will buy you a drink for agreeing to take over from Geoff on fifteensquared.

  8. Sorry everyone, I coded it as having been said by “Aggers” and then, on review, misread the Wikipedia article and changed it.
    I’ve changed it back now and left the original so as not to confuse others.

  11. Nothing much to add. A fun puzzle despite my lack of interest in cricket!

    Although – does anyone know why Dover means Snooze?

  13. Thanks to Kenners and all contributors.
    I remember well hearing the legover incident when it happened, though the Holding / Willey quote was, I believe, never attributed rightly to anyone. The generally accepted story seems to be that it was suggested to Johnners, in a letter from a TMS listener, that he had said it – though he had no memory of ever having done so. Henry ‘Blowers’ Blofeld has subsequently claimed that the letter was signed “Tess Tickell”, though that may be an added piece of playground humour of his own design.
    My first IQ in ages … hope to be back again some day.

  14. Ken: In 23a, I too initially had dope -> dome rather than dope -> tope.
    In 44a, I started out with Tara Hill, County Wexford but later changed my mind to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_of_Tara, which seemed to fit better with “monumental” in the clue. What do you think? It’s your parish.
    And, yes, I’d classify 20a as &lit.

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