Artix is an infrequent setter of Inquisitor puzzles. This is the fifth in nearly seven years. Looking back through the puzzles there didn’t seem to be a common theme, so I reckoned it would be a voyage of discovery figuring out this puzzle
The preamble was fairly short and the grid was 12 rows by 11 columns, so slightly fewer clues than usual. The preamble told us: Each set of clues is given in alphabetical order of its answers. Filling the (initially empty) central column will reveal the theme and so explain the relevance of the yellow cells which will allow solvers to deduce how to complete the rest of the grid. Solvers must colour 20 cells thematically and, optionally, 89 other cells. We were also told that the Across answers were all 5 letter words or phrases.
Interestingly, no mention of misprints or other gimmicks in the clues. We just had standard clues to solve.
The yellow and black squares stood out in an otherwise barred crossword.
I quite enjoy a jigsaw puzzle crossword so I barrelled in to see what I could solve. I noticed that there were only 20 Across clues but potentially 24 places to put them. The Downs clues too led to mainly 5 letter answers but there we two 4s, two 6s and a 7 as well. The solutions to these ‘non-standard’ entries proved to be very helpful in positioning some of the acrosses.
The most helpful answer was the 7 letter down that led to HIMSELF which had the rather unusual definition of ‘in good form’ However, that definition is in Chambers so perfectly fair. I got one of the four letter entries fairly quickly (ARMY) but DAHL took a bit longer to fall. For the sixes, CITRON fell early on with ADLIBS taking a bit longer as I struggled initially with the wordplay.
Eventually I had enough information to populate quite a lot of the left half of the grid.
The penny drop moment from me was realising that we could form 11 letter words in rows 2, 3,4, 8 9 and 10 by adding one letter in the central column between two across answers. I had also played about with the down entry REENS as a means of positioning across entries.
Obviously seeing WORDLE appearing the central column was a great help as that explained the yellow cells. I expect almost every crossword puzzle solved will have played WORDLE since it appeared on the web.
Having got the theme and deduced all the answers and their positions in the grid, the final stage was to determine the entries in rows 6 and 12. WORDLE players will know that a yellow background indicates a letter in the final word but not in the right position.
The SW corner was the easiest to deduce with SHAFT becoming apparent quite quickly. We had an I, a H and U already in place for the NW quadrant, so FICHU wasn’t too difficult to deduce. The NE corner required a bit more thought although it was clear that the vowel had to be U (or Y) as A, E, I and O were already used. CLUMP was the word in that corner. The SE corner could only have Y as the vowel equivalent given that all the standard vowels were already used. This led to XYLYL. I believe all four of these words are unique to the set of five words above.
The 20 cells forming the WORDLE answers should be coloured green as that colour indicates letters in the right place. Ignoring the yellow, green and black squares there are 89 remaining squares which should be coloured a shade of grey to indicate that those letters have no place in the final answer.
I found the clues quite difficult with some of the definitions being a bit left-field, but I was satisfied that I had solved everything correctly. The detailed table below shows my parsing.
In particular I thought the definition for NOOSE was a bit odd, given that a NOOSE is usually constructed with a form of slip knot. I wasn’t sure where the anagram or jumble indicator was in the clue for RHINE. I’m happy with ‘prime pieces’ indicating letters 2, 3,5 and 7 of GERSHWIN but the letters then had to be anagrammed or cycled to form RHIE.
There were quite a few clues though that raised a smile, such as the ones for CHASM, EIGHT, ADLIBS, DAHL, OGMIC, ROOTY and SHINE
The development of the grid is shown in the animation below.
As is often the case, I don’t fully understand the title – 4*5*6. There are 4 blocks of five words, each leading to a WORDLE solution, but where does the 6 come in? Is 6 referring to the fact that the solution is the sixth word in a block?
It was all good fun though with more than one penny drop moments. I wonder how long Artix took to populate the grid ensuring unique WORDLE derivatives for each block. Also there was the need to have six 11 letter words – PAPERWEIGHT, CHASMOGAMIC, PLATYRRHINE, DROMEDARIES, LOOSELIMBED and INTERESTING. For me it was PAPERWEIGHT and DROMEDARIES that proved most helpful. I know what LOOSELIMBED and INTERESTING mean but I had to check that the other two were real words.
Thanks to Artix for an enjoyable puzzle.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
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Lady Tabitha takes in holy sites ADYTA (the most sacred parts of a temple; chancels of a church; holy sites) ADYTA (hidden word in [takes in] LADY TABITHA) ADYTA |
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Extremely cautious, having disrobed outside house ARIES (sign of the zodiac; house [one of the twelve divisions of the heavens in astrology]) WARIEST (most [extremely] cautious) excluding the outer letters (having disrobed outside) W and T ARIES |
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In rough sea, might sails be prepared thus? ATRIP (descriptive of a sail, when it is hoisted from the cap, sheeted home and ready for trimming) AT (in) + RIP (disturbed state of the sea) AT RIP |
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Meadow cut off by horse barrier BAYLE (alternative spelling of BAIL [barrier]) BAY (reddish brown horse) + LEA (meadow) excluding the final letter (cut off) A BAY LE |
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Gape when Dave’s mate approaches mike CHASM (GAPE can be defined as a wide opening or CHASM) CHAS (reference the British pop rock duo CHAS & DAVE active between 1972 and 2009; Dave’s mate) + M (MIKE is the international radio communication codeword for the letter M) CHAS M |
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Kites may fly over this Dutch Church DROME (aeroDROME, a place from which or above which KITES [Royal Air Force slang for planes] might fly) D (Dutch) + ROME (word often used to refer to the [Roman] Catholic Church) D ROME |
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Left Joe inside The Cube EIGHT (EIGHT is the cube of 2 [2*2*2+8]) (GI [reference GI Joe, American soldier] contained in [inside] THE) all reversed ([from the] left) (E (IG) HT)< |
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Sexual Healing’s ending backed by a recorder in studio GAMIC (sexual) G (last letter of [ending] HEALING) + A + MIC [microphone; recorder in the studio]) G A MIC |
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Qualified teacher’s claim for place in unit IMBED (embed [place firmly in a mass of matter]) I’M (I am) + BED (Bachelor of Education,a qualification for a teacher) – I am a teacher IM BED |
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European club dropping point at start of season INTER (reference INTER Milan, European football club) WINTER (season) excluding (dropping) the first letter (at start of) W (West, point of the compass) INTER |
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Discharge cans close to garage LOOSE (discharge) LOOS (toilets; cans) + E (final letter of [close to] GARAGE) LOOS E |
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End of lead put inside sniffer dog’s tummy NOOSE (word that could describe the collar at the end of a dog’s lead) O (central letter of [tummy] DOG) contained in (put inside) NOSE (sniffer) NO (O) SE – either O could be the one contained |
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Loutish Ozzie departed, abandoning stevedore OCKER (oafish uncultured Australian; loutish Ozzie) DOCKER (stevedore) excluding (abandoning) D (departed – I couldn’t find a dictionary that gave D for departed rather than departs) OCKER |
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Expert pockets $100 note ONCER (slang for a £1 note) ONER (expert) containing (pockets) C (North American slang for $100) ON (C) ER |
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A penny hidden in a rag PAPER (newspaper; rag) (A + P [penny]) contained in (hidden in) PER (a) P (A P) ER |
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Suppuration secreted from monotreme river-dweller PLATY (small brightly-coloured viviparous Central American fish; river-dweller) PLATYPUS (aquatic burrowing and egg-laying Australian monotreme) excluding (secreted from) PUS (suppuration) PLATY |
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Course on Gershwin’s prime pieces around noon RHINE (river [water]course) ERHI (letters 2, 3, 5 and 7 [prime numbers] of GERSHWIN) arranged around N (noon) – I’m not sure how the anagram of the prime pieces is indicated to get from ERHI to the form RHIE that surrounds the N RHI (N) E |
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Act like Nettles, say, playing Policeman? STING (act like nettles) STING (reference Gordon Sumner [born 1951], singer known as STING with the new wave rock band Police) double definition STING |
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“Semi-homeless” authors might trash this text SUTRA (in Buddhist sacred literature, any of a group of writings including the sermons of Buddha and other doctrinal works; text) SUTRA (anagram of [trash] AUTHORS excluding [less] HO [two of the four letters [semi] of HOME) SUTRA* |
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Salute what soldier’s made of? TOAST (salute) TOAST (SOLDIERS are narrow strips of bread or toast) double definition TOAST |
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| Down | |
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Artist promoting his second rubbish improvs (6) AD-LIBS (improvised words or speeches; improvs) DALI (reference Salvadore DALI [1904 – 1989], Spanish artist) with the second letter [second] A moved to the beginning [promoted] to form ADLI) + BS (bullshit; rubbish) ADLI BS |
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Host’s bonkers to take cap off (4) ARMY (host) BARMY (mentally unsound; bonkers) excluding the first letter (to take cap off) B ARMY |
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Neurotic EU banned ‘wrongly’ shaped fruit (6) CITRON (fruit) Anagram of (wrongly) NEUROTIC excluding (banned) EU CITRON* |
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Indian side’s held up, then left (4) DAHL (puree of pulse, often served as a side dish in Indian meals) HAD (held) reversed (up; down entry) + L (left) DAH< L |
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Flemish miscreant in good form (7) HIMSELF (in good form) Anagram of (miscreant) FLEMISH HIMSELF* |
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Standing up, George North clobbers like a panther? (5) NEGRO (black or dark coloured, like a black panther) NEGRO (reversed [standing up; down entry] hidden word in [clobbers; clothes] GEORGE NORTH) George North is a Welsh rugby player NEGRO< |
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Somehow coming up with dreadful pun left out of old script (5) OGMIC (descriptive of an ancient alphabet [OGAM] used in Celtic and Pictish inscriptions) Anagram of (somehow) COMING UP excluding (left out) an anagram of (dreadful) PUN OGMIC* |
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No good places for putting Minehead’s ditches (5) REENS (Somerset dialect word for ditches. Minehead is a town in Somerset) GREENS (places for putting on a golf course) excluding (no) G (good) REENS |
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Rank year under Captain Cook’s successor (5) ROOTY (rank) ROOT (reference Joe ROOT [born 1990], captain of the English cricket team after Alastair COOK) + Y (year) ROOT Y |
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Game to go for so many pies (5) RUPEE (pies are former units of currency in India worth one third of a pice where the RUPEE [100 pice] is now the main unit) RU (Rugby Union; game) + PEE (urinate; go [to the toilet]) RU PEE |
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Speak to Ed Sheeran – from outset, cracking good guy (5) SAIST (Edmund Spenser [Ed] word for sayest, say or speak) S (first letter of [from the outset] SHEERAN) + AI (A one; excellent) + ST (saint; good guy) S AI ST |
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Insistence cat mustn’t be outside in such weather? (5) SHINE (fine weather) PUSHINESS (insistence) excluding (mustn’t be) the outer letters forming PUSS (cat) SHINE |
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High flyers dismissing judge’s put-up witness (5) TESTE (witness) JET SET (wealthy social SET whose members travel frequently and widely for pleasure; high flyers) excluding (dismissing) J (judge) then reversed (put-up; down entry) TESTE< |
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Bone lazy in the extreme, lacking in ability, needs treatment (5) TIBIA (shin bone) Anagram of (needs treatment) ABILITY excluding (lacking) LY (outer letters of [in the extreme]) LAZY TIBIA* |
Another corker of an Inquisitor, thank you Artix.
I’m not a fan of jigsaws but between the relatively unique 4-6-7 downs and the 11 across combinations, it proved easy enough to get started and I was pleased that my tentative pencil entries ended up being correct.
It took me a long time to figure out that there were 4 across clues missing and that they would have to be the Wordle answers, but once I did I very much enjoyed the final denouement of trying to solve them. I also appreciated that they gradually increased in difficulty from top left to bottom right – managed to get them all myself except I had to use Google for Xylyl. Kudos to anyone managing that one without help.
My only minor niggle would be the clueing of NEGRO, which felt a little insensitive in this day and age. I would have preferred a reference to the offensive and/or outdated nature of the word.
All in all a splendid way to spend one’s Saturday.
Well, I made an unholy mess of the SW corner (I can’t it appears read my own writing), but that was still one of the best Inquisitors we’ve had this year. Similar misgivings regarding the word mentioned above which I won’t mention again, which did make me a little uncomfortable.
To come back on a couple of questions raised in the blog:
– I think Gershwin’s prime pieces could be seen as individual letters rather than a sequence, hence no need to add an anagram indicator. Although one would have certainly helped
– I read 4x5x6 as 4 blocks of 5 letters arranged into words 6 times (including the answer)
I almost abandoned this, despite its fascination, when I had a full western wing and nothing to the right. Many tough clues considering so much cold solving. Then, my mind elsewhere, ‘dromedaries’ popped up in my head, and the door was opened.
One of the reasons I love the Inquisitor series is that every now and then something new under the sun comes along, and I think this is a prime example. There seemed to be genius in this, many thanks to Artix and duncanshiell (could the 6 be the letters of ‘wordle’?)
Carte blanche jigsaws are not my favourite puzzles, but I was encouraged by a feature of this one that of course others also noticed: the first five Down clues were the only ones whose answers were not of 5 letters. Those clues were obviously the ones to target first.
ARMY, CITRON and ADLIBS came first, followed a bit later by HIMSELF. DAHL had to wait until much later, but I had enough to make a good start in the bottom left, and that gave me the momentum (and more to the point some crossing letters) to make progress clockwise round the grid.
Some of the clues seemed at first to be pitched too high for a jigsaw. but that became less of a problem as words went in, and the combination of an excellent design and a set of very good clues made this rewarding to solve.
I was at least halfway through the jigsaw when I got WORDLE (from ?ORDL?) and it was only then that I sussed the meaning of the grid layout and the incomplete entries. I had to remember how the game is played (i tried it just once), but the meaning of the yellow shading was obvious, and the missing answers FICHU, SHAFT and CLUMP came quite easily. The last one was much trickier, but when I tried using letters twice the word XYLYL at last came out. (I wondered whether there were other possibilities for that entry.)
Thanks to Artix and duncanshiell.
I took the title to be 4 games of Wordle, where you have to guess the 5 letter word within 6 tries.
Not sure if HYPHY is in Chambers, but that would fit in the SE corner.
I’d prefer a more sensitive definition for NEGRO as well. There’s a few rivers in South America, for example, if it really has to be used.
Thanks to Artix and duncanshiell
Ylo
Hyphy is not in Chambers (2016). Wiktionary has it as US slang meaning hyperactive. As I don’t use the Chambers app I don’t know whether you’ll find the word there.
I couldn’t decide whether it was CLUMP or PLUMP that was required in the NE corner. Is there any way of excluding the latter?
Otherwise a great Inquisitor. Thanks Artix and duncansheill
@8 you need a C in the word as it’s a yellow cell 🙂
I am amazed though that there is 1 and only 1 solution for each of the 4 Worldles. I was happy when I found one that fit, but assumed there would be other options in at least one of the grids.
@7 Thanks Alan B. I use online dictionaries (mostly Collins) and it turned up in a few of them as a type of music, but went with the more likely one in the end!
@8 Howard L – It would have to be Clump because the C appears in the yellow box, so it’s in the answer but not in the right place. One for the Wordle nerds!
Of course! Silly me. Thanks Arnold@9 and Ylo@10.
My journey was very much like Duncan’s. After a very slow start, I got the 3 key answers in the SW corner and the rest fell into place much faster. When I was introduced to WORDLE by a nephew, I played it for about 5 minutes and decided that, as a seasoned IQ doer, the game was a bit below my pay grade. Nevertheless, it was good fun finding the four unclued words. Of the two complete blanks, I found CLUMP fairly quickly but XYLYL took a lot longer.
Many thanks to Artix and Duncan.
Holy Ghost: Please go to IQ 1762 for a very belated reply to your comment.
For me, a fun theme that was executed with aplomb. I needed Quinapaulus to decipher XYLYL…and I didn’t expect CLUMP to be the only possible answer in Chambers.
Did anyone else put the across entries into Wordle to see if they were acceptable in the game? I was surprised to find out that there was only one that wasn’t…can you guess which? (It turns out HYPHY is allowable, though).
Thanks to the setter for a diverting Saturday and the blogger for the comprehensive analysis. Re: RHINE…is “on” an acceptable anagrind (in the “slightly drunk” sense)?
The anagrind in the RHINE clue is ‘on’ – see Chambers def 324 or thereabouts
@13 has to be OCKER or ONCER – ?
@15 1 green and 1 yellow for both of those guesses…4 more tries ?
Well there is only 1 option that fits, and it’s very surprising!
Despite initial fears about whether I was up to jigsawing the answers into place, I liked this very much. A brand new idea, at least to me! I’d tried Wordle a few times before getting bored with it, so knew what the yellow squares meant. Much relieved that my nervously pencilled XYLYL was indeed the only option at bottom right.
Lots of thanks to Artix and duncanshiell.
arnold @17
Perhaps proper names are not allowed. (I don’t know any but the most basic rules of how to play the game.)
Great puzzle – (one of) the most enjoyable of the year. Thanks all round.
Dave W @12: I have just responded to your belated reply to my comment on IQ 1762.
I had almost given up, despite solving most of the clues, when I noticed that DROME and ARIES could lead to DROMEDARIES. After that everything fell into place very quickly and pleasingly.
Very enjoyable.
Thoroughly enjoyable – Joyce starts every day with Wordle.
Thanks to Artix and Duncan.
Great fun and a likely points-winner for me at the end of the year. Brilliantnstuuf thanks Artix and many thanks for another comprehensive blog Duncan