When you see Serpent’s name as a setter, it’s likely that you are going to get an interesting and challenging puzzle. Serpent certainly lived up to expectations with this week’s Inquisitor.
The preamble was quite complex and read "Clues are presented in the usual order. The completed grid has 180-degree rotational symmetry but bars must not be entered. Every clue contains an extra letter that must be removed before solving; these letters, in clue order, describe the object the solution grid represents. Solvers must add 22 bars and, using the maximum number of colours available, highlight the minimum number of cells. There are two potential solutions; solvers must deduce which is required".
So we have a carte blanche grid, no distinction between across and down clues, extra letters which could be anywhere in the clue and an endgame involving bars together with options regarding colours and the number of cells to be highlighted. A doddle therefore!
I like carte blanche grids but I also like bars and numbers in my grid so I constructed a normal underlying grid as I solved the clues. I knew I would have to remove the numbers and the original bars before I completed the endgame.
I try and get an idea of the likely number of entries in each row in a carte blanche by looking at the enumerations. It was also possible to locate the split between the acrosses and downs by recognising that the enumeration pattern of across entries is palindromic in a 180-degree rotationally symmetric grid. This told me that the first down clue began ‘Enjoy getting involved with ….’
I made steady progress with the clues and the grid once I got a fit between some acrosses and down in the North West corner. REPLAY fitted well with PHOEBE, LEAD and AMBULANCE. The left hand column looked likely to involve RELISH as the outer letters so I had enough to start constructing the grid.
The message from the clues was a bit intractable for a while with only ‘DISPLAYING‘ looking like a word. Eventually I had enough letters to suggest CHRETIEN at the beginning of the message and that gave me the link to the theme. The only CHRETIEN I was aware of until now was Jean CHRETIEN, Canadian Prime Minister from 1993 to 2003. However as CLOCK was also a possible word in the message, googling CHRETIEN and CLOCK revealed Phillipe CHRETIEN and his wonderful FIBONACCI CLOCK. This discovery also helped detect some of the extra letters that I hadn’t already deduced and made sense of the numbers appearing at the end of the message.
Soon after I had a completed grid as shown below
and a message CHRETIEN FIBONACCI CLOCK DISPLAYING SIX TEN
There is plenty of material about the CLOCK on the web including detailed instructions on how to build one, so I will restrict this blog to the design of the face of the CLOCK and the theory underpinning the way to tell time on the CLOCK.
The design of the clock can be created in the grid by creating 22 bars only (as required by the preamble) within the outer frame to create 5 boxes which are assigned values 1, 1, 2, 3 and 5 as shown immediately below.
Three colours, RED, GREEN and BLUE are involved in calculating the time. (I know that I am using cyan rather than blue, but that’s the only shade I have in the software I used to create the clock graphics below) You could include WHITE as a fourth colour indicating 0 if you wish. The hour value is calculated by adding RED and BLUE (if the BLUE is needed) and the minute (to the nearest 5 minutes value) is calculated by multiply the sum of GREEN and BLUE (if needed) by 5
The message instructs us to display 6:10. The graphic below shows that I think there are six different ways of displaying 6:10. The top two require the highlighting of 108 cells in the grid using all of red, green, blue and white. The middle two require the highlighting of 120 cells but neither use all the available colours. Finally the bottom two highlight only 60 cells and use all the available colours.
To meet the conditions spelled out in the preamble, the top four clock faces fail on numbers of cells highlighted or failure to use all the colours or both.
That leaves us with a choice of the lower two. The grid spells out the word BLUE in the lower of the two cells valued at 1, so it is the bottom right option that I have selected.
The animated grid below shows the clock framework being applied to the grid (this clearly shows the letters BLUE in the lower 1 square), followed by colours superimposed on the grid, and finally the clock without any letters. It is the middle grid in the animation that would form a submitted solution if there were any prizes to be won.
In a puzzle with a detailed endgame it is very easy to overlook the clues, but I thought this was a puzzle with many clever clues using a wide variety of wordplay constructions. The extra letters were well hidden and I think real words always remained after the letters were removed. The resulting surfaces didn’t always make sense, but I think it would be remarkable if they did. Just leaving real words gets a ‘Bravo!’ from me.
The title ‘A Face to be reckoned with‘ clearly relates to a CLOCK face.
I really enjoyed this puzzle and the opportunity to learn about the FIBONACCI CLOCK, so thanks to Serpent.
| No |
Clue Amended Clue |
Letter |
| Across | ||
| 1 |
Review of action and response involving care (6) Review of action and response involving are (6) REPLAY (rerun a recording of some action and ask pundits to comment or review) REPLY (response) containing (involving) A (are, a metric unit of measurement) REPL (A) Y |
C |
| 7 |
Where many set limits on putting America first (8) Were many set limits on putting America first (8) ABOUNDED (existed in great numbers; were many) A (America) + BOUNDED (applied limits) A BOUNDED |
H |
| 13 |
Bananas help me rear mayfly? (9) Bananas help me rea mayfly? (9) EPHEMERAL (short-lived; a mayfly is a short-lived plectopterous insect that appears in May) Anagram of (bananas) HELP ME REA EPHEMERAL* |
R |
| 14 |
I don’t know of one French note (5) I don’t know of one French not (5) DUNNO (informal term meaning I don’t know) D’UN (‘of one’ in French) + NO (not) DUN NO |
E |
| 15 |
On message after carbon is taxed by party (6) On message after carbon is axed by party (6) DOABLE (can be done; on) DO (party) + CABLE (message) excluding (after … is axed) C (chemical symbol for carbon) DO ABLE |
T |
| 17 |
Waiver constrains weak speaker (7) Waver constrains weak speaker (7) TWEETER (a loudspeaker used in high-fidelity sound reproduction for the higher frequencies) TEETER (waver) containing (constrains) W T (W) EETER |
I |
| 18 |
American died in preposterous decision to cut 50% (4) American did in preposterous decision to cut 50% (4) ICED (American term for ‘killed’ or ‘did in’) Anagram of (preposterous) DECISION excluding the second 4 of 8 letters (cut 50%) SION ICED* |
E |
| 19 |
Withdrawing almost all rations, in this respect, creates paperwork (10) Withdrawing almost all ratios, in this respect, creates paperwork (10) ADMIRATION (respect) If you take RATIO (almost all the letters of RATIOS) out of ADMIRATION you are left with ADMIN (paperwork) ADMIRATION |
N |
| 20 |
Stars’ unfocused appearance upset Blue fan (6) Stars’ unfocused appearance upset Blue an (6) NEBULA (faint, misty appearance in the heavens produced either by a group of stars too distant to be seen singly; unfocused stars) Anagram of (upset) BLUE AN NEBULA* |
F |
| 21 |
Star announced ruin without performing work (4) Star announced run without performing work (4) IDLE (of machinery, to run without doing work) IDLE (sounds like [announced] IDOL [object of fan’s hero-worship; celebrity; star] IDLE |
I |
| 26 |
Fellow about to catch beast on the loose (4) Fellow about to catch east on the loose (4) FREE (on the loose) F (fellow) + RE (with reference to, about) + E (East) F RE E |
B |
| 27 |
Item of clothing’s soon put back desire (6) Item of clothing’s son put back desire (6) THIRST (desire) T-SHIRT (item of clothing) with S (son) moved towards the end (back) to form THIRST THIRST |
O |
| 28 |
Incompetent study in parts is clearly true (10) Incompetent study I parts is clearly true (10) UNDENIABLE (clearly true) (DEN [study] + I) contained in (parts) UNABLE (incompetent) UN (DEN I) ABLE |
N |
| 29 |
Rota requires anchorman to swap sides (4) Rot requires anchorman to swap sides (4) TOSH (rubbish; rot) HOST (anchorman in broadcasting terminology) with the outer letters (sides) H and T swapping to form TOSH T OS H |
A |
| 30 |
College faculty nearly admits theft (7) College faulty nearly admits theft (7) LARCENY (theft) Anagram of (faulty) NEARLY containing (admits) C (college) LAR (C) ENY* |
C |
| 31 |
Railway guards once aboard are no longer something unusual (6) Railway guards one aboard are no longer something unusual (6) RARITY (something unusual) RY (railway) containing (guards) (I [Roman numeral for one] contained in [aboard] ART [old form of ARE]) R (AR (I) T) Y |
C |
| 32 |
Airs broadcast by telco providing coverage in India (5) Ars broadcast by telco providing coverage in India (5) SAREE (Hindu woman’s chief garment. Coverage in India) Anagram of (broadcast) ARS + EE (one of Britain’s biggest telecommunications companies [telco], currently owned by BT, an even bigger telco) SAR* EE |
I |
| 33 |
Musical notes cover repeating (9) Musical notes over repeating (9) ITERATIVE (repeating) (EVITA [name of a musical] + RE [one of the notes of the tonic solfa] + TI [another note of the tonic solfa]) all reversed (over) (IT ER ATIVE)< |
C |
| 34 |
Wet holiday’s limitations start to depress child (8) Wet holiday’s limitations start to depress chid (8) HYDRATED (containing water; wet) HY (outer letters of [limitations] HOLIDAY) + D (first letter of [start to] DEPRESS) + RATED (scolded; chided; chid) HY D RATED |
L |
| 35 |
At a point having exceptional coast off Turkey’s borders (6) At a point having exceptional cast off Turkey’s borders (6) APICAL (of or at the apex; at a point) ATYPICAL (being an exception; exceptional) excluding (cast off) TY (outer letters of [borders]) TURKEY APICAL |
O |
| Down | ||
| 1 |
Enjoy getting involved with queen insect’s release (10) Enjoy getting involved with queen inset’s release (10) RELINQUISH (let go; release) (IN [involved with] + QU [queen]) contained in (inset) RELISH (enjoy) REL (IN QU) ISH
|
C |
| 2 |
Satellite knew to leave call live (6) Satellite new to leave call live (6) PHOEBE (irregular satellite of Saturn) PHONE (call) excluding (to leave) N + BE (exist; live) PHOE BE |
K |
| 3 |
Element of devolved deal (4) Element of evolved deal (4) LEAD (an element) Anagram of (evolved) DEAL LEAD* |
D |
| 4 |
Damaged main cable locking up University Hospital’s vehicle (9) Damaged man cable locking up University Hospital’s vehicle (9) AMBULANCE (hospital vehicle) Anagram of (damaged) MAN CABLE containing (locking up) U (university) AMB (U) LANCE* |
I |
| 5 |
Pressure on Times about king published plan in advance (10) Pressure on Time about king published plan in advance (10) PREARRANGE (plan in advance) P (pressure) + RE (with reference to; on) + (AGE [time] containing [about] [R {Rex; king} + RAN {published a newspaper article for instance}]) P RE A (R RAN) GE |
S |
| 6 |
Spinner bowled tail-enders in extra period to end innings (6) Sinner bowled tail-enders in extra period to end innings (6) BADDIE (villain; sinner) B (bowled) + AD (last letters of [tail-enders] each of EXTRA and PERIOD) + DIE (to end) B AD DIE |
P |
| 8 |
Confused writer with reference to boring clot (10) Confused writer with reference to boring cot (10) BEWILDERED (confused) (WILDE [reference Oscar WILDE [1854 – 1900], Irish poet and playwright] + RE [with reference to]) contained in (boring) BED (cot) BE (WILDE RE) D |
L |
| 9 |
Asides to audience confused with production of Potter’s work for theatre (8) Sides to audience confused with production of Potter’s work for theatre (8) OPERETTA (work for musical theatre) Anagram of (.. confused with production of…) AE (first and last letters of [sides to] AUDIENCE) and POTTER – there are probably two anagram indicators here with ‘production’ underlining the need to jumble the letters of POTTER OPERETTA* |
A |
| 10 |
Crazy yen ends in therapy (5) Crazy en ends in therapy (5) NUTTY (crazy) NUT is another name for an EN space in printing terminology) + TY (first and last letters of [ends in] THERAPY NUT TY |
Y |
| 11 |
Sign up within seconds of network ending broadcast for pilot (5) Sign up within seconds of network ending broadcast for plot (5) ENROL (sign up) ENROL (the second letter of [seconds] of each NETWORK, ENDING, BROADCAST, FOR and PLOT) E N R O L |
I |
| 12 |
New hotel and ground is tacky (10) New hotel ad ground is tacky (10) DOWN-AT-HEEL (shoddy; tacky) Anagram of (ground) NEW HOTEL AD DOWN-AT-HEEL* |
N |
| 14 |
Tread path winding round hazardous ridge (9) Tread path winding round hazardous ride (9) DEATHTRAP (unsafe vehicle; hazardous vehicle) Anagram of (winding round) TREAD PATH DEATHTRAP* |
G |
| 16 |
Most Greens could be extremely touchy according to Spooner (8) Most Green could be extremely touchy according to Spooner (8) LEAFIEST (most green) Reverend Spooner would pronounce LEAFIEST as FEELIEST (extremely touchy) LEAFIEST |
S |
| 22 |
Censor allowed profound short stories (6) Censor allowed profound short stores (6) DELETE (censor) DEEP (profound) excluding the final letter (short) containing (stores) LET (allowed) DE (LET) E |
I |
| 23 |
Sensual contents of sext from jerk (6) Sensual contents of set from jerk (6) EROTIC (sensual) E (central letter of [contents of] SET) + RO (central letters of [contents of] FROM) + TIC (jerk) E RO TIC |
X |
| 24 |
Material embedded within plant (5) Material embedded within plan (5) INLAY (something embedded into another item) IN (within) + LAY (plan, e.g. LAY or plan an ambush) IN LAY |
T |
| 25 |
Soothsayer clutching runes gets more wizened (5) Soothsayer clutching runs gets more wizened (5) SERER (more dry or wizened) SEER (soothsayer) containing (clutching) R (runs) SE (R) ER |
E |
| 29 |
I’m surprised this shrub’s planted in Tahiti (4) I’m surprised this shrub’s plated in Tahiti (4) TITI (shrub or small tree, native to the southern USA) TAHITI can be written cryptically as AH! (I’m surprised) contained in (plated in) TITI TITI |
N |
I failed at the close with my colouring – didn’t spot the “blue” in the one square, and so guessed, but never mind. Still lots of fun, as is the clock. Anybody else tempted to get one now?
An original and well-executed design, complemented by some excellent clues. I was familiar with both the Fibonacci sequence and that particular diagrammatic representation using reducing squares in a rectangle. After looking up Chretien’s Fibonacci Clock, I was able to divide up this rectangle with 22 bars exactly as required. However, I was too hasty in coming up with two ‘minimal’ solutions for 6.10 using two colours (red and blue) – which was not asked for! When I read the instructions properly I duly came up with the two ‘potential’ combinations using all three colours and had to admire the way that the ‘required’ solution was determined using the letters of BLUE.
Thanks to Serpent, and to Duncan for the excellent blog, with diagrams.
I am a huge admirer of Serpent’s puzzles and I have to comment here on the high quality of the clueing. I filled the grid and rumbled the theme but unfortunately whenever mention of Fibonacci or anything maths-related appears my little brain turns to mush and I tend to disengage. This is entirely my bad, as I can appreciate the ingenuity and skill.
Oh crikey, Serpent the former Mathematic s professor (if I recall correctly), this one might be a toughie! In the end I sailed through – all present and correct here. A tough challenge, some wonderfully clued answers, a beautifully constructed grid and endgame, but (to my mind at least) an utterly pointless clock which I rank alongside the equally ridiculous ‘Electronic abacus’ (another of Douglas Adams’ remarkable creations).
Like Bingy@3, I greatly enjoyed the clueing and found it all very fair. I was also grateful to have the clock drawn to my attention, and grateful not to be obliged to tackle the final hurdle. Thanks to Serpent and Duncan.
Gosh, that’s clever. All thanks to Serpent and duncanshiell — though, alas, I was short of time and never cold-solved enough clues to make a serious start on filling the grid.
As Duncan has said already, you know you are in for a satisfying solve with a Serpent puzzle (or his ‘alter-ego’ Jack in the recent Guardian Genius which we blogged).
Again, others have already commented on the clueing and construction.
You often find out something new when solving the IQ and we did enjoy reading about the clock. Thankfully we found BLUE and if we had bothered to find the crayons, we would have coloured it in correctly.
Thanks to Serpent and Duncan.
A very enjoyable, if at times arduous, journey, and a marvellous arrival. Most satisfying. Thank you to both Serpent and Duncan.
(BTW: Given that there are four ways to get 6, i.e. 5+1a, 5+1b, 3+2+1a, 3+2+1b, and two ways to get 2, i.e. 2, 1a+1b, there must be eight ways of displaying the time 6:10. Missing from the blog are [3+2+1a] & [2] and [3+2+1b] & [2] – but they are discounted since they require only red &blue, and so Duncan’s final grid is correct.)
I’m in exactly the same place as David Langford with this week’s effort — only able to appreciate the skill and beauty behind Serpent’s amazing creation from a distance, as I didn’t have enough time to cold-solve enough clues to start the grid. My loss!
But what a puzzle. Phenominal design. The bar for IQ of the year has been set at an incredibly high level already!
Oops, “phenomenal”, apologies.
Wouldn’t want to make a spelling mistake here, of all places!!