Fresh from his triumph as most popular Inquisitor setter in 2022, Artix gives us a new puzzle.
The preamble was quite complicated, as follows:
Solvers must erase the contents of 14 cells from the completed grid to reveal 14 thematic items located within seven Across and seven Down entries. The items span the empty cells, all are of the same length and all have equal-length component parts. No others of the same length currently exist. To distinguish
what they are, the 102 remaining (non-thematic) cells must be suitably adjusted. Neither the (standard) plural form at 25ac nor the variant spelling at 21dn (in OED) are given in Chambers.
So the clues were normal – no extra or missing letters in the wordplay, no misprints, no extra words, no need to take the nth letter of words to spell out a message.
I reckoned the best thing to do was fill the grid and then try and interpret the preamble.
There were plenty of excellent tricky clues including two where the definition wasn’t at the beginning or end of the clue. The definitions for PATROLMEN and GIO were the two I identified as being of that form.
I think I have the parsing of DRUPE (8 across) correct but I don’t follow the arithmetic in relation to the lesser units of currency forming a RUPEE.
There were a lot of entries that were new words to me, but the wordplay was clear with just the odd definition of component parts seeming to stray from how I would interpret the dictionary, e.g. HOSE (underwear) and BUOY (keep one afloat) but I’m probably being pedantic.
Homophones are fun, and often controversial. I was happy with OPHAGY representing OF HAJI.
The grid was another non-symmetric one but symmetry wasn’t key to solving this puzzle.
The initial filled grid looked like this
The next step was to interpret the preamble. There are 169 cells in the grid; there are going to be 14 empty cells and 102 no-thematic cells, so that leaves 53 thematic cells. Given that we had to find 14 thematic items of equal length, it was likely that each item would be 4 letters with 3 cells contributing to more than one item. This implied that the thematic items would be in entries of 5 letters or more.
After a bit, actually quite a lot, of grid staring I eventually noticed that DOHA and APIA, both Capital cities, could be created by taking a letter out of each of ENDOPHAGY and ZAPTIAH. Geography is one of my stronger subjects, so I started looking for other four letter capitals and came up with BAKU and DILI. Given that the title was CAPsized, I reckoned I was on to something.
A bit of research showed that there are only 14 four letter capital cities for sovereign states. They are located in the grid as follows.
| Clue | Entry | Capital city | Country |
| 1a | ZAPTIAH | APIA | Samoa |
| 13a | TALISMAN | LIMA | Peru |
| 14a | JUMBAL | JUBA | South Sudan |
| 29a | SKYDIVER | KYIV | Ukraine |
| 26a | LOGMEN | LOME | Togo |
| 38a | ENDOPHAGY | DOHA | Qatar |
| 44a | NOSOLOGY | OSLO | Norway |
| 4d | TO BE OR NOT TO BE | BERN | Switzerland |
| 6d | HABAKKUK | BAKU | Azerbaijan |
| 8d | DISLINK | DILI | East Timor |
| 10d | PATROLMEN | ROME | Italy |
| 18d | TOMALLEYS | MALE | Maldives |
| 20d | SUIVANTE | SUVA | Fiji |
| 21d | ESPRINGAL | RIGA | Latvia |
Three [airs of capitals intersect JUBA / BERN, LIMA / DILI and KYIV / SUVA which means the B, I and V are doing double duty reducing the 14 * 4 = 56 to 53.
The grid at this stage looked like this (capitals highlighted in colour simply to make them stand out)
Finally we had to suitably adjust the remaining 102 cells. Often puzzles like the Inquisitor require us to delete great swathes of cells to make a solution stand out. I couldn’t see how clearing the cells would be appropriate so though a bit longer and finally realised that Capitals can also apply to letters. Solutions of crosswords are traditionally shown in capital letters. I have therefore adjusted the 102 no-thematic cells to lower case letters as shown below.
The title CAPSIZED, as mentioned above covers both the 4 letter size of country capitals and uppercase letters in the grid.
All good fun – thanks to Artix.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 |
Dart hit a corrupt cop in Ankara (7) ZAPTIAH (Turkish [Ankara is the capital of Turkey] policeman) ZAP (go speedily; dart) + an anagram of (corrupt) HIT A ZAP TIAH* |
| 8 |
Fruit in the end filled almost a dozen pies (5) DRUPE (fleshy fruit with a stone) D (last letter of [in the end] FILLED) + RUPEE excluding the final letter (almost) E – I don’t follow the arithmetic here as a PIE is a former unit of currency in India, worth 1/12 of an anna. That means a dozen pies are worth the same as an anna. Moving up the chain, an anna is said to be 1/16 of a rupee, so a dozen pies must be only 1/16 of a RUPEE not a RUPEE itself. Perhaps I’m parsing RUPE wrongly. D RUPE |
| 12 |
Where song’s being performed? (5) ODEON (in ancient Greece and Rome, a theatre for musical contests, etc; a concert hall; somewhere where a song will be performed) ODE (poem intended to be sung; song) + ON (being performed) ODE ON |
| 13 |
Charm Latvian chess champ with one’s bishop? (8) TALISMAN (amulet or charm) TAL (reference Mikhail TAL, Latvian chess player who was world champion in 1960 / 61) + I’S (one’s) + MAN (one of the men on a chess board is a bishop) TAL IS MAN |
| 14 |
Cake mix by the sound of it (6) JUMBAL (thin, crisp, sweet cake) JUMBAL (sounds like [by the sound of it] JUMBLE [mix]) JUMBAL |
| 15 |
Smile: that will do for a cleaner (5) BESOM (bunch of twigs for sweeping or a broom made of twigs tied to a handle; cleaner) BEAM (smile) with SO (that will do) replacing (for) A to form BESOM BE SO M |
| 16 |
Surprise when Britain invades American province (7) ALBERTA (province of Canada) (B [British] contained in [invades] [ALERT {sudden attack or surprise}]) + A (American) AL (B) ERT A |
| 17 |
Dim writer of nonsense in Times (6) BLEARY (dim) LEAR (reference Edward LEAR [1812 – 1888], English poet renowned for his nonsense rhymes) contained in (in) BY (multiplied [by]; times) B (LEAR) Y |
| 19 |
Silly mistake before old commander’s order to his ADC? (8, 3 words) MAKE IT SO (catch phrase of Captain Picard [commander] in Star Trek when confirming an order suggested by a subordinate officer such as an aide-de-camp [ADC]) Anagram of (silly) MISTAKE + O (old) MAKE IT S* O |
| 22 |
Seal’s lawyer starts late (5) OTARY (any of the eared seals) NOTARY (a lawyer with authority to certify legal documents) excluding the first letter (starts late) N OTARY |
| 24 |
Youngsters going about mostly drunk (too many pints?) (8) SKINFULS (as much alcoholic drink as one can hold, and probably beyond; too many pints) SKINS (skinheads [young people with closely cropped hair]) containing (about) FULL (drunk) excluding the final letter (mostly) L SKIN (FUL) S |
| 25 |
Flat towers flash by across current water (8) MOINEAUX (small flat bastions or towers to protect a fortification while being erected) (MO [moment; very short period; flash] + X [times; by]) containing (IN [fashionable; current] + EAU [water]) MO (IN EAU) X |
| 26 |
Ineffectual person’s computer interface (4) WIMP (ineffectual person) WIMP (windows, icons, mouse (or menus) and pointer (or printer or pull-down menus); an acronym for computer tools or interfaces) double definition WIMP |
| 27 |
Stars start to laud biofuel (5) ARGOL (dried dung used as fuel, which is probably classified as a biofuel) ARGO (large southern constellation; stars) + L (first letter of [start to] LAUD) ARGO L |
| 29 |
Babydoll at heart, wearing sheepskin jumper (8) SKYDIVER (one who jumps out of a plane using a special steerable parachute, and delaying opening it for a specified time) YD (central letters of [at heart] BABYDOLL) contained in (wearing) SKIVER (sheepskin leather) SK (YD) IVER |
| 31 |
Past guides narrow-minded suspect on trial (9) PORTOLANI (in the Middle Ages [past], navigation manuals [guides] giving sailing directions and illustrated with charts showing ports, coastal features, etc) PO (PO-faced [stupidly solemn and narrow-minded]) + an anagram of (suspect) ON TRIAL PO RTOLANI* |
| 34 |
On farm, ditch fold, losing last of sheep (4) LEAT (trench for bringing water to a millwheel, etc; ditch on a farm) PLEAT (fold) excluding (losing) P (final letter of [last of] SHEEP) LEAT |
| 36 |
Choppers agents used after exposing plot (6) LOGMEN (people who cut logs; choppers) LO (letters remaining after excluding the outer letters of [exposing] PLOT) + G-MEN (agents of the FBI [{United States} Federal Bureau of Investigation]) LO GMEN |
| 38 |
Having fellows for lunch is death for pilgrim, as some might say? (9) ENDOPHAGY (cannibalism within the family or tribe; having fellows for lunch) END (death) + OPHAGY (sounds like [some might say] OF HAJI [relating to [for] a pilgrim to Mecca]) END OPHAGY |
| 41 |
Identify hostage after removing his underwear? (3) TAG (identity label) HOSTAGE excluding (after removing) the outer letters HOSE (close fitting breeches or drawers; underwear?) TAG |
| 42 |
After setback, note to keep one afloat? Sure (6, 2 words) YOU BET (certainly; sure!) (TE [one of the notes of the tonic sol-fa] + BUOY [floating secured marker; device to keep one afloat?]) all reversed (after setback) (YOU B ET)< |
| 43 |
Flies off departing without last couple (7) DIPTERA (genus of two-winged insects or flies) Anagram of (off) DEPARTING excluding (without) the final two [last couple] letters NG DIPTERA* |
| 44 |
Number One’s gray? This may tell you what’s wrong (8) NOSOLOGY (science of diseases which will help to identify what’s wrong) NO (number) + SOLO (one) + GY (gray) NO SOLO GY |
| Down | |
| 2 |
Bigging up a boring politician after change of heart (9) ADULATORY (showing excessive respect and praise; bigging-up) (A + DULL [boring] + TORY [conservative politician]) with the central letter of the whole phrase (the second L) being changed to A (change of heart) A DULA TORY |
| 3 |
African island invests money into protected mammal (5) PEMBA (African island forming part of the Zanzibar archipelago) M (money) contained in (invests … into) PEBA (South American armadillo; mammal) PE (M) BA |
| 4 |
Gambler’s dilemma, twice taking time out, is life-and-death question (13, 6 words) TO BE OR NOT TO BE (example of a life-or-death question) TO BET OR NOT TO BET (dilemma for a gambler) excluding (taking … out) two Ts (time) at the end of each occurrence of BET TO BE OR NOT TO BE |
| 5 |
At office jollies, grabbing Australian to embrace (5) INARM (embrace) (IN [at the office] + RM [Royal Marines; jolly is an informal term for a Royal Marine]) containing (grabbing) A (Australian) IN (A) RM |
| 6 |
With hard camel cloth, Three Kings swaddle accepted prophet (8) HABAKKUK (one of the minor Prophets having a book in the Old testament of the Bible) H (hard, when describing pencil lead) + ABA (Syrian cloth of goat’s or camel’s hair) + ([KK + K {3 kings}] containing [swaddle] U [{socially} accepted]) H ABA KK (U) K |
| 7 |
Bleep out fresher Seabee, say (5) PLEBE (first-year cadet at a naval or military academy ;fresher Seabee [member of a US Navy construction battalion]) Anagram of (out) BLEEP PLEBE* |
| 8 |
Separate colour extending discontinued line (7) DISLINK (separate) DIS (discontinued) + L (line) + INK (to colour with INK) DIS L INK |
| 9 |
Fitzwilliam Museum mounted displays: “We’re All Muslims” (4) UMMA (the body of Muslim believers considered as one community; we’re all Muslims) UMMA (reversed [mounted; down entry] hidden word [displays] in FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM) UMMA< |
| 10 |
Palmerston orders these cops with modicum of success (9) PATROLMEN (policeman; cops) PALMERSTON is an anagram of (orders) of PATROLMEN (these cops) and (with) S (first letter of; modicum of) SUCCESS PATROLMEN* |
| 11 |
Cain’s murder motive’s left nothing out in the end (4) ENVY (Cain’s motive for murdering his brother Abel) ENVOY (concluding part of a poem or a book; in the end) excluding (left … out) O (character representing zero or nothing) ENVY |
| 18 |
Archetypal Irishman in street served up seafood delicacies (9) TOMALLEYS (American lobster fat , eaten as a delicacy) O’MALLEY (archetypal Irish surname) contained in (in) ST (street) reversed (served up; down entry) T (OMALLEY) S< |
|
Train is split by front tender (8) SUIVANTE (lady’s maid; possibly a carer or tender) SUITE (train of followers or attendants) containing (is split by) VAN (VANguard; the front or lead unit or person) SUI (VAN) TE |
|
| 21 |
Artillery machine blitzed Persian Gulf occasionally (9) ESPRINGAL (medieval torsion artillery device for throwing bolts; artillery device) Anagram of (blitzed) PERSIAN and GL (letters 1 and 3 [occasionally] of GULF) ESPRINGAL* |
| 23 |
Squeals from prog rockers covering album (5) YELPS (squeals) YES (Prog Rock group, formed initially in 1978. which went through various re-incarnations over many years) containing (covering) LP (long-playing record; album( YE (LP) S |
| 28 |
Dictionary def for “Alumnus from Yale”? (6) GRADUS (dictionary of Greek or Latin prosody) GRAD (graduate; alumnus of a seat of education) + US (indicating that the graduate in this case could be from YALE university) GRAD US |
| 30 |
Cook on motor yacht with bald head, perhaps (4) DOMY (descriptive of a bald head) DO (cook) + MY (motor yacht) DO MY |
| 32 |
Broadcast explorer’s travel paths (5) ROADS (paths for travel) ROADS (sounds like [broadcast] the explorer Cecil RHODES [1953 – 1902]. I think he was more a businessman and politician than an explorer) ROADS |
| 33 |
Slow pulse, not unwell, almost ordinary (5) LENTO (musical direction meaning ‘slow’) LENTIL (pulse) excluding IL (ILL [unwell] excluding the final letter [almost]) L + O (ordinary) LENT O |
| 35 |
2-1 up, but missing headers a moment ago at Ibrox (4) ENOW (Scottish term for ‘a moment ago’; Ibrox is a district of Glasgow as well as being the football stadium for Glasgow Rangers) (TWO–ONE excluding [missing] the first letters of each number [headers] T and O) reversed [up; down entry]) (EN OW)< |
| 37 |
King hugged by one of 32 on guard (4) WARY (on guard) R (Rex; king) contained in (hugged by) WAY (a ROAD [singular {one of} the entry at 32 down]) WA (R) Y |
| 39 |
Cage from Rollerball? (3) PEN (cage) PEN (a Rollerball is a type of pen for writing) double definition PEN |
| 40 |
Would two such northern coves dress right for Armani? (3) GIO (gully or creek in Orkney or Shetland; northern cove) Armani (born 1934 [father] or 1975 [son]) both with forename GIORGIO formed from two GIOs containing (dress) R (right) as GIO (R) GIO GIO |
I enjoyed the crossword very much, with its skilfully-written clues, including some tough ones like ESPRINGAL, MOINEAUX and ZAPTIAH. TO BE OR NOT TO BE was my first in, but it took me several minutes to get it. GIO was a great clue.
The endgame was great fun too. The theme was tricky to discover at first, but after analysing the information given in the preamble I concluded (as you did, Duncan) that the 14 items to be revealed would have to be of four letters each: two plus two with one intervening cell. My search for such ‘split words’ through all entries of five letters or more found ROME and BAKU first, which were enough to indicate what these names probably were, followed by all the rest. Obviously their central cells all had to be erased.
The final instruction was sufficiently vague (in two places) to be open to interpretation. My preferred idea was that the 102 non-thematic cells could be ‘suitably adjusted’ by emptying them all and shading them. When I tried this, it certainly had the desired effect on the 14 thematic items: I could easily ‘distinguish what they are’ (names of capital cities split in half) – so well, in fact, that they were the only objects I could see! I liked Duncan’s solution too, using lower case letters (although in the diagram above the capitals stand out mostly because of the helpful colouring!), whereas the instruction said we should ‘adjust’ only the 102 non-thematic cells to achieve this objective – as both of our solutions have done.
Thanks to Artix for an ingenious puzzle, with an endgame that left a bit to the solver’s imagination, and to Duncan for the excellent blog.
FWIW I shifted the non-thematic cells to lower-case too, though must admit to being a little unsure what was required. The grid fill I enjoyed, and didn’t find to be too taxing for an Inquisitor, but will admit to getting a little frustrated then at spending several days with no idea what was required with the endgame before finally twigging. Perhaps just because I spent so much time, I was expecting something more, but I felt vaguely let down. That’s probably not Artix’s fault though, but my own inability to spot the obvious.
A fine puzzle, marred only by what I agree is a math error in 8a, and by the fact that the “4-letter capital city” theme appeared elsewhere quite recently (although I don’t remember exactly where).
Re my #3, it was Listener No 4742.
An arduous, though fair, grid-fill for me, not helped by the fact that one of my first entries was the obvious ‘imageing’ for 44a. The profusion of obscure answers led me to wonder if the hidden words might actually be unknown to me (true, in many cases!), and so I pulled up. I must admit, it never occurred to me to do the maths. Many thanks to Duncan for a valuably thorough blog, and to Artix, who won.
Much enjoyed — all thanks to Artix and duncanshiell. Getting started on the endgame took what seems in retrospect an embarrassingly long time, but gave a very satisfying finish. I decided the non-capital letters had to be lower-case, but lazily left that as a thought experiment since the grid wasn’t going to be sent in anyway.
I too wondered about the arithmetic of 8A.
I’m happy to give way to the ‘lower case’ crowd! If the instruction in the preamble is seen as a cryptic hint of sorts, the nicest way of justifying it, and giving it the credit the setter deserves, is to use ‘lower case’ as distinct from ‘capitals’, as explained above. (I shall keep my unique grid diagram, though, with the 102 blank shaded cells in it!)
Frustration from this corner of Greater Manchester this week. I got the grid 90% filled (just the top-left corner had a few unsolved clues — not helped by the fact I had AMMU for 9d, not UMMA)… but I simply couldn’t get started on the endgame. The “equal length component parts” didn’t suggest to me the two squares either side of a blank square, no matter how long I looked, though of course with the glories of hindsight, it’s obvious.
A fiendish creation. Hats off to Artix, and thanks to duncanshiell for narrating the journey.
Total gridfill, total blank on the endgame. You see ’em or you don’t.
On re-reading some comments above it occurs to me that one sentence in the preamble might have been the cause of some confusion. The sentence in question is “The items span the empty cells, all are of the same length and all have equal-length component parts.” My point is that the ‘items’ (the names of capital cities) do not have ‘component parts’: they simply span the empty cells symmetrically, and those words could have been used instead.
The sentence could have read “The items span the empty cells symmetrically, and all are of the same length.”
After a bit of accounting it was pretty obvious all the answers were 4 letters. But the ‘equal length component parts’ bit threw me and I was sure I was looking for fourteen 3-1 entries, or fourteen 2-2s, etc. Finished the grid but surrendered without a fight on the theme, I’m afraid.
I think Artix may be forgiven for apparently confusing rupees with annas.
Wonderful puzzle; I too did the maths to get to 14x 2-2 entries but I too stared at the grid for a long time before twigging, but once I found the first couple of capitals it was easy and really fun to spot the rest (though not helped by thinking that PARO is the capital of Bhutan…)
As a minor niggle, I was a bit confused with the references to Chambers in the preamble; I had 21a as MOINEAUS (which is in Chambers, though indeed MOINEAUX isn’t, but why go for that?) but I never found 6d HABAKKUK in the Chambers App even though this wasn’t referenced as an issue – perhaps it’s in the printed version.
And I can’t believe I bothered to actually change the 102 letters to lower case, though the finished puzzle does look beautiful on the mantelpiece 🙂
Much enjoyed, thanks all.
Another DNF recorded here this week, I got so lost in trying (and failing) to decipher both 24A & 8D that I had no time left for the endgame, which in any case I hadn’t twigged at all. I also parsed 8A using the word RUPEE and was not at all happy with the currency error: a basic schoolboy error in our beloved Inquisitor – it’s just not cricket!
Arnold @13
On MOINEAUX: I think the preamble did what it had to to make good the deficiency in Chambers, which for some reason does not give the (standard) plural ending in X like it does for ‘tableau’ and presumably loads of other words ending in -eau. The wordplay pointed to X, as set out in the blog.
I understand that, but rather than ‘correct’ Chambers, the entry could have simply been clued as MOINEAUS (avoiding the need for a clarification) especially as the X/S is unchecked.
But clearly a very minor niggle in an otherwise greatly enjoyable puzzle!
An enjoyable puzzle, and luckily for me the notion of UPPER- & lower-case arrived very soon after I’d found all the capitals (not to mention Nuuk, but Greenland isn’t a sovereign state).
The Star Trek reference at 19a had me baffled, so thanks to Duncan for filling me in. (Last week’s reference to ET left me in the dark too.)
Niggle 1: I can’t find any reference to a peba (3d) being a protected mammal; indeed it appears to be classified as of ‘least concern’.
Niggle 2: I agree with Duncan that Rhodes (32d) wasn’t an explorer as such.
arnold @13: if you look up ‘Hab.’ in the Chambers app you will see that the entry says ‘(the Book of) Habakkuk’.
HG @17
There is a glorious inconsistency about what proper nouns (names) are included in Chambers. Referring to the print edition (2016), I see that abbreviations for books in the Bible are given (like Gen., Ex., …, Hab., …), whereas their full names might or might not be there: Genesis, Exodus and Numbers are there, but not Leviticus, Deuteronomy or Habakkuk. (I decided not to make complete lists just to prove a point.)
The more relevant point to make is that Chambers generally does not include proper names unless a name has been given to something beyond the original bearer of the name. So it not surprising that Habakkuk is not there, but, as I said, there are inconsistencies.
Minor niggles aside, the Chambers App has been the best £9 I’ve spent in a long time, it literally saves me hours completing the Inquisitor.
I had great (nostalgic) fun with this one. Once I spotted RIGA I saw what was going on and tried to work out the capitals without resort to the internet (I’m usually far too impatient to avoid electronic tools)…although the world seems to have moved on quite a lot from when me and my brothers learned capital cities in the 1970s.
@HG A peba is protected by its armour rather than by CITES.