This puzzle is Methuselah’s first appearance in the Inquisitor series, but I have blogged a few puzzles by this setter in the daily Independent series.
The puzzle in entitled Shipshape and the preamble told us that: "In each of twenty clues, definitions contain a misprint. Corrected letters spell a phrase associated with 16 which explains how solutions which seem not to fit may be uniformly entered successfully. Solvers should appropriately colour something in the final grid. A proper name may be verified online".
The preamble was fairly clear, but obviously something unusual was going on in the grid as many of the clues had answers that were too long for the available cells. I highlighted all the cells for all these clues in a blank grid and saw that they all avoided the corners of the grid, but there was nothing to hint clearly at what was needed to fill the grid properly.
I tried to start off solving clues whose answers were the same length as the available space so that I could get some letters correctly placed. Solving went reasonably well and I also solved a few of the clues that needed some kind of treatment before entry.
The penny drop moment came at the intersection of 37 across, PERIODIC and each of 37 down, PEDAL at 38 down RIFLE when it became clear that some cells would contain two letters. The PE of PERIODIC shared a cell with the PE of PETAL and the RI of PERIODIC shared a cell with the RI of RIFLE. That discovery helped with some of the other answers where I was worried that there would be some ambiguity in filling cells.
A little bit later I also realised that it was rectangle of cells that were being filled with double letters. Finally, I saw what the entry for the thematic 16 across would be, DOCTOR WHO and also deduced how it would intersect with ADD ONS and RICTUS.
The phrase built up from the missing letters became clear halfway through as IT’S BIGGER ON THE INSIDE. This together with DOCTOR WHO likely at 16 across confirmed that we were focusing on the Tardis as indeed it is BIGGER ON THE INSIDE
The resulting shape depicts the Tardis, the space ship used by the Doctor and his / her companions. I have highlighted the cells that are doubled up in the second grid below. I know the blue is the wrong shade for the Tardis, but Tardis blue is very dark and would make the letters below unreadable.
A study of the letters show that they spell out a number of the Doctor’s companions over the 60 years of the life of the series. BBC Television is showing a set of anniversary specials at the moment.
There are two companions in each row, but there are two letters, RA, that I can’t relate to a companion, in the second row from the bottom of the Tardis. The two companions in the third row from the bottom seem to be cuddling each other where the row shows A (CLARA) MY
| Row of Tardis |
Companion | Doctor |
| 1 | Two cells representing the light on the top of the Tardis | |
| 2 | IAN Chesterton | First |
| SUSAN Foreman | First | |
| 3 | DONNA Noble | Tenth |
| YAZ Khan | Thirteenth | |
| 4 | JO Grant | Third |
| ROMANA (there were two different ROMANAs) | Fourth | |
| 5 | AMY Pond | Eleventh |
| CLARA Oswald | Eleventh / Twelfth | |
| 6 | MEL Bush | Sixth / Seventh |
| ACE | Seventh | |
| RA ?? – I can’t relate this to any companion | ||
| 7 | ROSE Tyler | Ninth / Tenth |
| PERI Brown | Sixth |
I have tried looking at the apparently rogue RA in a vertical and diagonal direction but I can’t link it to any companion. Some of these companions also appeared in special one-off episodes. There was a BARBARA, a SARAH and possibly a SARA, but none of them fit.
The clues were very good and parsed without too much difficulty
The grid before highlighting the shape is shown immediately below followed by the highlighting of the Tardis.
The detailed table shows the original and the amended clues where a misprint has occurred. I have also indicated how the treated entries are entered.
The title Shipshape is self-explanatory with the Tardis being a spaceship.
Thanks to Methuselah for the puzzle. Hopefully someone will explain the spare RA and why AMY is hugging CLARA.
Note: kenmac was on holiday when this puzzle was published which is why I have written the blog.
| No | Clue | Words | Letters |
| Across | |||
| 1 |
English amateur foolishly disregards pawn (6) English amateur foolishly disregards pain (6) TRAUMA (injury; pain) Anagram of (foolishly) AMATEUR excluding (disregards) E (English) TRAUMA* |
I | |
| 7 |
Vehicle carrying a ton needs power before drive home (4) Vehicle carrying a tot needs power before drive home (4) PRAM (vehicle that carries a small child [tot]) P (power) + RAM (drive home) P RAM |
T | |
| 10 |
College editor’s boxing trainer originally on the tame side (6) College editor’s boxing trainer originally on the same side (6) UNITED (together; on the same side) (UNI [university; college] + ED [editor]) containing (boxing) T (first letter of [originally] TRAINER) UNI (T) ED |
S | |
| 13 |
Fish lived on mould in drain (6) Fish lived on mould in brain (6) IDEATE (form an idea of; mould in the brain) IDE (fish of the same family as the carp) + ATE (included in one’s diet; lived on) IDE ATE |
B | |
| 15 |
Did trap along certain route loudly take prisoner? (5) Did trip along certain route loudly take prisoner? (5) BUSED (travelled along a defined route; did trip along certain route) BUSED (sounds like [loudly] BUST [arrest; take prisoner]) BUSED |
I | |
| 16 |
See preamble DOCTOR WHO – Entered as DO CT O R W H O |
||
| 17 |
Old Greeks initially attempted to have American bound like Prometheus (8) ACHAIANS (a word used by the ancient poet Homer to refer to Greeks generally; old Greeks) A (first letter of [initially] ATTEMPTED) + (A [American] contained in [bound] CHAINS [Zeus ordered that Prometheus be CHAINed to a rock]) A CHAI (A) NS – Entered as A C H A IA NS |
||
| 18 |
Our side regularly warns crew – it’s payback time (6) USANCE (time allowed for payment of foreign bills of exchange; payback time) US (our side) + ANCE (letters 2, 4, 6 and 8 [regularly] of WARNS CREW) US ANCE – Entered as US AN C E |
||
| 19 |
Wine fanatic hard on naysayers slurping it (10) CHARDONNAY (a white wine) CHARDONNAY (hidden word in [slurping it] FANATIC HARD ON NAYSAYERS) CHARDONNAY – Entered as C H A R DO NN AY |
||
| 21 |
Islands in Amazon forest exposed, more or less (6) BUST AZORES (Portuguese islands in the mid-Atlantic) AZ (letters remaining in AMAZON when the outer letters AM and ON are removed [exposed]) + ORES (letters remaining in FOREST when the outer letters F and T are removed [exposed]) With 4 letters removed, AMAZON is more exposed than FOREST which has only two letters removed AZ ORES – Entered as AZ O R E S |
||
| 22 |
Native American sending islander back with symbol to rival cross (6) NAVAJO (Native American people) JAVAN (inhabitant of the Indonesian island of JAVA) reversed (back) + O (symbol that rivals X in a game of noughts and crosses) NAVAJ< O – Entered as N A V A JO |
||
| 24 |
Revolutionary not opposed to employing restraint in Animal Farm, perhaps? (10, 3 words) ROMAN A CLEF (novel with characters based on real people under disguised names; Animal Farm is an example) FOR (not opposed to) reversed (revolutionary) containing (employing) MANACLE (handcuff; restraint) RO (MAN A CLE) F< – Entered as RO MA NA C L E F |
||
| 26 |
Car and an atlas misplaced somewhere in California (10, 2 words) SANTA CLARA (city in California) Anagram of (misplaced) CAR and AN ATLAS SANTA CLARA* – Entered as S A N T AC LA RA |
||
| 28 |
Stories of crossword setter’s attempt to switch sides (6) MYTHOS (myths; stories) MY (referencing the crossword setter) + SHOT (attempt) with the outer letters (sides) S and T swapped to form THOS MY THOS – Entered as MY T H O S |
||
| 30 |
Blimey … member’s caught in act with backside out (6, 2 words) DEAR ME (interjection expressing surprise, as is Blimey) ARM (member) contained in (caught in) DEED (act) excluding the final letter (backside out) D DE (AR M) E – Entered as D E A R ME |
||
| 32 |
Cartel in a corrupt government making cuts (10) LACERATING (making cuts) Anagram of (corrupt) CARTEL IN A + G (government) LACERATIN* G – Entered as LA CE RA T I N G |
||
| 35 |
Gloomy detective seen around Oxford, primarily (6) MOROSE (gloomy) MORSE (reference Inspector MORSE [detective created by the author and crossword buff, Colin Dexter]) containing (seen around) O (first letter of [primarily] OXFORD) MOR (O) SE – Entered as M O RO SE |
||
| 37 |
He’s placed above gold and silver on this table (8) PERIODIC (reference the PERIODIC table of elements) HE (Helium, Atomic Number 2) is the chemical symbol for an element that appears before [above] both gold (Atomic Number 79) and silver (Atomic Number 47) in the PERIODIC table PERIODIC – Entered as PE RI O D I C |
||
| 40 |
Not rid of PPE dolt following reshuffle (7) Got rid of PPE dolt following reshuffle (7) TOPPLED (overthrew; got rid of) Anagram of (following reshuffle) PPE DOLT TOPPLED* |
G | |
| 42 |
Pontiff or celebrant taking dram? (5) Pontiff or celebrant taking drag? (5) FORCE (drag is a component of the aerodynamic force on a body travelling through a fluid) FORCE (hidden word in [taking] PONTIFF OR CELEBRANT) FORCE |
G | |
| 43 |
Old wingless pupae manipulated imago stuck on web? (6) Old wingless pupae manipulated image stuck on web? (6) UPLOAD (a file or image transferred from a electronic device to a website) Anagram of (manipulated) OLD and UPA (letters remaining in PUPAE when the outer letters P and E are removed [wingless]) UPLOAD* |
E | |
| 44 |
Assemblies removing king’s powers in one way or another (6) Assemblies removing king’s powers in one war or another (6) ALLIES (a group of powers [countries] working together in a war) RALLIES (assemblies) excluding (removing) R (Rex; king) ALLIES |
R | |
| 45 |
They lack facilities for docking, we hear (4) They lock facilities for docking, we hear (4) KEYS (pieces of equipment that lock) KEYS (sounds like [we hear] QUAYS [facilities for ships docking]) KEYS |
O | |
| 46 |
The French stuck by North Sea (briefly), which Moses might separate (6) The French stuck by North Sea (briefly), which noses might separate (6) LENSES (parts of a pair of glasses where the nose separates the LENSES) LES (one of the French forms of ‘the’) containing (stuck by [?]) (N [North] + SEA excluding the final letter [briefly] A) LE (N SE) S |
N | |
| Down | |||
| 1 |
Something like crumpet from upwardly mobile neighbour (4) Something like trumpet from upwardly mobile neighbour (4) TUBA (a straight trumpet) ABUT (border; neighbour) reversed (upwardly mobile; down entry) TUBA< |
T | |
| 2 |
Religious community short of money accepted one of prophet’s better calves (5) Religious community short of money accepted one of prophet’s better halves (5) AISHA (one of the wives [better halves] of the prophet Muhammad) AMISH (US Mennonite sect; religious community) excluding (short of) M (money as in M1, M2 indicators etc) + A (accepted) AISH A |
H | |
| 3 |
Top spy and assistant turned over papers etc (5) MEDIA (communication channels such as the press, television, social websites etc) M (codename for the head of the Secret Intelligence Service in James Bond novels and films) + AIDE (assistant) reversed (turned over; down entry) M EDIA< – Entered as MED IA |
||
| 4 |
Old man and boy each need cycling supplements (6) ADD ONS (additional units; supplements) DAD cycling the letters one position left to form ADD + SON [boy] cycling the letters one position left to form ONS ADD ONS – Entered as A D DO NS |
||
| 5 |
Citrus cocktail makes you grimace (6) RICTUS (unnatural gaping of the mouth, eg in horror.; grimace) Anagram of (cocktail) CITRUS RICTUS* – Entered as R I CT US |
||
| 6 |
Before party, have a hug and cry (3) Before party, have a hue and cry (3) ADO (fuss; hue and cry) A (before) + DO (party) A DO |
E | |
| 7 |
A cricket club gagging over temperature bowled for too long? (7) A cricket club gagging over temperature boiled for too long? (7) PERCOCT (well-cooked; overdone; boiled for too long) PER (for each or a ) + (CC [cricket club] containing [gagging] O [over, in cricket notation]) + T (temperature) PER C (O) C T |
I | |
| 8 |
Bloomers with crusts cut off more baked (5) Bloomers with crusts cut off more naked (5) RAWER (more naked) DRAWERS (knickers; bloomers) excluding the outer letters (with crusts cut off) D and S RAWER |
N | |
| 9 |
Stifling anguished cry, Methuselah ultimately ignores wounds from cat (5) Stifling anguished cry, Methuselah ultimately ignores sounds from cat (5) MEOWS (sounds made by cats) (ME [Methuselah, crossword setter] + S [final letter of {ultimately} IGNORES]) containing (stifling) OW (an anguished cry) ME (OW) S |
S | |
| 11 |
Terribly raunchy nude showing bit of skin which brand might cover up? (5) Terribly raunchy nude showing bit of skin which braid might cover up? (5) NUCHA (nape of the neck [bit of skin]; something that could be covered by a braid [plait of hair]) Anagram of (terribly) RAUNCHY excluding the outer letters (nude) R and Y NUCHA* |
I | |
| 12 |
Shrek’s beginning to twitch one of a pair of protuberances on head (4) Shred’s beginning to twitch one of a pair of protuberances on head (4) TEAR (shred) T (first letter of [beginning to] TWITCH) + EAR (one of the protuberances on either side of the face) T EAR |
D | |
| 14 |
Primo part in Macbeth reevaluated (5) Prime part in Macbeth reevaluated (5) THREE (a prime number) THREE (hidden word in [part of] MACBETH REEVALUATED) THREE |
E | |
| 20 |
Get to work endlessly in training facility (4) DOJO (a place where judo or karate, etc are taught or practised; training facility) DO JOB (get to work) excluding the final letter (endlessly) B DO JO – Entered as DO JO |
||
| 23 |
Fate of amateur soldiers moving priest (7) ATROPOS (the Fate that cuts the thread of life) A (amateur) + TROOPS (soldiers) with P (priest) moved one letter up to form TROPOS A TROPOS |
||
| 24 |
Characters opening robotics outlet list advanced Japanese model (4) ROLA (reference ROLA [born 1990], Japanese fashion model) ROLA (initial letters of [characters opening] each of ROBOTICS, OUTLET, LIST and ADVANCED) R O L A – Entered as RO LA |
||
| 25 |
Animal burrowing around 13 miles? (4) MARA (so-called Patagonian hare; burrowing animal) MARA (half of the letters of MARATHON [a distance of 26.2 miles], so half is around 13 miles) MARA – Entered as MA RA |
||
| 27 |
Source of stories putting out a new scoop now and then (5) AESOP (writer of fables; source of stories) AESOP (letters 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 [now and then] of A NEW SCOOP) A E S O P |
||
| 28 |
Writer’s meeting artist in old town (4) MYRA (ancient Greek town) MY ([the] writer’s) + RA (Royal Academician; artist) MY RA – Entered as MY RA |
||
| 29 |
Put back headquarters flicking switch (5, 2 words) ON ICE (delayed; put back) OFFICE (headquarters) with OFF replaced by ON (flicking switch) ON ICE |
||
| 30 |
Fellow out of Daft Punk occasionally used foreign title (5) DATUK (member of a senior chivalric order in Malaysia; foreign title) DAFT excluding (out of) F (fellow) + UK (letters 2 and 4 [occasionally] of PUNK) DAT UK |
||
| 31 |
Before lunchtime, work to sufficient degree (5) AMPLY (to sufficient degree) AM (in the morning; before lunch) + PLY (work) AM PLY |
||
| 33 |
Minion’s unreasonably close to official (4) TOOL (someone who is used as the mere instrument of another; servile dependent; minion) TOO (unreasonably) + L (final letter of [close to] OFFICIAL) TOO L |
||
| 34 |
Moreau possibly visiting one island such as Elba (5) IDRIS (reference IDRIS Elba [born 1972], English actor) DR (reference the novel, The Island of Doctor Moreau by H G Wells) contained in (visiting) (I Roman numeral for one] + IS [island]) I (DR) IS |
||
| 36 |
Those underground and overground in Wimbledon? (5) SEEDS (source of grass at Wimbledon, planted under the surface – those underground) SEEDS (best tennis players who are specially positioned within the Wimbledon draw to avoid meeting each other too soon – those overground) SEEDS – Entered as SE E D S |
||
| 37 |
Tout’s reported – you’ve got to put your foot down on it (5) PEDAL (lever pressed by the foot; you’ve got to put your foot down on it) PEDAL (sounds like [reported] PEDDLE [sell from door to door; tout]) PEDDLE – Entered as PE D A L |
||
| 38 |
Weapon briefly unsheathed and moved about a bit (5) RIFLE (weapon) Anagram of (moved about a bit) BRIEFLY excluding the outer letters (unsheathed) B and Y RIFLE*- Entered as RI F L E |
||
| 39 |
Old tax returns hidden by shameless economist (4) CESS (obsolete [old] term for a tax) CESS (reversed [returns] hidden word in [hidden by] SHAMELESS ECONOMIST) CESS< |
||
| 41 |
Sort of coat which may be short for a dog (3)I (DR) IS LAB (reference a LABoratory coat) LAB (abbreviation for a LABrador dog; short for a dog) double definition LAB |
I found this to be quite tough, but enjoyable throughout, thanks largely to the ingenuity and care that went into the clueing. The misprint device caused a bit of puzzlement at first with some of those 20 clues, but that just added to the fun. I tackled the SE first, and from completing that corner I worked out how to enter words that were too long. I discovered the rationale only at my last corner, the NE, where DOCTOR WHO clearly had to go in at 16a. The Tardis was neatly ‘defined’ by the 20 corrected letters.
The toughest clues were those for the intersecting triplet ROMAN À CLEF, MARA and PERCOCT, the half-marathon being the last to yield.
Thanks to Methuselah and duncanshiell.
Thanks Duncan.
A very enjoyable challenge in the 60th anniversary month. All thanks to Methuselah and duncanshiell. Owing to all the anniversary fuss I thought of DOCTOR WHO fairly early in the gridfill but was fooled for a while by his being partly “inside”. It’s a long time since I was a regular watcher but I remembered IAN and SUSAN from the first episodes, a handful of others from discussions in SF fandom, and took the rest on trust — though with the same worry about the AMY/CLARA nesting.
It took a while before I noticed an entity building up in the middle… around the time the quote began to reveal itself. I never did notice that it was his companions inside, I didn’t think to look. But a very elegant and witty design, it seems to be there’s been a very strong run of Inquisitors lately. Thanks to Methuselah and duncanshiell
Very enjoyable and challenging. Note sure, however, why Tara should jump about unlike the letters in the names of the other companions.
Although we worked out the Doctor’s phrase from the sense, there seems still to be inconsistency in the use of corrected letters, whether these are the letters to be corrected or those that correct. Why not go for the incorrect letters in one instance and the correct letters in the other?
Tara also not being a television companion, unlike the others, would point to the name being a bit of a red herring.
Great puzzle, btw, on one of my favourite subjects.
Tough but very enjoyable. Totally missed the fact that the double letters spelled companions!
One minor niggle, please can we avoid the use of the term “corrected letters” as in my view it’s ambiguous as to whether these are the original or the new letters – in fact for me “corrected” means original while “correct” means new…
An easy way around this is using eg “original” and “replacement” or somesuch.
Otherwise excellent fun – thank you.
Quite a decent IQ debut from Methuselah (tho’ I echo the gripe about the ambiguous term “corrected letters” and have mentioned it in at least one blog in the past). Not too much of a problem to see where the action was going to be, ie at the intersection of the down & across answers that were overlong.
Having got to the end I thought “Surely that can’t be it?” so I went back the following day – once I spotted IAN & SUSAN I chased up (most of) the rest, but like others am at a bit of a loss regarding AMY & CLARA and the spare RA.
But thanks to setter & blogger – I hope kenmac had a nice holiday.
Thanks for a very comprehensive blog, duncanshiell. I’m glad people generally seem to have enjoyed it. Nobody’s missing anything with RA – it was just very difficult to fit the names together, especially as I was trying to restrict myself to particularly iconic or long-serving companions, so I had to settle for every solution (rather than every cell) contributing to a companion name.
See you for another IQ some time next year, I hope!
Thanks Methuselah, a couple of lovely PDMs here: one with the theme and emerging shape, and then with its contents.