Blimey.
Answers (all length 8) are entered around the appropriate numbered square, clockwise or anticlockwise, beginning anywhere. Each clue contains an extra word to be removed before solving; choosing either the first or last letter of each gives a description of three competitors and an event. Letters not chosen should be entered in the numbered cells. The letters in numbered cells in each of three quarters describe a competitor at the time of the event; solvers must replace these letters with those of the matching competitors. Solvers must highlight one title of each competitor (27 cells, total) and then reorder the letters in the fourth quarter to show a further competitor, who some think should be part of the group.
Hope you all took that in. Or did you just decide that remembering to look for extra words and quite how each entry should be… entered was sufficient for the duration? Yeah, me too.
Now, I will admit that, for the grid-fill itself, I had half an eye on the Scotland / France match, so the fact that I struggled with the cold-solving bit may be subjective to the extreme. Uber-subjective? Whatever, the anagrams were easy enough, and a few others. Handily, I even got three in succession down in the bottom right hand corner, and figured that they might be entered with the application of a little logic.
A little logic being in short supply this Saturday, I fired up a spreadsheet to sort them out where I could easily apply a little trial and error instead, and used that for the duration, so that my paper copy would remain, not for the first time, crisp and virgin white, though not this time because I couldn’t solve the thing.
And so would begin the sort of grudge match that typifies many an Inquisitor solve, working slowly through the slowly-filling grid with checking letters that were left, right, down and upside down and sometimes it seemed all over the place, or at least that was how it felt in my fevered state. But I got there, gentle reader, I got there.
Then there was a break of a couple of hours. Let’s gloss over the result of the next match, but just note that a young Welsh side are indeed developing well and that there is hope for the future.
Then we got onto the rest of that preamble. Brace yourself.
First the letters picked from the extra words, which led to GREEK TRAGEDIAN TRIO THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS.
I’m sure that was enough for loads of you well-educated lot, but I had to nip over to Google to work-out the significance of the ones we hadn’t used, and replace with the appropriate characters:
CHORISTER
NEWLY BORN
HONOUR PIE
COMBATANT (no, not COMBAT ANT)
- Sophocles it turns out could be said to be a chorister, having led the paean celebrating victory in said battle.
- Aeschylus a combatant, as he fought in it.
- And Euripides? Well, he was born that day. Allegedly.
And thus were three quarters completed.
Next we had to highlight three examples of their work. Well, THE PERSIANS sort of leapt out, PHILOCTETES less so, and MEDEA took a while longer, being rather unexpectedly placed.
Last but not least was to replace the mysterious HONOUR PIE with Euphorion, who indeed could be said to rank alongside the aforementioned.
Now, wasn’t that educational? Not to mention pretty neat. And generally great. An early competitor for the end of year list? I think so. It also makes a pretty nifty GIF too, I think.
Oh yes, Sausage Competition. Who doesn’t enjoy a tasty Salami?
| Clue | Extra Word | Chosen Letter | Unchosen Letter | Answer | Wordplay | |
| 1 | Tailor cutting cloth apt for gift | cutting | G | C | POTLATCH | An anagram of “cloth apt” |
| 2 | Most shivering badly inside rough bunker | rough | R | H | CHILLEST | CH(ILL)EST – a bunker can indeed be a chest |
| 3 | Academy diminished with no instruction for oboe player (2 words) | oboe | E | O | COL LEGNO | COLLEGe diminished + NO for a string rather than oboe instruction |
| 4 | Exchange his aged fleece and acquire about eleven rupee | eleven | E | N | CONGREET | CON + GET about RE (rupee) to give a word meaning to greet. What’s “his” doing though? |
| 5 | Having roads of stone with grass across the earthwork at edges | earthwork | K | E | STREETED | ST REE(TE)D |
| 6 | Guessed wisest American around room is editor | wisest | T | W | SURMISED | US reversed + RM IS ED |
| 7 | Anticipate losing last sylvan reindeer | reindeer | R | R | FORESTAL | FORESTALl losing its last letter |
| 8 | Southern India mountain is most dangerous | India | A | I | SEVEREST | S EVEREST |
| 9 | Always good to save money turning garments inside out | garments | G | S | EVERTING | EVER TIN G |
| 10 | Discounting lonesome sailor straddling centre of lifeboat | lonesome | E | L | REBATING | R(EB)ATING |
| 11 | Be smart learner duly changing units of brightness | duly | D | Y | LAMBERTS | An anagram of “be smart L) |
| 12 | Your old bonsai contracted fungal disease after the French bean plant, maybe | bonsai | I | B | LATHYRUS | LA THY RUSt contracted |
| 13 | Officer amongst old revolutionaries in Iowa separated laundry | amongst | A | T | COLOREDS | COL O REDS |
| 14 | Needle blocked by king before duke’s pierced nipple | nipple | N | E | SKEWERED | S(K)EW ERE (before) D |
| 15 | Report those scattering from Turkey in underground passages | Report | T | R | STREWERS | S(TR)EWERS |
| 16 | Scottish inn-keepers regularly stress penning order board | order | R | O | STABLERS | S(TABLE)RS (regular letters from “stress” |
| 17 | Fraud insider ran got together with effort, some say | insider | I | R | SCAMBLED | SCAM BLED (ran) |
| 18 | Primarily sad about nacho obsession being detrimental | nacho | O | N | SCATHING | S CA THING |
| 19 | Fliers belonging to us kept in family’s hut | hut | T | H | COURLANS | C(OUR)LANS |
| 20 | Singular ostrich in a trek around old Xhosan state | ostrich | H | O | TRANSKEI | An anagram of S IN A TREK gives an old area of South Africa |
| 21 | Couple bound by Egyptian curse perspiring more | Egyptian | E | N | SWEATIER | SWEA(TIE)R |
| 22 | Cheats taking some jewels, her Baltic sapphires | Baltic | B | C | WELSHERS | Hidden in jeWELS HER Sapphires |
| 23 | Place in Society of Arts with opera cast prominently displayed | opera | A | O | SPLASHED | S(PL)A (Society of Arts) + SHED |
| 24 | Joining them having starter of lamb covered in seasoning | them | T | M | SPLICING | SP(L)ICING |
| 25 | Unrefined cur played with A-list organist | organist | T | O | RUSTICAL | An anagram of cur and A-list |
| 26 | Like painter’s usual model returning in wagon | usual | L | U | ARTISTIC | SIT reversed in ARTIC |
| 27 | Study contracts with European rule coming to end | rule | E | R | TREATISE | Treaties with the E moved to the end |
| 28 | Bamboo boats crossing strait start to rankle birds | Bamboo | O | B | KESTRELS | KE(ST – strait + R)ELS |
| 29 | Wings of fowl and steaks cooked for fajita dishes, historically | fajita | F | A | FLASKETS | FL + an anagram of STEAKS |
| 30 | Loud people using tongues, sect appears and quickly disappears | sect | S | T | FLICKERS | F LICKERS |
| 31 | Translator is asleep beside one small section of poem | asleep | A | P | TRISTICH | TR (translator) IS TICH (one small) |
| 32 | Counterfeit Chinese idol carried by delivery worker | idol | L | I | POSTICHE | POSTI(CH)E |
| 33 | Uses improper advice, a testifier maintains | advice | A | E | OPERATES | Hidden in imprOPER A TESifier |
| 34 | Persist twisting arm to cuddle adult possums | arm | M | A | TARSIPES | An anagram of persist containing A for adult |
| 35 | Investigator with case, endless investigation for musician | investigation | I | N | PIANISTE | PI + cANISTEr |
| 36 | They cover popular internet browsers, not following trends | trends | S | T | INSURERS | IN SURfERS |
This was top-notch. Clues to some of the perimeter entries were tough, but all were excellent. On completion, only clue 4 remained not fully parsed, but a second look at it later on revealed how diabolical it was (‘Exchange his’ indeed! Jon, you have to pronounce ‘his’ in the right way).
From the pairs of letters it was easier to pick out the continuous message first (GREEK TRAGEDIAN …) and then the competitors’ descriptions (CHORISTER …). (And seeing BATTLE OF SALAMIS of course explained this puzzle’s title.) I had to do quite a lot of reading to be certain of identifying the three competitors and to match them to their descriptions. I found almost everything I needed in the Chambers Biographical Dictionary, Encyclopaedia Britannica giving some further relevant details for confirmation. The same Biographical Dictionary was my source also for the titles.
I was impressed with the whole concept and design of this puzzle, which was highly reminiscent of at least one other Inquisitor puzzle – from the same setter, if I remember right.
Thanks to eXternal for the excellent puzzle, and to Jon_S for the informative and entertaining blog.
AlanB@1
CONGREET
Thanks. Hi’s it is.
Thanks Jon_S for the lovely blog!
A bit over my head really but I saw PHILOCTETES and THE PERSIANS before the grid was filled (and that was a struggle)
I have read MEDEA and Sophocles Theban trio (never bothered with Aeschylus
But I lack the Sherlock factor to unravel the whole thing
I think this puzzle will get a lot of votes.
Thanks for blog
“Congreet” is a word ripe for reintroduction into everyday use, since hi’s are being exchanged more frequently than ever before in email exchanges.
I had never noticed that the 3 main ancient Greek tragedians each has a 9 letter name, and it’s an added bonus to learn of an extra one with the same distinction. Very clever of eXternal to link the four like this, and very satisfying to see the final solution gradually emerge. The playwrights’ “attributes” were indeed quite well-known at one time as a way of remembering the order in which they lived; that Aeschylus fought at Salamis, Sophocles was one of the choirboys who sang to celebrate the victory, and in that same year Euripides was born; I learned it at school. What I totally missed was that link between the battle and a set of sausages- thanks to Jon_S for the elucidation.
I confess I initially gave up, having completed the grid, identified the likely tragedians, and read rather more than I wanted about the battle. But then I gave the rubric one last, very very slow read and realised I needed to work out where they were at the time of the battle. Never did spot Medea, but greatly enjoyed the challenge and the blog, and thanks also to Sagittarius@4 for his further explanation.
Very hard, but absolutely fantastic with so many levels and definitely a contender for IOTY for me. Plus a really interesting theme and a fun title.
Took a while to get a foothold in the grid, but once you got going it wasn’t too bad with only limited options for adjacent answers, so got there eventually. The BATTLE OF SALAMIS jumped out quite quickly; the GREEK TRAGEDIAN TRIO took longer but proved a fitting finale when it did.
Superb. More like this please.
Talking of Scotland v France.
We was robbed!
Alan B@1 – Hi. So lots of his it is. Doh! 🙂
Admin@8 – Ah yes, that decision, yes!
This was an absolutely magnificent construction. The top half was tricky for me but the bottom half took me quite a lot longer to unravel. And as for the endgame, lots of Wikipedia and other assorted Web sources to finally get over the line.
To continue the rugby theme, I printed this out in the morning, took the train to Edinburgh and managed a few clues. It was then back in my pocket but was present with me at the game. Scotland robbed ! I wasn’t in much of a state to continue the crossword on the 8pm back to Newcastle 🙂
Tour de force from eXternal. Many thanks and great blog from Jon, too.
Very impressive puzzle which we throughly enjoyed. We saw THE PERSIANS and guessed PHILOCTETES from the letters we did have. Some initial googling of the battle did not reveal any link between what we did have. It wasn’t until we had TRAGEDIAN TRIO that we were able to complete the puzzle.
Like Alan B we puzzled over 4. We had guessed the correct answer – brought a smile to our faces when we realised what was going on.
Thanks eXternal for a great IQ and Jon for an impressive, colourful blog.
A very satisfying challenge based around an interesting bit of trivia which I hadn’t heard of before. An early contender for puzzle of the year for me. Thanks eXternal and to Jon for the blog
Wonderful puzzle. My way in was being able to enter 16, 21, & 22 in an L-shape, after which it wasn’t that bad, as arnold @6 says.
I was held up by my eagerness to find MEDEA before I’d done the replacements by the competitors – an impossible task!
So, many thanks to eXternal for a highly engaging solve, and to Jon_S for the blog.