Dysart hasn’t been here as a setter for a couple of years.
Preamble: Single letters missing from wordplay in each across clue (except the last) spell a line of verse (in ODQ) minus two articles. The next line hints at how seven answers clued without definition are treated before entry. Solvers must reveal the poet by changing two letters of a normal entry, highlight a dedicatee (three words) and scan the grid to find a five-letter word (part of an entry) that is a treated form of a collective word relating to one of the thematic answers. The untreated word must be written below the grid. The final grid consists of real words.
As the down clues were normal, I made a start on those. Solved about six. Hmm – not great! I was a little uncertain about what to do with the across clues: was it that the wordplay led to the answer missing a letter? No. The non-definition part of the clue had to have a letter restored before solving. (Or, in some of the later stages, dig out the answer/entry using the definition and crossing letters, and then figure out what to add to it in order that the wordplay made sense.)
There were a number of different ways of getting the wordplay to work: for example, in 25a “pacing” to “packing” indicating an insertion, in 36a “on” to “won” to clue W (abbrev for Korean currency), and – most deviously – in 28a “range” to “Orange” in southeast France so we should be thinking “église” rather than “church”.
I couldn’t get 1d to work until I decided that it was one of those that had to be treated before entry, so DIANA had to be entered as NAIAD. But I was struggling to find others. Still, the line of verse so far was “B_D___D_O_LK__WH_WTO_L__” which gave me “The body and the soul know how to play // In that dark world where gods have lost their way” from a poem by Theodore Roethke entitled Four for Sir John Davies. So ROUTHIE becomes ROETHKE at 14d and we complete then highlight the NE-SW diagonal. And the second line explains why we scramble the name of a deity before entry. (In passing, I noted that the title of the puzzle is an anagram of HADES, variously given as the god of the underworld or the abode of the dead.)
I never like it when I’ve sorted out the endgame (almost) well before filling the grid, but needs must. What to do with all those gaps and unsolved clues? I had been assuming (foolishly as it turned out) that all seven of the to-be-treated answers clued without definition would come from the down clues. Surely a benign setter wouldn’t expect us to solve deficient wordplay-only clues where the crossing letters would be little or no help? WRONG! The veil was finally drawn back with 5a, ANUBIS leading to the entry NUBIAS. Things started motoring after that, at least relatively speaking.
I decided that 1a NURAGH was probably in some dictionary or other, but not one of mine, and that 21d NAGWARE might one day make its way into Chambers. And that scanning the grid would wait until the following day, as would contacting a friend to see if they could help with the wordplay for 39d BRER – they could.
I studiously looked through all the entries with 6 or more letters to find an embedded word whose anagram had a mythological connection and found ARISE in 9d, that is a treated form of AESIR, of which WODEN was one (see 26a). Does that final flourish add much to the puzzle? Thanks Dysart, though the payoff to effort ratio was a bit low for me on this one.
| No. | Clue [missing] | X | Answer | Wordplay |
| Across | ||||
| 1 | Tower-shaped structure Turkish commander reduced after [b]all (that’s hard) (6) | B | NURAGH | AG[a] (Turkish commander) after NUR (ball) H(ard) {Chambers has NURHAG} |
| 5 | P[o]int taken in by Oriental swimmers (6) | O | ANUBIS | NUB (point) in AIS (Oriental swimmers) |
| 10 | Frogs etc run over jumping in [d]rivers (6) | D | ANOURA | [RUN O(ver)]* in AA (Automobile Association, drivers) |
| 12 | B[y]e almost filled with universal sound (5) | Y | AUDIO | ADIÓ(s) (bye) around U(niversal) |
| 13 | Craft [a]gent getting 50% off (7) | A | ARTEMIS | ART (craft) EMIS(sary) (agent) |
| 15 | Hole’s like a star, so[n] must be neutron (6) | N | ANTRAL | ASTRAL (like a star) with N(eutron) for S(on) |
| 16 | Ran[d] out of joints for drying things (5) | D | OASTS | ROASTS (joints) ¬ R(and) |
| 17 | Bismarck’s sure to limit [s]pace in battle (4) | S | JENA | JA (yes, sure, Ger) around EN (space) |
| 18 | Snacks treat – students tr[o]y slices (6) | O | DONUTS | DO (treat) NUS (students) around T(roy) |
| 20 | US writer’s scam breaking her reputation, leaving deb[u]t (7) | U | O’CONNOR | CON (scam) in (h)ONOR (reputation, US) {ref: Flannery O’C.} |
| 24 | Where soldiers scoff tuna – a fish part[l]y? (5) | L | NAAFI | (tu)NA A – A FI(sh) |
| 25 | Ian’s always hot pac[k]ing about for nurse (4) | K | AYAH | AY (always, Scot) H(ot) around A(bout) |
| 26 | Round slips of pi[n]e, say (5) | N | WODEN | WOODEN (of pine, say) ¬ O (round) |
| 28 | Rodents taking tips from church in [O]range (4) | O | GLIS | (é)GLIS(e) (church in Orange, Fr) |
| 29 | Principle so far boring t[w]o Times (5) | W | BASIS | AS (so far) in BIS (twice, two times) |
| 33 | Blunt American c[h]opper seizes posh vessels (7) | H | BATEAUX | BATE (blunt) AX (chopper, US) around U (posh) |
| 34 | Wearing shiny coat of old knight facing German l[o]unge (6) | O | GLAZEN | N (knight) after G(erman) LAZE (lounge) |
| 36 | Resolve to stop [w]on in Latvia’s city (4) | W | LVOV | VOW (resolve) ¬ W(on) in LV (Latvia) |
| 38 | Ed’s surely less healthy when [t]old (5) | T | SYKER | homophone SICKER (less healthy) |
| 40 | English drunk in charge [o]pens extract (6) | O | ELICIT | E(nglish) LIT (drunk) around IC (in charge) |
| 41 | Perhaps s[p]itter stays fulfilled (7) | P | DEMETER | DEER (spitter) around MET (fulfilled) |
| 42 | Daughter fil[l]ing rubies tidies up (5) | L | REDDS | D(aughter) in REDS (rubies) |
| 43 | Plant that is less t[a]inted (6) | A | SESELI | [IE (that is) LESS]* |
| 44 | Quiet retreats concealing poet finishing off earl[y] (6) | Y | HELIOS | SH< (quiet) around ELIO(t) (poet) |
| 45 | Safe secured by old city loan shark (6) | USURER | SURE (safe) in UR (old city) | |
| Down | ||||
| 1 | Erected short support inside circuit (5) | DIANA | AI(d) (support) in AND (circuit) all< | |
| 2 | Cast off ties with international body, rising opportunity (6) | UNMOOR | UN (international body) ROOM< (opportunity) | |
| 3 | Wandering traveller covers acres (4) | ROAM | ROM (traveller) around A(cres) | |
| 4 | Target briefly failed to pass Cambridge exam (7, 2 words) | GREAT GO | [TARGE(t)]* GO (pass) | |
| 5 | Wise old Greek bird (6) | NESTOR | double definition | |
| 6 | With prohibition almost over, speak at length (6, 2 words) | BANG ON | BAN (prohibition) GON(e) (over) | |
| 7 | Compound glands passing close to lung are … these? (8) | ADRENALS | [GLANDS ¬ (lun)G ARE]* &lit | |
| 8 | Chinese possibly leaving capital for one of his cities (4) | SIAN | (A)SIAN (Chinese possibly) | |
| 9 | Expose to sun, south on city mount (8) | SOLARISE | SO(uth) LA (Los Angeles, city) ARISE (mount) | |
| 11 | A festive treat – mine comes after father’s check (8) | PASCH-EGG | EGG (mine) after PA’S (father’s) CH(eck) | |
| 14 | Roving tour dropped speed – ample in Stirling (7) | ROUTHIE | [TOUR]* HIE (speed, archaic) | |
| 19 | Escorted Dutch to Anthony’s place, like a butcher’s? (8) | SAWDUSTY | SAW (escorted) DU(tch) STY (Anthony’s place) | |
| 21 | Simmering anger about Washington’s annoying program (7) | NAGWARE | [ANGER]* around WA(shington) | |
| 22 | Birder’s beginning to enter barns occasionally housing intelligent birds (8) | BABBLERS | B(irder) in B(a)R(n)S around ABLE (intelligent) | |
| 23 | Prominences for the matter of mobile identity checks on square (8) | MASTOIDS | AS TO (for the matter of) in M(obile) ID(entity) S(quare) | |
| 27 | Cancels service to visit returning offspring (7) | DELETES | LET (service) in SEED< (offspring) | |
| 30 | Native Americans sail off south (being evacuated) (6) | SALISH | [SAIL]* S(out)H | |
| 31 | Tonic? O lacks info on blend that daughter’s left (6) | OXYMEL | OXYGEN (O) ¬ GEN (info) MELD (blend) ¬ D(aughter) | |
| 32 | Book the pub we will use ultimately for Ethiopian’s local association (6) | KEBELE | (boo)K (th)E (pu)B (w)E (wil)L (us)E | |
| 35 | Leech that moves in (5) | INDRA | DRAIN (leech) with IN moved | |
| 37 | Vile perverts in Trump’s local swamp … (4) | VLEI | [VILE]* | |
| 39 | … his local brother, a joker, dropped waiving advance payment (4) | BRER | BANTERER (joker, archaic) ¬ ANTE (advance payment) | |
Thanks holyghost.
What does “Trump” do in 37A?
Thanks to Dysart and HG. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who found this a bit of a slog. It didn’t help that my ODQ has only one Roethke quotation, not the needed one.
@1: I took Trump as indicating an American usage, which is how VLEI is flagged in my Chambers.
Trump is an indication that the answer is an American word.
A second tough one in a row, mostly because I think the across mechanism just leaves too many options to make it reasonably unambiguous. For example, I had “spacing” rather than “packing” for 25A, perfectly acceptable in my view but leading to the wrong extra letter. Having the additional letter in the wordplay outcome (rather than the wordplay clue) is a lot fairer, methinks.
Got there eventually but with relatively little enjoyment by the end, and I agree that AESIR felt like one step too far (“because I can”, rather than adding anything to the theme).
Finally is there not a convention to indicate if clue answers are not in Chambers? I too was stumped by NURAGH and NAGWARE for some time.
Thank you anyway to dysart and HG.
Thanks gang!
Can the setter or editor kindly indicate the source for that spelling of NURGAH?
Bingy, Nuragh has its own entry in my Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. I don’t think the Inquisitor puzzles have any ‘standard reference’ information.
I enjoyed the puzzle, though felt the last step was a bit… lacklustre.
@4, @7: Many past Inquisitors have had a preamble note such as “3D is in Collins”. Though for all I know NURAGH is in the very latest Chambers which in my case I have not got.
Neither NURAGH nor NAGWARE are in my Chambers App, though I don’t actually know how often, if ever, it gets updated.
It does have NURAGHE (singular) and NURHAG though, plus their plural forms.
I found the Spenserisms last week much more tractable than this, and never managed the critical leap to getting enough of the extra letters to reach the key quotation. Not helped by (like Arnold @4), having SPACING rather than PACKING, and deciding that the answer to 1D had to be PETAL (which, taken on its own, I think works at least as well as the actual answer). Thanks to HolyGhost for a lot of elucidation.
I meant of course to type NURAGH!
I’m aware of the general policy of not referring to a standard reference. I’m not entirely sure I agree with it but it’s not up to me so you pay your money and take your choice I suppose. Where – as here – the word is in Chambers (say) but not that particular spelling I don’t think it’s too much to give an indication of that. The Listener does it as does Azed (and from memory Mephisto although it’s years since I’ve done that)
Sagittarius @10 I made the exact same mistake with 1D!
I have a new Chambers which includes NURAGH
However this puzzle was above my pay grade so thanks for blog
I did get USURER!
Not the best Inquisitor to take on holiday, without Chambers or reliable wi-fi. Oh well. Thanks to Dysart and, even more than usually, HolyGhost.
That was tough – I got about 90% through and figured out poet and quote, but after getting ISOHEL and NADIR first misassumed that the treated words were all going to be cartographical and came unstuck.