The Ace of Hearts, a visitor on average about once a year.
Preamble: Five clues are normal, but their answers must be entered thematically. From the answer to each other clue, a letter must be deleted wherever it appears before entry into the grid. Definitions refer to the full unmutilated answers, wordplay and enumerations to the grid entry. The omitted letters in clue order spell one definition of a key word which must be highlighted (four letters, in a straight line) in the completed grid. This keyword will give the connection between the answers to normal clues and their entry method. The answer to 1ac is easily justified online.
I lurched through this one, solved a few clues then dried up for a while. And the pattern repeated, or that’s what it felt like anyway. I never find this type of puzzle particularly easy – letters latent, that is – possibly because letters from intersecting entries aren’t as much help as usual. (Some letters latent puzzles indicate answer lengths, but here we get entry lengths – obviously not as useful.)
1a CONCH[a]S came straight away, followed by 12a V[o]YEUR, 17a ST[ee]P-TO and then BISON for 21a which clearly wouldn’t fit. More success with the down clues, but not much, then it was back to the top. And so it went on.
My list of omitted letters was full of gaps, too many to make a stab at the definition, but I chipped away. After a couple more sessions I finally had enough to make use of the full-text search from the Chambers CD-ROM and, hey presto, I landed on DUNG. So there we have it – the thematic entries come from replacing the answers to the five normal clues by their dung.
So, grid was duly filled and highlighting done, even if I had one clue left to solve: the one that led to GUANO. (Answer & wordplay at 26d in the table below.)
Thanks TAoH; FUMET anyone?
And before I go, apparently siege is a Shakespearean reference to the aforementioned droppings.
(A bit downbeat: Man City won, Liverpool lost, and at the time of writing Arsenal are one-nil up.)
| No. | Clue | Ans[w]er | X | Wordplay |
| Across | ||||
| 1 | Against children beginning to sample Mexican breads (6) | CONCH[a]S | A | CON (against) CH(ildren) S(ample) |
| 5 | Colourful weather phenomenon finishes in film studio beside American man (6) | MOONBO[w] | W | (fil)M (studi)O ON (beside) BO (man, US sl) |
| 10 | Draw naked fish-eater (7) | OTTER | (l)OTTER(y) (draw) | |
| 12 | Visibly discontented European peeping Tom (5) | V[o]YEUR | O | V(isibl)Y EUR(opean) |
| 13 | Sport Editor gathering news had survived for years (9) | PE[r]ENNATED | R | PE (sport) ED(itor) around NN (new×2) ATE (had) |
| 15 | Chap let out cows (4) | CATTLE | CAT (chap, sl) [LET]* | |
| 16 | More than one mouth is all but dry close to oasis (6) | [k]ISSERS | K | IS SER(e) (dry) (oasi)S |
| 17 | To maintain temperature divers stop going straight down into the water (5) | ST[ee]P-TO | E | T(emperature) in [STOP]* |
| 18 | For old element knight runs out of courtyard (6) | NAT[r]IUM | R | (k)N(ight) ATRIUM (courtyard) ¬ R(uns) |
| 20 | Bandages tender nurses note (4) | BIND[s] | S | BID (tender) around N(ote) |
| 21 | Bishop is getting drunk in Buffalo in America (4) | BISON | B(ishop) IS ON (getting drunk) | |
| 23 | Clear insects from French waste (6) | DELO[u]SE | U | DE (from, Fr) LOSE (waste) |
| 25 | New Zealand engineers confusing bands of atoms (11, 2 words) | [b]ENZENE RINGS | B | [NZ (New Zealand) ENGINEERS]* |
| 27 | Primate contributing to prenuptial agreement (4) | [m]AL[m]AG | M | (prenupti)AL AG(reement) |
| 30 | Accepting nuclear conflict soldier receives medic’s calefactory (9, 2 words) | WARM[i]NG PAN | I | N(uclear) in WAR (conflict) MAN (soldier) around GP (medic) |
| 31 | Indian wood lining as an alternative (5) | SAN[t]AL | T | (a)S AN AL(ternative) |
| 32 | Ambassadorial French elder follows on (7) | LEGA[t]INE | T | AÎNÉ (elder, Fr) after LEG (on, cricket) |
| 33 | Bowing element, as shaft reveals (6) | ENTAS[i]S | I | (elem)ENT AS S(haft) |
| 34 | Hot winds in Spain, likewise with Asian country (6) | SOLA[n]OS | N | SO (likewise) LAOS (Asian country) |
| Down | ||||
| 1 | Support for carriage could see people run in Norway primarily (6) | C-SPRIN[G] | G | C(ould) S(ee) P(eople) R(un) I(n) N(orway) |
| 2 | Bloats over person (5) | [t]OPERS | T | O(ver) PERS(on) |
| 3 | It’s feasible, even if after college (4, 2 words) | CAN D[o] | O | AND (even if) after C(ollege) |
| 4 | Habitually lazy person is about to collect tailless horse (4) | SNAI[l] | L | IS< around NA(g) (horse) |
| 5 | Mount to authenticate annual check-up (6, 2 words) | M[o]T TEST | O | Mt (mount) TEST (authenticate) |
| 6 | Superior balls with digital enhancement? (11) | OVERTO[W]ERING | W | OVER (balls) TOE RING (digital enhancement?) |
| 7 | Those of a nervous disposition say Brussels divides countries (9) | NEU[r]ATIONS | R | EU (Brussels, say) in NATIONS (countries) |
| 8 | Now briefly he interrupts members of flock (7) | SHEEP | SEP(tember) (now – but wouldn’t work next month, or last) around HE | |
| 9 | Fruit garden leads to old ruin and ends in public footpath beside road (6) | ORCH[a]RD | A | O(ld) R(uin) (publi)C (footpat)H RD (road) |
| 11 | Pieces upset Les, man insuring meadow in northern England shed (11) | INS[t]RUMEN[t]ALS | T | [LES MAN INSURING ¬ ING (meadow, N Eng)]* |
| 14 | In Rome, gradually hurry up saint engaged in closing books (9, 2 words) | F[e]STINA L[e]NT[e] | E | S(ain)T in FINAL (closing) NT (New Testament, books) |
| 19 | Greek has no time to drop first name for line about North African region (7) | [s]AHELIAN | S | ATHENIAN (Greek) ¬ T(ime) with N(ame) replaced by L(ine) |
| 21 | Stupefied, punches church walls (6) | C[o]MAT[o]SE | O | MATS (punches) in CE (church) |
| 22 | Displays university letter by adventure writer (6) | UN[f]URLS | F | U(niversity) NU (letter) RLS (adventure writer) |
| 24 | Medicinal preparations function in seconds to reverse asphyxiation (6) | [p]E[p]SINES | P | SINE (function) in (r)E(verse) (a)S(phyxiation) |
| 26 | Marine bird to judge unfairly in conversation (5) | SEAFOWL | homophones SEE (judge) FOUL (unfairly) | |
| 28 | Characters in pantomime engagements with me instead of Greek goddess (4) | D[a]MES | A | DATES (engagements) with ME replacing ATE (Greek goddess) |
| 29 | Penny returns to carry off carapace plate (4) | P[y]GAL | Y | P(enny) LAG< (carry off) |
But what is the relationship between the keyword and the hidden definition “a worker submitting to low rates”?
Best faecal fun I’ve had since reading about Fungus the Bogeyman with his “stercoraceous dungarees”. Lots of thanks to The Ace of Hearts and HolyGhost.
Luckily I remembered SPRAINT and that provided the way in, though leading me to expect more classics like FEWMETS rather than the variety we actually got. The latent letters certainly allowed space for self-deception — I wasted time with SAN(D)AL rather than SAN(T)AL at 31a and a far-fetched but just about plausible justification of OVER(P)OWERING rather than OVERTO(W)ERING at 6d. No excuse for carelessly entering AMES for DMES at 28d, thus hiding the key word. But in the end the SIEGE was raised (very carefully, in a doggie bag) and all was well.
@1: It’s buried in the Chambers list of definitions under “dung”.
In a section of the Horologicon relating to the bathroom, Mark Forsythe notes that ‘medieval fellows would ‘’go to siege’’, which has a fine martial ring and is particularly appropriate for the constipated’
I’m not too keen on the kind of clue manipulation seen here in most of the clues, characterised by deficient word-lengths and wordplay (which I know this setter has used before). Progress was slow, and unfortunately it took me so long to solve just sixteen clues that I thought about giving up. When I found myself permanently stuck on 7d (NEURATIONS) I did give up.
I would appreciate some clarity on NEURATIONS. Chambers led me to ‘nervation’, meaning ‘disposition of nerves …’, which, in the plural form (if it has one), would mean ‘dispositions of nerves’, or even ‘nervous dispositions’, but not ‘those of a nervous disposition’.
Having completed all my previous Inquisitor puzzles by this setter I’m sorry not to have done justice to this one.
Thanks anyway to The Ace of Hearts, and to HolyGhost for the blog.
I might just give Ace of Hearts a miss next year. Life is too short. But I appreciate the effort of setter and blogger, and the chance to learn a few new words for animal crap.
@3: many thanks for that. I can’t believe I missed it!
I agree with Alan@5 and Jon@6 . I managed about a dozen answers after an unreasonable amount of time and then decided to get on with the rest of my life. I have now finished Chalicea’s puzzle, which was a delight and, for me, an education. Thanks to HG for his perseverence.
I finished it but – and I know it’s a personal thing – ‘letters latent’ puzzles are not my favourite. I can cope with a few thematic entries being ‘non-words’ but a grid full of them messes with my brain too much.
I do appreciate the brainpower that goes into them though! Thanks both.
Very chewy, wasn’t it? Like Alan @5 I’m not a fan of the ‘truncated word’ device, partly because it makes the puzzle very hard but also because it makes the end result aesthetically unappealing. Not helped by the rather randomly backwards GNUD.
I found the Theme interesting enough though, with OTTER, BISON and GUANO my ways in. Never got SEAFOWL though!
A grudging thanks to the Setter and an ungruding one to the Blogger.
I’m more in David Langford’s camp. Appropriately, it took some effort but was richly satisfying when it all came out. Certainly not going to spraint-talk The Ace of Hearts; it was a very enjoyable challenge.
Very nice scatlogical setting
I needed some help but it was fun
There’s something appropriate in having a grid full of rubbish non-words being interspersed with the odd piece of pure, legible shit. All solved and understood once SPRAINT emerged as the only possible answer at 10A, but I agree with those who don’t find a grid full of non-words very satisfying. I don’t mind the setter giving the length of entries for the mutilated clues, since otherwise one is laboriously counting them out from the grid, but it would have been a nice touch to have had the real answer lengths for the five “normal” ones – which might have led me to solve SEAFOWL, rather than conclude it wasn’t necessary because GUANO was obvious. Thanks to the Ace of Hearts, and to HG for wading through it all.
I took this on holiday with me; did not prevail; returned to solve subsequent Inquisitor rather rapidly; and consequently was grateful to have this one to return to. True, it’s difficult; but each time I had a nibble, something yielded, so it kept me hooked, and I feel overall it’s very fair. I had no idea of the second meaning of ‘dung’, and couldn’t see anything in the grid, but at some point the word came into my head and I opened Chambers… Thanks to The Ace of Hearts and HolyGhost.