Intruders by Phi
Each of the ten “Intruder” clues leads to an answer modified before entry by the removal of a letter, with the gap closed to form a new word to be fitted into the silvered spaces in the grid where it will go. (One of these entries is an uncommon forename not in Chambers’ list thereof.) In clue order, the letters either side of the gap define what the removed letters can be arranged to give, which must be written below the grid.
Off to the usual false start. Read the preamble, decide that it made no sense and plunge into solving the standard clues. Having noted that they seemed to be what counts for normal in the Inquisitor world.
They might be “normal” but I found the vast majority to be pretty tricky. The first to fall were 25d and 6d which almost gave me a full column on the eastern side and allowed the south-east to succumb within about 45 minutes or so. The other quadrants started to crumble as they realised that I wasn’t going to ease off. With north-west holding out the longest.
Within a couple of hours I found myself (with only a few “normal” clues left) in a position where I had to tackle the “intruders” and progress, understandably, slowed down once again.
Still, with dogged determination, they finally crumbled. Knowing that all entries left real words was really helpful at this stage. I knew that I probably wouldn’t make sense of the displaced letters too readily but the “letters either side” soon began to form UNWANTED IN A THREESOME, which immediately made me think of gooseberry and, indeed, the displaced letters (REOROSEGBY) can be rearranged to form GOOSEBERRY, which we have to write under the grid.
According to Chambers:
gooseberry (4): An unwanted third person in the company of a couple or group of couples. Especially in the phrase “play gooseberry.”
I know that I’ve played gooseberry on more than one occasion. It can be an uncomfortable feeling but not always.
I found this quite a satisfying puzzle except for the bit about “… uncommon forename …”. I’ve never heard of or met anyone called Lison.
Minor gripe, I know and it didn’t spoil my enjoyment. Many thanks to Phi.
| Intruder clues | Displaced letter | Entry | Adjacent letters | Wordplay |
| • English artist one considered revolutionary? | R |
TURNER | UN |
(double def) |
| • Tire of a Northern river, perhaps | E |
WEARY | WA |
(double def) |
| • Source of wine’s very good? I disagree! | O |
PINOT | NT |
PI (very good)+NOT (I disagree) |
| • Stupid Scots academic taking on tech expert | R |
DONNERD | ED |
DON (academic) around NERD (tech expert) |
| • Grand expression of high spirits becoming frozen | O |
GELATION | IN |
Grand+ELATION (expression of high spirits) |
| • Staff with hesitation for boss | S |
MASTER | AT |
MAST (staff)+ER (hesitation) |
| • Performance venue’s about to be promoted at that place | E |
THEREAT | HR |
THEATRE (performance venue) with RE (about) “promoted” |
| • Claim support when blocking beer | G |
ALLEGE | EE |
LEG (support) inside ALE (beer) |
| • Celebrity taking in rubbish piled up in European city | B |
LISBON | SO |
LION (celebrity) around BS (rubbish; rev: piled up) |
| • Money laid out to secure large focus of neurological study | Y |
MYELON | ME |
MONEY anag: laid out) around Money |
| Across | Entry | Wordplay |
| 1 Military officer buried in loamy earth, victim of tragedy (7) | MALCOLM | COLonel (military officer) inside MALM (loamy earth) |
| 6 Have a look at tentative answer to question on Roman numerals? (5) | VISIT | “V is it?” could be the answer to, “what’s Roman for five?” (unless anyone has a better suggestion) |
| 9 Astronomer not content to leave constellation (4) | ARGO | A[stronome]R (empty)+GO (leave) |
| 10 Exaggerated description of some Europeans, as in gritty urban films? Not new (6) | OIRISH | [n]OIRISH could be descriptive of gritty urban films, minus New |
| 11 English composer’s height? Fairly high (7) | TALLISH | TALLIS (English composer)+Height John Tallis |
| 12 Stem tuber only partly pushed down (4) | EDDO | pushED DOwn (hidden: only partially) |
| 13 Greatly appreciate a couple of early notes (5) | ADORE | A+DO RE first two notes in the sol-fa scale: do re mi fa so la ti |
| 14 Queen, with emotion, abandoning France in a whirl (9) | REELINGLY | R (queen)+[f]EELINGLY (with emotion) minus France |
| 17 Sizeable headgear hard to fit into regional loft (7, 2 words) | TALL HAT | Hard inside TALLAT (loft) |
| 19 Daughter and father brought in by cathedral dignitary, apparently serious (7) | DEADPAN | DEAN (cathedral dignitary) around Daughter and PA (father) |
| 22 Mother penning song in the style of Indian language (9) | MALAYALAM | MAM (mother) around LAY (song) and À LA (in the style of) |
| 23 Larva died when in contact with snakes (5) | NAIAD | NAIA (cobra genus)+Died |
| 24 Old lunar vehicle’s energy producing light no longer (4) | LEME | LEM (Lunar Excursion Module)+Energy |
| 26 A lot of growth seen in no New Zealand plant (5) | NGAIO | NO around GAI[n] (growth; a lot of) |
| 27 Wrong and bad to keep on acting (7) | ILLEGAL | ILL (wrong) around LEG (on – in cricket)+Acting |
| 28 Old Eastern article concealed in time (6) | EOTHEN | EON (time) around THE ([definite] article) |
| 29 Italian club lacking one means of controlling horses (4) | LAZO | LAZ[i]O (Italian football club) minus I (one) Società Sportiva Lazio |
| 30 Last of the booze, say, consumed during odd bits of darts (5) | DREGS | D[a]R[t]S (odd letters) around EG (say) |
| Down | Entry | Wordplay |
| 2 Plant family: Scotsman’s one supporting a stock (7) | ARACEAE | A RACE (a stock)+AE (one in Scottish) |
| 3 Without emotion, Duke probes what some call smut (6) | COLDLY | COLLY (smut) around Duke |
| 4 Poet, ineffectual, with nothing up top (4) | OVID | V[o]ID (ineffective) with O (nothing) moved to the top |
| 5 Hard for one to block complaint of some Native Americans (7) | MOHEGAN | MOAN (complaint) around Hard+EG (for one) Mohegan, not to be confused with Mohican |
| 6 Against one account, essentially (7) | VITALLY | V (against)+I (one)+TALLY (count) |
| 7 Orientalist incorrectly represented in Polish (8) | SINOPHIL | IN POLISH (anag: incorrectly represented) |
| 8 It’s clear now about river, French river (5) | ISERE | I SEE (it’s clear) around River |
| 15 Shoot out time and time again when receiving electric current (8) | ERADIATE | ERA (time)+I (electric current)+DATE (time [again]) |
| 16 Health centre provides for eunuchs (7) | SPADOES | SPA (health centre)+DOES (provides for) |
| 17 Student engaged in delightful discussion (7) | TALKING | TAKING (delightful) around Learner (student) |
| 18 A US agency, one retaining zone for old Native American (7) | ANASAZI | A+NASA (US agency)+Zone+I (one) |
| 20 Early novel the writer set in China and Australia (6) | PAMELA | PAL (mate: china plate; rhyming slang)+ME (the writer)+Australia |
| 21 Antelope near penetrated by a shot (5) | NAGOR | NR (near) around A+GO (shot) |
| 25 At heart felt July should be the sixth month (4) | ELUL | [f]EL[t] [j]UL[y] (at heart) |
I have attempted more Inquisitor puzzles by Phi than by any other setter, a total of 22 since I started in March 2018. In fact my first Inquisitor puzzle, no. 1534, was by Phi, entitled Unsatisfying, which was a satisfying puzzle for me because I finished it. I highlighted then the quality of the clues, and I can say the same for this latest puzzle.
I solved all the numbered clues first and then found some of the Intruder clues quite tough. After solving eight of them I had enough to read the definition and then work out the Intruder. LISON (my last entry) was an interesting one: I don’t know how ‘uncommon’ that French name is, but it is evidently derived, like Lisa, from Elizabeth.
Thanks to Phi and kenmac.
I found this a straightforward and fair puzzle, much aided by Phi kindly indicating the intruder clues and their potential locations, and sticking to real words throughout. Without thinking about it, because the answer seemed quite obvious (again aided by Phi’s hint), I’d assumed that Lison was a little-used abbreviation for Alison. As Alan B says above, the names have quite different roots (Hebrew and Germanic), so as usual I have made at least one totally incorrect assumption on an Inquisitor, even when solving a puzzle. Thanks to Phi and kenmac.
Much enjoyed — all thanks to good old reliable Phi and kenmac. Nothing to add really, except that with some of the Intruder clues solved I suddenly saw the possibility (yes, too long, I know) UNWANTED IN A CHROMOSOME and briefly wondered what fearful intrusive mutagen or retrovirus our setter had up his sleeve.
Certainly a change from exploding whales and manic dancing.
Quite a vintage concept.
Thanks Phi and kenmac
A steady but enjoyable solve. Some chewy clues but when GOOSEBERRY fell out quite soon, it helped me complete the intruders and the rest of the grid. A topsy-turvy experience in a small way: often, I need the internet to find/confirm the end-game. This time I needed it to confirm two answers, LISON and ANASAZI.
Thanks to Phi & Ken
This must have been on the easy side: I started the puzzle as the plane took off from Sardinia and finished it all bar 18d ANASAZI and a few of the Intruders before landing at Gatwick – phone in Airplane mode so no internet.
Rather neat I thought that the GOOSEBERRY came from removing the middle letter of three, allowing the couple either side to close up and form the definition.
BTW the wordplay for THEREAT isn’t quite right: it’s the RE (about) in THEATRE that’s promoted, not the A.
Anyway, thanks to Phi & Ken – the puzzle was just what was needed to fill a chunk of the journey home.
A very elegant, witty puzzle, with the means of generating the extra letters embodying the theme. It must have taken a lot of working out. The sort of example I’d show novices if I wanted to win them over to Inquisitors. Thanks to Phi and kenmac.
@6
Fixed!
A surprisingly straightforward solve for a Phi IQ, I thought – I completed it on the day it came out, which isn’t always the case… Very clever for the letters either side to line up to the phrase that defines the jumble of the letters in between – I bet that was fun to compile!
LISON, as noted by Alan B @1, is a diminutive form of Elisabeth. I’ve lived in France for years and haven’t met a Lison yet. Wikipedia only lists one person with the forename Lison, and a handful of surname entries. But hey, I’ll let Phi have that little quirk, he’s one of my favourite setters 🙂
Thanks both.
Blog to come, but periodontist (for the other half) calls. Up on website and a link here in six hours or so.
The Lison I work with is very insistent her name is of Hebrew origin.
OK. Blog up now: https://phionline.net.nz/setters-blogs/intruders/
A bit late to the party but we have only just read the comments on the blog.
We completed the puzzle without too much difficulty and as others have said – a neat, satisfying IQ.
At the time of the solve, we hadn’t really appreciated the removal of the ‘gooseberry’ – HolyGhost@6
Thanks to Phi and kenmac.
Enjoyed this one, although for some reason it took a while to line up Gooseberry. Once I had Unwanted in a Threesome I couldn’t seem to get past Sober E-Orgy