Cranberry made his debut here in 2022 and has since contributed a puzzle twice a year.
Preamble: Eight solutions must be thematically transformed before entry to the grid, leaving non-words. Enumerations refer to grid entries. Each column, except the first and last, contains a single cell where letters clash. Solvers must resolve clashes by dropping one of the two possible letters to the last line of the grid to spell the theme and finally draw a closed curve through the cause of the transformations (8 cells). The definition in 1dn is supported by Collins.
Eight answers to be transformed and 12 clashing entries to contend with. Hmm, we’ll see. A handful of across clues solved first time through, and then a much more productive pass through the downs. This threw up the first two clashes: 40a EDO & 40d AGO (yes, I’d sneaked a look at the end) and 6a HOBBLER & 6d CALLOW, both of which could be resolved either way (so no help there); and also the first answer that required a transformation: 16d MANIPLES.
I was about halfway through the clues, with another to-be-transformed answer YES-MAN at 44a, when I saw that 28a was PERMANENT. Now the entry at 16d had an O that wasn’t in the answer, 44a had OL, and this one had LF – aha, I thought: if we change MAN into WOLF then things look like they’ll sort themselves out. From various intersections, I promptly guessed three more likely places for a WOLF, namely 26a, 17d & 11d. Then after noticing the emerging symmetry, I took a punt on where the remaining two would be and in a slightly cavalier fashion wrote in WOLF at the start of 1a & 1d.
Even so, it wasn’t all plain sailing from here on in as some of the clues were quite tricky. However, given the transformations, the theme was destined to be LYCANTHROPES and now, knowing what the resolutions were, I found it easier to determine the cells where the remaining clashes occurred and which character had to be retained in the grid. And of course the transformations are brought on by a FULL MOON.
{I called upon current & future Inquisitor bloggers for help to understand 10d ERNE: the use of “when released from trap” to indicate a homophone was a new one on me. My thanks go to them.}
It struck me that this was rather a mature puzzle with some quite sophisticated elements here & there, so thanks Cranberry. It might nudge its way into a points position at the end of the year.
(The inclusion of Bart & Lisa from The Simpsons in 23a was filed away for future reference; see Inquisitor 1823 from about a year ago.)
| No. | Clue | Answer | Wordplay |
| Across | |||
| 1 | Fruit lover at last removing peel from oranges (7) | MANGOS | MAN (lover) (removin)G O(range)S |
| 6 | Unlicensed pilot’s pastime almost left her needing hospital (7) | HOBBLER | HOBB(y) (pastime) L(eft) HER ¬ H(ospital) |
| 11 | Area behind soft hair covering tops of birds’ heads (5) | PILEA | A(rea) after PILE (soft hair) |
| 13 | Eccentric Earl’s very large washbasins (6) | LAVERS | [EARL’S V(ery)]* |
| 14 | Cheek fat removal – nothing’s left (3) | LIP | LIPO (fat removal) ¬ O |
| 15 | Easy listening music, occasionally bluesy, in Yorkshire town (6) | MORLEY | MOR (easy listening music) (b)L(u)E(s)Y |
| 18 | Courts rarely pro-American (4) | FORA | FOR (pro-) A(merican) |
| 19 | Latin expert who’s uncomfortable in company (5) | LONER | L(atin) ONER (expert) |
| 20 | Quarantine writer’s pedigree cat? Not at first (5) | CRACE | RACE (pedigree) CAT ¬ AT at beginning {ref: Jim Crace, English novelist} |
| 22 | Dramatically overplay book in review: “Transcendental!” (5) | EMOTE | TOME< (book) E (transcendental) {ref: a transcendental number is one that is not the root of a non-zero polynomial with rational coefficients} |
| 23 | Continues acting, after tip from Lionel Bart’s sister (4) | LISA | IS (continues) A(cting) after L(ionel) |
| 26 | Old German beer, reportedly intense (10) | ALEMANNIC | ALE (beer) homophone of MANIC (intense) |
| 28 | Standing roughly nine metres apart, striking characters in satire (10) | PERMANENT | [NINE METRES APART ¬ SATIRE]* |
| 30 | Just about to cut stone to render Roman river deity (4) | ALMO | ALMOST (just about) ¬ ST(one) |
| 31 | Smell burnt part of candle (5) | SNUFF | double definition |
| 33 | Failing to close so many windows (5) | SLOTS | S(o) LOTS (many) |
| 34 | Hotel’s rolling pin (5) | THOLE | [HOTEL]* |
| 37 | Student attending amazing school of mathematics in the interwar years (4) | LWÓW | L (student) WOW (amazing) {ref: Lwów School of Mathematics, in Poland pre-1945, co-founded by Stefan Banach & others} |
| 39 | More than one heckler rambles inanely, without focus (6) | GIBERS | GIB(b)ERS (rambles inanely) |
| 40 | European to see the sights of historic Tokyo (3) | EDO | E(uropean) DO (see the sights of) |
| 41 | Judge initially invited by king to talk in tribal councils (6) | JIRGAS | J(udge) I(nvited) R (king) GAS (talk) |
| 42 | Do they provide online help for pet amphibians? (5) | EVETS | E-VETS (online a veterinary surgeons?) |
| 43 | Hash dealers given light treatment (7) | LASERED | [DEALERS]* |
| 44 | In the end pointless to replace old, old servant – he’ll do whatever you ask (7) | YES-MAN | YEOMAN (servant, hist) with (pointles)S replacing O(ld) |
| Down | |||
| 1 | Once enthralled by converted cinema screening The Postman (10) | MANCIPATE | [CINEMA]* around PAT (postman, from the animated TV series) |
| 2 | Pair touring Hawaii state (4) | OHIO | OO (pair, of spectacles) HI (Hawaii) |
| 3 | Knocked over friend’s drink (3) | LAP | PAL< (friend) |
| 4 | School uniform sale ultimately offering obsolete range (5) | GAMME | GAM (school) (unifor)M (sal)E |
| 5 | Short hair? Top class! (4) | SETA | SET A (class, top) |
| 6 | About to let flat (6) | CALLOW | C (circa, about) ALLOW (let) |
| 7 | Smelly sewage originally dumped in stretch of water (5) | OLENT | SOLENT (stretch of water) ¬ S(ewage) |
| 8 | Scientist absorbed by unlikely observation, taken aback (5) | BOYLE | (unlik)ELY OB(servation) rev. |
| 9 | Magnificently thatched house on square (7) | LEONINE | LEO (sign of zodiac, house) NINE (square) |
| 10 | Bird to take home when released from trap (4) | ERNE | homophone EARN (take home) |
| 11 | I’ll take care of the silver, wrapping metal up in spun cloth (9) | PLATEMAN | METAL< in NAP< (cloth) |
| 12 | Ed’s useless Oriental cymbal breaking, laugh out loud (6) | LOZELL | ZEL (Oriental cymbal) in LOL (laugh out loud) |
| 16 | One wearing ridiculously simple clerical vestments (9) | MANIPLES | AN (one) in [SIMPLE]* |
| 17 | Burglar thinking about mathematician – it’s what a thematic one does (10) | CRACKSMAN | “A THEMATIC I (one)” CRACKS MAN in “M ATHEMATICI AN” |
| 21 | With regular scratching, ruined my thong (4) | RIEM | R(u)I(n)E(d) M(y) |
| 24 | Finally lost mild tone when venting one’s spleen (4) | MILT | MIL(d) TONE ¬ ONE |
| 25 | Soldiers seizing our guns here (7) | ARMOURY | ARMY (soldiers) around OUR |
| 27 | Redirected some personnel, if not documented (6, 2 words) | ON FILE | (personn)EL, IF NO(t) rev. |
| 29 | Formerly put off bishops involved in terrible feud (6) | FUBBED | BB (bishops) in [FEUD]* |
| 31 | Unusual smoke fumes rising (5) | SEGAR | RAGES< (fumes) |
| 32 | Reptile lacking height? It’s very nearly two metres! (5) | TOISE | TORTOISE (reptile) ¬ TOR (height) |
| 33 | Stops in Edinburgh, picking up bags (5) | SISTS | homophone CYSTS (bags) |
| 35 | Surprise sighting for birdwatchers gathering in New Zealand and Australia (4) | HUIA | HUI (Maori gathering) A(ustralia) |
| 36 | Call for it out of thoughtlessness (4) | LEVY | LEVITY (thoughtlessness) ¬ IT |
| 38 | Ordinary boy recalled estate on Scottish island (4) | ODAL | O(rdinary) LAD< (boy) |
| 40 | Excited, briefly, in the past (3) | AGO | AGO(g) (excited) |
A “mature” puzzle indeed, in that it was very hard but ultimately satisfying and with a beautiful grid construction.
I was stuck on SELF then SOLF rather than WOLF for a long time, which led me down some interesting rabbit holes (the “Solf Circle”, anyone?) but once canis lupus had finally emerged, things became clearer.
One suggested improvement: Unless I’m mistaken, all the clashes could have been resolved either way and still leave real words – quite a feat but I thought counterproductive, because they didn’t help me in deducing LYCANTHROPES given the 2^12 options – I only added this (and sorted out the remaining clashes) at the end once I’d figured out the Wolf theme. Had there only been a single option each time, it may have provided an alternative path to solving the puzzle.
But overall excellent, thank you. (Also to the blogger for elucidating 17d which I could not figure out).
Well, well. A puzzle where one mistake could set you off down an erroneous route from which there was no return, because the clashes and substitutions then all went wrong. I was completely convinced that 21D would be UNDY, since that would be the singular of UNDIES and therefore a slang word for a thong. It isn’t, but it felt so plausible I never checked it (what are the chances of a “regular delete” clue leading to two possible solutions?), and it went in as an early assumption, round which other things were built. I never recovered. Solving almost all the clues did not produce enlightenment, because it looked as if A was being changed to OL through some sort of chemical reaction. So thanks to Cranberry for the puzzle, even though I didn’t solve it, and to Holy Ghost for all the enlightenment.
Sagittarius @2 I made the same mistake re: UNDY, although fortunately I did manage to fix it midway through the week and from there things quickly became obvious. But, yes, there can’t be many instances where alternate letters can provide two plausible solutions!
@2: I’m glad I wasn’t the only one with the Wrong Thong. Too many distractions here, alas, and I didn’t solve enough clues to get a sight of the theme. Very clever though, so due thanks to Cranberry and HolyGhost.
Oddly I found this a little more accessible than the other solvers here (that hardly ever happens!) though by no means a walk in the park. Perhaps I got lucky by identifying the correct thong (UNDY never occurred to me, the word doesn’t seem to exist in the singular) but generally, enough ‘straight’ clues went in relatively smoothly to give me a foothold before I hit the chewier ones and the thematic changes / letter clashes. The penny drop on the ‘transformation’ was a delight.
Big thanks to Cranberry and HolyGhost.
thanks for the delightful puzzle and blog! must quote my solving partner Martin who noted wrt 37a (Lwow math department): “I guess they broke up and formed two schools of the same size!'”
Sagittarius @2, Kippax @3: ha – it wasn’t just me! It was, as you say, so plausible that it just had to be right, even if it doesn’t exist.
I obeyed Chambers, which did not like ‘undy’, and left it blank for ages. A hard puzzle, but tantalising, especially when a proliferation of ‘ol’ s began to look suspicious. When ‘wolf’ occurred to me, ‘lycanthropes’ came as part of the package – and that was a big help. Still a fair few clues unsolved, and I forgot there was a final instruction (and probably wouldn’t have found it); thanks to HolyGhost and Cranberry.
I also fell into the thong trap, and found one or two of the clues (17d!) too cryptic for my small brain. Also didn’t realise that a closed curve is a circle. This was very clever and I would love to have been able to solve it, but at least now I know what a riem is
Jon MacToon @9: a circle is indeed a closed curve, but so is an ellipse and a figure of 8 for example. A capital B is a closed curve (no endpoints) but a capital R isn’t (two endpoints).
ilan caron @6: I don’t understand Martin’s point.
Many thanks for the blog HG, and thanks to all commenters … the thong trap certainly tempting but UNDY just isn’t a word! In OHIO the “pair” is intended in a cricketing sense, a pair of ‘ducks’ – I guess spectacles also works but feels a tad loose. Yes, all clashes produce real words which does make things tricky but I hoped the emerging WOLF changes would provide the necessary penny drop … maybe that aspect was a little tougher than intended! Thanks again, Cranberry @cranberryfez.bsky.social
Cranberry @11: thanks for popping in.
With regard to OHIO & “pair”, may I refer you to Chambers:
pair of spectacles (cricket sl) a duck in both innings.
That was what I was alluding to.
Ah, thanks HG – had no idea that was where it came from! Every day’s a school day 🙂