Kruger, notching up his sixty-second puzzle in the Inquisitor sequence.
Preamble: Every clue contains a definition and wordplay. Odd-numbered across clues consist of definition/wordplay for another odd-numbered across entry and wordplay/definition for an even-numbered down entry. Likewise, even-numbered down clues consist of definition/wordplay for another even-numbered down entry and wordplay/definition for an odd-numbered across entry.
These clues must be reconstituted (in six cases they contain both components from original across or down clues) and their answers entered where they will fit. Wordplay in each of the remaining clues yields an extra letter not entered into the grid. In clue order, these letters instruct solvers as to what must be shaded in the completed grid (25 cells in total).
Enumerations in brackets refer to the entry at that location. The form of the solution at 7dn is confirmed by SOED.
… so naturally I made a start on the regular clues … and managed to solve quite a few the first time through. Now for the ones to take apart and put back together.
ÉCLAIR and TEENSY were the first to reveal themselves, but as there were several 6-letter slots I couldn’t yet enter them in the grid. And there was obviously an anagram of IDEAS from 22d but that could be either AIDES or ASIDE so nothing doing there either.
But I chipped away and before too long (how long is too long?) I was confident that the extra letters from the regular clues would instruct me to highlight TWO THEMATIC WORDS OR PHRASES in the completed grid. And this helped me to winkle out the answers to the final 5 or 6 in that group.
The more stubborn of the clues to be re-paired were eventually sorted out and now quite easy to locate in the grid. However, it was now 23:30 and I decided to call it a day & leave the grid-search for the morning.
Well, that didn’t take long – maybe a couple of minutes: PROBABILITIES in the third row from the bottom and STARTING PRICE in the central column. But note that odds and probabilities are not the same thing (as Kenmac pointed out in his comment on my very first blog, in the summer of 2009, puzzle #133 if you’re interested) – if you pick a card at random from a standard 52-card pack of playing cards, the probability that you select an Ace is 1/13 but the odds of doing so are 12 to 1.
Not quite sure I understand the parenthetical remark in the preamble about the reconstituted clues: (in six cases they contain both components from original across or down clues). Is it that both the definition & wordplay come either from original across clues or from original down clues? Whatever, it didn’t help me at all.
Anyway, thanks Kruger, although I didn’t feel that the puzzle was as substantial as a fair number of your previous ones.
The first table has the reconstituted clues; the second has the remainder.
| No. | Clue | Answer | Wordplay |
| Across – Odds | |||
| 1 (6) | 23a … great gun 8d … navy invested in standard |
CANNON | N(avy) in CANON (standard) |
| 5 (7) | 22d Military statements … 31a … broods over repeat |
SITREPS | SITS (broods) around REP(eat) |
| 11 (4) | 35a … poison 25a We hear you largely disregard … |
UPAS | U (you, homophone) PAS(s) (disregard) |
| 23 (6) | 37a … in an agreeable way 1a Medical advisors gutted laboratory … |
NICELY | NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) L(aborator)Y |
| 25 (6) | 26d … drink 2d One might initially offer incentive – take away … |
IMBIBE | I (one) M(ight) BRIBE (offer incentive) ¬ R(ecipe) (take) |
| 31 (4) | 24d … frenzied cry 4d … of revolutionary cause overheard |
EVOE | (caus)E OVE(rheard) rev. |
| 35 (4) | 30d Transport … 5a Nearly all of straw … |
HAUL | HAUL(m) (straw) |
| 37 (7) | 11a Celebrate … 6d … American fellow backing deal |
OBSERVE | BO< (fellow, US sl) SERVE (deal) |
| Down – Evens | |||
| 2 (8) | 1a … birds 37a About to engage in a new song … |
ARENARIA | RE (about) in A N(ew) ARIA (song) |
| 4 (5) | 25a … Jonathan’s in prison 26d A single time I accepted … |
ON ICE | ONCE (a single time) around I |
| 6 (6) | 8d Very small … 24d Young people last to obey … |
TEENSY | TEENS (young people) (obe)Y |
| 8 (8) | 4d Dramatic action … 35a European mine not changing … |
EPITASIS | E(uropean) PIT (mine) AS IS (not changing) |
| 22 (8) | 6d Old-fashioned … 11a … descendant of Irish baron only twice on vacation |
OBSOLETE | O’ (descendant of, Irish) B(aron) SOLE (only) T(wic)E |
| 24 (7) | 5a … no longer capable of going astray 30d … commission also departs before island uprising |
ERRABLE | ERRAND (commission) ¬ AND (also) ELBA< (island) |
| 26 (6) | 2d … cake 23a High calibre non-British … |
ÉCLAIR | [CALIBRE ¬ B(ritish)]* |
| 30 (5) | 31a Privately … 22d … developed ideas |
ASIDE | [IDEAS]* |
| No. | Clue | Answer | X | Wordplay |
| Across – Evens | ||||
| 10 | Idiot not beginning larger peeled apple (8) | REINETTE | T | (c)RE(T)IN (idiot) (b)ETTE(r) |
| 12 | Ant turning pale and sickly embraced end (9) | TERMINATE | W | TERMITE (ant) around (W)AN< (pale and sickly) |
| 14 | He inspires opinion of foreign coordinator in Thailand (13) | INDOCTRINATOR | O | [COORDINAT(O)R IN T (Thailand)]* |
| 16 | Embroidery discovered in ersatz artifacts (4) | ZARI | T | (ersat)Z AR(T)I(facts) |
| 18 | Escort faked death (4) | DATE | H | [DEAT(H)]* |
| 20 | Dumas’s play (chilling) of popular interest (5) | JUICY | E | J(E)U (play, Fr) ICY (chilling) |
| 26 | US coin – thin with a different side (5) | EAGLE | M | (M)EAGRE (thin) with L(eft) for R(ight) |
| 28 | Bavarian lord to try recipe (4) | HERR | A | HE(A)R (try) R(ecipe) |
| 32 | Perhaps perfect quartz set drastically wrong (13, 2 words) | IDEAL CRYSTALS | T | [SET DRAS(T)ICALLY]* |
| 34 | Dubious alibi starts to irritate – then it exhibits some strengths (9) | ABILITIES | I | [ALIB(I)]* I(rritate) T(hen) I(t) E(xhibits) S(ome) |
| 36 | Episode including some police toilets out of bounds (8) | INCIDENT | C | IN(C)(luding) CID (some police) (g)ENT(s) (toilets) |
| 38 | One who spurs cyclist (6) | HEELER | W | (W)HEELER (cyclist) |
| Down – Odds | ||||
| 1 | Buddhist stops his optician almost stupidly ignoring accepted conduct of civilians in New York (11) | CITIZENSHIP | O | ZEN (Buddhist) in [HIS (O)PTICIA(n)]* ¬ A(ccepted) |
| 3 | Retired charitable person taking up farming community’s medicinal product (6) | NIM-OIL | R | LION< (charitable person) around MI(R)< (farming community) |
| 5 | Introduce standard way of doing things (5) | START | D | ST(D) (standard) ART (way of doing things) |
| 7 | Sound of drum grates before American friend from LA is upset (7) | RUB-A-DUB | S | RUB(S) (grates) A(merican) BUD< (friend, US) |
| 9 | Camelid excrement contains bits of alfalfa and corn (4) | PACO | O | PO(O) (excrement) around A(lfalfa) C(orn) |
| 13 | Ancestor destroyed peer’s records (11) | PREDECESSOR | R | [PEERS RECO(R)DS]* |
| 15 | Virginian bumpkin’s feeding, in this way, trees (6) | THUYAS | P | YA(P) (bumpkin, US) in THUS (in this way) |
| 17 | Stupid chart inserted what’s in front of group of islands (6) | SCILLY | H | SILLY (stupid) around C(H)(art) |
| 19 | Old church on our square brownish-yellow in colour (8) | OCHREOUS | R | O(ld) CH(urch) RE (on) OU(R) S(quare) |
| 21 | Northumbrian meadow devastated again – losing acreage (3) | ING | A | [AG(A)IN]* ¬ A(creage) |
| 27 | Directs support vessel (6) | SETTEE | S | SET(S) (directs) TEE (support) |
| 29 | Theatre raised diamond’s value (5) | PRICE | E | R(E)P< (theatre) ICE (diamond) |
| 33 | Dull poets rejected (4) | DRAB | S | BARD(S)< (poets) |
After being slightly daunted initially, I actually really enjoyed this, so much so that I wrote down the “reassembled” clues and found that they do all work as proper clues – although not necessarily in the order shown by HG in the blog.
For example “23a … great gun
8d … navy invested in standard” does actually work as “Navy invested in standard great gun”. And “22d Military statements …31a … broods over repeat” as “Broods over repeat military statements”. Etc. Quite an impressive feat by Kruger!
I also didn’t find in six cases they contain both components from original across or down clues very helpful, although I think all it means is that 6 of the reconstitued clues are A/A or D/D rather than A/D – indeed that is the case looking at your table.
And then the final highlighting was pretty straightforward but I was ok with that – certainly better than endless scouring of the grid.
Thanks Kruger and HG
I agree that it’s slightly less daunting than it appeared – and complicated enough that I didn’t care to look into the A/A D/D configurations. A very few unsolved clues, and a wrong parsing of ‘terminate’ somehow giving me a ‘d’, meant that I never quite got to the final instruction. But an enjoyable journey, thanks to Kruger and HG.
Count me as another of the initially daunted. I eventually did the regular clues and most of the disjointed ones, spotted the TWO THEMATIC WORDS OR PHRASES, but somehow ran out of energy with a few blanks still in the grid. Thanks all the same to Kruger and HG.
I found this quite straightforward for once, and completed it successfully, after a bit of fiddling around sorting out how a clue might give different two solutions, neither of which was actually filled into the clue’s own slot. Since Starting Price certainly equates to Odds, I wonder whether Evens can be a legitimate example of Probabilities. I agree with Arnold’s admiration that Kruger’s reconstituted clues actually make sense, even though they can’t be solved. Thanks to Kruger and HolyGhost
Thanks K and HG! Didn’t occur to me to question the semantics of odds vs. probabilities. I’m still struggling to understand the role of “what’s in front of” in “Stupid chart inserted what’s in front of group of islands (6)” — doesn’t “Stupid chart inserted in group of islands (6)” work? what am I missing?
This did indeed look – and I can’t find a better word than that used by previous commenters – daunting! But to my pleasant surprise it unfurled reasonably steadily after enough of the straight clues fell into place, and cross-referencing wp and defs wasn’t as tricky as it first looked, and of course I sped up towards the end as fewer unconnected words or phrases remained until I had a full grid. I recall completing it if not quite in one sitting then certainly within the day, and I can’t say that for all IQs. And a marvellous technical achievement to write coherent surfaces that worked for both original and reconstructed clues.
Many thanks to Kruger and HolyGhost.
Gosh! I’m amazed that you remember that!
https://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/07/24/inquisitor-133-odds-and-ends-by-tipster/
Ic@5: Scilly, by itself, would not indicate a group of islands; they are the Scilly Isles. It’s not an elegant clue, but that’s unavoidable.
To be frank I never even considered repairing the clues, as opposed to merely re-pairing their definition & wordplay, so thanks to arnold @1 and others – although I suspect that those did go for the full reconstitution did so after solving rather than before. And it does seem an exercise more for the setter than the solver, to ensure that both original and mutilated sets of clues have fairly smooth surfaces. Anyway, Kruger’s effort has been noted.
I can’t quite see how Sagittarius’ comment @8 addresses the point made by ilan caron @5. Anyone?
And yes, kenmac, I have a very good memory … but I try not to bear grudges.
HG@9: what I meant was that the suggested amended clue as proposed by Ilan Caron wouldn’t work (in my view). That would involve “Scilly” acting as the definition of a group of islands, and it isn’t (whereas Hebrides or Orkneys would be). So I think you do need the tortuousness of the actual clue, or something like it, to signal that the word Scilly must be placed in front of a group of islands (“Isles”) to get a recognised geographical entity (the Scilly Isles). I admit this feels horribly clunky, but I see why Kruger thought it necessary.
Took a while to get used to the swapping of wordplay and definitions, but the pennies slowly dropped and the odds and evens eventually fell into place. Stumped by a couple of the clues (didn’t think of settee as a vessel and I couldn’t find the farming community in Nimoil), so only 8/10 this week, but found what started out as frustrating to be an interesting challenge, thanks to setter and blogger.
Sagittarius @10: I believe that the accepted terms are the ‘Isles of Scilly’ and ‘Orkney’ (or the ‘Orkney Islands’), and that the use of the ‘Scilly Isles’ and the ‘Orkneys’ is now deprecated.