Inquisitor 1910: Dead-letter Drop by Kruger

10 comments on “Inquisitor 1910: Dead-letter Drop by Kruger”

1. A bit of a struggle but made a lucky choice when I started filling the grid and enjoyed the challenge. Note that IQ are in cells 19,10 (hence we have identified the crossword and there is a reason for numbering the grid).

2. We are told to move I and Q, not to copy them. This leaves CH_ASMS & W_ELDED (from the I) and BARB_ & RO_UE (from the Q).
   And thanks for pointing out the 19 & 10.

3. Well spotted Phil K@1. As so often, even when I think I have completely solved an Inquisitor, there is an extra wrinkle that I find I missed. An enjoyable and satisfying puzzle – but what does anyone make of the title?

4. Thanks and Oh Dear!

   This will have to go down as a DNF for us. We missed the significance of MOVE – note to ourselves – reread the preamble even when you think you have finished.

   Could we blame it on all the puzzles we were blogging for last Saturday and the fact that we were relieved that we had filled the grid? No, we don’t think so!

5. Kruger: “I have an IQ with extra words and extra letters in some clues”
   Editor: “That’s not hard enough”
   Kruger: “I’ve also put the answers in alphabetical, not clue, order”
   Editor: “That’s not hard enough”
   Kruger: “I’ve also put the letter sequence in clue order so it’ll be harder to guess for longer”
   Editor: “That’s not hard enough”
   Kruger: “I also have empty cells without really telling people about it”
   Editor: “That will do.”

   I complained about last week’s IQ being too easy so careful what I wish for, I guess, but that this may have been a bit harder than it needed to be. Just keeping track of everything proved a challenge, but like others I made steady progress and got there eventually – the final denouement was almost a slight disappointment given all the hard work before (but I also hadn’t noticed “1910”).

   Type 2 fun, methinks, but thank you to Kruger and B&J.

6. Based on HG’s observation @2 I now realise that I missed a tiny bit at the end! I entered I and Q in 19 and 10 (noticing the puzzle number) but didn’t ‘move’ I and Q from elsewhere! And now I’m even more impressed at only having one letter’I’ in the whole puzzle.

   A toughie for sure with so many devices in the mix. And a fairly short ending to a long puzzle!

   Thanks Kruger and Bertandjoyce

7. This turned out to be is a clear, and very clever, observance of the Gospel According to Gila, as exemplified in his IQ 1798 (08/04/23). See Dave Hennings’ site for a quick reminder.

   The preamble was daunting, as already observed. Anyway, after a fairly quick run through I had a few answers, one being (erroneously) SELLABLE. I found this slotted into 23D to link with 3 of my across answers, so I pencilled it in, giving me a foothold in the gridfill. Progress was then very slow and I only completed the grid last night.
   I rather expected the missing down clue rejections to give me IQ No MCMX. However, of these, only IQ were unused, and there were only two blanks. It is reassuring that I was not the only one to totally miss the significance of the 19 and 10 clue numbers and the word “move” – a very impressive grid construction with only single occurrences of I and Q.
   So, my smug delight at finishing after all the effort of getting there now somewhat dampened by the above revelations. This puzzle would have been ideal for April 1!
   But, no internet search needed, hooray! I have hard copies of Chambers, Bradford, etc., plus a very old Franklin Crossword aid, all used extensively.
   Despite the difficult journey, when solved, every clue parsed perfectly to reveal the definition, the extra word and the extra letter. This is as expected from Kruger.
   So, thanks to Kruger for a tough but ingenious puzzle and to B&J for the blog.

8. I’m very ready to abandon an Inquisitor that I find too fiddly (or too hard) – but in this case, I had to get to the solution; the moment when I clocked that there was only one ‘I’ and one ‘q’ in the whole grid was very satisfying – and offered a slight shortcut to the end. Many thanks to Kruger and Bertandjoyce (it’s not surprising they omitted something…)

9. Finally finished it, sixteen days later!

   I kept this weekend’s Inquisitor 1912 hidden, to avoid accidentally seeing the printed solution to Inquisitor 1910. Now the older puzzle is completed, it’s time to unfold that page of the Puzzles supplement and work on the new one. I hope it doesn’t take quite as long.

   Gratitude and congratulations to Kruger for a phenomenal feat of setting, with excellent clues that all work perfectly.

   And massive thanks to Bert and Joyce for all the work that must have gone into making this a beautiful, comprehensive, helpful, immaculately presented guide to the crossword.

10. Dave W @7:

    May I ask what exactly the “Gospel according to Gila”?

    I looked for Dave Hennings’s site and found a database of crosswords with nothing there that would explain the phrase. Googling that exact phrase with quotation marks around it gave me one hit, which was your comment on this very page!

    Guidance would be appreciated. I would love to know what you are referencing.

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