Inquisitor 1912: Absences by Skylark

12 comments on “Inquisitor 1912: Absences by Skylark”

1. I found the grid-fill fairly challenging as the wordplay in many of the clues was quite mystifying at first. It was only when the theme began to emerge (fairly soon) and I was able to predict the extra words and missing letters that I was able to justify most of my entries. 6A eluded me to the last, although I guessed MAÇONS early on – thanks HG for putting me out of my misery. I would take issue with 1A: the correct spelling of the old London club was KIT-KAT which a quick internet search seemed to confirm (but the wordplay was neat).
   I also have played Cluedo but not this century. I remembered the suspects ansd most of the weapons which, as I have said, helped with the grid-fill. It was only when I saw I had to spell KITCHEN in the NW corner that I was able to confirm 1A and 1D.
   Thanks to Skylark for, in the end, a satisfying journey with an enjoyable finish and, of course, to HG for the usual thorough blog.
   PS. HG, Chalicea is also a lady, so this would be number two for a ladies month. Next is Charybdis – I know the mythical monster is female but I had understood that setter is a gentleman. Clarification needed.

2. Dave W @1: both Chambers & Wikipedia say Kit-Cat – check them for the derivation.
   I too had trouble with MÂCONS (circumflex on the A but no cedilla on the C): despite having CANDLESTICK, I’d got it into my head that I was looking at “Cha(e)t heard …” or “Cheat h(e)ard …”! Unsurprisingly, I got nowhere without help, which came from Bertandjoyce.

   Also, apologies to Chalicea for the gender blunder! (And Charybdis is Chris Poole, referred to as “he”.)

3. An excellent Inquisitor – I think it was Peacock and dagger that tipped the wink, and I proceeded without online research, though I finally needed help with the rooms, especially as the top left was a bit of a blank to the end. Very elegant design, I must admit I thought the setter might not bother spelling out the word ‘room’ in the two cases where it’s wanted, so I forgot to search (my straight-line dining didn’t seem to offer it…)

   thanks to Skylark and HG

4. HG @2: I stand corrected – I never thought of looking in Chambers for 1A! My sources were 2 London textbooks by respected writers printed in 1983 and 2000, one suggesting the innkeeper was a Mr Katt. Wiki is ambivalent about the spelling and, of course, spelling was not fully standardised in the 1700s. Research into my own surname confirms this. What we need is an authentic contemporary drawing of the club’s sign.
   The wrong accent on MÁCON was a senior moment. As I typed it, I thought “have I been mispronouncing it all these years?” Oh well!

5. A triumph overall, thank you Skylark and HG!

   Figuring out the Theme certainly helped finish the puzzle, but it was hard enough that I appreciated the leg-up.
   And I too was unable to parse MACONS, so thank you for clarifying.

   PS: A MAÇON is a (stone)mason, in fact I am working with one in France right now!

6. Very much enjoyed — many thanks to Skylark and HG. My first surplus words were Green and Mustard, which made me think of Cluedo (and aha! Peacock and Plum very soon followed). I too thought for a while that there might be placeholder abbreviations for some locations, like KITC and DINING, but on closer inspection realized Skylark had been much more cunning — and perhaps left BIL, the reversed opening of LIBRARY, as a trap for shallow thinkers.

   #1425 is still vividly remembered, especially the agony of resolving clashes by writing such locations as DINING ROOM and CONSERVATORY in teensy letters in a single square.

7. arnold @5: Thanks for the PS – I learn something new every day!

   HG @2: I knew that Charybdis was a Chris and had wondered whether this was short for Christine. So thanks for confirming that Chris is indeed a “he”

8. From the sound of it, I’ve obviously played Cluedo more recently than at least one person here (our kids (Bert and Joyce’s grandkids) aged 6-9 really enjoy it…). I had to go and have a look at the actual game we’ve got and found the grid fill even more pleasing after seeing that the rooms are all located in appropriate areas when compared to the board.

   Enjoyed it all, many thanks Skylark and HG

9. A quality puzzle that I enjoyed solving. After identifying Scarlett and Revolver, though, I didn’t pick up the hint about ‘inspecting the completed grid’ straight away, and I subsequently forgot to return to make sense of it. My loss, my fault – it would have been the icing on the cake. Looking at the grid above, I am amazed at what the setter achieved in fitting the names of (almost) all the rooms into the grid.

   Thanks to Skylark and HG.

10. As with AlanB@9, I failed to grasp the significance of “inspecting”, so missed all the rooms; if only we’d been told to shade something. Daft in retrospect, because I’m perfectly familiar with Cluedo and saw the theme very quickly. As so often, the finer points of an Inquisitor pass me by. Thanks for the puzzle and blog.

11. Thanks for the excellent blog, HG. This was one of my toughest challenges to construct, but since we still play Cluedo on family celebration days, I was determined to construct a grid to reflect the board as much as possible (though I had to abandon my original plan to have solvers outline the rooms) and found the billiard room was the ideal candidate to leave out.
    It was fun to construct the clues, and overall one of my favourite puzzles to create, to date.

    So glad it was enjoyable for some solvers too.

12. Loved it, many thanks Skylark! Once I identified “mustard” to follow “green” as surplus words, I was away. Entering “KitKat” at 1a without checking it held me up for a while.

    I remember heaping praise upon IQ1425 at the time and that does mean that some of the novelty was lost for me here, but that’s no through no fault of the current puzzle.

Comments are closed.