York Attendees by Henri – Fifteensquared

Henri has set a number of puzzles for S&B events. He also set Inquisitor 1901 which was quite a challenge but very satisfying at the end when the theme revealed itself. Once again, Henri has given up his time in setting a puzzle for us for which he will receive no fee! Many thanks.

Preamble

Welcome to York! Eight Down answers of a kind must be modified before entry. An Across answer, similar but different to the eight, describes the state of the modified entries. Ten further clues contain an extra word; eight of these indicate a thematic word and the other two are useful for solving. The unclued entry is a ninth example of the theme. One grid entry that is outwardly ambiguous can be resolved by deduction. In the completed grid highlight an appropriate set of four contiguous cells.

If you were not able to attend the S&B at York but would like to solve his barred puzzle, click HERE.

The preamble gave us lots to think about for a start. As always, with puzzles like this, we picked up a pencil – not a pen – and got stuck in!

Well…… the top half went in quicker than the bottom. We needed a fair amount of checking on-line.

The extra words in the clues are path, circuit, channel, passage, obstacle, way, scandal, and opening – in [green square brackets] in the parsings below. These are all synonyms for GATE which we were asked to shade in. The other extra words are LOCAL and KNOWLEDGE.

Unfortunately we had very little of these last two words to fully grasp what the puzzle was about. Thankfully, we had enough of the last word to complete the puzzle apart from the bottom row.

We knew SHAMBLES and solved the clue fairly early on, so guessed that we may be looking at anagrams. However, we did not know all of the GATES or thoroughfares in York that were used for the anagrams so failed to spot the link.

STONE, DEAN, CASTLE, NESS, FISHER, CLAY, SWINE and MOOR.

We searched online using a number of tools but couldn’t find anything to fit in the bottom row. If only we had sorted out the relevance of the anagrams and the various ‘gates or thoroughfares’ in York we may have come across the amazing one featured at the bottom.

WHIP-MA-WHOP-MA

Quite an amazing feat to include all the thematic items in a barred grid. However, it did mean that there were quite a number of rather obscure (to us!) words which needed quite a bit of checking.

The title refers to the fact that the number of attendees at an event is called a GATE.

ACROSS
No.	Entry	Anagram
1	BE SO GOOD AS TO		Kindly old sea dog with boots off (12,5 words)
			An anagram (‘off’) of O (old) SEA DOG and BOOTS
11	RWANDA		South African settler taking wife by a country [path] (6)
			RAND (you ‘settle’ your bills in South Africa with rand) around or ‘taking’ W (wife) + A
12	SEED		Top player finishes off tennis [circuit] life despite demand (4)
			Last letters or ‘finishes’ of tenniS lifE despitE demanD
13	CRIER		Announcer relatively brittle, not without issue (5)
			CRIspER (relatively brittle) losing or ‘not’ ‘sp’ (sine prole – ‘without issue’)
14	ONETWO		Part of HBO network, [channel] producing hits (6)
			Hidden (‘part of’) in hbO NETWOrk
15	LAUNDER		Clean beer, and German replacing gallons (7)
			LAgER (beer) with UND (German for ‘and’) replacing ‘g’ (gallons)
16	WIN		Dated Penny when on vacation around Italy (3)
			WheN (missing the middle letters or ‘on vacation’) around I (Italy) – an old slang word for a penny
17	AGEIST		Not all language is totally discriminatory (6)
			Hidden (‘not all’) in languAGE IS Totally
18	ANSATE		[Passage] handled at the outset and now mostly satisfied (6)
			First letters or ‘at the outset’ of And Now + SATEd (satisfied) missing last letter or ‘mostly’
20	RETICLES		Tiercels flying to make sets of reference lines (8)
			An anagram (‘flying’) of TIERCELS
24	SHAMBLES		Slaughterhouse‘s Sabbath meat briefly consecrated (8)
			S (Sabbath) HAM (meat) BLESt (consecrated) missing last letter or ‘briefly’. I queried it at first because I could only think of ‘blessed’ until Bert sorted out the correct parsings.
26	TAILYE		Limit of Scot’s inheritance – the old dog comes first (6)
			YE (old version of the) with TAIL (dog) coming first
29	SENATE		Politicians ready in Japan at end of [opening] debate (6)
			SEN (Japanese currency or ‘ready’) AT and E (last letter or ‘end’ of debate)
30	ERK		Endless benefits for RAF employee (3)
			pERKs (benefits) missing first and last letter or ‘endless’. I’d never heard of ERKS but thankfully Bert remembered it from previous crosswords (not from his time in the ATC which is what I first thought).
32	CIRCLER		About the French Revolution, primarily it goes round (7)
			CIRC (about) LE (French for the) R (first or ‘primary’ letter of Revolution). We puzzled over this as we only knew ‘c’ and ‘ca’ as abbreviations for circa – ‘about’
33	TRICOT		Wrong about Curie returning material (6)
			TORT (wrong) about a reversal (‘returning’) of CI (curie)
34	HENRI		I have never disembowelled myself (5)
			HavE N~~eve~~R missing the middle letters or ‘disembowelled’ + I (myself)
36	TAKY		Tasteless, heartless – attractive once (4)
			TAcKY (tasteless) missing middle letter or ‘heartless’
37	OREIDE		Men at Muslim festival, one working away making alloy (6)
			OR (other ranks – ‘men’) EID (Muslim festival) onE (losing ‘on’ – ‘working’ away). I always feel a bit cheated when a setter requires you to remove some letters and you are left with just one.
DOWN
No.	Entry	Anagram
2	ENRAGE		Incense smoke can clear [obstacle] via wafting here, ultimately (6)
			Last or ‘ultimate’ letters of smokE caN cleaR viA waftinG herE
3	SRI		South Indonesia honorific (3)
			S (South) RI (Republic of Indonesia)
4	OWENISM		Eccentric, winsome social philosophy (7)
			An anagram (‘eccentric’) of WINSOME
5	ONSET	STONE	Maybe Jasper Carrott finally getting into second joke (5)
			T (last or ‘final’ letter of Carrott) in S (second) ONE (joke)
6	ODORATE		Oddly good-natured chucking dung [way] out, it’s smelly (7)
			An anagram (‘oddly’) of gOOdnATuRED missing or ‘chucking’ an anagram (‘out’) of ‘dung’
7	DANE	DEAN	Judo master welcomes English clergyman (4)
			DAN (Judo master) around or ‘welcoming’ E (English)
8	SETWALL		Get money for protecting Glaswegian couple’s plant (7)
			SELL (get money for) around or ‘protecting’ TWA (Scots form of two – ‘couple’)
9	TEWIT		Winger favourite with crowds (5)
			Hidden (‘crowded by’) in favouriTE WITh
10	ECLATS	CASTLE	Rook, one having disease covering sides of tail (6)
			CASE (‘one having disease’) around or ‘covering’ TaiL (first and last letters only or ‘sides’)
12	SENS	NESS	Head is old-fashioned, not outwardly spontaneous (4)
			NE (obsolete or ‘old fashioned’ word for ‘not’) S~~pontaneou~~S (first and last letters or ‘outwardly’)
19	WAIKIKI		Beach with cabin seen regularly on Dee (7)
			W (with) cAbIn (alternate letters only or ‘seen regularly’) and KIKI (as in Kiki Dee – not Jack which is all Joyce could think of)
21	ELECTRA		Complex woman chosen over god (7)
			ELECT (chosen) on top of or ‘over’ RA (god)
22	CONCEDO		I admit cocaine [scandal] after party (7)
			C (cocaine) ONCE (after) DO (party)
23	SHERIF	FISHER	Mostly enthusiasm surrounding novel Carrie, perhaps (6)
			FIRe (enthusiasm) missing last letter or ‘mostly’ around SHE (novel)
25	ITERUM		Article about [local] sport again (6)
			ITEM (article) round RU (sport)
27	ARRAH		Emotion expressed when a career finally leads to Royal Albert Hall (5)
			A R (last of ‘final’ letter of career) and RAH (first letters or ‘leads’ to Royal Albert Hall
28	LACY	CLAY	Could originally beat down fighter before he was ‘the greatest’ (4)
			C (first or ‘original’ letter of could) LAY (beat down)
29	SINEW	SWINE	Women gatecrashing function in Essex? (5)
			W (women) in (‘gatecrashing’) SINE (function) An Essex is a breed of pig.
31	ROOM	MOOR	Second rule about love fell (4)
			MO (second) R (rule) around O (love)
35	NEP		Author’s [knowledge] about regional catmint (3)
			A reversal (‘about’) of PEN (author)

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