Inquisitor 1447: One and Only One by The Ace of Hearts

Preamble: One letter must be omitted, wherever it occurs, from the answer to each clue before entry in the grid; wordplay and letter counts refer to the mutilated forms entered. In clue order, omitted letters spell the definition of a twoword phrase to be written under the grid. Solvers should highlight one and only one of the four unclued lights.

Unusually, I had to read the preamble several times before even attempting to solve any clues and it took a while for the first one to fall. But fall they did, starting with 32a and then 27a. It took me a while to realise how the clueing worked. “… wordplay and letter counts refer to the mutilated forms entered.” Now, why did no-one tell me? 😉

Once I had a handle on how it all worked, it suddenly became less daunting and most of the clues fell fairly easily – a lot of them being obvious anagrams.

By now, two of the four-letter unclued entries were _ARE and _OAL looking like they wanted to be MARE and FOAL. The SW corner proved a bit more tricky therefore the unclued entry there was a problem. By this time, the long unclued entry had formed enough to want to be STABLE DOOR and the omitted letters definitely started with THE CHOICE OF. Sometime around now, the penny dropped and I realised the phrase is THE CHOICE OF THE THING OFFERED OR NOTHING. So the term HOBSON’S CHOICE sprang to mind and I remembered that it had something to do with horses. And, indeed, Chambers’ definition for Hobson’s Choice is “the choice of the thing offered or nothing” and the explanation is “(from Hobson, a Cambridge horsekeeper, who let out the horse nearest the stable door, or none at all).” So now I knew it was MARE to be highlighted as she’s right next to the stable door.

The SW corner still remained stubborn (as a mule) with 18d, 29a and 30d proving the trickiest and, of course, the third horse. The third horse is, of course, ARAB.

But as ever (well almost) everything fell into place and the grid was finished.

Now, the next question is, who is ACE OF HEARTS? I suspect that it might be our esteemed editor but there’s also something niggling at the back of my mind that Dutch League in 22a might indicate a “friend” from The Netherlands – maybe it is simply a “new kid on the block.” Whoever you are, A of H, thanks for a very enjoyable puzzle.