Did anyone see this article on crossword solvers in the Indy Online on Thursday 1 September? I fit squarely into the profile they discovered, do you?
Kruger is one of our most prolific setters but his offerings seem to come mostly on odd numbered Inquisitors, so I haven’t blogged a puzzle of his for nearly two years. The grid fill was straightforward, though with some tricky clues and unusual words (PYGARG and COHOG for instance), the endgame less so. The rubric read:
Ignoring articles, the unclued clockwise perimeter contains a number of thematically linked items. Letters in the five shaded cells can be used to form another one, to be written below the grid. Except for the first and last of both across and down clues, wordplay in each clue yields an extra letter not to be entered into the grid. In order, these letters give an instruction. Unchecked perimeter letters could make SO-SO GOALIES AWAIT GOOF.
The solved clues led to the instruction HIGHLIGHT FOURTEEN CELLS IDENTIFYING FF. The last two letters were a bit baffling, very loud, following? A search in Chambers led to the definition of ff as “Following pages, lines etc” So the title of the puzzle could be read as “By FF”. Who was FF?
By this point the red shaded squares contained the letters ACBOR – CAROB, COARB or COBRA? Cobra seemed the most likely. The perimeter letters were -C-N-DE-S-FI-EN-G-T-A-OR-F-H-ND-G-OF-AR-I-T-F-OD, was I looking for snakes (like cobra)? Or trees/fruit/chocolate (like carob)? Or some ecclesiastical Irish connections (like coarb)? I couldn’t find any of these things, except possibly N?G – NAG the name of the cobra in the Kipling story Rikki-tikki-tavi.
I re-read the rubric (always a good idea when stuck!) and noticed the opening words “Ignoring articles”. Could “The Cobra” have some significance? A quick Google revealed that this was the title of a novel by Frederick Forsyth. Result! By FF = By Frederick Forsyth. Now I am no FF expert, but I have read The Odessa File, and that was there in the perimeter, starting in the top row, cell 5. I resorted (as usual) to Wikipedia for the Forsyth bibliography, which led to the identification of the following novels, starting from the top left, reading clockwise:
The Icon, The Odessa File, The Negotiator, The Afghan, The Dogs of War, The Fist of God
The Cobra was to be written below the grid.
Slight problem with the highlighting – Frederick Forsyth is 16 letters, and we only had to highlight 14. I found Forsyth on one diagonal, and then Freddie on a parallel diagonal to the left. Is Kruger a friend of Forsyth and knows him by his nickname? Anyway that completed this week’s Inquisitor. Quite fun, but I thought the PDM lacked the Wow! factor.
THE COBRA
Across |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue (definition) | Answer | Wordplay Extra letter in brackets {X} | X |
| 8 | Used oil and funnel (6) | DOLINA | [OIL AND]* The dictionary does not link dolina and funnel directly, but the thesaurus has the reference to funnel as a “swallow hole” (= dolina) | |
| 10 | Check the woman’s receding heartbeat (7) | REPULSE | {H}ER (the woman’s) reversed + PULSE (heartbeat) | H |
| 11 | Queen. yielding empire ultimately to independence, captured by painting – a person of marked individuality (8) | ORIGINAL | REGINA (queen) with (empir)E replaced by I(ndependence) in O{I}L | I |
| 12 | An element of strange ongoings (4) | NEON | Hidden in straN{G}E ONgoings | G |
| 14 | Small groups of different cells evict monarch from active shelter in Iceland (6) | ISLETS | IS (Iceland) round S{H}ELT(er) (evict ER = monarch) | H |
| 16 | Strong point in place of ancient mound (5) | FORTE | FOR (in place of) + TE{L} (= tell, an ancient mound) | L |
| 17 | Clam coastguard found without Union member (5) | COHOG | CG (coastguard) round OH{I}O – a state in the original Union | I |
| 20 | Royalists fleeing France ignoring European rulers (5) | EMIRS | EMI{G}R(é)S (royalists fleeing France) minus E(uropean) | G |
| 22 | Tramp‘s vein (5) | TREAD | T{H}READ (vein) | H |
| 23 | Fools benevolent creature (3) | NIS | NI{T}S (fools) | T |
| 24 | Desert corrupt firm pocketing last of fortune on time (5) | MERIT | [{F}IRM]* round (fortun)E + T(ime) | F |
| 26 | Time non-commissioned soldiers hiding beside special carts (5) | DRAYS | DAY (time) round {O}R (Other Ranks) + S(pecial) | O |
| 28 | Situation that has unperceived significance in your condition (5) | IRONY | [IN YO{U}R]* | U |
| 30 | In the main rodents mostly bite (5, 2 words) | AT SEA | {R}ATS + EA(t) | R |
| 32 | African leader unable to speak about immoral woman from the east (6) | MUGABE | MU{T}E (unable to speak) round BAG (immoral woman) reversed | T |
| 34 | Adore freshly prepared course (4) | ROAD | [ADOR{E}]* | E |
| 35 | Non-masculine ambition that is failing from the beginning (8, 2 words) | AB INITIO | [A(m)BITION I{E}]* | E |
| 36 | Plant community‘s key beside diverted River Nene (7) | ALTERNE | ALT (key on keyboard) + [R NE{N}E]* | N |
| 37 | He’s astonished alewife spills water (6) | GASPER | GASPEREAU (the alewife) minus EAU (water) | |
Down |
||||
| No. | Clue (definition) | Answer | Wordplay Extra letter in brackets {X} | X |
| 1 | Unionist leaves island in wagon (4) | CORF | CORFU (island) minus U(nionist) | |
| 2 | When it’s dark in Perth lookout takes in location of spies? Without question (5) | NIGHT | NIT (Australian lookout) round G{C}HQ minus Q(uestion) | C |
| 3 | Fish emerging from overturned canoe in Adriatic (5) | DANIO | Hidden reversed in citairDA NI {E}Onac | E |
| 4 | It destroys emergency room surgical device (6) | ERASER | ER (emergency room) + {L}ASER (surgical device) – anagrammed (it destroys) – &lit-ish clue | L |
| 5 | Mention devious person in special chapter (6) | SPEECH | EE{L} (devious person) in SP(ecial) CH(apter) | L |
| 6 | Circulation stimulator that could produce regularly sober flushes at hospital (10) | FLESH-BRUSH | [{S}OBER FLUSHES]* + H(ospital) | S |
| 7 | Is moon matter of a different atomic make—up? (8) | ISOTOPIC | IS + {I}O (moon) + TOPIC (matter) | I |
| 9 | Perceive rising energy in core (4) | NIFE | FIN{D} (perceive) reversed + E(nergy) | D |
| 13 | Resolve to eat more skin of excellent fruit (10, 2 words) | TREE TOMATO | [TO EAT MOR{E} E(xcellen)T]* | E |
| 15 | Rabies affected lass outside of New York (5) | LYSSA | [LASS]* round {N}Y | N |
| 18 | Numbers Gregorian psalm-tunes (4) | ONES | {T}ONES (Gregorian psalm-tunes | T |
| 19 | One of Remus’s animals broke lower rib and foot (8, 2 words) | BRER WOLF | [LOWER R{I}B F(oot)]* | I |
| 20 | Acquire religious reverence by end of mission (4) | EARN | {F}EAR (religious reverence) + (missio)N | F |
| 21 | Philosophical principle leads to disaster in African country (5) | INDIA | {Y}IN (philosophical principle) + D(isaster) I(n) A(frica) | Y |
| 25 | Ibex possibly injured piggy with rheumatoid arthritis (6) | PYGARG | [P{I}GGY RA]* | I |
| 27 | Made fun of girlfriend abruptly over stoop (6) | RIBBED | BIR(d) (girlfriend abruptly) + BE{N}D (stoop) | N |
| 29 | Pretend heads of foreign nations annexing Scottish island (5) | FEIGN | F(oreign) N(ations) round EI{G}G (Scottish island) | G |
| 30 | Water buffalo in remote centre of Panama (4) | ARNA | {F}AR (remote) + (Pa)NA(ma) | F |
| 31 | Jock’s voice, though muffled by facial hair (5) | TAISH | I{F} (though) in TASH (facial hair) | F |
| 33 | Area of operation in Fife abandoned (4) | FIEF | [FIFE]* | |
Thanks Hihoba for the blog.
Chambers Dictionary has DOLINA as a swallow hole and if you look that up it defines it as a funnel or fissure through which water passes.
The solve was all good fun but we agree with your comment about the PDM. We noticed ODESSA FILE and knew the author but we needed a wiki search to confirm the rest. It took us rather too long to find FREDDIE.
Thanks Kruger for the puzzle.
Thanks for the blog. I solved all the solvable clues, deciphered the instruction but couldn’t get any further than that. None of the letters around the perimeter made any sense with the unchecked ones, so that’s a fail. The NW was the last parrot be solved, because for a very long time I had a perfectly parsed AR(u)BA at1d. Grr.
Ha! Parrot!! ….part to..
Thanks Kruger, very enjoyable.
Thanks Hihoba for the blog. Good to have 27d explained. I didn’t understand the girlfriend part and thought that ‘rib’ referred to the slang term re: Adam & Eve.
Timely story online this morning:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/14/frederick-forsyth-to-stop-writing-thrillers
Like our parrot-solver @2, I too was held up for some time, having complimented myself on getting AR(U)BA. Makes you wonder how many other different words with same parsing there might be … there’s an idea for a setter ?
I’m afraid I simply wrote COBRA beneath grid, as per the “five shaded cells” and articles ignored in perimeter. Was this wrong ?
When I was doing National Service in West Africa, I turned back my bed one night and found a dead cobra in it … someone’s idea of a joke.
Hihoba asked about the profile of crossword solvers. I guess that I fit into the maths/science area, but I think I inherited my interest from my mother and grandfather, who both were (or are, in the case of my mother at 96) unable to resist a crossword grid. Neither of them mathematically inclined…
My way into the theme was a guess at “Dogs of War” in the perimeter combined with Cobra – though I needed Google to get to Frederick Forsyth and the other titles of his novels. (By the way Hihoba, that should be Dogs and not Gods in your list of novels).
Thanks to setter and blogger.
Thank you John Lowe #6 – I’ll make the necessary alteration!
That Dogs/Gods typo caused me to panic briefly on first reading the blog – thought I might have ruined my entry with a basic error!
Ditto the moment’s panic about Gods of War, but Dogs of War was my way in, followed by Google, so only a brief one. It feels like there should be some significance to the arrangement of the letters FREDDIE FORSYTH in two diagonals, to tie up the end-game. I wondered if a ‘\\’ was the symbol for ‘and the following (lines)’, or FF, but I can’t see it anywhere.
We didn’t have time for these when we worked so have slowly been working through them in our retirement. Usually we finish or almost finish then check this blog. We filled the grid, saw “dogs of war” but couldn’t find any other Shakespeare quotes. We got cobra, saw naga in the perimeter and got completely sidetracked, looked for it on this blog and it wasn’t there! We realised that for the first time we were accidentally doing this week’s. Finally we spotted Freddie Forsyth in the grid. Neither of us have read any of his books but I vaguely thought Dogs of War might be one so Google took us the rest of the way.
Always pathetically grateful (so thanks to Kruger) if I can finish the thing! Even after solving all clues I was baffled by the perimeter, and had by then thought of one more shaded-squares anagram that Hihoba missed: BROCA the French scientist, another dead end. Systematic hunting for something meaningful in the diagonals eventually disclosed our author’s name, and I remembered ODESSA FILE but had to look up most of the others.
I read the preamble as saying that the five shaded cells were to form another title-ignoring-article to be written below the grid, so confidently wrote COBRA rather than THE COBRA.
Responding to a couple of comments, notably Dvid Langford at #7, I am unsure about whether there should be a “THE” written below the grid. My reasoning was that the thematically linked items were the titles of novels, so the one written below the grid should be. The words “Ignoring articles” I took to refer to the perimeter. I think there is an argument to either include or exclude the article, so I hope that the potential ambiguity does not affect the competition (which I still don’t enter, despite being a chocolate lover!)
I also spotted Dogs of War, and remembered it in the house I grew up in. Then it was hello Google.
I might have found Freddie Forsyth in the grid, if I hadn’t entered ‘drays’ as ‘drags’…
My thanks to Hihoba and other contributors to this thread.
I am not a friend of Forsyth though have read and enjoyed all of his books.
The intention was to only write COBRA below the grid as that is what the 5 shaded letters make.
Thanks, Kruger, for the great puzzle, and the news about COBRA … I felt that that was the logical option, and am glad not to have had my tenuous chance of the chocolates dashed.