Ifor is becoming (has become?) quite a regular.
Preamble: Before solving, each Down clue must be made smaller by a single letter; the surface reading usually suffers. Reading these letters in correct sequence suggests the rule that governs how all Across answers are to be entered, as well as the non-word at 20. Apart from this entry the final grid and modified clues consist of real words; numbers in brackets refer to the cells available.
I’ll be winging my way to Greece when this blog comes out, so any response will be delayed.
“… must be made smaller …”: a strange turn of phrase. Hmm. After a few clues had been solved, it seemed that the across answers needed to lose a letter and then be scrambled before entry, but although that helped a bit it wasn’t much to go on.
Sometime later in the session, it became apparent that the rule was much tighter than that: an across answer had to drop the last letter and then be reversed to form the entry. After a little while longer, and almost simultaneously, I tumbled to the fact that the entry at the unclued 20a was DIMINISHING backwards, and that the letters removed from the down clues read THE LAW OF DIMINISHING, also reading in reverse order.
And there we have it (“… RETURNS“), although there was rather a lot of work still to do. The bottom-left quadrant was the last to be completed with KARAIT, KALUK(i)<, and DEPILAT(e)<. And a comment about the answer to 34a AFLAJ: how rare is it that the plural of a word is formed simply by reversing its first two letters?
Thanks must go to Ifor – to complete a grid in which all the across entries are real words that are reversals of real words absent the last letter is quite some feat.
Season’s greetings to setters, fellow bloggers, those who comment and those that merely lurk – and of course to John H (plus his flame-haired spouse Jane T) and the team of test-solvers. I’ll raise a glass of ouzo to you all.
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue | Answer | Wordplay | |
| 1 | Bits of wool nearly lost in weaving (4) | NOILS | [LOS(t) IN]* | |
| 4 | Like pitch (inside or out) (7) | RESINOID | [INSIDE OR]* | |
| 9 | Fury over length of rule (5) | REGNAL | ANGER< (fury) L(ength) | |
| 11 | Smoke that’s less satisfactory means unwrapping flexible pipe-cleaners, maybe (5) | ENEMAS | [SMOKE − OK (satisfactory) + (m)EAN(s)]* | |
| 12 | Refer to diamonds in previous bid (3) | VIDE | D(iamonds) in VIE (bid, obs) | |
| 13 | Helped out clearing one side of the ditch (4) | DELPH | [HELPED]* − (th)E | |
| 14 | Derived changes, accepting one part twice (7) | REDIVIDE | [DERIVED]* around I (one) | |
| 16 | Short review cut down nursing college (4) | RECAP | REAP (cut down) around C(ollege) | |
| 17 | Fuel from Montrose field inside holds (4) | ELDIN | (fi)ELD IN(side) | |
| 18 | Washed up and almost all lost ashore (4) | ALAND | [AND AL(l)]* (archaic) | |
| 19 | Lips left to finish taking over, away from the mouth (5) | ABORAL | LABRA (lips) with L(eft) to the end, around O(ver) | |
| 20 | See preamble | |||
| 25 | Occasionally kick full back over in US game involving packs (5) | KALUKI | (k)I(c)K (f)U(l)L (b)A(c)K all< | |
| 28 | Junction after ammeter’s positive terminal (4) | ANODE | NODE (junction) after A(mmeter) | |
| 30 | What speeds up electrons charging cell in accumulator (4) | LINAC | (cel)L IN AC(ccumulator) | |
| 31 | Thin prepared base as last contribution to pizza (4) | REEDY | READY (prepared) with E (base) for (pizz)A | |
| 33 | Rough stone concealed by sound decorative technique (7) | DRAGGING | RAGG (rough stone) in DING (sound) | |
| 34 | More than one foreign channel broadcast factual journal, taking ridiculous cut (4) | AFLAJ | [FACTUAL J(ournal)]* − [CUT]* | |
| 35 | Scrap over cakes (3) | PANS | SNAP< (scrap) | |
| 36 | Alphabetical magic with ordinary anagrams (5) | OGAMIC | [MAGIC + O(rdinary)]* | |
| 37 | One who moves slowly coming back with only one good reference (5) | REGARD | DRAGGER< (one who moves slowly) − G(ood) | |
| 38 | Strip down wax, adopting extreme pressure (7) | DEPILATE | DILATE (wax) around EP (extreme pressure) | |
| 39 | Standing up before client without legal right (4) | ERECT | ERE (before) CLIENT − LIEN (legal right) | |
| Down | ||||
| No. | Clue [excision] | [X] | Answer | Wordplay |
| 1 | Finding oneself [g]lad to capture knight in opening of game (7) | G | LANDING | LAD around N (knight) IN G(ame) |
| 2 | Source of dye reportedly see[n] in clothing of obedient employee (7) | N | INDICAN | C (see) in INDIAN (obedient employee) |
| 3 | Like no[i]se of rocket – can one fail to rise? (6) | I | OGIVAL | LAV (can) I (one) GO (fail) all< |
| 4 | Showy plants [h]ide first bare ground (6) | H | IRIDES | [IDE (f)IRS(t)]* |
| 5 | Islander [s]pied nun with aura (7) | S | NAURUAN | [NUN + AURA]* |
| 6 | Weaken manner with mischievous child in va[i]n (6) | I | IMPAIR | AIR (manner) with IMP (mischievous child) in front |
| 7 | Plunge into water for so[n]ar restored under submarine’s stern (4) | N | ENEW | NEW (restored) after (submarin)E |
| 8 | Here wa[i]ters divided tips in reasonable donations to each (6, 2 words) | I | RED SEA | R(easonabl)E D(onation)S + EA(ch) |
| 10 | In bridge, avoid playing after s[m]acking one acting like this? (11) | M | OVERBIDDING | [IN BRIDGE AVOID]* − both I (one) & A(cting) |
| 15 | Ancient realm’s leaders in exceptionally detailed old [i]mages (4) | I | EDOM | E(xceptionally) D(etailed) O(ld) M(ages) |
| 21 | Ai[d] film exposed broken bones (4) | D | ILIA | [AI (f)IL(m)]* |
| 22 | Inject runner suddenly taking [f]right from opposition (7) | F | SKIN-POP | SKI (runner) POP (suddenly) around (oppositio)N |
| 23 | False friend uncovered do[o]r A, then B, then C perhaps (7, 2 words) | O | IN ORDER | [(f)RIEN(d) DOR]* |
| 24 | Future spaceman’s [w]ill almost ready and lodged (7, 2 words) | W | DAN DARE | [READ(y)]* around AND |
| 25 | Fate marks out the be[a]st for snake (6) | A | KARAIT | KARMA (fate) − M(arks) + IT (the best) |
| 26 | Family rooting in desert in dirty galabiahs after scrubbing rough s[l]ab (6) | L | ALHAGI | [GALABIAHS]* − [SAB]* |
| 27 | Consider with reference to grad[e] before moving up a level (6) | E | REGARD | RE (with reference to) GRAD with A(nte) (before) moving earlier |
| 29 | Princely family’s [h]old over freedom of movement (6) | H | ORANGE | O(ld) before RANGE (freedom of movement) |
| 32 | Essence left off all mat[t]er, in brief (4) | T | ALMA | ALL − L(eft) + MA (mother, mater) |
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This was much more my sort of puzzle (than the roulette effort)!
Thank you!
Happy christmas!
Pleasant puzzle with some intricate parsing in parts.
Have a great Christmas all
An enjoyable puzzle that I remember finding a bit of a challenge. Merry Christmas all! 🙂
A slow start for me before I worked out what was going on, thanks to 12A and 14A, then a bit of a rush and a couple of enjoyable PDMs, from the extra letters and 20A, coming at just the right time to keep me going before a fiddly finish. I eventually gave up on parsing 22D, partly, perhaps, so I could say that the time spent didn’t seem worth it by this point.
As HG says, an impressive construction and a clever and most enjoyable puzzle.
Merry Christmas.
Luckily, I saw the trick rather early in the solving process – I just couldn’t believe the setter would be able to keep it up for the entire grid. Very impressive.
Since the endgame question has been much debated, I’d like to add that this one was very much to my taste: it made me smile and made complete sense.
Neil H @ 5 Totally agree, this was an endgame, finally, that did not depend on finding ridiculously obscure connections between groups of answers, but was based on a clever and, to me original, idea. Welcome back CLASSIC IQ !!!
HCNY All.
I found this hard work. I guessed the rule after solving two across solutions and after that it lost its sparkle. I filled the grid eventually but found it difficult and a bit of a slog. I had a few guesses that I could not fully explain and I had a wrong answer with IRIDAE instead of IRIDES.
The grid was very impressive indeed but the puzzle as a whole lacked a satisfying conclusion for me. There was only one “mystery object” to find, and once I found it the game was over.
Sorry to be a party-pooper but I enjoyed the roulette more than this.
Thanks to HG and my apologies to Ifor.
This solver was impressed too. Thanks all round! Like HolyGhost I clung for a long time to the weaker and not very helpful rule that across answers had to lose some letter and then be rearranged into other words. When the reversed DIMINISHING in the middle came clear, the actual rule seemed an exciting possibility – though as noted at @8, it was at first hard to believe Ifor could keep it up throughout. Some of the extra letters in Down clues were very deviously placed: nicely done.
Merry seasonal thingies to all …
Count us as another pair that enjoyed the Roulette puzzle despite missing the end game. However, we probably enjoyed this one even more. This was probably partly due to the amazing grid construction that David Langford has already mentioned.
Hope everyone enjoys their time over the festive season.
Thanks Ifor and HolyGhost – hope you are enjoying the ouzo!
As always, my thanks to blogger and commenters. One of the pleasures gained from setting Inquisitor puzzles is that of reading the exposition and subsequent feedback from informed enthusiasts. Seasonal best wishes to all of you, as well as to fellow-setters and of course to the editorial team.
Ifor