Preamble:
Steps to be followed:
1 Make amendments to asterisked clues in either of two ways before solving.
2 Read yellow cells in row order to find a theme word.
3 Complete the Central Column (CC) thematically.
4 Highlight five thematic words in the filled grid.
5 In keeping with Step 1, remove a 6-letter thematic phrase from the CC and replace the rest of the CC appropriately.
At each step and ignoring spaces, all grid entries consist of real words or phrases.
So here we are with the last Inquisitor of 2016 and my 14th blog – having blogged the first Inquisitor of the year published on January 2016.
So, it’s another PLENCH puzzle – is this becoming a tradition as the last puzzle of the year, having had a PLENCH as the last offering of 2015?
PL-EN-CH as most of us surely know by now is a collaboration of PLoy ENigmatist and CHarybdis, and Enigmatist is none other than that man of many guises, our esteemed editor Nimrod.
OK, let’s sort out this preamble one step at a time – although, of course, the actual solving process is never linear.
Step 1. Perhaps the most common way that clues are affected in these things is the addition and/or subtraction of a letter. 11a was my first solve giving me O as a superfluous letter. After a while I realised that they were all O’s or N’s (with the exception of 21a which was an R from asseRts) so a revisit to 21a told me that it was asseNts so yet another N. So all clues had an extra O or a missing N – hmm, why?
Step 2. Yellow cells took a while to appear but eventually spelled out FIRST-FOOT (the first person to enter a house after the beginning of the new year.)
Step 3. CC also took a little while to appear. Since I solved (most of) the top half first, it looked like it wanted to be THE FIRST NOEL – at which stage there were no L’s in the grid but 1a (LAMBERT) took care of that. Then THE THREE MAGI put itself forward as a candidate but 36a (COCOA) kicked that into touch. Eventually, of course, it became THE THRESHOLD, which your FIRST-FOOT has to cross in order to become one.
Step 4. Traditionally your FIRST-FOOT brings gifts. The most common being WHISKY (f2-k2), BREAD (e3-i3), SILVER (c7-h7), COAL (f10-f13) and SALT (e11-e14).
Step 5. The toughest bit for me. It took a bit longer than it probably should have to realise that the first step referred to out with the Old and in with the New. So we have to remove THETHRESHOLD leaving THRESH to be replaced by THE NEW. The title presumably refers to beginning a new year – I’ve probably missed something.
My only misgiving is that the thematic words to be highlighted in step 4 now have either one letter missing or one letter replaced which seems less than ideal. Otherwise, nice gentle fun for Hogmanay – thanks to all involved.
| Across |
|||
| Clue |
Entry |
Out/In |
Wordplay |
| 1 Optical unit I initially found switched to orange in lift (7) |
LAMBERT | LifT with I Found (initially) changed to AMBER (orange) | |
| *5 Put youngster in care of reactionary back [n]early (6) |
FOSTER | +N |
OF (rev: reactionary)+STERn (back; nearly) |
| *9 Glacial matter mostly above a feature of scree[n] (4) |
ICON | +N |
ICe (glacial matter; mostly)+ON (above) |
| *11 That m[o]an’s number one in high school (3) |
HIS | -O |
High School containing I (number one) |
| 13 Sky Sports misses second hook to lower jaw (4) |
KYPE | sKY (missing Second)+PE (sports) | |
| 14 Drink provided by Personnel in advance (5) |
SHRUB | HR (Human Resources: personnel) inside SUB (advance) | |
| *15 Study rector’s Easter[n] notice (4) |
READ | +N |
Rector+Eastern+AD (notice) |
| 16 Just the thing to get swathed in the old village bunting (4) |
YITE | IT (just the thing) inside YE (the; old) | |
| *17 Force and muscle needed for scenery piece that’s s[o]lid on stage (4) |
FLAT | -O |
Force+LATissimus dorsi |
| 19 Insult hurt PM, I suspect (7) |
TRIUMPH | HURT PM I (anag: suspect) | |
| 20 Interweaving of e.g. grass court action with view from rear (6) |
SINNET | TENNIS (court action; rev: with view from rear) | |
| *21 Asse[n]ts Yankee invested in all sections (3) |
AYS | +N |
All Sections containing Yankee |
| *22 Cha[n]t about Royal Opera House returning a set of props (7) |
SHORING | +N |
SING (chant) containing ROH (Royal Opera House; rev: returning) |
| *25 Security money contains shilling (he [o]wed Sybil) (5) |
BASIL (Fawlty) |
-O |
BAIL (security money) containing Shilling |
| *27 Go[o] round corrosion had same effect as acid on metal (6) |
ROTATE | -O |
ROT (corrosion)+ATE (effect acid had on metal) |
| 30 Routine tasks in shifts, including hourly at first (6) |
CHORES | CORES (shifts)containing Hourly (at first) | |
| *33 Section of lab alerted bar[o]n receiving its output? (5) |
BALE | -O |
laB ALErtded |
| *34 Lake set on [n]umber (4) | TARN | +N |
TAR (set)+Number |
| 35 Kicking heroin in Gabon, pinching dosh no more (7) |
HOOFING | Heroin+IN+Gabon containing FOO (dosh; no more) | |
| *36 Brow[n] features facing climbers on coming over arête (5) |
COCOA | +N |
Climbers On Coming Over Arête (first letters: features facing) |
| *38 Franc[o] a slippery customer? That makes sense (4) |
FEEL | -O |
Franc+EEL (a slippery customer) |
| 39 Scottish conservationists tagging their wool for camels (5) |
OONTS | NTS (National Trust for Scotland) after OO (wool; Scottish) | |
| 40 Lecturer is clearly obsessed with parliament! (7) |
ALTHING | Lecturer is consumed by A THING (clearly obsessed) | |
| 41 Joint attribute that comprises eccentricity (6) |
REEFER | REFER (attribute [verb]) containing Eccentricity | |
| 42 Passes on antique using tele-ad arranged with Sun (7) |
DELATES | TELE-AD (anag: arranged)+Sun | |
| Down |
|||
| Entry |
Out/In |
Wordplay |
|
| *1 Classical pianist “announced” by r[o]oster (5) |
LISZT | -O |
Sounds like LIST (roster) |
| 2 Indian sage and mango pickle with a lot of sweet potato (7) |
ACHARYA | ACHAR (mango pickle)+YAm (sweet potato; a lot of) | |
| *3 Maiden or gentleman served up a kind of da[n]ce (6) |
MORRIS | +N |
Maiden+OR+SIR (gentleman; rev: served up) |
| *4 Second instalments of rebate abrogated, obliged to draw back from du[n]es? (3) |
EBB | +N |
rEbate aBrogated oBliged (second letters: instalments) |
| 5 Sanctions suitable to take in adult society (5) |
FIATS | FIT (suitable) containing Adult+Society | |
| 6 Hitting high drum, good when introducing the onset of Yuletide (6) |
SKYING | SKIN (drum) containing Yuletide (onset of)+Good | |
| 7 Two years passing through can make Asian ready (5) |
TYIYN | TIN (can) containing YY (two Years) | |
| 8 Go off Enclosures Act, finally (5) |
REEST | REES (enclosures)+acT (finally) | |
| *10 Vera b[o]ats along with prow and skirt (8) |
WRAPOVER | -O |
VERA+PROW (anag: bats) |
| 12 This scorn of old politics might resolve split decision (5) |
SDEIN | SplitDEcIsioN (excluding letters of POLITICS) | |
| *17 Endless palaver that’s concerning after I ble[n]d (6) |
FUSION | +N |
FUSs (palaver; endless)+ON (concerning) containing I |
| *18 Unpent energy has hydrocarbon prese[n]t (7) |
PENTENE | +N |
unPENT ENErgy (hidden: has … present) |
| 21 One inciting Yankee, perhaps, to stick duty schedule up (7) |
ABETTOR | BET (yankee, perhaps) inside ROTA (duty schedule; rev: up) | |
| *23 Damaged t[o]enails projecting outwards (7) |
SALIENT | -O |
TENAILS (anag: damaged) |
| *24 Ice on rock and gravel shifted so[o]n (7) |
VERGLAS | -O |
GRAVEL (anag: shifted)+Son |
| *26 Go[o]dly place to excel – outside Reading, say? (6) |
SHRINE | -O |
SHINE (excel) containing Reading (as in the three R’s) |
| 28 Little weight given to Ancient Greek vessel carrying oil and ore over lake (4) |
OBOL | OBO (vessel carrying oil and ore)+Lake | |
| 29 Welsh river has topsy-turvy fish – that’s rum! (6) |
TAFFIA | TAFF (Welsh river)+AI (fish; rev: topsy-turvy) | |
| *30 Poor deacon’s forgotten deadeye’s bow and [n]arrow carrier (5) |
CANOE | +N |
dEACON (minus Deadeye (bow); anag: poor) |
| 31 Propose removing all parking, giving praise for the countryside (5) |
ROOSE | pROpOSE (minus all P‘s (parking)) | |
| *32 Company swallowed the B[o]ard’s quotation (5) |
COATE | -O |
COmpany+ATE (swallowed) |
| 37 Voiture, because Franglais? (3) |
CAR | (double def) | |
I enjoyed this, though it did give me uncomfortable memories of being sent out the back door of relative’s houses and having to come back in the front to be kissed by various middle-aged ladies. I was young, tall dark and handsome which according to Wkipedia was a prerequisite for the person chosen for this activity. Now I am no longer any of these things I can only wish that such things still happened.
Anyway back to the puzzle, I thought this was great fun and the series of steps gave continued interest throughout. I finished without using any electronic aids which was satisfying too.
I liked the way the instructions required us to follow “steps” to cross the threshold. Like kenmac I assume the title refers to beginning the new year.
Thank you Plench and kenmac.
Like Kenmac, I was left slightly puzzled about the integrity of the five highlighted theme words being destroyed by the revised central column … and felt that the preamble could have allowed for that being the case. I could only justify it to myself, particularly where SILVNR was involved, by regarding the final CC as an overlaid strip.
Apart from that, great fun … thanks to the Cerberean setter and our appropriately kilted blogger.
I thought that the title possibly referred to the five WORDS CROSSING the threshold to BEGIN the year ?
I found this very much at the easy end of the difficulty scale – a Saturday solve! The only problem being the one highlighted by Kenmac and Murray Glover. Highly unsatisfactory to have removed or changed a letter in the various first-footing gifts, leaving non-words. Are we missing something?
It is also very difficult to remove (i.e. rub out) a letter after having highlighted it, so I’m glad I didn’t follow the instructions in the order they were given!!
Thanks all round as usual! The phrase that came to mind after seeing FIRST-FOOT was Tennyson’s “Ring out the old, ring in the new” – hence vanishing Os and and appearing Ns. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one to be a bit worried by SILVNR etc.
Ditto to all the comments above – another gentle, but engaging, solve which for the second time in a row I completed without a dictionary – except to check the vowel in cell b4.
It’s good to see the inventiveness of the setters being matched by the inventiveness of the animations on the blogs.
Not much to add really. Not a very stiff challenge, but same delay sorting out step 5 – with a nice realisation of “Ring out the old, ring in the new” (and thanks to David Langford @4 for the Tennyson reference).
Impressed by those who didn’t need a dictionary – KYPE for example isn’t in my vocabulary.
Happy New Year to Pl-En-Ch, kenmac, and other who commented. Here’s to (a better-for-the-world) 2017.
Fair to say I did spend a good half hour or so leafing through a dictionary to confirm all my answers once I’d finished!
A gentle start to the new year, but I share others’ reservations about the finale. Don’t think we’ve ever before had to delete/amend words we’ve already highlighted.