Phi has now reached a half-century of puzzles since they were renamed as Inquisitor a decade ago.
Preamble: The bookshelf held seven books but three are missing. Unclued answers, including 1 across, identify the books that are present, allowing the missing book titles to be inferred and written below the solution grid. Further hints can be derived from words formed from letters that are to be removed from some clues (always leaving real words, if occasionally the sense suffers) before solving. Four consecutive answers (to normal clues) are entered in jumbled form; their unchecked letters provide appropriate connections. Chambers (2016) is recommended, particularly the physical edition.
I managed only 2 answers (both downs) on the first pass late one evening, but then solved 5 of the first 7 acrosses when I went back to the puzzle the following day, giving me REVERSE maybe as the first word from the removed letters, or at least part of it. More answers came bit by bit.
I didn’t make too many notes, but it certainly wasn’t a breeze. Nevertheless, towards the end of the session I had just a bit of a hole to fill in the bottom right corner, as well as the now-identified four jumbled entries to sort out. But I did have the rest of the removed letters giving BLACKMAIL and MARY [sic] – I found the other R later.
Guesses (confirmed by pattern matches) yielded the unclued entries (not “unclued answers“!) as BACITRACIN, FRONTIER, HOLARCTIC, RAN?, TAKAMAKA, WIFFLE BALL, and ZYTHUM (or possibly MYTHUS) – nothing immediately striking there – and there proved to be no ambiguity in the jumbles as the unclued unchecked letters in the four answers, ELITIST, MATTE, ME-TOO, BAZOOKA, were all repeats of T or O.
I was puzzled by “the unclued 1 across” and thought it might be all of the top row … and I mused on TOTO TOTO, and on TOOT TOOT, and even OTTO OTTO. And what to make of REVERSED BLACKMAIL MARY (still without its other R)? Why was the physical edition of Chambers recommended? As for BACITRACIN etc., I was getting nowhere … on Monday … or Tuesday … or on much of Wednesday until I got in touch with my Listener colleague in Leicester.
Between us, we stumbled on the fact that ZYTHUM was the last entry in the dictionary and A (“the unclued 1 across”) was the first, so we were dealing with an imaginary seven-volume reference work, the volumes present being A TO BACITRACIN, FRONTIER TO HOLARCTIC, RANT TO TAKAMAKA, and WIFFLE BALL TO ZYTHUM. Thus the volumes missing are BACK TO FRONT = REVERSED, HOLD TO RANSOM = BLACKMAIL, and TAKE TO WIFE = MARRY.
Thanks Phi – a neat idea and puzzle; I’m afraid that I can’t say that I enjoyed that much it as it took ages for the penny to drop – but that probably says more about me than you.
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue [removal] | [X] | Answer | Wordplay |
| 2 | Ineffectual chaps at the end of the line[r]? (7) | R | BUFFERS | double defintion |
| 5 | M[e]an, young, bumping off one bird (4) | E | SWAN | SWAIN (young man) − I (one) |
| 8 | Come to grief after the French increase speed (6, 2 words) | LET RIP | TRIP (come to grief) after LE (the, Fr) | |
| 9 | A bore about T[V] costume (6) | V | ATTIRE | A TIRE (bore) around T |
| 10 | US workers taking or[e] to research centre (5) | E | LABOR | OR after LAB (research centre) |
| 11 | Available [r]ill entering individual river (7, 2 words) | R | ON OFFER | OFF (ill) in ONE (individual) R(iver) |
| 12 | Old spiny plant keeping soldier[s] in endless pain (6) | S | ACANTH | ANT (soldier) in ACH(e) (pain) |
| 13 | Old Spanish province recalled in main files (4) | IFNI | (ma)IN FI(iles) < | |
| 14 | Ohio Bas[e]s Getting Computer Technology (notice in paper) (4) | E | OBIT | O(hio) B(ass) + IT (computer technology) |
| 16 | Supporting top hat to retain position when rolling over (7) | ELITIST | TILE (hat) around SIT (position) all< | |
| 17 | Dull end to game with extra time (5) | MATTE | MATE (end to game) with extra T(ime) | |
| 18 | Encountered ducks following the crowd? (5) | ME-TOO | MET (encountered) O+O (ducks) | |
| 19 | Novel, perhaps about extreme characters with a gun (7) | BAZOOKA | BOOK (novel, perhaps) around AZ {extreme characters} + A | |
| 21 | Kiwi bird: popular sport locally, repeatedly (4) | RURU | RU (popular sport {in NZ}) repeated | |
| 25 | American joke[D] with Scot backing Middle Easterner (4) | D | ARAB | A(merican) + BAR< (joke, Scot) |
| 26 | Opening for Sexton [B]lake, engaged by mate at sea – something fis | B | SAMLET | S(exton) +L(ake) in [MATE]* |
| 27 | B[l]og recalled one thousand prepared set meals (7) | L | NACKETS | CAN< (lavatory, bog) K (one thousand) [SET]* |
| 28 | Carnival with Henry, the Australian clown (5) | GALAH | GALA (carnival) + H(enry) | |
| 29 | Stagehand cut short keeping se[a]t in working order – charm requir | A | GRIGRI | GRI(p) around RIG (set in working order) |
| 30 | In pulling out, think up a variant description of Afghan (6) | PAKHTU | [THINK UP A − IN]* | |
| 31 | Japanese people requiring [c]are in University (4) | C | AINU | A(re) IN U(niversity) |
| 32 | [K]en brought in alarming old theatrical display (7) | K | SCENARY | EN in SCARY (alarming) |
| Down | ||||
| No. | Clue [removal] | [X] | Answer | Wordplay |
| 1 | Calms places after [m]all closes early (6) | M | ALLAYS | LAYS (places) after AL(l) |
| 2 | Go pale, having dropped line [a]shore (5) | A | BEACH | BEACH (go pale) − L(ine) |
| 3 | Sexy hour[i], besetting river and its mouth (5) | I | FIRTH | FIT (sexy) H(our) around R(iver) |
| 4 | Finish reducing excellent public areas (5) | STOAI | STO(p) (finish) AI (A1, excellent) | |
| 6 | What [L]A stands for – bringing in new sporting venue (5) | L | ARENA | AREA (what A stands for) around N(ew) |
| 7 | Local man surrounding [m]ire, rearing flowering plants (6) | M | NERIUM | MUN (man, dialect) around IRE all< |
| 15 | [A]live, pursued by Australian admirers (5) | A | BEAUS | BE (live) before AUS(tralian) {Ch. has AUS as abbrev for Australia, not Australian} |
| 18 | Practitioner of African medicine, b[r]and adopted by old woman (6) | R | MGANGA | GANG (band) in MA (old woman) |
| 20 | Uranium seldom cut with iodine as source of poison (5) | URARI | U(ranium) RAR(e) (seldom) + I(odine) | |
| 22 | They take Queen aboard American vessel (5) | USERS | ER (Queen) in USS (American vessel) | |
| 23 | Article below line[r] is marine debris (5) | R | LAGAN | AN (article) after LAG (line) |
| 24 | Chum, around start of [y]ear, offering lots to think about (5) | Y | MEATY | MATY (chum) around E(ar) |
|
|
||||
Well, I thought this was an absolute joy, for much the same reasons that you didn’t it seems, HG.
I’d also found it slow going but had battled through to get most of the unclued words and hidden message (including the mysterious MARY). What on earth could the connection be? FRONTIER? WIFFLEBALL? ARTHUR RANK??? I was reaching the point of grumpiness at the obscurity of the connections but then I chanced upon the likelihood of the TOs and a rapid series of PDMs had everything falling into place, revealing what a neat and clever puzzle it was.
I’ve always enjoyed Phi’s standard crosswords, but I can remember being slightly disappointed by a couple of his IQs in the past (hgh expectations, probably). Certainly not this one – an absolute gem to my mind. And impressively close to being symmetric, given the constraints.
Started well, but ground to a complete halt when faced with what the “books” were. I deduced the first four unclueds, left to right, guessed at ARTHUR and got nowhere near WIFFLE BALL. Got the hints, but they meant nothing to me. Even if my Chambers had been brand new, instead of the battered, duct-taped 2011 it is, I would still never have twigged what was wanted. How many IQ enthusiasts can afford to buy the latest “physical” edition of Chambers every time one is published ?
This puzzle combined both of my current crossword nightmare features … a redundant letters message and a fiendishly obscure “Only Connect” end game. Not identifying the books in the preamble as imaginary ones was also unfair ? My knowledge of REAL books is pretty sketchy, having lost the ability to read any book right through when I was thirteen, but FRONTIER, BLACKMAIL and ARTHUR were ringing vague bells.
Hats off to OPatrick … I think it is almost certain that you will be getting some six-weeks-delayed chocolates ! I hope you’re not diabetic.
I got the volumes we were looking for, but must admit to never actually working out what the removed letters were trying to tell us. I’ve got a physical edition of an older Chambers, which was missing WIFFLE BALL, together with an up to date electronic version, which meant I was only ever 99% sure I’d got it right. About middling as far as difficulty goes, with the end game more so?
I enjoyed the puzzle though, like H___G____, it took a while for all the pennies to drop.
The last paper copy of Chambers I have (though I’ve misplaced it) was around 2010. I don’t really have much intention of buying 2016.
I imagine that the words referenced are the head words on various pages. i.e. the first and last entries on each page. So, for example, HOLARCTIC is the last head word on, say, page 198 and HOLD is the first head word on page 199.
I enjoyed this and the penny drop moment when I twigged the theme was a very satisfying one. My elderly Chambers doesn’t include WIFFLE BALL but that didn’t hold things up too much thanks to the preamble’s specific reference to the 2016 edition. Like others here, I don’t bother buying a new edition every time one comes out.
I spent some time trying to attach significance to the words above and below the appearances of TO (e.g. BEACH TO URARI)and gad to give up with the slight feeling that I’d missed something. I’m grateful to the blogger for confirming that I hadn’t.
The usual thanks to Phi for a challenging but rewarding puzzle and HG for explication. That 2016 Chambers recommendation had me worrying that it might be an essential reference, but I enjoyed the deepening sense of bafflement as the unclued entries emerged — WIFFLE BALL came first, leading to doomed attempts to relate this to some series of seven real books. The BLACKMAIL hint put Arthur Ransome into my head, but the Swallows and Amazons sequence is too long and, I’m sure, devoid of wiffle balls. And I too tried to read the whole top line as a cryptic: A BUFFERS SWAN does have the air of cryptic wordplay …
Eventually the repeated TOs in the middle row suggested an imaginary encyclopedia, and BACK TO FRONT leapt out. Neat that RAN? remained uncertain until one deduced the second missing book. Luckily ZYTHUM is the last word in my various old Chamberses as well as (presumably) 2016.
HG: in “… no ambiguity in the jumbles as the unclued letters in the four answers …”, I think it should be “unchecked letters”.
Very much enjoyed this one.
kenmac @4 – I doubt the referenced words are the headers for particular pages – taht would be a remarkable coincidence – they are the words that sandwich the missing volumes, which are well(ish)-known phrases. I assume the need for the 2016 edition was the absence of wiffleball from earlier versions (I’m betting that Phi was frustrated to discover this at a late stage in the puzzle’s evolution) and the need for it to be physical just that you’d never actually notice the consecutiveness of alphabetical words in an online version.
Murray, I don’t send in entries anymore – too many wasted postage stamps – but yes, it’s 90%+ cocoa solids only for me :(.
It’s very clever, particularly the three phrases, and I wasn’t within a mile of it, despite solving all the unscrambled clues. Lacking Chambers 2016, I came to assume that the unclued entries were entered thematically, so stopped thinking about actual words. Like others, I also was expecting real books.
Thanks to Phi and HG.
Really enjoyed this, especially that was for me a genuine PDM, after trying in vain to find literary connections between the holarctic, wiffleball and the rest. I was sure for a long time the theme was Harry Potter (seven books (or is that films ?),obscure games etc.) or maybe His Dark Materials (Holarctic etc.) and I even went as far as thinking about Wodehouse with references to TOOT TOOT ! Fortunately, the unclued entries were mostly rather singular words without alternatives (except RANT, of course)which made the final grid entries a tad easier, along with the hint to use the physical edition of Chambers.
Biggest gripe, as others have said, is that these are volumes of a book, rather than books in themselves – I guess maybe Phi thought that would give the game away too cheaply, so left it to folk to persevere !
Many thanks to Phi and HG
There’s now a setter’s blog on my site at
http://phionline.net.nz/setters-blogs/bookshelf/
(Hooray – I can actually access my site from my own computer again. There are still some oddities, but normal service should be resumed this weekend.)
David Langford @6: ‘unclued’ now -> ‘unchecked’, thanks. (I was probably fixated on the irritating habit some have in the preamble of referring to ‘unclued answers’.)
And I don’t understand the references to Arthur in the comments. Anyone enlighten me?
HG @11: Arthur, I guess, is just a word which would fit in place of Zythum in the grid.
Ditto to most of what was said above. Having spotted the first and last words, we got stuck on them being header words as most of them were at the tops of pages in our slightly older Chambers. We assumed that if we had the newer edition the others would be too but realised in the end. It seemed so tough that we did send this one off and hope we squeezed in by the deadline.
OPatrick shouldn’t get too excited too quickly. I won some of these chocolates in 1473, result published 7 weeks ago come this Saturday.
My doorstep remains unchocolated. However, as an occasional poster elsewhere I have learned that posting on a forum leads almost instantly
to the question (or anxiety) raised in the post being quickly resolved, I expect the chocs will turn up tomorrow. Here’s hoping anyway.
So, wiffleball was a feature not a bug then, Phi.
1473, Mike? Some wait.
Mike@14: Only 7 weeks? We were among the winners of no 1464 and are still waiting, but I’ve been assured this week by somebody from the paper that the chocolate is on its way.
As for this one, it’s our second DNF of the year and we’re still only in March! We filled the grid, apart from RANG-, fairly quickly but never twigged how to finish off. This will inevitably sound like sour grapes, but I think that in the intro “books” should have been in quotes or replaced with “volumes”. And “A to Bacitracin”, etc are surely not “titles” but descriptions of the contents of specific volumes within a multi-volume work which has one title, e.g. “Oxford English Dictionary”.
We completed the grid abd notices the Ts and Os but couldn’t work out what it was all about. Thanks to a sleepless night, Bert was able to lie in the dark pondering the relevance of A in the first column. The penny eventually dropped.
Joyce who slept soundly was then very impressed as well when the puzzle was explained!
Many thanks Phi – an enjoyable but tricky solve but worth the effort.
Thanks also to HolyGhost.
Apologies for the typos – too early in the morning?
Thought this was a great idea very well done. Don’t remember the thought processes but was on to the dictionary lark early on after deciding 1A was merely A, and fitting the TOs in. Very satisfying, right at the end, to identify the missing volumes, although was initially panicking that online dictionaries wouldn’t have a way to view entries sequentially. Fortinately found a site that did, then after weeding out some proper nouns found the required words.
Great stuff!
A 100% complete solve for me with only a dictionary for aid! My wife gave me a new copy of Chambers for Christmas last year so I even got to use the correct edition.
This was a perfect IQ for me: hard, but not impossible to finish without help from a computer. The puzzle succumbed gradually over a few days, revealing itself bit by bit but keeping the mystery going right until the end.
Thank you Phi, great stuff! Thanks to HG too.