Inquisitor 1512: Boom and Bust by Ploy

by

Ploy is an infrequent setter in the Inquisitor series although he has been in the setting stable since 2007 when he set Puzzle no 2.  This is the eighth Inquisitor set by Ploy..  The only one I blogged before, 1237 in July 2012 had a theme of Telstar (satellite and pop group).

 

 

 

The preamble was fairly long and stated "One letter must be lifted from each of four across clues into the clue above before either can be solved, the letters spelling a word.  Before eight down clues can be solved, a word must travel from left to right.  The eight initial letters spell two more words.  The three words together describe successive stages towards achieving a goal.  Their letters must be rearranged to thematically complete an unclued grid entry.  A second unclued grid entry must be complete and moved appropriately.  At all time, all grid entries represent real words or phrases"

Well that’s clear then!.  Let’s look at the clue lengths and the grid.  Five clues have lengths shorter than the available cells and two have lengths longer than the available cells and all of them intersect row 6.  All of these clues are down clues, so presumably soemthing odd is going on near row 6.  That helps.

I identified a couple of mobile letters early on.  In 6 across, ‘county‘ looked ripe for being ‘country‘ with ‘wagers‘ becoming ‘wages‘ in 7 across.   That gave us an R.  Also YEARN was a likely answer to 18 so we needed an I from 19 across.  Ali to Al was a good bet letting us deduce CALATHI for the entry.

The other two letters fell fairly easily as ‘wheedling’ looked ripe for change in 37 across as did ‘suites‘ in 42 across.

The letters in the acrosses therefore spelled out RIDE.

I found the down clues more intractable in terms of identifying words to move, but I got there in the end.  The more obvious one’s, for me at least, were ‘Unusual’ in 5 down, ‘new’ in 23 down and ‘Orcadian’ in 26 down.  Eventually I got the lot after reading the preamble again and realising that it was the words moving to the right that we needed.  The detailed blog below shows all the words that moved and where they moved to.  They are Bard, Unusual, run, new,Sent, Orcadian, Aforesaid and Red generating two words BURN and SOAR.

RIDE, BURN, SOAR suggests some kind of movement in the air.  An anagram of RIDE BURN SOAR is SOUND BARRIER which fits neatly down the central column.

In the left hand unclued entry in row 6 we have B E _ L X DASH ONE.  A little bit of research shows that Chuck Yeager piloting the Bell X-1 was the first manned flight to break the SOUND BARRIER officially on October 14th 1947, 70 years to the day before this Inquisitor was published.  

Clearly, the final part of the end game is to move BELL X DASH ONE from one side of the SOUND BARRIER to the other side,thereby leaving 22 down as REAST, 2 down as DEMUR. 23 down as IBERIA, 13 down as DASH and 24 down as LINER.  On the right hand side we create 15 down as CRANE, 25 down as LINKER, 9 down as ASSAIL, 26 down as DASHEEN and 11 down as ALL IN ONE thereby respecting the preamble requirement that all grid entries represent real words or phrases at all times.

Once the rogue letters and words had been identified and moved to their correct locations, the clues were not too difficult to, solve.  But that of course is hindsight which is 20-20 vision.  At the time of solving, the whole thing looked a lot more fearsome than it does now.

The original grid looked like this

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The final grid after breaking the SOUND BARRIER looked like this.  If I was clever enough I would have designed an animation that moved the BELL X-1 and went BOOM! before showing the plane through the BARRIER, but I’m not so it’s just a static representation this week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Probably DASH and ONE should be entered as – and 1, but as I don’t submit the puzzle, I am not going to agonise over it too much

I wondered also whether anything should go into the left hand cells in row 6 to indicate sound waves but only the letter S could be added to form real words – DEMURS, SIBERIA and SLAPS and there didn’t seem to be anything wave pattern related there so I didn’t pursue the idea.

The title BOOM AND BUST clearly relates to the sonic BOOM encountered when an object breaks [BUSTs] the SOUND BARRIER

Thanks Ploy for an inventive puzzle.

Finally, thanks to all my fellow Inquisitor bloggers, Hihoba, Holy Ghost and Kenmac for adjusting the roster to cater for my holiday. You are stuck with me again next week as we get the schedule back in sync

No

Clue

Amended Clue

 Letter / Word Wordplay Entry
Across

1

 

Cut loose after date and split (6)

 

 

 

AD (abbreviation for Anno Domini  used in quoting a date in years] + RIFT (split)

AD RIFT

ADRIFT (cut loose from moorings)

 

6

 

Poet’s county mart is a bustling one (8)

Poet’s country mart is a bustling one (8)

 

 

Anagram of (bustling) MART IS A + A (one)

SARMATI* A

SARMATIA (poetic name for Poland)

 

12

 

Earlier wagers must be remitted to judge (4)

Earlier wages must be remitted to judge (4)

R

 

MEED (archaic [earlier] word for wages) reversed (must be remitted)

DEEM<

DEEM (judge)

 

14

 

Crombec or cassowary lurking in salt-marsh?  Au contraire! (7)

 

 

 

CORCASS (hidden word in [lurking in] CROMBEC OR CASSOWARY) so we have the opposite (au contraire) of Crombec or cassowary lurking in salt-marsh

 

CORCASS (salt-marsh)

 

16

 

Making a comeback, essayist includes fairyland’s bringer of dreams (sweet) (7)

 

 

 

(ELIA [The essayist Chares Lamb wrote under the name of ELIA]) reversed (making a comeback) containing (includes) MAB (name of a female fairy believed to be the bringer of dreams)

A (MAB) ILE<

AMABILE (sweet [of wines])

 

17

 

Habitually drunk, this is Ursula, freely lacking resistance (5)

 

 

 

Anagram of (freely) URSULA excluding (lacking) R (resistance)

USUAL*

USUAL (one’s habitual drink)

 

18

 

Strongly desire to be Aryanised somehow – not sad possibly (5)

Strongly desire to be Aryanised somehow – not said possibly (5)

 

 

Anagram of (somehow) ARYANISED excluding (not) SAID

YEARN*

YEARN (feel strong desire)

 

19

 

Ali and I chat about symbols of fruitfulness (7)

Al and I chat about symbols of fruitfulness (7)

I

 

Anagram of (about) AL and I CHAT

CALATHI*

CALATHI (symbol of fruitfulness in classical art)

 

20

 

Beyond a river in lively Santander, a fort is to be positioned (11)

 

 

 

Anagram of (lively) SANTANDER containing (to be positioned) PA (Maori fort or settlement)

TRANS (PA) DANE*

TRANSPADANE (beyond or from beyond the Po; beyond a river)

 

21

 

Uncritically one admired admission by swindler? (4)

 

 

 

I CON (words that might be used by a swindler describing his own activities)

I CON

ICON (anything venerated or uncritically admired)

 

27

 

Talking madly about switching to ordinary yarn twisting process (6)

 

 

 

RAVING (talking madly) with A (about) replaced by (switching to) O (ordinary)

R O VING

ROVING (process of giving the first twist to yarn)
30 Pioneering chemist vitriolates plastic, dropping temperature twice (9)

 

Anagram of (plastic) VITRIOLATES excluding (dropping) the two occurrences [(twice) of T (temperature)

LAVOISIER*

LAVOISIER (reference Antoine-Laurent de LAVOISIER [1743 – 1794] who was a French nobleman and chemist central to the 18th-century chemical revolution and who had a
large influence on both the history of chemistry and the history of
biology)

34

 

Signs of corruption put over in Vile Bodies (5)

 

 

 

OBELI (hidden word reversed in (put over in) VILE BODIES)

OBELI<

OBELI (signs used in ancient manuscripts to mark suspected, corrupt or spurious words and passages)

 

36

 

Notice new bit attached to organ of different kin (6)

Notice new bit attached to organ of different kind (6)

 

 

AD (advert; notice) + N (new) + ATE (bit)

AD N ATE

ADNATE (attached, especially by the whole length, to a different kind of organ)

 

37

 

Mistress regularly biked after wheedling mother (4)

Mistress regularly biked after wheeling mother (4)

D

 

MA (mother) reversed (wheeling) + IE (letters 2 and 4 [regularly] of BIKED)

AM< IE

AMIE (mistress)

 
38 As regards French department – director has to go (4, 2 words)

 

INDRE (a Department of Central France) excluding (has to go) D (director)

IN RE

IN RE (in the matter of; as regards)

39

 

Yankee grit is a central feature of Demetrius’s rival (4)

 

 

 

SAND (middle letters of [central feature] LYSANDER where the reference LYSANDER is to the rival of Demetrius for the love of Edeus’s daughter in Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream)

SAND

SAND (American [Yankee] word for grit)

 

40

 

Fathers ruffling in Piraeus (7)

Feathers ruffling in Piraeus (7)

 

 

Anagram of (ruffling) PIRAEUS

SPURIAE*

SPURIAE (in birds, feathers of the bastard wing)

 
42

Soft finish of wool makes comfortable suites (7)

Soft finish of wool makes comfortable suits (7)

E

P (piano; soft) + L (last letter of [finish of] WOOL) + EASES (makes comfortable)

P L EASES

 PLEASES (suits)

44

 

Suspect on trial disheartened, gets court’s outdated ‘an eye for an ‘eye’ (6)

 

 

 

Anagram of (suspect) ON TRIAL omitting the middle letter (disheartened) of the phrase R

TALION*

TALION (historic legal word [court’s outdated] word for like for like or retaliation)

 
45 Direct from Ohio, halfhearted mob open to persuasion (8)

 

 

EX (direct from) + O (abbreviation for the American State of Ohio) + RABBLE (mob) excluding one of the middle letters [half-hearted) B

EX O RABLE

EXORABLE (capable of being moved by entreaty; open to persuasion)

46

 

Before noon, we gather scattered part of cereal (9, 2 words)

 

 

 

Anagram of (scattered) ‘M [short for of A.M. [ante meridiem; before noon] and WE GATHER

WHEAT GERM*

WHEAT GERM (vitamin-rich GERM or embryo of WHEAT, part of a grain of WHEAT)

 

47

 

Return of potato blight indicates a micro-organism (6)

 

 

 

(ALU [potato, frequently reference in Indian cookery] + ROT [decay; blight]) all reversed (return of)

(TOR ULA)<

TORULA (yeastlike microorganism)

 
Down

1

 

Make suitable American port, following active duty (5)

 

 

 

AD (active duty) + A (American) + PT (port)

AD A PT

ADAPT (make fit or suitable)

 

2

 

Bard’s sober, confined back to front (6)

Sober Bard’s confined back to front (6)

Bard’s

 

EMURED (Shakespearean word for IMMURE [enclosed within walls; confined]) with the final letter (back) D moved to the beginning (front) – back to front

DEMURE

 DEMURE (sober)

3

 

There’s nothing odd in artefactual picketing rope (5)

 

 

 

ARTEFACTUAL omitting letters 1, 3,5, 7, 9 and 11 (nothing odd) ATFCUL leaving the even letters REATA

 

REATA (lariat; lasso or picketing rope)

 

4

 

Large theatre space primarily for plumper soprano (5)

 

 

 

F (first letter of [primarily] FOR) + LIE (PLUMPER can be defined as a downright LIE) + S (soprano)

F LIE S

FLIES (large space above the proscenium in a theatre, from which the scenes, etc are controlled)

 

5

 

Unusual maple plant needs care (4)

Maple plant needs unusual care (4)

Unusual

 

Anagram of (unusual) CARE

ACER*

ACER (plant of the maple genus)

 

7

 

Tree – one with 5 bananas (5)

 

 

 

A (one) + an anagram of (bananas) ACER (entry at 5 down)

A RECA*

ARECA (tree of the betel nut genus of palms)

 

8

 

Beetle‘s minute elytra finally, ultimately clipped (4)

 

 

 

M (minute) + A (last letter of [finally] ELYTRA) + ULT [ultimately] excluding the last letter [clipped] T

M A UL

MAUL (heavy wooden hammer or beetle)

 

9

 

Very special in air speed, first class (5)

 

 

 

S (special) contained in (in) AS (air speed) + AI (A one; first class)

A (S) S AI

ASSAI (very)

 

10

 

A state I’d associate with losing intelligence, when getting old (5)

 

 

 

I’D + A (associate) + WITH excluding (losing) WIT (intelligence) + O (old)

ID A H O

IDAHO (American State)

 

11

 

A profession run without limits get you down (5, 2 words)

A profession without limits get you run down (5, 2 words)

Run

 

CALLING (vocation or profession) excluding (without) the outer letters (limits) C and G

ALL IN

ALL IN (run down)

 
13 Careless work ruined lampshades, leaving me in pieces (8)

 

Anagram of (ruined) LAMPSHADES excluding (leaving) the letters M and E (ME in pieces)

SLAPDASH*

 SLAPDASH (careless work)

15

 

A quantity of fish food, unopened (4)

 

 

 

SCRAN (food, provisions) excluding the first letter (unopened) S

CRAN

CRAN (measure of capacity for herrings just landed in port)

 

22

 

Manfully oppose frightful heartless barghest (6)

 

 

 

Anagram of (frightful) BARGHEST excluding the middle letters (heartless) G and H

BREAST*

BREAST (oppose manfully)

 

23

 

Buffalo lie in new bar disregarding country (7)

Buffalo lie in bar disregarding new country (7)

New

 

Anagram of (buffalo [bewilder]) LIE IN BAR excluding (disregarding) N (new)

LIBERIA*

LIBERIA (country in West Africa)

 
24

Sent short witty remark up river in rising US city (8)

Short witty remark sent up river in rising US city (8)

Sent

(NILE [river] reversed [sent up; down clue]) contained in (in) RENO (US city) reversed (rising; down clue)

ON (E-LIN)< ER<

 ONE-LINER (short witty remark)

25

 

Private detective dropping quietly out of fashion in printer’s pad (5)

 

 

 

PINKERTON (private detective) excluding [dropping] P (piano) and also excluding (out of) TON (fashion)

INKER

INKER (pad or roller for inking type, etc; printer’s pad)

 

26

 

50% of Orcadian room partition consists of windows (3)

50% of room partition consists of Orcadian windows (3)

Orcadian

 

SCREEN (room partition) excluding the first three of six [leaving 50% of] letters SCR

EEN

EEN (Scottish [Orcadian] word for eyes[round holes or windows])

 

28

 

Tuba-like sound alto framed with enthusiasm (6)

 

 

 

A (alto) contained in (framed with) OOMPH (enthusiasm)

OOMP (A) H

OOMPAH (conventional representation of the deep sound made by a large brass musical instrument such as a tuba)

 

29

 

Archipelagic national representing most of Estonia (6)

 

 

 

Anagram of (representing) ESTONIA excluding the last letter (most of) A

NESIOT*

NESIOT (Indonesian [of the East Indian or Malay Archipelago])

 
31

The aforesaid revolutionary counted small number of shares (6, 2 words)

The revolutionary aforesaid counted small number of shares (6, 2 words)

Aforesaid

(DO [ditto; the aforesaid] + TOLD [counted]) all reversed (revolutionary)

(OD D LOT)<

ODD LOT (block of less than one hundred shares; small number of shares)
32 Prime locations for ritual’s palms (4)

 

Letters 2,3,5 and 7 [all prime numbers] of RITUALS  note that 1 is not a prime number

ITAS

 ITAS (miriti palm trees)

33

 

 Major inlet searched without chart, lower half first (6, 2 words)

 

 

SEARCHED excluding (without) CH (chart) leaving SEARED which is then entered in the grid with the second or lower (down clue) three letters [of six; half] first

RED SEA

RED SEA (major inlet of the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia)

 

35

 

 A parting fish – about 38g (5)

 

A contained in (parting) LING (fish of the cod family)

LI (A) NG

LIANG (Chinese ounce or tael; Wikipedia tells me that a LIANG was 37.3 grams in 1915 but is now considered to be 50 grams)

39

 

 Average annual rainfall to the south of southern river (4)

 

S (southern) + AAR (average annual rainfall)

S AAR

 SAAR (river in North-Eastern France and Western Germany)
41

Red midsection of rubber tree (3)

Midsection of red rubber tree (3)

Red

 

ULE (middle letters of [midsection of] GULES [heraldic term for red colour, marked in engraved figures by vertical lines])

ULE

 ULE (rubber tree)
43 Measure liquid bubble when barrel’ scrubbed (3)

 

BELL (bubble formed in a liquid) excluding (when scrubbed) B (barrel)

ELL

ELL (varying measure of length originally taken from the arm or a cloth measure equal to 1.25 yards)

 

9 comments on “Inquisitor 1512: Boom and Bust by Ploy”

  1. The usual thanks to Ploy and duncanshiell. I had similar feelings on starting (“this looks a bit terrifying”) but after SLAPDASH guessed a left-to-right move of unclueds that seemed plausibly confirmed by DASH working in DASHEEN on the right. Before all the letters from clues were established, SOUND BARRIER looked likely for 6D – strongly supported by the title – and didn’t Chuck Yeager bust it in the something X-1? If only 24D could be persuaded to start with ONE … and indeed it could. But having failed to memorize the early chapters of The Right Stuff, I had to look up the BELL bit.

    Something has gone wrong with 34A and 36A in the first grid above (with knock-on effects for 24D and 6D), but they’re both OK in the second.

    Very much enjoyed!

  2. An enjoyable and not too difficult Inquisitor. I lobbed in DASH and ONE as – and 1, but was thrown off the scent for a long time by the seeming impossibility of fitting SLAPDASH and ONELINER into the spaces available, with the vague doubt about whether they were clues that needed to be adjusted. The cells left initially blank on the RHS, and the resultant shorter clue lengths also caused a great deal of anguish, for similar reasons.

  3. david langford@1

    Thanks for spotting the error in the first grid – I’ll correct it late this afternoon. It’s an image file so I can’t just edit it in the text. Before I captured the image I mistyped that whole row with 34 and 36 across wrongly once, then overwrote it and obviously mistyped it again. Sorry!

  4. Oh joy ! After a long succession of RL/OC puzzles … viz. hurricanes Ifor, Gila and Radler, for example … we have the calm, blue sky, and sunshine of a classic IQ from Ploy, with an interesting anniversarial theme and a clever barrier-breaking construction. Loved it.

    I was a schoolboy fan of Chuck Yeager, whose brave exploit led to the USA becoming the first transonic country, (MACHINATION could have been a nice entry somewhere in the grid … did ploy consider it ?)

    16 years earlier, in 1931, my dad’s cousin, George Stainforth, was the first to break the 400 mph barrier, despite his Merlin-powered Supermarine S6b being aerodynamically encumbered by two large floats.

    And, many years later, Concorde used to fly over our house at 1000 ft. whenever there was an Easterly wind. We could always hear it taking off from Heathrow seven miles away, allowing me plenty of time to get out into the garden with my camera, while it wheeled round onto a Westerly course to America . If any enthusiast would like to see some of my shots, please email me.

    Thanks to, and respect for, Ploy … and to ds for fine blog.

  5. I insisted on entering 7D as Erica, although a tree not a plant, and thus also leaving 6A unfinished.

    I really liked the means of generating the letters, a new one on me. A nice, inventive puzzle – and not too hard! Thanks to Ploy and ds

  7. I solved all the clues but failed to work out what had to be moved and how. I knew it had something to do with Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier and I even remembered that his plane as called the X1, but I didn’t know its full title of Bell X-1 so that wasn’t enough. Thanks to Ploy and Duncan.

    Murray – I thought Concord a beautiful aircraft but I only ever got to see it from close up on the ground. I remeber once looking down from the window of a 747 on the next stand it looked like a little bird on the tarmac. Didn’t sound like a little bird though! I would love to see your photos, mail me at: paul at drurys dot org

  8. Just like to add that I thought this was a really nice little puzzle & a pleasure to solve. None too hard but the gradual revelation that initially some entries were too short, and a couple were too long, together with what else was going on and the final move across the central column made me smile contentedly. And I learnt something – hadn’t heard of the pilot or aircraft before, nor did I really have much idea of when that flight took place. Thanks Ploy and Duncan.
    (Your blog says “leaving … 13 down as DASH”; obviously you mean “SLAP”.)

  9. A bit late with this but I really enjoyed it too: very satisfying PDM when the central sections (column and row) fell into place.

    Thanks Ploy!

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