Two previous Inquisitor puzzles have had the byline Nitsy … but they were in 2007 & 2009 – that’s certainly a while back.
Preamble: Thirteen clues contain no definitions: the answers to three of these should resolve any doubts solvers might have about entering answers to the other ten.
I recall solving quite a few across clues on the first pass, but encountered no obvious ‘specials’. I was even more successful when I started on the down clues, managing 8 of the first 9 straight away, including 3d, 4d & 7d (MAIL/MALI, TIMES, BOULDER) all without definition; it was 4d & 7d that made me realise that the other half of the clue also led to a word – LURCH & CUTTERS. When I’d got to the end of the down clues, a lot of the grid seemed filled, and I’d found many more of those without definition, mostly anagrams. It was almost always quite clear which word to enter, given the checking cells from the across answers.
After another once or twice through the unsolved clues, the grid was looking in good shape but a couple of clues were niggling me – 39a and 1d didn’t seem to be the no-definition/double-wordplay type, but they didn’t feel ‘ordinary’ either. When ROCK came to me for 1d, closely followed by SCISSORS for 39a, the game was up. And neatly sandwiched between them was PAPER at 18d, all three being the ‘other sort’ of clues with no definition.
So, for 10 entries we had to choose between a pair of synonyms for ROCK, PAPER or SCISSORS and select the one that would have won in the game of that name. I suppose I should have tumbled to the theme sooner with MAIL, TIMES, MIRROR & EXPRESS on the one hand, and CUTTERS, SHEARS, BLADES on the other, but I didn’t.
Last one in was PRESS at 18a, which had to be favoured over some synonym of “rock” – I spent some time trying to tease out a suitable word from “Circulating wines”, but not much. {Probably some construction such as PORTS → SPORT, but that doesn’t mean “rock”.)
HOCKS → SHOCK: see Comments 1 & 9.
Anyway, thanks Nitsy – rather on the easy side for my taste, but I’m sure that newcomers might welcome such.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue († & ‡ = no definition) | Answer | Wordplay |
| 1 | Carrie mischievously secreting thong (4) | RIEM | (Car)RIE M(ischievously) |
| 4 | Split trousers the reason for crying? (8, 2 words) | TEAR BAGS | TEAR (split) BAGS (trousers) |
| 10 | Get in after old bat gets annoyed (6) | OBTAIN | IN after O(ld) [BAT]* |
| 11 | Low number that is a member of a sect (6) | MOONIE | MOO (low) N(umber) IE (that is) |
| 13 | Independent uses unusual Royal Society publishers (7) | ISSUERS | I(ndependent) [USES]* RS (Royal Society) |
| 15 | Final bit of book incompetent editor knocked off (6) | KILLED | (boo)K ILL (incompetent) ED(itor) |
| 16 | Republic thus given back by the French (4) | LAOS | SO< (thus) after LA (the, Fr) |
| 18‡ | Circulating wines affected rep before heads of state suspected (5) |
SHOCK PRESS |
HOCKS (wines) with letters circulated [REP]* S(tate) S(uspected) |
| 19 | Golfer did this from other end on a regular basis (4) | TEED | (o)T(h)E(r) E(n)D |
| 21 | Stick poster, perhaps, in this place (6) | ADHERE | AD (poster, perhaps) HERE (in this place) |
| 23 | For friendship, romanticise to some extent (3) | PRO | (friendshi)P RO(manticise) |
| 24 | Place for racing drivers returning upset (3) | PIT | TIP< (upset) |
| 26 | Conman’s fake terror (6) | RORTER | [TERROR]* |
| 28 | Taps, screwed taps (4) | PATS | [TAPS]* |
| 29‡ | Second sound pros generated following contralto (5) |
STONE CROPS |
S(econd) TONE (sound) [PROS]* after C(ontralto) |
| 31 | Lift up school toilet seat (4) | REAR | double definition |
| 33 | Translate “R U nude?” to be inoffensive (6) | UNRUDE | [R U NUDE]* |
| 36 | In middle of case, dodgy paper hits the stands (7) | APPEARS | (c)AS(e) around [PAPER]* |
| 37 | Dukes protecting king getting top marks? (6) | FIRSTS | FISTS (dukes) around R (king) |
| 38 | Ripe flies eaten by each spider (6) | EPEIRA | [RIPE]* in EA(ch) |
| 39† | Lives saved by Southern Cross, which is strange (8) | SCISSORS | IS (lives) in S(outhern) [CROSS]* |
| 40 | Film director – liberal English one (4) | LEAN | L(iberal) E(nglish) AN (one) {ref. David L, film director} |
| Down | |||
| No. | Clue († & ‡ = no definition) | Answer | Wordplay |
| 1† | Rising, my stock at last (4) | ROCK | COR< (my) (stoc)K |
| 2 | Scots aim to cut head off weed (5) | ETTLE | (n)ETTLE (weed) |
| 3‡ | Liam develops strange ways (4) |
MAIL SWAY |
[LIAM]* [WAYS]* |
| 4‡ | Churl worked in croft, I’m estimating (5) |
LURCH TIMES |
[CHURL]* [crof]T I’M ES(timating) |
| 5 | One embraced by dying girl (4) | ENID | I (one) in END (dying) |
| 6 | Retailer initially changed store list (6) | ROSTER | R(etailer) [STORE]* |
| 7‡ | Bass drunk louder – curse awfully about teetotal (7) |
BOULDER CUTTERS |
B(ass) [LOUDER] [CURSE]* around TT (teetotal) |
| 8 | A new organ close to old (5) | ANEAR | A N(ew) EAR (organ) |
| 9 | Pass around Irish social security payment (4) | GIRO | GO (pass) around IR(ish) |
| 12 | Robin, perhaps, is one under par (6) | BIRDIE | double definition |
| 14‡ | Right Reverend in MORI reviewed shares changes (6) |
MIRROR SHEARS |
RR (Right Reverend) in [MORI]* [SHARES]* |
| 17 | Gets no rest, partially due to this? (5) | SNORE | (get)S NO RE(st) |
| 18† | Sport Standard’s written about (5) | PAPER | PE (sport) in PAR (standard) |
| 19‡ | Repair tea tree dropping axe initially – lads, be organised! (6) |
TEETERS BLADES |
[TEA TREE]* − A(xe) [LADS BE]* |
| 20 | Minds without right tendencies (6) | TRENDS | TENDS (minds) around R(ight) |
| 22‡ | Sexes’ PR muddles – and outs perverts (7) |
EXPRESS ASTOUND |
[SEXES PR]* [AND OUTS]* |
| 25 | Weights of gold amulets initially found in hauls (6) | CARATS | A(mulets) in CARTS (hauls) |
| 27 | Island unpredictable? Not half (5) | CAPRI | CAPRI(cious) (unpredictable) |
| 29‡ | Turns around these wheels (5) |
SNIPS SHEET |
SPINS< (turns) [THESE]* |
| 30 | Euro wasted drinking one shabby Scotch (5) | OURIE | [EURO]* around I (one) |
| 32 | Impressive record, I see (4) | EPIC | EP (record) I C (see) |
| 33 | Badly rue saint that’s caught – one that may chase the dragon (4) | USER | [RUE]* around S(aint) |
| 34‡ | TUC’s evolving – genuine, we hear (4) |
CUTS REEL |
[TUC’S]* homophone REAL (genuine) |
| 35 | Impetuosity shown by antelope losing tail (4) | ÉLAN | ELAN(d) (antelope) |
|
|
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Very enjoyable…after a few recent toughies/DNFs… thanks to setter and blogger…
My LOI was also PRESS (paper)…I eventually hit on HOCKS (wines) with the last letter circling to the front to give SHOCK (rock)…
We were happier to have a quicker solve as we were quite busy. Still fun to solve especially when we realised what was going on in the themed clues.
Thanks to HolyGhost and Nitsy..
Thoroughly enjoyable, and a welcome relief after a few tough weeks.
Some very easy clues helped to provide lots of crossers to resolve any doubts when it came to the thirteen clues without a definition. In fact, I never realised that we were intended to apply the rules of the game at all!
Very enjoyable, many thanks Nitsy. I was on a lengthy flight last Saturday so after picking up the i at the airport (after some hanging about waiting for staff to unload the newspapers) I was surprised and rather pleased at completing it before reaching my destination. I spotted the paper theme fairly early and assumed that ‘Hand Out’ referred to newspapers (free press?) and it was only after working out SCISSORS that the penny dropped. Even then, I had almost finished before twigging that the double clues involved entering the ‘winner’ from each pair. Lovely touch, but as others have noted the crossing letters tended to make that aspect redundant in most cases.
Thanks to HolyGhost for the blog and pointing out that Nitsy was not in fact a new setter (2009 being before my Inquisitor solving began).
A very quick solve and, I thought, an excellent idea. I felt that there should have been some way of enforcing the understanding of the rock/paper/scissors theme before completion of the grid, or as an add-on below the grid. It was too easy to complete the grid and fail to get the theme. I like the reference to the game in the title (Hand Out) .
Thanks to mc_rapper67 (#1) for the HOCKS/SHOCK reference. I could not understand what SINEW had to do with the theme.
I agree with the above – very enjoyable with a nice theme cleverly implemented.
I struggled to understand the “rock” part of 18 across too. I settled on an anagram of WINES to give SINEW which can mean “strength” as, very loosely, can “rock”. I wasn’t really happy with it and the explanation given here is far better.
Very enjoyable.
I too wondered about SWINE or SINEW, but I’m sure the setter intended INEWS (‘i’ News).
Thanks to Nitsy and HolyGhost.
Super puzzle. I liked the idea of the possible solutions having to play Rock Paper Scissors to decide who got to go in the grid. Not necessary I know, but elegant nonetheless.
I had HOCKS/SHOCK like mc_rapper67.
Thanks all.
Lots of fun despite being very quick to solve. I got stuck on PORTS/SPORT and rather lazily (since it was clearly the losing play) didn’t bother to check, assuming it would be a buried alternate or obsolete or dialect meaning of SPORT. As noted by others, there were few if any places where we actually needed the game rules to determine the winner — though things speeded up a lot once I saw what was going on. Hand Out was a neat title. Thanks, Nitsy; thanks, HG.
HolyGhost
I see you have replaced ‘???’ with SHOCK. As I commented earlier, I thought INEWS (‘i News’) was more convincing when I solved the clue, but I accept that the ‘i’ has not changed its name to ‘i News’ just to satisfy me (!), and SHOCK works with ‘circulating wines’ just as well and is a valid answer.