The third Inquisitor puzzle this year from Nimrod.
Preamble: From each of twelve clues a single letter must be removed before solving. Taken together, these letters describe twelve other clues into each of which a thematic sequence of letters must be inserted before solving. Initial letters of the fourteen normal clues give hints to the three names of a thematic figure, to be written under the grid. Finally, solvers must appropriately highlight exactly one third of the cells, whose content will be found to be thematic. Two symmetrically located answers are well-known abbreviations; 6 is in SOED. Both types of clue adjustment may adversely affect surface reading, but always leave real words.
I didn’t manage to solve many clues on the first pass, but on the second time through I did get the two long across answers: 14a SPIRAL GALAXY and 28a MUSHROOM PINK, with PINK being clued by [car]nation and the first insertion I identified. It was a while before I spotted any more: Rele[van]t in 20a, ma[cab]re in 21a, and mis[carriage]s in 25d, but I was doing quite well with the ‘removals’ and became pretty confident that they spelt TRAFFIC LIGHT – confirmed by the fact that the 12 clues missing vehicles were ‘light on traffic’.
I had solved about half the normal clues and took a stab at which of the other unsolved ones felt normal (the ones involving insertions were often a little stilted, even though it wasn’t obvious where the vehicles were to go or indeed what they were), and this helped me think about the hints to the thematic figure: they were emerging as ELTON TIM GLADYS. Google produce a variety of links to Elton John + Tim Rice and to Elton John + Gladys Knight but nothing to all three. I’d been interspersing those searches with investigations into the history of traffic lights, which yielded various possibilities for who invented them but to no avail.
Never mind, think about appropriately highlight exactly one third of the cells. In rather a clatter, out popped ROSE ANTS DEER ALGA in the top four rows of the central columns, then RUDD (who had been on the radio but a short time ago to talk about a variety of possibilities for Plan B) GRIS FISH JACK in the next four, and finally ROOM GAGE CROP EYES in the bottom four.
As I was cooking dinner on Sunday evening, I asked my partner to Google “traffic lights inventor”. After bypassing Wikipedia’s suggestion of “Garret Morgan” she tentatively offered “J.P.Knight”. “Google that name,” I said; “I bet the J stands for John.” And back came “John Peake Knight” – bingo!
I’m afraid I can’t say I enjoyed this very much (though I did smile at “pecking order” in 16d) – no great ‘reveal’ and too much fiddling about at the end trying to dig out the last 4 or 5 vehicles (for which I resorted to my Listener colleague for help). Nevertheless, thanks to Nimrod for the puzzle, and best wishes of the season to him and everyone else – see you in the New Year.
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue [insertion] {removal} | vehicle ✗ | Answer | Wordplay |
| 5 | Could {t}hen have one got up to search? (8, 2 words) | T | ROSE COMB | ROSE (got up) COMB (search) |
| 10 | Re[cycle]d song prepared these for eating out (8) | cycle | ETCHANTS | CHANT (song) SET (prepared) recycled |
| 11 | E{r}go, enthralled by English version of Auld Reekie? Again (4) | R | OLID | I (ego) in OLD (auld, Eng) |
| 12 | Probing early parts of master’s utterances always le{a}d one to ruminate (8, 2 words) | A | MULE DEER | M(aster’s) U(tterances) E’ER (always) around LED |
| 14* | Effervescent gyral splashes of light plying astral axis (12, 2 words) | SPIRAL GALAXY | [GYRAL L(ight) P(lying) A(stral) AXIS]* &lit | |
| 18* | Learner finally studied forms with extremely healthy complexion (8) | RUDDIEST | (learne)R [STUDIED]* | |
| 20 | Rele[van]t low-down ruin for housing (4) | van | INFO | (ru)IN FO(r) |
| 21 | Endlessly ma[cab]re being fed by English lawyer, very patient one (8) | cab | GRISELDA | GRISL(y) (macabre) around E(nglish) DA (lawyer) |
| 23* | Though they sing about mum, they live in the oceans (8) | STARFISH | IF (though) RATS (they sing) both< SH (mum) | |
| 24 | Marshal of France giving {f}airs when performing (4) | F | RAIS | [AIRS]* {ref. Gilles de R., early 1400’s} |
| 26 | A[limo]ny such child’s play could make Jill ask a company for reparation (8) | limo | SLAPJACK | [JILL ASK A COMPANY ¬ ALIMONY]* |
| 28 | Sentimentality with [car]nation keeping appointment in shade (12, 2 words) | car | MUSHROOM PINK | MUSH (sentimentality) PINK (carnation) around (appointment) |
| 34* | Oscar-winning actor treasures lifetime that may be valued (8) | GAGEABLE | GABLE (Oscar-winning actor, Clark G.) around AGE (lifetime) | |
| 35 | Illegally to make cash s[trap]ped off clearing plunder in the morning? (4) | trap | SCAM | SCOFF (plunder) ¬ OFF AM (in the morning) |
| 36 | Rebels get chatterers taking {f}right (8) | F | CROPPIES | COP (get) PIES (chatterers) around R(ight) |
| 37* | Name for sucker born in Ulster? Indeed (8) | NINE-EYES | NÉE (born) in NI (Ulster – not entirely synonymous) YES (indeed) | |
| Down | No. | Clue [insertion] {removal} | vehicle ✗ | Answer | Wordplay |
| 1 | Stones s[camper]ing out, dropping new Capri pants (4) | camper | GEMS | [SCAMPERING]* ¬ [N(ew) CAPRI]* |
| 2 | Seventh of flashes above us in camp, thunders[truck] not so often (7) | truck | STUPENT | (flashe)S UP (above us) in TENT (camp) |
| 3* | Tiny piece of Scotland regularly ignored – so call it “Fife”? (6) | SCLIFF | S(o) C(a)L(l) I(t) F(i)F(e) | |
| 4 | Singer seen in film series of aristocratic he{i}rs (4) | I | CHER | (aristocrati)C HER(s) {ref. American singer & actress} |
| 5* | Institution essential for opera-dancers? (4) | RADA | (ope)RA-DA(ncers) &lit | |
| 6* | Male in local pond learns to take off? (4) | STEG | GETS< (learns) | |
| 7 | Call to get wrapping foil for Stan’s min{c}e (8) | C | COLLIERY | CRY (call) around OLLIE (foil for Stan) {ref. Laurel & Hardy} |
| 8* | Greek handled jugs, Oedipal conflicts not noticing id! (5) | OLPAE | [OEDIPAL]* ¬ ID | |
| 9 | Scheming youngster batt{l}ing to remove adult from top (4) | L | MINX | MIX (top) with IN (batting) replacing A(dult) |
| 13* | Leaving line with yen to penetrate foundering castle, one breaks down walls? (6) | CYTASE | [CASTLE ¬ L(ine)]* around Y(en) | |
| 15* | Astounding tutorial dismissive of Times and old neuropsychologist (5) | LURIA | [TUTORIAL]* ¬ T(ime)×2 ¬ O(ld) | |
| 16 | Pl{i}ant pecking order? (6) | I | KISS-ME | KISS ME (instruction to peck) |
| 17* | Deviser of crosswords supports bar in Further Language Unit (8) | MORPHEME | ME (the setter) after PH (public house) in MORE (further) | |
| 19 | Ere[bus] clubs start to overcrowd, party! (5) | bus | DISCO | DIS (Erebus) C(lubs) O(vercrowd) |
| 22* | Yell’s shaken – duke under direction to secure pub (7) | DINNLED | D(uke) LED (under direction) around INN (pub) | |
| 25 | Can they legally stop mis[carriage]s jumping bail to get unrestrained kiss? (6) | carriage | ALIBIS | [BAIL]* (k)IS(s) |
| 27 | The city of [artic]Le Pen? (5) | artic | ASWAN | A (article) SWAN (pen) |
| 29 | Champ caught ruin{g} not seeing right hooks (4) | G | UNCI | [C(aught) RUIN]* ¬ R(ight) |
| 30 | Like what moves us when a[float] lad outside pub’s unloading both barrels (4) | float | OARY | BOY (lad) around BAR (pub) ¬ B(arrel)×2 |
| 31 | Mass s{h}ingles extended people meeting in Strasbourg (4) | H | MEPS | M(ass) EPS (extended-play records) |
| 32 | Fe{t}ed with Pulp – advanced pop (4) | T | PAPA | PAP (feed with pulp) A(dvanced) |
| 33* | Something symbolic of dedication makes his cases (4) | KESH | (ma)KES H(is) | |
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Well, I enjoyed this – or perhaps I should clarify: I spent about ten days regularly picking this up and staring fruitlessly at it through gritted teeth before finally, on Monday evening, parsing the final traffic clue (by discovering that scoff meant plunder and it wasn’t some variation of removing rape from scrape), at which point I’ve enjoyed a couple of days of smug satisfaction at having tied up every loose end. A challenge and frustrating at times, but also lots of elements to admire and enjoy, with plenty of mini-PDMs. Some wilfully obscure cluing, as you’d expect from Nimrod (room = appointment, for example), but in the end the only even faintly pencilled in question mark was over the use of recycled for cycled in 10a. I almost got the inventor of the traffic light right without searching on Google, but had the wrong Tim (Rice, I think – not sure why he came to mind particularly), so it was a shame Nimrod couldn’t work in a more recognisable hint for Peake, such as Mervyn.
The preamble seemed to indicate a challenge to come, and I was keen to see how far I could get with the four thematic stages.
I was delighted in the end to complete the grid, getting temporarily stuck only in the bottom left corner. From the 12 extracted letters (TRAFFIC LIGHT), and from some odd wordplay evident in some of the clues, I worked out what sort of items had to be inserted. Four of them came readily, helping to confirm the answers to those clues, but the next three took more time. I didn’t complete that task, because I realised that what I really needed was to distinguish those clues from the 14 normal clues, and I had already managed to do that.
The hints given by the 14 letters (ELTON TIM GLADYS) didn’t work for me. The subject matter of the thematic material revealed up to that point was fairly clear (in a phrase: road transport), but I was unable to guess the right combination of names that would make up the setter’s particular ‘thematic figure’. That of course signalled the end of my quest. I can see now that even with more time I would not have got there – I have never heard of John Peake Knight, and I doff my hat to anyone who knew that name.
I did, though, get a lot of enjoyment from solving the clues, despite being hindered somewhat by some of the thematic ones, and I’m satisfied with getting as far as I did. The standard of clueing was excellent, and ASWAN stood out – I solved it but didn’t ‘get it’ until I read the blog.
Thanks to Nimrod for an ingenious puzzle, and to HolyGhost for an interesting blog in which all the inserted vehicles are explained.
Yes, this was a slow haul, but a good workout and I’m glad I didn’t flee screaming at the mere name of Nimrod as I would have a few years ago. The bus in Erebus provided the happy thought of vehicles, but I kept thinking of them as wheels rather than traffic; the removed letters came very slowly; I eventually saw the middle-column colours and reverse-engineered from TRAFFIC LIGHT rather than getting to it the sensible way. A nice revelation and another challenge to my range of decaying highlighters: none of them is exactly amber and I hope the orange won’t count against me! Alas, ELTON TIM GLADYS made sense only in retrospect after googling the history of traffic lights.
All thanks to Nimrod and HG.
I somehow managed to complete virtually all of this without working out any of what was missing from 12 clues. After noticing that TRAFFIC LIGHT was appearing, I started to ponder how a third of the grid might be highlighted and having completed the top half of the grid I spotted how RED and AMBER were going to work. This helped me guess what might lie in the GREEN section. I managed to find JP Knight fairly quickly via google and figured that would be the name to enter. Thanks to Terrier for helping me out with the last few solutions to complete the grid.
Did anyone else find the preamble about missing letters unhelpful? To me, a ‘thematic sequence of letters’ suggested that the letters would be the same in each case. I spent quite a while trying to get combinations of R-A-G into the clues before abandoning that. Why not say ‘thematic words’?
Thanks to Nimrod and HG for the blog.
A DNF for me. I stared at the puzzle for ages with a smattering of clues yielding but then real life got in the way.
Having seen the blog, I wish I’d persisted. Ah, well!
I didn’t manage to parse all the clues, in particular those where we needed to add letters before solving, so while I had TRAFFIC LIGHT, the name of the thematic figure went in on a bit of a wing and a prayer. A good puzzle, but one that exposed the gaps in my solving skills.
Can I further clarify (@1) that I was not actually staring at the puzzle through gritted teeth! I believe I had originally written something like ‘…whilst cursing Nimrod through gritted teeth…’, but thought that might have been a bit rude.
I thought the endgame was very clever, but I agree with Holy Ghost that the search for the missing vehicles some of the shine off this one. Of course you didn’t actually need them to satisfy the requirements for the final grid, but I’m something of a completist when it comes to these things. TRAP was the last to fall, partly because you don’t see traps waiting at traffic lights very often and partly because the clue was tricky enough even without a missing word.
Yes Kippax, I initially assumed that it would be the same sequence of letters each time. CAR was the first to appear and I wasted considerable time trying to fit CAR into some of the other clues.
I think that even a setter of Nimrod’s calibre would have had an almost impossible task to the wonderful puzzle based on Leonard Bernstein, and that may be why this one didn’t quite the spot for me, fine puzzle though it was.
Correction to last paragraph: I think that even a setter of Nimrod’s calibre would have had an almost impossible task to match the wonderful puzzle based on Leonard Bernstein…
Apologies for illiteracy.
Fearsome rubric; but the ‘straight’ clues were relatively kind. Traffic light eventually emerged, and when I worked out Erebus, I thought I was up and running. Really, I was up and limping; I ended up with four vehicles. All the same, not having to parse it all, I liked it very much. Impressive central column yielded a very nice PDM.
I filled the grid and found both TRAFFIC LIGHT and “John Peake Knight” but could not finish. Now I see that types of vehicles that have to be inserted, very clever! I didn’t try very hard to find out which cells to shade as I assumed I would need to know the insertions. As it turned out that wasn’t necessary.
A very enjoyable puzzle, even if I couldn’t finish it. Thanks to all.
Another hard one from Nimrod but with plenty of PDMs to make me feel it was worth persevering with. I filled the top half moderately quickly although I could not parse all the clues since I had no idea what insertions were required but I soon had enough ejected letters to deduce TRAFFIC LIGHT. It seemed very likely that the middle third of each row was to be highlighted although the significance did not hit me at once. The first insertion was CAR in 28A and my initial thought was REDCAR minus the traffic light colour – that’s me off on the wrong tangent as usual! Eventually everything fell into place, with a bit of reverse engineering in the bottom half by finding suitable ambers and greens to help me solve the remaining across clues. I did all that would be needed to submit the entry but could not find the insertions for 10A (easy when you see it!) or 26A, which I still don’t understand. And, yes, I did enjoy it.
Thanks to HG for the blog and to Nimrod for keeping me out of mischief for a large part of last week.
I thought this was superb
Yeah, a challenging puzzle but I just about finished it. Having to reverse engineer a composite anagram to work out what’s missing from the clue made me feel like I’d pulled a muscle in my brain.
I thought this was very good and just the right amount of vague to allow a few possible end games to be considered (one kind find an insufficient number of shades of red/amber/green, other types of light etc) thus very satisfying to alight on unambiguously the correct answer. Feels sort of top 5 of the year standard so thanks to the setter.
Classic Nimrod : hard but fair. It took a while for the traffic theme to drop, mis(carriage)s being my first. Then things slowly started to take shape. Very enjoyable hunting down the three different hidden themes in the clues. It wasn’t until I had a full grid that I realised the red/amber/green sections. Very clever construction indeed. If I’d have picked that up earlier it may have been a quicker solve.
Some tough clues and one or two of the parses were very tricky.
I thought the long entries in spiral galaxy and mushroom pink were both very lovely words. Both new to me.
Thanks to blogger (lots to unpick and explain this week) and of course setter for the mind bend.
Best Wishes to all IQers
DaveW @12, regarding 26a: ALIMONY + SLAPJACK (the answer, clued by “such child’s play”) has the same letters as (“could make”) JILL ASK A COMPANY when jumbled (“for reparation”).
The clue style is known as ‘composite anagram’.
Thanks for that, HG@17. All is now clear!