Follow the Leader by Serpent
The entry at 24 is to be deduced. Answers to 12 normal clues must be modified before entry. The remaining clues contain an extra letter that must be removed before solving. These letters in clue order provide two hints as to how the grid must be modified to complete the puzzle. The final grid contains real words and common proper nouns. Numbers in brackets refer to grid entries.
Delightful puzzle from Serpent – as usual.
Many of the clues reminded me of those of the late, great Schadenfreude. Seemingly impossible at first but finally yielding their secrets after four or five readings.
Thus, on my first wander through the clues I had hardly anything. I don’t remember what fell first but on seeing the last clue (36d), the definition jumped out at me as I said, it has to be PIRATES but it doesn’t fit. I then spent a few seconds wondering what the eventual grid entry could be. PIES with RAT removed, maybe.
When that sort of thought process happens, the thing to do is look back at the preamble (and the title). In this case, the title coupled with RAT made me think of The Pied Piper of Hamelin. Much of my childhood was spent in West Germany (I was an “army brat”) and it was probably while living there that I learned of the legend. At the time, I was most likely, living in either Celle or Osnabrück, both of which are relatively close to Hamelin. As per this map.
The Pied Piper rid the town of Hamelin of rats initially, hence we had to find twelve clued RATs that had to be removed before entry.
As the grid was gradually filling, more and more letters started appearing in 24a and I had a few attempts at working out what it could be. DOWN AND DIRTY was a candidate for a while but suddenly, out of the blue, I realised that, in keeping with the legend, BOYS AND GIRLS had to be part of the puzzle.
After the Mayor of Hamelin refused to pay the piper, he then magicked away all the boys and girls.
Next task is to sort out the extra letters, I could see the potential IN DID COME. Thinking that that sounded poetic and knowing that Robert Browning wrote a poem about The Pied Piper, I searched for the text and found it here: https://poets.org/poem/pied-piper-hamelin.
In verse 5 we find:
And in did come the strangest figure!
His queer long coat from heel to head
Was half of yellow and half of red
And he himself was tall and thin,
With sharp blue eyes, each like a pin,
And light loose hair, yet swarthy skin,
No tuft on cheek nor beard on chin,
But lips where smiles went out and in–
There was no guessing his kith and kin!
And nobody could enough admire
The tall man and his quaint attire.
Quoth one: “It’s as if my great-grandsire,
Starting up at the Trump of Doom’s tone,
Had walked this way from his painted tombstone!”
So that accounts for the majority of letters but there are two before that that are desperate to be SP – what the heck?
Time to take a break from the puzzle and let the little grey cells (as few as they are these days) mull it all over.
When I returned, I looked up SP in Chambers and found that it means “without issue”. Now “issue”, amongst other things, means offspring or BOYS AND GIRLS had to disappear from the grid but what to put in its place?
It took me far longer than it should have to realise that THE PIED PIPER fitted the bill. And, indeed, new words are formed, as follows:
20d COAL becomes CHAL
3d TARTARY becomes TARTARE
16d CASE becomes CAPE
21d PANTO becomes PINTO
12d ROSIN becomes ROSIE
14d BURGS becomes BURPS
26d RALLIER becomes PALLIER
18d DULL becomes DUEL
So that’s it – remove a load of RATs, identify BOYS AND GIRLS and replace them with THE PIED PIPER.
I’ve a feeling that some may not have enjoyed this puzzle but I certainly did. Many thanks to Serpent.
| Across |
||||
| Clue (letter in red is removed) |
Entry |
Extra letter |
Wordplay |
|
| 1 Applied maths answers inspiring problem (6) | ASTHMA | S |
MATHS+Answer anag: applied | |
| 5 Top auditor to resist female paymaster (6) | BUKSHI | P |
Sounds like (to auditor) BUCK (resist)+SHE (female) | |
| 9 Each year corrupt aid is concealing the very thing causing disorder (11) | PAROTIDITIS | A |
PA (per annum: each year)+ROT (corrupt)+ID+IT IS (the very thing) | |
| 10 Case involving former taxmen is cloudy (4) | CIRRATE | CRATE (case) around IR (Inland Revenue: former taxmen) | ||
| 11 Frequent flier detained in airport on landing (7) | ORTOLAN | N |
airpORT O LANding hidden: detained | |
| 13 Straight English terrace that housed guards (6) | HETERO | D |
HOuse around English+TERrace | |
| 15 Face of portrait artist framed by composition in proportion (4, 2 words) | PRO RATA | P[ortrait] (face of)+ROTA (composition) around RA (artist) | ||
| 17 Ravaged old boss welcomes quiet pace (6) | STUPRATED | STUD (boss) around P (quiet)+RATE (pace) | ||
| 19 Clubs in Paris recycled waste material (5) | SCRAP | I |
PARS (rev: recycled) around Clubs | |
| 22 Formulated how this cunning demon may evolve (6) | ARTFUL | N |
F[o]R[m]ULAT[ed] minus letters of DEMO anagrammed gives ARTFUL | |
| 24 See preamble (12, 3 words) | BOYS AND GIRLS
– replaced by –
THE PIED PIPER |
|||
| 27 Person that has issued aide’s regular payment (6) | PARENT | D |
PA (personal assistant: aide)+RENT (regular payment) | |
| 28 Poet said college lecturer interrupts regularly (5) | SCALD | I |
SAD containing College Lecturer | |
| 30 Sin was worthy of being purged ritually (6) | LUSTRATED | LUST (sin)+RATED (was worthy of) | ||
| 34 Restricted fare leads to service on train being affected (4) | RATIONS | S[ervice]+O[n] (leads to)+TRAIN anag: being affected | ||
| 37 Nasty little man in Globe upset bard close to Shakespeare (6) | GOBLIN | D |
IN GLOB[e] minus [shakespear]E (end of) anag: upset | |
| 38 Good-for-nothing cur that is having to wear lead (7) | VAURIEN | C |
UR+IE (that is) inside VAN (lead) | |
| 39 Fool elected by government is talking nonsense (4) | PRATING | PRAT (fool)+IN (elected)+Government | ||
| 40 What’s naturally instrumental in faithfully capturing term poet misused? (11, 2 words) | TRUMPET TREE | O |
TRUE (faithful) around TERM PET (anag: misused) | |
| 41 Expresses disapproval of him getting old duty back (6) | HISSES | M |
HI+SESS (old duty; rev: back) | |
| 42 Health and Safety Executive safeguarding attention and terminal care? (6) | HEARSE | E |
HSE (health and safety executive) around EAR (attention) | |
| Down |
||||
| 1 Tends to leave campaign funds in vaults (6) | ARCHES | T |
[w]AR CHES[t] (campaign fund; minus both ends) | |
| 2 Traipsed around in ever decreasing circles? (5) | SPIRATED | TRAIPSED (anag: around) | ||
| 3 Hold volunteers having to wait outside place that was vaguely defined (7) | TARTARY | H |
TA (old volunteers; former name for Army Reserve) inside TARRY (wait) | |
| 4 Writer’s assuming speaker’s delaying (5) | MORATORY | MY (speaker’s) around ORATOR (speaker) | ||
| 5 Sharpness divided by pitch inverted measure of transmission speed (4) | BITRATE | BITE (sharpness) around TAR (pitch; rev: inverted) | ||
| 6 This seaweed tea once brewed is like peat (4) | KILP | E |
LIKE PAT is an anagram (once brewed) of KILP TEA | |
| 7 Sailor puts on last pair of these goggles (5) | STARE | S |
TAR (sailor) inside [the]SE (last pair) | |
| 8 Realise atlas doesn’t include eastern country (6) | ISRAEL | T |
REALIS[e] (minus Eastern; anag: alas) | |
| 12 What causes resistance borne by violinists essentially (5) | ROSIN | R |
Resistance+OS (bone)+[viol]IN[ists] (essentially) | |
| 14 US towns help staff awaiting nursing openings in Rochester General (5) | BURGS | A |
BUS (help waiting staff) around R[ochester] G[eneral] (openings) | |
| 16 Patient ready to leave hospital, nearly forgetting almost everything (4) | CASE | N |
CAS[h] (ready) (minus Hospital)+E[arly] (forgetting all but first letter) | |
| 18 Naked grown-up drinking gin left insensible (4) | DULL | G |
[a]DUL[t] (grown up; naked) around Left | |
| 20 Fuel depression creating anxiety to begin with (4) | COAL | E |
COL (depression) around A[nxiety] (first letter) | |
| 21 Person who’s getting son upset about National Theatre production (5) | PANTO | S |
OAP (person who’s getting on; rev: upset) around NT (National Theatre) (national is doing double-duty here) |
|
| 23 Beat criticism after taxing head of state (4) | TICK | T |
[s]TICK (criticism; minus S[tate] (head of)) | |
| 25 Gas guzzler fending off small electric car (5) | DODGE | F |
DODGE[m] (small electric car; ending off) | |
| 26 Driver in race to Turin wrongfully placed in last position (7) | RALLIER | I |
REAR (last position) around ILL (wrongfully) all reversed: to turn | |
| 27 Supporter’s mournful air happens initially with onset of acute gout (6) | PLINTH | G |
PL[a]INT (mournful air)+H[appens] (initially) | |
| 29 Forum longed for tool to clone mobile phones (6) | DONGLE | U |
LONGED (anag: form) | |
| 31 Laid-back individuals making contribution to spurn austerity (5) | UNAUS | R |
spUN AUSterity (hidden: making contribution to) | |
| 32 A rotten canine could be related to orientation of teeth (5) | CONTRATE | ROTTEN+Canine anag: could be | ||
| 33 They are involved in rigging up network configuration to protect connection (5) | RATLINES | STAR (network configuration; rev: up) around LINE (connection) | ||
| 35 Erroneous use starts to show misleading results (4) | SUMS | E |
US+S[how] M[isleading] anag: erroneous | |
| 36 Bad guys in the main established advance rent must be raised (4) | PIRATES | SET (established)+Advanced+RIP (rent) all rev: must be raised | ||
From the first altered clues I sussed that rats were being got rid of and Follow the Leader seemed to confirm the Hamelin chappie but putting THE PIED PIPER is the middle is not cool by Serpents standards and after “phoning a friend” I went through the delightful poem.
Another beauty. I’m still scared of Inqy’s but i am also getting addicted.
Thanks to Serpent and kemnac
I enjoyed it and followed pretty much the same line of reasoning, with my wife beating me to THE PIED PIPER as soon as I muttered about removing multiple RATs. For a while I assumed the gradually emerging BOYS AND GIRLS would just vanish, which didn’t work (TARTAR is a word but PNTO isn’t, etc), and fiddled around uselessly with ways to insert the one crippled lad who was left behind, but the line from Browning’s poem spelt out nicely who had to come in.
All thanks to Serpent and Kenmac.
Got the full solution here
The early appearance of ARTFUL and DODGE made me think that Oliver Twist was going to be the theme! I cottoned on to the Pied Piper after getting the quotation, although there’s no way I would have guessed the significance of SP on my own. The appearance of RAT in several answers then made it clear how the entries were to be modified.
I’m not happy with a couple of the definitions though, particularly 17a: the only definition of STUPRATE that I can find is “to ravish or rape; to have sexual intercourse with”. “Ravage” means “to cause severe and extensive damage to” and is not synonymous with “ravish”, even though people occasionally confuse them. Is STUPRATE = “ravage” recorded anywhere?
A top-quality puzzle that had a simple but very well executed theme.
CIRRATE and SPIRATED were two of my first four clues solved, and they enabled me to detect a likely theme. The RATs, together with the title, made me think of The Pied Piper – a similar experience to yours, kenmac, except that your way in was PIRATES. Already I dared to think THE PIED PIPER might go across the middle at 24a, presumably when ‘modified’ (as per the preamble).
With the top half mostly filled, but with very little below it, I saw how BOYS AND GIRLS might go in at 24a, and I pencilled in both that and THE PIED PIPER as a potential aid to solving clues like 26d (RALLIER) that crossed the middle row.
I found the bottom half tough going and was progressing so slowly that I gave up for a while, but with a fresh start, and with TRUMPET TREE going in, the grid eventually yielded.
Queries with four clues left me unable to read the hints except for the word FIGURE, but the mist soon cleared. I liked the first hint (‘SP’) – a fellow-solver was tempted to call it too clever by half!
Many thanks to Serpent and kenmac.
A couple of typos to correct in the blog: in the grid, first letter of 14d is B, not D: and in the solution to 6d, LIKE PAT is the anagram material, not LIKE PET. Thanks to kenmac for putting it all together.
kenmac
In 9a PAROTIDITIS I think IS goes with PA+ROT+ID as part of the envelope and IT (not IT IS) is ‘the very thing’.
Another DNF for me, I’m afraid, and in fact nearly a DNS (Did Not Start) as I just couldn’t get on Serpent’s wavelength. I managed to mislead myself by assuming that 20dn was one of the clues to be modified as the wordplay seemed to lead to COLA but the definition was clearly COAL. I still don’t see how “creating” works as an envelope indicator. I never did spot the RATs. Congratulations to all who solved it.
There’s another typo in the introduction to the blog: the last clue was 36dn, not 39. But thanks for explaining it all, kenmac.
Guy Barry @5
Blog corrected – thanks.
Correcting the animated GIF will take longer as there are 16 individual pictures to be amended but I’ll try to get to it soon.
Bridgesong @7 – CRATING (not creating)
39 changed to 36 – thanks. Battling with an ailing laptop these days is not helping with my attention to detail!
My main problem solving was that I guessed PIED PIPER before I got the actual initial central entry, and then couldn’t get the crossing entries to work. Doing these things in the wrong order as ever. 🙂 A great puzzle, and a fun theme…
Kenmac, thanks for pointing that out: I’d missed the red e in the blog (and of course missed the extra letter when solving!).
Guy Barry @5 – animated grid now updated. I “simply” took the “B” from GOBLIN (37a) and pasted it into square 14 on all 16 images. Hence it wobbles a bit cos I had a bit of trouble placing it at first.
Another good one from Serpent. A good spread of clues, some very easy to give a foothold but the final ones were quite challenging. Like others, I filled in most of the top half first, soon spotted the missing rats, guessed the unclued entry and thence the theme. I was stuck on 9A as I had KELP for 6D until I found the rare alternative in Chambers. LOI was 38A. The finish eluded me for a while as I was fixated on the PIED in 2D until I resorted again to Chambers for the forgotten significance of SP. An enjoyable puzzle with some dexterously misleading clues.
Thanks to Serpent and Kanmac.
It helped that one or two of the ratty clues weren’t too hard (3d, 36d), so, as others have noted, not quite as tough as one might fear. Alas I never did get a coherent message from the across spares; even so, with the rats and the title it was clear enough who was doing what with the boys and girls. But I never thought to put him in.
Many thanks to Serpent and kenmac.
I thought this was superb. The clueing in particular was brilliant throughout
Thanks kenmac – we are catching up on IQs that we couldn’t do while we were away so only completed the puzzle yesterday.
As you say, a delightful puzzle from Serpent – as usual. We guessed the theme early on when we solved PRORATA and SPIRATED. Realising that THE PIED PIPER replaced BOYS AND GIRLS took much longer than it should have done.
We puzzled over SP. We looked it up in Chambers too but the penny did not drop.
Thanks also to Serpent for the fun.
.
#3: “Is STUPRATE = “ravage” recorded anywhere?”
No one answered, so I did my own research. It’s in Johnson’s Pocket Dictionary of the English Language:
to violate, ravage, deflower
In other words, to rape. I presume that “ravage” had that meaning in Johnson’s day.
I’m really not sure if obsolete words for “rape” have any place in puzzles like this, and euphemistically trying to pretend that they mean something else in the clue strikes me as thoroughly dishonest.
One of the best of the year for me. Tough (very) but fair clues, and a theme which revealed itself in a number of satisfying stages. Nice to have a neat and unambiguous finale, especially as there have been some extremely obscure and fiddly endgames recently. Kenmac’s comparison of Serpent with the late, great Schadenfreude is high praise indeed. And on the strength of this puzzle, entirely deserved.
Many thanks to kenmac for the excellent blog, and to everyone who has taken the time to comment.
Guy Barry @17
I can’t find it as such. While solving/blogging I looked in Chambers and saw that suprate=ravish and, in my mind, ravish and ravage mean the same.
But looking further, prompted by your query, I can’t justify that in any of Chambers, ODE or Bradfords.
Serpent/Nimrod, it’s over to you …