It’s a year since Augeas last set an Inquisitor puzzle – the one about Aunt Ada Doom and Cold Comfort Farm. It had a very simple preamble. This one was more complex. It read:
Clues, of three types, may contain a misprinted letter, an extra letter, or an extra word. The things linked, including one abbreviation, may be spelt in order by considering the clues in groups of five. Each group contains (in no special order) one misprinted letter, one correction of a misprint, an extra letter, the first letter of an extra word and the last letter of an extra word. Solvers should identify the link and highlight it, and the locations linked (29 letters in all).
I liked the originality and challenge of this method of deciphering a message – three ways to deduce letters and choices to be made. A computation seemed appropriate. There are 45 clues, so 9 groups of 5. Each of these groups contains three types of clue. One clue in each group yields a single letter and the other four clues, two of each type, gives a choice of two letters. I must admit that this clear understanding only came after I had filled most of the grid and was struggling with the endgame. I tagged the clues type 1 – misprint, type 2 – extra letter and type 3 – extra word. So one type 2, two type 1s and two type 3s in each group. I needed 18 of each of types 1 and 3 and 9 type 2s. With several undetermined I had fifteen 1s, sixteen 3’s and 8 2s, but some groups of five didn’t contain the correct mix, so there was quite a lot of revision required.
I eventually reached the (incomplete and possibly containing errors) set of letters in the table below.
The first five letters could make NORTH but the next five seemed to have no possible five-letter answer. However if the first three were ERN that would make NORTHERN and I deduced that the groups of five were only to enable the discovery of the letters, not to divide up the words in the message. So NORTHERN what? It was followed by C?N[TR][PR][AZ][GL]. . . and, after staring at this for a while, it suddenly said CENTRAL to me! Aha, London tube lines. Allowing for some mistakes I could also see the possibility of CIRCLE and DISTRICT lines at the end of the set. But what of the middle section? I spent more time staring at and revisiting the clues until the word DOCKLANDS appeared, so DOCKLANDS LIGHT ?? – only two letters left for RAILWAY. But the rubric says the things linked, including one abbreviation, so RY. for RAILWAY. and we had our list.
What links NORTHERN, CENTRAL, DOCKLANDS LIGHT RAILWAY, CIRCLE and DISTRICT lines? In the late 1980s I worked for a few years in the City (of London) and commuted daily from the suburbs. I didn’t have to use the “drain” (the notorious Waterloo and City Line) but was familiar with its terminus at Bank station and the awful underground covered section with hordes of commuters jostling for space on the escalators and the “travolator”. While I was working in the City in 1987 the DLR opened, terminating at Tower Gateway, and a colleague and I used a lunch hour to take a trip on the futuristic driverless train on the second day of its opening. We went from Tower Gateway to Island Gardens (via the wonderfully named Mudchute) and back, just for the experience. The DLR was later (after I no longer worked in the City) extended to its present terminus at Bank station.
And there is the “Link” of the title. BANK appears in the grid at the top left and MONUMENT at the bottom right. The Northern and Central lines pass through Bank where the DLR terminates and are linked to the District and Circle Lines at Monument by an ESCALATOR CONNECTION which you can follow down stepwise from the E in square 11 (below the B of Bank) to the N of MoNument.
I eventually sorted the clue types and letters, and the final version is as follows:
A nice puzzle, Augeas. I spent more time sorting out the endgame than on the grid fill, despite some unusual words (e.g. CTENE, SCERNES, SCUL, FEIS etc.) and one unusual clue – a double wordplay clue to 35D. I suspect that non-Londoners might regard it as too London-centric but my previous incarnation as a commuter helped me a lot. Sorting the clue types and the full details was quite difficult and time-consuming and I might have quit once I had most of it, had it not been my week for blogging!
An interesting point I noticed when drawing the grid: there are 45 clues and 44 clue numbers (1-44A). There is, therefore, only one pair of clues which share a first letter -1A and 1D
In the table below types 1,2 and 3 are as referred to above, Extra words are in [square brackets], misprints are deleted and replaced, extra letters are in {}
| Across | |||||
| No. | Clue: definition | Type | Letter | Answer | Wordplay |
| 1 | Ruin mass of cloud aloft in |
1 | NR | BANKRUPT | BANK (mass of cloud) + UP (aloft) in RT (right) |
| 6 | Organ number found in church [oratorios] (5) | 3 | OS | CTENE | TEN (number) in CE (church) |
| 11 | Wise entertainer who delivers |
1 | RF | ERNIE | Double definition: Ernie Wise and Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment |
| 14 | Nice evening back following afternoon {t}old of melodious music (6) | 2 | T | ARIOSO | A(fternoon) + SOIR (Nice = French evening) reversed + O(ld) |
| 16 | [Church] formerly makes out Bill’s interest in saints (7) | 3 | CH | SCERNES | CERNE (makes out in Shakespeare) in SS (saints) |
| 17 | Naughty child [broke] part of scoring system (3) | 3 | BE | IMP | Double definition: naughty child and International Match Points in bridge |
| 18 | Old school kitchen once, |
1 | GR | SCUL | SCULLERY (kitchen) minus LERY (rear half) |
| 20 | Irish assembly following English li |
1 | VN | FEIS | F(ollowing) + E(nglish) + IS (lives) |
| 21 | S{c}avage rotten plants (6) | 2 | C | AGAVES | [SAVAGE]* |
| 23 | Goddess secreted in pagan [Etruscan] atrium (4) | 3 | EN | ANAT | Hidden in pagAN ATrium |
| 24 | Occupational therapist se{n}t on oil (5) | 2 | N | OTTAR | OT (occupational therapist) + TAR (set on) |
| 25 | On lochside bea |
1 | TR | DREE | [REED]* |
| 26 | Massage foot in a terrific [parlour] – it strengthens again (15) | 3 | PR | REFORTI-FICATION | [FOOT IN A TERRIFIC]* |
| 28 | A pull on a joint endlessly – [amazing] skunk (4) | 3 | AG | ATOK | A + TOK(e) (pull on a joint) |
| 33 | 1 | GL | DEBT | BE (live) reversed in D (500) + T (160 in the hated Mediaeval Roman Numerals) | |
| 34 | Ben takes in drink – stiffener once found in |
1 | DC | BALEEN | ALE (drink) in BEN |
| 36 | Earth in Perth [often] evenly repaired (4) | 3 | ON | EARD | rEpAiReD |
| 38 | Note Dutch [academic] paper south of France (4) | 3 | AC | MIDI | MI (note) + D(utch) + I (i – paper) |
| 39 | Dry (not dan{k}) springs returning (3) | 2 | K | SEC | DANCES (springs) minus DAN then reversed |
| 40 | Ed’s to bring back co |
1 | AL | RECOURE | C(olt) + OUR (belonging to us) in REE (Scottish yard) |
| 41 | Poetically alleviate [acedia] left, say, in mature years (6) | 3 | AA | ALEGGE | L(eft) + EG (say) in AGE (mature years) |
| 42 | Man-made si |
1 | NL | RAYON | R(opy) + A(griculture) + YON (that – dialect) |
| 43 | Gross testy |
1 | BD | YETTS | [TESTY]* |
| 44 | Deity in mo{s}t enduring example (8) | 2 | S | MONUMENT | NUMEN (deity) in MOT |
| Down | |||||
| 1 | Parisian Bachelor of Science [loses] horse carpet (11) | 3 | LS | BESSARABIAN | BESS (B ès B – French BSc) + ARABIAN (horse) |
| e2 | A{i}r caught one Scottish secret (6) | 2 | I | ARCANE | AR + C(aught) + ANE (Scottish one) |
| 3 | Drink |
1 | GN | KIRN | KIR (drink) + N(ame) |
| 4 | Renew efforts long ago |
1 | MH | RENFORCE | [CONFRERE]* |
| 5 | Locators [treasure] high standing over – um – society (11) | 3 | TE | POSITIONERS | POSITION (high Standing) + ER (um) + S(ociety) |
| 6 | Mimi – a poor RC confused singer (but not her [tenor]!) (11) | 3 | TR | COMPRIMARIO | [MIMI A POOR RC]* |
| 7 | Madrid’s starter mixes [tasty] pasta (5) | 3 | TY | TAPAS | [PASTA]* |
| 8 | Inferior assistant once reminisced at heart over |
1 | CB | NICAD | remiNIsced (at heart) over CAD (obsolete inferior assistant) |
| 9/31A | Dancing [Iberian] flamencos (one, not 100) here in Irish Sea (9, 3 words) | 3 | IN | ISLE OF MAN | [FLAMEN(c)IOS]* replace C (100) with I (one) |
| 10 | Agreeing no |
1 | IR | CONSENTIENT | N(orse) in [NICE TOTNES]* |
| 12 | Local’s little {c}rural trench (4) | 2 | C | LEET | Double definition: dialect words for little and a trench |
| 13 | Make unfriendly overtures to delightful [girl] in Soho and feel foolish every cursed time (9) | 3 | GL | DISAFFECT | First letters (overtures to) of Delightful In Soho And Feel Foolish Every Cursed Time |
| 15 | Worker in Lyons (old, upper-class) [escaped] turbulent river (7) | 3 | ED | OUVRIER | O(ld) + U(pper class) + [RIVER]* |
| 19 | The Stranglers |
1 | DN | LA FOLIE | LIE (false statement) after OF A L(ecturer) reversed |
| 22 | Currency creditor in fiddle: highly-regarded dr |
1 | UI | GRAND CRU | RAND (currency) + CR (creditor) in GU (fiddle) |
| 27 | Puck’s master oddly removed from sombre pri{s}on? No (6) | 2 | S | OBERON | Even letters of sOmBrE pRiOn + N (number – no.) |
| 29 | Brisk country bird leaves [tasty] Indian dish (5) | 3 | TY | KEDGE | “country” indicates dialect word for brisk: REE (bird) removed from KEDGEREE (Indian dish) |
| 30 | Rolling Stone – Star |
1 | RT | ONSET | [STONE]* |
| 32 | How pretty maids appeared for E{i}d, awe-struck at first with reference to wife (4) | 2 | I | AREW | Spenserian word: A(we-struck) + RE (with reference to ) + W(ife) |
| 35 | Dancing girl climbing tree, embolic, lacking |
1 | PC | AMLA | Double wordplay! Emblic – remove o (core) from embolic and ALMA (dancing girl) reversed |
| 37 | [Difficult] to use mobile phone far from home range (4) | 3 | DT | ROAM | Double definition: roam with mobile phone and range |
I enjoyed this and had a similar experience to yours, Hihoba, in that I had NORTH and was temporarily misled into thinking that the words must be all five letters long. Once the penny dropped, it was easy to complete the list and find the link between the two stations.
23 across presented a problem, in that the extra word could have been either “pagan ” or “Etruscan”, since removing either produced the same answer, but once the theme became clear it was obvious that “Etruscan” had to be the extra word.
I’m not familiar with the connection in question, but I wonder if indeed Bank Station is at a higher level than Monument?
As the letters were forming, I thought I saw PADDOCK emerging (last three of CENTRAL and first four of DOCKLANDS) and given that it was Grand National weekend, it seemed to be a slam-dunk!
Of course, that was wrong and then I eventually saw DISTRICT. NORTHERN revealed itself a little while later and I was cruising again.
I first worked in The City in 1976 and I remember looking at the tube map before I got there and being fascinated by the “escalator link” between Bank and Monument stations. On the map, it looked like it was miles long. Eventually I found myself travelling on the Central line, arriving at Bank and taking the (as it turns out) fairly short escalator up from the Central line platform to the District line platform at Monument. The “magic” was shattered.
This was a great puzzle. One where you feel really satisfied by the end game.
Thanks to HiHoBa for the blog – looks like you had fun. And many thanks to Augeas.
But the grid has 6a and 6d as well. I think you forgot the ISLE OF MAN straddling two entries with one clue.
Yes Phi #3, you are absolutely right. Still quite unusual though.
I got as far as seeing NORTH but I am still a rookie at these so thanks for the great(and honest)
blog. I left UK in 1980 and DLR happened after that.I think.
Damn fine puzzle
An enjoyable solve with a very satisfying endgame which took some teasing out. We were fooled by 23ac until the end. Like bridgesong we thought that all the words were going to be 5 letters long when we had NORTH.
We pass on significant IQs to our son (he has 3 young children and little time!) – this one was the first we have forwarded for a while.
Thanks to Hihoba and Augeas.
It took me a long time to get through all the clues, purely because each one had to be unravelled as well as solved in order to determine what letter or letters it would yield. I was pleased to get to the end with only one straggler: 6d COMPPRIMARIO, which I eventually resolved (an excellent clue).
I very much enjoyed the task of picking and discarding the letters as appropriate, working in groups of five as instructed. I saw NORTH anyway, and when I got as far as NORTHERN CEN I twigged what was probably going on.
I readily found MONUMENT and BANK but took much longer to find any possible representation of a ‘link’. I tried ESCALATOR(S) first but somehow failed to see it, and I then looked for something of at least 17 letters, such as King William Street (17) and London Underground (17). I finally found ESCALATOR CONNECTION and then realised how well that connected all the thematic elements: the separately named stations in the Monument/Bank station complex and the five lines of the underground network that meet there. It was an impressive concept and design.
I felt that the sentence in the preamble beginning “Each group contains …” was confusing. I thought it would be clearer if it began “From each group select …” instead.
Thanks to Augeas and Hihoba.
I looked and looked, but never found the link, despite finding a slightly obsessive article on the internet. It annoys me because, pre-Covid, once a year I would walk from Bank to Monument underground – and I don’t recall using an escalator. For 39a, I had ‘sources’ rather than ‘dances’ for springs, hence was looking for ‘sour’ rather than ‘dan’ – and assumed ‘dank’ must be ‘rank’.
Thanks to Hihoba for clearing that and other matters up, and Augeas for a very enjoyable challenge.
Yes, an enjoyable puzzle. The endgame took considerably longer than the grid fill, though really it shouldn’t. I had the two stations, and knew roughly the link we were looking for, but was so hell-bent on finding a street name, and tend to be grid-blind anyway, that it took an age to spot the actual link.
A bit tough (daunting?) to get going, but quite fun sorting out the 5-letter groups and finding the escalator – so thanks, Augeas. (Despite having lived in London for over 20 years before moving out, I’ve never been on it. But it was so well known …)
And Hi, the clue/answer/wordplay for 12d is missing. But thanks for the rest.
Corrected now HG #10. Thank you.
Enjoyed this one — thanks all round. Nothing to add except that I got stuck for ages on the letter yielded by 4D, where “marrying” clearly had to become an anagram indicator and I went straight for “marring” and an extra Y. This, inevitably, did not compute.
Don’t think I ever took that escalator, but when I saw the station names I also heard the voice of a old friend who in long-ago games of Mornington Crescent or Finchley Central was particularly fond of saying “Monument for Bank”.