Bandits Scuppered Her Plans by Radler
In twelve thematic clues the entry is formed by changing the defined answer in one of two ways. Wordplay and letter counts refer to the entry. Eleven clues for non-thematic entries, in two consecutive groups, contain a misprint in the definition. Corrected letters in clue order describe the theme. Solvers must highlight a thematic 8-letter word and a 3-word phrase in the completed grid, both suggested by the title.
It was the S&B weekend in York when this puzzle was published. Looking at the list of setters’ puzzles, I see that this is Radler’s ninth puzzle having set one a year since 2013.
I went to York and had the pleasure of meeting Radler. I would have told him, to his face, what I thought of his puzzle but I’d hardly done any of it by then. If I was to meet him now, I’d give him both barrels – I really enjoyed it with quite a few PDMs. Quite literally “penny” drop moments.
When I first saw the title, I thought that it might be an anagram of HER PLANS and, indeed, it was. The word being SHRAPNEL. That didn’t mean much at the time but I kept it in mind as I set about the solving process.
Among the first few answers I got was 46a which looked like an obvious anagram giving RUDIMENTS but I couldn’t justify it until Sunday morning at breakfast. Solving that caused the first penny to drop.
I didn’t get much further until I was on the flight home when I managed to solve 11d RECENTLY but I couldn’t fully justify it at the time.
So I had now identified two coins but I knew that there had to be more than added coins since the preamble tells us “… one of two ways.” Chances are that the other coins are taken away from answers and, if Radler’s kind to us, there will be six of each kind. Indeed, my next solve was 4d HOARSENED. And, in the end, we have six of each. Cheers, Radler.
Another part of the preamble tells us that we need to identify 11 misprints and Radler kindly tells us that they’re in two consecutive groups. Having found the first across and the first down misprint meant it wasn’t long before I had thought of LOOSE CHANGE and found the corrections. And, of course, one of shrapnel’s definitions, in Chambers, is “loose coins”.
<grouse>
Like H___G____ last week, I find the wording “corrected letters” to be ambiguous. Does it mean the letters before they are corrected or after they’ have been corrected. Admittedly, it’s usually the latter but there have been times where it has been the former. Or is the ambiguity deliberate?
</grouse>
For a real rant, click here.
The 8-letter word in the grid is pretty easy to find, SHRAPNEL in row 10. And the 3-word phrase BITS AND PIECES can be found in the SW-NE diagonal. And I’ve just noticed that BANDITS is an anagram of BITS AND.
As usual, all my explanations can be found in the table below and I welcome comments regarding differences of opinion or where I’m just plain wrong.
Thanks to Radler and I look forward to seeing you literally and figuratively in a year’s time.
| Across | ||||
| Clue definition [misprint] correction | Entry | X |
Wordplay | |
| 1 Rapid knock echoed by one outside building (9) |
PARACHUTE (a small Turkish coin; 1/40 of a piastre; 1/100 of a Yugoslav dinar) |
RAP (knock; rev: echoed)+HUT (outside building) inside ACE (one) | ||
| 7 Outcome of sustained lying – heartless crooks! (4) |
BEDS[ÖRE] (a coin and monetary unit in Sweden, 1/100 of a krona) |
BE[n]DS (crooks; heartless) | ||
| 10 Refractory as it would seem but ultimately futile (5) |
SURLY | SUR[e]LY (as it would seem) but/except [futil]E | ||
| 12 Retiring among others on liquid lunch? (6) |
POTAGE | I think it’s EG (for example or among others)+ATOP (on) all rev: retiring | ||
| 13 Advanced on deck heading for single men (6) |
FELLAS | FELL (deck)+Advanced+S[ingle] (heading) | ||
| 15 Cycling rides in rocky place (4) | SCAR | I think it’s CARS (rides) with S cycled to the front | ||
| 16 Killer round church (3) | ORC | O (round)+RC ([Roman Catholic] Church) | ||
| 18 Cost to reclaim 75% of order (3) | RAN[SOM] (the standard monetary unit of Kyrgyzstan (100 tiyin)) |
RAN[k] (order; 75%) | ||
| 20 Temple’s role in greeting religious festival (5) |
HEIDI | EID (religious festival) inside HI (greeting) | ||
| 21 Given a pummelling, we’re told, that’s vital (6) |
NEEDED | Sounds like KNEADED (given a pummelling) | ||
| 22 Review of Central Ethiopian taro dish (3) |
POI | [eth[IOP[ian] (rev: review) | ||
| 24 Child engaged in acting movements (6) |
SONATA | SON (child)+AT (engaged in)+Acting | ||
| 26 Slash about face ended cutting skin (6) |
PEEPUL (an Afghan monetary unit, 1/100 of an afghani) |
UP (ended; rev: about face) inside PEEL (skin) | ||
| 27 Resounding cheer down off set (7) |
HARD-WON (the standard monetary unit of North and South Korea (100 chon)) |
|||
| 29 Woman’s survey tip for listeners (6) |
EILEEN | Sounds like EYE (survey)+LEAN (tip) | ||
| 31 Looking self-satisfied over margin breaching optimist’s limit (6) |
SMIRKY | RIM (margin; rev: over) inside SKY (as in sky’s the limit) | ||
| 32 Scot’s own way to Edinburgh? (3) |
AIN | Clever clue: A1 North is the way to Edinburgh (assuming you’re starting from somewhere in East England (London, for example). If you’re starting from Carlisle (A7), Glasgow (A8) or Thurso (A9) then all bets are off. |
||
| 33 Second example duplicated missing date stamp (6) |
SEXUAL (a monetary unit in Vietnam, 1/100 of a dong) |
Second+EXample+[d]UAL (duplicated; minus Date) | ||
| 35 The Parisian remains [d]lead (5) | LEASH | L |
LE (the in French)+ASH (remains) | |
| 37 Winemaker’s exported case bl[e]ow (3) |
RAP | O |
[g]RAP[e] (winemaker) minus its “case” | |
| 39 Say cr[a]oft beer’s about to finish (3) |
LEA | O |
ALE (beer) with About moved to the end | |
| 40 Spen[d]ser’s apportioned the majority of time for sons (4) |
MOTT | S |
MO[s]T (majority) with Time replaced by Sons | |
| 41 He[l]el’s cardinals lost without outcry (6) |
RASCAL | E |
CAR[din]ALS minus DIN (outcry) anag: lost | |
| 43 Picture framing exhibition’s opening I see (6) |
IDEATE | I DATE (I see) around E[xhibition]’s opening | ||
| 44 Clutching bra, unrestrained woman would strip (5) |
SHRED | [b]R[a] (unrestrained) inside SHE’D (woman would) | ||
| 45 Like a woolly hat perhaps in tumble-drier (4) |
[BOB]BLED (a shilling) |
tumBLE–Drier (hidden: in) | ||
| 46 Must diner run to get large pigeon and small piglet? (9) |
RUDIMENTS (one tenth of an American and Canadian dollar, equal to ten cents) |
MUST DINER (anag: run) | ||
| Down | ||||
| 1 It’s particularly small and quiet, before sound briefly rises (5) |
PSION | P (quiet)+NOIS[e] (briefly; rev: rises) | ||
| 2 Semi-proficient old elf’s child (3) |
AUF | AU F[ait] (proficient; half of (semi)) | ||
| 3 Every year in clichéd manner (4) |
[BAN]ALLY (a Romanian and Moldovan monetary unit, 1/100 of a leu) |
ALL (every)+Year | ||
| 4 36d became gravelly (5) | HOAR[SENE]D | Another clever clue: HOAR (the answer to 36)+Down |
||
| 5 Does Jack turn on afterthought? (3) |
UPS | U[-turn]+PS (afterthought) | ||
| 6 Score apiece, afternoon becoming tense (4) |
ETCH | E[a]CH (apiece) with Afternoon changed to Tense | ||
| 7 Foundation wanting last three players (7) |
BASEMEN | BASEMEN[t] (foundation; minus its last letter) | ||
| 8 Dud and Ed from base notice Bob (8, 2 words) |
DEAD DUCK | ED (rev: from base)+AD (notice)+DUCK (bob) | ||
| 9 Excursion around E. Ireland, heading North in a line (8) |
SERIALLY | SALLY (excursion) around East+IReland (rev: heading north) | ||
| 11 Depend on Charlie coming in Right to Left (8) |
RECENTLY (a hundredth part of various monetary units, esp of a dollar or a euro) |
RE (on)+Charlie+ENT[r]Y (coming in; with Right changed to Left) | ||
| 14 Former boss makes rare stink in lift (4) |
KNOP | PONK (stink, rarely; rev: in lift) | ||
| 17 Greek [K]curds produce fine character (4) |
FETA | C |
Fine+ETA ([Greek] character) | |
| 19 Characters from Canada panicked climbing Great [W]hall of Persia (7) |
APADANA | H |
cANADA PAn (hidden: characters from; rev: climbing) | |
| 23 From sm[e]all, bacterial bodies tainted parlours (8) |
SPORULAR | A |
PARLOURS (anag: tainted) | |
| 24 As Bachelor dresses OK, Master we s[t]nitched fashionably (8) |
SWELL-MOB | N |
WELL (OK)+Master inside SO (as)+Bachelor (I’m not 100% sure of this one as I can’t justify SNITCHED as “steal” – unless it’s meant to be SNATCHED) |
|
| 25 Thrillingly I love topless work and dressing in the [v]galley (8, 2 words) |
OLIVE OIL | G |
I LOVE (anag: thrillingly)+[t]OIL (work; topless) | |
| 27 H[o]eld up note first to go inside (7) |
HEISTED | E |
HEED (note) with IST (first) inside | |
| 28 Bomb sent without any sides warning (4) |
OMEN | [b]OM[b] [s]EN[t] (without any sides) | ||
| 30 Jock’s stunt, nothing rector’s swallowed (4) |
NIRL | NIL (nothing) around Rector | ||
| 33 One who charged to fight well has limited success (5) |
SPAHI | SPA (well)+HI[t] (success; limited) | ||
| 34 Lake with conclusion of floods, in places, waterlogged (5) |
[FEN]LANDS (a Chinese monetary unit, 1/100 of a yuan) |
Lake+AND (with)+[flood]S (limit of) | ||
| 36 Propeller covered with hard white deposit (4) |
HOAR | Hard+OAR (propeller) | ||
| 38 Authentically cut drug supplement from William (4) |
ECHE | ECH[t] (authentically; cut)+E (drug) | ||
| 41 Understood when told it’s Malbec? (3) |
RED | Sounds like READ (understood) | ||
| 42 Feature of table tennis (3) | LET | &lit. tabLE Tennis (feature of) |
||
The thematically altered entries made this quite tricky I thought, but rewarding to finish. 33ac in fact defeated me at the close – I could see two choices for the spot, could justify neither, and inevitably picked the wrong one. 🙂 The fact that one of the words to highlight was given from the start by the title was a nice touch.
Gorblimey, this was a tough one for me! I didn’t pencil in the final letters until the next Saturday morning, just before opening the new i. But very satisfying to get there in the end. One confession of failure: although it made no difference to grid fill, I never saw the BAN in BANALLY.
All thanks to Radler and kenmac.
Nice puzzle, great fun to solve. I think though that it’s a risky thing for a setter to use wordplay as a title, because I had “bits” and “shrapnel” as a start.
It didn’t spoil the enjoyment, however.
A bigger grid than last week, containing a whopping 52 clues, with some proving quite tough to solve (the NW quadrant giving me the most trouble this week). The endgame was wonderfully concise – Lieutenant-General Henry Shrapnel (Royal Artillery), your name has most certainly gone down in history!
Six currencies added and six removed, but 18A – RAN(SOM) & 27A – HARD(WON) – is there any reason why these two currencies were as the ‘whole’ currency units in these cases, rather than the fractional units? Or I wonder, does this distinction perhaps relate to idea of there being both BITS AND PIECES?
Kenmac – I had exactly the same parsing as you for 12A, 15A and 24D (Chambers lists SNITCH as meaning to pilfer).
A really lovely Inquisitor, with some cracking clues – thanks to both blogger and setter.
I was doing OK at half time having spotted SHRAPNEL from HERPLANS and seen it in row 10-then seeing RUDIMENTS and RECENTLY
But I didnt have the skill or tenacity to get to the finish in spite of seeing (BAN)ALLY and (BOB)BLED
So thanks for blog-so many coins, too little time.Should have spotted the Dave Clark hit
I never had time to solve this since we were preparing a big departure, but the ‘her plans shrapnel’ anagram is my first memory of solving a specific clue in a crossword, probably the (London) Evening News Saturday puzzle which my dad and I had been trying to finish (I was about 10). I remember on Sunday morning calling out ‘Dad, it’s Shrapnel’ and hearing something mildly expletive, the 1961 equivalent of D’oh.
Very tricky but ultimately very enjoyable (I think!) After ‘cent’ and ‘dime’ I expected the rest of the coins to be a little easier too, so took me a while to adjust to ‘pul’, ‘fen’ and the rest.
One other thing – does anyone know why “pieces” in “bits and pieces” flows from “her plans” ?
A very tough work-out, especially if your knowledge store of two and three word coins is slender. I found only seven, of either type, despite pretty much filling grid. My struggle was in the NE quadrant – much helped when I saw ‘bits and…’ running up the diagonal. But a very enjoyable contest…
Thanks to Radler and kenmac (quite a few parsings needed explaining!)
I got going with this in the bottom half and got about half-way when, instead of enabling me to build on what I had, the puzzle had become a slog, and I decided to call it a day. All I saw of the theme was ‘shrapnel’, but I forgot that it could mean loose change, and I never deduced the theme from bits like ‘bob’ that I had written down.
I can have a good laugh at myself now, because I really should have seen BITS AND going up the diagonal, not to mention SHRAP?EL going across).
This was a completely different experience from that of three previous puzzles by this setter, which I remember for their ‘cracking clues’ (to quote Me_sat above) more than anything else. I will try this setter again if his name comes up.
Me_sat_etc @4
You’re right. Pilfer is there under snitch. I looked at it a million times but just didn’t see it!
Did Radler overlook the words PENNYLANDS and FARTHINGLANDS? In a sense it’s irrelevant — the crossword could be completed without solving all the missing coins. This was its only drawback, I would say: once I filled in the grid, I was torn — do I have to find all the missing coins before I’ve finished? Some kind of goal would have been welcome. Perhaps an anagram of all the missing coins.