Battleships by Eclogue
Clues are presented in conventional order, but answers are separated by blocks rather than bars, with no symmetrical pattern. When the grid is complete, solvers will have found a fleet of ships (one set of 5 blocks, two sets of 4 blocks, three sets of 3 blocks, four sets of 2 blocks and five single blocks), not touching each other even at the corners. All blocks are in non-diagonal straight lines. The unchecked letters, which must be highlighted, provide a thematic name.
Regular readers of my blogs will know that I’m frightened of cartes blanche. Time to call in the cavalry in the form of elmac. Together, using an on-line spreadsheet with her doing the majority of the grid fill and me doing the majority of solving we managed to crack things in a couple of hours.
The fact that we were doing The Inquisitor, which is normally a barred crossword, whereas today we were going to be inserting blocks threw us a bit every now and then as we occasionaly tried to put two answers next to one another.
I used to love playing Battleships when I was a kid using pencil and paper. I don’t suppose there’s much of it about these days.
There’s not much more to say about the grid fill. In the attached grid, I’ve shown the various ships with numbers denoting their size. I hope that’s clear.
Now on to the unchecked letters. They were a little tricky to find (probably due to the absence of bars) but we found them and I’ve indicated them in “battleship grey”. Read in traditional left-to-right then down order, they spell POTEMKIN, which was a pre-dreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet. And you can read more about it by clicking here.
Why we have a Russian battleship, I don’t know. It makes me wonder if I’ve missed something but I’m sure that someone will put me right, if necessary.
Many thanks to Eclogue for a really fun puzzle and for transporting me back to my childhood.
Does anyone have any graph paper and fancy a game??
| Across |
||
| Clue | Entry |
Wordplay |
| Space filler finally amuses Her Imperial Majesty | SHIM | [amuse]S (finally)+HIM (His/Her Imperial Majesty) |
| Row following right bluster | ROAR | Right+OAR (row) |
| Sons behold second reduction of speed in art houses, perhaps | SLO-MO | Sons+LO (behold)+MOment (a second) |
| Was satisfactory notice from French political party? (2 words) | ADDED UP | AD (notice)+DE (from: French)+DUP (party) |
| Joints transport detective | CARPI | CAR (transport)+PI (detective) |
| Greens of another era drill when advanced | PEASON | PE (drill)+AS (when)+ON (advanced) (I think) |
| Person getting up pluriserial shrouds | RISER | pluRISERial (hidden: shrouds) |
| Flighty type: smear one with mash all over | PAPILIO | OIL (smear)+I (one)+PAP (mash) rev: all over |
| Centaur breaking free from chains | UNTRACE | CENTAUR (anag: breaking) |
| Time to do something that is discreet | TACT | Time+ACT (to do something) |
| Passion at the heart of Zeffirelli | FIRE | zefFIRElli (hidden: at the heart of) |
| That is assuming return of desire is visible (2 words) | IN EYE | YEN (desire; rev: return of) inside IE (that is) |
| They start on the tutoring of German | OTTO | O[n] T[he] T[utoring] O[f] (first letters) |
| Earl revised cost for short sword | ESTOC | Earl+COST (anag: revised) |
| Girl’s mother is bust | HERMA | HER (girl)+MA (mother) |
| Old language following lines and occurring on a single occasion only | ONE-OFF | Old+NEO (language)+FF (following lines) |
| Architectural moulding found in fancy mansion | CYMA | fanCY MAnsion (hidden: found in) |
| Letter for beneficial gathering | BEE | (double def) |
| Fashionable set ultimately sprained joint | HIPT | HIP (fashionable)+{se]T (ultimately) |
| Major belief system converted Mali miss? | ISLAMISM | MALI MISS (anag: converted) |
| Grain tips contributing something for stale Peruvian bread | INTI | graIN TIps (hidden: conributing something) |
| Peculiar rite seen to immortalise in fame | ETERNISE | RITE SEEN (anag: peculiar) |
| Originally, political economic science organised what is necessary for Mexico | PESO | P[olitical] E[conomic] S[cience] O[rganised] (originally) |
| Boasters turned out to be salts | SORBATES | BOASTERS (anag: turned out) |
| Old news agency in a heap, locally | TASS | (double def) |
| Down | ||
| Was killed there in error | SLAIN | LA (there) inside SIN (error) |
| Group of scientists occupying dangerous block of crust | HORST | HOT (dangerous) around RS (Royal Society: group of scientists) |
| Rainproof item ripped for lack of opening | IMPERFORATION | RAINPROOF ITEM (anag: ripped) |
| Goddesses lifted city informally during month in France | MOIRAI | RIO (city informally; rev: raised) inside MAI (May: French) |
| High praise in Perth goes for snuffs | RAPPEES | RAP (high praise: Australian)+PEES (goes: urinates) |
| Concert halls in essence, go dead | ODEA | gO DEAd (essentially) |
| Notice a point being realigned for adjustment | ADAPTION | AD (notice; again)+A POINT anag: being realigned |
| Outrageous increase where old person lives? | RESIANCE | INCREASE (anag: outrageous) |
| Turcos devising a type of theatrical trapdoor | SCRUTO | TURCOS (anag: devising) |
| Panadol ceases nursing sweetly | DOLCE | panaDOL CEases (hidden: nurses) |
| One’s persistence in demanding lacks meaning | UNITY | [import]UNITY (persistence in demanding) minus IMPORT (meaning) |
| Poor ice-skater performing worst | CREAKIEST | ICE SKATER (anag: poor) |
| Biblical tree’s one in Scotland breaking by so much | THYINE | YIN (one: Scottish) inside THE (by so much) |
| Inclines point in local’s sieve | TEMPTS | TEMS (sieve; dialect) around PT (point) |
| Drudges getting time on tankers | TOILERS | Time+OILERS (tankers) |
| Died in Rome having a pair of charms | OBIIT | OBI and IT are both charms |
| Jonathan’s own English band | FESSE | FESS (own [up]; American)+English |
| Women in law getting money in charges | FEMES | Money inside FEES (charges) |
| Tease Conservative with it | CHIP | Conservative+HIP (it) |
| Occupational therapy rising in South American colonnade | STOA | OT (occupational therapy; rev: rising) inside SA (South America) |
| They exploit rough bars | ARBS | BARS (anag: rough) |
| Member of the National Assembly has weight | MNA | (double def) |
Battleship Potemkin: film by Sergei Eisenstein from 1925 with famous scene of sailors eating maggots mistaking them for rice.
Puzzle not too hard, but good fun, Thanks S & B.
Too hard for me but I do remember the film of Potemkin
Like kenmac I am also not a fan of cartes blanches mostly because it involves a lot of cold solving the same clues over and over again.
But this one had a few easyish ones to get going with, particularly IMPERFORATION, which I assume was the way in for most people in my case combined with SHIM. Once they were firmly settled, the Battleship rules meant that the remaining clues fell easily enough making for a satisfying ending.
So overall a fun challenge, thank you!
PS one question, why is Jonathan an indicator for an American word?
arnold @3: For Jonathan, Chambers has “the people of the United States, collectively, or a typical specimen (often Brother Jonathan) (archaic);”
My ‘method’ for carte blanches is, once I have just about enough to go on, to start filling and see what happens. The clues I’d solved were largely bottom half, so in they went. This certainly helped with the solving – until it stopped helping – and I realised they were the wrong way round, the 8 letter words were on the right, not the left. So, eraser. But I really enjoyed this one, and smiled when Potemkin arrived – so inevitable (in my world) but I didn’t see it coming. Many thanks to Eclogue and kenmac.
My carte blanche method is similar to Neil Hunter @5 except that I confidently ink solutions in the wrong place, as I did (again) this time. With so many checked letters in the grid I found this a lot easier to finish than to start. It was very enjoyable all the same. Many thanks to both Eclogue for the puzzle and to Kenmac for the blog.
With carte-blanche puzzles, I always use the squared paper from an old school Maths exercise book until I am sure I have got the grid correctly. Like Arnold, my way in was SHIM and IMPERFORATION and I soon managed to largely fill the top half. I found the lower part more challenging: in many cases I guessed the answer first and then had to justify it from the wordplay – UNITY took me ages to parse. In the end, however, every clue turned out to be very sound.
An original idea which I enjoyed solving.
Thanks to the Eclogue partnership and to Ken an El.
I didn’t actually justify UNITY until writing this blog. Or, to be more precise, well after putting the blog together expecting to rely on helpful comments.
still, it niggled away at me and I decided to sneak up on it on Sunday night when it realised it was well and truly beaten as I’d sunk its aircraft carrier.
This is the first time I’ve completed an Inquisitor so I’m quite pleased. I had the same solution process as Neil@5. I didn’t manage to scan them all and I still have one question. Why is ‘speed in art houses, perhaps’, slo-mo?
My guess is that because arthouse is a cinema (in Chambers) and cinemas might show slow motion films.
Actually the definition for SLOMO should be “reduction of speed in art houses, perhaps”, making it clearer why it’s the answer. kenmac I think you just need to extend the highlighting there.
This required three or four sessions of slow, painful progress, cursing the absence of enumerations for the clues. But as others found, once one had started to fill things in (from the bottom in my case, because I couldn’t shake the conviction that 1A had to be something to do with Empress), progress became pretty brisk. The complete grid demonstrates poor Battleship tactics- one normally sticks all the long ships on the edge, to leave the maximum number of blank squares for random submarine placements – but it was ultimately an enjoyable solve. I think the most famous scene from Battleship Potemkin, regularly referenced by subsequent films across the decades, is the pram, with baby, bouncing down the entire length of the Odessa steps, the mother having been shot by dastardly Tsarist soldiers. Thanks to Eclogue and kenmac.
Thanks kenmac@10 and arnold@11. It was an enjoyable puzzle and thanks to Eclogue and kenmac.