We have a puzzle from Chalicea this week which is her 32nd Inquisitor according to Fifteensquared records.
The preamble was short and clear telling us that the unclued 16 and 21 identify the theme, depicted by five clued answers in the grid. The definition in each of sixteen clues contains a misprint: correct letters, in clue order, spell a three-word instruction.
The grid filled reasonably quickly although I was a bit puzzled by what we were looking for at 1 across. It seemed that the answer had to be WINDMILL LANE, but the name meant nothing to me at that point; it just seemed a rather random road name.
The first hint to the clue came from the unclued lights which looked likely to be THREE and BRIDGES. I have heard of the village Three Bridges in Sussex but knew very little about it. A Google search told me it was part of the urban sprawl of Crawley, but I couldn’t find anything about a likely theme.
The real step forward came with the appearance of SHADE as the first word in the 16-letter word message built from the corrected letter in the misprints… The full message was SHADE THE DESIGNER. At this point I had KINGDOM in the grid at 16 down, so coupled with BRIDGES and years of barred crossword solving, the name of ISAMBARD KINGDOM BRUNEL flashed up in my mind. A short grid search revealed enough letters to complete ISAMBARD and BRUNEL in columns 2 and 4 which helped complete some of the entries I hadn’t yet filled in.
A return to Google generated this story which brought everything together with its explanation about BRUNEL‘s work on WINDMILL LANE, the GRAND JUNCTION CANAL and the Great Western and BRENTFORD railway [leading to BRENTFORD DOCK). The road passes over the CANAL which is above the railway. This relationship is illustrated in the grid with WINDMILL LANE in Row 1, GRAND JUNCTION and CANAL in rows 7 & 8 with the railway BRENTFORD LINE in rows 12 and 13.
Chalicea’s puzzles always have a clear end game and usually involve a bit of shading as was the case today. This might have been a puzzle towards the easier end of the Inquisitor spectrum, but the joy of the Inquisitor series is you never know what you get each week and you usually learn something new.
The title, Construction, is a word closely associated with Mr BRUNEL.
The grid illustrated below shows the thematic material and the detailed table below parses the clues, as well as showing the misprints and their corrections.
| No | Detail | Letter |
| Across | ||
| 1 |
Land mine will reset road (12, 2 words) WINDMILL LANE (name of a road [thematic]) Anagram of (reset) LAND MINE WILL WINDMILL LANE* |
|
| 10 |
Way to protect sex surrounded by evil (3-2) Way to protest sex surrounded by evil (3-2) SIT-IN (the occupation of a building, etc, as an organized protest against some [alleged] injustice, etc) IT (sex) contained in (surrounded by) SIN (evil) S (IT) IN |
S |
| 12 |
Part of mural I tested for pseudomorphic mineral (7) URALITE (an altered mineral, hornblende after augite; pseudomorphic mineral, as pseudomorphic is defined as a portion of a mineral showing the outward form of another which it has replaced by molecular substitution or otherwise) URALITE (hidden word [part of] in MURAL I TESTED |
|
| 13 |
Upsetting some gutted, furious women (5) DAMES (women) (SE [letters remaining in SOME when the central letters OM are removed {gutted}] + MAD [furious]) all reversed (upsetting) (DAM ES) |
|
| 14 |
In Italy, nosy agents backing bill with thanks (8) In Italy, nosh agents backing bill with thanks (8) CIABATTA (unleavened Italian white bread made with olive oil and flour, popular for its thick, soft centre; Italian nosh) CIA (Central Intelligence Agency; agents) + TAB (bill) reversed (backing) + TA (thanks) CIA BAT< TA |
H |
| 15 |
Eastern doctor chased by newspaper chief firmly set in surrounding mess (5) Eastern doctor chased by newspaper chief firmly set in surrounding mass (5) EMBED (place, set or plant firmly in a mass of matter) E (Eastern) + MB (Bachelor of Medicine; doctor) + ED (editor; newspaper chief) E MB ED |
A |
| 16 |
See preamble THREE |
|
| 18 |
River blockage king, not oddly, fears (5) Rider blockage king, not oddly, fears (5) BIKER (rider) BI (in traditional Chinese medicine, one of five responses, BI syndromes, that present as blockages in the circulation of chi in the meridians) + K (king) + ER (letters remaining in FEARS when letters 1, 3 and 5 [oddly] FAS, are ignored [not]) BI K ER |
D |
| 21 |
See preamble BRIDGES |
|
| 21 |
Regularly uncanonic features of temple (4) NAOI (inner cells of temples; features of temples) NAOI (letters 2, 4, 6 and 8 [regularly] of UNCANONIC) NAOI |
|
| 24 |
Some of area redeveloped with bars (5) Some of area redeveloped with ears (5) EARED (with EARs) EARED (hidden word in [some of] AREA REDEVELOPED) EARED |
E |
| 25 |
Group of warriors more than half lacking due respect (4) IMPI (a group of armed southern African native warriors) IMPI (4 of 7 [more than half] of the letters of IMPIOUS [lacking due respect]) IMPI |
|
| 28 |
Colorado city offering cruciverbalist G&T? (13, 2 words) GRAND JUNCTION (a city in Colorado’s Western Slope region) G&T can represented as (offering) G (GRAND) and T (a type of road JUNCTION) GRAND JUNCTION |
|
| 31 |
About obsessive passage (5) CANAL (passage that contains fluids) C (circa; about) + ANAL (obsessive) C ANAL |
|
| 34 |
Observe osprey circling or split off (4) ESPY (observe) Anagram of (circling) OSPREY excluding (split off) OR ESPY* |
|
| 35 |
Confused one – unknown European comprehending nothing in Spain (7, 3 words) IN A DAZE (confused) (I [Roman numeral for one)] + Z [letter frequently used to represent an unknown value in mathematics] + E [European]) containing (comprehending) NADA (Spanish for ‘nothing’) I (N A DA) Z E |
|
| 37 |
Was serving at table managed by boys? (6) LADLED (served [soup] at a table) LAD LED (descriptive of something managed by [LED] boys [LADs] LAD LED |
|
| 38 |
Nothing to notice, according to what pair of hands reveal (6) O’CLOCK (the hand on a clock reveal the time [O’CLOCK]) O (character representing zero or nothing) + CLOCK (slang term for ‘see’ or ‘notice’) O CLOCK |
|
| 41 |
Skin of lethally biting viper – with little holes? (7) LADDERY (a run of a thread in knitwear can give the clothing a set of holes that look like a LADDER) LY (outer letters of [skin of] LETHALLY) containing (biting) ADDER (any of the small venomous snakes of the family Viperidae, including the common viper and the ADDER) L (ADDER) Y |
|
| 43 |
Loamy earth to daub locally once, without success finally (4) MALM (calcareous loam; earth of this; loamy earth) SMALM (obsolete [once] dialect [local] word meaning to smear, daub or plaster) excluding (without) S (the last letter of [finally] SUCCESS) MALM |
|
| 44 |
Game in Balmoral; cut of meat truly disembowelled (6) SHINTY (game similar to hockey, of Scottish [Balmoral] origin, played by teams of 12) SHIN (cut of meat) + TY (letters remaining in TRULY [disembowelled]) SHIN TY |
|
| 45 |
Cut back after British dubiously fronted London wharf (13, 2 words) BRENTFORD DOCK (a wharf of the river Thames in London) BR + an anagram of (dubiously) FRONTED + DOCK (cut back) BR ENTFORD* DOCK |
|
| 46 |
Rouse student in Spain (4) Route student in Spain (4) LINE (route) L (learner; student) + IN + E (International Vehicle Registration for Spain) L IN E |
T |
| 47 |
Creeps around end of the heart of arboretum for sloes (8) Creeps around end of the heart of arboretum for shoes (8) SNEAKERS (type of soft-soled canvas shoes) SNEAKS (creeps) containing (around) (E [last letter of [end of] THE + R [middle letter of [heart of] ARBORETUM) SNEAK (E R) S |
H |
| Down | ||
| 1 |
Swivelling movements to marry the Spanish signora essentially (6) WEDELN (a style of downhill skiing in which the skis, kept parallel and close together, are swivelled rapidly from side to side; swivelling movements) WED (marry) + EL (Spanish for ‘the’) + N (middle letter of [essentially] SIGNORA) WED EL N |
|
| 2 |
Northern Ireland recalled US computer company for Sky features (5) NIMBI (clouds; sky features) NI (Northern Ireland) + IBM (US computer company) reversed (recalled) NI MBI< |
|
| 3 |
Illegal act did seem wrong (7) MISDEED (wrongdoing; illegal act) Anagram of (wrong) DID SEEM MISDEED* |
|
| 4 |
Popular manx cat? One originally from Peru (4) INCA (member of a South American people of Peru before the Spanish conquest in the 16th century) IN (popular) + CAT excluding the last letter [tail] T – a Manx cat has only a rudimentary tail IN CA |
|
| 5 |
In Scotland lot of flautists intermittently (4) In Scotland let of flautists intermittently (4) LUIT (Scottish word for ‘let’) LUIT (letters 2, 4, 6 and 8 [intermittently] of FLAUTISTS) LUIT |
E |
| 6 |
The French cooked bird, rather fishy! (6) LABRID (descriptive of the wrasse genus of fishes; fishy) LA (one of the French firms of ‘the’) + an anagram of (cooked) BIRD LA BRID* |
|
| 7 |
Turning wet but not at first during the dark hours (4) NITE (non-standard spelling of NIGHT [during the dark hours) (WET excluding the initial letter [but not at first] W + IN [during]) all reversed (turning) (NI TE)< |
|
| 8 |
Decide, lacking opening in Holyrood, resign (5) Decide, lacking opening in Holyrood, design (5) ETTLE (Scottish [Holyrood] word for ‘intent’ or ‘purpose’; design) SETTLE (decide) excluding the first letter (lacking opening) S ETTLE |
D |
| 9 |
Stores harvest in Perth to precede blunder (7, 2 words) LEADS IN (Scottish [Perth] term for ‘to house the harvest’) LEAD (precede) + SIN (blunder) LEAD S IN |
|
| 11 |
With no restraints soak small pig (3) With no restraints soak small peg (3) TEE (small peg for supporting a ball in golf when driving) STEEP (soak) excluding the outer letters (with no restraints) S and P TEE |
E |
| 17 |
Corrected data of tide turning on English delta (6) EDITED (amended or corrected data) (E [English] + D [Delta is the International Radio Communication codeword for the letter D]) + TIDE reversed (turning) E D ITED< |
|
| 18 |
Finger bacon that prevents meat from drying during cooking (4) Singer bacon that prevents meat from drying during cooking (4) BARD (one of the ancient Celtic order of formal poets and singers; also a strolling minstrel [singer]) BARD (piece of bacon or pork fat used to cover meat or game during cooking to prevent drying-out) double definition BARD |
S |
| 19 |
Realm of related German and Portuguese nobleman (7) KINGDOM (realm) KIN (people who are related) + G (German) + DOM (Portuguese nobleman) KIN G DOM |
|
| 20 |
Prance finished unharmonious jumping (4) Prince finished unharmonious jumping (4) RAJA (Indian prince) AJAR (out of harmony) with the R moving (jumping) from the end to the beginning to form RAJA RAJA |
I |
| 22 |
Of organs of plain-dweller boundlessly upset (5) RENAL (referring to the kidneys [organs]) LLANERO (an inhabitant of the LLANOS, the vast steppes or plains in the northern part of South America; plain-dweller) with the outer letters L and O removed (unbounded) and the remaining letters then reversed (upset) RENAL< |
|
| 26 |
After start of cultivation, this could become comeliest old evergreen bush (8) MISLETOE (a former [old] spelling of MISTLETOE [evergreen bush]) Anagram of the letters of COMELIEST that appear after the C [first letter of [start of] CULTIVATION) MISLETOE* |
|
| 27 |
Stolid priest becoming head of very hostile description of RCs (6) POPERY (hostile term for Roman Catholicism) PO [PO-faced; stolid] + VERY with the first letter (head) V being replaced by (becoming) P (priest) PO P ERY |
|
| 29 |
In E Africa prove I’m set up with ordinary masculine fellow from Texas (6) In E Africa grove I’m set up with ordinary masculine fellow from Texas (6) MIOMBO (an area of deciduous woodland occurring in parts of E Africa; grove [wood of small size]) I’M reversed (set up) + O (ordinary) + M (masculine) + BO (familiar term of address for a man in the USA [Texas]) MI< O M BO |
G |
| 30 |
Beat leaders of egoistic insufferable bores (6) Beat leaders of egoistic insufferable bones (6) MALLEI (any of the small bones of the middle ear in mammals) MALL (maul or beat) + EI (first letters [leaders] of each of EGOISTIC and INSUFFERABLE) MALL EI |
N |
| 32 |
Gas about extremes of lawless London columnist? (6) NELSON (reference NELSON‘s Column in Trafalgar Square in London) NEON (a gas) containing (about) LS (outer letters of [extremes of] LAWLESS) NE (LS) ON |
|
| 33 |
Posh youth I’d originally adored (6) LA-DI-DA (affectedly elegant or superior, especially in speech or bearing; posh) LAD (youth) + I’D + A (first letter of [originally] ADORED) LA D I D A |
|
| 36 |
Strongly felt a wound on tip of toe (5) ACUTE (keen; strongly felt) A + CUT (wound) + E (last letter of [tip of] TOE) A CUT E |
|
| 39 |
Vehicle left for miser in Lanarkshire (4) CARL (Scottish [Lanarkshire] word for a miser) CAR (vehicle) + L (left) CAR L |
|
| 40 |
Drugs that produce fanciful stats; dubious fakes not accepted (4) Drugs that produce fanciful state; dubious fakes not accepted (4) KEFS (drugs such as marijuana, smoked to produce a fanciful state) Anagram of (dubious) FAKES excluding (not) A (accepted) KEFS* |
E |
| 42 |
Battles on, say, mounting around heart of Balkans (4) Rattles on, say, mounting around heart of Balkans (4) YAKS (talks persistently; rattles on) SAY reversed (mounting; down entry) containing (around) K (central letter of [heart of] BALKANS) YA (K) S< |
R |
Like a lot of great names ( Elvis Presley for one) IKB was genuine.
Easy to see THREE BRIDGES but dialling that up gave more than one possibility
So closer inspection revealed what we were looking for
I’m still new to IQs soI wont complain when one’s doable.
He built things to last
Nice construction!
A typically lovely puzzle from Chalicea – perhaps not *quite* as gentle as expected in parts (9d in particular took some teasing out!) Just to note, the whole of 45a could be highlighted (see eg https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brentford_branch_line). Many thanks Chalicea & duncanshiell.
Much enjoyed! All thanks to Chalicea and duncanshiell and indeed Brunel.
It’s been remarked here in the past that Chalicea is fond of hiding endgame text in unexpected diagonals, and I imagine her gently chortling at the frustration of anyone trying that particular short cut on “Construction”.
Indeed, as always with Chalicea an interesting theme and fair, quite gentle clueing. The thematic entries were slightly awkward as eg WINDMILL LANE for “road” was a bit clunky, I felt – potentially those could have also been left unclued. But at least it was clearly a part of the Theme, so together with Three Bridges helped me get to the answer quickly.
One aside, I only highlighted BRUNEL, given his central location it didn’t cross my mind that his first names may also be visible. Perhaps I was the only one but an indication that we were looking for 21 cells in total would have avoided this, without detracting from the puzzle.
Thank you to blogger and setter.
Another treat from Chalicea. Not that easy, some searching required for unfamiliar references. Like cranberryfez @2, I struggled with 9D. In the end, I desperation, I entered REAPS IN but, of course, could not parse it. However, I did shade all of 45A. I really liked the clue for 28A.
Thanks to Chalicea and Duncan.
@4 arnold: I did exactly the same – saw Brunel in the central column, job done. I agree – had this been a prize puzzle then I think an indication of how many cells needed highlighting would have been helpful.
When THREE BRIDGES emerged in my grid, after I’d already solved KINGDOM, I dared to think that Brunel might feature here. I happen to remember a puzzle by Chalicea about 18 months ago featuring Isambard Kingdom Brunel, which I couldn’t find at first, but on looking back over past Listener puzzles I found it. Brunel was indeed an outstanding engineer and well worth celebrating (again) in this puzzle. I liked the way that the ‘three bridges’ were represented in the grid, and the clue to GRAND JUNCTION was a gem.
It was nice to complete both the crossword and the endgame for a change after some less impressive results lately. The only clue I had difficulty with was 9d LEADS IN. I agree, though, with those who were not led to look for the designer’s full name: that thought occurred to me even while I was finding the full name.
Thanks to Chalicea and duncanshiell.
I made the endgame more difficult for myself by assuming that it wouldn’t be anything so obvious as the 3 long entries across the top, middle, and bottom. Then while scanning the grid for bridges I spotted KINGDOM which led quite swiftly to IKB’s full name (which I shaded) and the THREE BRIDGES in question.
And I agree that all of 45a BRENTFORD DOCK could be shaded (for information only).
Thanks to duncanshiel and all. Yes, I’ll be running out of IKB achievements soon – this was his last. I agree we should have told you that 21 letters were needed for the highlighting. It is good to have no-one complaining that this was too easy.