Inquisitor 1914: Construction Site by Luxor

Luxor provides another interesting IQ challenge with a triangular grid of hexagonal cells.

The preamble: Wordplay in each of 33 clues provides an extra letter not to be entered into the grid. In clue order these letters spell the names of four constructions on a site. Solvers must change a single letter in four clued entries, always making new words or names. Unclued entries give a fifth construction and the relevant location.

As usual with IQs, having read the preamble and taking note of the fact that most of the clues have extra letters, we dive in to start solving the clues. Our first one in was 3d SW, rapidly followed by 2d SE, 1d SE (despite never having come across the word before), 1d SW and 6ac. We managed to continue filling the grid fairly quickly, finding most of the clues fairly straightforward. As usual with IQs there are several unusual words, but the clueing was fair and Chambers generally came to the rescue.

When we had worked our way down to the lower part of the grid, we started to set out the extra letters and we had PYSA-ID-LAGE in the first unclued row. With a single letter change, we could make PYRAMID….. matching the shape of the puzzle. As the setter is Luxor, and the title ‘Construction Site’, we suspected that we were being led towards the Egyptian Pyramids. We soon realised that this is a fairly obvious red herring, as with the four letter changes, we have PYRAMID STAGE and GLASTONBURY – the festival occurring in Somerset this weekend.

We have never been to the Glastonbury festival, although we did once see Fleetwood Mac (with Peter Green) at Glastonbury Town Hall in 1968. We had of course heard of the Pyramid Stage, but we had to check the names of the other stages or ‘constructions’ revealed by the extra letters: WEST HOLTS, WOODSIES, THE PARK and LEFT FIELD. This helped in completing the last few trickier entries. There are several other stages – but obviously too many to appear in the puzzle.

Many thanks to Luxor for the challenge – it was a lot gentler than we feared at first sight of the grid!

In the parsings below, the extra letters in the wordplay are shown in (GREY BRACKETS)

ACROSS
No.	Entry	Extra letter
6	ALGID	W	Cold fish oddly allows golf to go ahead (5)
			ID (fish) with odd letters of AlLo(W)s and G (golf in the phonetic alphabet) in front or ‘going ahead’
11	TOSA	E	Dog beginning to tire working season without limits (4)
			T (first letter or ‘beginning’ of tire) + an anagram (‘working’) of s(E)ASOn without the first and last letters or ‘limits’
12	BLUE	S	Dismal case of luggage stored separately in public transport (4)
			L and E (first and last letters or ‘case’ of luggage) separately ‘stored’ in BU(S) (public transport)
14	RHOMBOIDS	T	Letter about grave papers (originally six forms of four sides each) (9)
			RHO (letter) round (T)OMB (grave) + ID (papers) S (first letter or ‘origin’ of six)
18	AORTA	H	Footpath roadworks redirected protecting vital supply route (5)
			Hidden (‘protected by’) and reversed (‘redirected’) in footpAT(H) ROAdworks
19	GRAIP	O	Glutton holds blade over fork at Balmoral (5)
			A reversal (‘over’) of PIG (glutton) round or ‘holding’ (O)AR (blade)
27	OGREISH	L	Enjoyment after game turned ugly (7)
			RE(L)ISH (enjoyment) after a reversal (‘turned’) of GO (game)
29	ARUM	T	Plant expression of doubt in painting (4)
			UM (expression of doubt) in AR(T) (painting)
30	ASSISI	S	Umbrian town helps with tenor lacking independence (6)
			ASSI(S)tS (helps) missing or ‘lacking’ ‘t’ (tenor) + I (independence)
31	ROWS		Swore echoing baseless arguments (4)
			A reversal (‘echoing’) of SWORe missing ‘e’ (base in mathematics)
DOWN SOUTH-EAST

1	FOULDER	W	On and off Wi-Fi before crashing of louder thunder, poet said (7)
			(W)i–Fi (alternate letters or ‘on and off’) + an anagram (‘crashing’) of LOUDER
2	OPTIC	O	Drinks dispenser, round container with endless ice (5)
			O (round) P(O)T (container) ICe missing the last letter or ‘endless’
4	BLURB	O	Bishop left our book review in jacket (5)
			B (bishop) L (left) (O)UR B (book)
7	DISMAY	D	Alarm is manic at first during time of critical action (6)
			IS M (first letter of manic) in D-(D)AY (time of critical action)
8	STAB	S	Pierce last of cans with ring pulls (4)
			S (last letter of cans) TAB(S) (ring pulls)
11	THRO	I	Music group entertaining hotel without a break (4)
			TR(I)O (music group) round or ‘entertaining’ H (hotel)
13	ESPRESSO	E	Peeress mixed very good drink (8)
			An anagram (‘mixed’) of P(E)ERESS + SO (very good)
14	ROLAG	S	Raw material for spinning gold wound by Cinders (5)
			A reversal (‘wound’) of OR (gold) + (S)LAG (cinders)
16	DISGOWN		To relieve of orders is grand in time of comparative bad luck (7)
			IS G (grand) in DOWN (time of comparative bad luck)
20	PSOAS	T	Pals on vacation drink to endless tenderloin (5)
			PalS missing the middle letters or ‘on vacation’ + (T)OASt (drink) missing the last letter or ‘endless’
21	LIE-IN	H	Right to retain covers naked this morning in bed (5)
			LIEN (right) round or ‘covering’ t(H)Is missing the first and last letters or ‘naked’
24	YAMS	E	Milk not the same in easy mashed potatoes, old Scots style (4)
			M~~ilk~~ missing ‘ilk’ (same) in an anagram (‘mashed’ ) of (E)ASY
26	ERG	P	Recalled leaving prefabricated housing unit (3)
DOWN SOUTH-WEST			Hidden (‘housed by’) and reversed (‘recalled’) in leavinG (P)REfabricated
1	FORBADE	A	Banned poor artist previously taken in by rival (7)
			BAD (poor) with R(A) (artist) in front or ‘previously’ ‘taken in’ by FOE (rival)
3	OPALS	R	Expert upset discovering false gems (5)
			A reversal (‘upset’) of P(R)O (expert) + fALSe missing the first and last letters or ‘discovered’
5	LIBRA	K	Enjoy brief support in the House? (5)
			LI(K)e (enjoy) missing the last letter or ‘brief’ + BRA (support)
9	COBB		Old bird taking pound with murmur of caution from court fixer perhaps (4)
			COBB~~ler~~ (‘court fixer’ as in a repairer of shoes) missing ‘l’ (pound) and ‘er’ (‘murmur of caution’)
10	EULOGY	L	Words of worship fine in upcoming Christmas feast (6)
			LOG (fine) in a reversal (‘upcoming’) of YU(L)E
11	TRAPPEAN	E	Damaged parapet edges in erosion of stone terraces (8)
			An anagram (‘damaged’) of PARAP(E)T and EN (first and last letters or ‘edges’ of erosion)
13	EDAM	F	Dairy produce famed when processed (4)
			An anagram (‘when processed’) of (F)AMED
15	HOP-YARD	T	Surface variable in difficult field for crop cultivation (7)
			(T)OP (surface) Y (variable) in HARD (difficult)
17	SILLS	F	Fill in uneven sash window ledges (5)
			(F)ILL in S S (odd or ‘uneven’ letters in sash)
22	ID EST	I	That is a day in Rome once hosted by Italian (5, 2 words)
			(I)DES (‘a day in Rome once’) in or ‘hosted by’ IT (Italian)
23	SAHIB	E	Stand around outside greeting cultured man (5)
			A reversal (‘around’) of BAS(E) outside HI (greeting)
25	GURN	L	Grimace glumly now and then missing discontented relation (4)
			GlUm(L)y (alternate letters or ‘now and then missing’) + R~~elatio~~N missing the middle letters or ‘discontented’
28	SWY	D	Wife replacing drink during steady contest in Perth (3)
			W (wife) replacing ‘tea’ (drink) in Stea(D)Y

7 comments on “Inquisitor 1914: Construction Site by Luxor”

arnold

#1 - Tue 8th Jul 25, 09:48

A lovely and timely idea, so thank you to Luxor. The top clues were indeed very gentle, leading me fairly quickly to WOODSIES and then directly onto the Theme given I had spent a good part of the previous day watching the BBC’s coverage.

I then entered PYRAMID STAGE and GLASTONBURY very early on, which caused confusion later when I couldn’t figure out the clue answers with clashing cells – perhaps the preamble could have indicated that clashes needed to be resolved in order to complete unclued entries, rather than having “clashes” and “unclued entries” as two separate sentences.

But I got there in the end and had much fun along the way! And no unclear parsing this time, but thank you to B&J for the useful blog as always.
Neil Hunter

#2 - Tue 8th Jul 25, 12:18

I can’t recall an Inquisitor where I had filled so much of the grid, and had so much other information (albeit too incomplete or senseless to allow a search), and still no idea of the theme, even though it was staring me in the face. The four incorrect letters did a lot of misdirection, in this respect (I had actually forgotten about them). I didn’t know the areas, not having been to Glastonbury since 1985. Nice puzzle, thanks to Luxor and bertandjoyce (whose 1968 thrashes my year).
Alan B

#3 - Tue 8th Jul 25, 18:57

I’ve encountered this grid design once or twice before. It makes an interesting change without adding any complexity.

I enjoyed solving the clues. It was a nice touch by the setter to place the ‘straight’ clues in the gaps between the four constructions. Having started to fill in the grid from the bottom, I found my first thematic item where I had ST?NBNRY in the bottom row: GLASTONBURY (a topical name) seemed likely at that point, and the rest followed.

Thanks to Luxor and Bertandjoyce.
Sagittarius

#4 - Tue 8th Jul 25, 19:15

Pleasingly topical and significantly easier as a result. Everything solved, everything understood – some mistake, surely. Thanks to Luxor for a different sort of Glastonbury experience, far nearer my comfort zone than the real thing would be, and to bertandjoyce for the blog.
Jon MacToon

#5 - Wed 9th Jul 25, 17:50

Finally finished an IQ on the Saturday, helped considerably by the fact that I was watching Glastonbury on TV! A very neat puzzle, and I did briefly dally with the monuments of the Valley of the Kings until I spotted Woodsies – and all the pennies dropped at once. A rare 10/10 this week, thanks to Luxor for putting this together and B&J for doing the excavation.
David Langford

#6 - Thu 10th Jul 25, 08:06

Jolly good fun — all thanks to Luxor and Bertandjoyce. Even this musical ignoramus had somehow heard of the Pyramid Stage (I blame the newspapers), though the others were new to me.
1cat3kids

#7 - Sun 13th Jul 25, 10:39

I was unnecessarily daunted by an initial glance at the grid, but really enjoyed this from start to finish. Many thanks, Luxor!

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