Inquisitor 1190 – Part-time by Charybdis

Has Charybdis been on holiday to Cornwall recently? If so he set a corking crossword while there! The rubric was pretty complex and, having read through it and not understood much, I cracked on with the normal clues. These were reasonably straightforward, though, as usual, I had Spenserian problems and found some wordplay difficult.

I noticed (only after some time!) that some of the clue lengths were one shorter than the space in the grid, and that these clues yielded answers that seemed to leave a gap in the grid below the letter I of ZIONIST. These were 14A, 17A, 18A, 25A, 28A and 29A. The solutions, MEDLED, PROLL, LESBIAN, LAND, DUTIES and ROTATOR, all had to be treated in some way.

This led me back to the rubric. My first discovery was the 8 letter town on the top row – MARAZION. Marazion is north of SAINT MICHAEL’S MOUNT which is 18 letters, the number of shaded blanks in the grid. Both are in MOUNTS BAY, which fitted nicely into the highlighted squares on the middle row. Extra letters had to be added to the words listed above to make new “real” words. This led to the appearance of CAUSEWAY. Unfortunately this seems to have been split by a misplaced bar. The bar should appear below the Y, not after the E of cause. (The grid is not symmetrical so there is really no reason for it to be where it is!)

MEDALED, UPROLL, LESBIANS, ELAND, DAUTIES and ROTATORY are the modified forms of the words listed above. Marazion is linked to Saint Michael’s Mount by a causeway which is only visible when the TIDE (13A) is “out” (also mentioned in the rubric) and presumably the reason for the title, “Part-time”. Ba noticed that if you delete the word TIDE the letters remaining in 1D, 2D and 3D are still real words. It wasn’t quite clear from the rubric whether this indication of the tide being out meant you had to delete TIDE or not. I liked the phrase “key link” at the end of the rubric, indicating a link to an island!

So the grid is a map with Marazion at the top linked by a causeway across Mounts Bay to a block of letters representing Saint Michael’s Mount at the bottom.

All (!) that remained was to fill in the blanks to populate the grey shaded area with an anagram of Saint Michael’s Mount. The four rows contained MULT, NATEI, ACISM and HNSO which form [SAINTMICHAELSMOUNT]* All words were dictionary words except for a capital city. This was RIYADH. The other across words were MULTURER, MARINATE and OSTRACISM. The down words were STOMACH, RUTIN, LESS (or possibly WAYLESS) and ULTIMO.

Very entertaining indeed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Across
Clue	Answer	Definition	Wordplay
1	TAMARA	Spicy mix	TA (“In a single body, every territorial” – the longest definition I’ve  seen for TA!) + MARA (rodent)
8	ZIONIST	Middle Eastern activist	Z (unknown) +I (one) + ON (supported by) + IS(aiah) + T(almud  primarily)
10	FAME	Note	FLAME (indication of fire) L(eft) out
12	EWER	The Water Carrier	EWE (correlate of the Ram) + R(ight)
13	TIDE	Triple definition	Fit of passion, bound (Spenser’s tied), to happen
14	MEDLED	Spenser equivalent of meddled	MED(iaeval) + L(ove) + ED(mund)
15	LIONS	Brave people	RebelLIONS (uprisings) minus rebel
17	PROLL	Keep looking around for something – stale (obsolete)	P (soft) + ROLL (bap)
18	LESBIAN	Singularly Women – i.e. woman – in  Love	LE (jacket of LawrencE) + ‘S + B(ook) + [IN A]*
19	APPEL	Rap with foil – fencing stamp	APPLE (pome) with end misspelt
21	ENTASIS	Slight swelling	ENT (specialised medical field) + AS IS (not altered)
25	LAND	German state . . .	L(uxembourg) + AND (together with)
27	THUG	&lit clue – sort of loveless tough	[T(o)UGH]*
28	DUTIES	Taxes	DU(tch) + TIES (links)
29	ROTATOR	It turns	Palindrome (in either direction)
34	ISLE	A key (island)	Hidden in mISLEadingly
35	TALE	Saga	T(our) + ALE (festival)
Down
1	TITTLE	Double definition	The least bit and gossip
2	AXILE	Coinciding with its own branches	[A ILEX]*
3	MODIST	Fan of fashion	MOST (majority) round DI
4	RAM	Double definition	Pack and animal
5	ZEDS	Final letters	Hidden in craZED Shootist
6	OIL PALM	Tree as a source of fuel	[LOP LIAM]* but no indication of two words, and I don’t think it is used as fuel, more in cooking and soap manufacture!
7	NEER	Not once (never) contracted	NEE (born) + R(un)
8	SEALED	Unopened	SEED (pip) round A L(etter initially)
9	TROLLEYS	Bogies (wheels)	TROLL + [YES]*
11	MESA	Hill	SAME (unchanged – swap SA and ME
16	OBANG	Coin	OBLONG swap LO(ok) for A (one)
20	PANTSUITS	Dress for women	PIT’S (mine’s) round [AUNTS]*
22	NOHOW	Out of sorts	[HWOON]* – SHORT SWOON out of (minus) SORTS
23	STATE	Say	e.g. Washington
24	SAD	Winter blues	S(un) + AD (notice)
26	BIRR	Double definition	Push (Scottish) and Ethiopian money (rhino)
27	TREMOR	Indication of earthquake	TRE(e) + MOR(e)
30	TARTY	Like a pro!!	T(erritorials) + ARTY (short for artillery)
31	BELLE	Beauty	BEE round LL (lines)
32	FREER	Relatively exempt	FR (father) + EER (always)
33	LIRA	a little money	LIAR with ending changed