Inquisitor 1250: WEST END HIT by Shark

 

This is Shark’s fourth offering in this series. One of his previous puzzles was last Christmas, with gift, toys and presents under the tree.

This was a nicely constructed puzzle with straightforward clues (i.e. no extra/missing letters or misprints) covering the whole grid except for one 10 letter phrase. This phrase was from a “famous verse”, and the preceding observation had to be “reflected in the grid”.

The phrase turned out to be MY FAIR LADY, which chimed nicely with the title “West End Hit”. [I had the pleasure of playing in the orchestral pit during a week of performances by an amateur operatic society. I must say that My Fair Lady was a great pleasure to play – tune after tune, my favourite being On the Street Where You Live.]

However, this was entirely irrelevant to the theme of the puzzle, where the preceding line was from the Nursery Rhyme London Bridge is Falling Down which runs:

London Bridge is falling down,

Falling down, falling down,

London Bridge is falling down,

My fair lady.

Who the fair lady was I don’t know, but the history of the bridge and the origins and lyrics of the rhyme can be found here.

Anyway the instruction clearly involved finding the letters of “LONDON BRIDGE” and moving them to the bottom row of the grid. The rubric indicated that gaps were to be left where the original letters were, and the resulting grid entries were all to be real words, ignoring the blanks.

So GOO->GO, DENEB->DEEN, MONA->MOA, AGED->AGE, CHOICE->CHICO, GAUN->GAU, BRIDIE->DIE, HARLEM->HALER, GLIDDER->GLIDED, INKLED->INKLE,  RINSINGS->RINSING, TEGG->TEG.

There was one ambiguity. Either of the O’s of GOO (28D) could be removed, leaving either MOA or MA at 30A. This was resolved by noticing that the blanks left in the diagram were in the shape of a bridge if the second O of GOO was removed (see After diagram).

Finally 14 cells were to be highlighted where the thematic object ended up. Now London bridge was removed to Lake Havasu City in 1967, but after a fruitless search I realised that that would have been the new bridge, not the one that was falling down. So the location of the fallen bridge was in THE RIVER THAMES which was to be highlighted in contiguous cells starting at cell 1. A final plus for Shark is that the highlighted cells are in the shape of the River Thames at London Bridge!

Good fun, and thank you Shark.

The first diagram is of the unaltered grid, the second of the final grid.

 Before:                                                                                 After:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Across
No.	Clue (definition)	Answer	Wordplay
1	Symbol of saint (Anthony) from crown found in tip	T-CROSS	CR(own) in TOSS (tip)
5	Goddess upset about girl	ATHENE	ATE (upset) about HEN (girl)
9	Way of drawing attention to adult on edge	AHEM	A(dult) + HEM (edge)
10	Heath’s relative (Pyrola is related to erica) is an arsonist – not quite a convict	PYROLA	PYRO (arsonist) + LA(g)
12	See – tiger mutilated monkey	GRIVET	[V (see) TIGER]*
13	It is found in stale (= urine) bread removing crust, initially acceptable	UREA	U (acceptable) + (b)REA(d)
14	One way to railway enclosure	AVIARY	A (one) VIA (way) RY (railway)
16	Benefit from cut fabric	PLUS	PLUSH (fabric) cut
18	Do reverse car for home of legend (Norse Giants)	UTGARD	UT (do – sol-fa) + DRAG (car) reversed
20	Martial arts outfit (judo/karate) from soldier base	GIE	GI (soldier) + E (base)
21	Being 32 and single (dumping old friend)	ENS	32 is NUT, another name for a printing EN + S(ingle); INGLE is an obsolete name for a friend
22	Blast from perhaps Persian hotel in Kent area	SCATHE	CAT (perhaps Persian) + H(otel) in SE
26	Church dignitary restricts hoax and is the third member of clergy to become cruel	DEHUMANISE	DEAN round HUM (hoax) + IS + (cl)E(rgy)
27	Papillon’s companion returning old	AGED	DEGA reversed (Dega is Papillon’s companion in the eponymous film)
29	Fish included in cheese pie from Scotland	BRIDIE	ID (fish) in BRIE
30	God? No God for primate (W. African monkey)	MONA	MONAD (God) minus D(eus)
31	Gave a hint and connected line right	INKLED	LINKED (connected) with L(ine) moved to right
33	Free except with employment causing wear	EXCUSE	EXC(ept) + USE
34	Sheep‘s tense next to bomb	TEGG	T(ense) + EGG (bomb)
35	Albert, perhaps, is a piercing	LABRET	[ALBERT]*
36	Rising above the water and see resort surrounding the French sea	EMERSE	[SEE]* round MER
Down
No.	Clue (definition)	Answer	Wordplay
1	Oriental mat made from odds and ends friend added together	TATAMI	TAT (odds and ends) + AMI
2	Hunting knife decapitated mortal	CHIVYING	CHIV (knife) + (d)YING (mortal)
3	German returns and shaking fist and returns unwanted present	REGIFTS	GER reversed + [FIST]*
4	Jet conceals international genius	SPIRIT	SPIRT (jet) round I(nternational)
5	Measure time in reverse	ARE	ERA reversed
6	Rip to shreds youngster: attention!	TO-TEAR	TOT (youngster) + EAR (attention)
7	Relay running in good time	EARLY	[RELAY]*
8	Tease wife about discarded computers (only in the latest Chambers)	E-WASTE	[TEASE W(ife)]*
11	Bird with head down finds plant	MEU	EMU with E “down”
15	Black toilet paper	BLAT	B(lack) + LAT(rine)
17	Sloth is one surrounded by circular ripples in dirty water, perhaps	RINSINGS	SIN (sloth) in RINGS
19	MacDonald’s going (Scottish word) thin – time to leave	GAUN	GAUNT minus T
20	Cooking griddle is slippery in places	GLIDDER	[GRIDDLE]*
21	Paint European lover no longer around	ENAMEL	E(uropean) + LEMAN (obs for lover) reversed
23	Repetitive cycling is best	CHOICE	ECHOIC with the E “cycling”
24	Prostitute (mutton) leaves returning by New York location	HARLEM	Prostitute is HARLOT, mutton is EM (printing) so HARLOTEM minus TO (by) reversed = HARLEM.  Not too keen on this – is there a better explanation?
25	Scottish whine is number one round England	PEENGE	PEE (number one) round ENG(land)
26	Star from wide nebula	DENEB	Hidden in wiDE NEBula
28	Sentimentality is almost genuine	GOO	Almost GOO(d)
32	Fruit cake or fruitcake (mad person)	NUT	Triple definition