Ifor is becoming a fairly regular setter of Inquisitor puzzles. His puzzle today had a fairly lengthy preamble which stated:
"In rows containing highlighted cells, pairs of clue answers must have their letters jumbled together to make the entries, each only available since 1945. Ten extraneous words appear in remaining across clues, a pair for each unhighlighted row: these pairs suggest a phrase to be written in the top row of the grid. The members of another thematic pair must be written in alphabetical order in the bottom row, using letters that would occupy the highlighted cells had the discarded answers been entered. Down clues, answers and entries are normal. One answer is a familiar abbreviation."
I got off to a reasonably good start solving 1 across as MAKES fairly quickly and crossing it 2 and 3 down OPENLY (by definition only) and DUTYFREE.
I was also able to deduce fairly quickly the extra words in 11 across – blues, do – as well as the extra words in the next unhighlighted row – slob, due. It was at this point that the penny drop moment came as I realised that an anagram of both pairs was DOUBLES. Given that these were anagrams and it was Wimbledon Finals Saturday, the idea of MIXED DOUBLES came to mind. Then I could see KODES and MAURESMO as likely pairing in the first highlighted row. That in turn led to DORMOUSE for 5 across and I was on my way with the thematic entries
It became fairly obvious that the extra words in the all the unhighlighted rows were going to be an anagram of DOUBLES, so that helped to quickly identify the extra words and solve the clues. With many of the down clues being solved, the majority of the tennis players surnames became apparent. I have heard of all the players except PETRA and OSBORNE. I am sure I was not alone in resorting to reference books and other sources to identify OSBORNE and PETRA.
For me the most difficult pair of clues to solve in the highlighted rows were MATRONAL and MIRED.
One aspect of the puzzle I really liked was the need to show that solvers had got the answers that formed the anagrams of the tennis players. I suppose, it might have been possible to fail on a few but the majority had to be solved in order to deduce GIBSON and OLMEDO in the bottom row.
The full thematic material was as follows:
| Highlighted row answers | Tennis Players (Country and Years of winning Wimbledon Singles – all since 1945) |
| MAKES and DORMOUSE | Jan KODES (Czechoslovakia, 1973) and Amelie MAURESMO (France, 2006) |
| TROOP and VENTANA | Yvon PETRA (France, 1946) and Jana NOVOTNA (Czechoslovakia, 1998) |
| ARRETS and FEVER | Neale FRASER (Australia, 1960) and Chris EVERT (USA, 1974, 1976 and 1981) |
| DEBUG and BOREEN | Maria BUENO (Brazil, 1959, 1960 and 1964)and Stefan EDBERG (Sweden, 1988 and 1990) |
| ENTRISM and HOBOS | Margaret OSBORNE (USA, 1947) and Stan SMITH (USA, 1972) |
| MATRONAL and MIRED | Angela MORTIMER (GB, 1961) and Rafael NADAL (Spain, 2008 and 2010) |
| MOONSEGOIBLD | Althea GIBSON (USA, 1957 and 1958) and Alex OLMEDO (USA, 1959) |
Initially, I started off thinking we would looking for pairs who won Wimbledon MIXED DOUBLES finals but once I got KODES and MAURESMO and realised that they weren’t the same generation, I decided we were just looking for a male and female Wimbledon Singles winner in each highlighted row.
For me the most interesting thing about this puzzle would be understanding how Ifor went about compiling it. From a solving point of view, once I got the theme, the thematic elements weren’t much of a challenge. All right, solving the clues that formed the anagrams of the tennis players was a bit of a struggle as I had to get them all to write the blog, but the whole puzzle just didn’t gel for me. I suspect many solvers just went off to the Internet once they got the theme and then did enough reverse engineering to solve enough clues to get the tennis players in the bottom line.
From a compiling point of view I wonder what came first – was it the fact that DOUBLES was an anagram of many different pairs of words? Was the driving force compiling something to celebrate Wimbledon? Did Ifor try for MIXED DOUBLES Champion pairings but, not surprisingly, find it too difficult? Did he try initially to match players of the same generation?
There were some good clues – e.g. the one full of cricketing allusions at 33 across where the answer was nothing to do with cricker (33 across, SWAB) and 8 down where the anagram indicator for a legal answer was ‘writ in a different way’.
When you come to look at the detail in the blog you will see that I have not cracked the wordplay for 1 and 2 down. I look forward to being shown the correct way. It’s probably something blindingly obvious that I just can’t see.
The filled grid with all the relevant highlighting looks like this.
The title MATCHING PAIRS relates to Tennis MATCHES and pairs of male / female players.
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Across |
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| No | Clue | Extra Words |
Wordplay |
Answer | Entry |
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1
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Produces writing about pain that’s gone off (5)
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MS (manuscript; writing) containing (about) AKE (old spelling [that’s gone off] of ACHE [pain]) M (AKE) S |
MAKES (produces)
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KODES
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5
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Put out traps round room for rodent (8)
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DOUSE (extinguish; put out) containing (traps) (O [round shape] + RM [room]) D (O RM) OUSE |
DORMOUSE (rodent)
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MAURESMO
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11
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Blues score – backing drums do rhythmic pair of notes (10, 2 words)
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BLUES DO
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SCOTCH (score) + (PANS [hollow metal drum as played in a steel band] reversed [backing]) SCOTCH SNAP< |
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SCOTCH SNAP (a short accented note followed by a longer, not peculiar to Scottish music; rhythmic pair of notes)
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13
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Loose woman pitching lines to group of squaddies (5)
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TROLLOP (loose woman) excluding (losing) LL (lines)
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TROOP (group of squaddies [soldiers])
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PETRA
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14
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Sell outdated gossip window to Granada (7)
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VENT (obsolete [outdated] word for sell) + ANA ([collection of] gossip)
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VENTANA (window, from the Spanish, Granada is a city in Spain)
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NOVOTNA
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15
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Meeting place cuts slob in speech (4)
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SLOB
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PNYX (sounds like [in speech] NICKS [cuts])
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PNYX (the meeting-place of the ancient Athenian assembly, pronounced NIKS) |
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17
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North African chief due to lead coastal town (4)
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DUE
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OBA (African Chief) + {to lead] N (North)
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OBAN (coastal town in western Scotland)
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20
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Decisions arranged then set in motion (6)
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ARR (arranged) + an anagram of (in motion) SET ARR ETS* |
ARRETS (decisions of a tribunal)
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FRASER
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22
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High temperature in Fahrenheit on record (5)
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F (Fahrenheit) + EVER (on record)
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FEVER (abnormally high body temperature)
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EVERT
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23
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Scottish constituency put forward in speech (3) |
AYR (sounds like AIR [broadcast; put forward])
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AYR (Scottish town that forms a constituency for voters electing a representative to the Scottish Parliamentary ; the full title of the current Westminster constituency is AYR, Cumnock & Carrick
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24
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Washer component found broken in lathe bed (5)
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BED
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Anagram of (broken) LATHE ETHAL* |
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ETHAL (cetyl alcohol [a waxy crystalline solid used in detergents])
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26
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African soul music with twisted features when recorded (3)
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SOUL
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RAI (sounds like [when recorded] WRY [with twisted features])
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RAI ( modern, North African form of popular music, blending traditional Arabic and Spanish with Western dance rhythms)
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28
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Start having time running group of correct programs (5)
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DEBUT (beginning; start) excluding (having … running) T (time) + G (group) DEBU G |
DEBUG (find the errors and correct computer programs)
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BUENO
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30
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Men have been fencing lane (6)
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OR (other ranks; men) contained in (having … fencing) BEEN B (OR) EEN |
BOREEN (lane)
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EDBERG
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31
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Tent used before going over sandy regions (4)
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USED
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(GER [in Mongolia another name for a yurt {light conical tent of skins]) + A [before]) all reversed (going over) (A REG)< |
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AREG (a Saharan area of shifting sand dunes)
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33
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Mop up Gloucestershire’s no 11, bowled with a sneaky lob (4)
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LOB
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(W [with] + A ) contained in (sneaky) (S [eleventh letter of GLOUCESTERSHIRE]) + B [bowled]) S (W A) B |
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SWAB (mop up)
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35
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Joining in large numbers to influence minister – one sacked after reshuffle (7)
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Anagram of (reshuffle) MINISTER excluding (sacked) I (Roman numeral for one) ENTRISM* |
ENTRISM (the practice of joining especially a political body in sufficient numbers to influence its policy.
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OSBORNE
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36
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Tramps after mischief in due course returning (5)
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HOB (mischief) + (SO [in due course] reversed [returning]) HOB OS< |
HOBOS (tramps)
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SMITH
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37
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Twisted bud until sloe freed without being strained (10)
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BUD SLOE
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Anagram of (twisted) UNTIL FREED UNFILTERED* |
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UNFILTERED (without being strained)
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38
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Grave sickness, treated internally with mixture of sodium salts (8)
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MAL (sickness) containing (treated internally with) TRONA (a native combination of acid and normal sodium carbonate) MA (TRONA) L |
MATRONAL (grave)
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MORTIMER
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39
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Messed about in the middle of the country (5)
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RE (with reference to; about) contained in (in) (dialect form of [in the country] MIDDLE) MI (RE) D |
MIRED (messed)
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NADAL |
| Down |
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| No | Clue | Extra Words |
Wordplay |
Answer | Entry |
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1
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Many at play abandoning plan for swinging movement (4)
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I can’t see how the wordplay works here. Perhaps K (1000) represents many, but I’m stuck with IPP and I can’t see the abandoned plan bit.
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KIPP (in gymnastic, a swinging movement that reverses the relative positions of body and legs).
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2
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Pony Express originally left in a panic, without cover (6)
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Another one I am struggling with in terms of wordplay. PE cab be derived from the first letters (originally) of PONY EXPRESS. L is left but where the OP and Y come from I’m not sure.
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OPENLY (without cover)
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3
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Directly defending old port’s admission of following without tax payable (8)
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DUE (directly) containing (defending) (TYRE [ancient Phoenician port] containing [admission of] F [following]) DU (TY (F) RE) E |
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DUTY-FREE (without tax payable)
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4
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Listener’s structures are grasped by steps, as it were (6)
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A (are; [unit of metric land measure]) contained in (grasped by) SCALE (obsolete word for [as it were] a flight of steps) SCAL (A) E |
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SCALAE (a ladder-like structures, such as any of the spiral canals of the cochlea [inner ear]; listener’s structures)
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6
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Little bit of adult volume having climax censured (4)
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A (adult) + TOME (volume) excluding (censured) the final letter (climax) E
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ATOM (anything very small; a little bit)
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7
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River that heron might migrate to (5)
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Anagram of (migrate to) HERON RHONE* |
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RHONE (major European river flowing through Switzerland and France)
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8
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Legal entitlement to serve writ in a different way (7)
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Anagram of (writ in a different way) TO SERVE ESTOVER* |
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ESTOVER (a right to necessaries allowed by law; legal entitlement)
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9
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Mother beginning to avoid kids’ noise (3)
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MA (mother) + A (first letter of [beginning to] AVOID)
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MAA ([of a goat, a baby of which is a kid] to bleat; kids’ noise)
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10
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Utopian ground for plant tolerating dry conditions (7)
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Anagram of (ground) UTOPIAN OPUNTIA* |
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OPUNTIA ( plant of the prickly-pear genus of the cactus family; plant tolerating dry conditions).
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12
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Teens in trouble opposite outside dance (7)
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OP (opposite) containing (outside) an anagram of (in trouble) TEENS O (NE STE*) P |
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ONE-STEP (example of a dance)
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16
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Flatter Mr Shakespeare, perhaps in retrospect (7)
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(REB [title corresponding to Mr] + BARD (poet; descriptive of William Shakespeare among many others]) all reversed (in retrospect) (DRAB BER)< |
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DRABBER (duller; flatter)
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18
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What blows hot big end, with bearing completely stripped out (8, 2 words)
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Anagram of (out) BIG END and W [with] and R (the only letter remaining in BEARING when all the outer letters BEA and ING are stripped) BERG WIND |
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BERG WIND (in South Africa, a hot, dry wind blowing from the mountains towards the coastal regions; what blows hot)
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19
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Labour over a good old moral code (7)
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LAB (Labour) + (over; down clue) + A + RUM (obsolete slang for good)
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LABARUM (moral standard or guide)
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21
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Tack component of hem in small section (7)
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RING (hem in) + BIT (small section)
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RINGBIT (a horse’s BIT with RINGs at the end; TACK is defined as riding harness, saddles, bridles etc; tack component)
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25
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Disparage being in outskirts of London (6)
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ESSE (actual existence; being) contained in (in) L and N (first and last letters of [outskirts of] LONDON) L (ESSE) N |
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LESSEN (disparage)
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27
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A fake tan, thanks to orange dye (6)
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A + an anagram of (fake) TAN + TA (thanks) A NAT* TA |
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ANATTA (bright orange colouring matter; orange dye)
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29
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Move gold pin, unwrapping mouldings (5)
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OV (letters remaining in MOVE when the outer letters M and E are unwrapped) + OL (letters remaining in GOLD when the outer letters G and D are unwrapped) + I (letter remaining in PIN when the outer letters P and N are unwrapped)
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OVOLI (mouldings)
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32
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Joint keen on promotion of name (4) |
KEEN (with the N [name] moved up the word [this is a down entry, so promotion is appropriate]) KNEE |
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KNEE (joint)
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34
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Belch crudely, caught by dropped fruit (4)
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Anagram of (crudely) BELCH excluding (dropped) C (caught by in cricket scoring notation) BHEL* |
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BHEL (the edible fruit of an Indian tree of the same name)
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35
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Donor uncovered offer to compromise on price (3)
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ONO (letters remaining in DONOR when the outside letters D and R are removed [uncovered])
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ONO (or nearest offer, a phrase indicating an offer to compromise on price
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2D. Anag of PONY E L?
My heart sank when I realised the theme was tennis as neither Mrs BF nor I have any interest in it. We got there in the end but, as Duncan suggests, mainly thanks to Google and reverse engineering the across answers.
I agree with jonsurdy re 2d and think that 1 d is simply KIP (many at – 100 at = 1 kip in currency of Laos) + Play – lay ( plan ).
Many thanks to setter and blogger.
jonsurdy @ 1 and BF @ 2
Thanks
I was just fixated on PE for PONY EXPRESS at 2 down and didn’t see the blindingly obvious.
For 1 down, I don’t think I would have got that although I have come across Laotian currency before
Like Duncan, I got the mixed DOUBLES and Wimbledon themes fairly quickly and like him, was expecting previous winners of said competition. Until I saw NADAL and then realised it was actually a mixed bag of previous singles winners.
I agree it wasn’t terribly satisfying doing the reverse-engineering of the anagrams of the tennis players’ names but I can see why that element was incorporated and it represented the most challenging apsevt of the puzzle for me.
Favourite clues were 33A and 35A- the reference to the sacked minister after a reshuffle and then – OSBORNE ?! Methinks a deliberate mixed double of tennis player and clue wordplay on Ifor’s part ? Or perhaps just plain old wishful thinking …..
I didn’t get the AT/KIP reference either.
Many thanks Duncan and Ifor.
One for me where admiration for the grid construction (worth it on its own, mind) wasn’t quite matched by the pleasure of solving. I didn’t recognise half the names, though could guess at some, so reverted to Wikipedia fairly early. In the end I was short of time and didn’t tie up some of the loose ends.
The clue for KIPP was a microcosm of the puzzle as a whole, admirable in construction but frustrating from the solving end.
Duncan, in your answer grid, why are 3D and 18D marked with a blue triangle? Is this just a software blip or is there something you have not mentioned?
Thanks for the blog and thanks to Ifor for a nice topical theme.
I also did not parse 1D
Thanks Duncan. I bit of an odd puzzle I thought. I was unable to make any progress at all for hours. Then once I guessed the tennis connection it was a case of entering all the across entries from a list of Wimbledon finalists without actually solving any of the across clues. In the end I didn’t bother to finish as it seemed a bit pointless trying to solve the clues when one had already filled the grid.
DaveW @ 6
It’s just a feature of the software. I use Sympathy Crossword Construction software to draw the grids I put in the blogs. There’s usually one or two entries that end up with a blue or red triangle and I never bother to try an remove the triangles. I don’t know the significance, although I am sure there is some in terms of the construction.
Re #6 and #8, The triangles refer to answers that are outside the chosen “unch model” in Sympathy. Setters can choose the max and min numbers of unchecked letters that are allowed for answers of each length. Sympathy then warns them with a red triangle if they are outside this. So if you wanted to eliminate them entirely in all circs you could choose an “unch model” allowing any number of unchecked letters.
Well, we were glad of the blog – Thanks Duncan. We had all the answers but couldn’t parse 31a and 1d.
Without google we would have been totally lost. Bert remembered some of the names and Joyce is good at fast skim reading which helped. Our first pair was Osborne and Smith so we did wonder if the theme was political.
We were glad to have finished it and were impressed by the construction but it was an uphill struggle rather than a pleasure at times.
Anyway, we look forward to another Ifor as we have enjoyed his earlier IQs.
C’mon – the grid construction has to be applauded: six pairs of Wimbledon winners, each with one male & one female, symmetrically disposed, and being anagrams of real words of the corresponding lengths. It must have taken an age, and such patience!
Yes, I found this really hard, digging out all the unjumbled entries, even with all the tennis players found (mostly from vague memories). And then on to GIBSON & OLMEDO (who they?).
And a failure to parse 1d – could’ve kicked myself.
Thanks go to Duncan, and (especially) Ifor.
Hear, hear!
Very clever grid construction. I feel guilty about losing interest soon after I got to the MIXED DOUBLES stage and rather laboriously traced MAURESMO. This is not a criticism of the great Ifor, but my ignorance of tennis is jealously guarded and I don’t want to spoil its precious patina!
Having followed tennis since the mid-60s we thought this would be a piece of cake once we spotted Nadal and Mauresmo emerging in the right-hand half at an early stage: just bang in 6 pairs of postwar Wimbledon singles champs and the rest will fall into place for an easy victory in 3 straight sets. But we underestimated Ifor, who took us the full 5 sets because a) a couple of the players were from well before our time and far from household names, b) the clues were on the tough side and c) there was a lot of work to do once the grid was filled in order to work out who to put on the bottom line. Quite a slog, but worth the effort in order to fully appreciate the genius of the grid construction. Thanks Ifor. PS Did anybody spot PETRA early and start looking for Shep??