I found this pretty taxing! (I originally used the word “challenging” but Duncan used it in his intro last week, and it is becoming overused, though apt.) The rubric read:
Extra/missing single letters (in roughly equal numbers) indicated by wordplay in 31 clues spell out three categories that define nine unclued entries (3 groups of 3). Three further possible category members (one from each category) have something in common, given by initials of single extra words in the remaining 11 clues. Though these final three members are not themselves in the grid, two contiguous grid answers, taken together, are similarly connected to them and should be highlighted. One unclued entry is 3 words, three others are 2 words.
So 11 clues with an extra word, 15/16 with a missing/extra letter in the wordplay. Oh joy!!
After two serious problems caused by the letter U, I eventually spotted that 6A was CAMMED not CAUMED, so my initial ULMIN, then URARI were both wrong for 7D. And an early spot of ATTILA THE HUN turned out to also be incorrect as 36A could not be US?E.
I spotted JULIA ROBERTS and DEMI MOORE, and after some time found CHER as three ACTRESSES, though my CAUMED error made me wonder why they were “MS” actresses. After correction they became US ACTRESSES which made more sense. ITALY and the CZECH REPUBLIC came next along with ????AND – ENGLAND, IRELAND or ICELAND? No, FINLAND – all were E?M?M?ES and after some re-thinking of my extra/missing letters and extra words, I concluded that they were EU MEMBERS. This left ATTILA THE ???, ?AMBI and ?IZ?Y, These (again after much reverse engineering of the extra/missing letters) were PM NICKNAMES, ATTILA THE HEN (Margaret Thatcher), BAMBI (Tony Blair) and DIZZY (Benjamin Disraeli).
So 36A was ESNE and a bit of collaboration with Ho elucidated the wordplay. The wordplay for 39A (or 39AC!) SYRIAC was the last to fall.
We now needed to find three more group members with something in common, clued by the initials of the extra words. I had ??ME??TT??S (along with some erroneous ones) and thought about SAME LETTERS as the phrase. I had also noticed the letters ALTO contiguously in the grid in REALTOR and SALTO. So did we need a US actress, an EU state and a PM nickname containing ALTO?
After much searching I failed to find anything including ALTO (or anagrams thereof – remembering that LATO is the setter), but remembered MALTA and GWYNETH PALTROW as possible extra members of first two groups.
If we were to use LAT (as in LATO) we could have Latvia, Queen Latifah (or Louise/Sanaa Latham), and the Spodulator (George Grenville). If we are only worried about having the same letters but not necessarily in the right order (à la Eric Morecambe), then the PM could be Stalin (Gordon Brown).
Or have we missed the point entirely? The rubric says contiguous, which means touching or next to, and the hidden instruction says same letters which could imply an anagram. I re-searched the grid for answers that were next to each other. Row 2 has three, row 3 has two, row 6 two, etc. Examining them, suddenly NEAR GYM leapt out as an anagram of EU Member GERMANY. Could there be other anagrams? A little thought led me to GREY MAN (John Major) and MEG RYAN (US actress). So there you have it. Highlight NEAR GYM and send off for the Prosecco.
I thought this was at the high end of the difficulty scale, Lato, so thanks for the challenge, and well done for including two distracting anagrams of your name.
I suspect that the succession of difficult Inquisitors coinciding with the move to the i, won’t have gained us many new solvers!
Across |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue (definition)[Extra Wd] | Answer | Wordplay | Extra/Missing | Initial |
| 1 | Tree‘s home to [strange] Australian creature (5) | KOALA | KOLA (tree) round A(ustralian) {OAK and KOA are also trees which caused some confusion!!} | S | |
| 6 | Whitened (mud came off) (6) | CAMMED | [M(u)D CAME]* – not caUmed | U | |
| 9 | Behind American sector (4) | AREA | AR(s)E (behind) + A(merican) | S | |
| 10 | Bird half eats spignel plant (4) | EMEU | E(a) (half EAts) + MEU (spignel plant) | A | |
| 11 | End of time [abroad]? I’m not sure (4) | TERM | T (of time) + ERM (I’m not sure) | A | |
| 12 | Local runs round French city first (4) | NEAR | R (runs) + (c)AEN (French city) all reversed | C | |
| 14 | Training centre great for reflection: that is unexpected! (3) | GYM | G(t) (great) + MY! (that is unexpected) reversed | T | |
| 15 | Rubbish dump round side and back of [mother’s] house (5) | TRIPE | TIP reversed round R (side) + E (back of housE) | M | |
| 16 | Bones policeman found in road (5) | RADII | DI (policeman) in AI (A1 road) missing R | R | |
| 18 | [English] lecturer knew about popular writer (4) | DAHL | L (lecturer) + HAD (knew) all reversed | E | |
| 19 | Like to include a bit of [live] music – soul (4) | ALMA | A LA (like) round M (a bit of Music) | L | |
| 20 | Bow here (Lord [Edward] keeps touching leg} (6) | LONDON | (Bow is the London district): LD (lord) round (keeps) ON (touching) + ON (leg) | E | |
| 21 | Property agent‘s double take – singer coming in (7) | REALTOR | RR (take twice) round ALTO (singer) missing E | E | |
| 22 | One of two bars Hudson’s managed (5) | HOUND | Bars on horse-drawn vehicle: [HUD(s)ON]* | S | |
| 23 | Somersault hurt a lot (5) | SALTO | [A LOT]* missing S | S | |
| 25 | A pot’s brewing (and keeping hot) here (7, 2 words) | TEA SHOP | Clever &lit clue: [A POT’S H]* missing E | E | |
| 27 | Take in neighbour during month (6) | ABSORB | BOR (neighbour) in AB (Jewish month) missing S | S | |
| 28 | Current cuts heal up causing scars (4) | HILA | [H(e)AL]* round I (current) | E | |
| 29 | One learning to finish game (4) | LUDO | L (one learning) + DO (finish) missing U | U | |
| 30 | Fine originally around [Thornton] Heath (5) | ERICA | ERIC (fine) + A(round) | T | |
| 31 | Tear damaged brain membrane (5) | MATER | [TEAR]* missing M | M | |
| 32 | That is German letter (3) | EDH | D.H. (das heißt = that is in German) missing E | E | |
| 33 | Spy sign back to front (4) | MOLE | LEO with O to front, missing M | M | |
| 34 | [Tasty] Scots bit in gallery chatted up (4) | TAIT | Sounds like (chatted up) TATE (Gallery) | T | |
| 36 | [Eccentric] old labourer being a little emotional on retirement (4) | ESNE | ENS (being) + E (a little Emotional) all reversed | E | |
| 37 | Lily has finally taken ecstasy (5) | BLISS | LIS (lily) + S (haS finally) missing B | B | |
| 38 | Sows the seeds initially by lake (4) | ELTS | L(ake) + T(he) S(eeds) missing E | E | |
| 39 | Earliest clue to Seychelles dialect (6) | SYRIAC | SY = Seychelles + IAC (1 across – earliest clue!) missing R | R | |
| 40 | Nazi militia rule any problem for Caucasian? (5) | ARYAN | (s)A (Sturmabteilung, Nazi Militia) + R(ule) + [ANY]* | S | |
Down |
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| No. | Clue (definition) | Answer | Wordplay | Extra/Missing | Initial |
| 2 | Tangle of rope loosened (3) | ORE | [RO(p)E]* | P | |
| 3 | [Recalled] poet’s spiritual and lofty abode (5) | AERIE | Double definition | R | |
| 4 | See soft journalist land on island (9) | LAMPEDUSA | LA (see) + P (soft) + ED (journalist) + USA (land) missing M | M | |
| 5 | Attached at end, dead awkwardly as before (7, 2 words) | ADDED ON | [DEAD]* + DO (ditto – as before) missing N | N | |
| 7 | Hurry, I’m not taking you back for gum! (5) | MYRRH | Hidden backwards in HURRY I’M removing U (not taking you) with I as an extra letter | I | |
| 8 | Super having Margaret around (4) | MEGA | MEG (Margaret) + (c)A (around) | C | |
| 13 | Billion in American money – that’s clever (4) | ABLE | B (billion in American) + LE(k) (money) | K | |
| 17 | She worked with cronies – she couldn’t succeed alone (9) | COHEIRESS | [SHE CRO(n)IES]* | N | |
| 19 | Stadium built from steel looked really attractive at first (9) | ALL-SEATER | [STEEL L(ooked) R(eally) A(ttractive)]* missing A | A | |
| 23 | Son’s folly causing distress (7) | SADNESS | S(on) + (m)ADNESS (folly) | M | |
| 24 | [Student] stomachs Academy crowd turning up when acting (7) | ABOMASA | A + MOB (crowd) reversed +AS (when) + A(cting) | S | |
| 26 | Print in colour (4) | OLEO | in cOLOur missing E | E | |
| 35 | Perch on top of a palm tree (3) | ITA | (s)IT + A | S | |
Page 1 of 8
I loved it. I too made the same mistakes with ATILLA THE HUN and CAULMED but I eventually deduced something must be wrong. I was familiar with the MEG RYAN/GERMANY anagram, as I’m
sure many crossword people are, so that helped immensely.
Neat clues as ever by Lato and a great idea. This is the first IQ in the i which I didn’t give up on.
Thanks to Lato, the IQ team and to Hihoba.
I agree – another tough one. I’m a bit more pressed for time at the moment so gave up by Sunday evening, but came back to it on Friday, reached a tipping point and got there in the end. I found the solving process a bit frustrating and not always rewarding, as I felt a number of answers were uncertain from the wordplay and it wasn’t until everything else was filled in that I could be fully confident of them. I also misread (or misinterpreted) the final instruction and thought I was looking for a pair of contiguous words that defined another category – I spent far longer than I would ever want researching London estate agents! That aside, ultimately a satisfying solve.
I also confused myself with CAUMED, but it was ATTILA THE HEN which led me to the first of the categories. I don’t think I knew the nickname, but somehow it seemed obvious who it referred to.
Of the three categories, I quickly worked out that two were actresses and countries, which made filling in much of the grid a bit easier. The nicknames for ex-PM’s bamboozled me for a long time, though, and uncertainty over ATTILA… meant I didn’t have much confidence over my answers there. The final highlighting bit was far from clear, I was hung up for a long time on the ALTO’s in 21 and 23. Pretty tough, but less taxing than the week before I thought. IQ’s are ever easy, I’ve only started doing them since they moved to the i? 🙂
Jon #3, The IQ is never easy, but some are less difficult than others. We seem to have been in a run of difficult ones recently! There is a rating system used by the editor. I can never remember the details, but I think it is on a scale of 1 to 5. I’m sure that someone will enlighten us and suggest ratings for the recent puzzles.
Hi Hi #4 (and Jon #3).
If it’s ok with our four IQ bloggers, I’ll publish the ratings at the end of the current run of 5, which ends with eXternal’s “Prize Puzzle”…but you’ll have to wait until next Wednesday, when that puzzle is no longer live.
For information, each puzzle is rated by the five members of the solving team (that includes me) on 1-5 scales of Difficulty, Enjoyment and (the wow factor on the Penny Drop Moment of) the Final Step – our “DEF”. Good enjoyment and wow factors are requirements for publication; the difficulty rating is condensed to 1-3 (by me) so that (I hope!) in each set of five, there is an average of medium difficulty (by IQ standards).
Effectively this means that either (i) all puzzles in the quintet are 2s or (ii, as I strive to ensure) one is a 1, one is a 3 and there are three 2s.
Best to all, usual thanks for all the feedback,
John
Thanks John for that! It’ll be interesting to see how your difficulty ratings compare with our own. 🙂
Hmm, this was an interesting case. On the one hand, the answers fell with just sufficient regularity that I was sure all would in time become clear; on the other, the precise parsing was often so unclear to me that, although I could see there were countries and actresses and Attila, the picture remained very blurry. I gave up on the endgame: rather than same letters, I had got myself to steel master, for the iron lady and Meryl S. Quite what country that would be I have no idea. Us?
Thanks to setter for the tease, and Hihoha for clearing everything up.
Thankfully Bert noticed the possibility of Atilla the Hen after realising that Atilla the Hun was not getting us anywhere! We had to search for the other nicknames though.
Yes, it was a challenge but an enjoyable one which is what the IQ is all about.
Thanks Hihoba for the blog and Lato for the fun. Amazed at the idea behind the puzzle.
I think I must have been on Lato’s wavelength with this one as I didn’t find it too taxing, other than pursuing a short diversion into jazz artists’ nicknames after spotting DIZZY.
Key to the endgame was to get the 11 initial letters, which like Hihoba, I guessed after getting 4 or 5 but then assumed, correctly, that the three categories were all made up of said same letters.
Great fun, thanks Lato and Hihoba for the blog. For what it’s worth I would rate this a 3 out of 5.
Another in my recent run of frustration IQs, where I solve about half the clues but don’t quite make the final leap required to finish. For some reason I managed fine with the right hand side of the grid but struggled with the left.
I found Demi Moore and Julia Roberts quite early on, then added Italy and Czech Republic, but couldn’t see the third members of either group. I misidentified several additional/ missing letters, which didn’t help, but could see that the final bit would read ‘nicknames’.
Never mind, time to dig last Saturday’s paper out and have a go!
I fell for ‘HUN’ initially but realising it wouldn’t work with the across entry led me to the theme. It seemed a bit daunting for a while as the effective unching in some entries was very high. Once I twigged what was going on it proved far less daunting and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks.
The i is clearly (and sadly) a dumbed down version of a now defunct newspaper, an independently minded newspaper. There is nothing to read in the i. Of course an independently-minded individual should read newspapers at the extremes rather than sit cosily in their comfort zone.
The Inquisitor seems to have also dumbed down. Apart from the IKB themed Ifor, all the tabloid Inquisitors, eXternal’s Prize Plum et al., seem disappointingly easy. Perhaps the i editor has a remit to cater for its dumbed-down readership?
We are sorry Hannah but we have to disagree on all fronts. The i is more populist but there are enough in depth articles. We are also Indy readers and some of the articles are identical. We subscribe to both and appreciate the many things that are in the i but not in the Indy and vice versa.
As far as the IQ is concerned we have noticed no change and we’ve been regular solvers since the beginning. Any variation in difficulty as John has said is part of its remit so to speak.
Sometimes it is made very apparent that there is more than one form of intelligence.
Hannah @12: I can’t say that I’ve noticed a step change in the Inquisitor since the move to the i – some are harder than others, some easier; some more enjoyable, some less so.
Given the editor’s ‘batches of five’ rule, and that his own recent & rather difficult (!) “Life after Death?” puzzle was the first of the current batch, one of the subsequent four was always going to be relatively easy – but hopefully not unenjoyable.
PS Unwritten rule here: don’t mention or comment on ‘live’ puzzles, such as last weekend’s offering from eXternal.
PPS Thanks for the blog – I had my count of the extra/missing single letters wrong (something like 13/18 I think, but I was too tired to recheck it) but it’s now fixed.
Hannah Clarke, I’m afraid I have to disagree with you. As far as the IQ is concerned, I’ve only completed one since January, despite having a go every week, and have found no change in difficulty whatsoever since the move to the i !
I thoroughly enjoyed this. Although I had the right side of the grid populated in reasonable time, the left side was more stubborn. Once the pennies started to drop, the gridfill started to gradually take shape. I never managed to parse 39A so thanks for clearing that up Hihoba. Great blog again. My thanks to Lato for the fun.
I have to disagree with the earlier poster on the IQ difficulty point. Since the move, in my opinion the difficulty level has been above average. It’s great to see new solvers coming on board and also contributing here. Looking forward to seeing JH and team’s ratings.
Enjoyed. Tough but great fun. The CAMMED/CAUMED thing got me too, but I was lucky to have done 36A before ATTILA THE H?N came up, so got straight on to Maggie and started looking for DIZZY as the next PM nickname that came to mind. GERMANY / GREY MAN eventually emerged from a run-through of EU countries, confirmed by NEAR GYM, but I must confess it took me ages to get to MEG RYAN because I’m terrible at Hollywood stuff. Even though I once saw When Harry Met Sally on a transatlantic flight. I’m sure it would have been very droll with the sound on.
I almost filled the grid but had HUN instead of HEN and didn’t get ESNE. I can’t say I every really understood all of my solutions and didn’t get the end game at all. This was my second Inquisitor today so perhaps my head is a bit scrambled.
I look forward to Hannah Clarke’s “disappointingly easy” puzzles coming up. Hopefully I will get back up to date with the Inquisitor soon, and maybe one day my brain will grow as large as Hannah’s.
Thanks to Hihoba and Lato.