Inquisitor 1435Preamble: Wordplay in each across clue gives the answer with one extra letter; in clue order, these reveal two messages. The first indicates how the answers to six down clues must be entered. The second indicates how the final grid should be altered, replacing the contents of two cells with those from two cells elsewhere, leaving the latter pair blank. A thematic word resulting from the change must be highlighted (8 letters).
So, extra letters in all across clues and adjustments to 6 downs. This means that we can’t safely enter any downs until we’re sure of what’s going on. As it happens, the first one that yielded was 2d followed closely by 22a. Now the first letter of 22a doesn’t match my answer to 2d so, at least, I have one of the thematics straight away. 11a crumbled next and it struck me that both 22 and 11 were one cell out. A little more lateral thinking and I realised that EXCHANGES could be made into SEX CHANGE by moving the bottom letter to the top. Thus I pretty much twigged the theme fairly early. 
I found most of the clues to be relatively easy though there are three that I’m just not happy with 17a, 5d and 8d.
NW corner filled relatively quickly and the three other quadrants followed though I accidentally entered 36d as LEE having convinced myself that LEE = liar = devious person.
The first generated message is BOTTOMS UP meaning that the bottom letter of the affected answers (2, 6, 9, 18, 23, 36) moves to the top and the rest shuffle down.It wasn’t until I came to do the blog that I realised that they are symmetrical – always a nice touch.
The second message proved a little trickier especially since I mistakenly put T instead of S in 38a. The phrase is BUBBLES RISE UP. On studying the grid I see that there are only two O’s and they are in the bottom row. If you move them to the top row (they rise up) then the I of UPRISE and the A shared by CARK and AKE are replaced by O leaving PROSECCO, which is, of course, the prize offered by the puzzle – hence the title.
Thanks to eXternal for a nice fun puzzle – unusually these days, I had it done and dusted in a couple of hours on the Saturday of publication. And I hope that the lucky three Prosecco winners will have one for me.
| Across |
|||
| Clue |
Entry |
Extra letter |
Wordplay |
| 2 Rebel English gent by inn is back (6) |
UPRISE | B |
PUB (inn)+SIR (gent)+English (rev: is back) |
| 8 A huge bird on cape is to die (4) |
CARK | O |
Cape+A+ROK (huge bird) |
| 11 In Madrid, the universal Spanish wine’s liquid for chemist (6) |
ELUENT | T |
EL (“the” in Spanish)+Universal+TENT (Spanish wine) |
| 12 Promote dull trek abroad (6) |
MARKET | T |
MAT (dull)+TREK (anag: abroad) |
| 13 Ship’s helmsman recalled admitting two earls carrying barrel (5) |
XEBEC | O |
COX (helmsman) containing Earl+Barrel+Earl |
| 15 Half-cut dame put in protection turned offensive (5) |
SIEGE | M |
EGIS (protection; rev: turned) containing daME (half cut) |
| 16 Brand of whisky finished by European beauty (5) |
BELLE | S |
BELLS (brand of whisky – other brands are available 😉 )+European |
| 17 Called for husband in neglected shed (6) |
NEEDED | U |
I just cannot see how this one works 🙁 See comment #1 (below) – thanks Steve B and jonsurdy. |
| 19 Active after half of Pernod in King’s Head (5) |
HERMA | P |
HM (His Majesty; king) containing PERnod (half of)+Active |
| 20 Can note temperature beside the sea (7) |
LATRINE | B |
LA (note)+Temperature+BRINE (sea) |
| 22 Bear witness to a non-drinker imbibing one day (6) |
ATTEST | U |
A+TT (Teetotaller; non-drinker) containing TUESday |
| 27 Partial to cider, brat acrobatically slips (6) |
ERRATA | B |
cidER BRAT Acrobatically (hidden: partial to) |
| 28 Saboteur after band of delinquents with cutting tool (7, 2 words) |
GANG SAW | B |
GANG (band of delinquents)+SABoteur+With |
| 31 Snobby female bags timber for pair of bars (5) |
GEMEL | L |
GEL (snobby female) containing ELM (timber) |
| 32 Student leaves Triple sec, essentially catching variable bits of kip (6) |
EXEATS | E |
sEc+sEc+sEc (essentially; triple) containing X (variable)+ATS (bits of kip) [One AT is 1/100th of a KIP: Laos monetary unit] |
| 34 Roguish politician invested in fortified wine to knock bishop out (5) |
HEMPY | S |
MP (member of parliament; politician) inside SHErrY (fortified wine) minus RR (right reverend; bishop) |
| 35 Indian drain completely discharged fluid all round (5) |
NALLA | R |
RAN (completely discharged fluid; past tense of “run”)+ALL (rev: round) |
| 37 Biblical mountain overshadows eastern city in Italy (5) |
SIENA | I |
SINAI (biblical mountain) containing Eastern |
| 38 In Iran, Zoroastrian dispatched beers on near-full stomach (6) |
GUEBRE | S |
GUt (stomach; nearly full)+BEERS (anag: dispatched) |
| 39 Pure ethyl alcohol (6) | CLARET | E |
CLEAR (pure) +EThyl |
| 40 Parasite beginning to foul the water in Cognac (4) |
FLEA | U |
Foul (first letter: beginning to) L’EAU (the water in France; Cognac is a town in France) |
| 41 Drunkard embraces friend eating hot onion (6) |
SHALOT | P |
SOT (drunkard) containing PAL (friend)+Hot |
| Down | |||
| Clue | Original | Entry | Wordplay |
| 1 Former wife, constant nag – she diverted conversations (9) |
EXCHANGES |
SEX CHANGE | EX (former wife)+Constant+NAG SHE (anag: diverted) |
| 3 Live during attractive US local’s growth stage (7) |
PUBERTY | BE (live) inside PURTY (attractive [as in] US, locally) | |
| 4 Aussie beach workers knock out one gallon of lime green rum (7) |
REELMEN | LiME gREEN (I (one) and Gallon missing; anag: rum) | |
| 5 Southern Comfort’s last bit, literally left as stiffener (5) |
STEEL | I’m not sure about this one. Obviously, Southern comforT (last bit) then maybe Left on the end. Does EE (errors excepted) mean literally? | |
| 6 Swimmer’s follower accepted drink, reportedly (7) |
MANATEE |
EMANATE | MAN (follower)+Accepted+TEE (sounds like tea: drink) |
| 7 Person under medical treatment that might contain wine (4) |
CASE | (double def) a CASE might contain wine | |
| 8 Messenger taking off in France where he announces (5) |
CRIER | Another one I’m not sure of. Surely a CRIER is a messenger and DE is “off” in French but what else?
Thanks again to Steve B – comment #1 (below) – I really should have seen this myself! |
|
| 9 Bird upset unopened sake (3) |
KEA |
AKE | sAKE (minus first letter: unopened; anag: upset) |
| 10 Ruling part of golf course after downing G&T (6) |
REGENT | GREEN (part of golf course; with G moved down)+T | |
| 14 Piano found in quality military bars (6) |
CLASPS | CLASS (quality) containing Piano | |
| 18 VAT due with ale, roughly determined (9) |
EVALUATED |
DEVALUATE | VAT DUE ALE (anag: roughly) |
| 21 Objects – Troy’s once forgotten shields (6) |
TARGES | TARGEtS (minus Troy) | |
| 23 Most impetuous new product trial ignoring compliance and surface tension (7) |
RASHEST |
TRASHES | cRASH tEST (new product trial; minus Compliance and T (surface tension)) |
| 24 Old resident I’m spoiling with lager (7) |
GREMIAL | I‘M+LAGER (anag: spoiling) | |
| 25 Set of questions filled in by male over violent wind (7) |
PAMPERO | PAPER (set of questions) including Male+Over | |
| 26 King of Israel fencing amateur by contorted tree (6) |
SAXAUL | SAUL (king of Israel) containing Amateur and X (by as in times by) | |
| 29 Roman emperor set up a robbery (5) |
GALBA | A BLAG (robbery) rev: set up | |
| 30 Whiskey and heroin after this and that (5) |
WHICH | Whiskey+HIC (this)+Heroin | |
| 33 Coco Chanel’s introduction erased from card (4) |
TARO | TAROc (card) minus C(hanel; first letter: introduction) | |
| 36 Devious person served up sediment from fermentation, disregarding society (3) |
EEL |
LEE | LEEs (sediment from fermentation; minus Society) |
Found this one to be fairly easy and somehow twigged the theme by noticing EVALUATED (one of my first answers) could become DEVALUATE by moving the last letter to the front, thus keeping V from being the last letter of 20 across.
So, here goes. 17 across is UNHEEDED (“neglected”) minus (“shed”) the H for “husband”, with U being the extra letter, as stated.
In 8 down the definition is “he announces”. With OU (“in France where”) taken from COURIER (“messenger”).
I think your interpretation of 5 down is correct as “errors excepted” for EE was the only thing I could find that kind of means “literally”.
Thanks eXternal and kenmac!
17A. H shed from (U)NHEEDED was my take.
Sorry Steve B. I couldn’t see your post when I was submitting mine.
At 5d I had S + TEE (last bit of comfort, literally) + L.
I’d also failed to parse 17a though, so thanks to Steve and jon for that. I’m not sure how I’d missed it now.
A couple of headscratchers aside, overall a welcome gentle puzzle, so thanks to eXternal for the light(ish) relief and to kenmac for the, as ever, thorough blog.
We parsed 5d in the same way as OPatrick @4.
Thanks eXternal for the fun. Like kenmac we twigged the theme early on but we enjoyed the PDM. Joyce noticed the two Os amongst the grid and Bert realised that they were the rising bubbles in the prosecco.
Thanks kenmac for the blog. We know you say that the animated grid is ‘easy’ but we are always so impressed.
A bit of light relief after some recent puzzles. 😉 The down clues were quite generous, 18d in particular leaving little doubt that it was one that had to be adjusted. A few checking letters, and it was fairly clear how. For once I spotted pretty quickly the final steps necessary, and it became clear that the title wasn’t as generic as I’d first wondered… Thoroughly enjoyed.
As you say, an enjoyable puzzle … doubly so for me, as I had just received a bottle of Prosecco for The “Barefoot Lucy” IQ.
Cheers, eXternal !
Re: O’P (@4) and B&J (@5) – Hmm… you’re probably right but I wonder about the use of TEE in consecutive clues.
Thanks to Steve B (@1) and jonsurdy (@2, @3) – I’ve given you a name check in the wordplay now.
As happens every year around this time, I have to blame the World Snooker Championship – damn cheek televising snooker when I’m trying to solve and blog a crossword 😉
Thoroughly enjoyed this, thanks eXternal
What everyone said. Enjoyed. Always nice to make a guess like bottom-to-top and find it magically confirmed by the extra letters. MANATEE becoming EMANATE produced a happy smile here. As did the realization that the letter O appeared just twice.
A fairly gentle workout from eXternal this week, as others have said. Very enjoyable. The theme was established quickly thanks to the devaluate clue. Having spotted that pair of Os it was a very satisfying PDM when they floated to the top. I also liked how 8A appropriately became ‘cork’.
Thanks to kenmac for the blog and explaining 32A which I couldn’t parse. Thanks of course to eXternal for another enjoyable puzzle.
A neat puzzle from eXternal: not too challenging, as many have said, but entertaining for all that. Same small difficulties with the same three clues as the others (U-N[H]EEDED, S-TEE-L, C-OU-RIER) but not insurmountable.
To have only two bubbles is quite a constraint. So, well done to setter, & thanks to kenmac for the blog.
Still wading though the backlog – this is the third Inquisitor solved today and I got this one completely finished. Such a relief after the brain pummelling of recent puzzles.
I enjoyed this one the most of the three. Thanks to eXternal and kenmac.