Inquisitor 1310: Scepticism by Hypnos

14 comments on “Inquisitor 1310: Scepticism by Hypnos”

1. Thank you Hihoba for very lucid blog.

   Ironically, two of the first few clues I solved were 11 and 13 across, which held me up for ages thinking I must be wrong because of the two consecutive ‘U’s.

   Orange highlighting is a nice touch.

2. I didn’t quite get to critical mass of solved clues on this one. I wasn’t helped by having just re-watched ‘Father Ted’ and becoming fixated on ‘arsebum’ in row 10. That must be what stopped me from filling in the gaps in *UU* GULL** (blindingly obvious in hindsight) rather than assuming that ‘UU’ was a mistake and trying to find an alternative for ‘UNDUE’.

3. I didn’t do the fiendish IQ1309 – I was away for a week and only managed to stare blankly at the clues so I decided to go straight for IQ1310. You’re right, it wasn’t too difficult. I too had UU, which made me think that we were looking for VACUUM (reversed) or something.

   Once the grid was filled, I looked at both diagonals, as you do, and then went on a wild goose chase looking for SEFRAN SHALSUS.

   A few revisits later, of course, I kicked myself as FRANS HALS became apparent.

   Thhanks to Hypnos and Hi.

4. I was out all of Saturday and, what with one thing and another, I didn’t make a start on this till Thursday night, where I surprised myself by solving all the clues in a single sitting. After what seems like weeks of failing to get a single clue in an Inquisitor, this was quite a turnabout.

   I even got all the extra letters and could read the cryptic clue to the theme, but I couldn’t solve it, nor see what the unclued entries were, and it was time for bed.

   The next day, I suddenly realised Rutger Hauer was one of the unclued answers. (Coincidentally, he’d been in True Blood that week.) And that gave me the answer to the clue and I could look up the other three. (Heard of Gullit, but didn’t know Tasman’s first name, which I had to guess before googling.) But I totally failed to spot Frans Hals on the diagonal. I blame my bad handwriting.

5. This was my third attempt at an inquisitor and this time I got it 99% right, something of a relief after last week’s desperate struggle to get half way through. I just messed up on one clue “A college provided in some beet and fish (8)”.

   I had A C(college) inside (provided in) CHARd (some beet) and ID (fish) – solution CHARACID. This left me with WIDE instead of WIFE for the mystery clue.

   Still “I’m a broad man” sounded like somebody from the low countries (Broads), so I highlighted in FRANS HALS and stopped looking further.

   Thanks Hihoba for the excellent blog.

6. Correction – I mean CHARD not CHARd in my previous post, leaving me with the D as the unused letter.

7. Refreshingly straightforward after the last two weeks offerings. The ‘UU’ had me a bit confused, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned about Inquisitors it’s to be patient and not discount any possibilities, because nine times out of ten it all works out in the end, however unlikely it appears to look when you’re half way through.

   Thanks to Hypnos and Hihoba.

   nmsindy, I’ll take up the Listener challenge at some point…your comments give me encouragement. The trouble is, I hate to miss an IQ, and I don’t have time for both…

8. Yes – much easier than the previous couple of puzzles. I got RUUD GULLIT very early and then ABEL TASMAN a little later, but I’d never heard of the other two, though it was fairly easy to guess that the lower one’s surname was GROT?US. The upper one was a bit of a struggle, especially since I stumbled over ARRIAN at 7d (hadn’t heard of him either), and so it was less clear where the surname started.

   A pleasant enough outing from Hypnos – thanks go to him & the blogger …
   Hihoba: In the wordplay for 4d you ask if UP = “success”; under the headword UP in my Chambers, one of the meanings (as a noun) is “success”.

9. Yes HG (at #8) I’ve found up = success myself now under “up” as a noun. Sorry Hypnos, I shouldn’t have doubted you!

10. Yes, a pleasant jog this week rather than a gruelling slog.

    Spent a while trying to find Frans Hals – I was sure ERASMUS was buried in the grid somewhere and, unlike Hounddog @2 didn’t spot the old man Steptoe solution in row 10 !

11. Hounddog@2, I was also intrigued by the ‘arse. . . bum’, but only noticed after completing the puzzle.
    If I’d spotted it early on I think I might have wondered if Father Ted was the theme.
    Especially given the title ‘Scepticism’.
    I remember one episode when Dougal said “Well you know me Ted, I’m very cynical . . . “

12. Well……. all these people thinking it was a pleasant jog or refreshingly straightforward!

    We completed all the clues – thanks to Hihoba for parsing 25ac – but were left with many shaded cells unfilled.

    A day later we were still puzzling – the cryptic clue wasn’t much help because all we could come up with was IMAM! In desperation, Joyce trawled through the online dictionary for phrases beginning with I AM …… the rest is history. After kicking ourselves when she found the answer, it took a wiki search for famous Dutchmen. We were so pleased to fill in the empty cells we then completely forgot to look for the fifth Dutchman …. DOH!

    Thanks Hypnos – Joyce felt it was a bit of a shame there were no women but given the phrase she forgives you!

13. Many thanks to Hihoba for an excellent and appropriately coloured blog and everyone for comments. I think there may be a typo
    in the grid for 30d ie the second letter should be I not a in MISGO.

14. Thank you Hypnos. That has now been corrected.

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