Hello all. We have another gem from the late Oxymoron, which I very much enjoyed.
The preamble reads:
13 thematic answers (10 clued without definitions) appearing in a CITS LPTE are to be entered using a code in which the nth letter of the alphabet is replaced by the nth letter of a 26-letter phrase; Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.
A nice brief preamble, but not one which gives much away. So a familiar starting point: simply get on with solving clues and see what happens. I just had to bear in mind that some definitions were missing and that there would be clashes in the grid, all of which should help me to identify the theme.
Starting at 1a, I saw that it could very likely be an anagram and no definition, but none of the words produced looked particularly promising as a possible member of a theme.
The next note I made at the time (I wrote up the parsing as I went along, but reverted to form and left this bit of the blog until the 11th hour) was that SHERIFF had enough clashes to identify it as one of the (defined) themed entries. By the time I made my next note, I had most of the defined entries in the grid, but only one of the undefined ones. I had identified four theme words, the three defined ones from their clashes and the other from its missing definition, and with no idea at all what might connect them, I googled: SQUINTY WAGGONER SHERIFF STRAPPER. The first hit was a Google Books result for a reference work about London stage productions. My search words were all listed as characters in:
THE SHEWING UP OF BLANCO POSNET
A play by George Bernard Shaw – and, tellingly, a 26-letter phrase.
The full text of the play can be found here.
As I understood things, the code for producing the grid entries would be as follows, replacing the letter in the top line with that below:
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
| T | H | E | S | H | E | W | I | N | G | U | P | O | F | B | L | A | N | C | O | P | O | S | N | E | T |
Sure enough, my clashing entries all slotted in perfectly. And the title? As it is not a one-to-one code there were a few options in the decoding, but it wasn’t difficult to find that CITS LPTE encodes:
SHAW PLAY
Perfect. As I knew nothing of the play, I took myself off to the usual internet encyclopaedia for a list of characters. (Squinty is not listed in the Wikipedia entry, which probably explains why my search did not take me there first.) FEEMY wrote herself in in a trice and the others followed suit. All very nice.
| Clue No | ANSWER
(GRID ENTRY) |
Clue with definition underlined |
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and letters appearing in the ANSWER capitalised and emboldened | ||
| Across | ||
| 1a | DANIELS (STFNHPC) |
Opening of Easter Island abandoned (7) |
| An anagram of (… abandoned) the first letter of (opening of) Easter and ISLAND | ||
| 7a | JESSIE (GHCCNH) |
Jack heading off Caledonian monster (6) |
| J (jack) + without the first letter (heading off), nESSIE (Caledonian monster) | ||
| 12a | TRAITOR | Trick yellow fifth columnist (7) |
| TRAIT (trick) + OR (yellow) | ||
| 13a | BORNEO | Limited Love Island (6) |
| BORNÉ (limited) + O (love) | ||
| 14a | WATCH CAP | Drunken Scottish bloke holding college headgear (8, two words) |
| WAT (drunken, Scottish) + CHAP (bloke) containing (holding) C (college) | ||
| 16a | WRETCH | Creature weak with resistance cut (6) |
| W (weak) with R (resistance) + ETCH (cut) | ||
| 17a | NESBIT | English writer without backing, breadth and sex appeal (6) |
| SEN (without) reversed (backing) + B (breadth) and IT (sex appeal) | ||
| 19a | FOREMAN (EBNHOTF) |
Supervisor in favour of authority from the east (7) |
| FOR (in favour of) + the reversal of (… from the east) NAME (authority) | ||
| 20a | FONTEYN | Dancer not struggling in the embrace of eccentric knight (7) |
| NOT anagrammed (struggling) inside (in the embrace of) FEY (eccentric) + N (knight) | ||
| 23a | HEROIC | Brave king of France caught by the first pair of heretics (6) |
| ROI (king of France) + C (caught) next to (by) the first pair of HEretics | ||
| 26a | HIVED | Henry IV and English duke took shelter together (5) |
| H (Henry) + IV + E (English) + D (duke) | ||
| 27a | SALTANDO | Rapid staccato last played with leader of orchestra (8) |
| LAST anagrammed (playing) + AND (with) + the first letter of (leader of) Orchestra | ||
| 31a | AS THEN | Time in wood with nurse – like at that time (6, two words) |
| T (time) in ASH (wood) + EN (nurse) | ||
| 34a | ACHE | Long chapter penned by one in Perth (4) |
| CH (chapter) inside (penned by) AE (one in Perth, Scottish word for one) | ||
| 35a | HANNAH (ITFFTI) |
Hands grasping old Indian coin (6) |
| HH (hands) around (grasping) ANNA (old Indian coin) | ||
| 37a | SHERIFF (CIHNNEE) |
Chief officer hires unconventionally loud female (7) |
| HIRES anagrammed (unconventionally) + F (loud) + F (female) | ||
| 40a | ICTAL | I start to comprehend short story relating to a sudden attack (5) |
| I (from the clue) + the first letter of (start to) Comprehend + all but the last letter of (short) TALe (story) | ||
| 41a | HAOMA | Retiring maidservant consuming ordinary drink (5) |
| The reversal of (retiring) AMAH (maidservant) around (consuming) O (ordinary) | ||
| 42a | OTTER | East-ender’s comparatively warm fur (5) |
| With the H dropped (East-ender’s), hOTTER (comparatively warm) | ||
| 43a | NEEDLER | One wanting to engage Lambert – the sharp instrument maker (7) |
| NEEDER (one wanting) containing (to engage) L (lambert) | ||
| 44a | ANKH | King in a new hospital is cross (4) |
| K (king) in A (a) + N (new) + H (hospital) | ||
| 45a | SQUINTY (CAPNFOE) |
One of five found in filthy place (7) |
| QUIN (one of five) found in STY (filthy place) | ||
| 46a | NESTOR (FHCOBN) |
Soldiers settle at the front (6) |
| OR (soldiers), with NEST (settle) first (at the front) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1d | WAGGONER (STWWBFHN) |
He drives a four-wheeler with a child’s horse expert (8) |
| W (with) + A (a) + GG (child’s horse) + ONER (expert) | ||
| 2d | FATED | Doomed fulsome editor (5) |
| FAT (fulsome) + ED (editor) | ||
| 3d | NICTATE | Shabby clothes in delicate pink (7) |
| TAT (shabby clothes) inside (in) NICE (delicate) | ||
| 4d | BABSY (HTHCE) |
Young animal hugging society (5) |
| BABY (young animal) around (hugging) S (society) | ||
| 5d | POCHAY | Sullen chaplain unknown to keep a carriage (6) |
| PO (sullen) + CH (chaplain) + Y (unknown) containing (to keep) A (from the clue) | ||
| 6d | CRAVE | Long Conservative party (5) |
| C (Conservative) + RAVE (party) | ||
| 8d | HOSE-NET | Oban’s fish catcher seen working in heat (7) |
| SEEN anagrammed (working) inside (in) HOT (heat) | ||
| 9d | CRASH | Fancy car – can it break down? (5) |
| An anagram of (fancy) CAR + SH (can it) | ||
| 10d | NEPIT | Money raised to secure record storage unit (5) |
| TIN (money) reversed (raised, in a down entry) containing (to secure) EP (record) | ||
| 11d | EMMA (HOOT) |
1000 metres inside local drainage channel (4) |
| M (1000) M (metres) inside EA (local drainage channel) | ||
| 15d | LOTTIE (PBOONH) |
Too much included in false statement (6) |
| OTT (too much) included in LIE (false statement) | ||
| 18d | POINCIANA | River at scene of miracle drowning one tropical tree (9) |
| PO (river) + IN CANA (at scene of miracle) surrounding (drowning) I (one) | ||
| 21d | EDWIN | Educated wife joining popular northern king (5) |
| ED (educated) + W (wife) + IN (popular) | ||
| 22d | NAFF | Vulgar fellow taken in by rampant admirer (4) |
| F (fellow) inside (taken in by) the reversal of (rampant) FAN (admirer) | ||
| 24d | IDEM | The same conception with money not advanced (4) |
| IDEA (conception), with M (money) instead of (not) A (advanced) | ||
| 25d | STRAPPER (CONTLLHN) |
Quiet doorknocker (8) |
| ST (quiet) + RAPPER (doorknocker) | ||
| 28d | FEEMY (EHHOE) |
My payment comes first (5) |
| MY (from the clue); FEE (payment) comes first | ||
| 29d | PENMEN | Writers confine sexual partners (6) |
| PEN (confine) + MEN (sexual partners) | ||
| 30d | OTELLO | Husband leaving Gasthof to see a musical drama (6) |
| H (husband) removed from (leaving) [h]OTEL (Gasthof) + LO (see) | ||
| 32d | STITCH | Shock local diminutive individual under seventy (6) |
| TITCH (diminutive individual) following (under, in a down entry) S (seventy, Mediaeval Roman numeral) | ||
| 33d | TIC-TAC | Charlie’s participating in unusually tacit on-course telegraphy system (6) |
| C (Charlie) is inside (participating in) an anagram of (unusually) TACIT | ||
| 36d | STENO | Trump’s typist clears up entrance to office (5) |
| NETS (clears) reversed (up) + the first letter of (entrance to) Office | ||
| 37d | CHIC | Elegant girl out of Cambodia (4) |
| CHIC[k] (girl) without (out of) K (Cambodia) | ||
| 38d | EPEE | Fencer’s requisite Troy removed from tent (4) |
| T (troy) removed from tEPEE (tent) | ||
| 39d | CORF | Coalminer’s basket we hear you removed from Greek island (4) |
| U, a homophone of (we hear) YOU, is removed from CORF[u] (Greek island) | ||
Terrific puzzle and a poignant reminder of what a great setter John Harrington was. I’m not keen on codes in puzzles usually but this worked out in a near and satisfying way. Odd that Squinty isn’t in the Wikipedia entry, but searching a few of the other names led quickly to the relevant source. Thanks for the comprehensive blog too.
I agree – an excellent puzzle.
I found the bottom right to be the easiest sector to get into and build from, and when I had LANDOR or NESTOR at 46a and STRAPPER (or possibly STRINGER) at 25d I started to work on the cipher key. In fact the ST of STRAPPER forced the answer NESTOR at 46a, and they gave me the consecutive cipher letters NCO for the plain text letters RST. WIth the solving of LOTTIE I had enough names to look up their connection, and I found Shaw’s Play. The NCO became part of Blanco in the title and in the cipher key.
The gridfill was impressive, and I enjoyed a good set of clues. It was rewarding also to discover a play by Shaw that I had never heard of, and I was interested in reading more about it.
I too was a bit surprised at first not to see Squinty in the Wikipedia article, but on reading the play itself (online) I found that his was not a speaking part (and his name therefore does not appear in capitals in the text). All Squinty does is lead the horse thief into court and then ‘lounge’ in the court room.
Thanks to Oxymoron and Kitty.
I’ve little to add – like others I googled what seemed to be a random set of words and was pleasantly surprised to see what emerged. A typically elegant puzzle. I can just picture him looking diligently for 26-letter titles once the idea had come to his fertile mind. A sad loss indeed (and, I would add, a pleasure to collaborate with)
A fun solve – less daunting than the preamble made it seem. Some of the thematic names were helpfully clued – Lottie, Emma, Squinty – which meant I could identify the theme work and hence the code fairly early. My favourite clue, and last to solve, was 30 down.
Thanks to Kitty for the blog and, as everyone has said, sad we have lost such an elegant setter.
It was such a pleasure to find that our Sunday solve was by Oxymoron. We were delighted too when, like the others above, a few names (Lottie and Nestor) produced a Shaw play we had never heard of and the Wiki cast list allowed us to complete our gridfill. A sad loss indeed. Thanks to Kitty.
Great puzzle from a great setter. I wonder how many are left in editors’ reserves.
I do enjoy an extra level of decoding in a puzzle so had some fun with this, although I didn’t get the play until quite late on. Some lovely clues to admire and a new word for me at 14a. Thanks to Kitty for the blog. Bloggers in September may be slightly relieved to read the side note to today’s EV.
A shame that this cannot be communicated to John himself. It was great fun and simply brilliant. The world of cipher-encoded puzzles is a bit of a minefield, but this was very elegantly done – just the right level of difficulty to make it fun and not a slog. The amount of thematic material crammed into the grid while achieving that was really impressive. The specific choice of material helped, I am sure, with mostly common letters both in thematic answers and grid fill, and of course it is an amusing treatment of a theme that involved censorship.
As well as the overall puzzle theme, the following clues amused me: 9D for CRASH (very imaginative and lovely misleading ‘can it’), 26A for HIVED (compact construction and vivid ‘story’ for surface reading) and 37D for CHIC (straightforward but appealing surface). The only clue I was less than happy about was 13A for BORNEO as I was not convinced of ‘limited’ to indicate BORNE.
Ah! “limited” is BORN(how do I show an accent?)E
Ah yes, Brock, you are right. I’m a perfectionist (recipe for misery, that!) so will update the blog. Thanks. 🙂
(Most touch keyboards bring up a selection of accented options when you long-press on a letter. Otherwise, there is always the google-copy-paste method.)