A new setter this week, welcome Wan.
The rubric was “Twelve clues contain a thematic object which must be discarded before solving. Twelve other clues contain one in disguise which must also be discarded before solving. Answers to the remaining twelve clues must be modified before entry to form one (highlighting these twelve lights is optional but may be helpful).”
Pretty tricky stuff too, Wan. A first read through yielded very little, but I did manage to get two crossing answers, 31A RULE and 14D UNDER ARMS. And with CORNUTO at 20D yielding to a search for an Italian cuckold, 31A had to be ?UE? or ?UR?. 20D contained the extra word VIRGINAL, a small harpsichord, usually referred to in the plural. In the hope of finding all real words in the grid, I looked up LURE and found reference to a long bronze trumpet. The title had rung a bell somewhere in my subconscious and a further look at it showed that [TRUSTS IN MEN]* => INSTRUMENTS So was UNDER ARMS an anagram of an instrument? Yes! SNAREDRUM! So I was on my way.
A look through the clues yielded axe, racket, virginal, fife, serpent, Chinese block, bombard, whistle and kit as nine of the twelve instruments to discard from the clue. Crowd followed in 30D (same as crwth – I hadn’t heard of either!) and sang and conga finished the twelve eventually after some dictionary work.
So the first type of clue involved a simple removal of a musical instrument from the clue.
The third type of clue mentioned in the rubric gives an answer which is an anagram of a musical instrument forming the grid entry. e.g. [RULE]* => LURE and [UNDER ARMS]* => SNAREDRUM.
The second type was the most difficult to find, as it involves ignoring a word which is an anagram of an instrument (often unfamiliar), such as 12A HESPERIAN which is an anagram of SERAPHINE, an old keyboard instrument.
Even knowing all this, I still found it difficult to locate all of the different instruments and different types of answer. (My favourite instrument is the KIT – a dancing master’s fiddle, which was narrow enough for him to carry it in his tailcoat pocket, ready for instant action!) I am a musician and still had never heard of quite a few of the instruments involved, so it must have been pretty hard for the non-musicians among our solvers. All quite fair though.
The clues contained a number of long definitions which always increases the level of difficulty, and I have a minor quibble with a possible redundant word in 26A. So not an easy Inquisitor, but very entertaining and educational. Thank you Wan.
In the tables below I have divided the clues into the three types for clarity and ease of layout. I have highlighted the instruments in the grid, as suggested in the rubric – “(highlighting these twelve lights is optional but may be helpful)”. Long after finishing, the meaning of this statement became clear. The instruments are symmetrically placed in the grid, so if you were searching for them, that might have helped. I suspect that most people, like me, would not have noticed this until it was too late! Still, yet another thing to admire about Wan’s composition.
| Simple instrument removal | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Across | |||
| No | Clue (definition) [instrument] | Answer | Wordplay |
| 10 | [Axe] a little man and stop money university collected by pawnbroker (9) | HOMUNCULE | HO (stop) + M(oney) + UNCLE (pawnbroker) round U(niversity) |
| 16 | A [racket] buying off by appeasing half of Nice in anything of worth (6) | MUNICH | NI (half of Nice) in MUCH (anything of worth) |
| 19 | Make out [virginal] boy brought back disgrace (7) | SCANDAL | SCAN (make out) + LAD reversed |
| 25 | Nearly [sang] the best part without new tooth (5) | CRENA | Nearly CREA(m) round N(ew) |
| 29 | Pool ill-fortune when [Fife] females disappear like waves (6) | UNDATE | (f)UND (pool) + (f)ATE (ill-fortune) minus two F(emale)s |
| 32 | Strike hard to capture almost every single [serpent] and fish (7) | SEACOCK | SOCK (strike hard) round EAC(h) |
| Down | |||
| 2 | [Chinese block] sauce from New Zealand entering mainly to allow liquids to run out duly (5) | PONZU | NZ in POU(r) (This word is not in the CD version of Chambers, only in later editions) |
| 6 | [Bombard] State without proof earth for example turns following the universe (6) | ALLEGE | E(arth) + EG reversed after ALL (the universe) |
| 8 | Goat keeper perhaps tried [whistle] taking off a clipped Celtic tongue (7) | HERDMAN | HE(a)RD (tried, taking off a) + MAN(x) |
| 21 | Inspired an assemblage of [kit] buildings in Rome (7) | VATICAN | VATIC (inspired) + AN |
| 22 | Form second record [conga] in break (6) | SCULPT | S(econd) + CUT round LP |
| 30 | Goddess put a [crowd] in armour once with no right (4) | GAEA | A in GEA(r) |
| Instrument anagram removal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Across | ||||
| No. | Clue (definition) [anagram] | Instrument | Answer | Wordplay |
| 12 | Lifelike machine is right for the most part entering as if [Hesperian] (7) | SERAPHINE | ANDROID | AND (as if) round DROI(t) (right for the most part) |
| 15 | Eccentric Scots take precautions to prepare [sangria] (6) | SARANGI | WEIRDO | WEIR (Scots take precautions) + DO |
| 18 | German borders [broaden] ignoring Belgium’s eyes (5) | BANDORE | GLIMS | G(erman) + LIM(b)S |
| 24 | Fabric prince [took] covers old governor in Hungarian kingdom (7) | KOTO | RABANNA | RANA (prince) round BAN (old governor in Hungarian kingdom) |
| 26 | One strongly attached to Irish [lager] never too drunk, sick or absent (6) | REGAL | VOTEEN | [NEVE(r) T(o)]* (never too minus or). Not sure about the word sick. Seems redundant. |
| 33 | Twist together three [inseams] with a new twisting (9) | SAMISEN | ENWREATHE | [THREE A NEW]* |
| Down | ||||
| 3 | Hard ball [glues], Yanks confess, keeping balls together for cannons (7) | GUSLE | NURSING (billiards) | NUR (hard ball of wood) + SING |
| 4 | Celebrate limitless [deer] in the Highlands presently (4) | REED | ENOW | (r)ENOW(n) (celebrate) |
| 9 | Resist mates [altering] drug (6) | TRIANGLE | OPPOSE | OPPOS (mates) + E (drug) |
| 20 | Italian cuckold once mostly oversentimental [tore] front off car (7) | ROTE | CORNUTO | CORN(y) + (a)UTO |
| 23 | [Rely] on it a lot to begin with raising Brazilian perhaps (6) | LYRE | LATINO | ON IT A L(ot) reversed |
| 27 | Ambassador from Chile cooked [okra] (5) | KORA | ELCHI | [CHILE]* |
| Instrument from [answer]* | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Across | ||||
| No. | Clue (definition) |
Answer | Instrument Grid Entry | Wordplay |
| 1 | Stop millions going to fasten garment that doesn’t need fastening (6) | STEP-IN | SPINET | STE(m) + PIN |
| 5 | No Scottish salmon’s lost over chips (6) | NACHOS | SANCHO | NA (no Scottish) + C(o)HOS (salmon minus O(ver)) |
| 13 | Hypocritical person I see leaving chemist (4) | PHAR | HARP | PHAR(isee) (hypocritical person) |
| 31 | Regret bringing in Liberal government (4) | RULE | LURE | RUE round L(iberal) |
| 34 | Word in Ireland for a girlfriend and word in France for a bird (6) | MOTMOT | TOMTOM | MOT (an Irish girlfriend) and MOT (a French word) |
| 35 | Brings up god in paltry surroundings initially (6) | TRAINS | SANTIR | RA in TIN (paltry) + S(urroundings) |
| Down | ||||
| 1 | Hits inexpert boxer below with disastrous ending (5) | WHAMS | SHAWM | W(ith) + HAM + (disastrou)S |
| 7 | Old Woman assimilates tail writhing like a rattlesnake (9) | CROTALINE | CLARIONET | CRONE round [TAIL]* |
| 11 | Old Mediterranean sect members act unruly undressing prince in Morocco (7) | CATHARI | CITHARA | [ACT]* + (s)HARI(f) |
| 14 | Doctor nursed a royal marine with weapons (9, 2 Words) | UNDER ARMS | SNAREDRUM | [NURSED A RM]* |
| 17 | With regard to back consonant, drop tip of tongue from vertical and flex (7) | VELARIC | CLAVIER | [VER(t)ICAL]* |
| 28 | Topless vessel of Newfoundland was inconsistent drinks measure (5) | ANKER | NAKER | (b)ANKER (Newfoundland fishing vessel) |
Isn’t the “sick” in 26A to indicate that the OR letters are not in normal order?
Thanks Hihoba for the blog – we couldn’t work out the relevance of Newfoundland in 28d. We were hooked on the vessel being ‘tanker’!
Thankfully the theme opened up reasonably early after we realised that Virginal was one of the extra words. We noticed the symmetrically placed answers which were helpful towards the end of the solve. There were a few answers where we used an electronic search to find an instrument and we then had to look at anagrams to find the original answer which we then tried to parse.
Having said that, it was a well-constructed puzzle and we were amazed at some of the instuments that we found. So, thanks to Wan and welcome to the Inquisitor!
I struggled for a long time with PHAR as an abbreviation for Pharmacist. But very enjoyable puzzle.
After finishing eight in a row, I was starting to think that I had mastered the Inquisitor…how wrong I was! This one humbled me in a big way! After staring at it for as long as I could justify (many hours) I still only had four or five clues, and no idea where it was going. I then decided that I was beaten, but a couple of days later I couldn’t resist looking on the internet to see if I could pick up any hints, and with the help of a couple of comments and the clues I already had, I worked out the theme. I then returned to the crossword thinking I’d finish it off pretty quickly…but I didn’t manage to get any more answers! Even knowing that I was looking for instruments didn’t help me…the instruments were just so obscure!
Thanks to Wan (for a dose of humility…always good for the soul), and my sincere admiration must go out to Hihoba and everyone else that completed it. I’ve got a lot to learn…
jon surdy@3 – if it hadn’t been for a recent puzzle featuring ‘hypocritical’ we would have been stuck too on PHAR. Joyce suddenly remembered the words she had come across on her previous search in Chambers Thesaurus!
Like you Hihoba, something struck me after seeing a couple of clues (think it was 32a and 22D) that the theme was something around instruments and I recognised the anagram title almost straight away after that little click of the cogs in my head. What finally confirmed the theme was musical instruments was the okra = kora anagram of 27A. If you want to hear the kora at its best check out Toumani Diabate’s album “The Mande Variations”- sublime !
Like others, I found most of the other instruments through Google/Chambers and the consequent wordplay fell into place afterwards- not, to me, entirely satisfying but very enjoyable nevertheless. Thanks Wan, and welcome.
Beaut of a puzzle. It was ‘virginal’ for me and a re-look at the title that gave me the feed-in to the the theme. Once again a combination of Pears and Bradfords (with Chambers for confirmation) did me well as I feel googling is still a bit of a cop-out. But then I am just an old fuddy-duddy.
Thanks Hihoba and Wan.
I didn’t look up KIT (dancing master’s fiddle.)
I just assumed it was a shortened version of ‘drum kit’.
Thanks for an excellent blog of quite a complex puzzle.
I reconised Wan from a puzzle in another place – then, I got just 1 entry on 1st pass through the clues but eventually it yielded to reveal a marvellously constructed puzzle – I was therefore expecting a pretty tough time – & I got it – I got a fair few on 1st pass but just like the previous puzzle Wan made me work all the way through – however the clues were very fair & (eventually) I parsed them all bar finding 1 of the hidden instruments. Unlike Hihoha I needed the highlighted entries to spot the symmetrical placements & like several other posters I needed Chambers Word Wizard for a number of the anagramised instruments.
I would be more than happy to see more IQs from Wan in the future – I’m already a bit of a fan!
I’d rate this as 3 on the 1-5 scale, and pretty enjoyable. On the first pass, RULE at 31a & MOTMOT at 34a looked to be ‘modified entry’ types, and the intersecting SCULPT at 22d confirmed that they should be entered as LURE & TOM-TOM — so instruments it was (yes – anagram of title). Despite tumbling to the theme very early, there was still a lot of digging out to do. Some “disguised” instruments in the clues leapt out, but others were well hidden.
Was it accidental that the answer UNDER ARMS at 14d was (5,4) and its anagram SNARE DRUM was also (5,4)? If fortuitous, then that is being in a state of grace!
For ages, I had 11d as CATHARS with many checked letters (but half-explained wordplay), until the intersecting ANDROID 12a put me right – this is where the symmetry of the thematic entries helped me over the last inch of the finishing line, and I changed it to [CATHARI]* at last.
PS to Hihoba (to whom thanks for the blog): the last letter of CITHARA is unchecked, so your grid is missing a vertical bar before VOTEEN at 26a.
And of course, thanks to Wan, for an exercising and pleasing debut.
HG@10
A 3! You have got to be joking…
Dan-I’m with you on this one
Thanks very much for the blog, the very kind comments and the welcome.
I must acknowledge a debt of gratitude to Radix who has just been so generous with his help and such an inspiration during my brief setting career.
I confess that I am only started solving the Inquisitor this year and now know what I have been missing – it is a wonderful series.
Hope to meet again.
Best wishes
Wan
PS Holyghost@10 I went through several iterations of grid before settling on this one but in all of them put SNARE DRUM in first as the 5,4 anagram appealed to me. Nice to know that it was noticed.
Chesley @ 1, thanks for your idea about sick – I guess you are right, though I still think it is unnecessary.
HG @ 10 – grid now modified.
Dan, Gordon Fisher, HG at 10-12, I certainly had a number above 3 in mind for difficulty – nearer a 4+ I think.
Wan @ 13, thank you for your comment. It is always great to hear from the setter – a fine job on this one, and we all look forward to hearing from you in the future!
I believe it’s a matter of convention that in subtractive anagrams where the letters to be removed are not in the same order as in the word to be subtracted, then Ximeneans tend to insist on having another indicator to make this clear. It’s one of those were you could go either way, but perhaps it’s fairer to have the extra “sick” in this case even though you might be able to see what’s going on. But they have a point: in this clue “or” doesn’t appear in “never too”, only an anagram of it. A dreadful alternative clue of “…tore oven drunk or absent” wouldn’t need the extra “sick”, because now “or” does actually appear.
On such finer points setters have a lot of ‘fun’ battling over precise wording with the editors…