Inquisitor 1327: Returning by Shark

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Preamble: The correct letters from misprinted definitions in 20 clues spell out a returning instruction. Solvers must change the contents of 18 cells, always revealing real words.

Short and sweet!

I got off to a fairly quick start with this one and had the bottom half done in next to no time. The top half, however, proved a lot trickier. The NE corner eventually gave way but the NW corner held out for several days.

Also, I took a long time to work out the instruction, not helped by the fact that, I think, one of the letters is missing. It simply has to come from 11a or 13a but I can’t find any way to change either.

Anyway, the instruction, I think, is meant to be HURL KYLIE TO RIGHT HAND (though the first L is missing – perhaps if Nimrod is looking in, he might clarify IQ1327things) – kylie being a boomerang, and we can find BOOMERANG on the left hand side (e2, d3, c4, b5, a6, b7, c8, d9, e10) and it has to be moved to the right (h10, i9, j8, k7, l6, k5, j4, i3, h2.)

There were some quite tricky clues – 3d was the last one I managed to justify and I have my doubts about 12d though I liked the clue – it was incredibly difficult to get my head round! Also 17a niggled me a little as you’ll see from my comments in the grid below

Quite a work out I thought but nonetheless enjoyable. Many thanks to Shark.

Across
No. Clue Amended definition
 Entry
 Amended Entry
 Corrected letter
 Wordplay
1 Nice house music from India – compact disc dish MASALA H
 MAS (French: Nice house)+ALAp (Indian music, compact)
5 American shrub once a larch once a lurch AMBUSH U
 AMerican+BUSH (shrub)
9 Soup is outstanding with no ordinary Kiwi roll Sour ACERB ACER R
 ACE (outstanding)+RoB (NZ: Kiwi roll, minus Ordinary)
11 Chile’s canal fish becomes stuck – each time only top half ZANJA GANJA ?
 ZANder (fish)+JAms (becomes stuck) (half of each)
13 Cliff Richard’s third piece of music that is jazzy CRAG ?
 riChard (third)+RAG (jazz music)
15 Sound of fine dispute being cut short Sound of kine MOO MO K
 MOOt (dispute, cut short)
16 Designed for press, failure nearly cleared back IRON-ON
NO-NO (failure)+RId (cleared, nearly) rev: back
17 Duke’s other name is earl here? Yuke’s other name EUK AUK Y
 Earl+UK (here) – except that “here” for me is actually Eire.
So here is here if you’re there but if you’re not there then it’s there; so there.
18 In the centre of a dark revolution AMID AID
A+DIM (dark; rev: revolution)
19 In Scotland rile Anglo-Catholic removing priest In Scotland rill SIKE SIRE L
 SpIRE (Anglo-Catholic; minus Priest)
20 God dismissed religion in the beginning for goddess EOS OS
ErOS (god; minus Religion)
21 Court almost has accepted Asian language BAHASA
BAr (court; almost)+HAS+Accepted
22 Loved stuffing juvenile delinquent Lived LED LEE I
 juveniLE Delinquent (hidden: stuffing)
23 Byes occur in these overs – runs a little on square Eyes occur in these ORBITS OBITS E
 Overs+Runs+BIT (a little)+Square
25 Makes old sacrosanct offices cover internal security Takes old SEISES SEISMS T
 SEES (sacrosanct offices) containing IS (internal security)
29 Loam from agricultural community in Russia taking a long time Loom MIRAGE O
 MIR (agricultural community in Russia)+AGE (a long time)
33 Old mental feature to glow around Norway SHINNE SHINE
SHINE (to glow) containing Norway
34 Child arched to bend torso (not daughter) Child archer BOW-BOY BOO-BOY R
 BOW (to bend)+BOdY (minus Daughter)
35 A tense flap flip PERT I
 PER (a)+Tense
37 Mill’s pulley to pass quickly lacking force Mill’s gulley LEET G
 fLEET (to pass quickly; minus Force)
38 They wrongly treasured ladies at first? ADULTERERS
TREASURED L(adies; at first) anag: wrongly
39 Danger to dry in schoolteacher’s building without air-conditioning Hanger to dry CLOTHES HORSE H
 ScHOOLTEaCHERS (anag: building) minus AC (air conditioning)

d

Down
No. Clue Amended definition Entry Amended Entry Corrected letter Wordplay
1 Energy after relative sources of milk MAMAE MAMA
MAMA (relative)+Energy
2 Mossie on French river (tributary of the Meuse) SEMOIS SEMIS
MOSSIE (anag: on)
3 Green dragon, perhaps, in taxidermy display set up then scratched before noon AROID ARID
DIORAma (rev: set up) minus AM (before noon)
4 Bird in Australia is an extinct creature AUROCHS
ROCH (bird) inside AUStralia
5 Liar’s answer, one taken in by fools ANANIAS
Answer+NANAS (fools) containing I (one)
6 Prussian army divisions surround wide castle enclosures cattle enclosures BAWNS BANNS T
 BANS (Prussian army divisions) containing Wide
7 Take away numeral in places, 1 plus 5 initially equals 49 Take away humeral in places UNVEIL UNVAIL H
 UN (one)+V (five)+E(qually; initially)+IL (49: Roman numerals)
8 Sloshed and tired out – take week off Slashed HACKED HACKEE A
 wHACKED (tired out) minus Week
10 Dust from valley finally cleared COOM COO
COOMb (valley) minus last letter
12 Japanese duck beside another duck – oddly elusive duck in Loch Ness JOUK JOUR
Japanese+O (duck)+dUcK (oddly elusive)
I think elusive is doing double duty
13 Doing right for hard manufacturing CREATING CREATIN
ChEATING (doing) minus Hard plus Right
14 Bird finding giant fruit here and there GOOSEGOG GOOSEGOB
GOOSE+GOG (giant)
23 Gambling chance against first half of visual ON SPEC
ON (against)+SPECular (visual; half of)
24 Look into bank draft for investor inventor BAIRD BIRD N
 AIR inside BD (bank draft)
26 Cork’s puzzle reviewed SUBER SOBER
REBUS (puzzle) rev: reviewed
27 Special constable and the Yard shuffled blame blade SCYTHE D
 SC (special constable)+THE Yard (anag: shuffled)
28 Finally has to remedy Highland hut SHEAL
haS (finally)+HEAL
30 Rook practically devoured plant REATE
Rook+EATEn (devoured; practically)
31 Young animals at first lost in tree ABIES
bABIES (young animals; minus first letter)
32 Deposit blown from earth in waste LOESS
Earth inside LOSS (waste)
36 Disapproving remark from Guardian dismissing soldiers TUT
TUTor (guardian; minus OR (soldiers)
37 Government leaves toy house LEO
LEgO (toy; minus Government)

24 comments on “Inquisitor 1327: Returning by Shark”

  1. Many thanks kenmac.

    In the immortal words of Charlie Drake – “My boomerang wouldn’t come back”.
    Eventually saw what we were meant to do, but struggled with quite a few of the clues so couldn’t complete the puzzle.
    And I think you have a good point about 17A. Erin go bragh.

  2. One of my favourite setters and another enjoyable solve. I was left wondering though whether it would have benefitted from some reversals instead of misprints, being more thematic.

    Shame about the missing L, I found myself researching ‘Hurkyl’s recall’ initially before I realised that it was too obscure. It didn’t spoil the enjoyment to be fair.

    Re 17a – I thought this followed convention where ‘I’ is the setter, ‘you’ is the solver and ‘here’ is the home of the paper.

    Re 12d – The definition doesn’t need ‘elusive’, but I haven’t come across ‘ in a lake’ as a indicator before!

    Nice graphic as always Kenmac.

  4. Yes, I apologise, that is what I meant but didn’t say too clearly – that the word isn’t doing double duty as it is only needed in the wordplay.

  7. My 2nd favourite puzzle of the year so far. Really enjoyed working my way through this as there were very few clues that gave themselves up to ex-post rationalisation i.e. guessing the answer then working out the wordplay afterwards ! Each answer to clues in top NW had to be grafted for, no charity there !

    I seem to recall a boomerang-themed puzzle in last year or two, with a similar denouement i.e. highlighting boomerang-shaped cells but this didn;t detract from the enjoyment, nor did the missing ‘L’.

    Many thanks to Nimrod and Kenmac for the great blog.

  8. Ooop, not a Freudian slip….thanks to Shark of course. Was misled by kenmac’s reference to Nimrod in the blog, sorry.

  9. A very enjoyable piece of brain amusement. I fell upon the “ERANG” in the SW corner which led me on the route to closure for this one. It was the SE corner which gave me the most trouble with 31D being my last one in, for some reason one of the simpler clues (in retrospect) giving me the most brain-ache. My thanks to kenmac and Shark

  11. 24 Where in the world is ‘baird’ defined as an investor? Not in Chambers 2008 anyway. Do I need to upgrade?

    Nimrod will never apologise for missing letters in phrases spelt out. It’s happened before.

  12. I believe that Nimrod is busy currently dealing with a sad loss in the family, so with no authority whatsoever I would apologise on his behalf. 11A should have initially read as ‘Chine’ and then been changed to ‘Chile’ to generate the L. In 24 ‘investor’ became the ‘inventor’ BAIRD thus producing N.

  13. Such a pity about the missing L – I did wonder if there’s been a typo somewhere. A serious workout after a few on the easy side, with the usual Shark standard of cluemanship (the EV the same week was a Shark, which made for a fun weekend). Good stuff. Thanks for the blog.

  14. On reading Vortigen’s post ( and with commiserations to N ), I wonder if I should reconsider my decision not to allow this into consideration for the IQ of the year list. Should I rate on ‘puzzle as published’ in which case it’s not on it (and so leave the Indie to sort out its proofreading, given that the sub-editors will of course be attentive to the views I express on a significant if esoteric blog), or on ‘puzzle as designed’ ( thus allowing Shark the due credit for her/his artefact )? Being bloody-minded I’ll probably go for the former.

  15. Smokey @11

    It isn’t. But John Logie Baird was an INVENTOR. You did read the blog, presumably…?

  16. I was so determined to find a letter between HUR and KYLIE that I could only change CLIFF to CLIFT (which also means cliff) and thereby get HURT (I know that doesn’t quite work but I was sure it had to be something). I thought it was something to do with hurting Kylie in an “eye for an eye” retribution, hence “returning”. So I wasted quite a bit of time and never completed the puzzle. That’s down to my limitations but I cannot forgive the error as easily as some here.

  17. We were really stuck on this and after using the same search as Nick@2 we had to google for some more help. We were then in the same boat as Tony with CLIFF and CLIFT.

    In the end after some more searching we came across BOOMERANG but were completely flummoxed because we had HURT as the first word. We thought it must be HURL but we didn’t even consider a typo!! Like Chesley@3 we were also quite happy with 12D.

    Great blog again kenmac – many thanks!

    Thanks also to Shark and Vortigern (with commiserations to Nimrod) for explaining the missing ‘L’!

  18. I also ended up with a HURT Kylie for a long time, trying to come up with various ways in which various Minogues might be found in or somehow added to the grid.

  19. Once I guessed 11a had to change to Ganja for the boomerang thing I actually gave up looking for the “-anja” word that meant canal and assumed I’d missed something (“Chill’s canal” or “Chile’s canan” somehow meant “-anja”, I hoped), so I was relatively unaffected by that slip.

    Smokey @11
    I don’t think that’s right about Nimrod. I remember once with one of his own puzzles he accepted a complaint that I actually thought was unjustified, so I don’t see that you can assume he’d be senselessly obstinate and not apologise.

    And obviously you had a bit of a brainstorm about Baird the famous inveNtor…

  20. (Correction – that should have been “chile’s calal”, not “canan” – equally meaningless I suppose.)

  21. Another fine offering from Shark, my solving experience being marred by the missing L – spent 1/2 hr. checking wordplay before reaching the firm conclusion that the fault wasn’t mine but was in one of the two candidate clues.

    17a: it seems clear to me that “here” in the clue can’t refer to where the solver is, but where the setting of the clue is done (at least nominally). So I’ll go along with the convention Nick stated @2, namely, the home of the paper.

    Very much agree with kenmac about the order of solving (bottom half, top right, top left) and sorting out the last few clues – thanks for the blog.

    And Rob H @7: the previous BOOMERANG puzzle was the first Woodchuck one from early last year.

  22. Some very tricky clues, especially 11 across…if it had read ‘Chine’ as it was supposed to, then it would have been even harder…every cloud!

    I was stumped by ‘Kylie’ for a while. I assumed it must be referring to Ms Minogue, but I eventually looked it up and finally had the PDM.

    Great fun

  23. Well big apologies to you all. Yes I did create the clue with Chile being misprinted to Chine, but it is my responsibility to check the proofs created by the editor. Not only did I check the proofs but another sub-editor/checker/proof solver did as well. We all missed it. Sorry if it was the tipping point to being able to complete the puzzle. Nimrod is meticulous at sending out proofs to setter and his helpers.

    For those who enjoyed it forgetting this error, then that makes me feel better.

    Perhaps another aspect of the puzzle you may not have noticed was the boomerang started next to LH (abbrev. in Chambers for left hand) and finished adjacent to RH (abbrev. in Chambers for right hand).

    I created the puzzle and submitted it to the IQ before the Woodchuck puzzle was published and therefore had no influence.

    Yes it was a bumper weekend, with the IQ,EV and Magpie all published at the same time…about as random as if a boomerang will come back to you.

    Shark

  24. Thanks v. much Shark, both for the comment and the puzzle itself, it certainly kept me out of mischief last weekend !

    I didn’t notice the LH/RH pointers which is a shame but I, like everyone else, probably, just assumed a symmetrical juxtapostioning of the boomerang.

    Thanks HG@21 for the reminder of the Woodchuck puzzle…

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