Preamble: Clues are presented in alphabetical order of their answers, word lengths referring to the space allocated to them. The operation of one of the two unclued entries (2 words) has had an effect that must be reflected in the completed grid. Ignoring spaces, pre and post-operational entries are real words or proper nouns, two verifiable by the ODE. Initial use of pencil is recommended.
Having had the most delicious burrito for my lunch some hours earlier, the first one I solved was BURRO and I was immediately confronted with an answer that didn’t fit the specified length. The next one was the one immediately after it, CARERS, which also didn’t fit. This made me think that all answers were going to be short but, of course, that turned out not to be the case. My next thought was that BURRO could become BURROW with the addition of W(est) and CARERS could become CAREERS with the addition of E(ast). Well, maybe I was overthinking things just a little too early.
As is usual, when we have clues presented in answer order, as a few more began to fall, the potential first letters of other answers began to become apparent and soon the time to confront the task of fitting in the answers couldn’t be put off any longer. In truth, it was my daughter elmac who took on this task, identifying that there were two symmetrical 9-letter answers gave her the starting point. The only genuine 9-letter answer is WATER LILY and other answers started to fit themselves around it. As the 9-letter answer down the middle began to form, there were a few possibilities provided by the letter pattern and the one I favoured was LOCK GATES but bedtime loomed.
I awoke the next morning and found myself puzzling over what the other 9-letter answer, clued as FIRE, was going to be when I suddenly thought of FIREWATER and WATER could go with LOCK GATES and there we have the PDM. The across entry at i11 is unclued and remains blank, at least initially. When the WATER and the BARGE drop through the LOCK GATES, they end up at the bottom of the grid, leaving a1-across and the first 5 letters of e2-across blank; as they now occupy the last 5 letters of a12-across and i11-across.
What a nice puzzle, especially after having recently watched Great Canal Journeys with Prunella Scales and Timothy West.
Thanks Kruger.
| 4-letter | 5-letter | 6-letter | 7-letter | 8-letter | 9-letter |
| AGOG | ACUTE | AFFEAR | BELATED | ALGERNON | FIRE***** |
| ARIA | AL*AE | BURRO* | CARE*RS | CLAVECIN | WATER LILY |
| BEAT | BARGE | FI**RE | CHARLES | FOBWATCH | |
| EL*M | DROOB | LOGGED | SAKERET | ORGANDIE | |
| FAIR | ELVES | ROTARY | TETRAMER | ||
| FIRE | EWERS | ROTTEN | TOGETHER | ||
| GORE | HYMNS | STREEK | |||
| IRON | IDAHO | TENESI | |||
| KI*R | LUCRE | UNHOOK | |||
| NOCK | NAIRN | ||||
| P*UL | OGHAM | ||||
| UMAR | SWIFT | ||||
| TARKA | |||||
| YOGIC | |||||
| Location | Direction | Clue | Entry | Amended Entry | Wordplay |
| b1 | d | Shrewd academician’s clever | ACUTE | CUTE | Academician+CUTE (clever) |
| h9 | a | Ed’s to frighten Anglo-French female on organ | AFFEAR | AF (Anglo-French)+Female+EAR (organ) | |
| a8 | a | On tenterhooks since start of game | AGOG | AGO (since)+Game (start of) | |
| l9 | d | Processes not, oddly, fail-safe | ALAE | ALGAE | fAiLsAfE (not oddly) |
| j1 | d | This fellow is awkwardly large on back edge of pillion | ALGERNON | LARGE ON (anag: awkwardly)+pillioN (back end) | |
| h6 | d | An excerpt from Rastafarian melody | ARIA | rastafARIAn (hidden: an excerpt from) | |
| a1 | a | Bump into obstruction, say, falling over | BARGE | BAR (obstruction)+EG (say; rev: falling over) | |
| h1 | d | Exhausted unconventional young person forgets about relatives | BEAT | BAT | BEATnik (unconventional young person) minus KIN (relatives; rev: about) |
| a1 | d | Behind time, first of buses raised the spirits | BELATED | ELATED | Buses (first of)+ELATED (raised the spirits) |
| e7 | d | Donkey’s taking it from Mexican’s dish | BURRO | BURROW | BURRitO (Mexican dish) minus IT |
| m7 | d | They look after sappers boarding vehicles | CARERS | CAREERS | RE (sappers) inside CARS (vehicles) |
| g5 | a | Fly in church ultimately annoys physicist | CHARLES | HARL (fly) inside CE (church)+annoyS (ultimately) | |
| l1 | d | Clive can play harpsichord | CLAVECIN | CLIVE CAN (anag: play) | |
| a7 | a | Contrary Dutch colonist died in Victoria a contemptible person | DROOB | BOOR (Dutch colonist)+Died (rev: contrary) | |
| a2 | a | In gambling game champion is playing K before Q perhaps | ECHO | EO (gambling game) containing CHampion I originally thought that it was a mistake in the clue and we were looking for a hidden word: gamE CHAmpion |
|
| f10 | d | Steering wheel contains no hard wood | ELM | ELAM | hELM (steering wheel) minus Hard |
| i13 | a | More than one dwarf departs from digs | ELVES | dELVES minus Departs | |
| e1 | d | Water containers were cracked by sun | EWERS | ERS | WERE (anag: cracked)+Sun |
| f1 | d | Open market | FAIR | FIR | (double def.) |
| k9 | d | Disgusted expression from foreign character on radio | FIE | FIBRE | PHI (foreign character; homophone: on radio) |
| a12 | a | Fellow with anger and passion | FIRE | Fellow+IRE (anger) | |
| f1 | a | Mostly in favour of women stopping unmarried Aussie’s timepiece | FOB-WATCH | FOr (in favour of; mostly)+BATCH (unmarried Aussie: BACHELOR) containing Women | |
| d1 | d | Vice-president once hit with spear | GORE | ORE | (double def.) Al Gore |
| m1 | d | Leaving America, awfully shy man celebrates in song | HYMNS | SHY MaN (leaving America) anag: awfully | |
| a11 | a | State marriage vow before husband embraced | IDAHO | I DO (marriage vow) containing A (before)+Husband | |
| f5 | d | Ore in ground not base metal | IRON | ORe IN minus E (base) anag: ground | |
| h10 | d | Drink in church unfinished | KIR | KIER | KIRk (church; unfinished) |
| k5 | d | Recorded defensive blunder by German in league edition | LOGGED | OG (Own Goal; defensive blunder)+German in League+EDition | |
| a3 | a | Enticement: stashing cocaine for sordid gain | LUCRE | LURE (enticement) containing Cocaine | |
| f8 | a | Irish grandmother outside Scottish town | NAIRN | IRish inside NAN (grandmother) | |
| j6 | a | Not originally keen to approach upper end of sail | NOCK | kNOCK (approach; not originally Keen) | |
| i3 | a | Idiot finally leaving Gotham – crazy old character! | OGHAM | GOtHAM minus idioT (finally) anag: crazy | |
| b6 | d | Society not included in production of grandiose material | ORGANDIE | GRANDIOsE (minus Society) anag: production of | |
| j10 | d | Money from Botswana not accepted for bread in Kabul | PUL | PAUL | PULa (Botswana currency) minus Accepted |
| i2 | d | Turning fashionable man from Perth into a sailor? On the contrary | ROTARY | OTARY | TAR (sailor) inside ROY (fashionable man from Australia) |
| f4 | a | Corrupt cardinal follows most of RC tribunal | ROTTEN | ROTa (Roman Catholic tribunal; most of)+TEN (cardinal number) | |
| a9 | a | Tear Kes shed for male falcon | SAKERET | TEAR KES (anag: shed) | |
| c10 | a | Rush, we hear, to prepare for burial in Ayr | STREEK | STREAK (rush; homophone: we hear) | |
| a9 | d | Quick writer | SWIFT | (double def.) Jonathan Swift | |
| d6 | a | Otter essentially liked hiding in bracken | TARKA | liKed (essentially) inside TARA (bracken) | |
| a5 | a | Indo-European sent wild rhino to Turkmenistan | TENESI | IE (Indo-European)+SENT (anag: wild) (this is one of the words in ODE) |
|
| a13 | a | Disgraceful matter concerning returned compound | TETRAMER | MATTER (anag: disgraceful)+RE (rev: returned) (and this is the other one) |
|
| d6 | d | In contact with good number in company | TOGETHER | TO (in contact with)+Good+ETHER (number: anaesthetic) | |
| j12 | a | Man from Qatar – a Muslim revolutionary | UMAR | qataR A MUslim (rev: revolutionary; hidden: from) | |
| c4 | d | A Gallic pirate is free from trap | UNHOOK | UN (A in French)+captain HOOK (pirate from Peter Pan) | |
| e2 | a | Plant early: wilt badly! | WATER LILY | EARLY WILT (anag: badly) | |
| i7 | a | Followers of Hindu philosophy are greeting foremost of gurus in charge | YOGIC | YO (greeting)+Gurus In Charge (foremost characters) |
Nice! (the puzzle and your solutions, but most of all the animated grid.)
Thanks Kruger and kenmac.
What more can we say? There was a lovely smile on both of our faces after having completed the grid when Bert spotted the significance of the relevant parts and their placement within the grid.
A great blog and animated grid kenmac – many thanks.
Thanks Kruger, we really love those puzzles when everything comes together at the very last moment!
A real tour de force this. Wonderfully taxing clues, loads of head-scratching about where to fit them, and a brilliant PDM.
Love the animated grid – very nice
Thanks everyone for the comments on the animated grid. It was fun to do but I have to acknowledge that Hi of HiHoBa gave me the inspiration to have the BARGE float to the right. My original just suddenly appeared on the WATER and then, when it reached the bottom, it just jumped to its final destination.
Also, I realize that I didn’t acknowledge the title. I presume that “Operation” refers to the fact that the LOCK GATES need to be operated in order to get the barge to float down the canal.
I only ever look at the IQ blogs,, rather than solve the puzzles, as I don’t get the Independent, so I’m only a Listener/ EV solver (or at least an attempter). I look at puzzles like this one and wonder if I should perhaps try to look at IQs in future!
Yes, agree with everyone, a really enjoyable puzzle.
I rather foolishly ignored the instruction to use a pencil so some cells became a mass (mess?) of smudged hieroglyphics by the end. I more or less guessed BARGE and WATER as the two missing words (much the same way that kenmac did)so LOCK GATES quickly followed.
Guess this puzzle provides a counterpoint to the boat-sinking puzzle of a couple of years ago when, if I recall, the TITANIC sank to the bottom of the grid, to be replaced by FLOTSAM at the top !
Thanks to kenmac- brilliant, how long did that animation take ? And of course to Kruger for yet another tour de force (tour de barge ?)
What a lovely puzzle! If it were a woman I’d certainly ask her out on a date. Congrats to Kruger – top of the pile for the year to date.
My way in to the grid-fill was the three intersecting 8-letter entries in the top-right corner. But stupidly entering ELVES in the space destined for the barge delayed me a while. So, while the movement of WATER was pretty apparent early on, I had to wait for the elves to be evicted to make room for the BARGE. And the resolution seemed to be made for kenmac‘s dedication to animations – he didn’t let us down.
PS to kenmac: FI**RE in your ‘6-letter’ column should be FI**E in the ‘5-letter’ column.
Very nearly completed this one. I still don’t understand “echo” — can someone explain ” is playing K before Q perhaps”? As I also hadn’t heard of “EO” for gambling game, I was never going to get this.
As for “lock gates” — d’oh! I had “lock water” which would equally fit and isn’t out of place.
Generally speaking, easier clues than average here: I solved the first three as soon as look at them, and many of the others dropped straight away. Those that held me up for the longest time were “sakeret” (which, despite my bragging about riding bareback, I googled in the end), “alae” and “fie”, which I was trying to make “faugh”.
Top right fell once I had a few 8-letter words, and from then the jigsaw was straightforward. The penny-drop moment was an absolute delight. Fun.
The playing K before Q is a bridge technique, I think, where you signal by playing a higher card then a lower one – the Smith Echo.
There are three types of echo in Bridge. All are manoeuvres by the defence designed to pass information to your partner about your holding in a particular suit. If you want to know more (and you probably don’t) look here!
I forgot to say in my previous post what an excellent crossword this was from Kruger. I love alphabetical jigsaws (I believe invented by the late Araucaria) and the twist in this one was superb. Thanks Kruger and Kenmac. When can we expect a blog from Elmac?
My thanks to all, especially Kenmac – worth setting the puzzle just to see the animated blog!
I like this type of puzzle and I like Kruger’s puzzles so perfect for me thanks.
My way into the grid was the 8-letter words which formed two groups of three in the NE and SW corners.
I echo the sentiment shown above for the animated grid in the blog.
All the best to all.
Excellent crossword, and the graphic blog really does bring it to life!
Thanks
I used to play Bridge at club level but that nugget of info completely passed me by.
Agree with HG. Best of the year so far. Lots of fun. Cartes blanches always do it for me – remember Paradise? (was that a Kruger too?). Thanks for the blog.
I really enjoyed having a go at this, though I didn’t actually get anywhere near completing it. The combination of not knowing where to put the entries together with the key being in the unclued entries was just too much for me. I also didn’t compete enough of the clues to be able to have a proper stab at it.
I am yet to complete an Inquisitor, but will definitely keep trying!
Jaguar @5 – if you enjoy Listeners and EVs, I suggest you give IQ a prolonged try. Every bit as good – similar in degree of difficulty to EVs though softer (usually) then Listeners.
Well worth the £1.80 Indy price!
You might be right, Chesley… I’ve been rather crossworded out lately though, what with the EVs and the Listeners and Magpie too! Taking on the IQ as well seems too much. I might dip in now and then even so, see if it’s a setter I’m a fan of, that sort of thing.