The rubric stated: Corrections to single-letter misprints in the definitions of eleven clues give a phrase which explains how some answers are to be modified before entry, in the manner perhaps exhibited by the puzzle’s title. Word lengths refer to grid entries.
Solving 1 across immediately is always the harbinger of difficulty to come! However a lot of reasonably straightforward clues were mixed in with those with the misprints and those to be “modified”.
I found the phrase INNS OF COURT by Saturday afternoon, and a couple of answers to be modified, 5D CRYSTAL PALACE and 17A QUADROON. However the entry for QUADROON appeared to be COMFORTROON, with QUAD replaced by COMFORT and initially I had no idea of any possible connection. The entry for CRYSTAL PALACE eventually became clear as CRYSTAL RAMADA. Now the only meaning of RAMADA that I know of is the hotel chain of that name. Hotel = Inn, and so an INN (Ramada) replaces a COURT (Palace). Similarly COMFORT (another hotel chain) replaces QUAD (another court).
So the trick was to replace various meanings of COURT with INNS – possibly hotel chain names.
Somewhat later 10D SWOON contained another meaning of court – WOO to be replaced by HOLIDAY. The remaining entries were done in reverse – i.e. the hotel chains were in the grid (though there was one I had never heard of – DAYS), but the clue solutions were very far from clear! 14D was the last to yield. None of us (Hi, Ho and Ba) is a serious photographer, but after some lengthy searching for meanings of court and promontory, I found that court = SHOE and promontory = HOE. A google for “photographer shoe” yielded HOT SHOE on the second page!
Easy to start, but difficult to finish, and for me the PDM was rather underwhelming (Ba was rather more scathing!). So thanks to Kruger for keeping me at it until Thursday, but spending four days to solve four clues was rather frustrating. Had it not been for this blog I might have given up!
And finally, thanks to Ho for explaining the title “Vintage Suite” to me (Hi). VINTAGE is another hotel chain that I’ve never heard of, and SUITE is another meaning for COURT (the body of persons who form the sovereign’s suite or council).
The completed grid is below, then the clue solutions divided into their three types.
Misprint Clues |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue (definition) | Answer | Wordplay | X |
| 16A | No longer box and p(u)inch (4) | MILL | Double definition – meanings 1 and 3 in Chambers | I |
| 20A | Divi(d)ner uses this number splitting large amount of cash (4) | WAND | WAD (of money) round N(umber) | N |
| 24A | Decrepit pla(c)ne in suburbs of Carlisle infested with vermin (5) | CRATE | RAT (vermin) in C |
N |
| 28A | (P)Saint tree at entrance to orangery (4) | ELMO | ELM (tree) + O(rangery) | S |
| 35A | Ner(d)o perhaps never, in America, suffers setback in races (6) | TYRANT | NARY (never (US)) reversed in TT (races) | O |
| 2D | Try to (m)find religious adherent on the phone (4) | SEEK | Sounds like SIKH | F |
| 4D | (F)Coil branch left holding withdrawn currency (6) | BECURL | BR(anch) L(eft) round ECU (ex European Currency Unit) | C |
| 9D | Stress frequently overwhelms old statesman from Chile – it often affects h(i)ocks (10) | SALLENDERS | Salvador ALLENDE – Chilean statesman in StReSs (stress frequently) | O |
| 15D | One heartless Turkish adult about to try to make p(o)uppy socially acceptable (10) | HOUSE-TRAIN | [ONE TUR(k)ISH A]* | U |
| 25D | Without contemplation, afternoon dress initially dive(s)rted (6) | AMUSED | A(fternoon) D(ress) round MUSE (contemplation) | R |
| 29D | Having a long cu(e)t, second of players invested in rest (4) | SLIT | SIT (rest) round pLayers | T |
Substitution Clues – Inn for Court |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue (definition) | Answer | Grid Entry | Wordplay: Substitution |
| 11A | Stable American husband loses ring (8) | BARN | PREMIERN | BARON (husband) minus O (ring): PREMIER for BAR |
| 17A | Leading pair of qualifiers collapsed on road – one of mixed race (11) | QUADROON | COMFORTROON | QU(alifiers) + [ON ROAD]*: COMFORT for QUAD |
| 36A | In the Midwest he canvasses Iowa’s first citizen taken in by single republican (6) | SOLICITOR | DAYSOR | I(owa) + CIT(izen) in SOLO (one) + R(epublican): DAYS for SOLICIT |
| 5D | Painful sound alpaca lets out in venue for public show (13, 2 words) | CRYSTAL PALACE | CRYSTAL RAMADA | CRY (painful sound) + [ALPACALETS]*: RAMADA for PALACE |
| 10D | Faint wrongdoer’s head placed in loop that’s made smaller and raised (9) | SWOON | SHOLIDAYN | W(rongdoer) in NOOS(e) reversed: HOLIDAY for WOO |
| 14D | Photographer may make use of this model shot beside promontory (10, 2 words) | HOT SHOE | HOT QUALITY | Model shot = [SHOT]* + HOE (promontory): QUALITY for SHOE |
Normal Across Clues |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue (definition) | Answer | Wordplay |
| 1 | Take in absent black brothers returning (6) | ABSORB | A(bsent) + B(lack) + BROS reversed |
| 6 | This clue is making one angry (6) | ACROSS | A (one) + CROSS (angry) |
| 12 | Muslim lord’s old and mobile. That’s great! (5) | OMRAH | O(ld) + M(obile) + RAH! (exclamation) |
| 13 | Beginning to suspect general intelligence keeps woman on bike — balance is achieved by it (10, 2 words) | SHENG CYCLE | S(uspect) + HEN (woman) CYCLE (bike) round G(eneral intelligence) |
| 19 | Neglected any extremely unusual magnolia (5) | YULAN | [ANY U(nusua)L]* – neglected = anagram |
| 21 | Following United is hard? Bosh! (6) | SQUISH | SQ (following) + U(nited) + IS + H(ard) |
| 22 | African capital is acceptable in country to the west of Arabia (6) | LUANDA | U (acceptable) in LAND + A (west of A(rabia)) |
| 23 | Hamper friar (4) | TUCK | Double definition |
| 32 | Scottish town’s guard nearly stopping festivities (10) | GALASHIELS | SHIEL(D) (guard nearly) in GALAS (festivities) |
| 33 | Youngsters develop in these cute, rich clothes (5) | UTERI | Hidden in cUTE RIch |
| 34 | Form a high opinion of the extravagant i.e. ladies! (8) | IDEALISE | [I.E. LADIES]* |
Normal Down Clues |
|||
| 1 | Recess in assizes paradoxically overturned (4) | APSE | Hidden backwards in assizES PAradoxically |
| 3 | Rarely make comprehensive old measurement if in New York (6) | OMNIFY | O(ld) + M(etre – measurement) + IF in NY |
| 6 | In the past Scots backed each Canadian National being admitted (4) | ANCE | EA(ch) round C(anadian) N(ational) all reversed |
| 7 | He converses with senior officer beside rising pass on top of unscaled rocky peak (10) | COLLOCUTOR | COL (senior officer) + COL reversed + U(nscaled) + TOR (rocky peak) |
| 8 | Ministerial trainee of the usual kind – giving away last two new and old pennies (8) | ORDINAND | ORDINARY (of the usual kind) minus RY + N(ew) + D (old pennies) |
| 17 | Means of preventing movement of least eccentric king once outside (9, 2 words) | CASTLE NUT | [LEAST]* in CNUT (king once) |
| 18 | Copper intervenes to obstructively occupy plant (8) | CUCUMBER | CU (copper) in CUMBER (obstructively occupy) |
| 26 | In an irritable mood, dig ley up (6) | EDGILY | [DIG LEY]* |
| 30 | Garlands from county shortly losing a bit of colour (4) | LEIS | LEICS is short for Leicestershire, losing C(olour) |
| 31 | Established legal right sure to change (4) | USER | [SURE]* |
“Solving 1 across immediately is always the harbinger of difficulty to come!”
How true. How very true.
Thank you Hihoba – and special thanks to Ho for explaining the title of the puzzle.
A bit of a grind and I came even closer than last week to giving up (am I alone in feeling that we’ve had a run of particularly tricky puzzles recently?). Normally though when you work your way through to the end you somehow forget the pain but this time I too was left feeling a bit dissatisfied. I couldn’t quite put my finger on why, but I think it’s because of the use of hotel chains as a device. I don’t really want the promotion of large, soulless, multinational corporations in my crosswords. Give me a bunch of B&Bs in Rutland to research and I’ll be happy.
Then again, it might just have been that it took me far too long to find INNS OF COURT, mainly because I had an extraneous A from 21A, which I thought needed to be bash, not bosh.
Well, I got most of the normal clues and I was missing the I and the R from the misprint clues but totally failed to work out the phrase. Nor could I work out what was going on with the modified answers. Several steps too far for me. I’m impressed by people who can work these things out but I can’t do it. At least I wasn’t staring at a nearly empty grid this week.
Far from one of Kruger’s better offerings. Rather arbitrary where HOLIDAY, PREMIER & QUALITY were used – interchangeable apart from facilitating the grid-fill. And so quite possible to confidently complete the grid without solving all the ‘special’ clues leading to altered entries.
And “the manner perhaps exhibited by the puzzle’s title” doesn’t really work – it doesn’t have a COURT replaced by one of the INNS, just one following the other.
Sympathy and thanks to the blogger: I appreciate the sentiment “Had it not been for this blog I might have given up!”
I found this puzzle challenging – yet quite entertaining. Some of the clues were difficult, but yielded to logic.
Quite a lot going on with misprint clues and substitution clues, and the cryptic nature of the help given by the three word phrase.
Once one had cracked the theme, it was relatively easy to fill in some of the blanks. But a satisfying PDM for me.
I enjoyed this one, too. I was surprised how long it took, after cracking Inns of Court, to work out what to do with it.
Admittedly, I didn’t (have to) finish it: it seems to be a feature of these puzzles where bits of answers are replaced by other words, that it can be near impossible to deduce the original answer.
I got INNS OF COURT and solved most of the clues but completely failed to work out what should be substituted where.
Well done Hihoba!
PS – what does PDM stand for?
PeeDee @ 7, PDM is the Penny Drop Moment when the puzzle element suddenly becomes clear!
I’ve just noticed that I had PILL rather than MILL at 16A, with pill meaning to pillage or steal, hence pinch, and some connection with pill box for the box part. Although MILL looks to fit better it certainly isn’t obvious and both meanings were quite obscure, so I thought the clue was a bit ambiguous and no way of working it out if you didn’t know at least one of the meanings of mill without searching through _ILL words. I’d looked at pill first going on the pill box theme and found the other meaning there so didn’t look further.
I did go through the _ILL method, OPatrick, and found MILL with the necessary matching meanings. I think the give-away is that mill is an old slang word for to box in Chambers. I don’t think that PILL has the “no longer” reference.