This blog will be the first one to appear in 2015, so a Happy New Year to all our solvers. We bloggers love to read your comments and appreciate your corrections when we have got it wrong, so please keep writing them below the blog. Our thanks to Nimrod and his team of setters for an outstanding 2014. If this puzzle is anything to go by, we are in for a spectacular series in 2015.
Almost an Araucaria-style double crossword from Ferret, though Ho tells me it is more like an Azed Left and Right puzzle {I – Hi – am not an Azed follower}. A symmetrical grid and a picture/figure to find. A long rubric stating:
Apart from 1 Across which is normal, all clues are non-overlapping pairs to symmetrical entries; either may come first. In the centre of the twelve cells where entries clash, solvers must place a very small spot, and use straight lines to join the, spots to form a continuous symmetrical line depicting the first member of a set. Using A=1, B=2 etc, the numerical difference between clashing letters will help solvers connect the spots and select the correct clash letter to be entered (spelling two further members of the set). Four grid entries are members of the set; one concealed member must be highlighted, and the missing ninth member (two words) should be written beneath the grid.
So we had to find a set of nine objects, two of which were hidden in a set of twelve “clashes” in the grid, one of which was to be drawn by joining the dots generated by the clashes, one was hidden in the grid and four were in plain sight. The missing one is to be written below the grid.
I was lucky in being able to locate which side of the dividing line to enter my solutions as I quite quickly got GLOM & ALAS for 25/26 across and ALA for 20D which located them. Slowly but surely the bottom half of the grid became clear, but the top half remained obscure. I got SHLOCK for 18A quite early on but the T of STELAE at 16D prevented me from entering it immediately. Then when I got AS OF (8D), GERTCHA (9D) and AVERAGE (2D) a search of my online Chambers for ?A???????AG? (I was getting pretty desperate by this time) yielded PATRILINEAGE for 1 Across – one of the best &lit clues I have seen for some time!
It was only much later that I realised that this was a clue to the whole puzzle.
Most of the down clues in the top half yielded, but I was still flummoxed by 11/12 A and 17A. I found the clashes in 18A – SH/tL/cOCK/s (three of them) and following the rubric made tentative symmetrical marks in 17A. Two more symmetrically placed clashes occurred in the top row so I decided that the time had come to start calculating.
Labelling the columns from a to l and the rows from 1 to 12, the clashes I had were:
Top row: Square d1: R-L is 18-12=6; Square i1: L-E is 12-5=7
5th row: Square h5: T-H is 20-8=12; Square i5: L-C is 12-3=9; Square l5: S-K is 19-11 = 8
The sequence d1, i1, l5, i5 form a sequence of four (6, 7, 8, 9) giving a basic shape, and if the figure is symmetrical then e5 must be 1, d5 must be 4 and a5 must be 5
Now 17A was hA?erS (lower case letters = clashes) and I was pretty certain that it contained CA (contracted car) and MA (for Massachusetts). a5 is H+/-5, so M or C, d5 is E+/- 4, so A or I and e5 is R+/-1 so S or Q. Ignoring the Q we have c/mA?a/iSS and a quick lookup gave CAMASS, a plant.
I won’t go into the similar convoluted calculations that led me to RESTEM for 13A and CIDERS for 14A (though the latter seemed blindingly obvious once I had worked it out), but we had a nice symmetrical set of clashing squares. The clashes are shown in the table below.
| Square | e5 | f3 | c3 | d5 | a5 | d1 | i1 | l5 | i5 | j3 | g3 | h5 |
| Across | S | M | S | A | C | R | E | S | L | E | C | H |
| Down | R | O | P | E | H | L | L | K | C | O | N | T |
| Across number | 19 | 13 | 19 | 1 | 3 | 18 | 5 | 19 | 12 | 5 | 3 | 8 |
| Down number | 18 | 15 | 16 | 5 | 8 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 3 | 15 | 14 | 20 |
| Difference | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
These yielded ROSE and CRESCENT as the correct letters to enter in the grid. After my experience with Soprano (1347 by Pointer) I did check the other letters in case they constituted an alternative answer, but I don’t think so.
In the bottom half I had noticed MARTLET and ANNULET and possibly MULLET and MOLINE as heraldry related. My first searches on heraldry yielded much fascinating information but no help. Eventually I entered “annulet mullet martlet rose crescent” into google and got this article on Cadency. It included this picture:
and the following list of “brisures” (added to the arms at the fess point or in chief for the label):
- for the first son, a label of three points (a horizontal strip with three tags hanging down)—this label is removed on the death of the father, and the son inherits the plain coat;
- for the second son, a crescent (the points upward, as is conventional in heraldry);
- for the third son, a mullet (a five-pointed star);
- for the fourth son, a martlet (a kind of bird);
- for the fifth son, an annulet (a ring);
- for the sixth son, a fleur-de-lys;
- for the seventh son, a rose;
- for the eighth son, a cross moline;
- for the ninth son, a double quatrefoil.
Further research on “label” gave this picture 
which was much closer to the shape which could be obtained by joining the dots.
So we had LABEL (join the dots), CRESCENT (letters), MULLET (diagram), ANNULET (diagram), ROSE (letters) and MOLINE (diagram). A quick search in the diagram found FLEUR-DE-LYS on row 9 starting at b9, which was to be highlighted and the only missing one was the 9th item the DOUBLE QUATREFOIL which was to be written below the diagram. {The article quoted used the term “double quatrefoil” for the ninth brisure, but it can also be termed an OCTOFOIL – this is only one word, so the wrong answer according to the rubric.}
And the final touch was that all these 9 items were the heraldic brisures for the sons in PATRILINEAGE. Brilliant Ferret! Double crossword, art, maths, heraldry all in one package. Took a while to sort out, but so satisfying!
In the tables below I have used the port/starboard colours to signify whether the clue is related to the left or right half of the diagram.
Across |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue left right definitions | Left | Right | Wordplay |
| 1 | Prioritization securing succession after father? (12) | PATRILINEAGE | Excellent &lit clue (whole clue is definition): PA (father) + TRIAGE (prioritisation) round LINE (succession) | |
| 11/12 | Spanish city in movie doubles as UN base terminally ravaged by a sickness (6,6) | OVIEDO | NAUSEA | Hidden in mOVIE DOubles : anagram of [AS UN E (base)]* + A |
| 13/14 | 14 Playwright’s to fight against current prop space cutting number of female panto character’s drinks (6,6) | RESTEM | CIDERS | REST (prop) + EM (space) : CINDERS (Cinderella – female panto character) minus N(umber) |
| 17/18 | Outrage surrounds fifty poor quality items for sale in Boston, Massachusetts assembled by contracted car plant (6,6) | CAMASS | SHLOCK | CA(r) + MASS(achusetts) : SHOCK (outrage) round L (fifty) |
| 19/22 | Huge resistance from me to call Her Majesty a sport after accepting new additional title (6,6) | AGNAME | MEGOHM | A GAME (sport) round N(ew) : ME + GO (call) + H(er) M(ajesty) |
| 25/26 | In New Orleans look at sullenness taking one over, no good starting festivities sadly (4,4) | GLOM | ALAS | GLOOM (sullenness) removing one O(ver) ; GALAS with no G at the start |
| 27/29 | Lost alpine language caught out Charles translating word for large rope (6,6) | NEPALI | HALSER | [ALPINE]* ; [(c)HARLES]* |
| 35/37 | Woman is given elbow after taking off with frisky lad all around S American plains (6,6) | LLANOS | ISOBEL | SON (lad) + ALL all reversed : IS + [ELBO(w)]* (remove w(ith) and anagram) |
| 39/40 | American agent’s tail seen in strange NY diner; cross spy eats at home (6,6) | EATERY | MOLINE | A(merican + (agen)T in EERY (strange) : MOLE (spy) round IN (at home) |
| 41/42 | Ponder character of film star, tense with old wife and baby regularly involving shared responsibility (6,6) | TWO-WAY | MULLET | T(ense) + W(ith) + O(ld) + W(ife) + bAbY (regularly) : MULL (ponder) + ET (character of film) |
Down |
||||
| No. | Clue left right definitions | Left | Right | Wordplay |
| 1/10 | Whip up a bit of heating — entrance hall stays less cold, becomes less severe (5,5) | PORCH | EASES | CROP (whip) reversed + H(eating) : CEASES (stays) minus C(old) |
| 2/9 | Nothing special to state how old one is – tea lady’s not rude going first. Come off it! (7,7) | AVERAGE | GERTCHA | AVER (state) + AGE (how old one is) : GERT(rude) (lady) + CHA (tea) |
| 3/8 | Indicates end section from settee’s back to front (4,4; one of two words) | TIPS | AS OF | TIP (end) + S(ection) : SOFA with A (back) to front |
| 4/7 | Detectives sent up in clear, playful article under heading of ‘Leith Police’s Final Oblivion’ (5,5) | LETHE | LUDIC | THE (article) under L(eith – heading) + (Polic)E (final) : LUCID (clear) with CID (detectives) reversed |
| 5/6 | Hammond maybe styled insane about leaving beauty spots in Scotland with no parking (5,5) | LOOKS | INNES | PLOOKS (spots in Scotland) minus P(arking) : {Hammond Innes (author)} [INS(a)NE]* – A(bout) leaving |
| 15/16 | Least contaminated ecstasy tablets once more left coated by our tainted gold-leaf (6,6) | ORMOLU | STELAE | [OUR]* round MO(re) L(eft) : [LEAST]* + E(cstasy) |
| 19/24 | Badly maltreat a culled bird – untangle cuckoo removing end of leg to get small ring (7,7) | ANNULET | MARTLET | [UNTAN(g)LE]* : [MALTRE(a)T]* |
| 20/23 | Local girl’s arrest overturned amid legal aid process (3,3) | ALA | GAL | A(mid) + L(egal) A(id) : LAG (arrest – Chambers meaning 3) reversed |
| 21/22 | Islamic rulers lift border controls finally after eastern Morocco hid violent Muslim leader (5,5) | EMIRS | MAHDI | E(astern) + RIM (border) reversed + (control)S : MA (Morocco) + [HID]* |
| 28/30 | Greek philosopher climbing mountain to oracle runs up middle of hill (5,5) | PLATO | SYBIL | ALP reversed + TO : BYS (runs) reversed + hILl |
| 31/34 | Crack thief seen switching coin (4,4) | FLAW | SENE | Double definition (a thief is a flaw in a candle) : [SEEN]* (sene is Samoan coin) |
| 32/33 | Gentle trainer’s to drive head of economics to unaccustomed lie about money mostly (4,4) | ENEW | LOLL | {A gentle is a falcon and enew is a falconry term to drive} E(conomics) + NEW (unaccustomed) : LOLL(y) mostly |
| 36/38 | Endlessly attempt to make openings in case union yields a little bit (3,3) | ORA | SOU | (f)ORA(y) (endlessly attempt) : SO (in case) + U(nion) |
Wonderful crossword, encyclopaedic blog. Very well done to all involved.
And Happy New Year to everyone.
Wonderful indeed, though very frustrating to crack the clever theme, find all the “sons”, know we were looking for rose & crescent but just couldn’t get RESTEM, CINDERS & SCHLOCK – all blindingly obvious now! My sister (partially sighted) & I have worked together transatlantically for many years, easier/cheaper now with FaceTime! And still have at least one champagne to enjoy on my next visit! Happy New Year and Many Thanks to all for countless hours of challenging entertainment.
VOTING FOR PUZZLE OF THE YEARMCLOSES AT MIDNIGHT TONIGHT!
Please vote, on the “Review of 2014” thread or by email, before then.
John H
Thanks Hihoba for such a comprehensive and disarmingly honest blog. It’s always reassuring when bloggers admit to using aids such as the search facility in the online Chambers. I would complete very few Inquisitors without it and I’m sure my desperation threshold is a lot lower than yours. I too, along with many others I suspect, checked the clashes to see if there were any other alternatives after the chastening experience with “Sopranos”.
I failed at the last as I entered “Octofoil” having failed (again) to read the rubric properly and being misled by the caption appearing with the diagram in the online article.
Thanks to Ferret for providing such a challenging and enjoyable puzzle to end 2014.
We had a completed grid with clashes resolved and figure drawn for quite some time – is it a helmet ? Top half of Darth Vader ? – before we thought to look up difference in Chambers and found the heradic meaning of difference as a mark of cadency, which I don’t think anybody has specifically mentioned yet, but that was our way to the solution. Still had to Google for a list though. Lovely puzzle so thanks to setter and blogger.
Thanks. I didn’t complete this, not getting RESTEM, CAMASS or LOOKS. I knew it was heraldry but lost the will to look up everything. I didn’t spot the Fleur-de-Lys, since very early in the puzzle I’d spotted the middle 4 letters, symmetrically placed, giving URDE, which is also heraldic, and so didn’t look any further. Setters 1, NinF 0.
Thanks to Ferret and Hihoba for kicking off the puzzling year in fine style. Like the best puzzles, there was an awful lot of logic needed but also an element of intuition to work out the ordering of the letter differences.
Like BF@5 I stuggled to see what the heck the figure was supposed to represent – I really did think it was Star Wars-related and that patrilineage was some sort of reference to the Jedi sons’ succession, or someting like that. But having failed to find Skywalker or other ludicrously-named Jedis in the grid I, like HiHoba stuck martlet etc. into google and got there in the end. Don’t martlets appear on the Sussex CCC sweater? I recall John Arlott once lecturing on them during a lull in play.
I found this a bit frustrating – I solved all the clues, resolved the clashes and found the shape correctly. But the shape meant nothing to me and googling rose crescent simply throws up a list of addresses!
We were held up for a while having guesed PATRIARCHATE for 1ac.
We saw fleur de lys very early on but had to google the word with some other heraldic terms we noticed in order to get the theme. It was looking for the ‘label’ that enabled us to sort out the problem with 1ac and complete the puzzle.
We can’t quite put our finger on why this didn’t catch our imagination as much as other IQs. The construction was impressive and the clueing was good.
Thanks Ferret for the puzzle and Hihoba for the comprehensive blog.
What a brilliant puzzle to finish off the year – I do like a good Ferret.
With a nearly completed grid (not yet having solved CAMASS, RESTEM & CIDERS), I looked for the “concealed member” and found FLEUR-DE-LYS. Quickly adding the four others from grid entries, I too used Google to find the rest. ROSE & CRESCENT had to come from resolving the clashes, so I wrote the two-word version of the ninth below the grid and had a stab at depicting the first. I took far to long to dismiss the tenacious REPUGN at 13a, but a bit of calm logic got me there in the end.
Must be in with a chance of making my top 3 in 2015. And thanks, Hi, for the blog.
PS I failed to spot the “difference” – so thanks to BF @5 for pointing that out.
My Thanks to BF for explaining the additional meaning of the word “difference” in the title. I hadn’t “spotted” that either.
A cracking puzzle which I loved solving, but one which, thanks to reading this blog, I don’t think I did solve correctly, due to a really stupid mistake….. Not for the first time, and unquestionably not the last!
I made surprisingly steady progress with the top half, initially focusing on the down clues running from the top row to try and make sense of 1A, which seemed like a key to the way in from the off.
As to the lower half, there seemed to be a large percentage of words beginning with M and for this reason alone (luck?) I focused on these with a few Google searches, bringing up some of the same articles reference by others.
I had seen ‘Fleur’ hidden, but it wasn’t until later on it clicked that the full fleur-de-lys was showing in the Grid.
My silly mistake was entering hawser instead of halser, and this, I fear was what I put on my entry, so no chance whatsoever of a bottle of fizz for me this week. Why I didn’t click that 23D was glaringly wrong as a consequence, I will never know.
I hadn’t picked up on the subtle hint for ‘difference’ so can I add my thanks to BF for highlighting that. Very cute.
A really superb blog, thank you Hihoba, and I love the animation. A great start to the year from Ferret which is already an early contender for my top selections of 2015, despite my not completing correctly. A really fabulous construction.
Very nearly finished this, but was put off trying to draw the figure because I had only confidently identified a couple of clashes, and the method of calculation didn’t make sense when I read it through. The blog is very helpful, and the puzzle is ingenious!
Onward and upward in 2015 😉
Very many thanks HiHoba for a superbly detailed blog and to all the commentators above. I was out of the country last week so missed the publication of the solution and this blog.
I was a little concerned when I submitted this about the fairness of all those clashes appearing together but the editor and his team managed to solve the puzzle so apart from improving the preamble and easing a few clues it remained as submitted.
Well done to BF on spotting the ‘difference’ in Chambers. The title for this puzzle came first after coming across the theme, and the device of spots and numerical differences to produce a label followed from that. I would have loved to have got all nine differences into the grid but that was beyond me so I hope you excused the under-the-grid finish.
Octofoil doesn’t appear in any of my dictionaries so I chose the double quatrefoil option which appeared on all heraldry websites I visited. I used this excellent site http://www.internationalheraldry.com/ which alerted me to the possible shape of the label for the 1st son.
I didn’t set out to produce a left and right puzzle, I just couldn’t get a grid fill any other way but it did mean that the answer to the only normal clue at 1ac could be patrilineage to pull the puzzle together.
Happy Inquisitorial New Year to everyone.
Ferret