Tailors by Kirsanov
Fourteen clues contain a consecutive pair of extra letters, which must be removed before solving, always leaving real words. In clue order, these letters spell the name of an author and a work. Corrections to single letter misprints in the definition part of 18 other clues spell the name of an organisation the author founded. Solvers must highlight the name of the man who gave his name to the members of the foundation (18 cells in total).
Blimey, this was a tough one to get started on. There are three types of clues so it’s tricky working out what kind of clue you’re dealing with.
I started this on Saturday and by Tuesday I had only a handful of answers and some of them were guesses. I contacted a couple of fellow bloggers who, themselves, hadn’t yet started. Then came a twist of fate. My daughter, elmac, had a fall and either severely bruised or (hairline) fractured her patella. This meant a couple of weeks (at least) off work, which left her with loads of free time. After she’d watched Rear Window, there was only one course of action, which was to try to help the old man with his crossword.
Thankfully with two pairs of eyes, progress was much quicker and we had most of it polished off by Wednesday evening.
I’m all for new devices being used in these puzzles and I’m all for obscure definitions both in the wordplay and in the solution but I do feel it’s a little unfair when we have them all mixed together in the one puzzle. Sometimes it reaches the stage where the solving process ceases to be fun and I feel that this happened here.
Anyway, enough moaning – on to the puzzle itself. The fourteen pairs of extra letters led to JOHN REEVE A DIVINE LOOKING GLASS and the eighteen misprints led to THE THIRD COMMISSION.
It seems that John Reeve (1608–1658) was an English plebeian prophet who believed the voice of God had instructed him to found a Third Commission in preparation for the last days of earth. It appears, though, that the earth outlived him.
In 1656, he published a book called A Divine Looking Glass, and five years later, another guy by the name of Lodowicke Muggleton, published a second edition of the book and coined the name “Muggletons” to describe anybody inclined to follow the religion – the last of whom died in 1979. And our job is to locate him in the grid. And there he is lurking diagonally upwards from a9 to i1 and e13 to m5.
As for the title, it appears that messrs Reeve (and his father) and Muggleton were all tailors.
I think that this is Kirsanov’s first Inquisitor and I look forward to future puzzles – as long as they’re not quite so tricky. Thanks.
| Across | |||
| Clue |
Entry |
Extras |
Wordplay |
| 1 Provides food for foreign tourists on vacation, taking money (8) | ALIMENTS | ALIEN (foreign) around Money+T[ourist]S (on vacation) | |
| 7 Injection of fluid’s rarely pleasant when recalled (5) | ENEMA | AMENE (pleasant; rare) rev: when recalled | |
| 11 Tribuntes in endless war on the sayings of Christ (7) | EULOGIA | T |
[f]EU[d] (war; endless)+LOGIA (teachings of Christ) |
| 12 Child beheaded after joking about North African chief (4) | KAID | JO |
King+About+[k]ID (child; beheaded) |
| 13 Quiet performer missing the essence of Aphra Behn (5) | STAND | HN |
ST (quiet)+[h]AND (performer; minus centre of apHra) |
| 15 VHIP from capital visiting Manx parliament (4) | HUCK | H |
HK (House of Keys: Manx parliament) around UC (upper case: capital) |
| 16 Parcel returned with note to timeless Old Emperor of Japan (6) | MIKADO | MI (note)+DAK (parcel; rev: returned)+[t]O (timeless) | |
| 17 Used power to scold hooligan stealing base (8) | PRE-OWNED | Power+ROW (scold) around E (base)+NED (hooligan) | |
| 18 Threwe last of members out of the Rump (4) | TERN | E |
[s]TERN (rump; minus [member]S) |
| 19 André not appearing in group backing singers (6) | TENORS | RE |
SET (group; rev: returning) around NOR (and not) |
| 22 Prints left in Nevada with Dawn (5) | OLEOS | EV |
O (nada)+Left+EOS (dawn) |
| 24 Satint Mark buried in Spring (5) | SKIMP | T |
SKIP (spring) around Mark |
| 26 Squash zhit when bitten by maggot (5) | BOAST | H |
BOT (maggot) around AS (when) |
| 28 Ancient relative eating trimmed constituent of ipecac plant (6) | EMETIN | EA |
EME (uncle: relative; obsolete)+TIN[g] (trimmed) |
| 29 Director cut away from fanciful bird in motion (4) | LIVE | DI |
LIVE[r] (fanciful bird) minus Rector |
| 31 Muills over bits of timber frames (8) | PURLOINS | I |
PURLINS (bits of timber) around Over |
| 33 Boxring Day’s rough (6) | DRAGGY | R |
Day+RAGGY (rough) |
| 36 Old sixpence not showing the Queen in rdepose (4) | TEST | D |
TEST[er] (old sixpence) minus ER (queen) |
| 37 PCity the Scots cry over meeting Argentina (5) | BASRA | C |
SAB (cry; Scottish; rev: over)+RA (Argentina) |
| 38 America’s allowing a title of respect for you, formally (4) | THOU | I think this is a double def. THOU is short for “thousandth of an inch” |
|
| 39 Floyers promoting the King of Stallions (7) | ENTRIES | O |
ENTIRES (stallions) with R (king) moved to the left |
| 40 CMould no longer functioning Prime Minster briefly survive splits? (5) | PLASM | M |
PM (prime minister) around LAS[t] (survive; briefly) |
| 41 TMake invalid to lodge, privately (8, 2 words) | SET ASIDE | M |
I think it’s SET (lodge)+ASIDE (privately) but I’m not entirely convinced |
| Down | |||
| 1 Visit a rising storyteller (5) | AESOP | VI |
POSE (sit)+A rev: rising |
| 2 Yellow pigment not in clay (4) | LUTE | LUTE[in] (yellow pigment) minus IN | |
| 3 Family crest found on early waind (7) | MONSOON | I |
MON (family crest)+SOON (early) |
| 4 Dancer sent up by Jack Black cut by society (8) | NIJINSKY | IN (sent; rev: up)+Jack+INKY (black) around Society | |
| 5 Burton, having lost the capital from Liz’s diamonds, changed behaviour (6) | TACKED | TACK[l]E (burton; minus L[iz] (capital))+Diamonds | |
| 6 Tailless squirrel in the countryside followed by a seabird (4) | SKUA | SKU[g] (squirrel; tailless)+A | |
| 7 Pendant ring worn by Scots interne (reformed Presbyterian) (7) | EARDROP | NE |
EARD (inter; Scottish)+RP (reformed Pryspyterian) around O (ring) |
| 8 Extract from The Devil’s Daughter further down (5) | EDUCE | DEUCE (the Devil) with Daughter dropped down | |
| 9 Penguin biscuit, Oscar dropped one (8) | MACARONI | MACARO[o]N (biscuit; minus Oscar)+I (one) | |
| 10 Rock musician’s finale, hugging scanty drag queen, upset UNS statesman (8) | ARKANSAN | S |
I’m sure I justified this one at the time of solving but I can’t now |
| 14 After acting on information load up programme (6) | AGENDA | LO |
Acting+GEN (information)+DA (rev: up) |
| 19 Bill Lambert took in electroplated piece of portable equipment (8, 2 words) | TABLE TOP | OK |
TAB (bill)+Lambert+EP (electroplated) around TO |
| 20 “English, speaker of Gaelic” encapsulates a perfect image of oneself (8, 2 words) | EGO IDEAL | English+GOIDEL (speaker of Gaelic) around A | |
| 21 Engineers turning up with contract to cover North Ridsing (8) | EMERGENT | S |
REME (engineers; rev: turning up))+GET (contract) around North |
| 23 Succeeded after receiving unlimited, old-fashioned griants (6) | ETTINS | I |
[g]ETTIN[g] (unlimited)+Succeeded |
| 24 Famine becomes less intense when Es are taken up (7) | STARDOM | IN |
MOD[e]RAT[e]S (minus Es; rev: up) |
| 25 Pets having to work at climbing trees (7) | DEODARS | DEARS (pets) around DO (work at; rev: climbing) | |
| 27 Mark’s foolish begging letter (6) | MUGGEE | GG |
MUG (foolish being)+GEE (letter) |
| 30 Match set off Virginia plains (5) | VESTA | LA |
SET (anag: off) inside VA (Virginia) (not really sure how plains features |
| 32 Perhaps enough said by poet about a ceollar of his (5) | SEASE | O |
SESE (enough said; by Mr Shakespeare) around A |
| 34 Fish cookery’s ending in a mess (4) | AYUS | SS |
A+[cooker]Y (ending)+US (me) |
| 35 Trailned end of movie by British director (4) | BRED | N |
BRitish+[movi]E (end of)+Director |
This was a meaty puzzle that took a long time to complete but, fortunately, never became a slog. More of my time went into ‘unravelling’ each clue in order to determine which of three types it was than into solving the (undisguised) cryptic clue. But I still appreciated the high quality of the clueing throughout, and it was a rewarding puzzle to finish.
My entry into the theme was with the pairs JO HN RE EV. Aided by the Wiki article on John Reeve (a tailor), I soon found his connections with the other partly-formed thematic items: the work, the organisation and the man behind the name of the Muggletonians. (There is, incidentally, no entry for John Reeve in either Chambers’ Biographical Dictionary or Encyclopædia Britannica.)
After finding all the thematic items I still had at least a quarter of the clues left to solve, so it just remained for me to solve them and complete the grid (mainly in the bottom left).
This is my first puzzle by Kirsanov, and I’m looking forward to the next (as long as it is no trickier than this one!).
Thanks to Kirsanov and kenmac.
Ken
I had a bit of difficulty with 21d, which could have been EMERGING or EMERGENT until the T was fixed. Obviously ‘contract’ = GET, somehow, but that’s what I didn’t get.
I think you must be right with 41a. To set aside can mean to make invalid. If anyone sees it another way I’d be interested.
Alan B @2
I took it as “in the recent pandemic did you GET Covid?”
Might one express the hope that any future crosswords by this and any other setter not include clues like 12….Child beheaded.. I’m sure there are plenty of other ways to clue the relevant letters.
kenmac @3
Agreed. That clearly works.
I agree entirely with Norman. If as a setter you find yourself thinking ‘Child beheaded…’ is Ok for a clue then I respectfully suggest you have lost perspective and need to have a serious rethink.
ARKANSAN
my take
Rock=AA, musician’s finale=N. scanty drag=scanty SNAKe=SNAK, queen=R, SNAKR upset=RKANS.
A-AN hugging RKANS
Collins online:
Aa: a volcanic rock consisting of angular blocks of lava with a very rough surface
Snake (verb): to drag or pull, esp. lengthwise and with force
ARKANSAN (my last one in): I agree with KVa @ 7 – all relevant parts are in Chambers, so no need for Collins if you have that.
38a THOU: THO’ = American version of THOUGH = allowing; U = a (Burnese) title of respect
Really enjoyed the challenge of this, and didn’t find it as hard as some others did. Thanks to K & K, setter & blogger.
THOU
How does ‘thousand’ fit in as one of the definitions?
Alternatively…
America’s ‘allowing’ could be tho (though).
Unable to equate ‘a title of respect’ to U.
I am missing something.
SET ASIDE
kenmac’s parsing seems perfect.
Holyghost@8
I don’t have Chambers with me. I think I should at least have the mobile app.
Sorry. I was typing for quite some time and didn’t check before posting if there
was any new post.
me @8: Burmese
Holyghost@8
After your saying that U is’Burmese title of respect’ I recall U Thant (a former UN Secretary-General).
Didn’t occur to me earlier.
Too much for me again, mainly due to a sheer lack of available free time. So another DNF recorded here, but I really enjoyed trying to crack the three types of clue, some of which I thought were excellent. A very engaging puzzle.
Yes, it was a struggle, but ultimately fun to work my way through John Reeve and his book and The Third Commission — none of which I’d heard of — to Muggleton, who did at last ring a bell. Spent a certain amount of time mired in the affairs of the UN’s Third Committee, which at one stage seemed to be where the oracle of the misprints was tending. Utter failure to parse ARKANSAN, so many thanks to KVa @7 above. Thanks also to Kirsanov and kenmac.
Thank you kenmac for the comprehensive blog and fellow solvers for elucidating the remaining parsing.
41a SET ASIDE has a definition of “To quash (a judgement)” in my Chambers App so the definition of “Make invalid” seems fine to me.
Overall a second tour de force Inquisitor in as many weeks, but one I enjoyed more, not least because I found the Theme fascinating. In particular the excellently named Lodowicke Muggleton, who provided a few helpful letters to finish the bottom right corner.
Thanks to all