This seems to be only the second Inquisitor set by Vagans – and we had the pleasure of blogging the first last December. Vagans more regularly appears in the Enigmatic Variations puzzles as well as in The Listener – so we are in for a serious challenge.
The Preamble: The name and locations of a production, which will soon be bearing fruit, are given in the clockwise (unclued) perimeter; the contents of unchecked cells could give FRUIT WHEREVER LETTERS. Three lesser-known fruity contributors to a nominally associated production, whose names carry other meanings, are clued by wordplay only. Five other clues include an extra letter that needs removing before solving. Anagrammed, these form the name of another major contributor who should be highlighted in the grid.
As usual, we made a start on solving some clues in the hope that the instructions in the preamble would begin to make sense, whilst remembering that there were three clues with no definition and five clues with extra letters.
We started out well with 8ac and 10ac, but then had some difficulty with the crossing down clues. 14ac and 17ac were next in, and this helped with 3, 4 and 5d, which turned out to be there of the five clues with extra letters. 12ac followed, then 7d and 6d (although we struggled with the parsing of this), giving us the five extra letters E, L, G, R and A – LARGE? LAGER? GLARE?, REGAL?
As we gradually filled in the grid, we came across ORION at 2d, REGENT at 15d and RONDO at 26d (highlighted in the completed grid below) – all clued by wordplay only which according to the preamble are lesser-known fruity contributors to a nominally associated production. With some electronic assistance we established that they are disease resistant hybrid grape varieties commonly grown in cooler climates such as in the UK.
We also spotted the possibility of a FESTIVAL appearing in the bottom left corner of the perimeter – could it be a wine festival?
Eventually we established that the bottom part of the perimeter could read THREE CHOIRS FESTIVAL. With more electronic assistance, we discovered that this music Festival rotates between WORCESTER, GLOUCESTER and HEREFORD cathedrals – filling in the rest of the perimeter. This year the Festival starts on the day of publication of the IQ (25th July) in Gloucester. Apparently the Festival dates from 1715. Edward ELGAR (the extra letters) was born in Worcestershire and his works dominated the Festival for much of the 20th century.
We finally established that the lesser-known fruity contributors to a nominally associated production are grapes that might be grown in The THREE CHOIRS Vineyards in Gloucestershire – a very neat connection.
Thanks to Vagans for the enlightenment – we found this slightly easier than your previous IQ (1939), but no less enjoyable.
In the parsings below, the three entries with no definition are in GREEN, and the extra letters in the five clues leading to ELGAR are in [brackets] in the clues and in (brackets) alongside the answer
A homophone (‘when eavesdropping’) of EAGER (excited by desire)
HI (‘good day’) in (‘boarding’) an anagram (‘exotic’) of TRAIN
LIE (false statement) round AI (excellent) S (first letter or ‘leader’ of Spain)
An anagram (‘in a tizz’) of EmaILED missing ‘ma’ (mother)
An anagram (‘sadly’) of AdViSOR missing (‘ignoring’) ‘i’ and ‘d’ (I’d)
TiRADE (string of invectives) missing (‘avoided by’) ‘i’ (one)
aRIA (song) aLTO (singer) both missing their first letters (‘needing no introduction’)
CIE (Coras Iompair Éireann – ‘Transport Organisation of Ireland’) LING (fish)
EU (Evangelical Union) CH (church) RED (word used mainly in Scotland for ‘put in order’)
ON (against) HIGH (standing out)
MEAT (game) H (hard)
pOOJAH (Hindu festival) missing the first letter
An anagram (‘distraught’) of LOVebIRd missing (‘deserted by’) ‘d, e and b’ (deb)
TRY (strain) round (‘taking’) A N (new) N (name)
AIA (maid) round (‘skirting’) BOUL (short for boulevard – ‘tree-lined road’)
Hidden (‘in part’) in supportED DIEsel
GAL (girl) AcTs In (alternate or ‘occasional’ letters) A N (number)
Wordplay only: O (first letter or ‘vanguard’ of Ottoman) N (navy) round (‘blockading’) RIO (South American port)
CHI (‘life-force’ in Chinese medicine) TIN (can)
S (first letter or ‘head’ of studio) HEARS (listens to)
END (finish) EAR (listener)
bRAILLE (‘feeling script’) missing (‘cutting’) the first letter (‘head’) + RugbY missing the middle letters (’empty’)
Hidden (‘held by’) in AcHILLes
WIG (judge) after EAR (hearing) – an archaic word (‘retired’)
Wordplay only: GENT (man) after (‘overcome by’ in a down clue) RE (Religious Education)
‘Entwined’ anagrams (‘dilapidated’) of IVY and THOSE – a new word for us – Jewish schools for the study of the Talmud
Hidden (‘part of’) maTHEMATICs
lOCH missing the ‘l’ (first letter of laird) ONE (a)
LIMO (posh car) US (useless) – another archaic word (‘was’)
HAT (Cardinal’s office) in (‘held by’) WIFe (‘woman’) missing the last letter (‘short’)
UN (‘a’ in French) H (hot) AIR (look)
Wordplay only: R (right) ON DO (party)
Hidden (‘seen’) in PunjaBI BIstro
When the bottom half of the grid was almost complete (with nothing in the top half!) I saw the possibility of FESTIVAL in the perimeter on the bottom left, and that somehow prompted me (somewhat fortuitously) to make THREE CHOIRS from five of its letters in the bottom right. I had the added bonus of having just the O of WORCESTER on the left and the D of HEREFORD on the right. All of that made solving the rest of the puzzle easier than it would have been, although of the eight special clues I still had one of the ‘nominally associated’ items to find, plus all of the extra letters, finally making ELGAR.
The clues were mostly quite straightforward, and fun to solve, and the theme was interesting and topical.
Thanks to Vagans, and to Bertandjoyce for the blog.
All successfully solved, except that I assumed that a “jigamaree” (a new word for me) would be a “doo-dah”, and that there was therefore an Indian festival that could be spelled OODAH. In my defence the clue is ambiguous as to what word is to be decapitated, and OOJAH hasn’t made it into Chambers, as far as I can see, (though it emerges instantly on-line if one knows to look for it). That apart, everything went in pretty quickly once I’d arranged Worcester and Gloucester the right way round, and it’s a pleasingly topical puzzle. Thanks to Vagans and bertandjoyce.
Unlike others, I failed at the last hurdle and am now kicking myself. The clues yielded and eventually I spotted the perimeter phrase and the three fruity contributors. But despite searching wine festivals and similar, I missed the Three Choirs Vineyard as the connection between them. As Bertandjoyce say, very neat.
Never mind, I enjoyed learning about the Three Choirs Festival and it’s long history so thanks to Vagans for a fun workout and to Bertandjoyce for putting me out my misery!