This week’s Inquisitor is set by Phi, the most prolific setter of Inquisitor puzzles. Phi also sets daily puzzles for the Independent and the Guardian (as Pangakupu).
The preamble for this puzzle was one of the longest we have seen for a while. We were told that ” In the initially completed grid, nine cells will be blank and nine will contain a clash. Each clash can be resolved into real words in both directions by only one of the letters. The other letter can reschedule its appearance to one of the blank cells, where it will form a new word, and must be highlighted. The rescheduled letters, read left to right and down the grid, spell a title. In each clue to a word with neither a clash nor a missing letter (plus one other), the wordplay leads to the answer with an extra letter not entered in the grid; these letters in clue order spell out a description of the (much-rescheduled) title. Enumerations for each clue refer to the space available. The answer at 1dn may be confirmed online.”
It took me a while to get a foothold in the grid. I was not clear where the blank cells were going to be positioned and I had no idea where clashes would occur. Often Phi uses symmetry for the positions of thematic cells, and I hoped that might be helpful, but unfortunately symmetry was not in play in this puzzle.
It also took me a while to realise that the majority of blank cells were going to be in unchecked cells. In fact, there was only one case of a blank cell being shared between crossing entries. (RUN_ / _SCOT).
For me, therefore, the grid built up slowly, but eventually I could see that the extra letters in wordplay were going to involve SONDHEIM (reference Stephen SONDHEIM [1930 – 2012], the American composer and lyricist) with remaining letters possibly spelling LAST. At this point, the world wide web gave me the penny-drop moment, when I discovered that SONDHEIM’S LAST musical went through a number of title changes and rewrites before it was finally performed in New York in September 2023, under the name HERE WE ARE, two years after the composer’s death.
The phrase SONDHEIM’S LAST was spelled out by the extra letters from the clues to all the entries without a blank cell or a clash, plus the clue for INOCULATE (33 across). The use of the extra letters in the wordplay is shown in the detailed table further below.
After solving all the clues, the grid looked like this:
Analysis of the clashes and deduction of the real words formed by the resolution of the clashes, plus the ‘rescheduling’ of the unused clashing letters into the blank cells in the two tables shown immediately below.
| Clashing | Clashes | Across | Down | Used | Across | Down | Unused |
| 1a/1d | CH | CLARET | HOTH | C | CLARET | COTH | H |
| 5a/8d | SE | ELFISH | ENOW | S | ELFISH | SNOW | E |
| 13a/6d | MR | AEROMOTOR | LARE | M | AEROMOTOR | LAME | R |
| 17a/15d | EA | HERO | BAY-ANTLER | A | HARO | BAY-ANTLER | E |
| 19a/4d | AE | ASSAYS | THRIVE | E | ESSAYS | THRIVE | A |
| 22a/2d | EI | LEVERS | ATTACKING | I | LIVERS | ATTACKING | E |
| 33a/24d | AR | INOCULATE | STERNS | A | INOCULATE | STEANS | R |
| 35a/32d | TW | ID EST | NEWS | T | ID EST | NETS | W |
| 36a/29d | AE | EASTER | ANTE | A | EASTER | ANTA | E |
| Clue | Original | Rescheduled Letter | Final Entry |
| 10a | OAT_S | H | OATHS |
| 12a | AR_NA | E | ARENA |
| 14a | HOA_ | R | HOAR |
| 18a | MAK_ | E | MAKE |
| 25a | _ALE | W | WALE |
| 26a/27d | RUN_ / _SCOT | E | RUNE / ESCOT |
| 31a | _TEN | A | ATEN |
| 34a | ST_OP | R | STROP |
| 37a | SERR_S | E | SERRES |
This isn’t a unique allocation of the unused clashing letters, as ATEN could be ETEN and SERRES could be SERRAS. However, the constraint of fitting the title of the musical, HERE WE ARE, reading across and down the grid means the redistribution shown above is the only viable one for the purposes of this crossword.
The final grid looked like this:
There were a couple of clues where I have struggled with the wordplay. These are 31 across for TEN and 27 down for SCOT. I expect other solvers will indicate what I have failed to see.
The title Rescheduled Appearance is fairly self-explanatory now the puzzle is completed, given the development of the musical, the changes of title, the changes to the initial ideas for the musical and the delays leading up to first performance of HERE WE ARE.
I found this to be quite a challenge, but I got a lot of satisfaction from finishing it.
| No |
Detail Extra letters in wordplay shown in fuchsia |
Letter |
| Across | ||
| 1 | Blood line limited by indication of omission (6)
CLARET (old slang term for blood) L (line) contained in (limited by) CARET (in proofreading, etc, a mark or indication to show where to insert something omitted) C (L) ARET First letter C clashes with the first letter H of 1 down HOTH |
|
| 5 | Like a sprite, flies off to height (6)
ELFISH (like an elf; like a sprite) Anagram of (off) FLIES + H (height) ELFIS* H Fifth letter S clashes with the first letter E of 8 down ENOW |
|
| 10 | Cereal: mouth swallowing half of that (5)
OATS (a cereal crop) OS (a mouth or mouthlike opening) containing (swallowing) AT (second two of four [half] letters in thAT) O (AT) S Entered as OAT_S |
|
| 12 | Lot of anecdotes about river buffalo (5)
ARNA (the Indian water buffalo) ANA ([a lot of] anecdotes) containing (about) R (river) A (R) NA Entered as AR_NA |
|
| 13 | Plane technology increasingly backed and developed too in Arkansas (9)
AEROMOTOR (an engine for aircraft; plane technology) (MORE [increasingly] reversed [backed] + an anagram of [developed] TOO) contained in (in) AR (Arkansas) A (EROM< OTO*) R Fifth letter M clashes with the third letter R of 6 down LARE |
|
| 14 | Stop Rector quitting Romanian dance (4)
HOA (a call to stop) HOrA (Romanian or Israeli dance performed in a circle) excluding (quitting) R (rector) HOA Entered as HOA_ |
|
| 16 | Records four engaging in Arabic board game (8)
ARCHIVES (records) IV (Roman numeral for four) contained in (engaging in) (AR [Arabic] + CHESS [board game]) AR CH (IV) ES |
S |
| 17 | Abelard, perhaps, and the heart of Heloise? (4)
HERO (Peter Abelard [1079 – 1142] was a HERO , lover and husband to Heloise [100 – 1164], a French nun) HER O is a cryptic clue to ‘the heart of helOise, as O is the central letter [heart of] of her name) HER O Second letter E clashes with the second letter A of 15 down BAY-ANTLER |
|
| 18 | Macedonia importing a craft from Scotland (4)
MAK (Scottish word for make [craft]) MK (International Vehicle Registration for Macedonia) containing (importing) A M (A) K Entered as MAK_ |
|
| 19 | Tests for one absorbed by epitome of folly? (6)
ASSAYS (tests) SAY (for example; for one) contained in (absorbed by) ASS (a fool; an epitome of folly) AS (SAY) S First letter A clashes with the last letter E of 4 down THRIVE |
|
| 22 | Accepted deserting those departing bars (6)
LEVERS (bars) LEaVERS (those departing) excluding (deserting) A (accepted) LEVERS Second letter E clashes with the seventh letter I of 2 down ATTACKING |
|
| 25 | Alcoholic drink not unknown in US University (4)
ALE (an alcoholic drink) yALE (leading University in the United States [US]) excluding (not) Y (a letter frequently used to denote an unknown value in mathematical equations) ALE Entered as _ALE |
|
| 26 | Short step or sequence of steps (4)
RUN (sequence of steps) RUNg (a step on a ladder) excluding the final letter (short) G RUN Entered as RUN_ |
|
| 28 | Kept legal document about extinct Indians (8)
DETAINED (kept) DEED (a legal document) containing (about) TAINO (members of an extinct Indian tribe of the West Indies) DE (TAIN) ED |
O |
| 31 | Number or opposite number? Not entirely (4)
TEN (a number) I’m not sure of the wordplay here. I can see that TENT is a hidden word in inoT ENTirely, and if you omit the final letter T to get TEN you have TENt not entirely, but I have little faith in that parsing. I am sure someone will tell me in the comments how the wordplay works TEN Entered as _TEN |
|
| 33 | Add bacteria to ocean until refined (9)
INOCULATE (to introduce (eg bacteria, a virus) into an organism) Anagram of (refined) OCEAN UNTIL INOCULATE* Seventh letter A clashes with fourth letter R of 24 down STERNS This is the extra clue with an additional letter in the wordplay |
N |
| 34 | Hold four letters back? (5)
STOP (hold) P TO S [P, Q, R and S – 4 letters) reversed (back) STOP< Entered as ST_OP |
|
| 35 | That is the source of trouble after a day mid- month? (5, 2 words)
ID EST (latin for ‘that is’) IDES (in ancient Rome, the 15th day of March, May, July, October, and the 13th of the other months; a day mid-month) + T (first letter of [source of] Trouble) ID ES T Fifth letter T clashes with third letter W of 32 down NEWS |
|
| 36 | Regular services now in trouble as terminus reduced on both sides (6)
EASTER (there are regular church services at this time) EASTER (hidden word in [reduced on each side; {letters removed from each side}] troublE AS TERminus) EASTER Second letter A clashes with last letter E of 29 down ANTE |
|
| 37 | Crowds slip on board ship (6)
SERRS (presses together; closes the ranks of; crowds) ERR (mistake; slip) contained in (on board) SS (steamship) S (ERR) S Entered as SERR_S |
|
| Down | ||
| 1 | Star Wars planet that’s icy? Just the opposite before Han’s first appearance (4)
HOTH (an ice planet in the Star Wars fictional universe) HOT (the opposite of icy) + H (initial letter of [first appearance] Han) HOT H This entry can be confirmed online. First letter H clashes with first letter C of 1 across CLARET |
|
| 2 | Being critical of half of boat changing direction at sea (9)
ATTACKING (being critical of) AT (second two of four [half] letters in boAT]) + TACKING (changing direction at sea) AT TACKING Seventh letter I clashes with second letter E of 22 across LEVERS |
|
| 3 | “It’s not used for treating eyes now”, I sneered rudely (7)
ESERINE (a compound derived from the Calabar bean, formerly [not used now] used as a drug in treating glaucoma) Anagram of (rudely) I SNEERED ESERINE* |
D |
| 4 | Marvel hero skipping nothing: “I have to succeed” (6)
THRIVE (succeed) THoR (name of a Marvel Comics hero) excluding (skipping) O (character representing zero or nothing) + I’VE (I have) THR IVE Last letter E clashes with first letter A of 19 across ASSAYS |
|
| 5 | Wears down lead character – ends in losing independence (6)
ERODES (wears down) HERO (lead character) + DiES (ends) excluding (losing) I (independence) ERO DES |
H |
| 6 | Traditional Scots knowledge generally reduced and taken the wrong way (4)
LARE (Scottish form of lore [traditional knowledge]) ERAL (letters remaining in genERALly when the remaining letters are excluded [reduced]) reversed (taken the wrong way) LARE< Third letter R clashes with fifth letter M of 13 across AEROMOTOR |
|
| 7 | Animated for the trivial stuff (5)
FROTH (trivial stuff) Anagram of (animated) FOR + THE FRO* TH |
E |
| 8 | Secured energy, picking up sufficient? Not any more (4)
ENOW (archaic [not any more] word for enough or sufficient) (WON [secured] + E [energy]) reversed (picking up; down entry) (E NOW)< First letter E clashes with fifth letter S of 5 across ELFISH |
|
| 9 | Not interested after shock accommodated on San Andreas Fault (8)
HARBORED (American spelling [the San Andreas Fault is located in America] of harboured [sheltered; accommodated]) HAiR (reference a shock of HAIR) + BORED (not interested) HAR BORED |
I |
| 11 | Unprincipled legal delay in charity? Not quite (6)
AMORAL (unprincipled) MORA [legal term for an unjustifiable delay) contained in (in) ALMs (charity) excluding the final letter (not quite) S A (MORA) L |
M |
| 15 | Second point about soldier is barely reviewed (9)
BAY-ANTLER (the second tine of a deer’s horn; second point) Anagram of (reviewed) BARELY containing (about) ANT (reference a soldier ANT) BAY-(ANT) LER* Second letter A clashes with second letter E of 17 across HERO |
|
| 16 | Write off home stairs, with husband falling badly (8)
AMORTISE (write off a wasting asset) Anagram of (badly) hOME STAIRS excluding (falling) H (husband) AMORTISE* |
S |
| 20 | Clever type to look happy about skill (7)
SMARTIE (a would be clever person) SMILE (look happy) containing (about) ART (skill) SM (ART) IE |
L |
| 21 | Goes off cheap records from the past? (6)
SLEEPS (nods off; goes off) SALE (items sold at a reduced price; cheap) + EPS (extended play records; records from the past) SLE EPS |
A |
| 23 | Someone further on in the market dispensing a line for fisherman? (6)
REELER (one who reels in a fish [?]; fisherman) – I can’t find a dictionary definition of fisherman as a reeler RESELlER (someone further along the marketing and selling process) excluding (dispensing) one of the Ls (line) REELER |
S |
| 24 | Groups upset about navy ships’ areas (6)
STERNS (areas at the rear of ships) SETS (groups) reversed (upset; down entry) and containing (about) RN (Royal Navy) STE (RN) S< Fourth letter R clashes with seventh letter A of 33 across INOCULATE |
|
| 27 | Expenditure after rise in special tax as before (5)
SCOT (a payment; expenditure) I don’t understand how the wordplay works here. Dictionaries refer to SCOT as a historical term [as before] for the payment of a customary tax, but customary refers to something usual, not something special. Also, I don’t see where ‘rising’ comes into play. SCOT Entered as _SCOT |
|
| 29 | Worried about new payment up front (4)
ANTE (an advance payment; payment up front) ATE (worried) containing (about) N (new) A (N) TE Last letter E clashes with second letter A of 36 across EASTER |
|
| 30 | Fool two performers about piano (4)
DUPE (fool) DUET (two performers) containing (about) P (piano) DU (P) E |
T |
| 32 | Upset country editor abandoned content of paper? (4)
NEWS (contents of a NEWSpaper) SWedEN (country) excluding (abandoned) ED (editor) then reversed (upset) NEWS< Third letter W clashes with last letter T of 35 across ID EST |
Thanks Phi, and to Duncan for the blog. I too found this a challenge, but satisfying to crack in the end.
27d I worked out as COST (“expenditure”) with a lifted S (“rise in special”). And from memory as I don’t have Chambers to hand, a SCOT can be a tax.
I couldn’t explain 31a either so would be interested in learning that.
for 27D I had,
expenditure = cost
special = s
the s rises to give scot
I parsed 27D as Kippax did, and a SCOT is indeed a tax. I couldn’t see 34A either, but now wonder whether the “opposite number” is NO TEN, which is included in NOT ENTIRELY. I didn’t parse STOP, so thanks to Duncan for that, but I did manage to solve the crossword, for which thanks to Phi.
31a: is it just that TEN is hidden in [not entirely] “opposiTE Number”?
Hector @4 – Yes, it surely is that simple. Thanks!
Not really crossword related, but as a Sondheim fan and a barred crossword enthusiast, I would say Here We Are was a sad ending, better left in the cupboard!
I thought it was called Here We Go to be honest…it was so forgettable.
He only wrote half a show before his death, there was virtually no music after the interval. The recent production at the National Theatre was well acted and designed, but they shouldn’t have bothered. Thankfully we have incredible recent revisionist revivals of things like Company and Follies to keep his memory alive for the new generation.
Comment #7
Yes, tough, but I got there in the end. I also saw the National production of this (which makes it odd it took me so long to spot ‘Sondheim’), and even if it’s minor, I’m glad to have seen it. It may help to know the Bunuel films on which it’s based. Now will this become a Sondheim thread? Thanks to Phi for a stiff challenge, and Duncan for elucidating ‘assays’ and ‘bay-antler’.
An enjoyable but challenging grid-fill, which I almost completed. I guessed TEN for 31 but could not parse it – obvious when you see it, thanks Hector. I spent far too long on 15, without success. However, I got the theme and was able to do what was required. I am not a fan of musicals, but this was easy to find on-line.
Thanks to Phi and Duncan.