Inquisitor 1966: Roadtrip by Elpenor

Elpenor sets this week’s IQ – is this a new setter or a joint effort by some of our regulars?

The Preamble:

Solvers must produce an itinerary by highlighting in the completed grid the initials of the six most populous cities of a European country. The initials, laid out in their true geographical relations, are not used elsewhere in the grid. Solvers must draw 6 arrows to form a cyclical tour of the initials in an order specified by corrections to misprints in 23 definitions, although the initials have also been omitted. Finally solvers must title the itinerary by overwriting cells with the name of the country, leaving only real words in the grid.

As usual, the preamble had us suitably mystified, so we set out to solve some clues in the hope of making some sense of it, being on the lookout for misprints in some of the definitions.

Our first ones in were 2d, 1ac, 5d and 15d – with no misprints. 1ac gave us a good start with the first down clues and 4d was our first solved clue with a misprinted definition. We soldiered on through the grid, continually being amazed at how many new (to us) and archaic words were included in the clues and solutions. Barred puzzles invariably have a number of unusual words, but there seemed to be a lot more than usual in this one!

Eventually we filled the grid and started to look for letters that only occurred once – the initial letters of the cities.

We came up with G, K, L and P – but all the other letters in the grid appeared more than once. What could the 5th and 6th letters be? So we then started to look at the misprinted letters – in clue order:

R A O O D Z D A N S A R S A O Z N A N R O C A.

With two Zs in the city names, we thought the country is likely to be somewhere in central Europe. The DANS in the middle stood out – as the middle letters of GDANSK. Some ‘investigoogling’ confirmed that the country is POLAND and the six largest cities are WARSAW, KRAKOW, WROCLAW, LODZ, POZNAN and GDANSK. So Elpenor is being very crafty by including two Ws in the grid – a bit cheeky, but we can’t complain as the preamble does not say that all six letters have to be different!

The next task is to work out the itinerary from the misprinted letters plus the initial letters of the cities:

KRAKOW – LODZ – GDANSK – WARSAW – POZNAN – WROCLAW

Lastly we searched for somewhere to insert POLAND and after much too much time looking elsewhere, we realised that it is in the most logical position as a title for a map – centrally in the bottom row.

In the parsings below, the definition is underlined, with corrected misprints in green – the incorrect letters are [~~struck through~~]

ACROSS
No.	Entry	Misprint
1	STARING		Wide open acting in series (7)
			A (acting) in STRING (series)
7	RAJ		Rule redirected turnkey to leave French island (3)
			A reversal (‘redirected’) of JA~~ile~~R (turnkey) missing ‘ile’ (French for island)
12	BERRY		Hopped with energy as roast’s beginning – it’s succulent (5)
			BEeRY (‘hopped’ – flavoured with hops) with ‘e’ (energy) replaced by R (first letter or ‘beginning’ of roast)
13	FERMI	R	Naked loner succeeds following physicist from [h]Rome (5)
			hERMIt (loner) missing the first and last letters (‘naked’) after (‘succeeding’) F (following) – a reference to Enrico Fermi the Italian-American physicist who was born in Rome.
14	HOAX	A	Stop kiss (for Fr[e]aud?)(4)
			HOA (stop) X (kiss)
15	ABYE		One extra antique to redeem (4)
			A (one) BYE (extra – in cricket) – an old (‘antique’) word for ‘to pay as a penalty’ or ‘to atone’
16	ACCEND	O	Lively dance clubs f[a]ormer set alight (6)
			An anagram (‘lively’) of DANCE C (clubs) – another old (‘former’) word for ‘to kindle’
18	EME		Old uncle seems tipsy? No strangeness there (3)
			An anagram (‘tipsy’) of sEEMs missing the two ‘s’s (strangeness) – yet another old word (but one we have come across before in crosswords)
19	UNTO	O	Formal TO[V] shows in discount odea (4)
			Hidden (‘shows’) in discoUNT Odea – a formal word for ‘to’
20	MEUSED		Fuddled taking ecstasy, scarpered through hedge (6)
			MUSED (fuddled) round (‘taking’) E (ecstasy) – we were amazed to find that there is a word for ‘to use a way of escape through a hedge’!
22	EDEN	D	First Lady’s abod[v]e even very becoming dress initially (4)
			EvEN with the ‘v’ (very) changed to D (first or ‘initial’ letter of dress) – a reference to the Garden of Eden
23	TEPID	Z	Unruly youth penning letter’s hardly [r]zestful? (5)
			TED (unruly youth) round (‘penning’) PI (letter)
25	NIX	D	Kid[n]‘s warning Number 9 (3)
			N (number) IX (9 in Roman numerals) – a word to warn of the approach of a person in authority, apparently mostly used by children
26	TWIST	A	Second fool embraces d[u]ance (5)
			S (second) in (’embraced by’) TWIT (fool)
29	ZOETIC		Intellectual’s new to origin of Zen – such is life (6)
			nOETIC (intellectual’s) with the ‘n’ (new) replaced by Z (first letter or ‘origin’ of Zen) – 2 new words for us!
30	ABASES		Sailors will admit rough sea is humbling (6)
			ABS (sailors) round (‘admitting’) an anagram (‘rough’) of SEA
31	EENSY	N	Mi[m]ni spotted cycling close to bay (5)
			SEEN (spotted) with the first letter moved to the back – ‘cycling’) + Y (last letter or ‘close’ to bay)
33	ALB		A little weight that priest puts on (3)
			A LB (abbreviation for pound – ‘little weight’)
34	OJIME		Securing bead carried about in demijohn (5)
			Hidden (‘carried’) and reversed (‘about’) in dEMIJOhn – another new word for us – a carved bead used to secure Japanese inros
36	SAWS	S	It was heartless, Maxims[e] (4)
			SA (sex appeal – ‘it’) WaS missing the middle letter (‘heartless’)
37	IDEAED		Given purpose, I act to secure ante (6)
			I DEED (act) round (‘securing’) A (ante)
40	TROT	A	G[r]ait teeth at opening joke (4)
			T (first or ‘opening’ letter of teeth) ROT (joke)
42	ARD	R	Wife out of care was scratcher[d] (3)
			wARD (care) missing ‘w’ (wife) – another old (‘was’) word for a primitive type of plough used to ‘scratch’ the soil.
44	SCANTS		Restricts its reading, for one (6)
			iTS with SCAN (reading) replacing ‘i’ (one) – another new word for us!
46	MAIK	S	Con[t]sort old Scottish coin (4)
			Double definition: obsolete Scottish word for ‘consort’ or ‘mag’ (halfpenny – ‘coin’)
47	FUZE	A	Fl[u]ame conductor involved in Corfu zealotry (4)
			Hidden (‘involved’) in CorFU ZEalotry
48	COARB		Former sept leader with Broca’s disorder (5)
			An anagram (‘disorder’) of BROCA – 2 more new words for us – We initially assumed that there was a misprint in ‘sept’ (sect?) as we have never heard of a ‘sept leader’ – but Chambers tells us that a coarb is ‘the head of a family in an Irish sept’ and ‘Broca’s area’ is part of the brain concerned with speech, named after Paul Broca, a French physician.
49	STARR		Special time arranged for rush to Ayr (5)
			S (special) T (time) ARR (arranged) – another Scottish word for a coarse sea-grass or ‘rush’
50	NUN		Contemplative knight initially underfed and narky (3)
			N (knight) U N (first or ‘initial’ letters of underfed and narky) – ‘contemplative’ can apparently be a noun
51	SAVANTE		Santa confused with English version of Liskov say (7)
			An anagram (‘confused’) of SANTA, E (English) and V (version) – a reference to Barbara Liskov, a Turing Award winner
DOWN
No.	Entry	Misprint
1	SCHANTZE		Player’s defence succeeded over centre-half advance to capture zone (8)
			S (succeeded) CH (centre-half) ANTE (advance – payment) round (‘capturing’) Z (zone) – We can only assume that that, as this is a South African word for a heap of stones used as protection against rifle fire (‘defence’), the ‘Player’ in the definition is Gary Player, the retired S African golfer.
2	TROCHE		Tablet census ignored in rendering of touchscreens (6)
			An anagram (‘rendering’) of TOuCHscReEns missing (‘ignoring’) the letters in ‘census’
3	ABACI		Computers cut again in capital (5)
			BACk (again) missing the last letter (‘cut’) in AI (first class – ‘capital’)
4	REX	O	M[u]oggy on east coast of Sussex (3)
			RE (on) X (last letter or ‘east coast’ of Sussex) – a breed of cat
5	IRON		Inflexible old taxmen in operation (4)
			IR (Inland Revenue – ‘old taxmen’) ON (‘in operation’)
6	GYBE		Happen to follow denuded Magyar in swing (4)
			BE (happen) following MaGYar missing the outer letters (‘denuded’) – a sailing term for when the sail swings from one side to the other
7	RHYME	Z	Lazy for Maz[r]y? She’s gutted to work with her (5)
			An anagram (‘to work’) of MazY missing the middle letters (‘gutted’) and HER
8	JEHU		Reckless driver? Leclerc’s game inspires hearts (4)
			JEU (French, as spoken by F1 driver Charles Leclerc, for ‘game’) round (‘inspiring’) H hearts) – apparently Jehu was a biblical king renowned for his furious chariot driving
9	BRINDISI		Toast, fitting, is in response (8)
			RIND (‘fitting’ – apparently supporting an upper millstone) IS in BI (one of 5 ‘responses’ in traditional Chinese medicine) – definition and wordplay are all new words for us!
10	EMOTES		Passions perhaps rising a little over unfinished supper (6)
			A reversal (‘rising’) of SOME (‘a little’) round TEa (supper) missing the last letter (‘unfinished’)
11	VISON	N	Mi[l]nk isn’t off after drop of vodka (5)
			IS ON (‘isn’t off’) after V (first letter or ‘drop’ of vodka) – the American mink
13	FEED	A	Run away in relieved p[o]asture (4)
			FrEED (‘relieved’) missing ‘r’ (run)
15	ADUNC		Dread uncertain houses, crooked (5)
			Hidden (‘housed by’) in dreAD UNCertain – another new word for us!
17	EMITS	N	Relaxes: no recipe, se[e]nds out (5)
			rEMITS (relaxes) missing (‘no’) ‘r’ (recipe)
21	SIDLE		Demand loan shark’s first instalment, that’s put on edge (5)
			We really struggled with the parsing here, until a search in Chambers revealed that D/L is an abbreviation for ‘demand loan’ – a phrase we have never come across before. So we think it must be: DL (demand loan) with IE (that is) outside (‘put on’) and S (first letter of shark) ‘installed’ the front? We’re still not happy with it, but it’s the best we can come up with. Any other thoughts out there?
24	PENWOMAN		Author’s training husband to get own back? (8)
			PE (‘training’) MAN (husband) round (‘getting’) a reversal (‘back’) of OWN
27	WAJDA		Director’s notice one chews over (5)
			A reversal (‘over’) of AD (notice) JAW (‘one chews’) – Polish film director Andrzej Wajda
28	TSESSEBE		Roaming, see beasts – but one antelope (8)
			An anagram (‘roaming’) of SEE BEaSTS missing (‘but’) ‘a’ (one) – another new word!
30	ABASK		Down in Nice, king enjoying sunshine (5)
			ABAS (‘down’ in French, as in Nice) K (king)
32	EARBOB		This hanger-on’s strangely absorbed with DS (6)
			An anagram (‘strangely’) of ABsORBEd excluding ‘ds’
35	MATZOT	R	Cross with Matthew about cr[l]ackers (6)
			ZO (cross) with MATT (Matthew) outside – a new word for Bert (not for Joyce!)
36	STICH		This clue’s beginning to compose some verse (5)
			An anagram (‘compose’) of THIS and C (first letter or ‘beginning’ of clue) – another new word for us
37	IAMB		One’s black foot (4)
			I AM (one is – ‘one’s’) B (black)
38	DRAIN		Deserted god in sewer (5)
			D (deserted) RA (God) IN
39	INURN	O	Maybe transfer to [E]Olla near e.g. Cambridge Backs (5)
			A reversal (‘backs’) of NR (near) UNI (e.g. Cambridge) – an olla is a jar or urn
41	TARN		Tantalum salts in lake(4)
			TA (tantalum) RN (Royal Navy – ‘salts’)
43	DISS	C	Is tucking into cod and chips finally subject to [B]criticism? (4)
			IS ‘tucking’ in D S (last or ‘final’ letters of cod and chips)
45	CHAV	A	Cleaners at the outset own shorter br[u]ash type (4)
			C (first letter or ‘outset’ of cleaners) HAVe (own) missing the last letter (‘shorter’)
47	FRA		Brother and father absent (3)
			FR (father) A (absent)

9 comments on “Inquisitor 1966: Roadtrip by Elpenor”

KVa

#1 - Tue 7th Jul 26, 10:07

SIDLE
Could it be…
Shark’s first installment=S
IE
SIE put on DL?
Bingy

#2 - Tue 7th Jul 26, 10:18

That’s = IE

Put on edge = surrounding DL

EDGE is doing double duty

Don’t like it myself but don’t shoot the messenger…!
David Langford

#3 - Tue 7th Jul 26, 11:05

My thanks to Elpenor and Bertandjoyce. I filled the grid, identified the cities and drew the arrows of the tour but failed at the last hurdle because I was looking for a title for that specific “itinerary” rather than for the map as a whole. Was vaguely expecting something like the Polish version of the Tour de France, but that — though “cyclic” — doesn’t seem to use those particular six cities.
HolyGhost

#4 - Tue 7th Jul 26, 11:56

I struggled with 21d SIDLE – still not settled – and also 9d BRINDISI (& gave up on that), so thanks B&J.

As to this being Elpenor’s first or not, check out IQ setters. Thanks to him/her/them for the workout.
yogdaws

#5 - Tue 7th Jul 26, 12:13

I found the endgame for this underwhelming – having got the country and the cities, I was expecting there to be at least some significance to, or a reason for, the subsequent itinerary, but it seems entirely arbitrary.

As often seems to be the case, I also had a few clues I couldn’t solve and/or parse – for example, I would never have parsed BRINDISI, though I knew it had to be that.

Thanks to Elpenor for the puzzle and to B&J for the blog.
Kirsanov

#6 - Tue 7th Jul 26, 13:37

SIDLE

DL in S IE
DL wearing, i.e. put on S IE
KVa

#7 - Tue 7th Jul 26, 13:42

Agree. That’s what I meant to say@1…well…more or less.

DL-SIE put on
SIE (is) put on DL
Comment #8
⚠️ This comment was deleted or is awaiting moderation.
Neil Hunter

#9 - Tue 7th Jul 26, 14:23

I agree with yogdaws@5 that the itinerary didn’t seem to add much (unless we’re all missing something) but I still enjoyed this one a lot, maybe because I failed to follow Bertandjoyce’s sensible route of examining the corrected letters (I was missing a couple, including a ‘z’, and the rubric baffled me), and instead concentrated on the four unique letters and where they were positioned. A fair bit of geographical thinking before Poland laid its claim. Was it a cyclical tour because they ended up where they started, or because they went by bike?

Thanks to Elpenor for a puzzle that felt a bit different and to Bertandjoyce for helping on the many clues I couldn’t parse.

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9 comments on “Inquisitor 1966: Roadtrip by Elpenor”

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