Radler sets this week’s IQ challenge.
The Preamble:
One Across clue and five Down clues lead to an answer that is shorter than the space available (which is given by the enumeration). Definitions in the other Across clues (in equal numbers) omit a letter, contain an extra letter, or have a misprint for which a single letter correction must be determined. In order, these letters spell what to highlight after moving the Queen. One entry in the final grid is a 2-letter abbreviation.
With the across clues all needing some form of alteration before entry, we started on the downs. We sorted out 4, 7, 8 and 11d fairly quickly, helping us to solve 8 and 18ac and then, with a few more random downs solved, we gradually managed to fill the grid. The blank cells were obviously a bit of a hindrance – initially we had only solved 20d as a 3-letter word with 4 spaces available, but it gradually became apparent that the empty cells are all in 29ac – helping us to complete the grid. As usual with IQs there are quite a few words which are new to us, but with online searches and Chambers we managed to complete the grid and figure out the message created by the extra, missing and misprinted letters in the across clues:
We are asked to highlight the THIRD PART OF UNITED KINGDOM, ‘after moving the Queen’.
In the completed grid, it became obvious that the Queen in question is MARIA, part of 28ac.
It is fairly obvious that we have to move Queen Maria into the vacant spaces in 29ac, but where is the ‘third part of the United Kingdom?’
The UK has never had a Queen Maria, so we ‘investigoogled’ Queen Maria of other countries that might have been formed by uniting three smaller countries. Yugoslavia was our first thought, but was proved wrong. Romania came up as a possibility, but didn’t fit the criteria. We eventually came across Queen Maria of Portugal, who was Queen of Portugal from 1777 – 1816, and (surprisingly – to us) Queen of Brazil from 1815 – 1816 when she died. She was apparently known as Maria the Pious in Portugal and Maria the Mad in Brazil. When Brazil was elevated to a kingdom in 1815 she became Queen of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the ALGARVES – the 3rd part we are looking for – going diagonally upwards through the last A of the relocated MARIA .
In the parsings below, the letters forming the message are listed in BOLD, with (m) indicating a misprint, (-) an letter omitted and (+) an extra letter.
Radler indicates that there are equal numbers of each type, but we seem to have 8(-)s, 9(+)s and 7(m)s. Have we mistaken an (m) for a (+)? We can’t find it, but maybe there are some thoughts out there?
| ACROSS | |||
| No. | Entry | Letter | |
| 1 | CURRANTS | T(-) |
Scoundrel sounds off [t]ribes (8)
|
| CUR (scoundrel) RANTS (sounds off) | |||
| 8 | TOSS | H(m) |
S
|
| TO (for) S S (saints) | |||
| 12 | ENID | I(+) |
Geraint married her mission, one’s intervened (4)
|
| END (mission) with I (one) ‘intervening’ | |||
| 13 | CALPA | R(-) |
Hindu’s cyclical [r]age about record year (5)
|
| CA (circa – ‘about’) LP (record) A (annus – ‘year’) | |||
| 14 | DEAL | D(+) |
Board to distribute cards (4)
|
| Double definition | |||
| 16 | VRIL | P(+) |
Transplanted liver, drug withdrawn, life power (4)
|
| An anagram (‘transplanted’) of LIV |
|||
| 17 | BETAS | A(-) |
Put in the role of B[A]s from Athens (5)
|
| BET (put in) AS (in the role of) | |||
| 18 | DREAMT | R(+) |
Eccentric mate on drive pictured drowsing (6)
|
| An anagram (‘eccentric’) of MATE after DR (drive) | |||
| 19 | RAGTIME | T(+) |
Guy, Frenchman, opens match music from Scotts? (7)
|
| RAG (guy) + M (monsieur – ‘Frenchman’) in (‘opening’) TIE (match) – a reference to Ronnie Scott’s jazz club | |||
| 21 | ATROPA | O(m) |
Retired seaport announcer shows class
|
| Hidden (‘shows’) and reversed (‘retired’) in seAPORT Announcer | |||
| 22 | MRS | F(m) |
Handle for wi
|
| A homophone (‘in delivery’) of MISSES (falls short) | |||
| 23 | GRUNTS | U(+) |
Grand little things, mouths, like pigs (6)
|
| G (grand) RUNTS (‘little things’) | |||
| 26 | SORREL | N(-) |
Ton[n]e of brown leaves (6)
|
| Double definition | |||
| 28 | SAMARIA | I(-) |
Whence helpful ma[i]n melody follows Casablanca pianist? (7)
|
| ARIA (melody) following SAM (pianist in the film ‘Casablanca’) – A Samaritan being the ‘helpful man’ | |||
| 29 | CHI |
Unlimited smart energy (8)
|
|
| CHI |
|||
| 31 | G-DAY | T(-) |
Ground’s limits always hi[t] in Australia (4)
|
| G D (first and last letters or ‘limits’ of ground) AY (always) | |||
| 34 | CLEWS | E(+) |
Twine balls once caught by bats slower, or not (5)
|
| C (caught) + an anagram (‘bats’) of SL |
|||
| 36 | ALANINE | D(m) |
Non-essential for our food
|
| ALA (in the character of) NINE (square – 3×3) | |||
| 37 | LEHMAN | K(m) |
Non-uniform hum interrupts skinny brothers’ failed bank
|
| HM (‘hum’ missing ‘u’ – uniform in the phonetic alphabet) ‘interrupting’ LEAN (skinny) | |||
| 39 | LILAC | I(+) |
I call to detonate TiNT (5)
|
| An anagram (‘to detonate’) of I CALL | |||
| 41 | KYTE | N(m) |
It’s a little risky teasing Jock’s ve
|
| Hidden (‘a little’ of) in risKY TEasing – a Scottish word for paunch or belly – or ‘venter’ – a new word for us | |||
| 42 | NYLGHAUS | G(+) |
Beasts grazing US city with excited laughs (8)
|
| NY (New York – ‘US city’) + an anagram (‘excited’) of LAUGHS | |||
| 43 | UNBE | D(-) |
Faceless character claims book Hardy’s discontinue[d] (4)
|
| 44 | GLUEY | O(-) |
Ugly vegetable ultimately cultivated like tar[o]? (5)
|
| An anagram (‘cultivated’) of UGLY and E (last or ‘ultimate’ letter of vegetable) | |||
| 45 | PUNT-GUN | M(m) |
Craft arm
|
| PUN (wordplay) + G (good) with a reversal (‘twists’) of NUT (head) ‘around’ | |||
| DOWN | |||
| No. | Entry | ||
| 1 | CEMBRA |
Swiss pine male support to bolster church (6)
|
|
| M (male) BRA (support) after (‘bolstering’) CE (church) | |||
| 2 | UNTEAM |
Essentially Aunty let Mama free from harness (6)
|
|
| Middle (‘essential’) letters of aUNTy lEt mAMa | |||
| 3 | RIOT GRRL |
Punk revelry regularly bypassed Gerard and Alf (9, 2 words)
|
|
| RIOT (revelry) + alternate (‘regularly bypassed’) letters of GeRaRd and aLf – a new phrase for us | |||
| 4 | ACES |
Leading airmen confront fellow flying South (4)
|
|
| 5 | TALWEG |
Women tucked into endless ice cream over middle of river (6)
|
|
| W (women) in a reversal (‘over’) of GELAT |
|||
| 6 | SLED |
This finally took traveller across snow (4)
|
|
| S (‘final’ letter of this) LED (‘took’) | |||
| 7 | SPORT |
Situation in which run occurs? (5)
|
|
| A clue-as-definition: SPOT (situation) with R (run) ‘occurring’ inside | |||
| 8 | TAVERNA |
Servant ordered bar special having got a place to eat (7)
|
|
| An anagram (‘ordered’) of |
|||
| 9 | OER |
On poetically stopping for Dutch farmers (3)
|
|
| Middle letters (‘stopping’) of bOERs (Dutch farmers) | |||
| 10 | SKIMPS |
Cream supplement keeps costs low (6)
|
|
| SKIM (‘cream’) PS (postscript – ‘supplement’) | |||
| 11 | SULTANA |
Fruit ultimately delivered into Arab capital (7)
|
|
| ULT (ultimately) in SANA (‘Arab capital’ – of Yemen) | |||
| 15 | ARMIL |
Popular milkmaid’s string bracelet (5)
|
|
| Hidden (a ‘string’ of letters) in populAR MILkmaid | |||
| 20 | IDE |
The author has in the past caught fish (4)
|
|
| A homophone (‘caught’) of I’D (‘the author has in the past’) | |||
| 24 | RAILLY |
Scots jacket one wears to come round (6)
|
|
| I (one) in (‘wearing’) RALLY (come round) | |||
| 25 | TRAILING |
Junction on barrier at the back (8)
|
|
| T (‘junction’) RAILING (barrier) | |||
| 26 | SILING |
Raining in some places, sun tempting away from West (7)
|
|
| S (sun) |
|||
| 27 | REMS |
US band given second dosage from Ray? (5)
|
|
| REM (US band) S (second) – units of radiation dosage | |||
| 28 | SHACK UP |
Take drink round to live with relations (7, 2 words)
|
|
| HACK (‘take’ – tolerate) in SUP (drink) | |||
| 30 | CETYL |
Freshly out of uni, cutely radical (6)
|
|
| An anagram (‘freshly’) of C |
|||
| 31 | GALTON |
Eugenicist not against delay being brought up (6)
|
|
| A reversal (‘being brought up’) of NOT LAG (delay) | |||
| 32 | YNAMBU |
Divers surfacing behind tailless bird (6)
|
|
| A reversal (‘surfacing’) of MANY (divers) + BU |
|||
| 33 | PECTEN |
Realise mushroom lifts scallop (6)
|
|
| A reversal (‘lifts’) of NET (realise) CEP (mushroom) | |||
| 35 | WASHY |
Weak, aqueous and heavily drained (5)
|
|
| A clue-as-definition: W (weak) + A |
|||
| 38 | NEAR |
Almost new perception (4)
|
|
| N (new) EAR (perception) | |||
| 40 | FLU |
Short change complaint (3)
|
|
| FLU |
I followed a similar route to BandJ, after musing briefly on Henrietta Maria, and reached the same result. I too was bothered by the unequal numbers of changed clues, and my best guess is that 14A is construed as a misprint rather than an extra letter, with the amended clue reading ‘Board to distribute card’. The extra letter version feels more natural, but one can deal a single card and it creates the necessary balance of clue types. If RIOT GIRRL feels a stretch, RIOT GIRRRL feels absurd, but there it is in Chambers. I now know more Portuguese history than I did, so thanks to Radler and Bertandjoyce.
19a is ‘Music from Scott’ – as in Scott Joplin – not Scott’s, giving the extra misprint instead of an additional letter, as required.
I’m always intrigued by discovering how the order in which clues were solved by others differs from my order. This week was no exception – 4d, for B&J a very early solve, was for me one of my last ones in!
Thanks to Radler for the puzzle and to B&J for the blog.
A tough but fun workout, thanks Radler.
I had “beasts raging” as the misprint in 42a, as one definition of antelope in Chambers refers specifically to “fierce beasts” but in the context of Spenser, so it’s a stretch. Be interesting to see which of the 3 options mentioned (or indeed another) is correct.
Surprised no one has yet mentioned the rather impressive inclusion in the grid of BRASIL in column 1 and PORTUGAL in column 9, with MARIA correctly moving from one to the other, and in a geographically accurate manner as well, with THE ALGARVES linking the two. Pretty cool, huh?
Thanks to B&J for the blog, too.
Enjoyed it and finished it — my thanks to Radler and Bertandjoyce. Must confess I didn’t count the across clue changes to confirm equal numbers of each kind. MARIA evidently had to move and a inspection of what might be completed by the move showed THE ALGARVE on a diagonal (no S until after further research online). Never noticed the lurking BRASIL and PORTUGAL, so a tip of the hat to Arnold @3 above!
Congratulations Arnold – and I think the Ragtime mentioned in the clue means the Yogdaws hypothesis is much better than mine.
Arnold @3 ahh well spotted! I was wondering about how the move in the grid related to
Maria’s actual movement, but never saw the two country names!
Many thanks Arnold. We never even looked for anything else – well spotted!
Another one here who missed the Brasil-Portugal connection. Quite an interesting read about Maria the ….. (insert appropriate adjective).
Having convinced myself that this was going to be linked to Queen’s Gambit, I ended up missing Maria and all the rest. So obvious now of course!
The fun grid fill and spotting of the letters was, at least, some consulation. Thanks to setter, blogger and those who found the other delights. Great puzzle.