Inquisitor 1128

[Ripper]

I'm completely stuck, everything I try to fill in seems to clash!
Any hints would be appreciated!
Hope you all have a good Bank Holiday

[cruciverbali]

I missed this on Saturday Ripper (busy re-grouting the shower room all weekend , finished now - hooray !) - any chance you could send me a copy and I'll try to help, thanks !

[email protected]

[turnerjmw]

Hi Ripper, this is quite a tricky puzzle. You have to study the preamble carefully. Where clues have a letter (wherever it occurs in the answer) missing when entered in the grid, the wordplay for the clue doesn't include that letter. So, for example, 2dn needs to have the "t" of "yet" removed, and the answer is MANY-EYED, but the wordplay suggests MNYEYED (YE +YE in MND (Motor Neurone Disease)), and that's how it has to be entered. So the A will be removed from all crossing answers of the first of the pairs.
And in 16dn, the "t" of "fast" has to be removed from the clue and the answer is FLASHBULB. The wordplay gives FLASHUL, an anagram of FAS HULL. Again, that's how it's entered. So the B will be removed from all crossing answers of the second of the pairs.

The originators are pretty famous writers of light opera, and guessing them will help fill the grid and possibly find the glee.

Good luck

Turnerjmw

[Ripper]

Thanks Turnerjmw
I'll have another look tonight!
I think I must be getting old!

[Ardboe]

Hi turnerjmw, thanks to your helpful hints I have completed Inquisitor except for 11a - I have le-ley.Are these letters correct ?

[turnerjmw]

Hi Ardboe. Good stuff. Those were the letters I had, too, and I went with the plural article which would be found in "Figaro" (the French newspaper), and a three letter word for a type of line in landscape, giving a girl's name. I did think, though, that there were three clues which didn't need a letter removed (not two), and that this was one, the others being 21ac and 8dn. I'm pretty sure the first line of the glee has only 29 letters, and there are 32 clues.

[Ardboe]

Many thanks turnerjmw - and yes I agree there is a difference of 3 between letters in glee and number of clues.Anyhow I would never have solved this without your hints!

[turnerjmw]

You're most welcome, Ardboe, and very well done on cracking it. I just hope I didn't give too much away and spoil anyone's fun.

An interesting and enjoyable puzzle, I thought, not least because the usual aids, like searchable dictionaries, don't help much, as you don't know how many occurrences of the removed letter there are.

Best wishes

Turnerjmw

[Alilloyd]

turnerjmw - I get two occurrences of the appropriate letter missing in 8dn! Haven't got 21ac yet, but I'm pretty sure it has one occurrence missing (if it's what I think it is)...

[Alilloyd]

Ah, my mistake, I see what you mean!

[judypark]

Finally cracked it thanks to you turnerjmw, at least you gave us a launching point with the two said names, I found the preamble by phi very unclear, thankgoodness for your explaination. Usually we manage to solve two out of three of these, this one was particually tricky though. However, very enjoyable.

[mad max]

just couldn't get into this one, but thanks to turnerjmw I will have another go,

[Indy-trier]

I logged on intending to ask the same as you, Ripper. My brain was starting to hurt - but - many thanks turnerjmw - am now getting somewhere!