Inquisitor 1673 - Jacks by Radler

Published in the i newspaper on 14 November 2020.

 

It's fair to say that I didn't enjoy this one too much.  I needed rather more hints than usual, and I found the endgame rather underwhelming, based as it was on a Latin phrase I'd never heard of.  I did, however, learn a bit of etymology.

The theme was nothing - or, rather, the theme was "nothing".  The main phrase to be discovered was NULLAM REM NATAM, literally meaning "no thing born", from which the French word RIEN and the Spanish word NADA are said to derive.  The Latin phrase was drawn in a rough circle shape in the top half of the grid, and the words RIEN and NADA were in a smaller circle in the bottom half - both presumably representing the digit 0.  "Jacks", the title, seems to be a reference to the American slang phrase "jack shit" for "nothing at all", which is often euphemistically abbreviated to "jack", as in "you don't know jack".  (Not sure about the pluralization though.)

These are the positions of the letters in each row:

Main phrase - 

Row 2: 4,5,6.  Row 3: 3,7.  Row 4: 2,8.  Row 5: 2,8.  Row 6: 3,7.  Row 7: 4,5,6.

Derived words - 

Row 8: 9,10.  Row 9: 8,11.  Row 10: 8,11.  Row 11: 9,10.

In what follows, the letters omitted from wordplay are underlined.  (Sometimes a letter will appear in both an Across and a Down answer, so some letters appear twice.)  Wordplay in 21dn is unclear.

Across

2.  MISMEASURE -= "judge incorrectly"; M + anag. of (EMAILS - L) + SURE

11. CORNU = "horn"; anag. of ORC

12. CRAVE = "beg"; CRAVEN - N

13. ARMADILLO = "mailed digger"; A + L in anag. of RADIO

14.  RAKSHASA = "demon"; (IRKS + HAS) - I

16.  DONE = "had" (as in "you've been had"); D ONE

17.  SOMEHOW = "one way or another"; O[n]E in SHOW

18.  STAINERS = "they mark"; anag. of IN SETS

21.  AUK = "diver"; change middle letter in AOK

22.  CON; triple (or even quadruple?) definition

23.  METCASTS = "elemental estimates"; first letters of T[oo] C[rude] A[nd], followed by second letters of [a]S[sumed] [s]T[andard] [i]S[sue]

26.  ROQUETS = "drives on lawn"; QUE in ROTS

29.  ET AL = "with others"; ETA + L

Note: Shouldn't this be "former nationalists"?  ETA was dissolved in 2018.

30.  CHIAUSES = "cheats"; anag. of I USE CASH

33.  AMENDMENT = "editing"; A.M. END (="noon") + homophone of MEANT

34.  LEASH = "threesome"; LEAS[t] + H

35.  LANCE = "pink"; N in LACE

36.  DRESS SENSE = "[in]vestment-savvy"; DR + rev. of (NESS in ESSE)

Note: I presume this is a cheeky use of the syllable "in" as a link word.

Down

1.  SCARES = "causes alarm"; cycle of CARESS

2.  MORAT = "honey product" (a type of mead); rev. of ROM

3.  SNASH = "impudent language of Glaswegian"; SASH (="band")

4.  MUD HEN = "marsh dweller"; MD + (WHEN - W)

5.  ELIA = (pen-name of Charles) "Lamb"; hidden in [tagin]E I A[vidly]

6.  ALLSORTS = "variety"; anag. of AT LOSS

7.  URODELA = "animals"; rev. of (DO + RU) + rev. of ALE

8.  RAM = "beak"; rev. of MAR[e]

9.  EVEN OUT = "balance"; EVE + NOUT

10.  RENEW = "regenerate"; random letters from [ca]R[el]E[ssly] N[o] [ey]E[bro]W[s]

Note: I originally thought it might be every fourth letter, but it isn't.  Is this type of clue really permissible?

15.  KOAN = "irrational question"; rev. of ([questio]N + OK)

17. SEETHERS = "boilers"; SET + HERS

19.  TOOTHED = "engaged"; O in (TO + THE + D)

20.  INULASE = "carb converter"; anag. of (LIES + A + U)

21.  AS IS = "unaltered"; ?

Note: At first I thought the wordplay might be half of ASSETS, with the I omitted because it's in RIEN; but none of the other letters of RIEN/NADA are omitted from wordplay, so that can't be it.

24.  CRADLE = "support for early retirement"; C + RADLE[r] (=name of setter)

25.  SYSTEM = "network"; S[ubwa]Y + STEM

26.  REALM = "orbit"; REAL + M

27.  RUMAN = "European"; R for first letter of HUMAN

28.  FENCE = "barrier"; NC in FEE

31.  INKS = "prepares to print"; LINKS - L

32.  JAR = "clash"; rev. of RAJ

Inquisitor 1672 - Shattered by Chalicea

Published in the i newspaper on 7 November 2020.

Inquisitors do seem to vary wildly in difficulty.  The last one had a double unnumbered grid that was so forbidding I didn't dare attempt it.  This one, on the other hand, was scarcely any harder than a conventional daily puzzle, albeit with a few more obscure words, and a theme that probably couldn't be guessed without a bit of lateral thinking.  For once, there was no tortuous introduction requiring solvers to ignore letters in clues, or add extra ones, or anything like that.  We just had to highlight nine of the answers and make one of them disappear.

The theme was the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which happened on 7 November 1940, eighty years to the day before publication of the puzzle.  ("Look for an anniversary" was the only hint I needed.)  The bridge spanned PUGET SOUND [12ac, 13ac], connecting the KITSAP [1d] peninsula with TACOMA [11d], and was nicknamed GALLOPING GERTIE [28ac, 41ac, 42ac, 33ac].  When the grid was completed, these answers provided a depiction of the bridge in the aftermath of the disaster, with the middle section of the bridge (LOPING GER) apparently lying at the bottom of the water!  The only fatality of the disaster was a cocker spaniel named TUBBY [27ac], who remained apparently suspended in mid-air, but could be removed to leave four actual words (NOES, AGE, CUES, STRING) running downwards.

Detailed solutions follow.  I couldn't parse 1ac and so the second letter is uncertain.  25ac looks like a possible misinterpretation of a definition in Chambers.

Across

1.  KARENIA/KYRENIA?  Not sure about this.

6.  BODYSUIT = "close-fitting garment"; (D in BOY) + SUIT

12. PUGET = "French sculptor"; (rev. of UP) + GET

13. SOUND = "healthy" or "hearing" (double def.)

15. TAPA = "snack"; TA + PA

16. TAUTOMERIC = "readily mutually convertible"; anag. of (AMORETTI + C + U)

17. SLIDE = "to fall out of use"; L in SIDE

18. NARCS = "lawmen dealing with drugs"; rev. of SCRAN

22.  PROVO = "member of militant group"; PRO + V + O

23.  FROGS = "amphibians"; R in FOGS

25.  PLONG = "poet's reckless gamble"; L in PONG

Note: The most obscure word in the puzzle, being a Spenserian variant of "plunge"; although the OED Online only lists it under "plunge, v.", and it was several centuries before "plunge" acquired the meaning of "reckless gamble". 

27.  TUBBY = "round and squat"; TUB + BY

28.  LYSSA = "acute viral disease"; anag. of SLAYS

29.  GAL = "local lass"; GAL[a]

30.  CREEPERED = "surrounded by climbers"; PERE in CREED

32.  TIE = "match"; [s]T[r]I[k]E

34.  CLIPES = "tells tales in Glasgow"; E in CLIPS

37.  SIGNIOR = "Italian form of address"; anag. of ORIGINS

Note: Apparently a variant spelling of the more familiar SIGNOR.

38.  PINEBARREN = "sandy wooded tract"; PINE + BARREN

39.  GONNA = "going to"; GOANNA (="predatory lizard") - [cl]A[ws]

40.  SAE = "likewise in the Highlands"; rev. of EAS[y]

41.  LOPING = "running easily"; LO + PING

42.  GER = "tent"; GEAR - A

Down

1.  KITSAP = "Washington county"; KIT + SAP

2.  RUPICOLINE = "rock-dwelling"; anag. of PERTINACIOUSLY - anag. of STAY

3.  EGAD = "old-timer's oath"; rev. of DAGE ( = AGED, "circling")

4.  NEVER = "at no time past in future"; hidden in rev. of [p]REVEN[table]

5.  AVA = "palm tree" (or "tonic bark"?); [k]AVA

Note: It seems that both AVA and KAVA can refer to either the tree or its bark, so the clue can perhaps be read either way round.  "Pollarding" means taking the top off a tree.

6.  BAURS = "Scottish jokes"; A in BURS ( = whirring sounds, so "murmurs")

7.  OUT = "not in good condition"; [y]O[g]U[r]T

8.  YOMP = "laborious trek"; YO[u] + [stor]M + cam[P]

9.  SUERS = "they apply"; homophone of SEWERS

10.  UNROOSTING = "disturbing rest of brood"; anag. of NOT USING OR

Note: "In Stratford, maybe" seems redundant - does Chambers mark it as Shakespearian?

11.  TACOMA = "port across the pond"; TACO + MA

12.  PALILALIA = "speech abnormality"; PA + (L in rev. of (AIL x 2))

14.  DIVERSIONS = "differences of opinion"; DI + VERSIONS

18.  NOTES = "jottings"; rev. of SET ON

19.  AGUE = "fever"; forms FATIGUE when anagrammed with FIT

20.  CUBES = "8 or 27, for example"; CU + BES[t]

21.  STYRING = "poet's moving" ("styre" is poetic word for "move"); STY + RING

24.  ALEGGE = "Spenser's to make light"; EGG in ALE

Note: Spenserian word for "allay" or "alleviate", hence "make light".  I initially thought this might be another misreading since "make light of" means "treat without due seriousness" (a different thing entirely), but I'll grudgingly accept "of" as a link word with no significance.

26.  GREBO =  "devotee of heavy metal"; GR + E + BO (= "US guy")

31.  PERN = "type of hawk"; [o]PE[n] + R[u]N

33.  ERAS = "vast periods of time"; ERAS[e]

35.  PEL = "what was a pixel" (i.e. old word for it); PE + L[ocated]

36.  SRI = "Indian title of respect"; anag. of SIR

Inquisitor 1670 - Hot and Cold? by Hedge-sparrow

Published in the i newspaper on 24 October 2020.

Having wisely decided to avoid the last two Inquisitors, I was pleased to find one that I could complete without too much difficulty.  There was a slight ambiguity in the preamble but fortunately I guessed the correct interpretation and didn't need too many outside hints.  I was bit late cottoning on to the theme, though - about halfway through I had __OV_L_ES_ALE in the right-hand extra column, and could only think of TWO-VALUE SCALE (corresponding with the "hot and cold" of the title).  I was looking for similar pairs of opposites in the grid and couldn't see any!  Once I got the correct answer, most of the puzzle fell into place.

The preamble said "one letter per grid row is not indicated by the wordplay of the clues".  It was  important to realize that the restriction could affect Down as well as Across clues; for instance, the E at row 13, column 9 is part of 54 across but also part of 43 down, so it was omitted from the wordplay for both clues.  This wasn't made explicit but I think careful reading of the preamble made it clear.  The Down clues affected were 8 down (V in row 4), 2 down (I in row 5), 11 down (L in row 6), 35 down (E in row 8), 9 down (S in row 9), 48 down (L in row 12) and 43 down (E in row 13).

However, what wasn't completely clear from the wording above was whether all occurrences of a given letter in each row were to be treated similarly.  For instance, were the E's at row 13, columns 5 and 12 also omitted from the wordplay of the clues?  It turned out that they weren't, but I think the wording could have been made less ambiguous.

The right-hand "thematic entity" was in fact SCOVILLE SCALE - the scale traditionally used to measure the hotness of chili peppers.  This led almost immediately to the "general" term CAPSAICIN in the top row - the substance that gives chili peppers their hotness - and then to seven specific types of pepper: CAROLINA REAPER in row 2, NAGA VIPER in row 4, SCOTCH BONNET in row 6, JALAPENO in row 8, ANAHEIM in row 10, PIMENTO in row 12 and BELL PEPPER in row 13.  They were arranged in descending order of hotness, down the grid; very neat!

Detailed solutions follow, with letters omitted from wordplay indicated by underlining.  There were quite a few clues I couldn't parse.

Across

1.  ICECAPS = "frozen mountain peaks"; I + (C in rev. of PACE)

7.  ICING = "coating"; ?

12.  CAROLINA = "former British colony", etc.; A + ROL[e] + IN + A

13.  REAPER = "death"; [e]PE[e] in REAR

14.  IN HOLES = "full of cavities"; INHALES - A  (A is the former chemical symbol for argon)

16.  MRSA = "highly resistant bacterium"; MRS + A

19.  TUTENAG = "zinc"; (TE in TUN) + AG

20.  VIPER = "snake"; ?

21.  OINK = "noise made by sucker, perhaps"; [conma]N in OK ("sucker" ref. to pigs?)

23.  MHO = "former unit of resistance"; hidden in [hel]MHO[ltz]

25.  MATE = "ship's officer"; ?

26.  SCOTCH = "put an end to"; SCOT + CH

29.  BONNE = "French maid"; [apro]N in BONE (="bobbin", why?)

32.  TEL = "hill in Arabia"; T[roglodyt]E

33. TOIL = "great difficulty"; TO + I

34. CERISE = "purplish-red"; C + [ros]E + RISE (C = "see", homophone)

37.  JALAP = "purgative root"; A in (J + LAP) (J = "joint"?)

39.  NOTE = "set to music"; N + OT

40.  CRED = "ability to inspire belief"; CREE - E + D (why D = "God's"?)

42.  CIMAR = "shift"; (rev. of M1) in CAR, with I = 1

45.  SEAS = "great waves"; EAS[e]

46.  RACE = "stock"; RAGE - G

47.  ANAHEIM = "where one might see Pluto"; AN + (HE in AIM)  (AIM = "place"?)

Note: Anaheim, Florida is the location of Disneyland. 

49.  BENNUT = "oil-producing seed"; B + rev. of TUNNE[l]

50.  ANOESIS = "sensation that's not understood"; anag. of NOISES

51.  PIMENT = "vintage spiced wine"; anag. of PITMEN

52.  OVERFLEW = "soared higher"; (HOVER - H) + FEW

53.  NOBEL = "Swedish chemist"; OBE in NL ( = non licet, "it is not permitted")

54.  PEPPERY = "irritable"; (rev. of EPP) in PRY ( = "peer")

Down

2.  CANTICO = "dancing-match"; CANT + CO

3.  ERHU = "Chinese instrument that's bowed"; middle of [ov]ERHU[ng]

4.  ALLEY = "back lane"; rev. of (YELL + A) (is a YELL "something very funny"?)

5.  PIEND = "outward-pointing angle"; PI + END (PI = "confusion"?)

6.  AARGH = "cry of anguish"; AAR + GH

7.  IRMA = "German girl"; IR + MA ("Irma" is originally a German name)

8.  CERVINE = "fawn-coloured"; anag. of (CATHERINE - HAT)

Note: Def. is "relating to deer", and a fawn is a young deer - part-cryptic definition?

9.  IASI = "Romanian city"; I + AS + I (Swedish ås = "ridge of gravel"?)

10.  GENET = "fur"(?); ?

 Note: A genet is a slender cat-like animal.  I don't understand this clue at all.

11.  PRERELEASES = "previews"; anag. of (SEES + REAPER)  (solution to 13ac)

15.  SAMBA = "syncopated dance"; S (="past"??) + (rev. of MA) + BA (="Highland ball"??)

Note: Very unsure about this.

17.  APATITE = "calcium-based mineral"; (A TIT) in APE

18.  POSTSCRIPT = "supplementary"; P + anag. of SCOTS + RIPT ("previously" = archaic?)

22.  NOISE = "sound"; homophone of "noys" (dialect word for "annoys")

24.  ONCE = "former"; C in ONE (= "drink", as in "do you want one?")

27.  CHACONNE = "old Spanish dance"; anag. of NO CHANCE

28.  HALIBUT = "fish"; BUT ( = "barrel"?) beneath ( = "propping up") HAL I 

Note: Either BUT is an alternative spelling of "butt", or it's a reversal of TUB with "up" as the reversal indicator somehow detached, in which case beneath = "propping".

30.  OUPA = "old man in Cape Town"; O + UP + A

Note: South African term of address for a grandfather or elderly man.

31.  EROS = "asteroid"; rev. of ORE (="mineral source")

35.  SEAMIER = "more disreputable"; anag. of ARMIES

36.  ARABIN = "source of gum"; RABI (="Indian grain harvest") in AN

38.  AMATOL = "high explosive"; (AMATI - I) + O + L

41.  DENEB = "star"; D + EN + rev. of (PROBE - PRO)  (PRO = "for".  Tricky!)

43.  RANEE = "Indian queen"; RAN + E

44.  THORP = "hamlet"; first letters of T[ragedy], H[...], O[...], R[...], P[rince]

48.  ISLE = "key"; E below IS

 

 

 

Inquisitor 1667 - Follow the Leader by Serpent

Published in the i newspaper on 3 October 2020.

Quite a clever theme this week, although it took me a while to cotton on - after getting ARTFUL and DODGE fairly early on I jumped to the mistaken conclusion that it must be Oliver Twist!  Don't know if this was a deliberate attempt to throw solvers off the scent.

The message spelled out by the letters removed from most of the clues was SP AND IN DID COME THE STRANGEST FIGURE.  I'm glad I had a hint about the significance of the first two letters, which I would never have guessed: they stand for the Latin phrase sine prole (without issue, i.e. childless).  The rest is an easily identifiable quotation from The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browning, which provides the theme.

The extra phrase to be added at 24 across is BOYS AND GIRLS - presumably referring to another quote from the poem: "All the little boys and girls, With rosy cheeks and flaxen curls".  Thus the above message can be taken as an instruction to remove BOYS AND GIRLS from the grid and replace it with THE PIED PIPER.  This creates a number of new words and proper nouns which form part of the final solution, listed at the end.

The theme also gives an indication of how to modify the twelve "straight" clues; the Pied Piper drove out the rats from the town, so the word RAT has to be removed from each of the twelve answers before entry, in each case creating a new word (though this wasn't specified in the preamble).  It was slightly annoying that the enumerations in brackets referred to grid entries - in other puzzles of this type, where some entries have to be modified, the enumerations have referred to solutions before modification, and in one case (15 across) the enumeration was positively misleading.  I presume this was done deliberately to make it harder to identify the twelve clues, but it struck me as non-standard.

One curious thing: the word PIED appears running downwards from the second cell in column 2, and I initially assumed that PIPER would turn up somewhere else, but it doesn't.

Most of the clues seemed fair although I had issues with a number of them, included in the comments below.  In the detailed solutions, I've identified the letter to be removed from the clue by picking out the relevant word, adding it after the clue number and underlining the letter.  Grid entries for the twelve "straight" clues are given in italics.

Across

1 - answers.  ASTHMA = "inspiring problem"; anag. of (MATHS + A) 

"Applied" is the anagram indicator; A = "answer"

5 - top.  BUKSHI = "paymaster"; homophone of "buck she"

"To auditor" is the homophone indicator, but can "buck she" really be taken as a phrase meaning "resist female"?  There are two separate homophones here, not one.

9 - aid.  PAROTIDITIS = "disease"; IT in (PA + ROT + ID + IS)

PA as in "per annum".  A less common variant of parotitis, an inflammation of the salivary (parotid) glands on the side of the face.

10. CIRE/CIRRATE = "cloudy" (?); IR in CRATE

IR is the former Inland Revenue, but I couldn't find CIRRATE meaning "cloudy" - only "equipped with a cirrus" (a structure similar to a tentacle).  There are cirrus clouds though, so I suppose the formation is logical.

11 - on.  ORTOLAN = "frequent flier"; hidden in [airp]ORT O LAN[ding]

The ORTOLAN is a bird of the bunting family.

13 - housed.  HETERO = "straight"; (E + TER) in HO

15.  PROA/PRO RATA = "in proportion"; ?

I couldn't work out the wordplay on this one, and I thought the enumeration was misleading; although PRO RATA is a two-word phrase, the grid entry PROA was a single word (a type of sailing vessel).  I spent some time looking for a two-word phrase with four letters before I realized it didn't exist.

17.  STUPED/STUPRATED = "ravaged" (?); (P + RATE) in STUD

This looks like an error.  The only definition of STUPRATE that I can find is "to ravish or rape; to have sexual intercourse with".  "Ravage" means "to cause severe and extensive damage to" and is not synonymous with "ravish", even though people occasionally confuse them.

19 - Paris.  SCRAP = "waste material"; C in anag. of PARS

22 - demon.  ARTFUL = "cunning"; makes FORMULATED when anagrammed with DEMO

This is not what I would consider a standard cryptic clue, with the definition in the middle.  I don't know if they're common in this type of puzzle but I would have appreciated an indication.

24 - BOYS AND GIRLS (as per preamble)

27 - issued.  PARENT = "person that has issue"; PA + RENT

28 - said.  SCALD = "poet" (?); C and L spaced regularly in SAD

A skald is an ancient Scandinavian poet, but I struggled to find this alternative spelling.

30.  LUSTED/LUSTRATED = "purged ritually"; LUST + RATED

34.  IONS/RATIONS = "restricted fare"; anag. of (S[ervice] + O[n] + TRAIN)

37 - bard.  GOBLIN = "nasty little man"; anag. of (IN GLOBE - E)

I.e. "bar close to Shakespeare" (without the final letter of "Shakespeare")

38 - cur.  VAURIEN = "good-for-nothing"; (UR + IE) in VAN

It doesn't actually specify in the preamble that the modified clues have to contain actual words, but all the others do, so this is a little odd.  I'm not aware that "ur" is a word without an initial capital letter (ancient city of Ur), though it can be a prefix.

39.  PING/PRATING = "talking nonsense"; PRAT + IN + G

40 - poet.  TRUMPET TREE = "what's naturally instrumental"; (anag. of TERM PET) in TRUE

Hadn't heard of a TRUMPET TREE before but a neat cryptic definition within the clue.

41 - him.  HISSES = "expresses disapproval"; HI + rev. of SESS

SESS is an alternative spelling of cess, an impost or tax (hence "duty").

42 - care.  HEARSE = "terminal car"; EAR in HSE

Down

1 - tends.  ARCHES = "vaults"; [w]AR CHES[t]

2.  SPIED/SPIRATED = "in ever decreasing circles"; anag. of TRAIPSED

SPIRATED is an adjective meaning "twisted like a spiral", although curiously there seems to be no corresponding verb "spirate".

3 - hold.  TARTARY = "place that was vaguely defined"; TA in TARRY

A blanket term once used by Europeans for unknown areas of Asia.  TA = "old volunteers" (i.e. the Territorial Army, the old name for the Army Reserve).

4.  MOORY/MORATORY = "delaying"; ORATOR in MY

 A legal term meaning "authorizing delay of payment".  MY = "writer's".

5.  BITE/BITRATE = "measure of transmission speed"; (rev. of TAR) in BITE

Although there's nothing wrong with the clue, there was something odd about having to put RAT into BITE for the solution and then having to take it straight out again!

6 - peat.  KILP = "this seaweed"; forms LIKE PAT when anagrammed with TEA

KILP appears to be a dialect form of the more common "kelp".  This is my least favourite clue for two reasons; it uses an unfamiliar device similar to the one in 22ac (though with the definition at the start this time), and it's ambiguous.  It would be quite consistent for the extra letter to be I rather than E, and for the answer to be KELP rather than KILP.  Admittedly this would leave the nonsensical LKE PEAT as the anagram fodder, but it's not entirely certain whether modified clues have to consist of actual words (see comments on 38ac).

7 - goggles.  STARE = "goggle"; TAR in [the]SE

8 - atlas.  ISRAEL = "country"; anag. of (REALISE - E)

Only works if you take "alas" as anagram indicator - a bit cheeky?

12 - borne.  ROSIN = "what causes", etc.; R + OS + [viol]IN[ists]

I presume this is intended as an "&lit" clue. 

14 - awaiting.  BURGS = "US towns"; ?

Can't parse this one.  I took the first A out of "awaiting" because nothing else makes sense.

16 - nearly.  CASE = "patient"; (CASH - H) + E[arly]

Don't quite get this.  "Cash" = "ready" and "H" = "hospital, but wouldn't that give you "hospital to leave ready" rather than "ready to leave hospital"?  I can just about accept "forgetting almost everything" as an indication to just keep the first letter, but it's not very elegant.

18 - Gin.  DULL = "insensible"; L in [a]DUL[t]

20 - creating.  COAL = "fuel"; A in COL

"Crating" seems to be the inclusion indicator here.

21 - son.  PANTO = "production"; NT in rev. of OAP

23 - taxing.  TICK = "beat"; STICK - S[tate]

25 - fending.  DODGE = "gas guzzler"; DODGE[m]

26 - Turin.  RALLIER = "driver"; rev. of (ILL in REAR)

27 - Gout.  PLINTH = "supporter"; (PLAINT + H[appens]) - A[cute]

29 - forum.  DONGLE = "tool to clone mobile phones" (?); anag. of LONGED

"Form" is the anagram indicator, but I don't recognize the definition.  A DONGLE is
a small USB device that allows you to access the internet - it doesn't "clone" anything as far as I know.

31 - spurn.  UNAUS = "laid-back individuals"; hidden in [sp]UN AU[sterity]

Mildly cryptic definition - a UNAU is a two-toed sloth.

32.  CONTE/CONTRATE = "related to orientation of teeth"; anag. of (A ROTTEN C)

This is the second time I've seen "canine" for C, and I'm not sure where it comes from.  The definition part is nicely misleading, as CONTRATE refers to gears with teeth set at right angles to the wheel.

33.  LINES/RATLINES = "they are involved in rigging"; LINE in rev. of STAR (?)

Not sure about the parsing here - if STAR = "network configuration" then "up" can be taken as the reversal indicator, but I'm not convinced.

35 - use.  SUMS = "results"; anag. of (US + S[how] + M[isleading])

36.  PIES/PIRATES = "bad guys in the main"; rev. of (SET + A + RIP) 

Final modifications to grid

I recognized all the amended words except CHAL, which turns out to be a beverage of fermented camel's milk!  The initial B and final S are in cells which don't intersect with Down clues, and two other substitutions make no difference to the grid.

	B -> T
COAL	O -> H	CHAL
TARTARY	Y -> E	TARTARE
CASE	S -> P	CAPE
PANTO	A -> I	PINTO
ROSIN	N -> E	ROSIE
DODGE	D -> D	unchanged
BURGS	G -> P	BURPS
TICK	I  -> I	unchanged
RALLIER	R -> P	PALLIER
DULL	L -> E	DUEL
	S -> R

As with other similar endgames, no clues were given to the amended words. This seems like an omission to me - it would be nice to be able to check one's final answer. However, it seems to be standard practice.

Inquisitor 1666 - It's an Ill Wind by Harpy

Published in the i newspaper on 26 September 2020.

For the second time in the short period that I've been doing these puzzles, I managed to guess the theme before looking at the puzzle!  I can't say that it made solving it any easier though, and in fact even after solving the whole thing I still have a strange niggling feeling that I've missed something somewhere. 

The puzzle number was 1666, which instantly made me think of The Great Fire of London, which famously took place in that year.  (Puzzle 1660, which I didn't attempt, related to the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, so I was on the lookout for that sort of device.)  The references to "a dated map",  "progress across the thematic part of the map" and "start and end locations" fitted in with that idea, as did the puzzle's title, although it took me a while to work out exactly what the various parts of the map represented.

I was a little confused by the instruction that "in 13 down clues, a letter must be moved left, creating new word(s) before solving".  I wasn't sure whether "moved left" meant "moved one place to the left" or "moved an arbitrary distance to the left"; as it turned out, it was the latter.  There was also no indication that these were the first thirteen down clues, which would have been slightly clearer; whether this was left out deliberately I'm not sure, but it did seem to make things unnecessarily difficult.

More worryingly, there was no indication that a space needed to be inserted before the last letter of five Down clues (19, 28, 30, 33, 35), in order to create the "line of 7 empty cells" specified in the preamble.  This looks like an error, as I can't see any way in which solvers might be expected to deduce this; I only found out about it after getting a hint from elsewhere.

My completed grid looked like this:

R

I

B

B

O

N

B

U

I

L

D

I

N

G

I

F

R

U

R

U

R

D

N

O

I

N

L

U

N

I

O

P

G

N

O

O

R

D

K

B

I

N

G

N

O

R

Y

B

W

W

O

R

K

O

N

D

L

N

O

I

N

O

N

I

N

L

O

R

L

O

U

I

L

G

Y

X

I

N

D

I

P

N

I

G

S

S

T

H

E

M

E

T

E

M

M

E

T

S

T

H

E

T

A

A

T

E

A

S

E

S

H

E

F

I

N

I

R

R

O

R

U

N

R

I

G

D

U

W

D

N

M

D

C

L

X

V

I

I

N

G

L

I

N

G

Y

Y

O

Y

O

B

L

O

W

Y

The area in red is presumably intended to be an outline map of the City of London, with the two italicized P's indicating Pudding Lane and Pye Corner, the start and end points of the Great Fire.  The two lines in blue represent the River Thames (containing only the letters T, H, A, M, E and S).  

The seven empty cells in the next-to-last line of the grid are filled with the letters MDCLXVI (in bold above), the Roman representation of the date 1666, notable for containing each numeral once and only once in descending order.  This gives the six extra unclued words ARMY, MARDY, TOCO, WINTERLY, RONDEAUX and MERIL (the V doesn't contribute to a word).

The moved letters in the thirteen Down clues spell out GEORGIE PORGIE, a 19th-century children's rhyme with no obvious connection to the Great Fire of London beyond the line "pudding and pie" (suggesting Pudding Lane and Pye Corner).  I'd been given the hint to look for a children's rhyme and was expecting "London's Burning"!

The instruction "answers to some across clues must be modified before entry" appeared to mean that within the red area (where the fire took hold), solutions should be entered right to left; for example NINGPO (14 across) appears as NIOPGN because the first two letters (NI) are outside the red area and the rest (NGPO) is inside.  I presume this is meant to symbolize the fire's progress across the City from east to west, helped by a strong East wind (hence the puzzle's title).

The distribution of letters across the grid is somewhat strange, with a preponderance of particular letters in certain rows (e.g. N in row 5).  It may be significant that, apart from the unavoidable M at the start of the date, none of the letters of THAMES appear anywhere outside the two rows representing the river, although there's no reason given in the preamble why this should be so.  

The absence of some of the commonest letters in English from the rest of the grid may have restricted the choice of words somewhat.  Combined with the partial reversal of words and the lack of bars, the result is that much of the completed grid ended up looking like gibberish, intentionally or otherwise.  There may be some other significance to the arrangement of letters that I haven't grasped; hints of WIND and WOODWORK in the red area perhaps?

Solutions to clues follow, with the modified versions of Across solutions in italics.  For the thirteen special Down clues, I've rewritten the clue with the moved letter in bold, and a # symbol where the letter was moved from.  The abbreviation is at 12ac (United Nations Disaster Relief Organization).

Queries and comments

1ac: I can't find any references to RIBBON BUILDING but took it as a synonym for the usual term  "ribbon development".

26ac: is "gone" the anagram indicator?  I assume so.

37ac: clearly clued but the solution is in French - is this legitimate? 

40ac: what's the significance of "for year"?

2dn: can't work out why "Skye's appearance" = BROO.  "Broo" is a Scottish word, for either "broth" or "brow" or "the dole", but I wouldn't say the Isle of Skye looked like any of those.  I tried to put the migrant E somewhere else but nothing seemed to fit.

5dn: Am I right here?  UDO is an edible Japanese plant, and a "kin" is a Japanese unit of weight (about 600g).  I can't see any other justification for the definition.

6dn: can't parse unless DOL = "sweet", which I can't find anywhere.

7dn: modified clue would suggest KOP = "Cape's dun" (or "Cap's dune").  KOP is a South African word meaning "hill", so "Cape's dune" might work, but then where does the E move from?

Across

1.  RIBBON BUILDING = "unplanned growth"; anag. of (IN + O + BUBBL[e]) in RIDING

12.  URDNO/UNDRO = "former relief body"; anag. of ROUND

14.  NIOPGN/NINGPO = "battle in China"; hidden in [clea]NING PO[lluted]

15.  OORDK/DROOK = "Glaswegian soak"; DR + O[rders] + OK

17.  BIN = "where rubbish is put"; BINGO - GO

18.  GNORY/GYRON = [heraldic] "charge"; anag. of GRY[ph]ON[s]

20.  ORKON/KROON = "sent 100 times" (Estonian currency): KROO + N

21.  LNOI/LION = "this brave one"; makes GANGLION after GANG

22.  NONIN/NINON = "flimsy material"; N + IN ON

23.  LORLO/ROLLO = "first Duke of Normandy"; ROLL + O

24.  UILG/UGLI = "hybrid"; G + L in U[n]I[t]

26.  IP NIG/IN PIG = "what a pregnant sow is"; anag. of [gras]PING + I

27.  THEME = "what Inquisitor features"; THE + ME

29.  EMMETS = "SW tourists"; rev. of STEMME[d]

32.  THETA = "letter"; anag. of [m]ATTHE[w]

34.  AT EASE = "free from anxiety"; hidden in [celebr]AT E AS E[veryone]

36.  SHE = "novel queen"; H (hearts) between S and E (South and East)

37.  FINI = "over in France"; FIN + I

39.  RUNRIG = "system of tenure at St Andrews"; R + UNRIG

40.  JOG = "stimulate"; JO (delight) + G (good)

41.  LINGY = "like [h]eather"; CLINGY - C

42.  YOYO = "fool"; YO[u] x 2

43.  BLOWY = "with the wind up"; LOW in B[o]Y

Down

1.  Make a ding in a #round 

RING = "make a ding"; also = "in a round" (double def.)

2.  Skye's appearance has brother getting blotto at l#ast

BROO = "Skye's appearance" (?) ; BRO + [blott]O

3.  Loose party of soldiers with Germany's central unit c#asting away

ORGY = "loose party"; OR + G[erman]Y

4.  Victorian brea#d O'Brien soused with whiskey

BROWNIE = "Victorian bread"; anag. of (OBRIEN + W)

5.  Our king's house once stripped - it might be bought by the kin#

UDO = "it might be bought by the kin"; [t]UDO[r]

6.  Retir#ed sweet statistical measure

LOD = "statistical measure" (logarithm of odds); rev. of DOL (?)

7.  With little one climbing the Cape's dun# to stone curlew

DIKKOP = "stone curlew"; (rev. of KID) + KOP (= Cape's dun?)

8.  Pluck getting #up in hotel - it's natural

INBORN = "natural"; rev. of ROB in INN

9.  Pointer perhaps going at boundaries?  To# open in that cover

GUN DOG = "pointer perhaps"; UNDO in G[oin]G

10.  Forssa's tongue is perfect to the #ear

FINNISH = "Forssa's tongue" (town in Finland); homophone of FINISH

11.  Switch sides in making ceiling glow, getting #rid of tilted parts

UPRIGHTING = "getting rid of tilted parts"; R for L in UPLIGHTING

12.  Extract from crate's unit#ed atop new wood

UNBOX = "extract from crate"; U + N + BOX

13.  Gael#'s close by lough - go with cycles in this toun

LINLITHGOW = "this toun"; [gae]L + IN + L + permutation of GO WITH

16.  RONDEAU = "poem"; R[ave] + O + anag. of AUDEN

19.  WINTERY = "of the season"; WIN + TE[r]RY

21.  LUSTFUL = "longing for it"; anag. of (TRUSTFULLY - TRY)

27.  TEND = "take care of"; T + END

28.  MARY = "Shelley possibly"; MARRY - R

30.  MERL = "Rabbie's blackbird"; MERLIN - IN

31.  SEDGY = "not like grass but similar"; S[kunk] + EDGY

33.  ARY = "one unspecified"; PRIMARY - PRIM

35.  TOO = "in addition"; homophone of TWO (a number)

36.  SIJO = "Korean poetry"; (rev. of EMOJIS) - ME

38.  IWI = "his [i.e. New Zealand] tribe"; [k]IWI

Inquisitor 1665 - Seize Them All by eXternal

Published in the i newspaper on 19 September 2020.

This took me much longer than usual to solve.  Usually I manage to finish the Inquisitor in a couple of days but I spent four days on this one - with a midweek break, so I hadn't quite finished by the time the next one was published.   The gridfill took three days on its own but there were so many extra parts to complete that I had to devote an additional morning to them.  It took me quite a while to understand all the instructions!

The theme turned out to be The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy.  The theme for the unscrambled extra words in the sixteen special Across clues was "shades of red"; the theme for the sixteen special Down clues was "flowers"; thus the target could be seen as a member of both sets.  The extra letters in the clues in the top half spelt out MARGUERITE ST JUST (the Pimpernel's wife); those in the bottom half spelt out CITIZEN CHAUVELIN (his chief adversary).  Details are given below the solutions to the clues. 

The letters SCARLET PIMPERNEL were contained, one by one, in the solutions to the sixteen special Across clues - all unchecked in the grid.  By replacing them with the letters in SIR PERCY BLAKENEY (the Pimpernel's true identity), in the same order, one could create a new set of words in the Across lights without changing any of the Down lights.  Details are given at the end.

The four possible search locations were HERE and THERE (both contained within ETHEREAL in the middle row), HEAVEN (in the top row) and HELL (in the bottom row), all appearing in the novel's well-known verse: “They seek him here, they seek him there/Those Frenchies seek him everywhere/Is he in heaven or is he in hell?/That demned elusive Pimpernel.”

Note also that "Frenchies" appears in the clue for 13ac, which could be taken as an additional indication of the theme.

Solutions to clues

Redundant words are in italics; definitions are in quotes.  I could only find 14ac in a single (very obscure) source, and I couldn't work out the parsing for 30ac.  

I'm not sure about the parsing of 34d; either "upset" is the definition, with YA = "indeed" and WING = "member coming out of line" (why?);  or "coming out of line" is the definition, with YAW = rev. ("upset") of WAY ("indeed") and ING = "member" (why?).

Across

1.  SHEA - "African plant"; E in SHA[m]; musters

5.  VENDOR - "slot-machine"; V + END + OR

11.  UNCATE - "hooked"; anag. of (AT + [i]N + CUE); archery

12.  UNLOADS - "discharges"; U[nknow]N + LOADS; lurgy

13.  PEAL - "loud sound"; rev. of (LA + EP)

14.  REELER - "songbird"; R + rev. of (RE + LEE); Germanic

15.  CYCLE - "period"; anag. of (CLEMENCY - MEN)

17.  AREOLAE - "pigmented skin patches"; rev. of (ALOE in ERA); bicker

21.  KADE - "fly"; [dunkir]K + [b]ADE[r]

23.  TREE - "timber"; [s]TREE[t]; roadmen

25.  PATTER - "insincere speech"; PATTER[n]; article

26.  ETHEREAL - "heavenly"; E + (HER in TEAL)

28.  CAIMAN - "reptile"; AIM in CAN; titanic

30.  HAVE - ?

31.  MEAN - "humble"; hidden in [so]ME AN[imal]; dire

33.  PLAYING - "on"; A in PLYING

35.  BASE - "bottom"; anag. of (BARES - R); Amorino

38.  EAGLE - "standard"; BEAGLE - B

40.  DRAWER - "one writing on cheque"; RAW in DER; zeros

41.  WHEN - "once"; WHITEN - IT

42.  MANITOU - "sacred object"; MAN + I + anag. of OUT; buyer

43.  RARELY - "remarkably well"; move A in (BIZARRELY - BIZ); sincere

44.  SHELLS - "cases"; H for P in SPELLS

45.  GOEL - "avenger"; remove middle letters of GO[sp]EL; unceasing

Down

2.  HONEY - "golden brown"; HONE + Y; uptilt

3.  ENLACED - "intermeshed"; anag. of ADOLESCENT - anag. of SOT; tousle

4.  APOLLO - "Olympian"; A + POLL + O; seaport

6.  ENDED - "over"; anag. of [i]NDEED; misreport

7.  DAILY BREAD - "work"; DAILY + homophone of BRED; jovial

8.  OTHER - "remaining"; BOTHER - B; downpours

9.  REBRACED - "again reinforced"; BRA in RECED[e]; measuring

10.  CUPCAKE - "mad American"; (anag. of PACK) in CUE; matinees

18.  RATECAP - "set financial limit on"; RAT + (rev. of ACE) + P

19.  ANTRAL - "cavity's"; A + (CENTRAL - CE)

20.  PERLMAN - "classical musician"; PER + (M in L[e]A[r]N[t])

22.  HAEMAL - "of blood"; rev. of (LAME + A[fres]H)

24.  STAVESACRE - "larkspur"; E in anag. of (SEARC[h] + VAST); hilly 

27.  CHOBDARS - "Indian ushers"; BD in (CH + OARS); searat

29.  INGENUE - "naive girl"; move IN up in GENUINE; succour

32.  EIGHTVO - "book"; [h]EIGHT + V + O; divas

34.  YAWING - "upset"; YA + WING; line-up [see above for alternative parsing]

36.  ARRAH - "emotional expression"; anag. of (FEATHERBRAIN - BENEFIT); complain

37.  BE-ALL - "Shakespeare's future"; [h]E in BALL; sanity

39.  LEONE - "African bread"; L[arg]E + ONE; leanest

 

Unscrambling of additional words in clues

	Top half				Bottom half
			Across (reds)
1.  MUSTERS	-> RUSSET	+ M		28. TITANIC	-> TITIAN	+ C
11. ARCHERY	-> CHERRY	+ A		31. DIRE	-> RED	+ I
12. LURGY	-> GULY	+ R		33. STRUT	-> RUST	+ T
14. GERMANIC	-> CARMINE	+ G		35. AMORINO	-> MAROON	+ I
16. UNITARY	-> TYRIAN	+ U		40. ZEROS	-> ROSE	+ Z
17. BICKER	-> BRICK	+ E		42. BUYER	-> RUBY	+ E
23. ROADMEN	-> MODENA	+ R		43. SINCERE	-> CERISE	+ N
25. ARTICLE	-> CLARET	+ I		45. UNCEASING	-> SANGUINE	+ C
			Down (flowers)
2. UPTILT	-> TULIP	+ T		24. HILLY	-> LILY	+ H
3. TOUSLE	-> LOTUS	+ E		27. SEARAT	-> ASTER	+ A
4. SEAPORT	-> PROTEA	+ S		29. SUCCOUR	-> CROCUS	+ U
6. MISREPORT	-> PRIMROSE	+ T		32. DIVAS	-> SIDA	+ V
7. JOVIAL	-> VIOLA	+ J		34. LINE-UP	-> LUPIN	+ E
8. DOWNPOURS	-> SNOWDROP	+ U		36. COMPLAIN	-> CAMPION	+ L
9. MEASURING	-> GERANIUM	+ S		37. SANITY	-> TANSY	+ I
10. MATINEES	-> NEMESIA	+ T		39. LEANEST	-> TEASEL	+ N

 

Across solutions to be modified in final grid

I wasn't certain about the legitimacy of all the modified words, particularly ALAYING; is it an alternative spelling of ALLAYING, or intended as A-LAYING (as in "six geese a-laying")?  CREE only seems to exist with a capital letter as the name of an American First Nation people.

In 17 and 40 there's a choice of two letters to change, but neither ARROLAE nor DEAWER is a word, and both changes would also involve modifying Down clues, which doesn't happen anywhere else.  In 1, 42 and 43 there's no actual change to the original solution.

1.

S

-> S

SHEA

unchanged

11.

C

-> I

UNCATE

-> UNIATE

12.

A

-> R

UNLOADS

-> UNLORDS

14.

R

-> P

REELER

-> PEELER

16.

L

-> E

LYRA

-> EYRA

17.

E

-> R

(first E remains unchanged)

AREOLAE

-> AREOLAR

23.

T

-> C

TREE

-> CREE

25.

P

-> Y

PATTER

-> YATTER

28.

I

-> B

CAIMAN

-> CABMAN

31.

M

-> L

MEAN

-> LEAN

33.

P

-> A

PLAYING

-> ALAYING

35.

E

-> K

BASE

-> BASK

40.

R

-> E

(first R remains unchanged)

DRAWER

-> DRAWEE

42.

N

-> N

MANITOU

unchanged

43.

E

-> E

RARELY

unchanged

45.

L

-> Y

GOEL

-> GOEY

Inquisitor 1664 - Codenames by Phi

Published in the i newspaper on 12 September 2020.

It was a pleasure to complete this puzzle, after the last one which I thought was unfairly clued in some places.  It was also the first one that I managed to complete without getting any hints at all!

The two names that were the key to the code were ESTRAGON and VLADIMIR - the main characters in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, with which I'm reasonably familiar.  By giving ROSALIND and GANYMEDE as examples, the setter neatly indicated that it was permissible for two different letters to be encoded as the same letter (not normally allowed in substitution ciphers).  So the code was:

E	S	T	R	A	G	O	N
V	L	A	D	I	M	I	R

I admired the way that the setter made each of the encoded entries a word, even though it wasn't strictly necessary.  The encoded versions of 3dn and 29dn were unfamiliar to me but when you're stuck with V representing E, your options are necessarily a bit limited, I suppose.

The three other associated names were LUCKY, POZZO and GODOT (the two other characters in the play plus the "unseen" one).  Encoded as far as possible, these became LUCKY (unchanged, at the bottom of column 12), PIZZI (start of row 5) and MIDIA (running downwards from row 3, column 10).

Queries

32ac - why "set upon" for SIC?  Or have I misunderstood the clue?

21dn - wasn't sure about this.  I initially put RESHT, the name of a port in Iran ("harbour"), but couldn't justify the wordplay.  RESET fits the wordplay better but not the definition.

29dn was a very ingenious clue but haven't I seen it before somewhere?

Definitions are in quotes, and the encoded versions of answers are in italics.

Across 

1.  BOHM - "Austrian conductor"; B[and] + OHM

4.  ECLIPSED - "concealed"; CLIPS in [f]EED

10.  POISHA - "Bangladeshi coin"; I in POSH + A

11.  BEEDI - "cigarette"; BEE + rev. of I'D

13. WARRAY - old word for "fight"; W + ARRAY

15. VEHME - old word for "courts"; HM in VEE

16.  DIAL/RATS - "that's annoying"; ARTS with the first two letters transposed

17.  PIZZICATO - "it takes some pluck"; (rev. of ZIP) + Z + I + CATO

19.  ROODS - "crosses"; O in RODS

20.  KARAITE - "follower of Scripture"; (ARAB - B) in KITE

22.  IGNITES - "lights"; N in (I + GITES)

25.  ENACT - "to perform"; (rev. of CANE) + T

27.  LYSOSOMAL - "describing digestive aids"; SO-SO in anag. of ALL MY

29.  VIAL/EATS - &lit; hidden in [teahous]E AT S[carborough]

32.  ELCHI - "ambassador"; CH in ELI

33.  STATIC - "by no means moving"; TAT in SIC

34.  IGLOO - "Northern dwelling"; I[celand] + GLOO[m]

35.  LEVIES - "taxes"; (V + I.E.) in LES

36.  REYNOLDS - "English painter"; (anag. of ONLY) in REDS

37.  DRAY - "brewery vehicle"; A in DRY

Down

1.  BOWSPRIT - "spar"; BOWS + PRI[ces] + [augus]T

2.  HORIZONTALLY - "on the level"; HO + ((ZON[e] in IT) in RALLY)

3.  MIRV/GONE - "over the hill"; [climbin]G + ONE

5.  CHYACK - "deride" (Australian); CH + YACK

6.  LAVA/STET - "restore"; T[rio] in SET

7.  IBERT - "French composer"; (B + rev. of RE) in IT

8.  SEMIDIAMETER - "some measure of the angle"; (anag. of TIMES MEDIA) + ER

9.  DILL/ROSS - "Antarctic explorer"; CROSS - C

10.  PATIO - "courtyard"; PA + (rev. of IT) + O

12.  DEALT - "divided"; L in (DEATH - H)

14.  AGIST - "regarding grazing"; A + GIST

18.  GET LUCKY - "to have good fortune"; rev. of (CULT in (Y + KEG))

21.  RESET - "harbour"(?); SE[a] in RET (=to soak hemp in water)

23.  GRIEG - "composer"; E.G. below GRI (George Rex I)

24.  SOUSED - "tired and emotional"; SO + USED

26.  CADIS - "Islamic judges" (more often spelt QADIS); DI in CAS[h]

28.  YAHOO - "wild"; (rev. of HAY) + OO ("loves")

29.  VAIR/ETON - "English town"; E to N (i.e. EFGHIJKLMN, "10 letters")

30.  MILL/GOSS - "holiday souvenirs"; GO + S + [offer]S

31.  LAID/STAR - "leading actor"; STAR[t]

 

Inquisitor 1663 - Equivalency by Eclogue

 Published in the i newspaper on 5 September 2020.

I thoroughly disliked this puzzle for several reasons, and I might not even have attempted it if I hadn't spotted SAN BERNARDINO almost straight off.  There were so many obscurities throughout the rest of the puzzle, and the endgame, that it felt more like tackling a particularly hard exam than something done for pleasure.  My feeling at the end was more one of relief than of satisfaction.

Firstly I felt that the instructions were unclear; they talked about "superfluous letters generated in wordplay", but didn't indicate whether this applied to every clue, or how many superfluous letters were included each time.  Since the previous week's puzzle (by a different setter) had explicitly specified one extra letter per clue, I proceeded on this assumption, which turned out to be right; but that was more by luck than judgement.  The preamble needs to be unambiguous every time.

I also felt there was far too much reliance on obscure words purely for the sake of it; if the answer to a clue isn't a common word, then I don't think the wordplay should rely on obscure words or definitions as well.  There are still one or two answers I'm not sure of because there was no clear way of working out the unchecked letters.  

As for the endgame, if I hadn't been given the hint that the top row was a Jewish phrase I might well not have completed the puzzle.  Nor did I recognize the "equivalency", which turned out to be LAW IS A BOTTOMLESS PIT [or] THE HISTORY OF JOHN BULL - the title of a 1712 work by John Arbuthnot, apparently.  The unclued Across entries all had some sort of connection with "law", and the unclued Down entries were all loose synonyms for "pit" minus the last (bottom) letter, although the top two were unknown to me.

Running across in order, I had SHULCHAN ARUCH (the code of Jewish law), RIOT ACT (a law that no longer exists, though people continue to "read" it), INVERSE SQUARE (not the name of an actual law, but a generic description of certain physical laws), and ROZZERS (old name for the police = "the law").  Running down the left-hand side were SCROBICUL[a] (one of the smooth areas surrounding the tubercles of a sea urchin) and ABYS[s]; and down the right, HANG[i] (a Maori method of cooking food in a pit), and DEPRESSIO[n].

As for the nine cells to be highlighted, I assumed that they were CRATERULE in column 5 - CRATE being CRATER (synonym for "pit") without the final letter, and RULE being a synonym for "law".  However, since the solution to 3 down was the word CRATER itself, this didn't seem very satisfactory to me.

Here are my attempts at trying to unpick the clues.  The redundant letters in the wordplay are underlined.

Across

8.  OWARI - OIL surrounding WAR (the "contrary" of WAR ("strife") about OIL).  Owari is a former Japanese province.

9.  SHMO - hidden in [clanni]SH MAO[ri].  "Shmo" or "schmo" is a Yiddish word for a stupid person, but I didn't see where "aged Jonathan" came into it.

12.  TRON - I suppose this is ROW ("rank") in TN for "tradename", but I didn't recognize the abbreviation.  Also I understood that a "tron" was a weighing beam used in a Scottish marketplace, rather than the marketplace itself.

14.  GORING - not sure about this.  "Running through" is the definition, and it seems that "Igor" may be a brand of banking software, giving IGOR - R ("rubles") + RING ("call").

15.  BENNES - are sesame seeds (oil producers), To understand both this clue and 33A I needed to know that a "but and ben" is a Scottish two-roomed house, with the "but" as the outer room and the "ben" as the inner one.  This gives BEN + NESS ("headland").

16.  THEO - presumably a reference to footballer Theo Walcott.  E ("European") in an anagram of OATH.

19.  COYPU - a large rodent.  COB ("swan") + Y ("unknown quantity") + rev. of UP ("in an excited state"). 

21.  STOUP - an old word for a bucket.  Presumably SO + TO + UP ("to rise"), although "so" = "well" seemed a bit doubtful.  Is it a reference to the current habit of starting sentences with "so" where one might once have started with "well"?

23.  UNDULANT FEVER - I got this from UNDU[e] (most of "excessive") + anag. of LEFT TAVERN, but I'm not sure about the definition.  Apparently it's another term for brucellosis, a gastrointestinal disease with many nasty symptoms including nausea and vomiting, but which doesn't affect the joints as far as I can tell.

26.  PEKE - either a little dog or a little word for a dog - I don't think it matters which!  Anagram of KEPT + E, although I don't recognize E for "earl".

27.  TITULE - this was horrible and I only got it after a strong hint.  I presume "Bart" is intended as an abbreviation of "baronet".  "Baronet" is a title, and "titule" is an old word for "title", it seems.  The wordplay was a bit obscure too: rev. of OUT in TILE ("baseball cap" at a stretch?)

30.  ALNAGE - it seems that both this and "ulnage" are old terms for inspection of cloth, but the wordplay sorted it out: L (Luxembourg) in MANAGE ("control", as verb).

33.  BUTS - see 15A for the definition ("Perth's outer rooms").  Initial letters of B[e] U[p] T[o] L[etting] S[outh].

34.  OLPE - obscure word for a Greek jug which I didn't know.  Anagram of PEOPLE without its initial P.

35.  NEEZE or NEESE - really not sure about this one at all.  It seems to be a variant of "sneeze" (="sudden expiration"), and the redundant letter has to be S, but I can't sort out the wordplay.

36.  SAN BERNARDINO - Californian city, anag. of BANNERS IN ROADS.  Nice clue.

Down

1.  HOISE - can't quite get this.  It's an old variant of "hoist" (="lift").  Could it be IS (="remains") in HOPE?  I don't understand "hope" for "enclosure", though.

2.  LATEN - I hadn't realized that this word for "make late" or "delay" was an actual one, although its meaning is obvious once you guess it.  Anagram of AT LINE.

3.  CRATER - it's the name of a constellation ("stars"), which I wasn't aware of.  Assuming C for "canine" (why?) gives C + RATTER ("vermin killer").

4.  HICKS - synonym of "hayseeds" in the American sense of "simple people from the country", although I got this completely wrong first time and put in COMIC, thinking of the comic strip.  C ("hundred") and K ("thousand") in THIS.

5.  ASTI - should probably have guessed that this was the town where they make the eponymous wine.  ASH + TI, "ti-tree" being an old spelling of "tea-tree".

6.  AMBO - a raised platform in an early Christian church, hence "pulpit".  I suppose it must be AME (the French word for "soul") + BO, but I don't see why BO = "man", and I didn't think French nouns were allowed in wordplay (as opposed to "le", "un" etc.).

7.  ULRICA - this comes from the wordplay, being RIC[h] ("splendid") in the initials of U[ltra] L[ight] A[ircraft].  "Ulrica" does seem to be an older spelling of the name but "Germanic female" seems a little misleading to me.  The modern German spelling "Ulrike" didn't fit the crossing letters, so I initially wrote in ULRIKA, which is the usual spelling in Swedish and probably only the one most British people have come across (Ulrika Jonsson).  It doesn't affect the rest of the puzzle, so I wonder why the alternative spelling was clued.

10.  HIGHSET - I initially wrote in HIGHEST but the crossing letters ruled it out, although it also fits the wordplay: HIGH ("drunk") + anag. of SITE.  It's an Australian term meaning "built on high stumps" (of a house), hence "pitched up".  

11.  CONGRUE - didn't like this clue at all.  It's an old word for "agree", made up of CONS ("prisoners") + GRUE ("shudder" - the root of "gruesome").  I presume that "Bard's" is an indication of Shakespearian origins, and that "in Barlinnie" indicates a Scottish word (Barlinnie being a Scottish prison), but clueing one obscure word in terms of another goes against the spirit of cryptic crosswords in my view.

12.  TROUT - not sure how to parse this.  If you take "unpleasant old meddler" as the definition then you can break it down as a reversal of TORT ("wrong" in law) + UT (Latin for "as"), but are Latin words generally allowed in isolation?  There may be another way of doing it.

13.  ENVY - not happy with this.  Shakespeare coined the phrase "green-eyed monster" in Othello to describe jealousy, which is not a synonym of "envy" as far as I'm concerned.  For the wordplay, you need the fairly obscure meaning of ENVOY (more often spelt "envoi"), a short stanza at the end of a poem (so "the final words").

16.  TERNE - a thin steel sheet coated with an alloy of lead and tin (so "a mixture of metals"), hidden in [pat]TERN RE[ader].

17.  NONPLUS - I only know this as a verb, but it can be a noun meaning "a state of bafflement or perplexity" (is that the same as "great difficulty"?).  Anagram of PYLON in a reversal of SUN, which actually confused me because the word "sun" was standing for itself!

18.  SHAKE UP - "mix", a relatively straightforward clue for once.   HAKE ("fish") in SOUP ("broth").

20.  PUPAS - can't quite get this.  Def. is "intermediate stages", and I suppose you've got a reversal of SUP ("drink") containing P, A and the redundant letter F.  Could "paf" be a Shakespearian ("Will's") term for "befuddled"?  Seems a tad unlikely, but it's the best I could do.

22.  OVUM - def. is "egg", and the wordplay seems to be JO ("beloved") + VUM (US word for "swear"), although the other bits don't seem to work right.  "Jo" occurs most famously in Robert Burns (not known to me as "Sandy"), and "vum" seems to come from New England (not Kansas).  Enlightenment required.

24.  DENTIN - an alternative spelling of the better-known "dentine" ("material in tooth").  Anag. of NODE + TIN, although the "on" in a Down clue would suggest to me that TIN should come first.

25.  FIZZER - "something excellent", although it's a bit of a damp squib if you ask me!  It's just FIZZ ("champagne") + HER ("belonging to woman").

27.  TRONA - really don't have a clue about this one.  It's a sodium carbonate compound ("chemical combination"), and the redundant letter must be N, but otherwise I'm stumped.

28.  TOZED - another baffling one.  Obsolete term for "combed" (used of wool etc.).  The best I can do is rev. of BOT + ZED, but neither "bot" = "sundowner" nor "zed" = "bar" makes any sense to me.

29.  LOREN - yet another perplexing one.  Sophia Loren of course, and I assume it's LOUR ("scowl"), but why EN for "nut"?

31.  GULE - I can only assume this is a Northern word for "marigold", but can't confirm.  It's GULLEY without its final Y.

32.  WREN - a fairly simple one to end on!  The Wrens was the nickname for the former Women's Royal Naval Service ("female sailor").  R and L ("both hands") in reversal of NEW ("fresh").

 

Inquisitor 1662 - The Return of Ulysses by Kruger

My solution to this puzzle, published in the i newspaper on 29 August 2020.  I recognized the title as one of the chapter titles from Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows before I even looked at the puzzle!

The extra letters from the wordplay spelled out CHAPTER TITLE IN GRAHAME BOOK for the Across clues, EVICT SQUATTERS FROM RESIDENCE for the Down clues.  The unclued entry was NOTUS (a name for the south wind).  The letters to be highlighted were TOAD and HALL in row 4 (location associated with the book); OSIER and SALLOW in row 12 (alternative names for the willow).  The "squatters" who had to be evicted were WEASELS, running downwards between TOAD and HALL in column 8.

Queries

47A - why "without removing"?  Surely either "without" or "removing" is needed, but not both.

51A - can't find "pink" as a definition of "chaffinch".

4D - what's the significance of "Ed"? 

8D - isn't "pasha" a military rather than a naval officer?

13D - definition appears to come from a single source (see this thread). 

 

Definition parts of clues are in quotes.  Redundant letters in the wordplay are underlined.

Across

1.  ROSEBUD - "flower-to-be"; ROSE + (CU in BD)

7.  WASSAILS - "festive occasions"; WASH + SAILS

13.  PARVENU - "upstart"; PAR[k] + AVENU[e]

15.  ITERANT - "repeating"; IT + anag. of PARENT

18.  BEAST - "animal"; AT in BEST

19.  CUTTO - "large knife"; CUT + TOE

20.  SHALLOWS - "sea not deep there"; anag. of (SHOR[e] + WALLS)

21.  TEREBRAE - "boring organs"; anag. of (ARE BETTER)

22.  RESOLE - "repair shoe"; RE + SOIL + 2nd letter of [l]E[ather]

24.  SMOG - "it makes it hard to see"; rev. of (G + TOMS)

26.  LAPSE - "to pass one degree after another"; (rev. of PAL) in LSE 

28.  HAKAM - "wise man"; HAKE + AM

31.  NESTS - "lodges"; IT in NESS

33.  SATIN - "silky fabric"; SANT[a] + IN

35.  LUG IN - "irrelevantly introduce"; [p]LUGGIN[g]

37.  WADD - "black lead"; WARD + D

39.  MEDFLY - "pest"; ME + DAFTLY - T

41.  ONCEOVER - "comprehensive survey"; anag. of (NEVER CHOOSE - S[tok]E)

42.  INSOLENT - "rude"; IN[dia] + anag. of ALSO + E + [ba]NT[er]

44.  DHOTI - "fabric"; HOT in DIM

47.  AGUED - "cold"; A + SEGUED - [sweater]S

48.  HOOSIER - "inhabitant of Fort Wayne"; HO + BOSSIER - S

49.  SALLOWY - "pale-yellowish coloured"; SAL[t] + rev. of WOOL + [sand]Y

50.  SPOONEYS - "fools"; anag. of SO-SO PEONY

51.  TENPINS - "they're in alley"; rev. of NET + PINKS

Down

2.  OAHU - "Pacific island"; HE in O + A + U

3.  EVET - "amphibian"; E[at] + V[egetation] + E[xplanation] + TV

4.  BEROBS - "steals from"; (rev. of BORE) in BIS

5.  UNBARING - "stripping"; U + N + B + CAR + IN + G[arage]

6.  DUE DATE - "pay-back time"; anag. of ([n]UTTE[r] + DEAD)

8.  AISHA - "girl"; IS in [p]ASHA

9.  SEXLESS - "not taking part in congress"; SEQ + X + LESS

10.  ARAL SEA - "once-huge lake"; A + anag. of [p]ERUSAL + A

11.  IAGO - "villain"; hidden in rev. of RIO AGAIN

12.  STASES - "periods of inactivity"; S in STATES [=former legislature]

13.  PICTS - "Steele's painted women"; TT in PICS (opp. of PICS in TT)

14.  EASEL - "frame"; [criminal]S in (EA + EEL)

16.  NEWLAID - "produced recently"; rev. of (WHEN - H) + (I in LARD) [="garnish" as verb]

17.  STROKED - "gently rubbed"; [cat]S [tha]T [pur]R [s]O [owner]S [thin]K [they'r]E [contente]D

23.  OCTAVOS - "books"; V + O + anag. of (FACTORIES - [bar]RIE)

25.  MARENGO - "Emperor's horse"; (anag. of ROME RAN) incl. G[ladiators]

27.  PSOCIDAE - "family of insects"; anag. of (I COPED + A SO)

29.  ALFONSO - "old King of Spain"; ALSO incl. (F + MON) [=Japanese family crest]

30.  MULLEIN - "shepherd's club" [name for plant]; MULL + REIN

32.  TINIEST - "most small"; anag. of ENTITIES

34.  SMITHS - "forgers"; anag. of (MISS + H[a]T[e]S)

36.  WEDELN - "swivelling movements"; hidden in OVERAWE DELINQUENTS

38.  DRILY - "in a restrained way"; R[overs] in DID + [p]L[a]Y

40.  ANGRY - "annoyed"; [r]ANGER + Y[osemite]

43.  SHOO - "go away"; SHOON [=old word for "shoes"]

45.  HELP - "assist"; CHE + LOP - O

46.  TOWN - "urban community"; TO + WEN

 

 

Inquisitor 1661 - Line Drawing by eXtent

My solution of this puzzle, first published in the i newspaper on 22 August 2020. 

The message around the outside of the grid was THINKING OUTSIDE THE GRID (starting in SW corner and proceeding clockwise).  The extra letters spelled out SOUTH EAST and NORTH.  

The nine blank cells were at positions 3, 6 and 9 in each of rows 3, 6 and 9.  The added cells were at the top and bottom of columns 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11; and at the left and right of rows 1, 3, 6, 9 and 11. 

The line I drew started in the SE corner and went diagonally up to the blank cell at row 3, column 3; then rightwards to the added cell at the end of row 3; then diagonally downwards to the added cell at the bottom of column 3; and finally straight upwards to the top of column 3. 

[Edit 7/9/20: the published solution was different from this, starting in the SE blank cell and then proceeding NW to (3,3); S to the bottom of column 3; NE to the right end of row 3; and W to the blank cell at (3,6), considered to be the "north" cell.  I prefer my solution since the line ends up at the "north" edge of the grid.]

Letters that extend beyond the printed grid are in bold.  Added spaces are represented by the # symbol.  Redundant letters in the wordplay are underlined.

Across

1.  KNEADERS - def. "manipulative people", anag. of ASKED + N + R + E

6.  SLURS - def. "insults", P for L in SPURS

9.  FUSING - def. "Act of Union", creating a commotion = FUSSING 

11.  MANIA - def. "fanaticism", ROMANIA - R

12.  NAC#RE - def. "shiny coating", hidden in LAMINA CREATES

14.  OK#API - def. "browser", OK + API

16.  AT EASE - def. whole thing, ATE + A + USE

17.  TRIBALISM - def. "group loyalty", (BALT + IS) in TRIM

19.  INC#UL#CA#TED - def. "brainwashed", anag. of CULT CAN DIE

21.  CHILDCARE - def. "responsibility for young people", L and CHAR in CHIDE

24.  VIRAGO - def. "Amazon", (RAG + O) in VIE

28.  HIT#CH - def. "couple", HIT + CH

29.  AZ#YME - def. "unleavened bread", anag. of (MAIZE - I + Y)

30.  SPORT - def. "fun", OR in SPAT

31.  PLAICE - def. "accompaniment for chips", anag. of SPECIAL

32.  TASTE - double def.

33.  EXORCIST - cryptic def.

 

Down

1.  INFANT - def. "at early developmental stage", IN + FAN + T

2.  NAS#TI#C - def. "unrelated to direction of stimulus", anag. of (ACTIONS - O)

3.  DIRE - def. "dreadful", R in DIET

4.  GENERA - def. "groups", GENERAL - L

5.  OSMOTIC - def. "associated with diffusion of fluid", M in (OS + OTIC)

6.  SAKE - def. "cause", treacherous person = SNAKE

7.  ULN#A - def. "body part", hidden in BEAUTIFUL NANNY

8.  TRAPEZE - def. "apparatus", (rev. of ART) + P + homophone of "ease"

10.  G#AL#LO#P - def. "fast pace", OP after GALL

13.  CIRCUIT - def. "way round", CI + anag. of (I + COURT)

15.  ASHTRAY - def. "receptacle", (SHUT - U) in (ARRAY)

18.  M#AL#ICE - def. "spite", LI in MACE

19.  NOVI SAD - def. "Balkan city", VISA in NOD

20.  LIGHTER - def. "one fires", BLIGHTER without first letter

22.  DIALOG - def. "Trump's speech", rev. of (GO + LAID)

23.  ENMESH - def. "catch", anag. of (HORSEMEN - OR)

25.  R#OTI - def. "sandwich", EROTIC without first & last letters

26.  ACRE - def. "division of land", ACT + RE

27.  CZAR - def. "leader" - Z in anag. of ARCH

 

 

Reply to mattd

This is a verbatim copy of a private message that I sent to user "mattd" on the Digital Spy forums in response to a forum post he'd made the previous day in the thread "News Corp to launch Times Radio". The quoted text is from mattd.

Companies invest in brands so they can lead markets and have a better chance of extracting more money from consumers - this may be making people buy KP Nuts every week, rather than similar own brands, or by being able to charge a premium for a product or service.

Agreed, although I don't like that term "extracting".  Makes it sound like a form of torture.

With The Times, you can buy it never, occasionally or all the time. You can consume a print product (sold through an intermediary like a newsagent or direct) or you can get some of a digital product free (a couple of articles or a podcast) direct from them. There's a variety of price points for sold products, but they'd like to get you on a subscription, because lots of people get used to it as a utility and don't end up unsubscribing.

OK.

If they do get bored of it, the effort to unsubscribe etc, will at least gain them a few more months of you paying.

Don't you think it's rather dishonest to take money from people for something they don't actually want?

If you're buying a paper and get bored, the money dries up straight away.

True, but it can work both ways.  For instance you might get Telegraph readers who get bored of their regular paper and one day decide to switch to the Times instead.  Casual purchases must make up a significant proportion of their income.

If a customer remains happy, likes getting the product etc, then they'll continue subscribing.

Indeed.

Brands aren't just the product. If they were I'd probably be more happy with my own brand nuts rather than KP.

A lot of people are.  I mostly buy own-brand products because they're cheaper than the branded alternative.  When you're on a low income your priorities can be rather different.

Brands imbue value to a product. Paying loads of money for a Rolex isn't just about having a good watch, it's about being a Rolex owner too. "Oh, we shop at Waitrose" is more than just "I like Waitrose products".

Yes, it means you're a terrible snob!

Generating subscribers to The Times is about encouragement.

The first lot of subscribers are partly value customers. I get the product anyway, subscribing and getting a package makes it cheaper for me.

As I mentioned earlier, this contradicts something you said further down the article.[*]  Can you clarify whether you're actually a Times subscriber or not please?

The second lot are people who get the digital product because it works for them and their life. Both these groups are the easy ones, you don't really need to sell to them - you just communicate the value.

Indeed.

The third lot are occasionals. I get the Sunday Times, sometimes the Daily, I look at articles people link to, I get annoyed that the paywall sometimes boots me out for reaching the max number of articles.

[*]This bit.

The fourth group are people who know what The Times is, are generally positive towards what it does, look at articles online/maybe listen to a podcast.

You can't look at Times articles online if you don't subscribe - the whole paper's behind a paywall.  (It's not like some others where there's a quota of free articles.)

The job for group three is pushing them over the subscription edge, the job with group four is turning them into group three and moving them down the funnel.

That makes sense - they want to get casual buyers and turn them into subscribers.  I still don't see how launching a radio station is going to make much difference though - the paper itself contains frequent ads encouraging readers to take out subscriptions.  It might make a little bit of difference, because customers will hear the ads on the radio as well as reading them in the paper.  But I think News UK is massively over-estimating the effect the station will have.

The more you know about the product, the more you feel positive towards the brand, the more it talks to you as an individual, the more likely you are to consume more Times products and then the more likely you are to subscribe.

OK.

Done well, the radio station will help Times-ify more people in group three and four. It may also even attract some new people into group 4 too.

I'm not entirely sure what "Times"-ification is.

[section on phone networks deleted]

It'll be the same for The Times. All their marketing, sponsorship, ads, events, podcasts and now the radio, are about helping to acquire customers and turn them into recurring revenue. Then the output - print, digital, events podcasts and now the radio - will be about keeping you closer to the brand to stop churn - ie unsubscribing.

Indeed.  I suppose you can argue that if Times readers have got a radio station to listen to as well as a paper to read, they're less likely to switch to another paper.

But that's still more about keeping existing customers than attracting new ones.

[section on Waitrose deleted]

Will it work? Who knows. Not all marketing is successful. The strategy though is pretty standard.

After all that, we appear to be in agreement!  You don't know if it'll work and neither do I.

A crack at a barred crossword

Inquisitor 1645: Billet-doux by Eclogue

Although I've been doing cryptic crosswords for about forty years now, I've always steered clear of those "barred" or "themed" puzzles that you get in some of the weekend newspapers, like Azed in the Observer or Enigmatic Variations in the Sunday Telegraph.  I'm old enough to remember the Listener crosswords when they were actually in the Listener magazine and I used to be completely awestruck by them - I used to think I was doing well if I understood the preamble!  Even when I saw the solution I was usually none the wiser.  (Although they did have an occasional "cross-number" variant which I successfully solved once or twice - I don't know if it still exists.)

Anyway, like many others I've recently had more time on my hands than usual, and the weekend before last I decided to tackle the Inquisitor (1644) in the Saturday i newspaper.  To my surprise, I found it relatively easy, perhaps because only six of the answers had to be "doctored", and so it was mostly like completing a normal cryptic until the twist at the end, which I worked out relatively quickly.

Buoyed up by this, I decided to tackle last weekend's puzzle.  In some ways I wish I hadn't!  I finally managed to complete it after reading the relevant thread on the Crossword Help forum, but it was still a struggle after taking all their hints into account.  As there are no prizes on offer at the moment, I thought it might be OK to publish the answers but was advised not to until 12th May.  I'm fairly certain they're all right but there are still a number that I don't understand properly.  I've put the omitted letter(s) in bold.

Across

1.  SPLICE - presumably P in "slice", but why "groom" for "slice"?
6.  IPSO FACTO - very cleverly hidden in "clips of Act One".  (By the way, why do barred puzzles not enumerate individual words?)
12.  MACRO - "MA" for "master" and then the initials of "command running others".  I assume this is an "&lit" referring to computer macros.
14.  RIMOUS - "I'm" in "rouse" without the final letter.  The first of many obscure words that seem to be a staple of this type of puzzle - an alternative form of "rimose", meaning "having a surface covered with cracks, fissures or crevices".
15.  HOUDINI - anagram of "hid in OU".  Nice!
16.  NONET - "no net".  I'm sure I've seen this before.
19.  PRUNE - "run" in "PE".
20.  PLEBE - "pleb" plus the first letter of "excoriated".  Not one I'd come across before - a US term meaning "newly entered cadet or freshman".
22.  THORIA - anagram of "hot air".  I'd come across the element "thorium" but not this term, which is an alternative name for thorium dioxide.
23.  PRESIDIA - I presume this is most of "reside" in "Pia".  "Pia" is a female name meaning "devout", although I think it's a slight stretch to use "devout female" in this way.  "Presidia" is the plural of "Presidium", which was the supreme ruling committee of the Soviet Union - but as there was only ever one Presidium, can it really be said to have a plural?
25.  NACELLE - "cell" in "nae".  Another new one for me - "a streamlined casing on the outside of an aircraft or motor vehicle".
26.  SLIPS - most of "spill" backwards plus "s" for "saint".
29.  RULER - "rule" plus "R".
32.  GUITEAU - the first of several answers that I cribbed from the forum.  It appears to be "guilt" without the "l" plus "EAU", the vehicle registration for Uganda.  I hadn't heard of him and was only dimly aware of James Garfield, the US president whom he assassinated in 1881.
34.  BARBEQUE - "bar" plus "qu" in "bee".  I really don't like this alternative spelling of "barbecue" but it was the only one that fitted the wordplay, and was clearly needed for the border quotation.
36.  THRONG - "Th" plus "wrong" without "w".
38.  EMEUS - "em" plus "EU" plus "s".  I thought this was an error when I first saw it but it seems to be an archaic spelling of "emus".
39.  INDRI - "in" plus "DRI", but can "belonging to" really be taken as a definition of "in"?  I'd never heard of this creature, which is one of the world's largest living lemurs.
40.  TREMA - hidden in "theatre manager", but I really don't like "staying" as an indicator of a hidden word.  Nor do I understand "opening" as the definition - I only know "tréma" as a diacritical mark used over the top of French vowels.
43.  OSSIA - anagram of "Oasis".  I actually did know this term, which is an old Italian word for "or", but only because I was once a musician!
44.  SLAINTE - anagram of "entails".  I also knew this Gaelic drinking toast - is it commonly used elsewhere?
45.  DENTELLE - cribbed this straight from the forum without really understanding it.  French term for "lace" which I'd never heard in English.
46.  TISRI - initials of "take it slowly" plus "RI".  I'd come across this month in the Hebrew calendar before but only seen it spelled "Tishri".
47.  DISSENTED - "Dis" (roman name for Hades) plus "sent" plus "ed".
48.  STRAYS - "R" in "stays", but why "transactions" for "R"?  "R" meaning "take" (as in a doctor's prescription) is reasonably common in crosswords but I don't think I've seen it as a noun - certainly not a plural.

Down

1.  SCHLEPPS - "EP" in "LP" in "sch" plus "S" for "society".
2.  PROGERIA - looked this up after getting a big hint from the forum, and didn't really understand it.  It's a disease that makes children age before their time.
3.  BLUDE - "lud" (for "lord") inside "be".  I assume it's an allusion to the old poem about "drinking the blude-red wine" but it's surely stretching things to give "Scottish claret" as a definition - the king wasn't actually drinking blood!
4.  SINIC - sounds like "Cynic", which is a type of philosopher alongside its more usual definition.  I'd come across the combining form "Sino-" for "Chinese" but not this adjective, although I'd heard "Sinitic".
5.  CANAPE - cribbed from forum and don't think I'd have got it otherwise.  "Can" is the Texan ass, "ape" is stupid.
6.  INCITED - "cit" in an anagram of "dine".  "Cit" is an obsolete derogatory term for a townsman which I actually guessed from the clue, but wouldn't have known otherwise.
7.  SOBERING - nice anagram of "Gisborne".
8.  ORIENTAL - anagram of "relation", although I'm not sure about "another" as anagram indicator.  In fact I got this before 4 because I knew 4 had to be something vaguely Chinese!
9.  FINES HERBES - "fine" (the French word, referring to high quality brandy) plus "sherbets" (Australian slang term for beers) minus "t" (from "tang").  I wasn't sure about this specific meaning of "fine" but guessed it anyway.  I think I knew "sherbets" just from chatting to Australians!
10.  CONSOLUTE - neat anagram of "lose count".  Didn't previously know the word but managed to guess it.
11.  OSTEAL - "OS" (oversize) plus "teal" (duck).  Even with the hint on the forum I don't quite get this - "osteal" is defined as "relating to bone or the skeleton", and I don't see where the anvil comes into it.
13.  CRYPTIC - I presume "cry" plus "pt" plus the initials of "in country".  Is "cry" a term for a pack of hounds?
17.  EMAIL - cribbed from forum.  Reversal of "Liam" (an Irish form of William, apparently) plus "E" for "European".
21.  ESSENTIALS - "Essen" (German city) plus anagram of "tails".
24.  EPITOMISTS - "pit" (bed) plus "o" (over) plus "mist" (?rack), all inside "ES" for "El Salvador".  I don't get "rack" for "mist", and the main word was new to me - apparently an archaic definition of "epitomize" was "summarize", so "they shorten" could just about be taken as a brief definition of the whole thing.
27.  MAGDALEN - anagram of "lead G [for good] man", &lit.  Nice clue although some might quibble about the slightly indirect anagram - it's a reference to Mary Magdalen in the Bible.
28.  MURRHINE - "rum" backwards plus "Rhine".   Another completely unfamiliar word, and I'm not sure if "precious material" is even a correct definition - it's listed as an adjective meaning "made of the stone or material called murrha by the Ancient Romans".  As a noun (normally spelt "murrine") it means "a glass mosaic cane made by fusing together layers of coloured glass".

30.  FLUENTLY - anagram of "net fully", which took me much longer than expected!
31.  RESCUERS - "res" (reserve) plus "Cu" (copper) plus initials of "economic retention stock".  Hadn't come across "res" this way before but it's not too unexpected.
33.  LURES - "Ur" in "les" - two old crossword staples!  (Think it was my first to solve.)
34.  BAVINS - "av" in "bins".  This word for "bundles of firewood" was completely unknown to me and it was the only clue I got wrong first time, thinking it must be "staves".
35.  ANTLERED - cribbed the answer to this, although it parses easily as "ant" plus "ER" inside "led".  Don't quite see "bearing weapons" as a definition though.
36.  HOODED - even after reading the hints on the forum I didn't get this until nearly the end.  I took "hod" for "blowpipe" on trust but why "ode" for "energy" - or have I misunderstood?
37.  DRAILS - "d" (old penny) plus "rails".  Didn't know the word and thought I'd made a mistake when I saw it was a term from fishing, but apparently there's a second definition of "a perforated iron projecting from the beam of a plough to which the horses are hitched".
41.  MUIST - this has got to be the most obscure one of the lot, both in the wordplay and the definition.  I assume it's "I" inside "must", but why does "in a frenzy" indicate "must"?  The word itself is defined on Scrabble Solver as "to powder (to reduce to fine dust-like particles)", but I can't corroborate it anywhere else, and God knows where the Gorbals come into it.
42.  ANGER - anagram of "enrage" without its initial "e".  A neat little "&lit" clue to end with.

Quotation

I discovered from the forum that the quotation was in French, and I'm very glad I knew this as I doubt whether I'd ever have got it otherwise.  To make matters worse, there appear to be multiple versions of it.  The version required appears to be as follows, with the omitted words in italics:

L'absence est à l'amour ce qu'est au feu le vent - Il éteint le petit, il allume le grand.

from Histoires Amoureuses des Gaules (1665) by Bussy-Rabutin, although there are also apparently versions beginning with "la distance..." and other variations.  A rough literal translation might be "absence is to love what the wind is to fire - it puts out the small and lights up the big".  I have no knowledge whatsoever of the author, the work or the context - should I?

And so, at the end of it all, it appears that what I have to do is delete the letters PETIT in the middle of the fifth line and highlight the letters GRAND in the middle of the ninth.  A bit of an anticlimax I'd say!