Iq 1689

[hankir]

Need help.
One letter from the wordplay has to be removed before solving.

34. No longer in coat maybe, boy’s outside at the big house in Scotland (4)

The extra letters give me 8,2,7, 5 but not very clear.

[ProfessorMaisie]

'No longer in co[a]t' = UP + BY (Scots dial).

[ProfessorMaisie]

Yes, that's the right letter count, hankir - 6d formed the SS.

[ProfessorMaisie]

... so, you're looking for someone high up in that organization (once the 3 letters are changed).

[hankir]

Thanks ProfessorM.

The last 5 letter word gives me dupe or fool.
Equivalent phrase would be: Strict SS believed dupe.

What does this in the preamble mean?
The position of these
extra letters in the clue indexes
a new order for the same letters,
each used once, which spells
out a description.

[ProfessorMaisie]

Yes, that's about it (meaning he was, 'taken in by a fraudster').
If you count the number of letters in the clues upto the extra letter you get the position of that letter in the 2nd arrangement (1d starts with 'C[h]at...', so the [h] is the 2nd letter, 2d starts 'See rel[a]y...', so the [a] is the 7th etc etc). The letter count for the new phrase is 5,3,3,10.

[ProfessorMaisie]

sorry, hankir - poor maths again! First word is 6 letters, not 5.

[hankir]

Thanks ProfessorM.

Sorry. I am not any wiser.
Since there are 22 down clues and 6,3,3,10 adds up to 22, is it just an anagram of extra letters?
First 6 are 2,7,19,9,16,4. Does not seem to make a word.

[ProfessorMaisie]

Yes, it's an anagram but the order is given by the placement of extra letters. Only 2 of the numbers you've given make up the first word, 2[h] + 4[i] - so your first word is (1)(2=h)(3)(4=i)(5)(6).

[ProfessorMaisie]

After working out the new arrangement it would help to do a word search for a name in the grid - reading diagonally (it might even help as a shortcut to the theme).

[hankir]

Thanks ProfessorM.
Got Dutch name and the cheater's name.
I am assuming that the sign means two dots on top of a letter.
Had no idea about the cheating.

Have you finished Listener? Not even half way through yet.

[ProfessorMaisie]

That's it, hankir. Yes, it's a fascinating story - and it's been well used here.

Listener is done - I liked the idea but it was a bit of struggle (I didn't enjoy it as much this puzzle).