Inquisitor 1241

[Sue66]

Last one. 46A - Immediately curtailed alkaloid found in tea (4). Wordplay has either one extra or one less letter. I have T?EN.

Also can anyone give me a start on what to highlight in the grid. I have all the superflous letters which spell out what does not make sense to me!

[Chandamama]

THEN

[Sue66]

Thanks Chandamanda. I'll take your word for it but still not sure how it is worked out. Any ideas about highlighting in the grid?

[Negomi]

Theine is like caffeine but in tea, extra letter is middle of surname.

[Voulez-vous]

T.S Eliot will help..............

[Kobnut]

Hi Sue 66
The across letters should give you a poem and its author. The down letters provide three references to the poem to be highlighted.

[TheBear69]

Can someone explain the extra/missing letter in 21acr?

[Indy-trier]

Hi TheBear69. I have the same problem as you do when it comes to explaining the extra letters in several clues. I know that it should be F in 21A and I in 21A for example but I've ended up with S and E!! I also can't explain the T in 31A. Despite completing all entries finding enough letters to find the theme and some of the highlighted words I'm still puzzled by some of the word play. Any help would be gratefully received!

[Micky666]

21ac: 'CHUM' (f)lying = anagram
31ac: S(T)AG = (male) + decline

[Indy-trier]

Doh!! Thank you Micky666. I've now finished and understood everything so I can relax!

[TheBear69]

Sorry, Micky666, but that does not work. The misprint is supposed to be in the wordplay not the clue and anyway 'flying' is just as good if not better than 'lying' as an anagram indicator.

[Indy-trier]

Surely in 31A either word could be the wordplay - so, if the wordplay is DECLINE then T being the extra letter is valid. Hope so anyway or I'm back to being confused!

[Micky666]

TheBear69:
21ac: 'Chum flying' IS the clue's wordplay, 'a lot' is the clue's definition.

Indy-trier:
31ac: 'Male' must be the definition (giving the grid entry), hence the wordplay must be 'decline'. The other way round, the clue would not work thematically!

[Gregsdad]

Hi

I agree with you Micky666 but I think 21A is the only clue in which the extra letter is hidden within the cryptic wordplay ?

[TheBear69]

I am being technical, Micky666, but a standard cryptic clue has two parts: a definition and a 'subsidary indication'.The wordplay is the set of letters that result from the subsidary indication. That is what is going on in all the other clues. 21A is not missing a letter in the wordplay; it's missing a letter in the subsidary indication.

For example, clue 6A will not work at all if we take 'wordplay' to mean the subsidary indication. That would change the wordplay into 'Tail attached to alost half' which is both non-sensical and flawed in that alost has an odd number of characters.

It's sloppy if not unfair to do what was done in 21a.

[Micky666]

Gregsdad, at least we agree, don't know where the original querists have gone!

[Micky666]

TheBear69:
We seem to have been commenting at the same time!
I joined this thread to assist with queries, I am not the setter!
You asked for assistance, I gave my interpretation!
If you too are not happy with this dodgy clue, there is a contact email address below the grid!

[paulo_1]

hello

i've nailed down the poem but am struggling with the (3 ?) down references - i have the following letters:

amaihesconcernwhaohesas - can someone give me a steer ?

tia

paul

[Sue66]

paulo_1, I've only just noticed your query. If there is stilll time to send in the solution, the letters you need is amanhisconcernwhathesaw. Which is slightly different to what you say. A man, his concern, what he saw. Then you can highlight the answers in the grid from the poem.