Ev 1125

[stymied]

Surprised there are no postings on this. A gentle grid fill and the first of the four
letter indications fairly rapidly gave the quotation and source. However, having filled the grid there's still some work to do, and the final steps lead to a most satisfying conclusion. Many thanks to Kea for a very clever construction.

[EV_Solver]

As you say, stymied, a fairly gentle grid fill, and a stroll to complete the grid - albeit with some absolutely cracking clues. I was a bit worried that completing the endgame might be incongruously difficult when compared with what had gone before, but was pleasantly surprised when it fell out after about 15 minutes work. Many thanks to Kea - it's good to see the best setter of barred thematic puzzles appearing in the EV. Hopefully it won't be long before he's there again.

[fourpence4]

I completed the grid without too much trouble but am totally stuck on the quotation! I can't seem to come up with any of the letter indications however many times I read the clues! I have three of the four possible words but Google and the ODQ don't seem to be able to provide any assistance. Could you point me in the right direction?

[stymied]

Fourpence4, try 12ac. If you have the correct answer, then letter which must be clued by part of the quotation should be obvious. Put letter and part of clue
into Google and answer will appear - if you can't see which part, trial and error shouldn't take too long; it's a short clue!

[jim360]

Ah! Thanks for the hint, stymied. Not cracked the final step but at least I know what to do. Yes, an entertaining gridfill as to be expected from Kea -- my favourite was probably 18ac.

[Ruthrobin]

Yes, many thanks, Stymied. It was frustrating to have a full grid after such fine cluing and not to be able to grasp the penultimate move (though I had some of the letters and had recognised extra words). Now I plan to stop before the final alphanumeric representation which looks to be beyond me.

[Cagey]

I thought some of the clues a bit tricky, but a really nice puzzle. Enjoyed from start to finish.

[fourpence4]

Stymied. Thanks for your earlier help. I've identified the quotation and the author and think I know what to do from here BUT a) I can only find nine distinct letters.. is one used twice and b) I just cannot understand the reference in the title to TRRNRUNxVT which bears no correlation to the author of the quotation> Any further gentle suggestions before I tear out what little hair I have left!

[Ruthrobin]

fourpence4, those letters have to be worked out to produce the name of the author - that you now know, and that gives you some of the alphanumeric equivalents for the 'sum' you are performing to put numbers in the place of words in the grid. 0 to 9 gives you ten digits.

[fourpence4]

I know that 0-9 is ten digits but there are only 9 different letters in my solution. Have I got something wrong? I still don't understand how TRRNRUNxVT relates to the Author. Or have I got something wrong here as well?

[jim360]

For the title, that's a multiplication that will, when translated into digits, solved, and then translated back into letters, give the (sur)name of the relevant author. I think the surname includes the missing letter to give your tenth digit.

[copelander]

I'm at the same stage as 4p4 and although Jim's answer appears very helpful, it sounds a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack ! Any hints?

[suilven]

Like you, Copelander, I understand the endgame and how it all works but think it would take a very long time using a bit of logical deduction followed by heaps of trial and error to arrive at the correct numbers. Is there a quick way through this - or possibly a ploy in Excel that will sort out the number equivalents for each of the 10 letters?

[fourpence4]

Thanks to those of you who have tried to point me in the right direction but I've racked my brains without success. Others too seem to be in the same predicament. I still cant understand how you get to ten letters when there are clearly only 9 in the relevant section of the grid. As for the title, what on earth has it got to do with the author>

[jim360]

Like I said earlier, the tenth letter (and so the tenth digit) comes from the author's surname, which is the answer to the multiplication in the title. So

TRRNRUN x VT = ???????? [eight letters]

[Christiana]

Have reached the same point as several others, i.e the code conversion, and finally turned to this thread, my own inspiration having failed me. I think Jim's final comment will help - we'll see, but thanks Jim, anyway. At least it's given me somewhere to go

[suilven]

Finally got there after a good deal more than 15 minutes trying to deduce/guess number values for the 10 letters that satisfied the equations. After about the fiftieth speculative encoding of the puzzle's title my calculator app came back with an answer that had to be right. More luck or more good deduction? Not sure. Nevertheless were it 1939 I'd expect to be on the train to Bletchley Park by now!

[bellabee]

i suppose the mathematicians already have a programme for this kind of thing.
for those who haven't -
'alphametic solver'

[fourpence4]

Thanks bellabee! I'd never heard of an alphametic before! Real Bletchley Park stuff!!

[Ionexch]

I was also surprised and agree filling the grid and finding the author and quotation was relatively straightforward. However still searching for that elusive code! Related to the quotation by any chance?

[Christiana]

Probably no-one will see this, but have to record that I've now completed it, after struggles and with the help of my youngest son, who cracked the difficult multiplication alphametic. But in case anyone else is still struggling, there is a much easier alphametic involving the four words, which I then did and to my astonishment it worked.