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CTC ride to Stradishall, Lavenham and West Wratting

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Tom led us on a fine ride today, taking in some beautiful countryside and many quiet lanes. There were six riders at the start at Brookside, and then at coffee we lost Greta but picked up Adrian and Geoff, making seven, which made today the best-attended day ride for quite a while.

It was a hot and humid day (though mercifully the sun was hidden in the clouds for much of it), so we were glad to make an extra stop at Clare for ice cream after lunch and before tea.

On the hill between Six Mile Bottom and Brinkley.

Approaching Hawkedon shortly after coffee.

In the yard at the back of the Guildhall in Lavenham is this decorative armillary sphere bearing a quotation from the Queen’s 1952 Christmas broadcast: “Many grave problems and difficulties confront us all, but with a new faith in the old and splendid beliefs given us by our forefathers, and the strength to venture beyond the safeties of the past, I know we shall be worthy of our duty.”

The market square at Lavenham.

Tom checks the map at a junction between Borley and Belchamp St Paul.

Between Belchamp St Paul and Ovington we passed under this net stretched across the road. It must be there to protect the road from something falling from the power lines passing directly overhead. But what?

From Brookside to Lavenham and back to Cambridge was about 80 miles, but I did an extra loop to Dry Drayton in the morning before the ride, and another loop to Waterbeach afterwards, to make it up to 100 miles for the day.

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(CTC Cambridge | comment)

CTC ride to Haverhill, Clare and Ashdon

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Workmen were digging up the road and the pavement at the corner of Brookside and Lensfield Road. Perhaps they had been interring CTC members, because by 09:05 there were still only the two of us, me and Joseph.

It was a nice morning, pleasantly cool and overcast, a relief after Saturday’s scorching sun. With coffee more than twenty miles away in Haverhill, I took a direct route via Six Mile Bottom, Brinkley and Carlton. It was very quiet on the roads and we made quick time, getting to Haverhill at about 10:50.

I can’t quite believe how cheap the food is at the Drabbet Smock. Coffee and a bowl of fruit with yogurt for £1.49? How do they make a profit? If they were expecting to make it up by selling alcohol, they were sadly disappointed in us.

After coffee, Joseph headed for home, leaving me to complete the ride on my own.

One of my plans for this ride was to investigate the road over the hill from Steeple Chase to Stradishall. This is shown on Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 sheet 154 (see below left), and also on Google Maps. But does it really exist?

It didn’t look good as I cycled north through Steeple Chase.

The Ordnance Survey say it is.

The road signs are less sure.

No entry to motor vehicles.

And sure enough...

The road gets as far as the radio mast at the top of the hill...

... before coming to an abrupt end. A track continues beside a field...

... but there’s no way through.

So I came back through Steeple Chase and went to Stradishall via Hundon. From Stradishall, I took the narrow lane through Denston, and then the even narrower lane over the hill via Assington to Poslingford. At the top of the hill are the ruins of Chipley Priory. “This small Augustinian Priory, now in scattered ruins, was built before 1235 a.d. on the lands of Clopton. William Peche, companion in arms with William the Conqueror, held Clopton under Earl Richard.”

At Clare I bought sandwiches from the Co-op, and ate them at the country park. The clouds had parted around mid-day, and it was swelteringly hot in the sun. But the skies were amazing:

Near Poslingford.

Near Helions Bumpstead.

Coploe Hill.

I headed south, passing through Ovington, the delightfully named Tilbury Juxta Clare, Great Yeldham, and Gainsford End, to Finchingfield. I’m not sure why the club doesn’t come to Finchingfield for lunch. There’s a café, a pub, a pasta bar, and you can always sit on the green and eat your sandwiches if you don’t like any of the establishments. I stopped at the Fox Inn for a cold drink and a refill of my water bottles.

I had about an hour to get to Ashdon, so I took a roundabout route through Helions Bumpstead and Castle Camps. Entering Ashdon from the north at about 16:10, I saw that there was an open day at Ashdon windmill. This post mill was built in 1757 and extended between 1809 and 1815 (during the Napoleonic Wars, when French flour was embargoed). “The whole body of the mill is mounted on a single vertical post, around which it can be turned to bring the sails into the wind.” It is gradually being renovated by the Ashdon Windmill Trust.

Ashdon windmill.

The central post is supported on cross-beams, leaving a gap at the bottom.

At Ashdon Museum I met the afternoon riders. At this point I had only done just over 70 miles, so I tried to find someone who wanted a longer ride back in the warm evening sun. There were no takers: everyone was for the quick way back via Abington.

So I retraced some of the route that the afternoon ride had taken: through Saffron Walden, Audley End, and over Coploe Hill to Duxford. On Coploe Hill a buzzard passed overhead, soaring on the evening thermals, and in Whittlesford a stoat chased a baby rabbit across the road and into the hedge.

It was a tough ride on my own in the heat, but worth it for the beautiful views and quiet roads. I had 100 miles for the day.

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(CTC Cambridge | comment)

CTC ride to Hinxworth, Old Warden and Gamlingay

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Today was the first time I've led a day ride, so I was quite nervous about it, and did a lot of preparation. I bought a map holder, planned a route and wrote out a route sheet.

It was an overcast morning, with a little drizzle. There were five riders at Brookside, and with coffee 23 miles away at Farrowby Farm near Hinxworth, I took the direct route, out on Barton Road, through Haslingfield, over Chapel Hill, through Shepreth, Bassingbourn, Litlington, Steeple Morden and Ashwell. On the way to Hinxworth we passed John and Greta and picked up Bob and Myrtle, and there were more riders waiting for us at the farm, some of whom had come up from Stevenage.

The selection of destinations made route-setting quite a challenge. Old Warden is only about 9 miles from Hinxworth, and Gamlingay only 9 miles from Old Warden. I wanted to take a big loop southwards into the Bedfordshire countryside west of Hitchin, but how to get across the A1? My first thought was to try to cross at grade next to Farrowby Farm. There's a gap in the central reservation here that makes it possible. But Nigel convinced me that it would be too dangerous (Joseph said he had done it once, but had had to wait more than ten minutes before a gap appeared). So I decided to retrace our steps to Ashwell and then head down to Baldock and cross under the A1M on the road to Norton.

At Ashwell a byway over Partridge Hill provides a shortcut from Hinxworth Road to Claybush Road without going through town. It gets a bit muddy at the Claybush Road end—it wouldn't be a good idea to try it in wet weather.

A byway over Partridge Hill near Ashwell.

In the photo you can see that the clouds were getting pretty dark, and it wasn't long before it rained, fairly gently, for about 20 minutes. But soon it passed over, and the rest of the afternoon was sunny.

At Snailswell I took a bridleway that crosses to Holwell and saves a couple of miles of A600. This is a good-quality road: if the Google Streetview car can get down it, then certainly we can!

A bridleway from Snailswell to Holwell.

Sorry about the poor quality of these photos. I'm trying to see if my mobile phone camera is good enough, but the answer is clearly "no"!

The lanes north of Shefford are really gorgeous. At one point, a sparrowhawk flew right over us. This led to a discussion of raptors we had known, and I said that I had never seen a buzzard near Cambridge. At that moment, two buzzards flew low over the field on the right.

This loop took a bit longer than I was expecting, and we didn't get to Old Warden until about 13:45. "So you got here at last," said Greta. So I decided to compensate by cutting short the next section. I had planned to take a loop up to St Neots and back down again, but I didn't think there was time for that. So I took a loop west over Greensand Ridge to Cardington and back again.

At Cardington the skyline is dominated by two enormous airship sheds. One was built in 1915 for the construction of the R31 and R32, two rigid airships intended for fleet defence. The other was originally built at Pulham in Norfolk and was dismantled and moved to Cardington in 1928. The scale of these sheds is quite extraordinary. My first view of them as I came over the ridge was obscured by trees, and I thought, "That's a big barn".

The first sight of the Cardington airship sheds from Greensand Ridge.

But then they came properly into view, and it was clear that they were several miles away and huge.

The Cardington airship sheds.

We crossed the A1 at the roundabout at Sandy, and cycled up Cox Hill, which is a beautiful road. Shame about the "No vehicles" sign at the entrance. I presume this is a mistake and should have been "No entry to motor vehicles", since there's also a sign saying "No through road (except cycles)".

Cox hill near Sandy.

I overestimated the time it would take for this leg about as severely as I had underestimated it for the previous leg (the westerly wind made short work of the return from Cardington), and at 16:00 we were at the Cock at Gamlingay. I tried to persuade the others to take a short loop and come back for tea, but they were keen to get home. And with 70 miles cycled from Brookside at this point, who can blame them? I took the loop on my own, through Great Gransden, Waresley, and Lily Hill, getting back just in time for tea.

I had 107 miles for the day.

(CTC Cambridge | comment)

CTC ride to Stradishall, Clare and Stetchworth

Sun, 06 Jun 2010 00:00:00 GMT

It was one of those days when you pack a waterproof jacket and a bottle of sunscreen, and end up using both. The day started out dull and grey, with low misty cloud settled over the fields and hills, and every view disappearing into the murk.

On the ride out from Brookside, I didn't want to cause trouble by riding off the front and splitting the group, so I bid goodbye and made my own way to coffee. I followed the route of the Haslingfield audax that I went on in March, through Fulbourn, Six Mile Bottom, Dullingham, Stetchworth, Woodditton and Saxon Street, then heading south through Cowlinge to Stradishall. There were lots of swallows about.

At Tubby T’s I met Adrian, Vic and John, who had come direct. But where were the others? We drank our coffee and by 11:30 there was still no sign, so I said goodbye once again and made my own way to lunch, taking in some of the Suffolk hills: through Denston and Hawkedon, then up the hill to Somerton, down to Hartest, and up Hartest Hill, which has a good long section at about 10%. The road through Stanstead (not to be confused) led me back down to the valley of the River Glem (a tributary of the Stour), and then there was another steep climb up to Glemsford. I took a loop south of the A1092, through Cavendish, Pentlow, and Hickford Hill, arriving at Clare in time to meet Adrian for lunch in Clare café.

Throughout the morning it had been hot and humid, with thunderstorms wandering about on the horizons, but they had all kept their distance.

The snack tricycle at Clare Country Park.

At Clare Country Park we met the remaining day riders (Tom, Mick Cousins, and Eva) by the snack tricycle. Tom explained that they had got lost on the way to coffee, somewhere in the network of lanes southwest of Cowlinge!

Tom set us a fast pace as we headed north through Poslingford, Stansfield, Hawkedon (again), Rede, Chevington, Hargrave, and as we passed Barrow it was clear that if we went straight to tea we would be very early. So Tom suggested a loop north of the A14, to Cavenham and Tuddenham and back again.

Tom contemplates which way to proceed. The signs say “Denston 1½ Newmarket 12”; “Poslingfield 3 Clare 4”; and “Hawkedon 1 Long Melford 8”.

After we crossed the A14 for the second time, we were hailed by an old lady who had parked her convertible and lapdog by the side of the road. Could she borrow a mobile phone so she could call the RAC? Eva kindly obliged, and we listened as she explained that she had run out of petrol and could they come and help? It sounded as though the RAC were not very impressed.

After tea our luck ran out and we were caught in one last thunderstorm. Nigel wrote in his blog of the afternon ride,

Within a minute of leaving the pub the skies opened and we found ourselves riding through a torrential downpour. The whole group stopped under some trees in Dullingham for several minutes before carrying on to Swaffham Bulbeck, Bottisham and Quy. Although the rain slackened off after a while it continued to rain steadily all the way back, making this my wettest club ride for a year or two.

I had 106 miles: a good day out, despite the soaking.

Sheltering from the thunderstorm.

(CTC Cambridge | comment)

John Sturrock is an idiot

Tue, 11 May 2010 00:00:00 GMT

(Yes, I know, who he? But sometimes you read something so stupid you just got to rant.)

John Sturrock (a consulting editor at the London Review of Books, and formerly deputy editor of the Times Literary Supplement) is not a careful reader, at least on the evidence of his introduction to his own translation of Victor Hugo’s Notre-Dame of Paris for Penguin Classics.

First, he fumbles his summary of the plot of Les Misérables: “Valjean, an ex-convict, steals the bishop’s one valuable possession, his candlesticks, but is saved from a further savage sentence in the hulks when the bishop untruthfully attests that the candlesticks were a gift from him to Valjean.” This gets things completely backwards: the candlesticks were the one valuable possession of the bishop’s that Valjean didn’t steal! From the novel:

“Ah! here you are!” [the bishop] exclaimed, looking at Jean Valjean. “I am glad to see you. Well, but how is this? I gave you the candlesticks too, which are of silver like the rest, and for which you can certainly get two hundred francs. Why did you not carry them away with your forks and spoons?”

Later in Sturrock’s introduction, he indicates that he thinks Notre-Dame of Paris would have had a happy ending if only the villain had raped the heroine:

[The] disasters [of the plot] can be traced to a single flaw, which is the celibacy of the priest, Claude Frollo. Had Frollo been in a position to act instinctively and satisfy his lust on the gypsy [La Esmerelda], all would have been well ...

All would have been well? Really? What do you think this passage says about Sturrock’s character?

But even if you discount the idea that rape is a bad thing, this summary is nonsense. Sturrock supposes, “Had Frollo been in a position”. But he was in exactly that position. In an early scene in the book Frollo and Quasimodo try to abduct La Esmerelda, but she is rescued by Phoebus, the captain of archers. What had Frollo in mind as a result of this abduction? Perhaps he planned merely to treat her to a slap-up meal in the cathedral refectory, but somehow I doubt it. Frollo’s fault is more than just lust for La Esmerelda: he wants to compel her to love him: and he thinks that his emotional torment obliges her to love him. The modern reader easily recognizes the psychopathology: we now call this behaviour “stalking”.

More bizarre misreading follows:

there is nothing pessimistic ultimately about what transpires in the novel, since the trouble is brought on by observance of the rules of a specific society

Certainly Hugo has a lot to criticize in medieval French society: feudalism, superstition, brutal and arbitrary punishment. But he also locates specific moral failings in individual characters. The tragedy of the book is that every character (excepting perhaps Quasimodo) fails La Esmerelda: Frollo stalks her and frames her for murder; Pierre Gringoire cares more for the goat than the woman; Phoebus wants only to seduce her; the judge who sentences her is deaf to the evidence (or rather, the lack of it); her own mother denounces her as a witch, and at the end fails to shelter her.

And remember, Sturrock is the guy who translated the book. How could he be so mistaken? The errors seem so outrageous that maybe I’ve misunderstood him?

(Here’s more evidence of Sturrock’s inability to read, from his LRB review of Sokal and Bricmont’s Intellectual Impostures. But he wrote that back in 1998 and I expect he’s ashamed of it now, so I will pass quietly over it.)

His translation of Notre-Dame of Paris is quite good, though.

(LiveJournal | comment)

Hexes by Stick Insect

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Listener crossword 4080: Hexes by Stick Insect (2010-04-03)

This was the first Listener crossword by Stick Insect, and it was pleasant and straightforward (especially in comparison with Shackleton’s spectacular last week). “The wordplay in each clue indicated the answer with an extra letter or with one letter omitted ... In clue order, the extra and omitted letters spell out a set of people’s names, some appropriately interrupted.”

The extra and omitted letters spelled CATH(H)ERINE A(H)NNE JANE AN(H)NE C(H)ATHERINE CATHERINE. These were the six wives of Henry VIII, with four of them “interrupted” by an H (for Henry), namely the four whose marriages were ended prematurely. For Catherine of Aragon and Anne of Cleves the H was central, which I think was supposed to represent a divorce (although properly speaking these marriages were ended by annulment), and for Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, the H was second, beheading the initial letter. Jane Seymour (who died) and Catherine Parr (who survived Henry) were uninterrupted.

“All but one of the same set, similarly interrupted, must be highlighted in the grid (34 cells).” The surnames of five of the wives—ARA(H)GON, B(H)OLEYN, SEYMOUR, CLE(H)VES and H(H)OWARD—could be traced downwards in the grid in the form of Henry’s ordinal VIII. (This numeral, and the “34 cells”, resolved the possible ambiguities in tracing the names.)

There was the usual trap for solvers having trouble with wordplay at 12d, where both CASTOCK and CUSTOCK fitted the grid and the definition.

A very similar theme was previously used in Listener number 3728, Who Am I? by Amicus.

No	Clue	Answer	Wordplay	Extra / omitted
1a	Employed to remain unchanged, quiet, subdued	BESTOWED	BE ST COWED	C
7a	Local girl followed by saints—a risky situation	MORASS	MOR SS	A
12a	Plant extract claiming active energy compound hides ulcer’s origins	CATECHU	C[laiming] A[ctive] E[nergy] C[ompound] H[ides] U[lcer’s]	T
13a	Mistake to precede east wind	BISE	BISH E	H
15a	Fish murmur softly	COHO	COO	H
16a	Idiotic gambling game with a counter	OAFISH	EO A FISH	E
17a	Dry up Scottish inlets, expelling ordinary marine mammals there	SEALCHS	SEAR L[o]CHS	R
18a	Laments over type of salad	SLAW	WAILS reversed	I
19a	Stagger in Perth street bearing large weight	STOT	ST containing TON	N
20a	Hypothetical rule applied to type of particle	HYPERON	HYP R ON	E
21a	African bird that lacks hint of tunefulness	TAHA	THA[t]	A
23a	Faires losing second axe handle	HELVE	ELVE[s]	H
25a	Indian bullfinch circles enclosure	MOHAWK	MONK around HAW	N
28a	Upset, temperature dropping twice, imagine total blood disorder	OLIGAEMIA	Anagram of IMAGINE [t]O[t]AL	N
32a	Beat old cow that’s facing west	TAN	NEAT reversed	E
34a	Springbok’s celebration in rabbit settlement	COLONY	JOL in CONY	J
35a	Vintage brew of Zaire accompanies old, old bread	CRUZEIRO	CRU, anagram of ZAIRE, O	A
36a	Poison for Will precedes radical form of promotion	BANNER AD	BANE RAD	N
37a	Alpine stage slopes up	RISS	RISES	E
38a	Distasteful to retain all sections of prickly shrub	GORSY	GORY around AS	A
39a	Noble’s wife rages about deer section	BARONETESS	BATES around ROE; S	N
2d	Try Liberal Lord	EARL	HEAR L	H
3d	Originally, Stonehenge towered over Neolithic art’s range of columns	STOA	S[tonehenge] T[owered] O[ver] N[eolithic] A[rt’s]	N
4d	Refreshment suppliers sat up to welcome sportsman’s companion willing to participate	TEA WAGONS	SAT reversed around WAG ON	E
5d	Informal letter in seven days almost reaches the old bird	WHITE-EYE	CHIT in WEE[k], YE	C
6d	American in hole ground up antiseptic preparation	EUSOL	US in anagram of HOLE	H
7d	Wrongly perceived, rabble follows young lady endlessly	MISHEARD	MIS[s] HERD	A
8d	Father stands up to win	REAP	PATER reversed	T
9d	Outrage loses king’s support before satire is played to expose feeble arguments	SOCRATISE	SHOC[k], anagram of SATIRE	H
10d	Hush—is he hiding inwardly?	SHH	[i]SHEH[iding]	E
11d	Skua—oddly bird of song	BOS’N	B[i]R[d] O[f] S[o]N[g]	R
12d	Cabbage stem, one to be located in a small pile of hay	CASTOCK	A SIT in COCK	I
14d	Desires to upend part of carcase	SEY	YENS reversed	N
19d	Fish woman gets widow’s stipend, unknown amount	SHANNY	SHE ANN Y	E
22d	This fat removes depth of a scar	HILAR	HIC LAR[d]	C
24d	Five in command rule holder of designated authority	VICAR	V IC R	A
25d	Grieve for Irish girlfriend holding repository for the dead	MOURN	MOT around URN	T
26d	Australian male in Zambia gets cross when sent north	OZZIE	HE I’ Z ZO reversed	H
27d	King pays close attention to difficulties	KNOTS	K NOTES	E
29d	Wolf left boor in confusion	LOBO	L, anagram of BOOR	R
30d	Delay destiny	MORA	MOIRA	I
31d	Legally secure venerable saint	VEST	VEN ST	N
33d	Reads about primitive soil turners	ARDS	Anagram of READS	E

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Sine Qua Non by Shackleton

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Listener crossword 4079: Sine Qua Non by Shackleton (2010-03-27)

The preamble had a very long series of steps: misprints leading to “hints” leading to “questions” leading to “elements” leading to “another message” which then had be applied to the grid. It all seemed very confusing to start with, but the first step was clear enough: “Most clues contain a misprint of one letter in the definition.”

It took me about four hours to fill the grid, with some very tricky misprints to find.

19 across “Perhaps referring to stroke in eighty year old, retired—ultimately monoplegia’s assumed” yielded OARY (all letters being checked, so no doubt about it), but I fell into a trap when I spotted that “eighty” ⇒ R. In fact the misprint was “eighty” for “eights”, and the wordplay was “year” ⇒ YR “old” ⇒ O, reversed around “ultimately monoplegia” ⇒ A.

46 across “Pretence one found in king and queen?” looked like it had the wordplay “one” ⇒ I in “king and queen?” ⇒ MEN yielding MIEN, but where was the misprint? Perhaps “pretence” for “pretense”, but I wasn’t sure I could justify “pretense” ⇒ MIEN from Chambers, which gives “pretense ... show or semblance” and “mien ... air or look, manner, bearing”. Are these close enough?

28 down “Yankee hosted by queen—Earl shed some tears for her” took me a long time. The wordplay was “yankee” ⇒ Y in “queen” ⇒ RANEE from which “Earl” ⇒ E has been removed. The misprint was “tears” for “years”, and the definition was “some years for her [i.e. queen]” ⇒ RAYNE.

The clues without misprints seemed in some cases to be rather oddly worded, with imprecise definitions or extraneous words, as if they had been written under rather severe constraints.

The corrected misprints yielded two “hints for deriving two versions of a question from the remaining clues”: DOT ONE’S ‘I’S AND CROSS ONE’S ‘T’S in the across clues, and IDDY-UMPTY in the down clues. Chambers: “iddy-umpty n Morse code. [From a phrase used in India to teach morse to the native troops].”

Interpreting I as a dot, and T as a dash, the remaining clues could be treated as Morse code letters: this yielded MUST IT BE? and MUSS ES SEIN? The latter question (of which the first is a translation) appears in the manuscript of Beethoven’s String Quartet number 16 in F major.

Third step: “The penultimate element of the first version is one of four that share identical components, as described by a five-letter definition concealed in the grid.” Taking “element” to be a letter, the “penultimate element of the first version” is the letter B, which is — · · · in Morse code. Taking “component” to be a dot or a dash, there are three other letters that are encoded with the same set of components: · — · · is L; · · — · is F; and · · · — is V. The five-letter word concealed in the grid was PAEON, “a foot of four syllables, any one long, three short”.

Fourth step: “These four elements and another five-letter word must be highlighted to show key information relating to the question and an initial representation of the questioner.” It was notable now that the four letters B, F, L, and V appear once each in the grid. The “questioner” was L[udwig] V[an] B[eethoven], and the “key information” was F MAJOR.

Fifth step: “One of the four elements, interpreted differently, indicates which letter of which word in each non-misprint clue contributes to another message.” (This explains why some of the non-misprinted clues seemed rather awkward.) Well, the element that could most obviously be interpreted as a number was V. And the fifth letters of the fifth words of the non-misprinted clues spelled out DIAMETRIC EXCHANGES.

Sixth step: “The action it describes must be applied to the letters of the five-letter definition [that is, PAEON] (and their counterparts) to reveal a representation of that element which must be highlighted in full.” Swapping PAEON in the fourth row with IDTID in the tenth yielded DIT DIT DIT DAH, a representation of the Morse code · · · — for V.

The preamble promised that “all entries are words in both the initial and final grids,” and indeed the diametric exchanges yielded new words: PYNE → DYNE, SQUARE → SQUIRE, PHAEIC → PHATIC, OLIO → OLID, TINNER → TINIER, PAINED → PANNED, DOSE → OOSE, OCTANS → OCEANS, THINKS → THANKS and DEED → DEEP.

Seventh (and last!) step: “Finally, the key information must be modified to provide a consistent rendition.” Now, DIT DIT DIT DAH is not only the Morse code for V, but a representation of the opening motif of Beethoven’s Symphony number 5 in C minor. And sure enough, changing F MAJOR to C MINOR yielded new words: FONE → CONE, TACKY → TICKY, and A MAJORI → A MINORI.

The last movement of Beethoven’s String Quartet number 16 is headed, “Der schwer gefaßte Entschluß” (the difficult resolution). It was quite the reverse in the resolution to this puzzle: the well-written preamble led me very smoothly through the complicated series of messages and transformations. If anything, I was slightly disappointed at how straightforward it all was. But any disappointment is overwhelmed by my awe at the amount of thematic material Shackleton managed to cram into this puzzle.

I’m not sure about the title. Perhaps it’s an answer to the thematic question?

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The Fragmentation of Reality by Lavatch

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Listener crossword 4078: The Fragmentation of Reality by Lavatch (2010-03-20)

“Having solved the clues, solvers must choose between 65,536 possible solution grids.” For a computer programmer like me, that number is instantly recognisable: it’s 2 to the power of 16. So perhaps there are sixteen choices that have to be made, each choice being between two outcomes.

Eight of those choices will come from the clues in group A, where “definition and wordplay ... lead to two real words which differ by a single letter.” Another four choices come from group C, where there are four pairs of crossing entries which clash. That must mean that the last four choices come from group B, where “clues appear with the wrong number, and with the wrong entry length; solvers must determine the correct locations for answers”. It’s not clear to me yet how that’s going to work. Group D is, thankfully, normal.

Solving is pretty slow to start with, and I’m not happy with my first answer. 21a “Difficulty besetting Roman deity least inclined to generosity” seems to be “difficulty” ⇒ NET around “Roman deity” ⇒ ARES giving NEAREST. Unfortunately, Ares was a Greek deity.* Maybe he counts as a Roman deity too, by syncretism? Anyway, I can’t enter this yet because it’s from group B, so let me press on.

After about two hours, I’ve got a bit over a quarter of the grid. See the diagram above right: lowercase letters indicates choices, and the pink cells are the locations of the clashes from group C. From group B I have NEAREST, SAMURAI, which looks like it goes at 1a, and HASH, which could go at either 21a or 35d.

I wonder if the way group B works is that there are four pairs of answers which differ only in unchecked cells? That would mean that I need another entry fitting SAM_RA_. Aha! “Rodent hidden in regiment’s fruit” ⇒ SAMARAS, and “Poet’s injuries to beloved” ⇒ DEAREST. So I can fill in the checked letters from these, even though I don’t yet know which goes where. See right.

Now, I have a SAMURAI, and at 17a it looks as though there might be a WIFE if the clash there were resolved in favour of the W. The instructions for resolving the clashes is that they should “complete a full set of thematic elements derived from one of the titles”. So is one of these “thematic titles” that I’m looking for RASHOMON? I think it is, because the title, “The Fragmentation of Reality”, could work as a loose definition of the Rashomon effect, the storytelling technique from the film, whereby different witnesses to an event describe it in inconsistent ways. Also I can see 27d “Learned man named after god” ⇒ PANDIT which will become BANDIT after resolving the clash. Also, 16d “Wretched publicity for dye” ⇒ WOAD, and 30d “See unqualified tailor” ⇒ CUTTER: after resolution of clashes these will combine to read WOODCUTTER.

And now that I know that 17a is _IFE, I can solve “Part of earth according to hypothesis not admitting uncertainty” ⇒ NIFE. I note that had the clash been resolved as N, this would leave the word SERONS. So perhaps all the other clashes yield words however they are resolved?

With all this material inserted, the grid is about half full.

41a has a choice too: it could be TEHRS or TAHRS, but as it’s a group D clue I think this is a standard Listener trap for solvers rather than a thematic choice. “Pitches invaded by 200 goats, not 1” suggests the wordplay H in T[i]ERS, except that I’m not sure I can justify “pitch” = “tier” from the various senses given in Chambers. For “pitch” Chambers has the sense “degree esp of elevation or depression” and for “tier” the sense “row, level, rank, or layer”. Are these close enough? Anyway, I can’t find any justification at all for TAHRS, so TEHRS goes in.‡

I don’t understand the wordplay for “Pious fellow’s lost head over Scottish cook”. It seems like it ought to be STOVE (a Scottish word meaning “to cook”) but how does the wordplay work? ST OVE[r] is no good, since R is not the “head” of OVER.†

Nonetheless, STOVE must be right, because I can see RASHOMON hidden at centre left. That means that the last answer from group B must be “Refuse to strip off initially in old-fashioned drag” ⇒ RASH and indeed the wordplay yields [t]RASH.

The last third or so of the crossword goes quickly, and soon I have all a complete grid, with sixteen choices to make.

So, how do I resolve all of these? Three choices from group B are needed to display RASHOMON, so the remaining choice (SAMURAI/SAMARAS) must reveal the second “thematic title”. I can’t see that yet.

The choices from group C display the four witnesses from Rashomon.

What about group A? The rubric says, “One letter from each differing pair must be entered so that the affected cells spell out a thematic name.”

No	Clue	Answer (def)	Answer (wp)	Wordplay
7a	Flocks of ducks in due course clipped Indian grass	SORDS	SORUS	SO RUS[a]
11a	Prejudice’s overthrown and society’s avoided awkward situations	MIRES	MIXES	SEXI[s]M reversed
14a	North African has home in place of round tower	MINAR	MINOR	MOOR with IN for O
25a	Whirlpool had depth in running water	EDDY	EDDA	’D D in EA
28a	Turnips left to be eaten by birds after noon	NAVEWS	NAVELS	L in AVES after N
6d	Male monarch keeping record of the Falkland Islands	KELPER	HELPER	HE ER around LP
9a	Servicewomen with vanishing returns	RENT	RENS	[w]RENS
29d	Noble melody’s quiet before its end	ARISTO	ARISTA	ARIA around ST

So the thematic name must be [Akira] KUROSAWA (the centenary of whose birth will be on March 23). Unfortunately, this doesn’t completely resolve which letters to pick, because there are the pairs MINAR/MINOR and ARISTA/ARISTO. I’ll need an A from one and an O from the other. Aha, I see: if consider the cells in grid order (across the rows from top to bottom), then it has to be MINOR and ARISTA.

That leaves one choice (SAMURAI/SAMARAS) which must reveal the second thematic title, presumably the one in which “one character will take on a greater than normal significance and must be ringed”. Here a disadvantage of my working methods becomes apparent: I create the diagrams for this blog as I go along, entering answers on the computer instead of in the newspaper. And to save time and space I omit the entry numbers from these diagrams. Which means that I have been staring at the grid for a very long time indeed before it occurs to me that the second thematic title must be SEVEN SAMURAI, with the entry number 7 being the “character [with] a greater than normal significance”.

* The Listener Crossword website issued a correction: “21 Across should read ‘Greek’, not ‘Roman’.”

† Commenter Pat on Listen With Others explains that “Pious fellow’s” ⇒ DEVOT’S, which is decapitated and reversed to give STOVE.

‡ No, it was TAHRS. (TARS around H, the “not 1” indicating that the answer is not THARS = SEROWS from 1d.) So there goes my all-correct record!

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