Monthly Prize Puzzle 088 – Review
September 2019
Hail Caesar! – A Puzzle by Prolixic
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A Caesar cipher encodes words by shifting the letters by a set number of places. For example, with a Caesar cipher of 2, CAT becomes ECV. Applying a Caesar cipher of 13, how many solutions in this crossword have recognisable words that result from the encoding process (proper nouns included).
The following table will assist:
I took quite a long time to solve this crossword and as I couldn’t enter the competition, didn’t bother to work out the answer to the question. Someone who did do so was James McGaughey and, having correctly entered the competition with the answer TEN, his name was drawn out of the electronic hat by Mrs BD and he can now choose his prize of a Telegraph Crossword Puzzles Book
The ten words were:
Original |
New Word |
balk |
onyx |
clerk |
pyrex |
ebbs |
roof |
gnat |
tang |
nowhere |
abjurer |
purely |
cheryl |
rail |
envy |
reef |
errs |
terra |
green |
what |
jung |
Across
8a Decline to support college being reduced by 50% (4)
BALK – Change C for College (also the Roman numeral for one hundred) in BACK (support) to an L (50) thus being reduced by 50%)
9a Priest is free to discard a chess piece (5)
CLERK – Remove the A (discard A) from CLEaR (free) and add a K (King, chess piece)
10a Goes out with bishops in half of dioceses (4)
EBBS – BB (two chess Bishops) inserted into the second half of seES (dioceses)
11a Cambridge college has foremost of table wine (6)
CLARET – CLARE (Cambridge college) plus T (the foremost letter of Table)
12a Top winger tackles united line (8)
PULLOVER – PLOVER (winger, bird) ‘tackles’ or goes round U (united) and L (line)
13a Rise and dash out to get salad ingredient (8)
RADISHES – An anagram (out) of RISE and DASH
15a Visitors in the auditorium imagined opening of Spellbound (6)
GUESTS – A homophone (in the auditorium) of GUESSED (imagined) followed by S (the ‘opening’ of Spellbound)
17a Out of the running with two presents (7)
NOWHERE – NOW and HERE – two synonyms for present
19a Prison reformer follows prison cook (4,3)
STIR FRY – FRY (Elizabeth, the prison reformer) goes after STIR (a slang term for prison)
22a Bumbling antihero wins within this (6)
REASON – The letters of WITHIN REASON are obtained from an anagram (bumbling) of ANTIHERO WINS
24a First treaty oddly ignored ionizing radiation (5,3)
ALPHA RAY – ALPHA (first) and the even (oddly ignored) letters of tReAtY
26a Leaves model secretary going for sailor (8)
TARRAGON – Remove the PA (secretary going) from PARAGON and replace with TAR (sailor)
28a Soldiers and partners embracing each other joined up again (6)
RESEWN – RE (Royal Engineers, soldiers) and the bridge partners S and N ’embracing’ E and W
30a Gather up gold bearing lode for bank (4)
REEF – Triple definition
31a Odd toy captures the heart of America (5) D
ROLL – DOLL (toy) ‘captures’ the R that is the ‘heart’ of AmeRica
32a Part of living nature (4)
GNAT – Lurking in part of livinG NATure
Down
1d Criticise transport guard (4)
RAIL – Another triple definition
2d Fight resistance in militant Sikhism (8)
SKIRMISH – R (resistance) in an anagram (militant) of SIKHISM
3d Stop function held by Bob Champion (6)
SCOTCH – Insert COT (cotangent, function) in between S (shilling – bob) and CH (champion)
4d Joined up with troublemaker for play (7)
TEMPEST – A reversal (up in a Down clue) of MET (joined) followed by IMP (troublemaker)
5d Broadcaster’s entertaining opening for the Sun (8)
SKYLIGHT – SKY (broadcaster) LIGHT (entertaining)
6d Give testimony of what model does after photoshoot! (6)
DEPOSE – A model might DE POSE when a photoshoot was finished
7d At the end of The Third Man pair return strong and healthy (4)
ABLE – The third man in the Bible was ABEL – reversing the ‘pair at the end’ produces a synonym for strong and healthy
14d Residence of person in hospital department (5)
ABODE – BOD (person) in A [and] E (hospital department)
16d Tip to stop removing sulphur and earth (5)
TERRA – Reverse (tip) ARREST (stop) and then remove the S that is the chemical symbol for sulphur
18d Treacherous oath once taken by Magritte? (8)
RENEGADE – EGAD (old oath) ‘taken by’ RENE (Magritte)
20d Dragon is flying around fallen rocks? (4,4)
ROAD SIGN – An anagram (flying around) of DRAGON IS
21d It contains hints of red and indigo not black or white (7)
RAINBOW – The initial letters (hints)of Red And Indigo Not Black Or White
23d Stumped by current conflict (6)
STRIFE – ST (stumped) RIFE (current)
25d Exclusively carry out trade around Yorkshire river (6)
PURELY – PLY (carry out trade) around the Yorkshire River URE
27d Senior impressionist briefly stood up (4)
AGED – A reversal (stood up) of almost all (briefly) of DEGAs (French impressionist)
29d Something regularly extracted from two hearts (4)
WHAT – Extracted from the regular letters of tWo HeArTs
Thanks to Prolixic and Mrs and Mr BD for their parts in this month’s Prize Puzzle proceedings
Double D’oh!! I had all of those and miscounted. Stupid Boy
Correct number here but no luck with the electronic hat – congratulations to James and hope the win inspires you to become a regular on the site.
Many thanks for the review, CS, made me appreciate yet again what a clever compilation this was before one even considered the cypher!
My printed copy was liberally sprinkled with non-words – thanks for the challenge, Prolixic.
Hey, that’s me! What a strange and unexpected pleasure to be picked by a random number generator – it’s never happened in 40 years of owning premium bonds.
I found this a very tough puzzle to finish, only getting there after putting it aside for a week, but now glad to have persevered.
Many thanks to Prolixic, Mr & Mrs BD & CS.
Hi Mucky James – feel so much better now that you’ve outed yourself as being ‘one of us’. Know what you mean about premium bonds
Congrats Mucky/James, and ‘see’ you tomorrow in Rookieland
PS Having Doughty (Irish) and Grant (Scottish) heritage, interesting Gaelic surname when I looked it up
Congratulations Mucky.
Very satisfying to find out that I had sorted out everything correctly. It was certainly a significant challenge to do so for me.
Thanks again Prolixic and CS for the review.
Well done, Mucky!
I only found 9 so didn’t even make the hat……the reason I only found 9 was because I could not solve 9a so just bunged in what I had found …..
Also failed to solve 5d. Could not get further than Daylight from Sir Robin…..showing my age there.
Enjoyed the fight with this one even though I lost it.
Many thanks to Crypticsue and to ProliXic. I’ll beat you next time……maybe !
Thanks to everyone for the comments and to Crypticsue for the review.