Guardian Genius 134 – Enigmatist

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A Genius puzzle by Enigmatist – words to strike fear in a blogger’s heart. Fortunately this turned out to be one of his slightly more merciful offerings, though in traditional style it started out with a mistake in the special instructions – the number of clues that did not indicate one or two letters in the answer was wrongly given.. The “four characters” produced from these are the Three Musketeers ATHOS, PORTHOS and ARAMIS, plus D’ARTAGNAN, and their creator [Alexandre] DUMAS, and they appear in a symmetrical shape in the grid (highighted in the diagram below). The eight unaffected clues are 1, 26 and 30 across, and 2, 6, 18, 24 and 27 down. The added letters are shown like this in the answers below; as usual definitions in the clues are underlined.

Across
1 . FATWA Ayatollah’s given it a bit of a twang (5) 
Hidden in oF A TWAng
4 . LAST DREGS Star turning out in XI, as announced in house and grounds (4,5) 
STAR in LEGS (“legs eleven” is a call in Bingo or House)
10 . WON TON SOUP Jockey on, own up to starter (3,3,4) 
(ON OWN UP TO)*
11 . G-MEN Low-down agents (1-3) 
GEN = information, low-down
12 . GOALMOUTH After game, a yob goes where the best action is (9) 
GO + A LOUT
13 . OBITS Genesis et seq describing swinging lives after death! (5) 
BI in OT
16 . DIRNDL Wind, lashing, catches skirt (6) 
Hidden in wIND Lashing
18 . NEURONAL Nervously impulsive? Lou and Anne in a stormy engagement (8) 
(LOU ANNE)*
19 . UNREASON Irrationality of uniform when seen in the light? (8) 
U + AS in NEON
20 . COMPEL Make issue No 50 (6) 
COME (issue) + L
21 . SOUSA His Stars and Stripes is typically American (5) 
SO US. There’s a story to the effect that John Philip Sousa (the “March King”, composer of “The Stars and Stripes Forever”) was originally called “So”, and that he added “USA” to the name for patriotic and/or commercial reasons (various other versons of the story also exist), but there is no truth in it.
22 . DESPOTISM Power strangely missed around gym (9) 
PT in MISSED*
26 . AHEM Excuse me a trim (4) 
A HEM
28 . IN STITCHES One’s suffering from scabies, splitting sides (2,8) 
I’S ITCHES
29 . SMUGGLE IN Import dubiously, as one who says “I’m the Greatest!” (Clay) (7,2) 
SMUG + GLEI
30 . ASIDE Principal track that”s only for the audience to hear? (5) 
The A-SIDE of a record is its “principal track”
Down
2 . A GOGO Past success in abundance (1,4) 
AGO + GO
3 . WET BLANKETS Loosening belts, knew no sports (3,8) 
(BELTS KNEW)*
5 . AFOOT Up to nothing, heading north? (5) 
Reverse of TO FA
6 . TYPO Miscopy text up, admitting this? (4) 
Hidden in reverse of miscOPY Text, &lit
7 . RUG Wrap for travelling in hold of Jason’s ship (3) 
Jason’s ship was the ARGO, of which the “hold” might be RG
8 . GREAT DANE Barking anger about projected leaving time? One … could be! (5,4) 
ETD in ANGER*
9 . UNION LIST Discovered consulting diverse subject inventory (5,4) 
Anagram of [C]ONSULTIN[G] less its outer letters
14 . BROOMSTICKS Crazy Tom is among good friends (hag-ridden Poles) (11) 
TOM* in BRICKS
15 . TURCOPHIL Passionate about makers of delight, love filling something cheeky and vintage up (9) 
O in reverse of LIP + CRU
17 . IAN BOTHAM Beefy chap, I stand up and cuff the two of them (3,6) 
BOTH in I + reverse of MAN, I presume, though I can’t really justify MAN=stand. Thanks to bridgesong for the correction: BOTH in reverse of MAN (chap) + I. “Beefy” was (and I suppose still is) the nickname of the cricketer Ian Botham
18 . NAN Bread baked by Indian grandmother, one in news (3) 
A in N+N and three definitions
23 . ESSAI Part played by countess in composition by Delibes? (5) 
HIdden in countESS In – “essai” is what the French composer Léo Delibes (probably most famous now for the Flower Duet from his opera Lakmé) would call an essay or composition
24 . STEAD Time and energy invested in Blue Place (5) 
T E in SAD
25 . GIRL Young woman resident in Stirlingshire (4) 
Hidden in stIRLingshire
27 . MUG Attack simpleton or face exam (3)
Four definitions – I was unsure about “exam”, but Chambers gives it, related to the expression “mug up”, meaning to swot for an exam

11 comments on “Guardian Genius 134 – Enigmatist”

  3. Thanks, Andrew. Enigmatist generally gives me more problems than any other Guardian setter, so I was somewhat daunted when I first saw this. But then Dumas fell out early on, and I was able to tentatively write in d’Artagnan, followed by the musketeers. So for once the theme actually helped in solving the puzzle, and I enjoyed it far more than I expected to, so thanks to Enigmatist.

  4. Thanks for the blog, Andrew.

    I don’t always try the Genius – I’m often put off by the special instructions. This time they seemed relatively straightforward but there was still the name ‘Enigmatist’ above them, which usually has the same effect on me as on Andrew and Tom_I.

    However, I saw the answer to 1ac immediately, which was encouraging, and 11ac looked as if it must be G-MEN, which had the extra letter, so I thought it might be worth having a go. I’m so glad I did, because I soon found it totally absorbing. OBITS was the next one to go in, which gave me the M and S for DUMAS, so then it was clear who the four characters were. D’ARTAGNAN was the first one I found and opened that corner up nicely.

    It wasn’t all plain sailing from then on, because, although Enigmatist had helpfully told us that the names appeared diagonally, it took a while for the penny to drop that some of the names were reversed and it was only when I’d finished that I realised that they were arranged symmetrically. That greatly added to the satisfaction at having finished.

    There were no words I hadn’t heard of and lovely clues and misdirecting surfaces throughout. I particularly liked the house and grounds, up to nothing, hag-ridden Poles and makers of delight.

    Many thanks to Enigmatist for a most enjoyable puzzle.

  6. I am fairly new to Genius crosswords but decided, like Eileen did, to give this one a go, particularly as the instructions were so straightforward. I am not a fan of crosswords which require you to have a lie down after reading the instructions, never mind solving a clue!

    Great fun – I did spend a few moments trying to fit ‘Fry’s’ into 15d 😀 – Thanks to Enigmatist for the fun and Andrew for the review.

  7. I tried and (again) failed, but was on holiday for two weeks and forgot about it, so I have something of an excuse. I seem to go in waves of completing 7-8 in a row (including the last couple by Enigmatist) but then fail for 3-4 months. Then repeat the process. Very strange.

    I liked what I did though and maybe with less alcohol in me I might have finished it!

    Eileen’s comment about House and Grounds reminded me that when I was attempting the puzzle I saw that it was a Spoonerism of Grouse and Hounds. I wondered whether any compiler had ever used this. Maybe someone knows? I bet if Enigmatist reads this he will use it in the future though!
    Here’s to next month

  8. I really enjoyed this one. I had feared that the author would be someone like DICKENS, where finding the correct four characters would be a needle-in-the-haystack effort, so I appreciated it when, after finding DUMAS, it was pretty obvious who the four characters were.

    My only irritation was when, having solved it using pen and paper, I forgot to submit the solution online in time for the deadline!

  9. NE corner was first to crumble for me. I had _ U M _ _ (with a potential D at the beginning. This made me think of Dumbo so I wondered if we were looking for Disney characters. Then I got the A and immediately twigged the theme.

    This was my second Genius puzzle and, like others, I nearly ran away from it when I saw ENIGMATIST but I’m glad I stuck with it.

  11. Rather late to this, as I printed out the puzzle on the last of August having completely forgotten the date!
    We were pleased to got most of it – not helped by spelling D’ArtagnOn wrong 🙁 – but put in several answers without being able to parse them. Hence many thanks for the log, Andrew.

    gbleudot @10. If you are not teasing, I guess English is not your first language? FA = f**k all = nothing (by some logic)

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