The preamble for Genius 142, when you can work your way through the hotch-potch of ‘temporary’ (?) workarounds the Grauniad have built around this ‘non-standard’ puzzle which has been there for 10-plus years, tells us that we are looking for seventeen partners of well-known pairings – a device which I am sure has been used before, but maybe not on a Genius(?)…
So … some cold solving may be required, if we can’t trust crossing letters that may be thematic substitutions for their partners.
My instinctive approach was/is to head for the bottom-right-hand corner – are setters tired/worn out when they get there, and desperate to close the puzzle out, having started top left? I don’t know, but it seems to work for me. So 29 as BATTERY and 25D as ALPHA didn’t fit, but ‘ASSAULT’ and ‘OMEGA’ as their ‘well-known’ pairings did.
So far, so good, but a fair amount of work ensued, tracking down CAVALIERS and ROUNDHEADS, WALLACE and GROMIT, TROILUS and CRESSIDA, etc…until I was just left with the top left corner – damn those pesky setters and their enthusiastic focus on the top left!
All in all, after a burst of initial activity, this slowed down to requiring several re-visits over the next few days (and even weeks), until I eventually got ISAAC/ABRAHAM and (LOI) MARX/ENGELS:
Overall, a worthy ‘Genius’-themed puzzle – which, for me at least, needed a fair amount of the month’s worth of lead time – and a pleasure to (eventually) solve, and then blog.
During early solving, I noticed the use of ‘Times’ in several places, and wondered if this related to the theme, but it seems to have just been a diversionary tactic, with ‘times’ as ‘x’ and ‘by’, in the mathematical sense, and referring to the newspaper, the ‘Thunderer’, in the other…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Thematic Solution | Entry | Definition (where relevant) | Clue / Logic/Parsing |
| 1A | ISAAC | ABRAHAM | n/a | One’s clubs include drivers (7) / IS (ones, I pluralised) + C (clubs), around AA (Automobile Association, drivers) |
| 5A | JETSAM | FLOTSAM | n/a | Novel set in mess (7) / J_AM (mess, predicament) around ETS (anag, i.e. in mess, of SET) |
| 10A | TRIO | Musicians | Musicians turn it on but not every second (4) / alternate letters (i.e. not every second) of ‘TuRn It On’ |
|
| 11A | TWEEDLEDUM | TWEEDLEDEE | n/a | Pretty terrible muddle (10) / TWEE (pretty) + DLEDUM (anag, i.e. terrible, of MUDDLE) |
| 12A | MARX | ENGELS | n/a | Stuff about Times (6) / MAR (ram, stuff, about) + X (times) |
| 13A | TROILUS | CRESSIDA | n/a | 10 mistakenly left the Guardian (8) / TROI (anag, i.e. mistakenly, of TRIO at 10A) + L(left) + US (The Guardian) |
| 14A | THUNDER | LIGHTNING | n/a | Times ignores margins of error (9) / THUNDER(ER) – nickname of The Times newspaper, less ER, outer letters, or margin, of ErroR |
| 16A | GROOM | BRIDE | n/a | General manager hires bouncer (5) / G_M (general manager) around (hiring) ROO (kangaroo, bouncer) |
| 17A | NOW | AGAIN | n/a | Men Only? (5) / NO + W (women) – i.e. ‘men only’ |
| 19A | DESPERATE | Serious | Serious change in speed, then another (9) / DESPE 9anag, i.e. change in, of SPEED) + RATE (another term for speed) |
|
| 23A | GILBERT | SULLIVAN | n/a | Daisy’s partner steals one pound (8) / G_ERT (Daisy’s partner, Gert & Daisy, 1940 UK radio show) around I (one) + LB (pound) |
| 24A | WALLACE | GROMIT | n/a | Expert bricklayer? (6) / &lit-ish cryptic definition(?) – an expert bricklayer might be a WALL ACE |
| 26A | CAVALIERS | ROUNDHEADS | n/a | Speleologists entertain boxer (10) / CAV_ERS (speleologists) around (entertaining) ALI (Muhammad Ali, boxer) |
| 27A | GOOD | EVIL | n/a | French composer bans his article (4) / GO(UN)OD – French composer, less UN – ‘his article’, ‘the’ in French) |
| 28A | SEESAWS | Yo-yos | Yo-yos used to be around in places like York (7) / SEE_S (sees, or dioceses, places like York) around SAW (was, used to be, around) |
|
| 29A | BATTERY | ASSAULT | n/a | Milliner in Bow appears in Times (7) / B_Y (times, multiplied by) around (H)ATTER (how a ‘hatter’, or milliner. might be pronounced by a Cockney in Bow/East End of London) |
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Thematic Solution | Entry | Definition (where relevant) | Clue / Logic/Parsing |
| 2D | RWANDA | BURUNDI | n/a | Right to film fish (7) / R (right) + WANDA (from the film ‘A Fish Called Wanda’) |
| 3D | BEYOND | ABOVE | n/a | The old revolutionary vow is binding (5) / B_OND (vow) around (binding) EY (ye, archaic version of ‘the’, revolved) |
| 4D | ARTISAN | Smith | Smith topped enthusiast (7) / (P)ARTISAN – enthusiast, topped, or first letter removed |
|
| 6D | GENTLEMEN | LADIES | n/a | Element worked into garden borders (6) / G_N (bordering letters of GardeN) around ENTLEME (anag, i.e. worked, of ELEMENT) |
| 7D | TREASURER | fund manager | Time to comfort half-hearted Republican fund manager (9) / T (time) + REAS(S)URE (comfort, half-‘heart’edly) + R (Republican) |
|
| 8D | AMENDED | made better | Made better finish – made different covers (7) / AM_ED (anag, i.e. different, of MADE) around END (finish) |
|
| 9D | TERCENTENNIAL | anniversary | Recent comic illustrator announced anniversary (13) / TERCEN (anag, i.e. comic, of RECENT) + TENNIAL (homophone, i.e. announced, of Sir John TENNIEL, illustrator of e.g. ‘Alice in Wonderland’) |
|
| 15D | HAIRLINES | shock margins | Heroin carriers’ shock margins? (9) / H (heroin) + AIRLINES (carriers) |
|
| 18D | GLUCOSE | energy supplier | Firms join banks to create energy supplier (7) / GLU_E (join) around (banking) COS (companies, firms) |
|
| 20D | PEGASUS | horse | Groom pauses, harnessing head of grey horse (7) / PE_ASUS (anag, i.e. groom, of PAUSES) around (harnessing) G (first letter, or head, of Grey) |
|
| 21D | TRIVIAL | lightweight | Lightweight rocket intercepts pilot (7) / TRI_AL (pilot) around (intercepting) VI (V1, German WW2 rocket/bomb) |
|
| 22D | TV SHOW | programme broadcast | Programme broadcast shot around very start of war (2,4) / T_SHO (anag, i.e. broadcast, of SHOT) around V (very), plus W (first letter of War) |
|
| 25D | ALPHA | OMEGA | n/a | Partridge’s call holds record (5) / A_HA (catch phrase of Alan Partridge, UK comedy TV character) around LP (Long Playing vinyl record) |
Thanks for the blog, McRapper – the animated solution is a tour-de-force!
Our route to the solution mirrored yours, starting with ALPHA/OMEGA and ending with ISAAC/ABRAHAM and MARX/ENGELS, spread over a couple of weeks.
I thought quite a few of the undefined clues had very tough wordplay, especially since the length of the answer was unknown (eg, “stuff about Times”, “Right to film fish” – yes, they’re fair, but blimey….).
I admit resorting to Word Wizard for several – and just combing through the list of admissible answers to find a likely looking member of a pair. Cheating, you say ? No, making good use of the resources available 😉
Many thanks for the blog. I thought this was a great puzzle and it took a lot of unravelling. Like you, I found that the NW corner was the most stubborn. My LOI was AGAIN, and I was held up for a while by trying to get 3D to mean BELOW!
Very impressive blog to a fine puzzle – thanks.
NW corner was tough – I’m not sure Burundi and Rwanda really qualify as a well known pairing.
We have had this type of puzzle before – Genius 105 in March 2012, also by Crucible. He promised us then that if we hung around a few months we should see a sequel.
Looking back at the first pairings puzzle, I see that the letter counts given were for the thematic solutions, not the grid entry. Crucible must have decided that made it too easy!
Hi
God this was tough! I nearly gave up with about a week to go, having only done about half, but the two or three days off allowed me to see the clues in a different way. My only complaint with cluing is that ‘twee’, in my mind at least, needs to have an ‘affectation’ about it. Just simply equating it to ‘pretty’ is something I have never heard used in my life.
For a long time I was fixated on 6d being Gin [Iodine inserted]. Obviously tonic would not fit, but I spent too long thinking of bitter [as in bitter lemon] or something else added to Gin. I had Cressida by then so the ‘E’ crossed. This was one where leaving the puzzle aside for a while got me back on track.
I also was not enthralled by ‘bans’ in 27A used to remove the ‘un’. Surely a better indicator than that would have given a nicer surface reading.
Finally I agree with mc_rapper67 [I have often wondered about this moniker!] that the Guardian is shambolic with its excuses about this crossword. There has hardly been a month in the past 4 years where there was not some problem with the Genius is one of many ways. Now the print page for the puzzle gives the rubbish about the temporary nature of the issue RATHER than the instructions for the crossword, which don’t come across. It leaves me writing these in by hand every month. I know I could print another page with these on, but frankly this whole thing is inexcusable.
A friend of mine who is far more knowledgeable than I am about developing interactive elements, such as the Genius crossword, says that it should take ONE person no more than 10-15 hours to fix. Clearly the Guardian either doesn’t care or employs the wrong IT people. Based on my own IS/IT knowledge and dealings with their ‘technical’ help desk they have no idea about much when it comes down to IT. For the Guardian they need to get their act together far better.
Thanks to rapper man, and Crucible for numerous late nights.
Yes, damn the Guardian! Damn it and its excellent free crosswords that offer hours of entertainment and stimulation at no cost, but that are nonetheless slightly time-consuming to print! Bastards!
Thanks for all the comments and feedback – sorry for slow response but I was away on my annual golfing and drinking weekend…or was that the other way around?…
DuncT at #3 – I instinctively put Burundi as a pair with Rwanda, but couldn’t really explain this until I came to do the blog. Any Wiki-oogling of the recent history of these countries makes for some tragic reading, but I think it is fair to say that they were geographically and geopolitically linked in the early 20th century colonial period, and must have stuck there from my 1980s history/geography lessons…
So, with regards to the puzzle – it seems a fair but toughie, and a mental tussle enjoyed by commenters above.
As for the danger of going off topic!…
BT – yes, fair enough you can chastise us for being ungrateful for the Grauniad’s (inexplicably) free service (I, for one, would have been and would be more than willing to continue paying £25 a year, or a bit more now, especially if that cash was earmarked for maintenance of the site) but there have been numerous promises to do ‘something’ about the Genius over the past years – the initial page is still the same as about 10 years ago – aeons in internet terms! – and refers to the ‘recent redesign’ and tells us to save the puzzle and return after the ‘relaunch’… Given the huge amounts of money the Grauniad has thrown at their other e-outlets, I don’t think it is unreasonable to expect them to tidy up anomalies like this. If I was the developer of the original Genius page, or that now-ancient ‘relaunch’, if those programmers aren’t retired and de-compiling by now, then I would be clamouring at the G’s door, offering my services for free to finish the job. The only chink of light I can see is that they seem to have recently ‘fixed’ (or enhanced) the design of the Prize puzzle to allow alphabeticals to be done interactively, so maybe they have secured some resource, and hopefully the Genius is not too far down on the list of things to do…