An apparently anonymous puzzle for July, offering an unusual twist on a familiar device. As Gaufrid pointed out to me, the identity of the setter was in fact available by doing an archive search, but not on the page where the puzzle itself was to be found.
| Across | ||
| 8 | CONTRA(CE)PTION |
Can protection for frolicking be this? (11)
The first of the 12 clues where letters had to be omitted. At first CONTRACTION seemed equally likely, before I had the crossing letter, but only CONTRAPTION fits the theme (see introduction). With all the letters included, the clue is a very nice example of an & lit. |
| 9 | CAD |
Queen, say, losing right heel (3)
CA(r)D. |
| 11 | BR(AND)ING |
Putting logo on bottom of badminton racket — boast about it (5)
(badminto)N DIN in BRAG. |
| 12 | THESAURUS |
Tailless bird circles character in Old Testament book (9)
ESAU in THRUS(h). |
| 13 | AKINETIC |
A family name’s brought back still (8)
A KIN CITE(rev). This word was new to me, but easily gettable from the wordplay and crossing letters. |
| 15 | SEMIT(ON)E |
Record company not about to enter Home Counties for a short interval (6)
EMI NOT(rev) in SE. |
| 17 | PE(ARL)ER |
Diver’s parking before one leaves (4)
P EARL(i)ER. |
| 18 | REN(EW)AL |
Frenchman sent back rules for overhaul (5)
RENE LAW(rev). |
| 19 | DOC(ENT)S |
Con coins from US academics (4)
Another unfamiliar word for me. The word play is a simple charade: DO CENTS. Arguably the US in the clue could equally well serve as part of the definition. |
| 22 | LEAN-TO |
Deliberately fencing a cabin (4-2)
A in LENTO (a musical term meaning slowly, so deliberately). |
| 23 | MALAYSIA |
Graduate bets capital from east Asian land (8)
MA LAYS A1(rev). |
| 25 | INCUBATOR |
Current trainee returned schedule for hospital device (9)
IN CUB ROTA(rev). |
| 26 | FL(AKE) OUT |
Collapse cooking kale and tofu (5)
*(KALE TOFU). |
| 29 | GEN |
Low-down fellow? Not quite (3)
GEN(t). |
| 30 | LIPOPROTEIN |
Something in the blood, cheek or toe fixed with pin (11)
LIP *(OR TOE PIN). |
| Down | ||
| 1 | SCAB |
He shouldn’t be working in second vehicle (4)
S CAB. |
| 2 | ANTI |
Not for visiting Byzantium (4)
Hidden in Byzantium. |
| 3 | TRIGGER |
Cause to bring goods into German city (7)
GG in TRIER (one of the smaller German cities, but one which is very useful to a crossword compiler!). |
| 4 | SPITFIRES |
More than one plane tree pest is unfortunately covering (9)
FIR in *(PEST IS). |
| 5 | LIM(E TRE)ES |
Greenery is prone to be occupied by London coppers and sappers (5)
MET(ropolitan police) RE in LIES. |
| 6 | INHALER |
It helps breathing, being cool and well rested, initially (7)
IN HALE R(ested). |
| 7 | SCURRILOUS |
Abusive rascal interrupting Hindu’s address, endlessly base person (10)
CUR in SRI, LOUS(e). |
| 10 | DYSPEPSIA |
Days suffering without drink, having trouble with consumption (9)
PEPSI in *DAYS. |
| 13 | APPA(RE)LLING |
Girl with an apple for cooking, getting dressing (9)
*(GIRL AN APPLE). |
| 14 | ICE DANCING |
Gliding and tripping in chilled party in Africa in Gabon’s capital (3,7)
ICED ANC IN G(abon). |
| 16 | PARAGRAPH |
Secretary to mock and criticise hard lines (9)
PA RAG RAP H. Nicely misleading definition. |
| 20 | STUBB(ORN)LY |
Animal painter not quite right, entering just like a mule (7)
STUBB(s), R in ONLY. |
| 21 | SAFFRON |
Colour’s very loud in most of Asian dress with no back (7)
FF in SARON(g). |
| 24 | STEPS |
Small animals retreating in flight (5)
S PETS (all rev). |
| 27 | OV(ERSE)ER |
Supervisor finished date with queen (4)
OVER SEE R. |
| 28 | TANG(RAM). |
Hint and sign in eastern puzzle (4)
TANG RAM. |
Thanks for the blog – this was a classic genius puzzle and we enjoyed most of it… FLOUT was our first suspect for an adjusted answer, but it took several such answers letter until the penny fully dropped.
Most of it went fairly smoothly, but the last few were ground out slowly, and we failed completely on 17a and 19a – the short ones are harder as the possibilities of addition/subtraction make a more significant difference.
Many thanks to setter & blogger.
This was fun and a good challenge but I had to take a guess for both 17A and 28D and got both wrong.
By the way, has the Guardian Editor’s blog been discontinued ? I cannot see any updates since May so none of the usual comments about the Genius submissions.
Paul@2: you seem to be right, although the editor did make an appearance in a recent column from the Readers’ Editor: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/27/when-crossword-clues-clash-with-the-guardian-style-guide
Managed to mostly complete this, but had to guess 17a and went with PIER (I was hoping for PITCHER= diver).
I also never worked out the theme- many thanks, bridgesong, for restoring my faith in the Guardian by reassuring me that “adjusted in a consistent way” did not just mean “remove some letters from the middle”- I was having flashbacks to that rubbish SELF-CENTRED Genius from last year.
Oh, and regarding the print version, I usually copy the clues and grid into a Word document, mess about with the formatting and print that. Whenever I’ve tried to print the web page I’ve ended up with a grid that spans the page break…
James, my experience was similar to yours, except that I (randomly) guessed PIES for 17a. I also got 19a wrong, carelessly putting DONS, thinking it was a cunning double bluff (another kind of academic), and not realising that it didn’t even match my “rule” of “remove some consecutive letters from inside the word”. So no £100 for me again this month (I wonder if anyone is getting it, as per paul8hours’s comment about the Editor’s blog.)
Thanks to bridgesong for the elucidation.
I see the new Genius (which I am due to blog) isn’t available yet – depending which link I follow I get either this one or an error page. And this one’s annotated solution isn’t there yet either, so pretty much par for the course..
Found it – the August Genius is here (they just haven’t updated the links..) – again with no obvious setter’s name..
Archive search reveals that it’s set by Qaos. Excellent!
I didn’t get the theme either – got as far as removing consecutive letters to leave another word, which did yield the right answer nearly always. Spent some time trying to find a theme from the results without success, and eventually submitted DOTS at 19ac, as it seemed more likely.
I think 22 down is FF in SAR(I) + ON (NO rev)
Andrew @6: the Guardian crossword home page shows a winner for Genius 144, so perhaps it’s safe to assume that prizes are still being awarded even in the absence of a monthly newsletter from Hugh.
Maggy@10: your suggestion hadn’t occurred to me, but it seems that either version of the wordplay could be the intended one, both producing the same result.
Maggy @10: the annotated solution is now available and confirms that your version is correct! On reflection, my version would require some repetition, so I should have realised that it wasn’t correct. Thanks.