Guardian Genius 170 – Puck

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Not too much genius needed to solve this one – I found it not much harder than a typical jigsaw puzzle (and a lot easier than Maskarade’s Bank Holiday monster). The fact that the clues aren’t labelled with the initial letter of the answer makes things a bit harder, but not hugely so.

There’s only one square where two initial letters meet, and after some cold-solving I saw that I’d need BABUSHKA in there, with BARR and BRIO crossing with the two Bs in some order. From that I got a few more answers in place, and was able to identify the Nina, which helped with some stragglers. “My promised intention” is Puck’s line from Act 2, Scene 1 of A Midsummer Night’s Dream: “I’LL PUT A GIRDLE ROUND ABOUT THE EARTH [in forty minutes]”. Thanks to Puck for the relatively brief but enjoyable entertainment.

 

Genius 170 filled grid

Across
1. AEON First-class drug, working for a long time (4)
A + E (drug) + ON (working)
2. AIRS Tunes broadcast by soprano (4)
AIR (broadcast) + S
3. BABUSHKA Bishop with a note left behind by Kate Bush’s first nanny in Russia (8)
B + A + BUSH + KATE less TE (note), with “nanny” in the sense of grandmother
4. BARR Pub run by Epstein’s partner, going viral (4)
BAR + R – referring to the Epstein-Barr virus
5. BISSAU Capital returns from chihuahua’s siblings (6)
Hidden in reverse of chihuahUA’S SIBlings. Bissau is the capital of the west African country of Guinea-Bissau
6. BRIO Vivacity shown by Hungarian writer after change of heart (4)
BIRO (pen, named after its inventor, the Hungarian Laszlo Biro) with the “heart” changed from IR to RI
7. EMERGENT Coming out of WC shortly after one on throne pinches me (8)
ME in E.R. + GENT[S]
8. ENAMELWARE One of two Spice Girls in cooking area, with new decorated kitchen items (10)
MEL (Mel B or Mel C of the Spice Girls) in (AREA NEW)*
9. ESAU Elder twin brother from eastern half of 5 (4)
E + [BIS]SAU – Jacob’s elder brother in Genesis, he of the mess of pottage, and “an hairy man”
10. EVEN-HANDED Just the day before name’s first given (4-6)
EVE + N[ame] + HANDED (given)
11. GHAT Good headgear for Indian flight? (4)
G + HAT – among other tings it’s “a landing-stair on a riverside”
12. HOAX Trick taking 30 minutes? Answer: 10 more needed (4)
HO[ur] (i.e. half an hour) + A + X
13. HONORARIUM Voluntary fee after working topless for one man-hour (10)
Anagram of [f]OR I MAN-HOUR
14. INCHED Moved very slowly, having wrongly taken piano away (6)
PINCHED (stole) less P
15. INVALIDATE Cancel home TV licence, when discontented with Aida production? (10)
IN (home) + anagram of TV + L[ICENC]E + AIDA
16. KEEN Cry as doll is pierced with end of needle (4)
[needl]E in KEN (Barbie’s boyfriend)
17. LETTER BOMB Landlord, male, wearing hairstyle that might cause trouble at opening time (6,4)
LETTER (landlord) + M in BOB
18. MARMOT Rodent holding up two male animals (6)
Reverse of TOM [cat] + RAM
19. MOOT Academic books written by doctor (4)
MO (Doctor) + OT (Old Testament)
20. NUTSHELL Bananas the man will briefly put in fruit container (8)
NUTS + HE’LL
21. POLITICIAN Female artist talked of member in congress? (10)
Homophone of “Polly Titian”
22. REAL Football club in Warwickshire, allegedly (4)
Hidden in warwickshiRE ALlegedly – the club is Real Madrid
23. RICO US law is somewhat eccentric, only found in two states (4)
Hidden eccentRIC Only. RICO is the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act
24. TELEVISUAL Playing a lute wearing jeans? On the contrary, suited for the small screen (10)
LEVIS in (A LUTE)*
25. TERMINATED Finished with Hilary? End it with a falling-out (10)
TERM (of which Hilary is an example, at Oxford University) + (END IT A)*
26. TIERCE Prayer time in church after row (6)
TIER + CE – a variant of Terce
27. TRIO Group of players wanting tennis’s No 1 place Andy Murray finally won (4)
T + RIO. Andy Murray won a gold medal at the Rio olympics: I assume “finally” means he won the finals,
28. UNLIT Among body of soldiers left in the dark (5)
L in UNIT
29. UXORIOUS Too fond of wife in Egyptian city going topless (very good topless) (8)
[L]UXOR + [P]IOUS
30. VILLA Football club house criminal that’s homeless (5)
VILLAIN less IN (“home”), with two definitions (and the second “football club”)

7 comments on “Guardian Genius 170 – Puck”

  3. Yes, even I managed to solve this pretty quickly even though it wasn’t till the end that I understood the nina. Nicely constructed.

  5. I liked this a lot, even though it took me somewhat longer than the 40 minutes that Puck needed! I have always been a tortoise and not a hare.

    My only quibble is that I think that in 24D ‘wearing’ would normally indicate ‘to go around’, not be ‘contained within’. I have definitely seen the former usage many times, but I do not recall the latter. Surely ‘wearing’ should not be able to be used for either? Would Puck like to ‘wear his hat’!?

    Andrew, you commented on Genius 169, but I do not believe you saw my later comment about the cleverness of Jack’s use of repeated letters. I even got a commendation from Jack [Serpent] for noticing this [@8 and 11 respectively]. I mention it here only because I believe you like such ‘tricks’ and thought you might be interested.

    Thanks Puck and Andrew.

  6. Gordon, perhaps the “on the contrary” is meant to indicate that it’s the jeans wearing the TE…UAL?

    Thanks to Puck for the puzzle and Andrew for explaining the two I biffed.

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