Guardian Genius 176 – Paul

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“Six of the 11 clues marked * contain only wordplay, their solutions being 21. The solutions to the other five clues marked * should be entered in the grid 21 (Roman or otherwise), producing non-words.” These instructions (corrected since the puzzle was first published – the word “other” was confusingly omitted in the early version) didn’t seem to be much help, except that “Roman or otherwise” suggested that numbers might be involved.

A lot of the normal clues were quite easy, which gave me a good start; my first asterisked one was 17a – ASI[NINE], confirming my suspicions about numbers. Things rather ground to a halt for a while, but then I got AURIC and POULENC in quick succession, and fortunately recognised them as members of LES SIX. Dredging my memory, and trying to resist the temptation to look up the other names, I remembered all but DUREY, and was able to find spaces for them in the grid. By then I had enough checking letters to investigate the other special clues, and soon twigged that they were “LESS IX”, i.e. missing IX or NINE in the grid entry, after which it was plain sailing to the finish. So quite a quick solve for me compared to some Geniuses, but an enjoyable challenge. Thanks to Paul.

Across
8. EGO Self altogether absorbing, on reflection (3)
Hidden in reverse of altOGEther
9. ASKING PRICE Regal horror actor is what one’s demanding? (6,5)
AS KING (regal) + [Vincent] PRICE
11*. D[IX]IELAND Stop to catch a genre of music (7)
DIE (stop) + LAND (to catch, e.g. fish)
12. BIOTECH Ice melts with both micro-organisms used in this industrial research (7)
(ICE BOTH)*
13. IGLOOS Little room to enter accommodation with no entrance, as accommodation blocked? (6)
LOO (little room) in [D]IGS
15*. MEGAP[IX]EL Contrary part of a report introduced to the table, lacking a measure of resolution (7)
Reverse of PAGE in MEAL (the table) less A. “Pel” is sometimes used as an abbreviation of pixel, so arguably this also works as a straight clue
16*. DUREY Squab’s heart in nest (5)
[sq]U[ab] in DREY (squirrel’s nest)
17*. ASI[NINE] Like Bottom, like Paul! (3)
AS I – and Bottom was turned into an ass in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
18*. AURIC Unlimited French composer, I see (5)
[F]AUR[É] + I C. Auric wrote music for a number of films, ranging from Cocteau’s rather surreal La Belle et la Bête to Ealing comedies such as Passport to Pimlico
20*. MILHAUD Endlessly carry in beer (7)
HAU[L] in MILD. Milhaud wrote a huge amount of music, including the ballets La création du monde and Le bœuf sur le toit, influenced respectively by jazz and Brazilian music, but he is perhaps best known these days (as they say) for his suite Scaramouche for two pianos, and particularly the final movement, Brasileira
23. TIP-TOP Best reverse narcotic hell (3-3)
Reverse of POT (narcotic) + PIT (hell)
25. NOSTRIL When messed up, I snort line — through here? (7)
(I SNORT L)*
27*. POULENC Having lost capital, person in the money shortly (7)
[S]OUL in PENC[E] – probably the best-known composer of the group
28*. TAILLEFERRE Dog stray — feel terrible about it (11)
TAIL + ERR in FEEL*. The only female member of Les Six
29. TAB Marker hit from behind (3)
Reverse of BAT (to hit)
Down
1*. HENDR[IX] Old plucker, one treating a chicken? (5)
HEN DR (doctor)
2*. HONEGGER One disinclined to pass round wine, Women’s Institute getting wasted (8)
WINE less WI in HOGGER (one who hogs the ball, i.e. is disinclined to pass, e.g. in football)
3. LAVATORY Pan, a vessel fed to small bird (8)
A VAT in LORY
4. SKID Vicious circles ending in heartbreak, lose control (4)
[heartbrea]K in SID (Sid Vicious, member of the Sex Pistols)
5. SNUB Disregard baker’s produce flipped over (4)
Reverse of BUNS
6. RISE UP Revolt in Peru is revolutionary (4,2)
(PERU IS)*
7. CEPHALIC Heady record in the cup, detailed (8)
EP in CHALIC[E]
10. PRONG Out to replace leader, that’s the point! (5)
WRONG (out) with the first letter changed. I’m not keen on clues like this where the replacement is not specified (maybe point is doing duty for P, but that’s not in Chambers or anywhere else I can find as an abbreviation)
14. SWARD Grass with designs on getting high? (5)
Reverse of DRAWS (designs)
15. MOIST Tearful film about love (5)
O in MIST
16*. DOMINATR[IX] Perfect hosts a horror ultimately, under party chief whip? (8)
DO (party) + A in MINT (perfect) + [horro]R. Somehow I can’t help being reminded of the story of Norman Lamont and Miss Whiplash
18. AMPOULES Poor Paul requires some medical containers (8)
(PAUL SOME)*
19. ROOMETTE Force into burrow one’s rear — there’s little space (8)
MET (police force) in ROOT (burrow) + [on]E
21. LES SIX/LESS IX [unclued]
To be read as LES SIX for the first type of asterisked clue, and LESS IX for the second
22. APRIL A threesome at cards, missing a spring? (5)
A + PRI[A]L. Prial is “three cards of the same denomination” in various games, so a “threesome”, though not in the sense of three players, as the surface suggests
24. SCUBA Southern island going down kitted up (5)
S + CUBA
26. LEFT One way still to go … (4)
Double definition
27. PORT … that way for a drink (4)
Double definition – linked to the previous clue as port is the left side of a ship (when looking forward)

12 comments on “Guardian Genius 176 – Paul”

  1. This was my first attempt at a Genius. Pleased to say I got there in the end, but the solve was spaced out over a week. I had vaguely heard of Led Six but couldn’t remember their names. I recognised POULENC and MILHAUD and gradually chipped away from there. I don’t think I had light bubble moment, more a slow dawning.

    Still, I’m inspired to try again. I might have to give up doing some of the dailies though to give me time. 🙂

    Thank you Paul and Andrew.

  3. I really liked this. My first of the six was AURIC-which I immediately got from (F)AUR(E) and IC but the composer clue was.. er.. a red herring or a double bluff and it wasnt until I got MILHAUD who I first heard of from Dave Brubeck studying under him and even naming his son Darius.

    My uni subject was chemistry so AURIC made me think of FLUORIC or something when it was POULENC. So the penny very slowly dropped. I’d never heard of AURIC as a composer(music my subject after uni)and had vaguely heard of HONEGGER-and never heard of LES SIX so it was an interesting unravelling(excuse that)

    Less dim solvers than me would have immediately picked up on “Roman or otherwise”

     

    Thanks Andrew and paul

  4. Footnote-recently watched 1956 French film Gervaise” and George Auric did the music.

    It was AWFUL.

  5. We were barking up the wrong tree for a while like Copmus, having got AURIC and seeing 27a ending in C – which suggested something metallic, or even heraldic.  But a dim recollection that POULENC was a composer lead some googling which eventually lead to LES SIX – we hadn’t heard of the group before.  But we enjoyed the challenge, which gradually yielded and gave some smiles along the way, as you can expect from Paul.

  6. Thanks Paul and Andrew.

    I was on the point of giving up when I searched for AURIC and found LES SIX, which I didn’t know. When I got MEGAP(IX)EL there was a PDM to give LESS IX. From then, my computer and I managed to get to the finishing line.

    Nice idea, I wonder if the undefined clues had not been asterisked whether it would have been almost impossible. A struggle but a feeling of accomplishment when I finally completed it.

  7. Me @1 again. What a rubbish comment that was. “a light bulb moment” not “light bubble moment”. I need that review comment button. I’d better start the day again.

  8. Unfortunately I had little or no chance of finishing this, never having heard of Les Six or any of its members (maybe Poulenc, very vaguely). I did twig from ASI (and Roman) that it might be something to do with removing numbers and managed most of the unstarred clues. A bit disappointed though that I failed to get TIP-TOP (had TOP-*** pencilled in), LAVATORY (never heard of a lory), SWARD (never heard of it), MOIST (Suzie Dent’s most unfavourite word, btw), SCUBA or PORT. Grr! How did I not get those last three?

  9. Struggled with this one. Grateful for being able at last to discover the full story and understand the puzzle.
    I got several clues, including 15a and 17a, so I knew there was going to be a pattern including omitting IX and saw the obvious link with Roman numerals. But I never got close to finishing it, not having ever heard of Les Six, though I recognise a couple of the names. Some good wordplay but far too reliant on particular, not necessarily general, knowledge for me.
    Prial is a new word to me, I was searching for this kind of word as an answer to the threesome hint but didn’t find it through googling.
    Can’t believe I didn’t get 24d though – good one! *holds head in hands*

  10. I’m another one who has not heard of “Les Six”, and while I managed to find AURIC (because it’s an English word as well as a composer’s name) I got nowhere near deriving the others.  I did get ASI and guessed there was a transformation involving numbers, but got too hung up on trying to transform something to the final I (such as an S, from Bottom being an ASS).  I also found it a little unfair that the unclued 21 was crossed by two of the wordplay-only composers, so there wasn’t really a way to arrive at the theme word without knowing more words from the theme (which itself was hard to do without knowing what the theme was!).

     

    Ah well. Thanks Andrew for the explanation (I won’t beat myself up too much about not getting this one), and Paul for the puzzle.

     

    I do wish The Guardian would get these preambles right first time, or somehow make the correction more prominent (it couldn’t hurt to mention it in the weekly blog, for example). In this case it wasn’t difficult to work out what was meant, but at least once before the mistake made the puzzle impossible to solve if followed strictly.  (I also wish the numbers were legible in the printed version.  Is it just me or are the numbers in the grid low-resolution and virtually unreadable?)

  11. Steve – I’m with you about the low-res numbers and the typos, but then again I guess it’s basically a wonderful thing we get for free and it would be quite weird for the paper to prioritise their crosswords when they have a much more important news mission.

  12. Funnily enough, I printed this month’s Genius after making that comment and the numbers are super-clear.

     

    You’re right though, it’s free and I appreciate them doing it.

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