Guardian Genius 182 – Puck

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This didn’t take me as long as some Geniuses, but it was nevertheless a puzzling experience.

It soon became obvious that “the clues to the other solutions have an unwanted 22, either in their wordplay or definition” involved removing a P, but it took me ages to see this meant they had a P ADDED. Meanwhile, although I found several of the solutions that “could be 22”, there was no obvious connection between them. It was only when I had all the crossing letters for 22d that the penny dropped with a loud clang. Thanks to Puck for the entertainment.

In the listing below, the undefined “padded” answers are highlighted thus.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. SADDLES Sort of cups found in auctions? (7)
DD (bra size, cups) in SALES
5. JACKET In the morning, Emma’s left in plane (6)
ACK EMMA (military slang for a.m.) less EMMA, in JET
8. ONSET Start of Eton’s PE teaching (5)
Hidden in (“of”) etONS [P]E Teaching
9. ENVELOPES Running second out of seven runs (9)
Anagram of SEVEN with the S “run out”, + LOPES (runs)
11. TERRAIN Turtle country (7)
TERRA[P]IN
13,16. CUSHIONS American wearing new chinos (8)
US in CHINOS* – are any cushions not padded?
15. TOILET SEATS Cans food (6,5)
TOILETS (cans) + EATS
20. COAT HANGERS Chaste organ playing (4,7)
(CHASTE ORGAN)*
23. DAIS iPad’s mobile platform (4)
Anagram of I[P]ADS
24. GALATIA Young female given a clue by a place Paul wrote to (7)
GAL + A TI[P] + A – as in St Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians
27. CONGER EEL Drive off after permission to leave fish in the sea (6,3)
CONGÉ (permission to leave) + RE[P]EL (to drive off)
29. ELATED Very happy journalist, after eating dish (6)
[P]LATE in ED
30. TIARAED Pirate had not started out wearing a crown (7)
Anagram (“out”) of [P]IRATE + [h]AD (not started)
Down
1. SHORTS Goes across small river (6)
R (small river) in SHOTS (attempts, goes)
2. DESIRE Purge to get rid of father? (6)
To get rid of a father might be to DE-SIRE
3. LET Give permission, please (3)
Double definition ([P]LEASE being the second)
4. STERN Back pass? (5)
Double definition (just about)
5. JUVE Turpin’s 11 when young? Not half! (4)
JUVE[nile]. Juve is slang for the football team Juventus, based in Turin. The “11″ refers to the size of the team and is not a cross-reference to “terrain”
6. CELL Instrument not originally orchestral (4)
CELLO less O[rchestral]
7. ESPOUSAL Championing of stewed apples, when touring round America (8)
O (round) US in anagram of APPLES less one of its Ps
10. SCHISM Split from carpenter into sadomasochism (6)
CHI[P]S (slang for a carpenter) in SM
12. AITCH Headingley, primarily a place for playing cricket (5)
A [P]ITCH
14. FETE Discussed plot for outdoor event (4)
Homophone of “fate” = [p]lot
17. SISAL Regularly swims with friend, a Mexican rope-maker (5)
Alternate letters of SwImS + [P]AL
18. ACIDIC Tart in a photo, arrested by policemen? On the contrary (6)
CID in A [P]IC
19. NATIONAL President of a country? (8)
A double definition (resident/of a country), though again the two definitions are almost the same
21. STRATA Players plan to lose a stone (6)
STRATAGEM less GEM
22. PADDED (See instructions)
(theme answer)
24. GILET Farmer with time for a little sex (5)
GILES (stereotypical farmer) with S[ex] changed to T
25. VEST Somewhat flat 7up (4)
Hidden in reverse of flaT SEVen
26,28 ac. HEADBOARD Chair a committee (9)
HEAD (to chair) + BOARD (committee)
28. BRA Artist turned up in saloon? (3)
BAR (saloon) with the RA reversed

6 comments on “Guardian Genius 182 – Puck”

  1. The play on PADDED/P ADDED amused me once I’d figured it out after finding several of the padded items. As you say, Andrew, surely the essence of cushions is padding. But then I don’t think I’ve come across any padded 15s, but I liked the clue.

    I enjoyed this workout despite struggling with some of the parsings. All the more satisfying for that. Didn’t know congé in 27a.

    Thanks Andrew for the explanations and Puck for the fun.

  2. I enjoyed this one – I saw what was going on with the p’s quite early but took far too long to connect it with p-added – in retrospect getting the coathangers first made it more difficult.

    Thanks to Puck annd Andrew

  3. Thanks Andrew.

    Like beery hiker I got coathangers early on and could not see any connection with the other words that started to emerge, never mind the added Ps. Great moment of realisation when 22 finally became apparent.

    Thanks to Puck for a puzzle that really did puzzle all the way through.

  4. Thoroughly enjoyable. I reached about 80% filled but couldn’t finish for ages.

    Of course, getting 12d wrong didn’t help. I had HITCH and convinced myself that a padded hitch was a thing. This stopped me getting the (ever-so-easy, on reflection)  TERRAIN.

    Still, all finished in the end. Thanks to Puck and Andrew.

  5. It’s amazing how many of those padded items are available with LETTERs on (my “inspired” guess for 22 — well, P is a letter, isn’t it?). Even toilet seats. It was getting HEADBOARD that led to the epiphany of P-ADDED.

    An enjoyable challenge.

  6. I’m a bit late to the blog this month as I was away over the [US] Labor Day shindigs.

    The two things I would like to add – if anyone is still around – are with 1A and 1D.

    Early on I had “SUCTION” for 1A, as being an anagram of Auctions minus the letter ‘A’ and definitely a sort of cup.  As I just had a couple of other solutions with ‘P’ missing, I just assumed it was a general letter to be removed, until I had many more ‘P’ solutions.

    Later while I had still not got the theme yet but had VEST, GILET and JACKET.  I thought the theme may be items of clothing for the upper body.

    Well SHIRTS fitted 1D, but required ‘Goes’ to be extremely Paul-like, and probably not something the editor would accept!

    It all became clear a few days later!

    By the way aren’t all Gilets padded?

    Thanks Andrew and Puck

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