It’s the first Monday in May and up comes a most enjoyable tussle with Vlad. We were told that:
Twelve thematic solutions are to be entered in the grid incompletely. Their clues contain a definition of the full solution and wordplay for a different thematic entry in the grid. Wordplay for each of the remaining 23 clues contains a superfluous letter. These letters in clue order give a four-word indication of what the thematic entries are lacking. By a process of elimination, you must deduce the final thematic entry at 29 across, which (similarly completed) you might say is surprising.
So, how does this pan out? The twelve ‘incomplete thematic entries’ each omit two letters from the full solution. The thematic entry/wordplay exchanges are indicated below.
The “superfluous letters” in the wordplay for the other 23 clues (in red) spell out LETTER PAIRS NO REPETITION which indicates that the thematic entries are lacking two letters, all different, from the full solution.
If these letters (in green) are eliminated from the letters of the alphabet we are left with M and Y which, with the unclued entry at 29ac, gives a term that you might say when surprised – MY WORD.
Many thanks Vlad for this challenging, but absorbing, puzzle. It must have been a devil to compile!
Across
1 Reflect on scams by one not working (8)
CONSIDER – CONS (scams) IDLER (one not working)
6 In turn killed over 50 // — that’s nothing (5)
SWEET – wordplay in 12ac – SWEET FA
SLEW (killed) around (over) L (fifty) reversed (in turn) – wordplay for 7dn
10 Young lady about to describe new // fantasy film (6,2)
RETURN TO – wordplay in 21dn – RETURN TO OZ
GAL (young lady) reversed (about) around (to describe) N (new) – wordplay for 12ac
11 Mean to ring and go (6)
PALTRY – PEAL (ring) TRY (go)
12 Singer-songwriter‘s // number one impressing street (4)
LANG – wordplay in 10ac – KD LANG
WEE (number one) in (impressing) ST (street) – wordplay for 6ac
13 Mad Kelvin with money — that’s potential for disaster (6,4)
BANANA SKIN – BANANAS (mad) K (Kelvin) TIN (money)
15 Tall London building // worker let out (5)
TOWER – wordplay in 24ac – BT TOWER
BEE (worker) plus an anagram (out) of LET – wordplay for 30ac
17 Imagined lawyer // discussing earnings of Englishman abroad (8)
KAVANAGH – wordplay in 30ac – KAVANAGH QC
sounds like (discussing) POM PAY (earnings of Englishman abroad) – wordplay for 21dn
20 Top MP last to change light (8)
SPOTLAMP – an anagram (to change) of TOP MP LAST
24 Artist // drew other piece the wrong way round (5)
LOWRY – wordplay in 7dn – LS LOWRY
hidden (piece) reversal (the wrong way round) in ‘dREW OTher’ – wordplay for 15ac
26 Scribe amuses with inane rambling (10)
AMANUENSIS – an anagram (rambling) of AMUSES INANE
29 [unclued] (4)
WORD – see preamble
30 Bug // vehicle (Ford camper)? One’s close to catching husband (6)
BEETLE – wordplay in 15ac – VW BEETLE
KA (vehicle Ford) VAN (camper) A (one) [catchin]G (close to catching) H (husband) – wordplay for 17ac
31 Long to keep American behind // former world champion (4,4)
ANDY RUIZ – wordplay in 33ac – ANDY RUIZ JR
PANT (long) around (to keep) ASS (American behind) – wordplay for 23dn
33 Best team // ruin day — unfortunate end to series (5)
FIRST – wordplay in 23dn – FIRST XI
an anagram (unfortunate) of RUIN DAY followed by Z (end to series) – wordplay for 31ac
34 Increasingly abrupt about artist — very cross (8)
TRAVERSE – TERSER (increasingly abrupt) around (about) RA (artist) V (very)
Down
2 Smoking pot, carve ham (7)
OVERACT – an anagram (smoking) of POT CARVE
3 Chucked while taking breather (5)
SLUNG – AS (while) LUNG (breather)
4 Assume party’s at home (3)
DON – DO (party) IN (at home)
5 OK, Renoir upset English speaker in South Africa (7)
ROOINEK – an anagram (upset) of OK RENOIR
7 Writer // not happy with lines (5)
WELLS – wordplay in 6ac – HG WELLS
LOW (not happy) RY (lines) – wordplay for 24ac
8 Marine right to call for jewellery (7)
EARRING – SEA (marine) R (right) RING (to call)
9 Frank working with writer (4)
OPEN – ON (working) PEN (writer)
13 One that clings to Chairman’s country as it was (5)
BURMA – BUR (one that clings) MAO (Chairman)
14 Where the Taj Mahal is in range (3)
AGA – AGRA (where the Taj Mahal is)
16 Feeble tee shot at Wentworth’s first (3)
WET – W[entworth] (Wentworth’s first) plus an anagram (shot) of TEE
18 Rod dissects very small rodents (5)
VOLES – POLE (rod) in (dissects) V (very) S (small)
19 Name sheep only just acquired (3)
NEW – N (name) EWE (sheep)
21 How could you make part of the Bible // a comedy? (7)
POMPEII – wordplay in 17ac – UP POMPEII
cryptic indicator – wordplay for 10ac
22 Money‘s in wallet upstairs (3)
LEU – contained in (‘s in) ‘walLET Upstairs’
23 Runs into duke // incidentally (7)
PASSANT – wordplay in 31ac – EN PASSANT
R (runs) in (into) FIST (duke) – wordplay for 33ac
25 Dogs key to Iris having no time off (7)
YORKIES – an anagram (off) of KEY [t]O IRIS (key to Iris having no time)
27 Sent to play records (5)
NOTES – an anagram (play) of SENT TO
28 Stop working in nurse’s garden (4)
EDEN – DIE (stop working) in EN (nurse)
29 Not as good without flower (5)
WORSE – WO (without) ROSE (flower)
32 Means of identifying daughter’s old relative (3)
DNA – D (daughter) NAN (old relative)
Beautiful puzzle.
Thanks for the blog, Gaufrid, and for the fiendish puzzle from Vlad. Probably it was harder to compile than solve, though that was hard enough.
It took a long time for the penny to drop about what was missing from the 12 thematic answers, in fact we had to work out nearly all of the others before we had an inkling of the theme, but after that it went fairly quickly. KAVANAGH (QC) revealed himself early on, but it was still took a log while to get the significance of the QC.
I admit the I didn’t bother tying up most of the wordplays with the definitions – most of the themed items just went in from definitions and crossing letters, so thanks to Gaufrid for those.
Super puzzle with multiple elements that unravelled at just the right pace for me. Thanks all.
Very cleverly put together, and much more approachable than I thought it would be at first. Once the letter pairs were spotted a lot of the answers went in from the definitions for me but that did not spoil the fun. Many thanks Vlad.
This is my first post on this website so please bear with me. What do people think of this answer for 6A?
NI (IN reversed) HI(T) (killed with a letter removed) L giving NIHIL (nothing)
Unfortunately this was the first clue I worked out, and while I eventually realised that it couldn’t be right after I got the other missing letter clues and the phrase, I never got over it and didn’t finish the crossword. I didn’t know who Andy Ruiz was either.
Brian @5 – yes NIHIL is entirely plausible. That’s the difficulty with crosswords like this where clues fall into two (or more) camps, and there’s no indication which is which. It’s not called ‘Genius’ for nothing 🙂
Andy Ruiz Jr was entirely new to us too. when ‘Andy’ looked like a possible first name, we had to google ‘Andy world champion’ – and eventually found a name that fit. It think it’s allowed to use assistance sometimes!
This was our first Genius and we loved it, finding, like DuncT @3, that it unravelled steadily.
We found 29 across without realizing that M and Y were the two missing letters of the alphabet, so thank you Gaufrid for enlightening us and explaining the somewhat random (we thought) two letter sequences.
Andy Ruiz, who knew?
Thank you to Vlad for the excellent entertainment and Gaufrid for the blog. Roll on, tomorrow and the next one.
A puzzle very much to my taste. Once I understood how the alphabet was involved, solving was methodical. Unscrambling the thematic clues was so difficult that I actually cut out, sorted, and pasted the components on a separate piece of paper, though. (I can confirm that they do work.) The final “my word” was a genuine, delightful surprise.
Not sure where today’s Genius puzzle is – have emailed the Editor; it should be up soon.
Wonderful. That’s all I have to say, but I had to say it.
This one defeated me, even after I got about 15 clues completed. Seeing the solution now, I could possibly have finished it, but I am not certain. Thanks Gaufrid and Vlad.
By the way, where is Tony these days?
I’d like to add to the praise for this – a very enjoyable solve, especially when the penny dropped that all the letters of the alphabet were going to be used! Luckily for me I was aware of Andy Ruiz Jr as a heavyweight boxer… Thanks to setter and blogger.
Cineraria at #8 – with suitable freely available software it is possible to scrape/copy the text from the PDF to get the clues in an electronic format – that is how I get the clues when blogging – and then you could have cut’n’pasted electronically. However, I can appreciate the satisfaction from a little paper cutting and actual pasting as well!
HamishSoup at #9 – thanks for prodding the Grauniad – 204 is now up on the site. I see why you had an interest in its being available…
I’m watching, Gordon, just don’t seem to have got round to attempting to solve the last couple. Still haven’t got round to sorting out a printer. Humans are infinitely adaptable but in this case the adaptation has been to not do the Genius.
Thank you Gaufrid for the blog and Vlad for a hugely enjoyable work out. My husband and I do a lot of cryptic crosswords together although we are new to Genius level. We have enjoyed them so much that we decided to go back through all the old Genius puzzles that are on line – which has turned out to be more challenging that we imagined because none of the ‘special instructions’ are included on the webpage! I call it ‘Genius Jeopardy’ because you have to try to solve enough clues to be able to guess the ‘question’ (i.e. the theme, link etc). Amazingly, we have managed to complete over a dozen puzzles so far – but some of them have left us totally baffled. Does anyone know how we can get the special instructions for these old posts? So far, we have not been able to crack Genius 10 and 25 at all….
Hi Tony #13, I’m pleased you are still around, even if you are just simply lurking.
Thanks to Gaufrid and Vlad
A real treat.
I don’t think Vlad usually sees a collection of fodder elements as plural, so “play” in 27d may be a slight error in a masterclass.
Many thanks to Gaufrid for the blog and to others who commented.
This was a great puzzle. Tough but once you got it, you knew that you had it right. I was very impressed when I spotted the pattern in the omitted letters.