Guardian Genius No 205 by Enigmatist

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A puzzle by Enigmatist is always a challenge, but this wasn’t as hard as some recent Geniuses.

The instructions read as follows:

“Thirteen clues consist of wordplay alone and share the same missing thematic definition. However, the wordplay for the first of these solutions has slipped and appears as the clue for the second, that for the second to the clue for the third and so on. (The wordplay for the 13th solution is the clue for the first.) With 13 other clues the definition of each solution contains a misprint. Corrections to these misprints in clue order spell out the reason for the 13 thematic shifts”.

So, 13 clues with wordplay only, and all in the wrong place; a further 13 clues with misprints in their definitions. By a rough count that left just 8 normal clues. I took as a working assumption that enumerations should be ignored, which proved to be wise. I got a few clues on the first pass: 19 down, 27 across (both misprints) and then 18 down (normal). My way into the theme came from the clue to REAUMUR, which at first I thought might be to a phrase such as ROW MORE, or perhaps a place such as ROW MOOR. Once I saw what the correct answer was, other similar answers like FAHRENHEIT and CELSIUS soon appeared, and I was able to start filling the grid. The misprinted letters were clearly saying something about scale; it turned out to be the appropriate SLIDING SCALE.

I’m not entirely happy with the parsing of a couple of answers, but I’m reasonably satisfied that they’re correct. I’ve highlighted the thematic answers in the grid. I decided to cross-reference the explanations where necessary: I hope it’s all clear.

One final point: the pdf as produced by the Guardian has blurred numbers in the grid, making it hard to read.  I wasted some time by confusing 25 and 28 down.

ACROSS
1 BRIX Productive period cut short (4)
3 ac: (Lord) B(rian) RIX, famous actor-manager who produced and starred in many long-running farces. The Brix (Adolf Brix) scale measures the sugar content of an aqueous solution.
3 FAHRENHEIT Lord of Farce, gutted (10)
9 ac: F(rance) A(uistria) *(THE RHINE). A temperature scale devised by Daniel Fahrenheit in the early 18th century, still in use today.
9 REAUMUR Peaks of France and Austria observed travelling the Rhine (7)
R(oz) EAU MUR; French for water wall. Rene Reaumur was another scientist who developed a temperature scale.
11 NEW STAR Following report strike-breaker’s returned, one’s started to whine (3,4)
Our first misprinted definition: it should read ” started to shine”. A charade of NEWS (report) and RAT (rev).
12 ADAR SHENI Extra time had arisen after foul play? (4,5)
*(HAD ARISEN). It’s a name for an intercalary month in the Jewish calendar: a bit like 29 February, but a whole month rather than a day.
13,25 BINET-SIMON Roz’s first Water Wall — to the Francophones (5-5)
15 ac: I think this parses as BI (batting for both sides) NETS (cricket practice) I’M ON (I’m doing). Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon developed one of the earliest IQ tests.
15 KELVIN Batting for both sides, I’m doing cricket practice in between (6)
17 ac: Even-numbered letters (the odd ones having been “beaten”) in “sEe LoVe” inside KIN (family). William Thomson, Lord Kelvin was another scientist to invent a temperature scale.
17 MERCALLI Beating the odds, see love in the family (8)
20 ac: MERC (smart car) ALL 1. The Mercalli scale measures the intensity of earthquakes.
20 BEAUFORT Smart car all one wanted? (8)
22 ac: FORT (Worth) following BEAU. The Beaufort scale measures wind strength.
22 FUJITA Worth perhaps pursuing male lover? (6)
30 ac: (Mount) FUJI TA. The Fujita scale measures the intensity of tornadoes.
24 GUSTO This zest effervescent in organising outings (5)
Compound anagram: take the letters “in” from “outings” and rearrange what’s left to produce GUSTO.
27 CROISSANT Co-star is devastated about new role (9)
Misprint: should be “roll“. N in *(COSTAR IS). I did wonder about describing a croissant as a roll, but Chambers has this definition: “A crescent-shaped bread-roll”.
29 ARMY ANT Blond soldier wandering — what a surprise! — into a storm (4,3)
Misprint: should be “blind soldier”. MY (what a surprise) inside A RANT.  I did wonder if army ants are necessarily blind.
30 CELSIUS In the Land of the Rising Sun this sacred icon cheers! (7)
31 ac: *(SI CLUES). “Times missed” indicates that the X from SIX is to be omitted. Yet another scientist who gave his name to a temperature scale.
31 CENTIGRADE Six clues requiring edits Times missed (10)
32 ac: RAD (first class) in *GENETIC. The generic term for a scale with a hundred degrees, like the Celsius one.
32 MOHS First class in genetic engineering (4)
5 dn: H inside MO(ment) and S(econd). The Mohs scale measures the hardness of minerals.
DOWN
1 BARRACKS BAG Sack of GI’s stuff to scoff, with book wrapped in flag (8,3)
BARRACK (to scoff or jeer) B in SAG (to droop or flag). The term isn’t in Chambers or the Oxford Dictionary of English, but wasn’t hard to guess and then find online.
2 IVANA Ronald’s old Dutch anecdotes one has not quite got over (5)
Misprint: it should read “Donald’s old Dutch”. I wasted a lot of time trying to fit in Nancy Reagan, rather than the first Mrs Trump. It parses as I’V(e) ANA, where ANA means anecdotes.
4 AGREED Old rings on sand ok? (6)
Misprint: it should read “said ok”. RE inside AGED.
5 RANKINE Hot in two seconds (7)
21 dn: RANKING with E for G. The Rankine scale is yet another temperature scale.
6 NAWAB Prince ‘off to Angus’ — parting note! (5)
AWA’ (Scottish word for “away”) inside (“parting”) NB.
7 EAT IN Not all people at Indian got take away (3,2)
Misprint: should read “not take away”. Hidden in “people at Indian”.
8 TOR Go off up peak (3)
ROT (rev). I got this fairly early on, but couldn’t enter it with confidence in case it was TOR that had to be reversed.
10 MASTIFF A good-for-nothing supervised by Magdalen’s foremost don (7)
Misprint: should be “dog“. M(agdalen) A STIFF.
14 TRIPARTISMS Systems for dialogue: ‘painting = money’ in false steps (11)
ART IS M(oney) inside TRIPS (false steps).
16 LEA Grabs area in chock-full eatery (3)
Misprint: should be “grass”. Hidden in “full eatery”.
17 MET Changed on time following evacuation of Marylebone (3)
Misprint: should be “chanced on”. M(arylebon)E T(ime).
18 COUNSEL Advice on clues rather dubious (7)
*ON CLUES. One of the more straightforward normal clues, which I solved early on.
19 LEI Cosh produced in Romania — and Algeria from time to time (3)
Misprint: should be “cash”. Alternate letters in Algeria.
21 RICHTER Order G to E (7)
1 ac: RICH (productive) TER(m) period. The Richter scale measures the power of earthquakes.
23 FORCED Stinted because of daughter’s church wedding? (6)
Misprint: should be “stilted”. FOR CE D. To be honest, I can’t really explain what “wedding” is doing in the clue, or why CE (church) comes before D(aughter) when the clue suggests it should be the other way round.
25 See 13
26 OKAPI Blast — upset beer on floor! (5)
Misprint: should be “beast”. IPA KO (all rev).
28 AMIGO Comrade, did I get shot? (5)
AM I GO(ne)?? Again I’m not totally sure about the parsing here.
29 ABC The principled bachelor will split the bill (3)
Misprint: should be “principles“. B inside AC (account, or bill).

12 comments on “Guardian Genius No 205 by Enigmatist”

  1. I thought wedding in 23d was there principally to enhance the surface, but in the wordplay it works as ‘joining’, and the order of daughter and church then doesn’t matter. Daughter [has] church joining.

    I had amigo as well, but not 100% sure as I couldn’t parse either. I thought it was ‘go’ as shot, not go(ne), but I don’t know. Did I get a shot? / Am I “Go”? / Is it my turn?

    Great fun as usual with this setter, but I found it harder than you did, bridgesong. Thanks for blogging.

  2. Thanks Bridgesong. I found this easier than I expected, but still fairly tough. (The first three scales I got were all for temperature – surely there couldn’t be ten more?)
    I parsed AMIGO as Nila Palin@1, but would be happier if the clue was “do I get shot” rather than “did”.

  3. We enjoyed this very much, once we had got going. Croissant was the first in and loi the wonderful French water wall..needing Google to see that yes it is a thing.
    We have been doing the Genius since retirement and look forward to it each month. It has been a strange marker of lockdown passing though as our daughter has been here to help. In March she had no idea she would be around for so many of them.
    Is the number of entries published anywhere? It would be interesting to know whether these have increased in recent times.

  4. Hedgehog, the Guardian’s crossword editor used to publish a newsletter which contained some stats about entries for the Genius puzzles, but he hasn’t issued one now for over two years.

  5. I thought this puzzle was going to be terrifyingly difficult, because it’s Enigmatist. As it was, it was just ‘hard’ – just as I like a Genius to be – and I really, really enjoyed it. Beautifully clued, pretty much without exception, I thought. Looking forward to Monday for the next.

  6. Like Hamish I thought this was going to be a real stinker but it actually took me less time than the Soup puzzle the previous month! Excellent clues and a really interesting theme with some scales that I had never heard of before. Thanks to Enigmatist for the puzzle and bridgesong for the blog.

  7. I enjoyed this once I discovered that I was trying to slip the clues the wrong way!  It all fell into place quite quickly.  I agree that it an easier Genius than some and not so devious as he can be.  I just did his Genius No. 79 and that took a bit more working out than this one to say the least.

  8. Like DuncT I found temperature scales before any of the others, though I had “mhos” in a little hesitantly and was wondering about non-SI units (mho being the jokey unit of conductance, ohm in reverse, with siemen the official unit). I am still relatively new to Genius puzzles – I do well on the normal and prize ones so these normally take me multiple visits and several days. Once a month is perfect for that, and appreciating how the brain can get stuck on one approach and then find a new way to look at it when left to its own devices for a while. This one took a bit of puzzling over the instructions and the difficulty of knowing where to move things, but unfolded entirely fairly so many thanks to Enigmatist and to bridgesong for the detailed parsing.

  9. Thanks to bridgesong and Enigmatist

    Along with others I found this less daunting than it seemed at first sight, but very good.

    “has church wedding” takes a bit of a liberty (parting etc?)

    28d I equated “did I get” with “am I” as in “did I get/am I” sunburnt

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