Pasquale has set the September Genius
There was a fairly short preamble that told us: Wordplay in nine of the across clues and all the down clues omits one or more letters required for the defined solution. In total there are 25 such letters. These letters should not be entered in the grid, thus leaving 25 empty squares and creating many non-words. In the form used to enter the competition these letters should also not be entered.
As with most puzzles of this nature, things become clearer once solving has started.
I began to think fairly early on that letters in the perimeter of the grid were being omitted. For all but five of the omitted letters this turned out to be the case.
Entries have to omit the letters omitted from wordplay, but the animated graphic below shows them and then removes them.
The theme of the crossword turned out to BARBERING, as clued at 14 across. All the omitted letters spelled out hairstyles, on the four side of the perimeter and down the central column. In the top row we lost BARNET, in the bottom row THATCH was omitted, in the left hand column there would have been PERM, in the right hand column MANE disappeared and down the central column TRESS was taken out.
If the puzzle had been titled HAIRCUT it would have given the game way. We were just told Set by Pasquale. SET is also related to one’s hair, in the context of a SET hairstyle.
The clues were clear and parsing was not too difficult.
Initially I wasn’t sure where the missing letters would be, but after solving a few, it all became very clear. The five letter omission in the central down entry (9 down) came as a bit of a surprise, but given there were 20 blank cells in the perimeter, I should have twigged earlier that there might be a block of letters missing further within the grid. As the preamble said, the wordplay for nine across clues omitted one or more letter, as did all the thirteen down clues
Pasquale usually has some church allusion in one or two of his clues and this puzzle was no exception. I liked the clues for GOALIE and THALIA
The completed grid looked like this (remember submissions should NOT include the omitted letters which are shown here simply to illustrate the hairstyles.
| No | Clue | Defined word | Wordplay | Entry |
| Across | ||||
| 7 | Those folk starting with a new contribution from the choir (6) | ANTHEM (composition for church choir) |
A + N (new) + THEM (those folk) A N THEM |
ANTHEM |
| 8 | One tries persuasion, sending cable to the Queen (6) | COAXER (one who persuades) |
CO–AX (CO–AXial cable) + ER (Elizabeth Regina; monarch) COAX ER |
COAXER |
| 10 | Like rental agreement (6) | PLEASE (like) |
LEASE (rental agreement) LEASE |
_LEASE |
| 11 | Dailies propagated with wishful thinking (8) |
IDEALISM (tendency towards the highest conceivable perfection, which is often unachievable; wishful thinking) |
Anagram of (propagated) DAILIES IDEALIS* |
IDEALIS_ |
| 12 | Namely, something circular – sort of onion (8) | ESCHALOT (species of onion) |
SC(scilicet [Latin]; namely) + HALO (ring of light or colour; something circular) SC HALO |
_SCHALOT_ |
| 13 | Ledge housing cold plant (6) |
SCILLA (any plant of the squill genus) |
SILL (ledge) containing (housing) C (cold) S (C) ILL |
SCILL_ |
| 14 | Cut group activity here (9) | BARBERING (cutting hair, the them of this puzzle) |
BARB (pierce; shave; cut) + RING (group) BARB RING |
BARB_RING |
| 18 | One of four at table eating quiet meal (6) | REPAST (meal) |
EAST (one of the four players in a game of bridge) containing (eating) P (piano; quiet) E (P) AST |
_EPAST |
| 20 | Rabble-rousing change I love (8) |
SEDITION (public speech or actions intended to promote disorder; rabble-rousing) |
EDIT (change) + I + O (zero; love score in tennis) EDIT I O |
_EDITIO |
| 22 | Support isn’t excellent – small number at the end (8) | MAINTAIN (support) |
AIN’T (contracted form of are not, used also for am or is not) + AI (A one; excellent) + N (abbreviation [small] for number) AINT AI N |
_AINTAIN |
| 23 | Footballer I record, looking back – saving ace (6) | GOALIE (footballer, a few of whom could be called ‘saving aces’) |
(I + LOG [record]) all reversed (looking back) containing (saving) A (ace) (GO (A) L I)< |
GOALI_ |
| 24 | Whale fate’s sealed – get very angry (4,2) | LOSE IT (get very angry) |
LOT (that which falls to anyone as his or her fortune; fate) containing (sealed) SEI (rorqual [any whale of the genus Balaenoptera]) LO (SE I) T |
LOSE IT |
| 25 | Recruit to pay attention when couple come to the front (6) | ENLIST (recruit) |
LISTEN (pay attention) with the two letters EN (couple of letters in WHEN) being moved to the front (come to the front) to form ENLIST. EN LIST |
ENLIST |
| Down | ||||
| 1 | Everyone needs a stone that will hold things down (7) |
BALLAST (heavy material used to weigh down and steady a ship or balloon) |
ALL (everyone) + A + ST (stone) ALL A ST |
_ALLAST |
| 2 | Fix rev counter after short time (6) | ATTACH (fasten; fix) |
T (abbreviation for [short] time) + TACH [TACHometer [device showing speed of rotation; rev counter]) Collins gives TACH as an abbreviation for TACHometer) T TACH |
_TTACH |
| 3 | Partygoer always outside ‘horrible place (8) |
REVELLER (one who feasts or makes merry in a riotous or noisy manner; descriptive of some partygoers) |
EVER (always) containing (outside) ‘ELL (‘orrible place with both wordplay clue and wordplay definition dropping the leading H) EV (ELL) ER |
_EVELLER |
| 4 | Learner settling further down greatly enjoys books (6) | NOVELS (books) |
LOVES (greatly enjoys) with the L (learner) moving down the entry to form OVELS OVELS |
_OVELS |
| 5 | Praising a parliament, not hard having got cross earlier (8) | EXALTING (praising) |
X (cross shape) + ALT X ALTING |
_XALTING |
| 6 | Support struggle to get wife liberated (7) |
TRESTLE (support composed of a horizontal beam on sloping legs;) |
RESTLE |
_RESTLE |
| 9 | Sad jibe about something wrong (11) | DISTRESSING (desperately sad) |
DIG (taunt; jibe) containing (about) SIN (something wrong) DI (SIN) G |
DIS_____ING |
| 14 | Head when entertaining upper-class man of fashion (4,4) |
BEAU NASH (reference Richard (BEAU) NASH [1674 – 1762], celebrated dandy and leader of fashion in 18th-century Britain) |
(BEAN [informal term for the head] + AS [when]) containing (entertaining) U (upper-class) BEA (U) N AS |
BEAU NAS_ |
| 15 | Poor pub in which there’s mournful music driving customer finally away (8) | INDIGENT (impoverished; poor) |
INN (public house; pub) containing (in which) DI IN (DIGE) N |
INDIGEN_ |
| 16 | Feudal evil – refusal to pay (7) | DEFAULT (failure or refusal to pay) |
Anagram of (evil) FEUDAL DEFAUL* |
DEFAUL_ |
| 17 | Giant dog turning up after journey (7) | GOLIATH (example of a giant) |
GO (journey) + TAIL (stalk; dog) reversed (turning up; down clue) GO LIAT< |
GOLIAT_ |
| 19 | Indian meal? Grace is poetic (6) |
THALIA (Muse of comedy and pastoral poetry; one of the Graces) |
THALI (in Indian cookery, a set meal of a variety of curry dishes with rice or chapatis) THALI |
THALI_ |
| 21 | There’s little good in school, almost totally ‘disastrous‘ (6) | TRAGIC (disastrous) |
G (abbreviation for [little] good) contained in (in) TRAI TRA (G) I |
TRAGI_ |
I think that 9d DISTRESSING also, loosely, means hair removal.
I twigged that the perimeter letters were affected fairly early too. I also expected the other five to form a cross in the centre. This assumption held me up for a while as the puzzle neared completion.
I don’t think that the Genius has a title normally, so I think that “set by” is just a happy coincidence.
Many thanks to setter and blogger.
Thanks Pasquale and Duncan.
A failure for me as I parsed 9d as DIS (jibe) RE (about) SIN (something wrong). I was unhappy with the randomness of the dropped letters, and struggled to justify the resultant BARE=cut in 14a, but it does just about work.
Thanks for the blog – it made the construction and solution admirably clear.
I thought this on the easier side for a Genius, although figuring out where the blanks went – apart from round the edges – did take a while, with DIS—–ING going in last. Good fun.
I don’t know how the entries are marked – I religiously entered all the spaces on the form, but I don’t know how this turned out when it was submitted!
I’d eyed up the perimeter for omissions, so was on the ball for that… the central ones were harder, and I didn’t like that the E was missing from BARBERING – it would’ve been nicer to have a word meaning ‘hair’ in there too. I think this must be a record in terms of Genius solving for me – rattled through it in about half an hour…
Thanks, everyone — I note that the boy David has attacked Goliath’s head amazingly!
There seems to be a glitch in the matrix for Genius 208 – the link to the PDF version gives a list of clues but no grid – a true carte blanche! It is a ‘jigsaw’, but the rubric doesn’t say anything about having to devise your own grid.
I have mailed the Grauniad crossword editor to point this out…hopefully it will be rectified soon…
(I guess that, given we don’t submit the filled in grid for the Genius, you could just solve all the clues cold and enter them on the form… but, call me old-fashioned, I prefer solving clues and sticking them in a grid…preferably on a printed sheet of paper…)
Sorted now – grid appearing!