This month we have another of Paul’s whimsical puzzles with which to do battle.
Having read the preamble regarding possible book titles and authors, my first step was to highlight the clue numbers given in it and then to attempt to solve the normal clues. This led to around 7 entries before I ground to a halt.
Right, time to look at the clues with no definition. Almost immediately I saw a possibility for 13/9 which, after it was pencilled in, gave me a few more standard entries. Progress continued this way until I had a completed grid, though I must say that I was unsure whether my book titles and authors were correct until I wrote them out afterwards as follows:
8 by 22 17 3; Donald Trump by Ivor Hugh Jego
22 2 5 by 25 18; Ivor Sore Beach Bum by Sandy Knickers
30 by 13 9; Go On by Paul The Other One
26 6 by 32 33; Gain Weight by Duncan Donuts
I have to admit that this type of puzzle, where some element of guesswork is required before parsing, is not one of my favourites, but having said that I do like variety so I’m not complaining, particularly as there were a few wry smiles along the way. Thanks, Paul, for the entertainment.
Across
5 Author caught by another, briefly (6)
BELLOC – {Saul} BELLO[w] (another, briefly) C (caught)
10 A retired author using bold shapes and colours (3,4)
ART DECO – A RTD (retired) {Umberto} ECO (author)
11 Left in dirt I say, dragged around, undesirable (7)
HOODLUM – L (left) in MUD (dirt) OOH (I say) all reversed (dragged around)
12 One of a couple cheering in style (3)
HIP – HIP [-hip-hurray] (one of a couple cheering)
14 Plant that’s spheral, regularly picked? (3)
PEA – [s]P[h]E[r]A[l] (spheral, regularly picked)
15,7 Competitive round after round in VW drophead coupé? (4,4)
OPEN GOLF – def. & cryptic indicator
19 After initial loss, South African rugby reaching high point in Australia (5)
ULURU – [z]ULU (after initial loss, South African) RU (rugby)
20 A little pseudo-Homeric expression of frustration (3)
DOH – contained in (a little) ‘pseuDO-Homeric’
21 Less dry piggy particle (5)
GLUON – GLU[tt]ON (less dry piggy)
22,17,3 Short key, article lost in pilgrimage, in great journey (4,4,4)
IVOR HUGH JEGO – IVOR[y] (short key) plus H[a]J (article lost in pilgrimage) in HUGE (great) GO (journey)
22,2,5 Overcome a rubbish novel (4,4,5,3)
IVOR SORE BEACH BUM – an anagram (novel) of OVERCOME A RUBBISH
23 Short book that’s dreary (3)
RUT – RUT[h] (short book)
24 Shaving baby, I’m drunk! (3)
HIC – [c]HIC[k] (shaving baby)
27 One’s awfully tired of dull arty wife (7)
ANAGRAM – ‘awfully tired’ is an anagram of ‘dull arty wife’
29 Encapsulating allure, what spirit doing a twirl in loose garment (7)
NIGHTIE –EH (what) GIN (spirit) around (encapsulating) IT (allure) all reversed (doing a twirl)
32,33 Horse far from stable maintaining positive attitude (6,6)
DUNCAN DONUTS – DUN (horse) NUTS (far from stable) around (maintaining) CAN DO (positive attitude)
Down
1 Idiot felt, perhaps, not all there (4)
CLOT – CLOT[h] (felt, perhaps, not all there)
4 Little remaining of elder, say, in defeat (5)
STUMP – double def.
8 River over mountain carrying last of freight in large container (6,5)
DONALD TRUMP – DON (river) plus ALP (mountain) around (carrying) [freigh]T (last of freight) in DRUM (large container)
13,9 French city hotel refurbished sovereign’s office containing ultimate in chinoiserie (4,3,5,3)
PAUL THE OTHER ONE – PAU (French city) plus an anagram (refurbished) of HOTEL plus THRONE (sovereign’s office) around (containing) [chinoiseri]E (ultimate in chinoiserie)
14 New is up against old leader (4,1)
PIUS V – an anagram (new) of IS UP followed by V (against)
16 Parasite accordingly on foot of patient (5)
ERGOT – ERGO (accordingly) [patien]T (foot of patient)
25,18 Prince taking king into bar (5,8)
SANDY KNICKERS – ANDY (prince) K (king) in SNICKERS ({chocolate} bar)
26,6 Figure under a wing buffeted about (4,6)
GAIN WEIGHT – EIGHT (figure) after an anagram (buffeted about) of A WING
28 Genuine / coin (4)
REAL – double def.
30 31 (2,2)
GO ON – GOON (thug, 31dn)
31 11 — Poet Laureate he’s not! (4)
THUG – T HUG[hes] (Poet Laureate he’s not!)
Of the dozen or so Geniuses I’ve attempted, this was proabaly the easiest of the few I’ve managed to finish. Last in was the Hugh Jego bit of 27,17,3, as it took ages to think of trying H[a]j as the pilgrimage. An amusing challenge, thanks Paul and Gaufrid.
I was surprised to see yet another Genius based on this theme after the almost universal expression of dissatisfaction of the previous one (Genius 192). And if we must have these, shouldn’t the words in the “titles” at least be real words? JEGO is not a word in English and as far as I know, not a recognised proper name. I, for one, hope this will be the last of this type.
As Gaufrid says, we should welcome variety. If the last one of these was 192, that’s nearly 18 months ago (it feels more recent, I admit) so I don’t think that’s too often. The titles and authors were somewhat bizarre, but to compensate, most of the clues weren’t too tough, and I enjoyed the occasional schoolboy titter when the pennies dropped. So it’s a thumbs up from me!
The similar one I remember (at the height of Brexit angst) had something like ‘Endless trailback’ by ‘Delores R Going-Nowhere’.
I’m with Cruciverbophile @2, but variety makes the world go round. I think a combination of words being unclued and not being actual words leaves you very much at the mercy of being on the same wavelength as the setter in terms of humour as well as wordplay. My main concern was that there were clues I’d solved and was not at all sure they were right. I always feel that cryptics should have that double-lock feeling of certainty when you get there, like PGP encryption – hard to work one way but easy to work backwards.
I suspect the format of these Genius puzzles, where entries are not actual words (because we’ve had to delete letters or whatever) are a way round the problem of people using wordsearch programmes to match the crossers. An electronic search of Chambers for j?g? will not return JEGO!
Thanks Paul, and Gaufrid for the comprehensive blog. For me “ivor” came first, then “paul the other one”. Odd to find an entry used by two clues – not seen that before.
Thanks Gaufrid. I’m really not keen on this type of puzzle. Looking back at the blog for the last one (which I remember doing on holiday, those were the days…) I see a mixture of dissatisfaction and rather half-hearted praise. “It’s OK for a change I suppose” seems to sum it up.
[Grantinfreo@1 – I noticed that you commented at the time that it was the first Genius you had completed and you weren’t very impressed – hopefully they’ve been better in between.]
This was the first time I tried to solve a genius and I really enjoyed the challenge, I needed help with it and used Aids wnere needed but I thought it was time well spent.
These puzzles with puns give me the hives, especially the ones that depend upon whatever UK accent the setter intends for us to pronounce them in. I suppose this one drew a few chuckles, though.
cruciverbophile @2 – I understand from internet noodling that Jego is a surname of Cornish origin – perhaps so.
For 5D, I was not sure whether the intended answer was ROSE or SORE. SORE works better as a joke, but ROSE is an actual name, and is at least a plausible result of SANDY KNICKERS.
I thought Genius 192 was all right. Genius 201 was the dud.
Didn’t enjoy it. Didn’t really attempt it.
I’m in the “please, never again” camp.
Our first thought was – Oh no, not another one. It was followed by relief that we weren’t blogging it.
We did however finish it, if only to confirm our suspicions that it was not going to be much fun and that there would be non-words again.
Sorry Paul, please don’t produce any others along the same lines. Thanks Gaufrid.
Well, I loved this!
One Man’s meat as they say…
I enjoyed this challenge and JEGO was my last one in for the very reason of it not being in the dictionary. It could not have been many other things making more than good sense for the author and title combination. Perhaps a caveat in the preamble to say one word is not in Chambers would have been fairer but I’m not complaining.
I liked the humour involved in the titles so thanks Paul and too Gaufrid for the blog.
I think in jokes of this type that the title should be a normal phrase and only the author can be a pun, so I felt cheated by Ivor Sore Beach Bum. I just looked at the annotated solution for this puzzle today and in the clue explanations there is no mention of 22,2,5 but it does have ‘2,5* saw beach bum saw beech (hom) + BUM’ so presumably there was some other version of the puzzle where the title was just Sore Beach Bum.