Guardian Genius 217 by Enigmatist

by

A puzzle where every clue was incomplete made for a difficult but ultimately satisfying solve.

One or more letters in all across solutions
are ignored in their clues’ wordplay and one
or more consecutive letters in all down
solutions are also ignored in their clues’
wordplay. Highlighting all these letters
(across and down) will reveal the puzzle’s
theme.

 

As it turned out, in some clues only one letter remained to be indicated by the wordplay, so a lot turned on the definitions, some of which were quite subtle. The across clues, where the highlighted letters were not consecutive, were particularly challenging.  Although somewhat distracted by Wimbledon and the Euros, I managed to tackle this in just over two days from publication. Quite a lot of the right hand side went in early on, but most of the north-west corner proved elusive until I noticed that if you read the letters in the extreme right hand column upwards, the theme was revealed. In order from left to right, there are seven types of penguin in the down columns, with the slogan P-p-pick up a Penguin in the outside columns. Filling in the gaps in the grid then became very straightforward, although I hadn’t previously heard of Snares penguin. I am old enough to remember the stuttering slogan for the chocolate biscuit.

A nice theme, handled in an original way: I liked the fact that the correct spelling of 34 across only became apparent once the theme was revealed.

In the blog, I make no mention of the letters which are ignored in the wordplay; if you refer to the diagram, you will see which letters are not highlighted – those are the ones for which there is wordplay.

 

ACROSS
1 PIETIES
Devout beliefs I see wavering with it (7)
*(I SEE IT).
5 QUIDS IN
One crime investigator’s probing first question likely to reap rewards (5,2)
1 DS (Detective sergeant or “crime investigator”) inside (“probing”) QU.1 (“first question”).
10 PLOUKS
Edinburgh’s spots seem half-hearted (6)
LO(o)K.
11
See 31
12 WIKI
Singers of Jerusalem regularly updated site (4)
WI – Womens’ Institute, whose members sing Jerusalem at their meetings. “Regularly” might also be part of the wordplay.
13 PEA-BRAIN
Nana undressed a girl I’ve just met (3-5)
(M)ARI((a) – from West Side Story: “I’ve just met a girl called Maria…”. Nana is an Australian term for an idiot.
14 INGENU
This chap’s not experienced unrestrained anger (6)
(a)NGE(r).
15 TON
Take two thirds off one’s weight (3)
O(ne).
16 IPHONES
Heads off home now, say? They’re smart! (7)
Initial letters of Home Now Say.
18 SEA EGG
Inside of weed, a marine invertebrate (3,3)
(w)EE(d).
20 CREDOS
Statements of belief taken to heart by the old (6)
Hidden inside “the old”.
22 STEEPEN
Toughen up Kent-Sussex games (7)
SE PE.
24 WOO
Heartless, we go to court (3)
W(e)(g)O.
26 KOSICE
English city’s head is backing one of those in Eastern Europe (6)
E(nglish) C(ity) IS (all rev). It’s a city in Eastern Slovakia.
28 ON A PLATE
Mass (small one) moulded after noon without needing to break sweat? (2,1,5)
N(oon) PAT (a small rounded mass, e.g. of butter).
30
Extreme cycling to herald with waves? (4)
31,11 THE GLC
Jackpot helps to sustain old administrators of capital (3,3)
Hidden in “jackpot helps”; but I was initially misled into thinking the answer was the GLC’s predecessor, the LCC, which is also hidden in the clue. It was only when I grasped the theme that I realised my error.
32 EVEN UP
United a failing church body, turning square (4,2)
U(nited) N(a)VE, all rev.
33 PTISANS
Sweet vermouth rejected, without drinks (7)
IT (Italian vermouth, rev) SANS.
34 CELESTA
The instrument Eric Clapton originally put back in case (7)
EC (rev) LEST. The final letter could equally have been an E – but once the theme became clear it had to be an A.
DOWN
2 ILL TEMPER
Temperature plummets from heading up to spleen (3,6)
TILL (“up to”) with the T dropping or plummeting to the bottom. I was dissuaded for some time from realising that this was the correct answer because TEMPER appears both in the clue and the answer.
3 THUMB
A body part that’s front or back (5)
First (front) or last (back) letter of ThaT.
4 ENSNARE
Kilmarnock’s initial shot from range at Ibrox finds net (7)
(k)EN. Ken is a Scottish word meaning range of vision.
6 URCHINS
Extremely unpopular young rascals (7)
U(npopula)R.
7 DOWNGRADE
To demote one from cryptic wording (9)
*WORD(i)NG.
8 INK IN
Happening to confirm (3,2)
IN – happening can be an adjective meaning fashionable, up-to-the-minute.
9 AGENT
Emissary was deserted by cardinals (5)
(w)A(s).
17 OLD-TIMERS
Back to basics: those following do put up veterans (3-6)
(basic)S RE MI (all rev). Think about the song from Sound of Music – what follows do?
19 GREAT-AUNT
In connection with provocation, jailing a kinswoman (5-4)
A inside (jailed) RE TAUNT.
21 SWEETEN
Spend a penny, then several more on sugar (7)
WEE TEN.
23 TRAPEZE
Comfort, it’s said, raised bar (7)
Sounds like “ease”.
25 OOZED
Up in Riverside, Zinfandel flowed (5)
Hidden and reversed in “Riverside Zinfandel”.
27 OR NOT
Into it at intervals, even if the reverse applies? (2,3)
Alternate letters in “iNtO iT”.
29 LIEGE
To illustrate, raised subject of history (5)
EG (rev).

14 comments on “Guardian Genius 217 by Enigmatist”

  2. Kenmac: yes, so they do!

    For those like me who didn’t spot this extra piece of brilliance, take the initial letters of the clues to discover a hidden message.

  3. I have to salute Enigmatist’s genius, and indeed Bridgesong’s for doing this in only two days. We spent much longer than that, to complete less than half the solutions, although we correctly guessed some others but couldn’t parse them (ILL-TEMPER – same reservations as Bridgesong -, OLD-TIMERS, CREDOS).
    We weren’t helped by entering TORSO for 3d, also by assuming the theme would be spelled out in the order of the clues.
    Felt distinctly out of my depth here!

  4. Very impressive and very tough. Like Mr Beaver I was thrown for a long time by having “torso” at 3d – it parsed and surely had to be the answer. It needed the penguins to come along and sort things out.
    Thanks to bridgesong and Enigmatist (and kenmac for providing the “oh my goodness so it is” moment).

  6. For some reason, the quoted special instructions were incomplete, so I have now removed them and replaced them with the correct version. Both the across and the down clues were affected by letters missing from the wordplay.

  7. This is only the second Genius puzzle I have attempted [my first, many months ago, being one by Soup that had no vowels in the clues or answers]. A study of the preamble and of the setter’s name indicated another tough challenge ahead, but a fair one that would ultimately be solvable.

    The instructions were easy enough to understand, but most of the clues were as tough as I expected, mainly because all of the answers could potentially have most of their letters missing from the wordplay. The first two clues I solved were in the top right quadrant, and I then found that the only way I could make progress was to go clockwise round the grid, finishing in the top left. It was at the half-way point, with the right-hand half of the grid all but filled, that I twigged the theme, with KING, ADELIE and CHINSTRAP shaded. (My direction of travel must have been similar to yours, bridgesong.)

    Knowing the theme helped with the left-hand half of the grid – without it, I would have found progress very difficult. I thought of HUMBOLDT and EMPEROR before I solved the clues that contributed to those names.

    My CELESTE at 34a had to change, of course, to CELESTA once the jingle in the two outer columns finally revealed itself, as already pointed out.

    I didn’t know four of the seven penguins, but that hardly mattered because they were readily found.

    Solving this puzzle was a rewarding experience, and I consider it to be a masterpiece for its design, its clues and the gridfill. After completion I managed to clear up my two outstanding issues: the parsing of OLD-TIMERS (featuring the DO-RE-MI sequence) and PEA-BRAIN (with MARIA).

    Many thanks to Enigmatist, and to bridgesong for the blog. I never saw the acrostic in the clues – a great touch that must have been tough to achieve.

  8. Chapeau to those who spotted the acrostic. I didn’t find the puzzle too hard once I’d twigged the theme, but never came near to noticing the initial letters. Great p-p-puzzle.

  9. It took me a good long while to see how the missing letters worked – I carefully listed them in clue order, even printed out a second grid to write in the ones I had and tried looking at all sorts of across connections before seeing the light. I thought this was ingenious, a masterful grid fill and a really inventive use of the missing letters idea. OK some of the clues were a bit “thin” and I was not certain of them until having the theme, but that’s kind of the point of the theme I guess. Thank you kenmac for the great spot about the acrostic which lifts the puzzle to a whole new level. Equal parts frustrating and fun, just as the once a month challenge should be!

  10. Part of the brilliance of this puzzle was that after an hour or more I was starting to find it a rather tedious drudge, wondering what on earth was the point of being asked to guess solutions from one or two letters. I got particularly hung up on URCHINS, which looked like it had to be but only because it started with UR. Then I saw CHINSTRAP, noticed the rh column, the penny dropped and it was suddenly all extremely enjoyable. Great stuff!

  11. I feel I should be better at solving, given I set. I only noticed the penguins *when inserting the penultimate solution*. Didn’t notice the acrostic. Only got the perimeter 3/4 of the way in because there were too many Ps and it couldn’t possibly be a word. Longest. Penny. Drop. Moment. Ever.

  12. Hamish @11: apparently, you can be a good setter but a mediocre solver!

    Congratulations on having your first daily cryptic published in The Guardian (I know you have set a couple of Geniuses as well).

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