The words “Genius puzzle” and “Vlad” are a scary combination for a blogger, but this one turned out to be “only” moderate-to-hard on the Genius scale.
My way in to the theme was via 2 down, where I had guessed Anita LOOS as the answer, but the crossing letters showed that the entry had to be ANGINA, giving a change from IT to GIN, and hence the “partnership” of GIN and IT. A couple of other modified entries confirmed the concept, and led to PARTNER SWAPPING as the thematic phrase.
The partners in question, in clue order, are: HOME and DRY, POTS and PANS, B&Q (UK chain of DIY stores), WEAR and TEAR, TOUCH and GO, ANT and DEC, GIN and IT, TEST and TRACE, ONE and ALL, CUT and RUN, defined by the extra words in other clues as: secure, containers, store, Gradual damage, very close, hosts, drink, pandemic measure, everybody, Take flight.
In the explanations below I’ve shown the answers to the thematic clues first, followed by the modified grid entries in brackets. The extra words are highlighted like this.
A nice construction and a satisfying solve – thanks to Vlad.
| 8,17down. | PARTNER SWAPPING | Bit worrying Pep’s warning (7,8) PART (BIT) + (PEP’S WARNING)* – Chambers doesn’t have this, though it does have the more old-fashioned “wife-swapping” |
| 9. | DRY RUN (HOME RUN) |
Going over lines mostly pissed in rehearsal (4,3) RY (railway, lines) in DRUN[k] (pissed) |
| 10. | KISSINGER | US politician, very close, lightly touching Queen (9) KISSING + ER |
| 11. | ADDLE | Go off beer, drinking Double Diamonds (5) Two D[iamond]s in ALE |
| 12. | REGNANT | Ruling in the club — no secure parking (7) PREGNANT (“in the club”) less P |
| 15. | BEDROOM | Cleaner’s easily distracted at first entering private area of house (7) E[asily] D[istracted] in BROOM (cleaner) |
| 17. | SPOTS (SPANS) |
Sees son has knocked back Scotch (5) S + reverse of STOP (to scotch) |
| 19. | SIN | Shopper at first in wrong store (3) S[hopper] + IN |
| 20. | QUILT (BUILT) |
Left both inside and out — it’s a comfort in retirement (5) L[eft] in QUIT (also “left”), with “retirement” meaning being in bed |
| 21. | AMATORY | Randy hosts will presumably not vote for Starmer (7) I “not vote for Starmer” (Keir S, leader of the British Labour Party) could be because I AM A TORY |
| 22. | SWEAR IN (STEARIN) |
Invest? I answer doubtfully (7) (A ANSWER)* |
| 25. | PURGE | Dog biting Queen’s backside finally — clear out! (5) R (queen) in PUG + [backsid]E |
| 27. | GODOWN (TOUCHDOWN) |
Warehouse sink (9) To sink is to GO DOWN; a godown is a warehouse, from a Malay word |
| 30. | NONAGON | Lack of bread containers around — go figure (7) GO in NO NAN |
| 31. | ANTARES (DECARES) |
Star earns a bomb — about time! (7) T in (EARNS A)* |
| 1. | URNS | Vases — not Eric’s — picked up (4) Homophone of “Ern’s”, from Ernie Wise, partner of Eric Morecambe, who was sometimes known as Ern (usually preceded by “little”) |
| 2. | ANITA (ANGINA) |
Loos maybe are something special in North America (6) A (are, the metric unit of area, a hundredth of a hectare) + IT (something special) in NA; Anita Loos, author of “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” among other achievements |
| 3. | BRIG | Substantial resistance inside prison (4) R in BIG |
| 4. | CHAR | A bit much everybody arriving for tea! (4) Hidden in muCH ARrriving |
| 5. | SMEAR-DAB | A lot of bad dreams about fish (5-3) Anagram of BA[d] DREAMS |
| 6. | GRID | Good drink? Free bars here (4) G + RID (to free) |
| 7. | INTERMIT | Suspend pandemic measure — can one get upset about call? (8) TERM (call) in reverse of TIN I |
| 8. | POKER | Agreed to come in for a game (5) OK (agreed) in PER (for) |
| 13. | GHANA | Take flight, land at Heathrow, not Gatwick (aircrew initially unhappy) (5) Anagram of the first letters of At Heathrow Not Gatwick Aircrew |
| 14. | TRACEY (TESTY) |
Go to embrace one girl (5) ACE (one) in TRY (go, as in “have a go”) |
| 15. | BONUS | Extra posh bloke going round country (5) Reverse of NOB (“posh bloke”) + US |
| 16. | OSIER | Gradual damage affected one rose tree (5) (I ROSE)* |
| 18. | STALLAGE (STONE AGE) |
Market tax could be legal, as town’s leader admitted (5,3) T[own] in (LEGAL AS)* |
| 23. | ETHICS | Itches to break moral code (6) ITCHES |
| 24. | NONES | November 1 — special day once (5) N[ovember] + ONE + S[pecial] – the nones was a date in the Roman calendar |
| 26. | CUTE (RUNE) |
Caught taking pickup — that’s smart (4) C + UTE (utility vehicle) |
| 27. | TONY | Play receiving national award (4) N[ational] in TOY (to play) |
| 28. | URDU | Drive up, turn twice around — language! (4) Reverse of DR[ive[ in U U (U-turns) |
| 29. | OGRE | Maneater‘s not finished Roger off (4) Anagram of ROGE[r] |
Thanks, Andrew; I’m just glad that it wasn’t my turn to blog the Genius, as I was defeated by B & Q. This was despite the fact that I had identified “store” as the superfluous word which defined the pairing in question, and had entered “built” as the answer without seeing what it had replaced. In fact, it could be argued that the preamble was a little misleading, in that the superfluous words did not so much define the “partner” as the pairing.
I think this device is one we have seen in Genius puzzles before.
Thanks for the blog. As you say, Vlad’s name on the Genius was a discouraging start, but we got PARTNER SWAPPING quite soon, so persevered. Initially, I was fixated on swapping E for W and so on, thinking of Bridge partners, but I think 22a was when the penny finally dropped – the answer looked liked SWEAR IN, but the enumeration was wrong, and STYNEIN clearly wan’t right, and we spotted ‘Gradual damage’ in 16d.
I won’t say it was all downhill after that, but we got there in the end.
A classic Genius puzzle!
I think this series could grow on me – this is my second in a row, and just as much a delight to solve as the previous one. The theme was well chosen and cleverly constructed, and finding it was something that had to be earned by solving some tough clues, not knowing which of three types of clue each one was.
I worked out what was going on when the grid was about half complete. (Unlike you, Andrew, I did not know Anita Loos.) I had PARTNER (but not SWAPPING) and was working on the clues for TOUCHDOWN, ANGINA and STEARIN when I saw that the partners ‘touch and go’, ‘gin and it’ and ‘wear and tear’ matched one-word or two-word definitions that I had extracted from other clues. It was very satisfying after that to solve the remaining clues and make all the connections. My last clue to solve was TESTY (BUILT being the one before that).
The Genius clues were again of top quality, and the mental effort that went into solving this puzzle was all worth while.
Many thanks to Vlad, and to Andrew for the blog.
Another treat I thought. I got the key anagram very early on but cannot remember the first “partner” I identified. I managed to pick out a few superfluous words but they did not help hugely with the partner identification as they were often as cryptic as the clues! They added to the cleverness of the puzzle setting and the satisfaction with the whole mise-en-scene, which was great.
My LOI was also the B&Q swap in “built” which, given I was ordering stuff from there on the same day I was puzzling over the crossword was, frankly, unforgivable!
Thank you Vlad, for toning down the clues just enough given the other difficulties and for an entertaining head-scratcher which kept me coming back. And thank you Andrew for the blog, careful and precise as ever.
I too loved the construction of this puzzle and the challenge it led to. Spotting the different types of clues was great fun. Working out the partners was also interesting, my last two were the two that required local knowledge possibly and were quite unexpected after the previous eight with Ant&Dec making me realise that store might also have been relatively parochial. As with many of the other contributors the last in was BUILT where I had thought of M&S, H&M, C&A and finally the penny dropped.
Thanks Andrew for the long awaited blog and many thanks to Vlad for an excellent workout.