This is Jack’s 4th Genius puzzle. We’ve enjoyed his previous offerings, but we know him better as Serpent for his excellent Independent crosswords and Inquisitor puzzles in the i.
The preamble says:
Each down clue contains a superfluous word to be ignored in producing the solution be entered in the grid. Each across entry in the grid may be deduced from its clue, combined in the same way with one of the superfluous down clue words.
This didn’t mean a lot to us, but we gathered that we were to treat across clues differently to down clues and that down clues all have a superfluous word that somehow relates back to one of the across entries. When we are confronted with a preamble that we don’t understand, we dive in and try to solve a few clues to see whether this will shed any light on the situation.
Our first entry was 10ac (CHUTE). We then looked at the crossing down clues and determined that 3d is EXTRA – which clashes with 10ac. We carried on round the grid and realised that some of the across solutions do not match the letter-count – it became clear that where there are clashes, the across entries need to be changed to fit the down solutions. Eventually we realised that each across entry is a homophone of the clue solution – CHUTE / SHOOT was the first to give the game away.
Having gathered most of the superfluous words in the down clues, we finally realised that each one is a synonym of one of the across entries – a very neat and satisfying endgame.
In the blog below, the solution to each across clue from the wordplay is in BLUE, with its homophone entry in the grid in GREEN. In each down clue, the superfluous word is in (green) and its synonym is identified in GREEN.
An anagram (‘swimming’) of COACH + U (university)
S L (first and last letters or ‘edges’ of special) EIGHT (cube – two cubed)
Hidden (‘contained’) in hi-teCH UTEnsil
CORNER (go round bend) round or ‘taking’ FLOW (issue)
cANAL (cut) cYST (growth) both without ‘c’ (hundred)
A clue-as-definition: O (first or ‘primary’ letter of officers) in CPS (Crown Prosecution Service)
CUR (dog) RENT (let out)
DR (doctor) AFT (behind)
fELICITy (joy) without the first and last letters or ‘unconfined’
ION (‘item that’s charged’) after CESS (tax)
Cryptic definition: Alexander Graham BELL invented the telephone, and ‘giving someone a BELL’ can mean making a telephone call
O (first letter or ‘start’ to obey) VERSE (passage from Bible) AS (when)
An anagram (‘fantastic’) of IDEA round or ‘out of’ NV – sounds like (‘reportedly’) envy
Hidden in (‘part of’) noteabLE ACHievement
N (first letter or ‘opening’ of nature) ICE (reserve)
NIX (veto) OT (Old Testament – ‘books’) all reversed or ‘over’
An anagram (‘oddly’) of ECA (‘pecan’ without the first and last letters or ‘shelled’) round or ‘containing’ S (second)
NUT = CASHEW (1ac)
An anagram (‘injured’) of COLD NURSE
DISREGARDS = OVERSEES (24ac)
Double definition
MEETING = SESSION (21ac)
LIE (story) C (about – approximately) LASS (girl) round or ‘stealing’ F (fine)
PIECE = DRAUGHT (17ac) – as in the game of draughts
GROw UP (mature) with the ‘w’ (women) omitted or ‘thrown out’
ROCK = GNEISS (29ac)
MEN (soldiers) after or ‘backing’ ROT (corruption) reversed or ‘up’ + TIN (can) G (first letter or ‘lead’ to general)
HANGER-ON = LEECH (28ac)
conSCRIPT (enlist) without or ‘wanting’ ‘con’ (learn)
BEAUTY = BELLE (22ac)
An anagram (‘going off’) of AbOuT (alternate or ‘regular’ letters) and RED
ALERT = TOCSIN (30ac)
CRIB (plagiarise) B (book) in or ‘stopping’ SLING (shy, as in ‘throw’)
CHRONICLER = ANNALIST (12ac)
AC (account) CR (councillor) EDITS (corrects)
REVILED = INVEIGHED (27ac)
IL (Italian article – ‘the’) EL (Spanish article – ‘the’) in or ‘surrounded by’ GUESS (speculation)
PHOTOGRAPH = SHOOT (10ac)
TRY (essay) round P (power) in or ‘inspired by’ O H (Henry)
UNLICENSED = ILLICIT (19ac)
P (first or ‘original’ letter in propagated) in SEEDS (bits of fruit)
FRUIT = CURRANT (15ac)
LEE (shelter) round or ‘protecting’ E (east) V (first letter or ‘entrance’ to Victoria)
WOOD = COPSE (13ac)
An anagram (‘awful’) of ALSO round or ‘guarding’ V (against)
INSULT = SLIGHT (4ac)
SIN (wrong) round or ‘collaring’ H (first letter or ‘start’ to hurt) – it took us a while to realise that ‘face’ in the definition is the ‘front’ of the lower part of the leg – nothing to do with ‘chin’, as the lower part of one’s face!
STARCH = CORNFLOUR (11ac)
Thanks Bertandjoyce, and Jack.
A very satisfying solve indeed.
Again, providing the definitions in the down clues tied everything together neatly.
I still don’t understand what “in the same way” means in the instructions. I don’t mind a bit of wordplay or misdirection in the instructions, but this phrase seems superfluous, at best. That cavil aside, a fun solve.
I agree with Cineraria: the preamble could have been written more clearly. I actually gave up on my first attempt but returned to the puzzle later in the month, when the penny finally dropped.
Neat as a pan-this perfect for the slot
Thanks JC
This was superb. Utter (and fairly lengthy) bewilderment followed by very satisfying illumination. It was also very enjoyable just to step back and take in the construction at the end.
I thoroughly enjoyed this – as Herb @5 says, bewilderment followed by enlightenment is exactly what I hope for in a Genius and this had just the right amount. I was also confused by the preamble, but I normally am and simply tackle a bunch of clues until I have a vague idea what’s going on. I think I started to get the picture with the top right (“sl(e)ight”) and then “lee/ach” confirmed it. I still needed a table of extra words and new definitions and did not quite have a 1:1 match so it was good to see the blog to clarify. Thanks to BertandJoyce for all the details and Jack for an excellent puzzle.
Cineraria @2 I took “in the same way” to mean that every time you did the same thing i.e. replace the answer with its homophone and find its definition from the extra word in the down clue. If the words ” in the same way” were omitted there’s a danger the preamble would be misleading in effectively telling you to combine the answer and the superfluous word, implying a concatenation. Perhaps the problem is in the word “combine” and less ambiguous phrasings are certainly possible, but then I tend to think of the instructions as a puzzle as well.
Another very good Genius puzzle. I agree with Thezed that working out what you had to do here was part of the puzzle. In that respect the preamble gave just the right amount of information.
Thanks Jack and Bertandjoyce
I had solved about 10 clues when I started to have difficulties either in solving them or in getting their answers to fit.
The light dawned when OVERSEAS and LEACH could allow GUILELESS to go in only if I changed those two words to their homophones OVERSEES and LEECH. SHOOT, SLIGHT and BELLE followed, and I had an enjoyable time solving the rest of the clues and matching the extra words in the Down clues with words going Across. My last pair to match was 1ac/1dn.
Thanks to Jack for an excellent, well-designed puzzle, and to Bertandjoyce for the blog.
My first completed Genius puzzle. But I’m still puzzled by 24a. Does “oversees” mean “disregards”? I checked dictionaries, both ‘Mercan and British. Did I overlook something?
Well done Zoe Fay for completing the Genius. Yes, oversees does mean disregards. Chambers dictionary has it down as overlooks, disregards and it in Chambers Thesaurus as a synonym. Chambers is generally regarded as the dictionary of choice for setters and solvers.
As others have said, we very much enjoyed this – the opacity of the instructions is definitely part of the challenge. Originally, we thought that the extra ‘down’ word had to be added to an across clue to make it work, but then we saw some that seemed complete, and what did ‘in the same way’ mean?
But how satisfying when the penny finally drops!
I also found oversees=disregards unsatisfying, whatever Chambers says – in everyday speech, ‘overlook’ and ‘oversee’ have very different, almost opposite, meanings. But that’s just a very small fly in otherwise fragrant ointment 🙂
Two lovely puzzles in a row – just the right level of puzzlement. As expected from Jack, entirely fair yet cleverly misleading in many cases – his puzzles are high quality.