Guardian Genius 158 – Paul

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As seems to happen with monotonous regularity with the Genius, the first challenge was to get hold a usable copy of the puzzle. First the “printable version” link led to a blank grid with no clues; later on the clues were there but the grid was completely wrong. Eventually the correct version appeared: is it really so hard to get this right once a month?

Anyway, on to the puzzle itself. The preamble suggested that there might be some swapping of “no” and “yes”, and this was confirmed by some of my early successes, but then I was confused by 3,18, where the “five” (V) and “piano” (P) suggested Elvis, but there was no YES or NO to swap. At last the penny dropped, and I found that there were some other “positive/negative switches”: from WILL to WON’T (26a), CAN to CAN’T (1d), IS to ISN’T (3,18), DO to DON’T (8d, though I believe there’s an error here) and CAN’T to CAN (20d), as well as YES to NO, or vice versa,or both, in 5d, 16d and 22d.

I found the puzzle quite hard overall, taking several sessions to complete it: I think it would have helped it we had been told – as we often are in similar circumstances – exactly how many modified answers there were.

In the explanations below I’ve show the modified grid entries first, followed by the”real” answer in brackets. Thanks to Paul for a tough but ultimately satisfying challenge.

Across
6. BEER Something to drink, not drinking out of cap (4)
BETTER (to cap) less TT (teetotal)
7. AIL Fighter’s back to the middle, hurt (3)
[Muhammad] ALI with the last letter moved to the middle
8. DRACO Laid-back character first to oppose man of strict judgments (5)
Reverse of CARD (”he’s a character”) + O[ppose]
9. WHITMAN You twice said killer is a poet (7)
W (“you said twice”) + HITMAN
11. IN DUBIO Suspect couple bound to be uncertain, legally (2,5)
(II + BOUND)*
12. SEA URCHIN Wet creature finds nucleus of fluid in dry feature (3,6)
[fl]U[id] in SEAR CHIN
13. EBONY Lean on back of spade in wood (5)
[spad]E + BONY (slim, lean)
14. ROTTER Pig for the compost heap? (6)
Double definition
15. FIENDS Monsters provided twisted tails (6)
Reverse of IF + ENDS
19. CACAO Seeds to eat when you are out of liqueur (5)
CURACAO less U R
21. AIRWORTHY Planes must be so in war, or hit when failing scrutiny, ultimately (9)
(WAR OR HIT)* + [scutin]Y
24. SATIRES More than one ridiculous work, it proves irksome (7)
SA (sex appeal, “it”) + TIRES
25. LATTE Second not the sixth drink (5)
LATTE[r]
26. THE WONTIES
(THE WILLIES)		 Cut in fashion, formal wear a fright (3,7)
HEW in TON + TIES
27. MAYO Last of gravy in red sauce (4)
[grav]Y in [Chairman] MAO
Down
1. PELICANT
(PELICAN)		 Caged, eating endless insects, a bird (8)
LIC[E] in PENT
2. PAUNCHY Forceful grabbing a round (7)
A in PUNCHY
3,18. ELVISNT PRESLEY
(ELVIS PRESLEY)		 Very popular musician has five listeners gathered round piano? See about that! (7,7)
V + P in LISTENERS*, all in ELY
4. BAMBOO Grass to throw, only two thirds (6)
Two-thirds of BAMBOOZLE
5. YOKO OYES
(YOKO ONO)		 Artist frames outstanding old chap with shaved head (4,4)
O [B]OY in YOKES (frames)
6. BOWLS Pedestrian pursuit of Members of Parliament under Blair’s leadership (5)
B[lair] + OWLS (as in “a parliament of owls”)
8. DIDGERIDONT
(DIDGERIDO)		 Instrument‘s uplifting tune’s beginning, no awful note produced (11)
Reverse of T[une] + NO DIRE G (note) + DID (produced). Chambers – and everywhere else as far I can see – gives only the spelling DIDGERIDOO
10. MARIE LOUISE Shakespearean character with flash clothing, one in employment as empress (5,6)
ARIEL in MO + I in USE
14. ROCKWELL US illustrator, reliable type with some skill (8)
ROCK (a reliable type) + WELL (as in “he does it well/with skill”). Norman Rockwell is the illustrator.
16. NOTERDAY
(YESTERDAY)		 Some music died in a little light composition of the ’60s (8)
NOTE + D in RAY
17. VARSITY Change around position in higher education (7)
SIT in VARY
20. CANATA
(CANTATA)		 Religious work ending in conflict within Biblical land, cut short (6)
[conflic]T in CANAA[N]
22. YESNO
(NOYES)		 Shilling in money, nothing for poet (5)
S inYEN + O – the poet Alfred Noyes. I wondered whether this name might have given Paul the original inspiration for the puzzle.

4 comments on “Guardian Genius 158 – Paul”

  1. Thanks for answers, Andrew. (Can’t believe I’m the first to sign in here!)
    We enjoyed this, a lot of the answers were typical of Paul’s humour (Yoko O Yes! made me laugh, so did Elvisn’t Presley. Possibly a bit puerile, but there you go…)

    Unfortunately, we got stuck in the SW corner, mainly as I had 14a as FOTHER ((for the)* and means a lump of lead, which could be ‘pig’). ROTTER is of course much better.
    And – knowing Paul – why didn’t we think of THE WILLIES for ‘a fright’ ? Obvious now…

  2. This was fun, but I could not submit my solution: I eventually succeeded in printing the grid and clues and did solve them all, in spite of being hampered by never knowing whether or not to look for a modified entry,
    However, when I came to complete the reply form (I suppose they need this format to enable automatic checking – Grrr!) after entering my address I started to fill in the answers, had a typo and accidentally hit ‘send’ instead of ‘backspace’ – which immediately closed the form with the ‘thank you for your entry’ message, from which there’s no recovery.
    In future, I must remember to leave my address off the form till after I’ve put all the answers are in and checked them.

  3. Good puzzle from Paul, and thank you very much Andrew for your solutions.
    I battled with this one for most of the month and made slow progress but ultimately ended up stuck, with seven clues unsolved and one (26/23) entered unmodified.
    21 was my first one in and 8d was the first one where I understood the pos/neg switch trick.
    I am kicking myself for not getting 9, and I probably should have got 25 as well but that was a very clever clue.
    I think if we had been told which ones needed modification then I would probably have worked out 1 and possibly 20 (I’d have had a different crossing letter if I’d modified 23).

    6d is a beauty and I should probably have solved it but I don’t mind being beaten by that one 🙂

    I wonder if I shall complete September’s.

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