I thought this was not just tough, but in places, somewhat unfair.
The instructions were very concise: “Half the solutions need to be treated thematically before being entered in the grid; all resulting words are real”. In the event it was only the across clues that were affected. From the answer to each clue, two consecutive letters had to be removed, often (but not always) the first two letters of the answer. It transpired that these two letters all form the recognised symbols for chemical elements. The grid entries were of course undefined, although in a couple of cases they were related to the original solutions. In the blog I have shown the original solution with the letters to be removed in brackets.
I had particular issues with the first two across clues and was also unhappy with some of the wordplay in other clues. To have “guitarist” for “Marr” in 1 down seemed unnecessarily obscure , as perhaps was the use of “peer” for “Coe” at 16 down. While some of the surfaces were very smooth I felt that this had on occasion been achieved at the expense of fairness.
Having said that, Qaos is to be congratulated for finding 14 words capable of being treated in this way and fitting them all into the grid; it must have been quite a task. In the end I completed the puzzle, but it took quite a few sessions.
| Across | ||
| 7 | PARTISAN | Britain’s dispute over state co-operation (8) |
| (BI)PARTISAN. PA in *BRITAINS. The problem with this clue is that “co-operation” is a noun, and “bipartisan” is an adjective. Bi is the symbol for the element bismuth. | ||
| 9 | PROPER | One suggesting expert puzzle? (6) |
| PROP(OS)ER. A simple charade of “pro poser”. Os is the symbol for osmium. The problem with this clue is that there is an alternative and equally valid answer in PRO(PO)SER, giving the admittedly somewhat obscure (but genuine) word “proser” (presumably one who writes prose) and the chemical symbol for polonium. I raised this with the Guardian’s crossword editor, who tells me that both answers will be accepted as valid. | ||
| 10 | GREY | Obscene king anticipates piece of cake (4) |
| GRE(AS)Y. A charade of GR and EASY. As is the symbol for arsenic. I went wrong here initially by assuming that the answer to be entered was EASY, not at that stage having spotted the chemical theme. | ||
| 11 | UNIVERSITY | One holding a silver buckle for completeness (10) |
| UNIVERS(AL)ITY. *(A SILVER) in UNITY. Al is the symbol for aluminium. I don’t particularly like “buckle” as an angram indicator, because although it can be a verb, it is clearly being used as a noun in the clue. | ||
| 12 | DATIVE | I have ordered dates for starters as it relaxes me (6) |
| (SE)DATIVE. *DATES, I’VE. Se is the symbol for selenium. | ||
| 14 | ELEGANCE | Line dancing, say — an endless jig with lack of grace (8) |
| (IN)ELEGANCE. *LINE, E.G. (D)ANCE. In is the symbol for indium. | ||
| 15 | ENTICE | Student makes money, about ten pound (6) |
| (PR)ENTICE. *TEN in PRICE. Pr is the symbol for praseodymium. I don’t much like “pound” (“pounded” would be better, but would ruin the surface) as an anagram indicator, for similar reasons to those expressed in 11 across. Qaos used exactly the same device in a clue for a Guardian puzzle no 27,097 published on 18 January. | ||
| 17 | STATED | Firm and saucy, tasted like ribs (6) |
| (CO)STATED. CO, *TASTED. Co is the symbol for cobalt. | ||
| 20 | OVERLEAF | Nothing real crashes on bonnet of car with fine traffic arrangement (8) |
| (CL)OVERLEAF. C(ar) LOVE, *REAL, F(ine). Cl is the symbol for chlorine. | ||
| 22 | CAYMAN | Dealer makes bluejacket turn hot to cold (6) |
| CA(ND)YMAN. Handyman with the H turned to C. A candyman is a drug dealer; a handyman (to my surprise) has a secondary definition in Chambers as a bluejacket, which means a sailor. Nd is the symbol for neodymium. | ||
| 23 | RESOLUTELY | Flying lorries carry instrument close to galaxy? Not seriously! (10) |
| (IR)RESOLUTELY. LUTE in *LORRIES, (galax)Y. Ir is the symbol for iridium. | ||
| 24 | ARAB | A queen climbs into small vehicle — a Beetle? (4) |
| (SC)ARAB. A R in S(mall) CAB. My first one of the themed clues. Sc is the symbol for scandium. | ||
| 25 | CEREAL | Intellectual, clever liberal not against eating endless fibre (6) |
| CERE(BR)AL. BRA(n) in *CLE(V)ER. Br is the symbol for bromine. | ||
| 26 | SYSTEMIC | Messy attic — untidy or ordered? (8) |
| SYSTEM(AT)IC. *(MESSY ATTIC). At is the symbol for astatine. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MARRIAGE | Guitarist, one with three-note combination (8) |
| (Johnny) MARR 1 A G E. One of the last ones in, and only possible with all the crossers, given the number of possible guitarists. | ||
| 2 | ETTY | Girl takes top off for painter (4) |
| (B)ETTY. He’s a painter whose name was unfamiliar to me. | ||
| 3 | ASSUME | Fool’s turn, I guess (6) |
| ASS U ME. Unfortunately I had entered ASSESS (which almost works) early on, and it took some time to spot my error. | ||
| 4 | APPETENT | Craving left out fruit wine (8) |
| APP(L)E, TENT. It means craving (in the adjectival sense). Tent can refer to a Spanish red wine. | ||
| 5 | CONSTANTLY | Emperor abdicates in Spain, starts to lament and yak on and on (10) |
| CONSTANT(IN E), L Y. The use of “abdicates” to indicate that letters are to be omitted puzzled me considerably, but on reflection it seems perfectly fair. | ||
| 6 | HECTIC | Feverish, hot and bothered etc — I have cold (6) |
| H *ETC I C. | ||
| 8 | NOISES | Sounds of organs, one implanted (6) |
| 1 in NOSES. | ||
| 13 | INTERLOPER | Trespasser, break Virginia away by knotted rope (10) |
| INTER(VA)L, *ROPE. | ||
| 16 | COEQUALS | Peer has misgivings, when evicting married peers (8) |
| (Lord) COE QUAL(M)S. Again, there are a lot of peers to choose from. | ||
| 18 | DRAMATIC | A jerk carrying some whisky? That’s unexpected (8) |
| DRAM on A TIC. | ||
| 19 | OFFERS | Presents from boxes after lifting lid (6) |
| (C)OFFERS. | ||
| 21 | VIEWED | Watched short film about sheep (6) |
| EWE in VID. | ||
| 22 | COYEST | Most shy at coconuts, some shy to panic, feet are rising (6) |
| Last letters reversed (“rising”) of aT coconutS somE shY tO paniC. Took me a long time to work it out. | ||
| 24 | AKEE | Awake? Eat some fruit (4) |
| Hidden in “Awake eat”. | ||
*anagram
I managed this a bit more easily than usual though I had to call for help with the guitarist. I would have liked some confirmation, e.g. a nina, that the dropped letters were symbols for elements. I feared that it might be some other weird theme that I missed.
Thanks Bridgesomg. I was also looking for something to confirm the “theme” – it didn’t feel quite complete. But thanks to Qaos for an enjoyable solve nonetheless. It was an impressive feat to find 14 suitable words (although I wonder if he started out intending to have all the elements at the beginnings of the answers).
Thanks Bridgesong. I’m usually a fan of Qaos, but I share your reservations about this one. I didn’t notice that the missing letters were chemical symbols, and I don’t think it would have helped much if I had.
In 1d it’s not just MARR that is one of many: the “three-note [combination]” could be any of 7x7x7 = 343 permutations (if we only use the letters A-G, and not N or do, re, mi etc), though admittedly a lot of them aren’t very plausible.
Some clever clueing, but like others I had misgivings about 7ac, 11ac and 15ac. And in 14ac can “endless” legitimately lead to removing the first letter of “dance”? More significantly, though I spotted the chemical symbols I wasn’t at all sure that was sufficient in itself to constitute a theme
I was glad that PROSER will be accepted for 9a – for some reason PROPER didn’t occur to me.
But I think the criticism of Qaos is a little harsh – subtracting chemical symbols is a perfectly valid theme I think. And Johnny Marr doesn’t seem too obscure, certainly not for a Genius puzzle.
DATIVE was our first in, with SYSTEMIC confirming the theme, and overall it seemed pretty fair in difficulty, IMO.