Guardian Genius 183 – Qaos

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Qaos has set the Guardian Genius puzzle for September

 

 

 

The  preamble this month was fairly short and told us that each clue contains a superfluous word.  In order, the first letters of these words indicate how to complete 13 of the solutions.

I believe an early preamble only specified 12 solutions rather than 13.

With Genius blogs I often solve the puzzle on day 1 and then forget about the blog until panic sets in the day before the blog is due.  That was definitely the case this time round.  I can’t remember exactly how I began this puzzle but I do remember that the concept of words spelling out numbers being omitted from wordplay occurred to me fairly quickly.   I think it was AT WORST, EARPHONES and TENETS that got me going.

Once I’d got the theme, it was a fairly steady solve thereafter.  With a bit of a maths background, FOURIER was not too difficult.

As I went through the puzzler I wondered how the Qaos was going to get ELEVEN, TWELVE and THIRTEEN before I saw that there were two ONES, two TENS and a NOUGHT

As usual with words to be omitted they weren’t all obvious when solving the clues but a bit of deduction of the final wording of the instruction allowed some reverse engineering to identify all the superfluous words.  The instruction was NUMBERS AREN’T INCLUDED IN WORDPLAY

The detailed blog below shows all the superfluous words and indicates which numbers were omitted.

A good fun puzzle – thanks to Qaos

Across
No Clue

Amended Clue

 Word Letter Wordplay Number Entry
1

Mathematician that’s not right (7)

Mathematician that’s right (7)

 NOT

N

IE (id est; that is; that’s) + R (right)

… IE R

FOUR

FOURIER (reference Joseph FOURIER [1768 – 1830], French mathematician)
5

Tsar explodes uranium or most dire outcome (5)

Tsar explodes or most dire outcome (5)

 URANIUM

U

Anagram of (explodes) TSAR

A … RST*

TWO

 AT WORST (descriptive of the most dire outcome)
9

Maybe I lost sight of mink (5)

I lost sight of mink (5)

 MAYBE

M

VISION (sight) excluding (lost) I

VISON

 

 VISON (the American mink)
10

French queen British boat (9)

French queen boat (9)

 BRITISH

B

FR (French) + ER (Elizabeth Regina; British monarch)

FR … ER

EIGHT

 FREIGHTER (type of boat)_
11

Royal feeling upset over enemy soldier’s uniform colour (5,5)

Royal feeling upset over soldier’s uniform colour (5,5)

 ENEMY

E

R (royal) + (an anagram of [upset] FEELING containing [over] RE [Royal Engineer; soldier])

R IFLE G (RE) EN*

 

 RIFLE GREEN (colour of a soldier’s uniform)
12

Member risks being in oblivion, nothing to lose (4)

Member being in oblivion, nothing to lose (4)

 RISKS

R

LIMBO (any unsatisfactory place of consignment or oblivion) excluding (to lose) O (nothing)

LIMB

 

LIMB (leg; member)
14

Sailor departed to study battleship (11)

Departed to study battleship (11)

 SAILOR

S

D (departed) + READ (study)

D READ …

NOUGHT

 DREADNOUGHT (powerful type of battleship)
18

Reportedly no longer in love with Borgnine? Acting’s too serious (11)

Reportedly no longer in love with Borgnine? Too serious (11)

 ACTING’S

A

OVER (no longer in love with + EARNEST (sounds like [reportedly] ERNEST [reference ERNEST Borgnine [1917 – 2012], American actor)

OVER EARNEST

 

 OVEREARNEST (too serious)
21

Bearing roast dinner without starter (4)

Bearing dinner without starter (4)

 ROAST

R

FEAST (dinner) excluding (without) the first letter (starter) F

EAST

 

 EAST (compass bearing)
22

Energy plant electrifying each street (6,4)

Plant electrifying each street (6,4)

 ENERGY

E

Anagram of (electrifying) EACH STREET

CHASTE TREE*

 

CHASTE TREE (small European and Asian tree (Vitex agnus-castus) with upright panicles of violet-blue, fragrant flowers.)
25

Second woman managed church nativity break (9)

Second woman managed church break (9)

 NATIVITY

N

S (second) + EVE (woman’s name) + RAN (managed) + CE (Church [of England])

S EVE RAN CE

 

 SEVERANCE (break)
26

Tiny block of tellurium (5)

Block of tellurium (5)

 TINY

T

TE (chemical symbol for tellurium)

… TE

SIX

SIXTE (parry [block] with hand on guard opposite the right breast, sword point a little raised to the right.
27

Cold, like Icelandic dogs (7)

Cold, like dogs (7)

 ICELANDIC

I

C (cold) + AS (like)

C … AS

NINE

 CANINES (dogs)
28

Scottish Nationalist disputes hollow poles (7)

Scottish disputes hollow poles (7)

 NATIONALIST

N

PS (letters remaining in POLES when the central letters are removed [hollow])

… PS

THREE

 THREEPS (Scottish word for ‘disputes’)
Down
1

Notes from contralto rise oddly (6)

Notes from rise oddly (6)

 CONTRALTO

C

RS (letters 1 and 3 [oddly] of RISE)

… RS

FIVE

 FIVERS (£5 notes)
2

United’s fans worried – midfield looks defenceless (6)

United’s fans worried – midfield defenceless (6)

 LOOKS

L

U (united) + an anagram of (worried) FANS + E (central letter of [mid] FIELD)

U NSAF* E

 

 UNSAFE (not secure; defenceless)
3

At home, sister injects drug, performing unreliably and slurs (10)

At home, sister injects drug, performing and slurs (10)

 UNRELIABLY

U

IN (at home) + (E [ecstasy [drug] contained in [injects] NUN [sister]) + DOES (performing)

IN NU (E) N DOES

 

 INNUENDOES (slanders; slurs)
4

Direct debit going both ways (5)

Direct going both ways (5)

 DEBIT

D

REFER (palindromic word; the same in both directions)

REFER

 

 REFER (direct)
5

A politician, awfully rude exits Spain a lost soul (3,6)

A politician, awfully rude Spain a lost soul (3,6)

 EXITS

E

A + MEP (Member of the European Parliament) + an anagram of (awfully) RUDE  + E (International Vehicle Registration for Spain)

A ME P ERDU* E

 

 AME PERDUE (lost soul)
6

Fee to conduct duet (4)

Fee to conduct (4)

 DUET

D

WAGE (fee)

WAGE

 

WAGE (conduct [war])  double definition

 
7

Apostasies increase scores over time (8)

Apostasies scores over time (8)

 INCREASES

I

RATINGS (assessments; scores) containing (over) T (time)

RAT (T) INGS  either T could be the one contained

 

 RATTINGS (apostasies)
8

Ask why nobody’s inside, building a better storage unit (8)

Ask why inside, building a better storage unit (8)

 NOBODY’S

N

Y (sounds like [ask] WHY) contained in (inside) an anagram of (building) (A and BETTER)

TERAB (Y) TE*

 

 TERABYTE (a unit of storage capacity in computing terminology)
13

Time wasters are sort of naughty transgressor (10)

Time are sort of naughty transgressor (10)

 WASTERS

W

T (time) + an anagram of (naughty) ARE SORT OF

TORTFEASOR*

 

 TORTFEASOR (a person guilty of a wrong; transgressor)
15

Audio devices deliver strange ominous phrase (9)

Audio devices deliver strange phrase (9)

 OMINOUS

O

Anagram of (strange)f PHRASE

EARPH … S*

ONE

 EARPHONES (audio receivers)
16

Part of flyer: "Receive last bit of money in cashback" (5-3)

Part of flyer: "Last bit of money in cashback" (5-3)

 RECEIVE

R

Y (final letter of [last bit of] MONEY) contained in (in) CASH reversed (back)

H … (Y) SAC<

ONE

HONEY-SAC (enlargement of the alimentary canal of the bee in which it carries its load of honey; part of flyer)
17

Great Dane regularly takes revenge (4,4)

Great regularly takes revenge (4,4)

 DANE

D

GET (letters 1, 3 and 5 [regularly] of GREAT)

GET …

SEVEN

 GETS EVEN (takes revenge)
19

Power struggle in Devon and Cornwall to prepare war with 40 English (6)

Struggle in Devon and Cornwall to prepare war with 40 English (6)

 POWER

P

Anagram of (prepare) WAR + XL (Roman numerals for 40) + E (English)

WRA* XL E

 

 WRAXLE (South West England [Devon and Cornwall] dialect word for wrestle or struggle)
20

Lawyers set criminal convictions (6)

Set criminal convictions (6)

 LAWYERS

L

Anagram of (criminal) SET

… ETS*

TEN

 TENETS (principles; doctrines)
23

Tube from St Albans (5)

Tube from St (5)

 ALBANS

A

ST

S … T

TEN

STENT (device used as a temporary splint inside a bodily vessel to keep it open; tube)
24

Your cerebrum wants single fibre (4)

Cerebrum wants single fibre (4)

 YOUR

Y

BRAIN (cerebrum) excluding (wants) I (Roman numeral for one)

BRAN

 

 BRAN (type of cereal or fibre)

     

10 comments on “Guardian Genius 183 – Qaos”

  1. Aha! That explains that then. I was working on the original version with allegedly 12 not 13 numberless wordplays. Couldn’t figure out which of my numbers wasn’t a number. 😀

    Somewhat churlishly I was a bit disappointed that some numbers were duplicated, in an otherwise very enjoyable puzzle which extended my vocabulary considerably: SIXTE, THREEPS, AME PERDUE, TORTFEASOR, WRAXLE. Looking back at it, it’s a wonder I completed it at all but I like a challenge.

    Thank you Qaos and Duncanshiell.

  2. I also was puzzled to find 13, not 12 special clues as advertised. I wondered whether NOUGHT was discounted as a ‘number’, but it still took part as the others.

    I actually thought the instructions were a bit misleading: “how to treat 13 clues” might have been better, imo.

    Unfortunately a lot of your hard work, Duncan, is lost on me, as there are display problems with the post (reported @ tech feedback), but I don’t think I had any parsing queries, so no mind.

    Anyway, a very enjoyable puzzle, satisfying to solve.

  3. Tony@2. I can’t see Duncanshiell’s helpful table properly using the mobile version of the display, but it works with the desktop version with a bit of scrolling left and right.

  5. The first Genius I’ve managed to complete, well almost–needed help with 2 dnks, vison and tortfeasor. It was a bit of a slog, at least until crosses yielded most of ‘aren’t included’. Normally I give puzzles with special instructions a miss but I was quite pleased to nearly get there in the end.

    Thanks Qaos and Duncanshiell.

  6. I have a very cheap phone with tiny screen, NNI@4. Even with rotation/landscape the table is too small to read (with my eyesight) unless I expand it and then I need the scrolling.

  8. One of the more gentle Genius crosswords. I think that AT WORST was the first one that set me on the right track. NOUGHT threw me for a while but I know I got everything right cos I’ve just learned that I won. My first “winner’s medal” of any description for quite a few years.

  10. Thanks Qaos, I really enjoyed this. Somewhat ironic that in a puzzle involving numbers I failed to notice that I had located 13 numbers, not 12.

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