Guardian Genius 185 – Picaroon

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Well, this was fun, though I would have preferred it to have lasted a little longer.

The first clue that I solved during my first quick pass through them was 24ac, which was clearly one of the eleven that were to be adjusted before entry. The COMMA stood out but it wasn’t until I reached and solved 1dn, which had HASH in it, that I realised the adjustment was to replace a section of the solution with the equivalent of a single keystroke (had I been typing rather than writing).

After that progress was steady, with the grid being filled at a reasonable pace until I came to my last entry (6dn), which caused a short pause for thought because I didn’t initially consider an MG to be a ‘flash car’ (a Merc, Jag, RR, BMW etc yes, but an MG?).

I didn’t need them but the two consecutive clues that gave a suggestion as to how the eleven affected solutions should be adjusted were, conveniently, the first two across entries (8 & 9ac), KEYBOARD SYMBOL.

Anyway, an enjoyable solve so thanks to Picaroon for a good *t to the day.

Across
8 Important supervisory group for IT component (8)
KEYBOARD –  KEY (important) BOARD (supervisory group)

9 Sign metal disc’s picked up (6)
SYMBOL – sounds like (‘s picked up) ‘cymbal’ (metal disc)

10 Small girl welcoming lady’s swordsmen, say (4)
SLASHERS – S (small) LASS (girl) around (welcoming) HER (lady’s)
/ERS

11 Stubborn people pursue painter mostly taking time (10)
DOGMATISTS – DOG (pursue) MATISS[e] (painter mostly) around (taking) T (time)

12 Infection’s grown astonishingly in mouth (8)
RINGWORM – an anagram (astonishingly) of GROWN in RIM (mouth)

14 Sally Army’s leader is crazy (4)
GAGA – GAG (sally) A[rmy] (Army’s leader)

16 Composer with piece for actress (7)
BERGMAN – BERG (composer) MAN (piece)

17 Rebellion abandoned by sons and issue (7)
EDITION – [s]EDITION (rebellion abandoned by sons)

19 Settler shows a bit of guts first (4)
COLONIST – COLON (a bit of guts) IST (first)
:IST

21 Criminal 10 gaoled, having been given a stretch (8)
ELONGATED – an anagram (criminal) of TEN GAOLED
ELONG@ED

24 Servicemen in wars commending manoeuvres (4,6)
WING COMMANDERS – an anagram (manoeuvres) of WARS COMMENDING
WING,NDERS

26 French boy taking off clothes with a bow (4)
ARCO – [g]ARCO[n] (French boy taking off clothes)

27 Notice books around study for US tennis champ (4,2)
BILL TILDEN – BILL (notice) LIT (books) reversed (around) DEN (study)
BILL~N

28 Yelled at crook with glee (8)
ELATEDLY – an anagram (crook) of YELLED AT

Down
1 Hear collapsing building went over again (5)
REHASHED – an anagram (collapsing) of HEAR followed by SHED (building)
RE#ED

2 Bishop remains hot in silver clothing, causing shame (8)
ABASHING – B (bishop) ASH (remains) IN (hot) in (in … clothing) AG (silver)

3 One curses about class for arthropod (10)
TARDIGRADE – I (one) DRAT (curses) reversed (about) plus GRADE (class)

4 Deliberately bother imprisoning a soldier (6)
ADAGIO – ADO (bother) around (imprisoning) A GI (a soldier)

5 Intelligence agency uncovered bones (4)
OSSA – [m]OSSA[d] (intelligence agency uncovered)

6 Seizing one flash car that’s kept to smash in (6)
IMPOUNDING – I (one) MG (flash car) around (that’s kept) POUND (to smash) IN
IM£ING

7 Rashly acting on receiving old communication of complaint (9)
CONTAGION – an anagram (rashly) of ACTING ON around (receiving) O (old)

13 Island’s unbalanced fuel put in a vehicle (10)
MADAGASCAR – MAD (unbalanced) plus GAS (fuel) in (put in) A CAR (a vehicle)

15 Only slightly moving, like old poems one’s held up (4-5)
SEMI-RIGID – DIG (like) RIMES (old poems) around (‘s held) I (one) reversed (up)

18 Play attacker here, perhaps (3,5)
THE CARETAKER – an anagram (perhaps) of ATTACKER HERE
THE^AKER

20 Fastener obtained from the south with much joy (6)
TOGGLE – GOT (obtained) reversed (from the south) GLE[e] (much joy)

22 Approving cry along with monarch’s bloomer (6)
OLEANDER – OLE (approving cry) AND (along with) ER (monarch)
OLE&ER

23 Little less cryptic clue (5)
MINUSCULE – MINUS (less) plus an anagram (cryptic) of CLUE
-CULE

25 Puzzle in new place boring us abroad (4)
NONPLUS – N (new) PL (place) in (boring) NOUS (us abroad)
NON+

14 comments on “Guardian Genius 185 – Picaroon”

  1. So clever! I got all but two or three of the ordinary clues (including ARCO, which I knew must be it but didn’t know and for some reason couldn’t find in the dictionary). Sadly, I failed to realise that ???BOARD was KEYBOARD, or I surely would have got there (got stuck with ‘motherboard’ in mind and finally hesitantly entered ‘topboard’. Is that a thing?).

    Of the specials, I managed to solve ELONGATED, OLEANDER and MINUSCULE, but couldn’t fathom what was going on with them, even though that could have been enough to give the conceit away.

    Oh well, next month …

  2. Tony @1, I too couldn’t get motherboard out of my head, and couldn’t see the less techy KEYBOARD for ages. Perhaps if I did it on my laptop and not on paper it would have struck me sooner.

    Enjoyed the puzzle and got there in the end, even though it took me quite some time to realise what was going on with the single keystrokes. Great fun.

    Thanks to Picaroon and Gaufrid.

  3. It also took a long time for the penny to drop for us.  We had KEYBOARD but for some reason SYMBOL didn’t leap out the way it should. We got ELONGATED and MINUSCULE tentatively but I’d got it into my head that the ‘two consecutive normal solutions’ must contain an instruction as to how to treat the specials, so we were barking up the wrong tree for ages.

    But great fun, and credit to Picaroon for inventing an original (afaik) twist!

    oh, and I did hesitate for a moment before putting IM£ING – after having read so many US phone/software manuals, I thought it might be IM#ING, but 1d removed any doubt.

  4. @Crossbar, I did it on paper too but I have a suspicion that if I’d done it on the laptop I’d just be feeling all the more stupid now for having had the answer literally under my nose.

    @Mr Beaver, odds are, Picaroon intentionally made sure the ambiguity was resolved in the solve, he’s so immaculately thorough. I can’t believe I dissed him by even considering “important” could mean ‘top’, even if ever so lightly pencilled.

  5. Did about 2/3 without sussing the trick, then it got buried under a pile of stuff and forgotten until I saw the blog; pity as it was coming along, tho I had bigboard, which is or was an IT thing (I think), which wouldn’t have helped. Silly, as keyboard is a gimme, comparatively. As Tony says…next month. Terrific puzzle design Picaroon, thanks Gaufrid for elucidating.

  6. I enjoyed this but also wished it had gone on longer. Funnily enough my last one in was 1d which took me ages to see, then, of course, kicked myself when the penny dropped! 6d was my way in to the trick as I already had 8a and 9a. After that it became quite easy. I had to look up the tennis champ as I’d never heard of him. But very clever, so thank you very much!

  7. As others have said, this was good fun. Bill Tilden (~n) was very obscure even for an armchair tennis fan. I spent ages trying to fit Billie Jean King (or even Billie Jean Moffitt) in there but she refused.

    Thanks Gaufrid and Picaroon.

  8. Where and when are the winners announced?  Maybe the latest one is not announced yet but I cannot even find the earlier results.

    I have entered this most months for many years.  It must be my turn to win soon.  My retirement plan depends on winning at least once.

  10. We too started with MINUSCULE But had miniscule in my head so spent some time looking for other missing car models! Really enjoyed this one – as with others above, KEY BOARD itself took ages, even after we had most of the other symbols in place.Thanks to Picaroon and Gaufrid.
    Now looking forward to starting on the new one.

  11. @Tony

    Thanks, I thought that I had tried that and not seen any winners.  Maybe a glitch in the Guardian website or maybe in my eyes.  185 is there now and it is not me so retirement will need to wait another month at least.

    They used to give some extra information such as the number of correct answers and when the first was received.  That was interesting.  I think that was 400 was at high end and it occasionally dipped to 200.

  12. @bad john

    Yes, I seem to remember last time I read something like that it was a batch of them (possibly) in an editor’s update, apologising for not keeping it up. Or summink.

    I’ve got the same retirement plan, but I have had a win. Yet to find an annuity to buy with the oner!

  13. To win  a Prize you should need good artwork rather than type in the symbols

    But its probably more difficult to submit one than to solve it in the first place.

     

    Great idea.

  14. We also were highly entertained by this crossword, thank you, Picaroon.
    Solved all except the caretaker and we’re kicking ourselves when we looked it up!

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