The March Genius was set by Pasquale, one of the ‘DON …..’ manifestations of the prolific setter Don Manley. Other manifestations are Duck, Quixote, Bradman, Giovanni, and Izetti. Don Manley sets for all the leading broadsheets as well as many magazines. He is the author of the Chambers Crossword Manual.
The preamble told us that wordplay in each of the down clues contains a superfluous letter. In clue order, these spell out an instruction to remove six unpleasant figures from the completed grid before submitting your entry.
This was a fairly simple and understandable preamble.
My biggest problem with the puzzle was identifying the superfluous letter in a few of the clues. In three clues, I identified two possibilities, but only one of them could be used to generate an understandable instruction.
I reckoned that the extra letter in the 15 down wordplay for DUALISM could be either I or Y with both I’M and MY being possible interpretations of "this writer’s".
For 16 down, PLANTAIN, I thought I could justify an S in STAIN as well as a T in TAINT to fulfil the "blemish" part of the wordplay. Finally 24 down could generate an extra Y from EYES as well as an extra S from SEES. Both EYES and SEES could be defined as "observes"
For the direction to make sense, the extra letters from these three clues had to I, T and S leading to the direction ERASE SPLIT DEVILS. Looking at the rows with two entries, we can see the six fiends or unpleasant figures spelt out from the final few letters of the left hand entry and the first few letters of the right hand entry. We have OLD ONE in row 1, DEVIL in row 3, NICK in row 5, EBLIS in row 11, DEMON in row 13 and SATAN in row 15. These are highlighted in the first grid shown below and then erased from the second grid as required by the preamble. OLD ONE and EBLIS were the least known ones for me, but both meet the definition of unpleasant character.
The clues were very fair and possibly towards the easier end of Don Manley’s spectrum. The one that caused me the most difficulty in parsing was the clue at 15 down for DUALISM. Archbishop William LAUD is not on my personal list of well known Archbishops. With a bit of luck I will remember him for years to come.
| No | Detail |
Extra Letter |
| Across | ||
| 1 |
Unsuccessful type turning red, ultimately betrayed again? (6) RESOLD (betrayed again) LOSER (unsuccessful type) reversed (turning) + D (last letter of [ultimately] RED) RESOL< D |
|
| 4 |
No idea about Native American people (6) ONEIDA (A member of the Iroquoian people formerly living east of Lake Ontario; native [North] American people) Anagram of (about) NO IDEA ONEIDA* |
|
| 8 |
A misleading statement about pop instrument (7) ALIDADE (a revolving index for reading the graduations of an astrolabe, quadrant, or similar instrument, or for taking the direction of objects) A + (LIE [misleading statement] containing [about] DAD [father; pop]) A LI (DAD) E |
|
| 10 |
Criminal resident in foul community (7) VILLAGE (community) LAG (prisoner; criminal resident) contained in VILE (foul) VIL (LAG) E |
|
| 12 |
Dealing with good and evil spirits has disturbed fellow in charge (8) SHAMANIC (descriptive of a doctor-priest or medicine man working by magic to deal with good and evil spirits) Anagram of (disturbed) HAS + MAN (fellow) + IC (in charge) SHA* MAN IC |
|
| 13 |
Child that is following captain in story (6) KIDDIE (child) KIDD (reference Captain KIDD, [1605-1701], 17th-century privateer and semi-legendary pirate who became celebrated in English literature as one of the most colourful outlaws of all time) + IE (id est; that is) KIDD IE |
|
| 14 |
Sporting award is sent back, getting marvelled about (6,5) SILVER MEDAL (sporting award) IS reversed (sent back) + an anagram of (about) MARVELLED SI< LVER MEDAL* |
|
| 18 |
Spanish music a special gala’s organised, putting English learner off (11) PASSACAGLIA (slow solemn old Spanish dance form; Spanish music) Anagram of (organised) A SPECIAL GALA’S excluding (putting… off) (E [English] and L [learner]) PASSACAGLIA* |
|
| 22 |
Sign of poor cleaning you and I found in cold old B&B (6) COBWEB (a spider’s web or net; sign of lack of cleanliness within a property) (WE [you and I]) contained in (found in) (C [cold] + O [old] + BB [B and B]) C O B (WE) B |
|
| 23 |
Eavesdrop, being strangely silent at home (6,2) LISTEN IN (eavesdrop) Anagram of (strangely) SILENT + IN (at home) LISTEN* IN |
|
| 25 |
Trite remark when woman at match receives honour (7) BROMIDE (trite saying or platitude [definition in Collins]) BRIDE (woman in a marriage; woman at a match) containing (receives) OM (Order of Merit; honour) BR (OM) IDE |
|
| 26 |
Monet excited when framing a good piece of art (7) MONTAGE (a piece of art comprising a selection of objects such as photographs or drawings etc) Anagram of (when excited) MONET containing (framing) (A + G [good]) MONT (A G) E* |
|
| 27 |
Plant end being twisted, hiding another plant mostly (6) MIMOSA (plant of the sensitive plant genus of the same name, especially that having clusters of yellow flowers) AIM (target; end) reversed (being twisted) containing (hiding) MOSS (small plant) excluding the final letter (mostly) S MI (MOS) A< |
|
| 28 |
Old coin — the way edge has worn away (6) TANNER (old sixpence coin pre-decimalisation in the UK) T‘ (the) + MANNER (way) excluding (worn away) the first letter (edge) M T ANNER |
|
| Down | ||
| 1 |
Once again evaluate fools interrupting revolutionary prophet (8) REASSESS (evaluate again) ASSES (fools) contained in (interrupting) SEER (prophet) reversed RE (ASSES) ES |
E |
| 2 |
Seemly Parisian on one piece of furniture (8) SUITABLE (seemly) SUR (French [Parisian] for ‘on’) + I (Roman numeral for one) + TABLE (piece of furniture) SUR I TABLE |
R |
| 3 |
Beer given to a king over time — waste, if liquid (7) LEAKAGE (escape of fluid; waste of fluid) ALE (beer) + A + K (king) + AGE (period of time) As this is a down entry the first letters are entered above (or over) AGE ALE A K AGE |
A |
| 5 |
Part of church chosen as vestry — outsiders kicked out (4) NAVE (main part of a church) NAVES (letters remaining in CHOSEN AS VESTRY when the outer letters CHOSE…TRY are excluded [kicked out]) NASVES |
S |
| 6 |
Hostility one meets with Bard outside ‘orrible place (3,4) ILL WILL (hostility) (I [Roman numeral for one] + WILL [reference WILLiam Shakespeare [1564 – 1616, Bard of Avon]) containing (outside) ‘ELL (‘orrible place) where both ‘ELL and ‘orrible lack a leading H I (ELL) WILL |
E |
| 7 |
Presents special forces to protect part of hospital (6) AWARDS (presents) SAS (Special Air Service; special forces) containing (to protect) WARD (part of a hospital) SA (WARD) S |
S |
| 9 |
Writers full of extraordinary magic putting out 100 puzzles (7) ENIGMAS (puzzles) PENS (writers) containing (full of) an anagram of (extraordinary) MAGIC excluding (putting out) C (Roman numeral for 100) PE (IGMA*) NS |
P |
| 11 |
Vessel left on river invaded by sheep (4) EWER (large water jug; vessel) (L [left] + R [river]) containing (invaded by) EWE (female sheep) L (EWE) R |
L |
| 15 |
Upset archbishop is associated with this writer’s sort of philosophy (7) DUALISM (the view that seeks to explain the world by the assumption of two radically independent and absolute elements, eg 1) the doctrine of the entire separation of spirit and matter, and 2) the doctrine of two distinct principles of good and evil, or of two divine beings of these characters) LAUD (reference William LAUD [1573-1645], Archbishop of Canterbury from 1633-1645) reversed (upset; down entry) + IS + I’M (I am; this writer is; this writer’s) DUAL< IS IM |
I |
| 16 |
Fruit scheme has blemish (8) PLANTAIN (a fruit) PLAN (scheme) + TAINT (blemish) PLAN TAINT |
T |
| 17 |
Dry river garment that gets wet (8) RAINWEAR (an article of protective clothing; example of a garment that gets wet) DRAIN (dry) + WEAR (river in the North East of England) DRAIN WEAR |
D |
| 18 |
French father and mother collecting third of this bounty (7) PREMIUM (reward, prize or bounty) PERE (French for father) + (MUM containing [collecting] I [third {letter} of THIS]) PERE M (I) UM |
E |
| 19 |
Worker somewhere in Austria — I put out a feeler (7) ANTENNA (feeler or horn in insects) ANT (reference a worker ANT) + VIENNA (capital city of Austria; somewhere in Austria) excluding (put out) I ANT VENNA |
V |
| 20 |
Is taxi worker defying the union? (4) SCAB (blackleg [worker defying the union’s decision to strike or a worker taking the place of an employee on strike]) IS + CAB (taxi) IS CAB |
I |
| 21 |
Blossoming science establishment to appear out of nowhere? (6) ABLOOM (blossoming) LAB (laboratory; science establishment) + LOOM (appear as in a mirage; appear out of nowhere) LAB LOOM |
L |
| 24 |
Going round lake, observes fish (4) EELS (fish) SEES (eyes) containing (round) L (lake) SEE (L) S |
S |
Thanks duncanshiel and Pasquale.
I had wrong excess letters for 16 and 15…’Stain’ for blemish yielding S and ‘me’ in stead of ‘I’m’ yielding E and didn’t spend more time getting the correct middle word of instruction …however the grid was filled correctly…..and final grid submitted without the devils.
Dualism didn’t cause much problem…having grown up with non-dualism and other variations of it!
I struggle to remember any issues with the Genius as we end up commenting a month after solving! In this case, as solving took under an hour, it did not leave much of an impression other than wondering how to enter the answers correctly into the web page. I opted for res[old] etc to show I’d solved the grid and knew what to remove but could easily have missed a letter or two in the down entries.
I do recall a bit of ambiguity in the missing letters but got enough of the phrase to know what it meant. Many thanks to the Don for the neat idea and to duncanshiel for the comprehensive and colourful blog.
For the second Genius puzzle in a row we were told that wordplay in some clues contains a superfluous letter, and again it turns out that in the general case it is not the wordplay itself but what the wordplay produces that contains the extra letter. (For some clues like 4d the instruction as stated actually works, but for clues like 1d, 2d and 3d the rule for the general case is needed, and it works throughout.)
The simple thematic design of this puzzle contrasted with last month’s puzzle, and I filled the grid in one enjoyable session. However, I left myself with a bit more work to do because I extracted the letters ERASE SPLES DEVILS from the Down clues, which clearly had to be corrected to something that made sense: ERASE SPLIT DEVILS. (I had stumbled on two of the three instances of having a choice of letters to extract from a Down clue – I missed the EYES/SEES one.)
Bradford’s red book helped me with my last two devils (OLD ONE and EBLIS).
Thanks to Pasquale and duncanshiell.
I found this quite straightforward for a Genius puzzle, but it felt a bit unsatisfactory to have blank squares and non-words in the finished grid.
Thanks to Duncan and Pasquale
The only real difficulty, apart from working out the various combinations of missing letters in the down clues, was how to exactly fill in the for with the missing bits. I ended up adopting the same method as Thezed @2. I did read somewhere that the entries are hand checked by real humans, shock horror. Who knows.
I have to say that I didn’t read “wordplay contains a superfluous letter” as anything other than that the wordplay would produce a superfluous letter. If I had, the first down clue that I solved successfully would have disabused me.
OK as a puzzle but the level of difficulty was not that of a Genius puzzle.
Que Norman dit
Tim C
I too lost no time at all in interpreting that phrase about ‘wordplay’ in the way that the setter (and editor) wanted us to. (By a lucky chance I knew it from only a month ago.) My point is still valid, I believe. In multiple other series elsewhere the wording ‘wordplay produces a superfluous letter’ is invariably used.
In 28a, I thought that edge=HEM was removed from THE MANNER, but I did initially think 20d was ‘S CAB until I remembered that I needed an extra letter. I also had the wrong extra letters in 15d and 16d for a while.
Whenever I read that wordplay contains a superfluous letter I am reminded of Guardian Genius 86 by Enigmatist which is no longer available on the Guardian website but had instructions which said that some clues “contain a single letter in the wordplay that is superfluous to the solution”. One of the clues was “In town, sailor’s relieving lieutenant, causing discontent” with answer ENVIABLE and wordplay “EN VILLE with AB for LT” which contains a superfluous T but does not produce it.
We too thought that this did not have the feel of a Genius puzzle. Like DuncT, we were unhappy with the final grid which contained blank squares and non-words.
Thanks to Duncan and Pasquale.