Guardian Genius 229 by Karla

A conventional puzzle with an unusual clueing style for this month’s Genius.

The special instructions were brief: All definitions are contained in the wordplay. At first I wondered if this meant that every clue was an & lit clue, but that seemed unlikely. I then started looking for hidden words in the clues, but without success. Eventually I solved the anagram at 4 down, and realised that the definition was in the middle of the wordplay, subverting the usual convention whereby definitions are placed either at the beginning or ends of clues. Once this was clear, the puzzle yielded very quickly. Many thanks to Karla, who has set a previous Genius (No 212) as well as puzzles in the Inquisitor and Enigmatic Variations series.

ACROSS
1	MANIFOLD	Two isles with numerous sheep (8)
		(Isle of) MAN I(sland), FOLD (flock of sheep).
5	COBWEB	Horse and trap the Guardian essentially stabled (6)
		COB (horse) WE (Guardian) (sta)B(led).
9	SAWBONES	Noted surgeon drills with radius replaced by noon (8)
		SAW (noted) BO(r)ES (drills) with N for R.
10	SIGN ON	In Paris no American troops register for revolution (4,2)
		NON GIS (all rev).
12	STOIC	Ordinary disciple overwhelmed by most of criticism (5)
		O(rdinary) in STIC(k).
13	EUCALYPTI	Cute play about trees put before institute (9)
		*(CUTE PLAY) I(nstitute).
14	EAVESDROPPER	One can’t catch spy after preceding day’s broadcast (12)
		EAVES (sounds like eves), DROPPER.
18	MISSTATEMENT	Avoid poor communication by new team in shelter (12)
		MISS, *TEAM inside TENT.
21	TRATTORIA	Very best rhubarb pastry eatery recalled (9)
		A1 ROT TART (all rev).
23	RUGBY	Grand game afforded protection of port (5)
		G(rand) in RUBY (a type of port).
24	BELUGA	Ask to keep guts of blue whale: accepted (6)
		(b)LU(e) in BEG, A(ccepted).
25	MADHOUSE	Spooner’s chaotic place fooled Mickey? (8)
		Spoonerism of “had mouse”.
26	EXPATS	Prince taxes those living abroad randomly (6)
		*P(rince) in TAXES.
27	ADOPTION	Bill embracing alternative (8)
		AD OPTION.
DOWN
1	MISUSE	Deliberate cruel treatment across central Uist (6)
		(u)IS(t) in MUSE. I started off by guessing SADISM, but couldn’t parse it.
2	NEWTON	Conclusions of Cern scientist: the show must go on (6)
		Final letters. Sir Isaac would not have described himself in this way, as the term was not coined until the 19th century.
3	FLOW CHART	Pack animal diagram up above fish tank initially (4,5)
		WOLF (pack animal, rev) CHAR (fish) T(ank).
4	LIE DETECTORS	IT’s electrode kit for police interviews is faulty (3,9)
		*(LIE DETECTORS). It may be worth pointing out that lie detector tests are not routinely used by the police in the UK, as they are normally inadmissible in evidence.
6	ORIEL	Back bit of window grille iron-clad (5)
		Hidden and reversed in “grille iron-clad”.
7	WINDPIPE	Turn part of airway before one dons protective gear (8)
		WIND (turn), I (one) in PPE (protective gear).
8	BANDITRY	Outlaw detective on robbery attempt (8)
		BAN DI TRY.
11	ACADEMY AWARD	Amateur way card statuette made to move (7,5)
		*(A(mateur) WAY CARD MADE).
15	OWNERSHIP	Winner oddly stored possession in gold vessel (9)
		WNE (odd letters of WiNnEr) inside OR (gold) SHIP.
16	IMITABLE	Hendrix taking lead can be emulated atop counter (8)
		(j)IMI TABLE.
17	ESCALLOP	Key dish everybody starts to order, perhaps (8)
		ESC (key on computer keyboard) ALL O(rder) P(erhaps).
19	AGOUTI	Condition rodent to impregnate sloth (6)
		GOUT (condition) in AI.
20	WYVERN	Nervy women when monster on the rampage (6)
		*(NERVY W(omen)).
22	TIGHT	Unlikely to release drunk coppers (5)
		A cryptic definition: one who is unlikely to release coppers is said to be mean, or tight(-fisted).

5 comments on “Guardian Genius 229 by Karla”

Thanks Karla and brigesong.
It wasn’t too hard to find the definitions; it might have been a little more challenging if they had been strewn among the clues, in stead of being where they belong. It was good to finish a Genius early.

Like Bridgesong there was a period of staring and wondering what it all meant, followed by a light bulb moment (much less painful than a tea tray) and then it all fell into place rather rapdily.

For those new to Genius puzzles I think this one exemplifies how they are not actually that hard as (with here) the cluing and the words are no more complex than a normal cryptic. In fact, often in the Genius puzzles I find the cluing even more straightforward, to compensate for the other trickery which often makes it harder to use crossers in a helpful way. But this was, alas, over a bit too quickly.

Many thanks for the clear blog and minor quibbles raised over lie detectors and scientists Bridgesong, and thank you Karla for a set of elegantly phrased clues where the definition really did not stand out – I thought that was artfully done.

Another Genius, another original thematic design. (At least, I think it’s original.) My first clue EAVESDROPPER confirmed to me how the clues worked, and (later) LIE DETECTORS gave me an example of a multi-word definition in a clue. The whole puzzle was very neatly done, and the grid was generous, with four long words intersecting in the middle. What I liked most was the quality and clarity of the clues. Most (three-quarters) of the clues had one-word definitions, giving an overall feeling of succinctness.

Thanks to Karla and bridgesong.

Many thanks to Bridgesong for the blog and to those who have contributed. A strange one to set as our cryptic brains are so hard-wired into the definition being at one end or the other. I had wondered about mixing up the ‘middle definition’ clues with ‘standard’ clues but then decided to go for broke and do the lot. I might try the former approach next time to see if that presents more of a challenge (if I get chance to do another one somewhere).

Similarly to Bridgesong, at first I thought that the whole clue was wordplay, with the definition being a part, so sort of &lit. That would have been impressive setting, but it fairly soon became apparent that it was essentially a normal cryptic. If anything, a little easier than normal, as most clues were short so finding the definition wasn’t too hard, as you knew it wasn’t at the start or finish.

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