Not as difficult as some recent Genius puzzles, but how does The Guardian expect you to comply with the requirements of the preamble?
I was a little apprehensive about this puzzle, as I was due to be away and offline from 8 January to 24 January, which doesn’t leave much time for a puzzle with a deadline of 27 January*. However, in the event I was able to solve it on 1 January and get the blog written on the same day.
*(I didn’t notice that the deadline was changed on 24 January to 3 February, so this blog appeared originally on 28 January until FrankieG pointed out the error).
The preamble reads as follows:
Thirteen entries have a single letter that is not accounted for in their clues’ wordplay. The enumeration of another seven clues is out by one; their answers must be fitted thematically. Solvers should highlight the theme (19 cells) and rework the grid’s shading thematically.
In principle, there is nothing particularly difficult about these requirements, except that The Guardian’s entry form requires you to enter each answer separately, without a grid, so there is no opportunity either to modify the grid or to highlight answers. It is possible to show how to enter the seven answers with incorrect enumeration by leaving a gap in the appropriate place, and that is what I opted to do. It may be that by the time the competition closes The Guardian will have introduced software to allow solvers to upload a completed grid, but I won’t hold my breath.
Additional note by Admin:
The preamble was amended to include the additional phrase:
(not necessary for online entries)
Which leads to even more bizarrerie, since entries can only be submitted online!
Back to the puzzle! The theme was clearly related to FREEDOM and PRISON (the letters omitted from the wordplay) which soon made themselves clear on the right and left hand boundaries of the grid (this particular grid was shrieking “Nina!” as soon as I saw it) but the answer is in fact SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, which is contained in three of the down answers. This film is about an escape from prison by digging a tunnel, represented here by the letters missing from the thirteenth row of the grid, which we are invited to shade in appropriately. Kenmac has pointed out that both ends of the tunnel appear under an O, representing the tunnel entrance and exit.
Qaos often includes digits as part of his clues and did so here, particularly at 23 across and 21 down. Overall the clues were pretty concise and the surfaces were immaculate.
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | HOT HATCH |
Somewhat macho? That characterises powerful car (8, 2 words)
|
| Very cleverly hidden in “macho that characterises”; the intervening punctuation and the different pronunciation combine to mislead the solver. I don’t think I’m giving much away if I mention that I came across this phrase as an answer in a puzzle in the current edition of the Magpie so it was fresh in my mind. | ||
| 9 | ONE OFF |
Unique uncovered long red sofa (6, 2 words)
|
| Hidden in a slightly different way inside (“uncovered”) lONg rEd sOFa. The final F is not clued, as this, like all the remaining across clues is one of those whose wordplay does not account for a letter, always either the last (on the right hand side of the grid) or the first (on the left). Chambers has this as a hyphenated form, rather than two separate words. | ||
| 10 | PROW |
Front line (4)
|
| A simple charade, with the initial P unclued. I initially entered BROW, which just about worked as a double definition, but mucked up the nina. | ||
| 11 | PENTAMETER |
Writer’s gentle note with line of verse (10)
|
| PEN (writer) TAME (gentle) TE (note). The final R is unclued. | ||
| 12 | REMOTE |
Far Eastern book recalled (6)
|
| E TOME (all rev). The R is again unclued. | ||
| 14 | ESCAPADE |
Adult breaking into key apartment in stunt ? (8)
|
| A(dult) in ESC (key on computer keyboard) PAD (apartment). The final E is unclued. | ||
| 15 | INTENSE |
Number 10 beginning to suspect European great (7)
|
| N(umber) TEN S(uspect) E(uropean). The initial I is unclued. | ||
| 17 | DEHISCE |
Pop record’s about … what ? (7)
|
| EH (what?) inside DISC. The final E is unclued. It’s a botanical term. | ||
| 20 | SCOTLAND |
Nation in bed 50+ (8)
|
| COT (bed) L(50) AND (+). The initial S is unclued. | ||
| 22 | FANNED |
Cooled face of Fairy Queen (6)
|
| F(airy) ANNE (queen). The final D is unclued. | ||
| 23 | OVER AND OUT |
Porches 25% off, about 40% off? We’re done talking (10, 3 words)
|
| VERAND(as) (omitting two of eight letters, or 25%) (ab)OUT (omitting two of five letters, or 40%). The initial O is unclued. | ||
| 24 | EURO |
Regret withdrawing money (4)
|
| RUE (rev). The final O is unclued. | ||
| 25 | NICENE |
Creed that’s describing church’s final revelation (6)
|
| CE (Church of England, or church) (revelatio)N, all inside IE (that’s). The initial N is unclued. | ||
| 26 | THALLIUM |
Welcome everyone inside university after intro to thrash metal (8)
|
| T(hrash), ALL (everyone) inside HI (welcome), U(niversity). The final M is unclued. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | FOURTEEN |
Couple from Newcastle upset after United crushed by strong figure (8)
|
| U(nited) inside FORTE (strong), NE(wcastle) (rev). I thought NE for “couple from Newcastle” was a bit weak – arguably any other pair of letters from within the word would be equally valid. | ||
| 2 | SHAW |
Playwright was high injecting heroin (4)
|
| H in *WAS. | ||
| 3 | STAPLE |
Basic stationery (6)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 4 | SHANKED |
Financial institution losing billions in drop hit badly (7)
|
| (b)ANK (financial institution losing B) inside SHED (drop). One of the last ones in for me; there were plenty of other possibilities. | ||
| 5 | COMANCHE |
Native American caught old man’s companion on horseback? (8)
|
| C(aught) O(ld) MAN CH (Companion of Honour) (hors)E. Using “horseback” to clue E is a classic “lift and separate” clue. | ||
| 6 | REDEMPTION |
Meaningless short inspired by De Niro cast in Atonement (10)
|
| EMPT(y) (meaningless short) inside (inspired by) *DE NIRO. | ||
| 7 | AFIELD |
No point in football ground being at a distance (6)
|
| A(n)FIELD. | ||
| 13 | OVERTURES |
Public presses to ditch government proposals (10)
|
| OVERT (public) UR(g)ES. This is the first of the seven answers that are wrongly enumerated: each has to have a gap in the thirteenth row of the grid so this answer is 9, not 10, letters long. | ||
| 16 | STAINED |
Marked criminal instead (8)
|
| *INSTEAD. | ||
| 18 | CLEAR UP |
Explain trophy broken by king (8, 2 words)
|
| LEAR (king) in CUP. | ||
| 19 | IDIOTS |
One points, one’s taken in by fools (7)
|
| I (one) inside I DOTS. | ||
| 21 | CIVIL |
10015150? Be nice (6)
|
| C (100) I (I) V(5) I(I) L(50). Roman numerals, after a fashion. | ||
| 22 | FATAL |
Deadly force – Alekhine’s opening by chess champion (6)
|
| F(orce) A(lekhine) TAL (chess champion). Tal and Alekhine were both great chess champions, but from different eras. | ||
| 24 | ELF |
Mischievous being travelled out west in retirement (4)
|
| FLE(w). The parsing is perhaps a little obscure: “out” signifies that W(est) has to be removed from the word that is in retirement, i.e. has to be reversed. |
I took NE in FOURTEEN as an indication of North East rather than a pair of letters from Newcastle, as in “it’s Newcastle, it’s the North East”.
The discussion about how to enter the solution in the Guardian form comes up a lot with these types of crosswords. I just look on the extra stuff (blanked out cells, highlighting etc in this case) as just a means to confirm I’ve got the correct solution.
Thanks bridgesong and Qaos.
Beautiful!
The way it turned out, 13 were all across clues, except 8; and the 7 turned to be all down clues at the bottom half. Crossers at row 14, forced row 13 to be left blank.
Neat trick.
Visually, admired the blank tunnel via row 13, from PRISON to FREEDOM
The deadline is 3 February. This shouldn’t be blogged till next Sunday.
I’ve been eagerly awaiting this blog. Completed the puzzle a while ago, but apart from seeing FREEDOM and PRISON, I could not see the 19 cells that fit the theme. Also, missed the symbolism of the tunnel left along row 13. all clear now. Thankyou.
I liked the clues very much, and the two types of twist in some of them added some spice and fun to the solving process. I ended up with the words PRISON and FREEDOM visible in the border columns, which I guessed would be thematic, and a row of blank cells that appeared as a result of fitting seven answers in the grid in the only way possible (‘thematically’, according to the preamble). There was no further indication of the theme, and, like Viv from Oz, I did not see the relevant 19 cells. I therefore had no use for the phrase “rework the grid’s shading”.
Thanks to Qaos and bridgesong.
Agreed that this wasn’t the hardest Genius ever, though we can be added to the list of those who couldn’t spot the film, though of course Prison and Freedom jumped out.
Thanks for the blog.
As for how to enter the answers, I assume you can just enter solutions with the actual lettercount, and whoever checks the entries will work it out – I believe the Genius checking is not yet taken over by AI!
This was fun, thanks Q & B.
Most of the clues were straightforward although I struggled with Nicene and Thallium, not being of a scientific bent. I needed Prison to show me that l had entered “brow” instead of “prow”. It kind of works!
The 19 cells defeated me, but this is inevitably going to confuse with online submission.
Roll on the next one.
Firstly I am really impressed by the imagination and the gridfill here which was just delightful. Even with most of it solved I was still hunting round for something to do with Nelson Mandela, having seen “freedom” as part of the nina and was trying to fit “long walk to” in there somewhere. It’s interesting how the mind gets fixed on an idea and won’t let it go even when it’s clearly not working. Eventually the Stephen King novella jumped out (pity there was no way to get mention of Rita Hayworth into the clues!) and the meaning of the blank line. Was it really taxing? No. Was it an unfolding pleasure with a moment of delight when the last bit fell? Absolutely.
I vaguely recall that the editor once said the processing of online submissions (a) translated all letters to upper case, then (b) stripped out all punctuation and spaces. So it doesn’t actually matter how you decided to enter the answers, as long as the alphabetic characters were all there, and unlike Eric Morecambe’s music, necessarily in the right order.
I quite enjoyed this puzzle, apart from not seeing the Nina, due to thinking the omitted characters in PRISON and FREEDOM were part of it, but I suspect I’d have missed it anyway.
A very enjoyable Genius puzzle. We worked out the PRISON and FREEDOM and realised fairly early on that the extra letters all appeared in the same row. What we missed was the ‘entry’ and ‘exit’ to the tunnel. Thanks kenmac – well spotted.
Thanks Qaos – more like this please.
Thanks bridgesong for the detailed blog. We have only ever submitted entries on a handful of occassions so don’t suffer the problem of how to submit the answers.
Thanks bridgesong, I had the same thought about the Geordie couple and initial faux pas with BROW, overall found this extremely enjoyable and satisfying. I didn’t find it as easy as most above, and needed to do some research along the way but it all came together in the end (apart from the “theme” film – I did spend a long time trying to create an extra Nina from a meander through the non-crossing cells). Thanks Qaos.