Guardian. Genius. Araucaria. What more to say?!…
(I have to admit my heart skipped a beat when I saw my turn on the Genius rota was an Araucaria. After 20+ years of solving the Guardian crossword, and attempting/completing countless Araucarias in that time, and after 3 years of blogging various puzzles on 15×15, I finally have the honour of blogging one of the Reverend’s puzzles. I hope I can do it justice, and I would just like to place on record my gratitude for all those years of challenging and entertaining puzzles…and the anticipation of a few more challenges yet…)
The preamble tells us that 8-letter across solutions are of a kind and are not traditional cryptic clues – they consist of a series of definitions to change the first half to the second half, one letter at a time – e.g. CONF/LICT could be clued ‘Bollard/ on its own/ railway/ vermin: CONF/CONE/LONE/LINE/LICE/LICT.
So, where to start – maybe with some of the ‘regular’ cryptics among the downs? But after 15 minutes of head-scratching I only had STABLEST at 6D. A bit more endeavour led to the non-thematic 15A, plus some more downs – 17D, 8D and 5D. So I then decided to give the thematics a try – and immediately went off on the wrong track with 1A:
Destiny (FATE)/ opening (GATE)/ actor (erm…) /grind to an ignominious halt! Put it down and walk away for a while…
The next day, I had a bit more luck, and a potential breakthrough – 12A seemed to lead to ROSE/LOSE/LONE/LINE and ROSALIND – with some helpful crossng letters. Similarly 18A looked like ????/PANE/PINE/DINE/DICE – and might be BENEDICT? At this point I had a vague memory nagging in my mind of a thematic puzzle with Shakespearean characters – including ROSALIND and BENEDICK (not Benedict!). I’m not sure if that was an Araucaria as well, or someone else – I’m sure some better memories than mine will comment below…
Resisting the temptation to resort to Goog-ipedia so early, I battled on and gradually found a few more thematics – CORDELIA, NOBLEMAN (presumably a generic character?) and CORNWALL. So the Shakespearean connection looked correct. And I also gradually worked through some more of the conventional down clues. 1D with ‘player’ for the i+POD of ISOPOD was lovely. 5D with its two-letter alliteration took a while, but seemed so clever and obvious once I had it. DIVER+GENT at 14D raised a wry smile.
However, I did end up looking through lists of Shakespearean characters to get the last few – and last in of all was 20D – IN BLUE – which I had the components for, but couldn’t justify the order from the clue – if it had read something like: ‘At home, spend money – like police’ it might have been more logical?
Anyway – this needed (for me) a large proportion of the month available to complete – very much a pick-up-and-put-down affair over a number of days. And it was a challenging and ultimately rewarding puzzle, with an interesting thematic device, which I can’t say I have seen before – certainly not to this extent.
(NB. There may well be some mistakes below, but there is one ‘step’ I can’t quite explain – 10A has ‘chapel’ which looks like it should be ELIM, to then make ELIA, but I can’t make the connection with ‘chapel’ – I can only find it as a biblical location… I’m also not quite sure about ISIS as an ‘attendant to a queen’ in 24A.
Thanks to Eileen in the comments below for backing up ELIM as a chapel, and also for explaining it is ISAS/IRAS/IRIS in 24A. Duly updated.)
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Entry | Definition | Clue / Logic/Parsing |
| 1A | DIOM/EDES | thematic (Troilus & Cressida) | Destiny/ opening/ actor/, colourist/ does his stuff/ to detectives (8) / DOOM/DOOR/DOER/DYER/DYES/EYES |
| 9A | TITI/NIUS | thematic (Julius Caesar) | Mice/ vermin (8) / TITS/NITS |
| 10A | CORD/ELIA | thematic (King Lear) | Message/: gem /alleged/ moved smoothly/, narrow/ chapel (8) / CARD/SARD/SAID/SLID/SLIM/?ELIM? |
| 11A | NOBL/EMAN | thematic (various/generic) | Head/ ring/, Jethro/, Oxford street/ – convert/ master/ Scotsman (8) / NOLL/TOLL/TULL/TURL/TURN/TUAN/EUAN |
| 12A | ROSA/LIND | thematic (As You Like It) | Flower/ do without/ single/ row (8) / ROSE/LOSE/LONE/LINE |
| 13A | STEP/HANO | thematic (Merchant of Venice/Tempest) | Percolate/ progeny/: attend to/ flock/, difficult/ worker (8) / SEEP/SEED/HEED/HERD/HARD/HAND |
| 15A | GET IT ABOUT RIGHT | be fairly accurate | Philanthropist said to mark without qualifications and be fairly accurate (3,2,5,5) / GET I (homophone, i.e. said, of GETTY – philanthropist) + TAB (to mark) + OUTRIGHT (without qualifications) |
| 18A | BENE/DICK | thematic (Much Ado About Nothing) | Poison/ glass/ tree/, feed/ cubes (8) / BANE/PANE/PINE/DINE/DICE |
| 21A | SALA/RINO | thematic (Merchant of Venice) | Auction/ sensible/ way/, add backing to/ stuff on floor (8) / SALE/SANE/LANE/LINE/LINO |
| 23A | MARG/ARET | thematic (Henry VI pts 1, 2 & 3, plus Much Ado About Nothing) | Place to sell/ whisky/ – make liquid/ conform with/ measures/ – worry (8) / MART/MALT/MELT/MEET/FEET/FRET |
| 24A | ISAB/ELLA | thematic (Measure For Measure) | Savers/ attendant on queen/ – flag/ Discord/, Greek region/ essayist (8) / ISAS/IRAS/IRIS/ERIS/ELIS/ELIA |
| 25A | CORN/WALL | thematic (King Lear) | Heart/, mind/: peasant/ cry (8) / CORE/CARE/CARL/CALL |
| 26A | LYSA/NDER | thematic (Midsummer Night’s Dream) | Stars/ batsman/, fat/ ointment/, anorak/ requirement/ at no time (8) / LYRA/LARA/LARD/NARD/NERD/NEED/NEER |
| Down | |||
| Clue No | Entry | Definition (with occasional embellishments) | Clue / Logic/Parsing |
| 2D | ISOPOD | woodlouse | Player circulating like this woodlouse (6) / IPOD (player) around (circulating) SO (like this) |
| 3D | MEDIA | double defn. | Communications with the old country (5) / Media (with capital) = ancient Indo-European kingdon; without capital = communications |
| 4D | DULCIE | girl (‘s name) | Include odd nameless girl (6) / anag (i.e. odd) of I(N)CLUDE without N – name |
| 5D | STAND STOCK STILL | freeze | Freeze things kept between stall and checkout (5,5,5) / STAND (stall) and TILL (checkout) around STOCKS (things kept) |
| 6D | STABLEST | the most reliable | The most reliable use dagger in case (8) / STAB (use dagger) + LEST (in case) |
| 7D | ANGEL HAIR | Italian food (very thin pasta) | Italian food is the rage, including frozen items left in the wrong place (5,4) / ANGER (rage) around (including) L HAI (HAIL, or frozen items, with L – left – in wrong place) |
| 8D | SUSANNAH | another girl | Girl that’s into Japanese food I leave for another girl (8) / SUSH(I) (Japanese food with I leaving) around ANNA (a girl) |
| 14D | DIVERGENT | odd | Odd bod taking the plunge? (9) / A ‘bod’ taking a ‘plunge’ could be a DIVER GENT |
| 16D | ELEVATOR | I raise | I raise tax – under a quarter in the part that’s coming up (8) / ELOR (ROLE, or part, coming up) around E (quarter, East) + VAT (tax) |
| 17D | APIARIAN | with a buzz (related to bees) | A song in a number with a buzz? (8) / A + PIN (number) around ARIA (song) |
| 19D | ALWAYS | for good | Leaders to Rome expressly for good (6) / &lit-ish homophone – ALWAYS sounds like ALL WAYS, as in ‘All roads (ways) lead to Rome’ |
| 20D | IN BLUE | like police (in the UK at least, the ‘Boys in Blue’) | Spend money at home like police (2,4) / IN (at home) + BLUE (spend, or squander, money) |
| 22D | RHEIN | &lit-ish/German river | River – is it French and German? (5) / R (river) + HEIN (French interjection, eh?, what?, is it?) = German spelling of Rhine |
Thanks for the blog mc_rapper67.
For a fair while I found this quite a frustrating puzzle. Of the downs I had DULCIE, STABLEST and SUSANNAH fairly quickly but, although I had all the steps for 3 of the across clues (13a, 21a and 26a), I just couldn’t work out what the eventual answers were and so make any headway with the theme. I confess to getting a little huffy at that point. My other half eventually came up with LYSANDER for 26a which got us going. In the end we solved most of them from the clues (quite pleased with DIOMEDES which we didn’t know) but did have to resort to lists for 9a, 13a and 21a.
Like you we had ELIM without really being sure of it.
We liked ISOPOD, DIVERGENT and ALWAYS best. I think I enjoyed it – although that could just have been relief at finishing.
My apologies, I meant to thank Araucaria too.
Thanks for the super blog, mc_rapper67. I’m sure you think your first Araucaria blog was worth waiting for!
I don’t always do the Genius puzzles but the name on this one was very inviting and A’s themes are usually up my street, as this one proved to be.
The trouble with the Genius is that there’s a lot of time to forget how one got there! I’d made a bit of a start and then a 15² friend came to visit and it turned into a most enjoyable joint effort. Last one in, I think, was NOBLEMAN!
No problem with ELIM = chapel: if you google Elim Chapel you’ll find lots of examples.
We were temporarily beguiled by ISIS, too, but the second step in 24ac is IRAS, attendant to Queen Cleopatra.
Huge thanks, as ever, to Araucaria for a lot of fun.
Thanks mc_rapper!
When I started this puzzle I quickly solved 18A as “Benedict”, and spent the next few hours trying to work out the names of various eight-letter popes …
I seem to have forgotten about this over the month and not finished. I do clearly recall though, based on the accrosses I had solved (ROSALIND, MARGARET, ISABELLA, possibly others) thinking that the theme was girls names… perhaps I saved a lot of barking up the wrong tree!
Very interesting idea and enjoyed what I did do.
Thanks.
Thanks to all for the feedback – and Eileen for explaining ‘IRAS’.
Trebor at #6 – this must be the puzzle with the longest period between publication and blog – and, as a last-minuter in almost everything I do, it was quite hard to remember every step along the way. Equally, I admire those who turn out the daily blogs – to solve, write up and post by mid-morning/mid-day is quite an achievement…
Great crossword with some nicely misleading threads, including the fate, gate, then what ?
Very satisfying to finish it eventually. Thanks for the blog.
2D and 20D were my highlights.
I also finished this fairly quickly for me, but unlike the rest of you I really did not enjoy this. It was not the theme, which was interesting, but I found little pleasure in the step-by-step approach from first half to second half of the across lights.
I now have to say that, unlike, most other commentators, I do not look forward to an Araucaria [does anyone here recall the tedious ‘Printers Devilry from about 9 months ago.]
Praising Araucaria reminds me of how ice skating used to be judged. The marks were regularly given not so much for the actual performance delivered, but on the stature of the skaters and how good they used to be.
I have done Guardian crosswords for 45 years and Araucaria, along with Bunthorne, were always my favourites. Nowadays I can think of many others who give me more enjoyment, Tramp and Paul to name just two.
I would rather do a puzzle where the cluing is great, and maybe a twist on the answer before putting it in the grid, not a puzzle where the crossword grid is simply a means to put in words that are derived from non-crossword clues, as Araucaria has now done twice in his last three Geniuses.
However, I am obviously in a minority, but if you have a library with old copies of the Guardian on file take any Christmas or Easter puzzle from around 1980, copy the crossword, and see what the master was like in those days.
Our progress seems to have mirrored others – SUSANNAH was in early on, the first thematic solution was a confident BENEDICT, then a tentative ISABELLA and a shaky SALADINO ! Where on earth was this leading ?
In desperation, resorting to Chamber’s Word Wizard didn’t help – some of the across clues clearly had no possible solutions ! (This was a clever stroke by the setter – if the theme had yielded words rather than proper names – and obscure ones at that – then this dumb approach would have been unsportingly successful).
I think CORDELIA was where the penny finally dropped – but it was still far from straightforward.
In contract to Gordon, I quite like these variations on the normal cryptic pattern. The daily cryptics provide a wide range of style and difficulty, and I think the Genius is the right place for something more unorthodox.
Gordon (#8) you’ve summed up my thoughts exactly. Apart from the theme – I didn’t much care for that. I’m pretty sure there have quite recently been at least one other Genius and/or Prize puzzle (almost certainly by Araucaria) based around Shakespearean characters. Maybe they just stick in my head because I’ve read so little of the Bard and resort to Wikipedia’s A-Z list…