The preamble for this Genius puzzle was fairly short and told us…
that each of the 26 solutions begins with a different letter, which is ignored in its clue. The clue order is random. The solutions should be fitted in the grid jigsaw-wise, wherever they will go.
Inevitably in a puzzle like this there has to be quite a bit of cold solving before any entries can be made in the grid. Among the early cold solving I got HYDROGEN CYANIDE, NAPALM and STORYBOARD and that combination gave me the start of the jigsaw.
From then on it was a fairly steady solve through to the end.
I didn’t think any of the clues were particularly difficult as they had clear wordplay. Once or twice though when writing the blog I wondered where the first letter had gone before I remembered what the puzzle was all about.
My last one in was XENOPS
The clues I enjoyed most were those for QUAINT for the surface, and BEETHOVEN’S FIFTH
The filled grid is shown immediately below with the detailed blog further below.
| Clue | Letter | Wordplay | Entry |
|
Curiously attractive you are not! (6)
|
Q
|
U (you in textspeak) + AIN’T (are not)
|
QUAINT (pleasantly odd; curiously attractive)
|
|
Jelly in a tree (6)
|
N
|
A + PALM (tree)
|
NAPALM (a petroleum jelly, highly inflammable, used in bombs and flame-throwers)
|
|
Poisoner denying decay, or rotten (8,7)
|
H
|
Anagram of (rotten) DENYING DECAY OR YDROGEN CYANIDE |
HYDROGEN CYANIDE (toxic gas; poisoner)
|
|
Warmer blue surrounds island capital (8)
|
A
|
SUN (warmer) + (CON [Conservative; blue is the colour associated with the Conservative Party] containing [surrounds] I [island]) SUN C (I) ON |
ASUNCIÓN (capital city of Paraguay)
|
|
Latin bird opens crackers (6)
|
X
|
Anagram of (crackers) OPENS ENOPS* |
XENOPS (name for a genus in the bird family Furnariidae,. Also known as the ovenbirds, they are found in Mexico, Central and Southern America [Latin]))
|
|
Charge round platform in the sea, wet (8)
|
I
|
RATE (price; charge) containing (round) RIG (reference OIL RIG, platform in the sea) R (RIG) ATE |
IRRIGATE (wet or moisten)
|
|
More like a lemon? Tree is a lemon! (7)
|
Z
|
Anagram of (a lemon) TREE IS ESTIER* |
ZESTIER (more like a lemon)
|
|
Old symbol rising, phenomenal figure (6)
|
G
|
O (old) + (LOGO [small design used as the symbol of an organization] reversed [rising; down clue]) O OGOL< |
GOOGOL (1 followed by one hundred zeroes; phenomenal figure)
|
|
Mammoth, mad as a box of frogs? (8)
|
W
|
HOPPING (reference HOPPING MAD; frogs hop)
|
WHOPPING (very large: mammoth)
|
|
Describe L (6)
|
R
|
EL (the letter l) + –ATE (suffix having the characteristics of) I can’t find ELATE with the required definition in any dictionary, but this is all I can think of given that RELATE can be defined as ‘describe’
|
RELATE (describe)
|
|
Right person to accommodate a request, primarily for screenwriter’s plan (10) |
S
|
(TORY [one whose politics are to the right of centre] + BOD (person]) containing (to accommodate) (A + R [first letter of {primarily}]) TORY BO (A R) D |
STORYBOARD (a board on which is mounted a series of rough sketches showing the sequence of film images to be used in an advertisement, cinema film, television programme, etc; screenwriter’s plan)
|
|
Distribution of a trend I measure from an axis (8)
|
O
|
Anagram of (distribution of) A TREND I RDINATE* |
ORDINATE (y-co-ordinate in analytical geometry)
|
|
Book left on top of urn in ‘ouse (6)
|
V
|
(L [left] + U [first letter of {top of} URN]) contained in (in) ‘OME (‘ouse’) O (L U) ME |
VOLUME (book)
|
|
Nothing serene in a storm is anticipated (8)
|
F
|
O [nothing] + an anagram of (in a storm) SERENE O RESEEN* |
FORESEEN (anticipated)
|
|
Cancel two British newspapers (4)
|
L
|
I (British Newspaper published by the owners of the Independent)) + FT (Financial Times [British Newspaper])
|
LIFT (revoke; cancel)
|
|
Jade elected, the mark of an election (4)
|
M
|
IN (elected) + X (the mark made when casting a vote at an election)
|
MINX (JADE can be defined as a perverse or ill-natured woman, as can MINX [disreputable woman])
|
|
Sorry time underneath it in river, capsized (8)
|
P
|
(IT contained in [in] (NENE [river in England] reversed [capsized; down clue]) + T (time) EN (IT) EN< T |
PENITENT (sorry)
|
|
I’m surprised partners working for US president (7)
|
J
|
OH (expression of surprise) + NS (North and South, partners when playing bridge) + ON (working)
|
JOHNSON (reference Lyndon Baines JOHNSON, President of the United States [1963 – 1969])
|
|
Discharge from duty (8)
|
E
|
MISSION (duty)
|
EMISSION (discharge)
|
|
Emergent, the first sinner being a bounder (10)
|
D
|
EVE (reference EVE in the Garden of Eden; first sinner) + LOPING (bounding; being a bounder)
|
DEVELOPING (emergent)
|
|
Agricultural worker last to cultivate land (6)
|
Y
|
E (final letter of [last to] CULTIVATE) + OMAN (country; land)
|
YEOMAN (after the 15th century, a member of a class of small farmers; agricultural worker)
|
|
Something smelly ending in a meadow, soft in the grass (6)
|
C
|
(W [final letter of {ending in a} MEADOW] + P [piano; soft]) contained in (in) OAT (example of a grass) O (W P) AT |
COWPAT (an example of something smelly)
|
|
Wild duck stuffed with heads of chickens is vile (7)
|
U
|
NIL (zero; duck score in cricket) containing (stuffed with) (CIV [first letters of each of CHICKENS IS and VILE) N (CIV) IL |
UNCIVIL (discourteous; boorish; vile)
|
|
Misspelling off, the seventh I being H in work? (10,5)
|
B
|
Anagram of (misspelling) OFF THE SEVENTH I EETHOVEN’S FIFTH* |
BEETHOVEN’S FIFTH (musical work and H is the FIFTH letter of BEETHOVEN)
|
|
Becoming grossly extravagant, leader dismissed (8)
|
T
|
WASTEFUL (grossly extravagant) excluding (dismissed) the first letter (leader) W
|
TASTEFUL (stylish; becoming)
|
|
Obstruction has been removed for walking encyclopaedia (4-3)
|
K
|
NO WALL (the WALL [obstruction] is NO longer there [has been removed])
|
KNOW-ALL (someone who thinks they KNOW everything; walking encyclopaedia)
|
Thanks for the blog, Duncan. I think L in the clue for RELATE is a cross-reference to LIFT, which is a synonym for ELATE.
bridgesong @ 1
Thanks – that’s a far better parsing than my effort
Thanks for the blog Duncan. I enjoyed this a lot. Shame that the “temporary” form for submitting entries really doesn’t work for jigsaw puzzles.
Thanks Duncan. Your four early answers were the same as mine, but I didn’t find fitting them in the jigsaw as easy as you did – a lot of rubbing out was involved! It would have helped if “Beethoven’s Fifth” hadn’t been my last one in; a lovely clue when I’d finally solved it.
All in all I really enjoyed this puzzle and felt a great sense of achievement when I’d finally completed it, even though it had taken me almost three weeks; there were so many excellent clues, but I think “cowpat” has to be my favourite! Thank you so much for a very pleasurable exercise, Paul.
Thanks for the comprehensive blog. We found this fairly hard – as usual some answers went in more easily than others, but when you don’t know where the harder stragglers go, you haven’t got the help of crossing letters. Got there in the end though.
My favourite was WHOPPING – one of those that seem entirely opaque, until suddenly the penny drops when you wonder why it wasn’t obvious ! A beautiful clue.
I had great fun with this one; many thanks Paul & to Duncan for the comprehensive blog. A very inventive puzzle that provided great satisfaction as the pennies dropped one by one. LOI was Asuncion.