A ‘centripetal’ jigsaw, with 20 clues in a mystery sequence, two unclued ‘kitchen items’, and a solitary square in the middle to be deduced as an ‘appropriate’ Roman numeral. Help! Stop the world, I want to get off…my head hurts… (NB. Apologies for the delay in posting this – I had it three-quarters complete last night but the site went down completely at around midnight, and after 15 minutes of pressing F5 I gave up and went to bed!)
We are told that:
“Of the 30 solutions, 14 are to be entered vertically and 14 horizontally. All these 28 solutions are to be entered centripetally. Solutions to clues 1-20 are in a sequence which, if specified, would give the game away. Solutions to the remaining eight (unnumbered) clues are to be entered wherever they will fit. The remaining two solutions are items regularly found in a kitchen and are not clued. Finally, the grid is to be completed by entering the appropriate Roman numeral in the centre. The numbers in the grid have no function in solving the puzzle and are there only for the purpose of filling in the entry form”
First step: A mental check on the difference between centripetal and centrifugal… ‘…fugal’ is heading outwards, so ‘…petal’ must be inwards.
Next step: Try and solve a few clues – you can’t do a jigsaw without the pieces!…The first few numbered clues I solved all gave numbers: SEVEN, TWENTY, ELEVEN, SIXTEEN…hmmm…this could be significant…but then I got SWANSEA and BARBADOS, etc. No obvious sequence jumped out at me to ‘give the game away’ either.
After a lot of vacant staring, and wheedling a few more answers out, I hit upon a bit of a revelation…there are four 6-letter entries, and four 8-lettered ones, and the fourth character of each 6-letter crossed the fourth character of an 8-letter. So, some focus on the sixes and eights ensued! The Bs of DOUBLE and BARBADOS seemed to fit, as did the Ns of TWENTY and EVENTIDE. So I just tried randomly putting them into a corner each (in pencil!), and then worked on extrapolating from these to see if anything clicked.
By now, I was at least a week into the month, and at some point I had a mad half hour where lots of pieces fell into place from these initial guesses, which in turn gave crossing letters and allowed more solutions to be worked out…and at some point I got TREBLE and VERBOTEN, and realised that TREBLE and DOUBLE needed to be swapped in their pairs.
So far, so good, but having filled most of the grid – and guessing at AGA and OXO for the kitchen-related items, I realised that I could probably rotate/invert my grid fill, with AGA and OXO in opposite places…so, I had managed to solve all the clues and possibly fill the grid – but I had:
- No definitive grid fill alignment,
- No idea what the mystery sequence or game were, and…
- No idea what the ‘appropriate’ Roman numeral should be in the middle!
After more vacant staring and attempts at lateral thinking for the sequence and ‘game’, I hit on DARTS – the answers all heading in towards the centre; the presence of lots of darts numbers; terms like DOUBLE and TREBLE; words like THREW and ARROW…and 20 clues possibly corresponding to the 20 numbers on a darts board…so I guessed at L (Roman numeral 50) for the bullseye in the centre.
But I am left with the feeling I have missed something obvious…and, even if I am on the right lines, which way round of the two options (or another I have missed!) is the correct completed grid?
I’m afraid that is all I can give you…hopefully someone will explain in the comments below what and where I have missed – thanks in advance!
(Update – several commenters have pointed out it was the numbers of the 20 clues, not their answers, which determined their grid position – and the 8 unnumbered are clues which don’t touch the outside of the grid/board. ‘Simples’, as the meerkats would say. ‘Doh!’…as your blogger says. Have updated the grid to show final denouement…)
Thanks also to Crucible – an enjoyable mental tussle…some tight clueing, a novel (and impenetrable!) theme/denouement…and 1-0 to the setter in this case… If I was nit-picking, I might quibble a bit with AGA/OXO (if I have these right!) – an AGA (stove) is a permanent ‘item’ found in the kitchen, but an OXO (stock cube) is more of an ephemeral ‘ingredient’?
(With hindsight, if it is darts, maybe it should have waited to Genius 180?! And maybe Crucible could also have had Genius 147 and done something snooker-related?!)
Lastly, a little off topic, but six months on from my last Genius blog, where I had a whinge about the state of the presentation and submission of the Genius puzzle on the Grauniad website, I see we are in the middle of an ‘upgrade’ of the whole crossword site, with lots of money and resource seemingly being spent by the G, but the poor relation Genius still has to be entered in a simple grid, can’t even be worked on online, and some of the Genius links still pop up pages that look to be from the site a couple of upgrades ago! Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose!…
| NUMBERED CLUES | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Definition (with occasional embellishments) | Clue / Logic/Parsing |
|
| 1 | SHARPEN | Polish | Silence Arab writer in Polish (7) / SH (silence!) + AR (Arab) + PEN (writer) |
|
| 2 | BARBADOS | island | Ban incompetent map-makers in island (8) / BAR (ban) + BAD (incompetent) + OS (Ordnance Survey, UK map-makers) |
|
| 3 | SEVEN | cardinal (number) | Cardinal participates in mass, eventually (5) / hidden word (i.e. participates in) in ‘mas’S EVENtually’ |
|
| 4 | TRAVERSE | cross | Cross and tense, about to travel round States (8) / T (tense) + R_E (about), ‘travelling’ round AVERS (states) |
|
| 5 | OFFERED | put up for sale | Tablet in pink envelope put up for sale? (7) / OFF RED (pink) around (enveloped by) E (tablet, Ecstasy) |
|
| 6 | PHASE | stage | Stage is furnished with exterior gym (5) / P_E (gym lesson) around HAS (is furnished with) |
|
| 7 | TWENTY | score | Left in Tchaikovsky’s first and last score (6) / T_Y (Tchaikovsky’s first and last) around WENT (left) |
|
| 8 | CROYDON | London borough | Call over old teacher in London borough (7) / CR_Y (call) around O (old), plus DON (teacher) |
|
| 9 | DOUBLE | spit(ting image of) | The same blue comic makes you spit (6) / DO (ditto, the same) + UBLE (anag, i.e. comic. Of BLUE) |
|
| 10 | HUNDRED | former division (of a county) | Old German’s fear when losing a former division (7) / HUN (old German) + DRE(A)D (fear, losing A) |
|
| 11 | AGONY | suffering | Try to stop some suffering (5) / A_NY (some) around (stopped by) GO (try) |
|
| 12 | VERBOTEN | under a bar | Bent over, dancing under a bar (8) / anag, i.e. dancing, of BENT OVER |
|
| 13 | SWANSEA | port | Port’s twice as new when drunk (7) / anag, i.e. when drunk, of AS + AS (twice as) + NEW |
|
| 14 | SIXTEEN | square (of four!) | It’s spotted outside crossing Times Square (7) / S_EEN (spotted) around I_T, itself around (crossing) X (Times) |
|
| 15 | TREBLE | singer | On way back, king of Kent ignores the singer (6) / E(THE)LBERT – king of Kent, ignoring THE – all on the way back |
|
| 16 | EVENTIDE | end of day | Still level, say, at end of day (8) / EVEN (still) TIDE (homophone of TIED, level) |
|
| 17 | ADHERED | clung on | A big supporter bagging this spot clung on (7) / A + D_D (double D, large bra, or big suppporter!) around (bagging) HERE (this spot) |
|
| 18 | ELEVEN | team | Team doctor vehemently dismissing myth (6) / anag, i.e. doctor, of VE(H)E(M)EN(T)L(Y), minus (dispmissing) the letters of MYTH |
|
| 19 | TRAITOR | (Anthony) Blunt, (notorious spy) | Blunt character soldiers follow? (7) / TRAIT (character) + OR (Other Ranks, soldiers) |
|
| 20 | THREW | cast | Cast runs into the wings at the start (5) / TH_E + W (start of Wings), around R (runs) |
|
| UNNUMBERED CLUES | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Definition (with occasional embellishments) | Clue / Logic/Parsing |
|
| x. | TWELFTH | last of dozen | Last of dozen dashed over between times to hospital (7) / T_T (times) around WELF (flew, or dashed, over), plus H (hospital) |
|
| x. | ALLAH | object of veneration | Object of veneration in a large building facing west (5) / A + LLAH (hall, or large building, facing west) |
|
| x. | LOWER | cow, perhaps | Lead off best cow perhaps (5) / (F)LOWER – best of, without leading letter |
|
| x. | TWADDLE | moonshine | How teal move behind their leader in moonshine (7) / T (leader, first letter, of Their) + WADDLE (how ducks – teal – move) |
|
| x. | TOOTING | in the Wandsworth area | Related couple can start to garden in the Wandsworth area (7) / TOO (homophone, i.e. related, of TWO, couple) + TIN (can) + G (start to Garden) |
|
| x. | ARROW | (something) that starts from a bow | A royal procession that starts from Bow (5) / A + R (royal) + ROW (procession) |
|
| x. | THROUGH | finished | Finished difficult part of course, drained of energy (7) / TH(E) ROUGH – part of a golf course, without E – energy) |
|
| x. | LEVER | prize (more usually prise? Force out or open) | Show up without a prize (5) / L(A)EVER – reveal, or show, turnd upside down and without A |
|
I thought it had taken a long time for the Darts penny to drop for us – and I salute your persistence in being able to solve the answers without seeing the significance of the sequence.
Which is that the numbered clues are entered according to their position on the dartboard. Thus clue #3 on the grid is the home for #20 in the sequence (‘tops’ on the dartboard), and going round clockwise, we have 1 (#4 on the grid), 18 (#5 on the grid), 4 (entered backwards, #10 on the grid) etc.
But thanks for the parsing of TRAVERSE which I hadn’t got.
.. oh, and congratulations on the animated grid with ‘alternative’ answers. Most impressive!
Thanks for the blog. I also spent a long time not knowing where this was going, but thankfully Crucible gave us a lot of darts-related answers that pointed the way. It was actually the sequence that finally gave it away – when I was able to see that clue 20 had the right number of letters for the “top” position, clue 1 for the next, all the way round to clue 5. All in all this was a perfect Genius for me, difficult but do-able, and very satisfying to complete.
I think the use of “regularly” in the preamble helped indicate that the kitchen items were palindromes.
.. and thanks mc_rapper67 for telling me that the setter was Crucible. I can’t see that anywhere on the site. The setter is listed for old Geniuses, but not the current one.
Thanks for the feedback and comments from Mr Beaver and DuncT…obvious when I look at it now…it was the clue NUMBER that gave the position, as per the darts board, not the answer…which means I got the game and the middle letter right, but unfortunately I submitted it as the opposite/upside down configuration, so no chance of a prize for me this month!…
Mr Beaver – the animated grids are all down to the expertise and guidance of fellow blogger kenmac, who taught me all I know!
DuncT – the current Genius setter’s name is given if you click on the Genius link at the top of the OLD format site, but then disappears when you click on to the ‘temporary’ Genius page. (Must check my Chambers for the definition of ‘temporary'(;+>). It has obviously been lost on the new site. Which is a shame for the setter – they should get credit for all that hard work – and for any solvers who like to know who their tormentor is…
Thanks mc for the name check 😉
This for me was one of the easiest geniuses I have ever attempted – done and dusted in three days. I guessed darts right from the start and, after a brief discussion with my daughter, the order of entries became obvious.
I guess one man’s meat is another man’s poison.
Like kenmac @6, I guessed darts as soon as I saw the grid. It was the reference in the instructions to a ‘game’ and the sole square in the middle. Then I noticed the 20 numbered clues touched the edges and the rest did not; that confirmed my suspicions.
However, unlike him, I struggled to finish this quickly and must have spent 6 or 7 sessions of an hour each over three weeks. I’m not sure why I needed that, in hindsight.
I could not put any answers in even after getting the first three or four clues, as being from Stockport [although now a resident of Connecticut] I secretly hoped for a ‘proper’ logend Manchester dartboard layout.
See http://www.darts501.com/Manchester.html
However once I got the answer TREBLE, that dashed my hopes, for obvious reasons if you are familiar with the board, but which the article strangely does not mention, although the image confirms.
Another interesting fact is that my mum used to keep packets of OMO in the kitchen as that is where the washer was situated. I should imagine that was far more regularly found in kitchens than the presence of AGAs! I wonder if anyone submitted that, instead of OXO, and whether it would be accepted.
Another useless fact is that here in the USA OXO is unknown as a gravy enhancer cube, but is a very common maker of good quality kitchen utensils.
I did not know before doing this crossword that AR was an abbreviation for Arab. In what context is it ever used?
Very enjoyable: so thanks to Crucible [with whom I remain disappointed at his choice of using a ‘southern softy’ dartboard, and for failing to have ‘OCHE’ as a solution – I would love to see a clue for this!]
Also thanks to mc_rapper67 for an interesting double grid.
It looked like a dartboard before I’d started but I was trying to visualise an actual match maybe in Swansea (or Barbados?)
Great puzzle and blog
Re. Gordon @ comment 7 – I’d never heard of a ‘logend’ dartboard, so that was educational! The annotated solution confirms it was OXO, but I guess OMO could be equally valid. Whenever I hear or see the word OMO, I think of the Ian Dury song ‘This is what we find’…
Chambers has ‘Ar’ as an abbreviation for ‘Arab’, ‘Arabia/n’, ‘Arabic’ and ‘Aramaic’ – actual usage hard to track down!
Copmus @ 8 – given the hypothetical choice, I think I’d rather be playing darts in Barbados than Swansea!
Lastly, for anyone who can’t track it down, this month’s Genius is set by ‘Jack’ – go to the ‘old/classic(!)’ website view and click on the headline Genius link, rather than the left-hand panel link…valid until they close the old view, I guess!…
Hi mc_rapper67 @ 9
Glad to be of help to your education!
An answer to one of the clues reminded me of several great memories of watching darts. The answer TWADDLE made me think of the incomparable much mourned Sid Waddell, he of many great quotes, including.
(1) “Jockey Wilson . . . What an athlete!”
(2) “You’ve got to be fit to play this game”
Poor old Sid
I thought of darts early on but dismissed it after getting Barbados. It was a long time before I reconsidered it and spotted the entry method.
A final challenge was how to enter the answers. For example, should I enter TRAVERSE or ESREVART for 10A? I went for ESREVART, I hope that I didn’t miss out due to getting that wrong. In general with the Genius, I wonder whether to enter a space in two word answers and whether to use upper case or not.
I cannot find the winners in the new site layout and I have not seen statistics on the number of winners for a long time.
One context in which ar is Arabic is ISO country codes as in used in various places in computing (e.g. locales): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_639-1_codes
‘bad john’ at comment 11: thanks for the explanation on ‘Ar’ for Arabic ISO country codes.
This site doesn’t have anything to do with the Grauniad site, and I am just as frustrated as you at not being able to find winners’ names or to submit the puzzle in a neater way. They do have contact details on their site, so why not submit some feedback there. The more enquiries they get, the more chance they might do something about it…