Guardian Genius 149, Jack

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Hello all,

This one took me a few sittings, as should be the case. Enjoyable. As ever, I’m amazed by the grid constructions for puzzles like this.

I found myself singing the bridge to this song throughout the solve (from 1:30 onwards). Still, it could have been worse

The special instructions: “The solution to 1 across is normal. All the other across solutions must be modified as per 1 across before entry in the grid. These entries are not real words. Both the word play in these clues and their letter counts relate to the required entries. All the down solutions are normal.”

I confess to seeking help online with 24 across.#

Who is this Jack, by the way? Have we seen him / her before? Many thanks for a fine puzzle.

PS – apologies for the weird formatting below. Genius puzzles don’t work with the usual tools, and I can’t seem to get the spacing right after a couple of attempts.

Across

1 What you must do to make former partner go? Quite the opposite! (5,2,3)

LEAVE IT OUT

The ‘open sesame’ clue, and not certain that I understand it properly. To make “exit” (go) into “ex” (former partner) then you “leave ‘it’ out”. So far so good. But where’s the definition?

6 Take no part in guide to strip clubs (4)

SOUT (sit out)

SCOUT (guide) without C (to strip clubs)

BTEREND (bitter end)

T in an anagram (drunken) of BENDER

 

IMATION (imitation)
Animation (life) without A N(ew) at the beginning.
TIDBS (tidbits)
Anagram (circulated) of TABLOIDS, without the initial letters of Any, Legal, Objections.
WHEVANMAN (white van man)
VA (case of vodka) in WHEN (while), then MAN (husband)
Here we go – multi-word answers, and no way to know how many we’re looking for. Tough one for non-uk solvers as well, I imagine.
As an aside, I generally find white vans to be very well driven.
REERANT (reiterant)
Def = repeating. RANT (tedious speech), around E’ER (always)
WTINGLY (wittingly)
W (wife)  TINGLY (experiencing thrilling feeling). What a great surface.
PETFOUR (petit four)
O (middle of floor) covered in PET FUR. Is dog = pet a def by example? Doesn’t matter – just spotted the question mark!
INSPEOF (in spite of)
IF (uncertainty) around NS (partners) PE (games) O (love). Another cracking surface.
INGOODFAH (in good faith)
IN (popular) GOOD (kind) oFmAtHs (cutting the odds).
ERREA (Eritrea)
ERR (fall) hEAd (ignoring the boundaries. Completely thrown by this lift-and-separate clue.
TRADION (tradition)
ION (something charged) on TRADe (incomplete transactions). Once again, nice surface.
VRIOLIC (vitriolic)
Anagram (surprisingly) of CIVIL OR
RESS (resits)
Def = attempts to get better. PRESS (crowd) with P (quietly) melting away.
PUARY GLAND (pituitary gland)
Anag (winding) of UP ANGY LAD. A nice sting in the tail, with a double omission.
DOWN
1 Delicacy shown by family member taking a step back in the first place (7)
LOBSTER
MOBSTER (family member) taking a step back (from M to L)
AMENDMENT
MEN MEN (workforce repeatedly) around (accepting) D (board’s conclusion) within (stops) AT
EVENS
Double def, in the betting and numerical senses
TIDEWATER
Cryptic definition. Or is there more going on here?
URINE
(John = toilet). sounds like (hearing) “You’re in” (solver is at home).
ODIUM
pODIUM (political leader taken from platform)
TENANCY
ThE NANCY (French town).
SALARIES
Anag (reviewed) of RISE, then ALAS, all upside down (overturned). Another superb surface.
APOLOGIA
A A (articles) around POLO (jersey) GI (soldier).
WHICHEVER
sEVERs  after WHICH (source of consumer advice). Probably tricky for any overseas solvers.
GUERRILLA
Something of a chestnut this one. Change one of the R’s to L, then jumble.
PRINTER
sPRINTER (runner without the first letter, or s (second)).
FLACCID
Reversal (holding up) of DICk (detective missing end) CALF (part of leg)
GRASS
Double def.
FONDU
FOUND (to start) with U going to fifth poition. Another elegant surface.
EYING
Hidden answer.

12 comments on “Guardian Genius 149, Jack”

  1. Thanks Matt. I thought 4d was TIDE (current) + WATER (supply from the mains), with “Result of periodic fluctuations” as the definition, but it’s pretty weak if so.

  2. I found this an odd combination of really very good clues, FONDU and, despite hating lift and separate clues, ERREA, and some remarkably weak ones, TIDEWATER and LEAVE IT OUT.

    Satisfying to finish it, eventually. Thanks Matt and Jack.

  3. Thanks Matt and Jack. I parsed 4dn in the same way as Andrew, but none of its elements is well defined. Other than that I thought this was very good. The lack of definition for 1ac didn’t bother me, as we knew it had to be some sort of instruction that would fit the preamble.

  4. Sloggers & Betters attendees may know Jack as his clue-writing forum pseudonym Eghjam – or simply by his real name, Jason.
    This is his Genius debut.

  7. He’s done puzzles under Skipjack which he shortened here-and some rather difficult barred ones under the name Serpent.
    I thought this was excellent.

  9. Many thanks Matt for the excellent blog (delighted you liked the surface readings) and for the other kind comments about my Genius debut. Just to clear up a couple of queries…

    27a – the definition is ‘Attempts to get better result’; ‘in’ is a link to the wordplay.
    4d – this was intended to be a cryptic definition (as Matt said), with ‘current’, ‘supply’ and ‘mains’ intended to evoke thoughts of electricity supply in the surface reading; ‘mains’ was intended to be read as ‘seas’ in the cryptic reading.

    Cheers

    Jason (Serpent/Jack)

  10. I really enjoyed this.

    1A was gettable so I soon had the conceit. However this took me several sittings as ever. (I must remember to write comments as I go along as it’s difficult to remember what I though 2 weeks ago.)

    Main point of post is to decry the awful lay out of the “You can print a version here” for Puzzle 150.

    I have mocked up a printable version which can be loaded here if anyone is interested. (It’s a Word doc.)

    I haven’t checked it for accuracy yet though.I will update it if I find errors.

  11. Thanks Matt – I was just about to throw the completed crossword out when I noticed s box around 1d which means we couldn’t parse it. Thanks for the explanation.

    Thanks also to Jack and congratulations to Jack on your Genius debut!

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