I had been on tenterhooks since the Magpie get-together in January, where KGB informed me he had the April Genius slot, and I started having traumatic flashbacks to his previous one (Genius 265, the ‘redaction puzzle‘)…
The preamble states that:
“Both sets of clues are in normal order. Solvers should enter Round 1 answers before the execution of uncovered instructions, disregarding a fragmented downward note, then the entries for Round 2. One central final answer is a simple derived form not in Chambers. Unchecked Round 2 letters can be arranged to give LEAKY REASONS.”
Hmmm…a normal-order ‘jigsaw’, two ’rounds’ (whatever that means) and some uncovered instructions – and a strange-looking grid!
Didn’t make too much sense to start with, except that we are given enumerations – so with the first three clues as 7, 3, 7, the two sevens probably go at the start of rows 1 and 3 respectively – and the fifth clue is a 6, so probably starts row 5. But that means there are some threes (assuming the split clue is two threes) to fit into some of the 5s in between. The Downs started with two 5s and an 8 (4,4) , which seemed to fit the first three Down slots…but then lots of 5s, with seemingly more slots than 5-letter words before the next 8.
There was nothing for it but to get on with some cold solving, to see what crossers might help to fit the jigsaw pieces.
After a while, it kind of became clear that the top right corner was going to be empty, as I could fit and cross all the answers I had (so far) down the left and bottom right. But I still didn’t quite understand the Round 1/Round 2 concept – were some of the clues Round 1 and some Round 2? Some grid-staring went on, and there seemed to be a hidden message ‘SQAURES CONTAIN SCRIPT EXTRA PUZZLE’ on alternate rows, but I couldn’t quite get my head around that either.
At some point, I went back to the website to download a clean version of the PDF – to scrape the clues for the blog – as I had been working on the original on my iPad and had scribbles all over it. I noticed on the entry form that the clues were referred to as ‘Round 1 Across’ and ‘Round 1 Down’, which wasn’t indicated on the PDF, and there was a separate section for ‘Round 2’ answers. So all the given clues must be in ‘Round 1’. I also re-noticed the letters a-g in the blank grid that I had lost sight of on my working grid.
The a-g entries eventually gave ‘BLACK THREE SQUARES, CLEAR EVERY OTHER ROW’, and blacking out three connecting squares around the top-right quadrant explains the three-letter answers fitting into 5-cell slots. Clearing every other row – and ignoring the letters N-O-T-E, the fragmented downward note, gave:
- ‘SQUARES CONTAIN SCRIPT’, which I took to refer to the a-g letters in some squares, leading to the instruction
- ‘EXTRA PUZZLE’ – the now-detached top right quadrant
- ‘ACROSS / DOWNS’ – six clues for that extra puzzle
- SNAKE – COBRA
- YESES – OKAYS
- REAPS – EARNS
- OUTBYE – CLOSE
- BLEATER – BAAER
- DONKEYS – ASSES
Wow! Despite his moniker, I don’t think KGB has any Russian connections, but this puzzle brings to mind the description Churchill once applied to Russia:
‘ It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma: but perhaps there is a key…’
(I realise the grid animation mentions a-f rather than a-g, and also that when I black the three squares top right it also clears the symmetrically corresponding ones…I just don’t have the bandwidth to go back and re-do the grid!)
This took me on a mind-bending journey which lasted a couple of days, with lots of putting down and coming back to…and in the end it required some thinking outside of the box about a box within the box.
My thanks (I think!) to KGB for a very interesting and challenging puzzle, which I hope I have got to the bottom of…a fitting addition to the ‘Genius‘ series…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/Parsing |
||
| * | SQUARES | Settles user’s Q&A easily (7)
anag, i.e. easily, of USERS QA |
||
| * | APE | Take off a lesson on sport (3)
A + PE (physical education, sport) |
||
| * | CONTAIN | Hold against corruption, mostly (7)
CON (against) + TAIN( |
||
| * | DAD(OES) | (i) & (ii) Cleans round plug in room’s wooden railings here? (6, split entry)
D_OES (cleans) around AD (advertisement, plug) |
||
| * | SCRIPT | Lines part after trimmed upholstery fabric (6)
SCRI( |
||
| * | ROW | Two thirds of staff wait to leave island in boat (3)
RO( |
||
| * | EXTRA | Minor player outside (5)
double defn. – an EXTRA can be a minor, usually non-speaking, actor in a film/play; and EXTRA as a prefix can mean outside of: extra-curricular, extra-marital…) |
||
| * | PUZZLE | Moan about unknowns – a crossword? (6)
PU_LE (whine, moan) around ZZ (z is often an unknown, e.g. in a mathematical equation) |
||
| * | PEA | Sounds like wee chickling? (3)
homophone, i.e. sounds like – PEA (of which chickling is a type) can sounds like PEE (wee) |
||
| * | ACROSS | What may be borne to the other side? (6)
A CROSS might be borne! |
||
| * | DOWNS | In the end crossword holds entries from the other list? (5)
D (the end of crossworD) + OWNS (holds) |
||
| * | OES | (ii) See (i) above (3)
see (i) |
||
| * | SNAKE | Cause to harness north wind (5)
S_AKE (cause) around (harnessing) N (north) |
||
| * | OUTBYE | It’s known I’m off to the mine shaft (6)
OUT (in the open, knowm) + BYE (I’m off!) |
||
| * | ABHOR | Cry right after muscle contracted; can’t stand (5)
AB (abdominal, muscle, ‘contracted!) + HO (interjection, cry) + R (right) |
||
| * | YESES | Bill’s got it backwards, that makes multiple agreements (5)
SESEY is a Shakespearean (i.e. Bill’s) exclamation, perhaps meaning ‘Got it!’, which becomes YESES backwards |
||
| * | BLEATER | One having grouse tipping pound at diner (7)
BL (lb, pound, tipped over) + EATER (diner) |
||
| * | THREE | Unfortunately there’s more than one or two (5)
anag, i.e. unfortunately, of THERE |
||
| * | REAPS | Cuts down on juice after cycling (5)
RE (regarding, on) + APS (sap, or juice, cycling first letter to last) |
||
| * | DONKEYS | Instrument to stop Godfather’s drug runners (7)
DON_S (godfathers) around (stopped by) KEY (locking/unlocking instrument) |
||
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/Parsing |
||
| * | QUODS | Improperly imprisons which Roman saint? (5)
QUOD (Latin, which) + S (saint) |
||
| * | ALTER | Maybe airbrush afterwards (giving Adele’s face slight lift) (5)
L( |
||
| * | SAND TRAP | Then in street hit hazard whilst driving (4,4)
S_T (street) around AND (then) + RAP (hit) [fairway hazard when driving off in golf!] |
||
| * | ENDOW | Leave wife following scrap, parted with nothing (5)
END (scrap) + O (nothing) + W (wife) |
||
| * | CLEAR | Easily grasped status in Scientology (5)
double defn. – something easily grasped might be CLEAR; and CLEARness is a state in Scientology, on the way to the ‘Bridge to Total Freedom’!) |
||
| * | IOTAS | Is moon spinning around satellite? (5)
IO (moon of Jupiter) + TAS (sat, or satellite, spinning around) [Is as in multiple I’s – with iota being the Greek letter for I] |
||
| * | UNWET | Dry note describing new novel (5)
U_T (first note of the sol-fa scale, equivalent to the do of do, re, mi) around (describing) NWE (anag, i.e. novel, of NEW) |
||
| * | ZESTY | Skinny set modelled wearing Zoey’s skirts? (5)
Z_Y (skirts, or outer letters, of ZoeY) around (wearing) EST (anag, i.e. modelled, of SET) [the zest of a lemon or orange being the skin, so zest-y = skin-ny!] |
||
| * | ADSORBED | Built up film of liquid on surface of sideboard when drunk? Not I! (8)
subtractive anag, i.e. drunk, of S( |
||
| * | ASSAYER | When announcer is analyst (7)
AS (when) + SAYER (announcer) |
||
| * | OTHER | Second seedy hotel changing hands (5)
substitutive anagram, i.e. seedy, of HOTE( |
||
| * | AT SEA | Lost flower, having trimmed borders (2,3)
( |
||
| * | EASTS | Ultimately nurse replacing second of spat-out son’s dummies? (5)
EAST (substitutive anagram, of S( [the East hand being a dummy hand in bridge?] |
||
| * | BLACK | One a couple beyond blue belt, regularly attacking, driving out six circling characters (5)
BL (regular letters from BeLt) + ( [ [thanks to Matthew in the comments below – the BLACK ball in snooker is a couple beyond the blue ball, in terms of points value and order of potting at the end!] |
||
| * | EVERY | … forever yours, hugs and all (5)
hidden word in, i.e. hugged by, ‘forEVER Yours’ |
||
This was, indeed, a toughie but incredibly satisfying to, eventually, finish. I did have to collaborate with a fellow solver as neither of us felt capable of finishing it single-handedly.
Thanks to KGB and to mc for a thorough blog.
Thanks KGB and mc_rapper67.
This completely flummoxed me as there are 41 lights and only 34 clues.
I started solving. Being a jigsaw, the 2 8-letters and the crossing 7- and 6- letters provided the anchors.
It took the whole of Sunday evening and all of Monday. Obviously, the grid was empty in NE.
Without understanding that ‘SCRIPT’ referred to ‘a to g’, intuitively got the instructions by reading a to g. Also, did not see N and O on top but saw T and E at the bottom, and took that to be ‘te’ the musical note, fragmented as it was. Thanks for clearing all that up!
So, with the 5×5 grid in NE, I got most of the answers with BAYER for bleater and OKAYS in the middle – conflicting as they were.
‘OKAYS’ was more helpful with LEAKY REASONS, so I picked it as the winner, leaving B?A?R with A, E to spare from LEAKY REASONS. This conflict resolution took most of Tuesday, on and off.
So, it had to be BAAER or BEAAR.
Then I found that BAA is a synonym for bleat, and that settled it.
Hugely satisfying, thanks to KGB, a puzzle within a puzzle.
Excellent blog, as always from mc_rapper67 clearing up some of my omissions.
I could not see the “fragmented note,” and I still do not see what that has to do with solving the puzzle (except maybe as a bonus hint to those unchecked squares???). I sat down this afternoon determined to finish this. The Round 1 solutions came steadily enough, and they fit in pretty much as with a regular grid. Then it took a little sleuthing to see where the Round 2 clues were supposed to come from. I finally realized what EXTRA PUZZLE meant (d’oh), and building out from ASSES, it became pretty clear how the rest was supposed to work. Good puzzle and very nice blog.
Oh, I see now. The extraneous N-O-T-E is on the EVERY OTHER ROW, which, taken altogether, comprises the EXTRA PUZZLE. I think you said that in the blog, but I can be a slow sometimes.
I think it’s nice to sometimes have a puzzle where I don’t fully understand the instructions so I just have to try solving the clues and hope it all works out. I didn’t compare the number and lengths of clue answers to the those of the spaces in the grid before I started trying to enter those early in the clue lists, so it was a bit of a surprise when I had worked my way down to the bottom half of the grid and found that there were enough answers to fill all of the cells. Once I had filled the grid I didn’t have too much trouble working out what to do in Round 2, probably the hardest part was working out BAAER from ‘bleater’, but it probably didn’t help that I had forgotten the part of the instructions about one of the answers not being in Chambers, but I also thought CLOSE wasn’t so obvious for ‘outbye’. I was very grateful for the list of unchecked Round 2 letters.
I felt SQUARES CONTAIN SCRIPT was only revealed after following the instruction from the answers labelled d-g, so I didn’t think it could be an instruction to read the labelled answers. I thought of those words as the instructions for the Round 2 puzzle telling me that the ‘script’ for this puzzle is contained in the grid squares and that the ‘uncovered instructions’ in the preamble referred to the labelled answers and this instruction. I later thought that if the words SQUARES CONTAIN SCRIPT were removed then I would have solved the puzzle in exactly the same way.
I thought the definition of BLACK referred to snooker, where the black ball is worth the most points (7), followed by pink (6) and blue (5).
Thanks, mc_rapper67 and KGB.
Like Matthew I took “squares contain script” as meaning that the amended grid (after following the instructions) formed the script for the round 2 puzzle – if you printed the sheet it would be layed out like a normal crossword with instructions, headers and two columns of clues under the grid.
I’m not a bridge player but I think any hand can be the dummy so it’s a DBE.
Thanks to KGB for the challenging puzzle(s), and to mc_rapper for rising to the challenge of the blog.
Well just when I think I’ve nailed the Guardian Genius, along comes something like this. It took me most of the month to fill the grid jig-saw wise, but pleased I got that far. Saw the instruction Black three squares clear every other row, but read it as one sentence, so no idea from there. I knew there was a whole blank corner, and that the words extra, puzzle, across and downs must be significant in some way, but it beat me this time I’m afraid. Thanks mc_rapper67 for what was a very complex solution.
I really enjoyed this, but was grateful that it wasn’t my turn to blog! I don’t recall a device like this being used before. Congratulations to KGB on his invention, and to mc_rapper67 for an excellent blog.
Completely beyond us. Solved a handful of clues, then had other things to do. Still don’t get it after reading Mc Rapper’s blog – congratulations to anyone who did. I expect you’ll be getting invitations to apply to GCHQ…
Very enjoyable and satisfying. Solving the clues wasn’t anywhere near enough to fill in the rest – that took a day or two of coming back and staring at it like Paddington in a bad mood before the kopek dropped and I made sense of round two. Beautifully put together puzzle – bravo to the setters and to mc_rapper67 for tying it all up so neatly.
Magnificent. One of those ideas I wish I’d thought of, and very glad that somebody did!
Bravo KGB and well done to mc_r for untangling it!
This was my first attempt at a Genius. I thought it would be a good introduction as the round 1 clues were clear and didn’t need any manipulation.
Solving round 1 wasn’t a problem although APE and ENDOW could be entered elsewhere, which was where it started to fall apart.
I misunderstood the hidden a-g instruction and noticed with ENDOW in the corner you could black out 3 empty lights on alternate rows and fill the rest with the letters from LUCKY REASONS. Amazingly this ‘worked’ so I didn’t see where I’d gone wrong.
Thanks for the blog making it seem so clear.
Goodness me! What a terrific puzzle – or rather, puzzles plural!
It took me the best part of a week before everything finally fell pleasingly into place. But before that I had to use one set of instructions to work out a second set of instructions, and use one crossword’s solutions to work out a second crossword’s solutions,
Thanks to KGB for his marvellous inventiveness!
The first time I read the instructions I was baffled. “That can’t be right!” I almost shouted.
But looking over the instructions again now – having solved the puzzle and read mc_rapper67’s beautifully presented blog – everything seems so obvious. Every word of the instructions was helpful and necessary.
I couldn’t parse YESES or AT SEA, needed the dictionary for OUTBYE, ADSORBED and QUODS, and Wikipedia for the Scientology.
Very frustrating! Like Viv from Oz, I completed Round 1 OK and realised the Round 2 referred to the NE corner mini-puzzle, once the three connecting squares were blacked out, but I was at a complete loss as to how to complete Round 2. Maybe if I had gone back to the guardian site and not just relied on the PDF something might have clicked? But I doubt it. The instruction to clear every other row left me none the wiser as I didn’t click that the lower Round 1 answers were in turn the list of clues for Round 2. I have just realised from scanning other comments that “script” may refer to the list of clues for a puzzle? If I had known that I might have twigged – but again, probably not. I also didn’t find the “note” – I was looking for a synonym for note rather than the word note itself. I think I would have found this more satisfying if the instructions were a bit less ambiguous.
In the instructions, “Solvers should enter … then the entries for Round 2” doesn’t at all indicate to me how we were supposed to work out the entries for Round 2. But maybe that is just me being dim.
Still, a very original puzzle and I enjoyed Round 1. If we get one like this in future I will perhaps have more of a clue how to tackle the 2-stage structure.
Thanks mc_rapper for a detailed and dynamic blog that this puzzle deserves. I never worked out the cryptic instruction about ignoring the fragmented NOTE so thanks for clearing that up, and it took me a long time to correctly interpret the a-g instructions even though it appears fairly obvious in retrospect (as usual). Thanks also Matthew@5 as I lazily assumed a Karate etc reasoning for blue–> black but on some research this is not justified and you are of course correct.
I had to use some internet research for a few clues but only YESES eluded me in terms of parsing – it seems that SESEY appears only once with that spelling in all of the Bard’s works! I was torn between entering YESES (clearly a word but entirely unparseable to me, closest I got was SESEY being ‘part of’ of SELSEY BILL which is in Sussex) and YASES (YAS is a version of YES in Merriam-Webster, ie USA, but very obscure, and SA = It backwards, but where does Bill =Yes/Sey come in?) Luckily plumped for the right answer but i still think it’s a level of obscurity beyond even Outbye! (and very neat that two different synonyms for that were involved.)
Started this on day of publication and finally finished on deadline day, huge satisfaction after much frustration along the way (and having got nowhere with the previous redacted Genius), great puzzle, thanks KGB.
Thank you everyone for your kind words, and your patience in solving.
I set out in this puzzle to see how far could push a blocked puzzle, without resorting to “barred puzzle-style tricks” with respect to messages / extra letters in clues. As a result had to put a lot of the messaging into the grid itself, which was already tightly constrained by the very idea of the puzzle. What ensued was a (long) iterative process to attempt to get a grid that worked, with any small changes potentially having a knock on effect that caused a collapse. In the end had to compromise with yeses (maybe should have taken different/easier tack on that clue) and baaer, which would not have been my choices with less grid constraints.
The “squares contain script extra puzzle” was meant as one message after deletion of every other line.
Was very conscious that this might be too much, but am very grateful to Alan Conners for accepting, Baaers and all, and to multiple test solvers (Fozza9, ‘Eck and Karla) for all their feedback.
Congratulations to everyone who got through this. A fun challenge to write and hopefully a fun challenge to solve.
I have said before “I want everyone to be able to solve my puzzles, but I hope it takes them a long time to do so!” That said, I have made sure next one (if accepted) is (much) more straightforward.
Thank you again
Thanks for all the comments and feedback o far – much appreciated, as usual…especially KGB for dropping in with some extra background information…
It seems it was found pretty tough all round – with a few DNFs (who were good enough to come on here and comment, useful feedback for the setter) and a range of experiences from ‘first-day-solver’s to Gazzh at #15 taking it right to the deadline limit!
Matthew at #5 – your explanation of BLACK is much better than mine, and I have updated it. I was distracted by the ‘belt’ after ‘blue’…but I should have no excuse after the amount of snooker I have watched in the last couple of weeks!
Thanks MC.
Still recall your face when I said it might be mine. Moments like that make this worth it.
5 was a snooker based definition, so deliberately made surface about different sport. Then spent ages meandering the web reading about different belt colours (+/- tags), with the ever present niggling question of “Could this form the basis of a theme.” At the risk of a negative spoiler I decided no.
Thanks all again.
Brilliant blog, mc_rapper67! The way you untangled KGB’s “puzzle within a puzzle” was a masterclass in persistence. I particularly enjoyed the Churchill quote; this Genius felt exactly like that — a riddle wrapped in a mystery. Speaking of “keys” and the thrill of the solve, I’ve been reading a lot lately about how the psychological rush of cracking a tough cryptic compares to the high-stakes environment of regulated gaming. Since the setter mentioned the “bandwidth” of risk, do you think there’s a crossover between the analytical mindset needed here and the strategic risk-taking found in platforms like https://guiadeblazebrasil.com, especially now that they are operating under such strict formal regulations? Or is the “bet” we place on a crossword purely an intellectual one?