Many thanks to the readers who put in freedom of information requests to obtain unredacted copies of July’s Genius puzzle, which appeared in truncated form due to a D notice.
Our investigations team has pieced these together to create a document that we believe is the closest to what the crossword would have looked like had it been published uncensored although some infelicities remain, including inconsistent italicisation. The pdf is here and the solution grid can be seen below.
And thank you for your clues for WATERING CAN. For the record, spoonerisms are here treated as movements of sounds, not of text. The sounds are often odd, as we’ve explored in our Meet the letter interviews. For example, “quartering Anne” moves the sounds of WATERING CAN around in a Spooner-like fashion (as well as ending up with a plausible if grisly regal phrase). So does “cautering wan”, but sadly at the cost of sense.
The runners-up are AmusingJay’s helpful “Wanting acer to flourish?” and GappyTooth’s cryptic definition “One in the nursery that wets the bed”; the winner is “Might this help ground wanting care?”
Kludos to Croquem; please leave entries for REDACTED below, along with any favourite clues or puzzles you have spotted. As mentioned last week, updates will now appear after each Genius deadline and any time there is breaking crossword news.
• 188 Words for Rain by Alan Connor is published by Ebury (£16.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
