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Hello,

I'm looking for the special instructions for the Genius puzzle number 13. The Guardian website shows the grid and the clues, but the instructions are missing and I can't figure out how to solve/enter the thematic clues.
I know it's almost 20 years old, but any help from a Genius fan-cum-archivist would be highly appreciated.

Kind regards

Is it this one?

https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/2004/jul/05/genius-crossword-13

I don’t have the preamble but posting so others don’t have to search for it.

Solved a couple and those seem like normal clues.

I've had a look at this, and can't find any instructions anywhere. However, I have solved it all except for the 6 six-letter answers. It feels like an Araucaria puzzle to me. There are no real words that fit any of them. So I'm guessing they are mixed up in some way.

The way in might be to solve 20d Transport without the groove? (6) or 8d Girl slightly involved with toy boy (6), since all the other six-letter answers reference each other.

I think I know who 8 and 20 are and the play they feature in which is I assume is the answer to 2,21. Each of their wives also have 6 letters though I can’t quite match them to the clues at 12 and 22.

22 I understand, it’s a reference to a different play and a different character called 8.

Jono, that’s most interesting. I’m none the wiser on the play, or the characters. Have you cracked the relationship between answers and entries? Are they wordplay only? I assume some manipulation is required

Quisling, I’ve not looked at the grid entry just the clues.
20 struck me as wordplay only and yields a Shakespearean character from which I deduced the other characters and the play…

8 does have a definition (boy) and is a girl (one letter short, so ‘slightly’) involved with “toy”

Hmm, I’m assuming that gives a character, and if I’m right about the play, I might be thinking about a cipher. I’ll look at that in the morning. Cheers, Jono

Re 12a. 8 is a title character in another play and has the same wife, though she’s dead before the start of the play, hence only “mentioned in his play”. Her name could be described by “tawney” (a variant spelling of tawny). Chambers has tawny under “fulvous/fulvid”.