A straightforward Quiptic this week, with a number of tried and trusted devices, and very few less-known words. A good one for a beginner, my only quibble being 25ac., which I’m not sure is common use.
Across
ACQUAINTANCE charade of A(tti)C charade of + anagram of CAN ANTIQUE indicated by ‘repair’
BOASTED charade of TED (=man) after BOAS (= snakes)
TROWELS charade of anagram of *WORE after T(ime) + LS (= beginners)
13 Be up to working with young wood (5)
EBONY charade of <BE (reversed, indicated by ‘up’)+ ON (=working) + Y(oung)
I’m not too happy with ‘up’ being used to indicate reversal in an across clue.
OLD MASTER charade of OLD(= ‘former’) + MASTER (=boss’)
MILLINERY anagram of *PRELIMINARILY (indicated by ‘models’), minus (= lacking) PAIR
Chambers online: milliner noun someone who makes or sells women’s hats. millinery noun 1 the hats and trimmings made or sold by milliners. 2 the craft of making such articles.
CACHE homophone of ‘cash’ indicated by ‘announced’
UNCIVIL charade of <(o)LIVI(a) reversed (ie. ‘Olivia’s heart recoils) after U (= ‘posh’) + N(ew) + C(onservative)
HEEDING HEADING, with E for A (= ‘to exchange (musical) notes’)
SHAMPOO I’m not sure about this, and a little Googling hasn’t quite managed to dispel the doubts, but I seem to remember we used to refer to the drink as ‘shampers’ or ‘shampoo’, due to the similarity of sounds. Do they still sell ‘Babysham’?
IN THE LONG RUN cryptic/double defintition
Down
AVOCADO charade of anagram of *CAVA around O (= ‘ring’) + DO (= ‘party’)
QUIETLY charade of QUIT (= ‘leave’) around E(cstasy = ‘drug’) + L(aundr)Y
AERODROME charade of anagram of *ROAD +E(ast, = (compass)’point’), + ROME (=’capital’)
NIGHT k(NIGHT) = ‘Sir’ – no further explanation required 🙂
ARIZONA charade of ARI(d) (=’dry’) + ZON(e) (= area), both ‘unending’, + A
COMMENT double definition/&lit = ‘how’ in French
BLABBERMOUTH charade of anagram of *BABBLE + RUTH around M(edical) O(fficer) a common crossword abbreviation for ‘doctor‘, the other one being ‘dr’
RESURRECTION charade of R(ex, = ‘king’) + anagram of *CENSURE TRIO indicated by ‘involved’
DRY SEASON cryptic definition
LECTERN charade of Hannibal LECTER (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal_Lecter) + (campaig)N
INVEIGH charade of I(= one) + anagram of *GIVEN + H(ospital)
Chambers online: inveigh verb (inveighed, inveighing) intrans (usuallyinveigh against someone or something) to speak strongly or passionately against them or it, especially in criticism or protest.specially in a church or lecture-hall.
CORSAIR charade of homophone of ‘coarse’ (= ‘vulgar’), indicated by ‘spoken’ + AIR (= ‘manner’)
CHEAPEN charade of anagram of *EACH indicated by ‘poor’ + PEN (= writer)
LEGAL charade of LEG (= ‘support’) + A (= ‘top grade’) + L(earner) (= ‘student’)
8 comments on “Guardian Quiptic nº568, by Hectence”
Thank you, Stella. I think this falls into the category of ‘easy but good’ that someone was looking for on the blog the other week. I liked CACHE and ARIZONA for their clever clueing; needed your explanation for MILLINERY (this was good but not so easy); and shared your reservations about SHAMPOO. Okay, once you’d got the crossing letters it couldn’t be anything else, but a bit obscure, maybe. I was too young in the 1950s to drink the stuff.
And as the father of a daughter whose name gets misspelled frequently (my fault for naming her that way, natch), I think you need to change ‘Hectance’ to ‘Hectence’. This will give her further cheer after her team’s good result on Saturday – my thanks to her for an enjoyable solve today.
Or Sunday, even!
Thanks Stella and Hectance
Some nice clues and some teasers.
A tiny point – millinery is an anagram of preliminarily minus pair as I’m sure you meant to write. I got this one but didn’t parse it carefully and assumed it was preliminarily minus a pair of letters.
I liked 8a and 17d (kept thinking Hannibal’s last + L)
Thanks, tupu and K’s D. Corrections noted. Hannibal kept me up at 17d, too, and I didn’t manage to pass it correctly until I was actually writing the blog.
My younger sister’s name is exactly the same as your daughter’s, K’sD, so I have no problem spelling it. I think it’s the Welsh spelling, or so my Mum intended it 🙂
Needed this to restore a little confidence having failed miserably on today’s Rufus for the first time in ages. It would be interesting to here from our silent readers for once as I was thinking “not sure that’s a beginner’s clue” a few times, then we would have a better idea of real beginners struggle with as it’s sometimes hard to remember one’s self.
My last was 24 because I got hung up on first two letters = AB, sigh.
One more vote for never heard it called shampoo but it couln’t be anything else from the crossings.
Hi Derek, I’m glad you’re feeling more confident. Stick to it! 🙂
While it’s true there were a couple of less well-known words, I think the cluing was fair here, and the unknowns guessable.
Regarding ‘shampoo’, while I, like Kathryn’s Dad, was too young to be drinking champagne in the 50’s and 60’s, I do vaguely remember family and schoolmate jokes and things like that.
BTW, I was poking around the Quiptic archive and came across this amusing gem, “Ban all Quiptics for perfect harmony! (5,1,5,4)”. No doubt the detractors of these puzzles would approve the surface! To me it says fun can be had from simplicity as well as brain torture.
Thank you, Stella. I think this falls into the category of ‘easy but good’ that someone was looking for on the blog the other week. I liked CACHE and ARIZONA for their clever clueing; needed your explanation for MILLINERY (this was good but not so easy); and shared your reservations about SHAMPOO. Okay, once you’d got the crossing letters it couldn’t be anything else, but a bit obscure, maybe. I was too young in the 1950s to drink the stuff.
And as the father of a daughter whose name gets misspelled frequently (my fault for naming her that way, natch), I think you need to change ‘Hectance’ to ‘Hectence’. This will give her further cheer after her team’s good result on Saturday – my thanks to her for an enjoyable solve today.
Or Sunday, even!
Thanks Stella and Hectance
Some nice clues and some teasers.
A tiny point – millinery is an anagram of preliminarily minus pair as I’m sure you meant to write. I got this one but didn’t parse it carefully and assumed it was preliminarily minus a pair of letters.
I liked 8a and 17d (kept thinking Hannibal’s last + L)
Thanks, tupu and K’s D. Corrections noted. Hannibal kept me up at 17d, too, and I didn’t manage to pass it correctly until I was actually writing the blog.
My younger sister’s name is exactly the same as your daughter’s, K’sD, so I have no problem spelling it. I think it’s the Welsh spelling, or so my Mum intended it 🙂
Needed this to restore a little confidence having failed miserably on today’s Rufus for the first time in ages. It would be interesting to here from our silent readers for once as I was thinking “not sure that’s a beginner’s clue” a few times, then we would have a better idea of real beginners struggle with as it’s sometimes hard to remember one’s self.
My last was 24 because I got hung up on first two letters = AB, sigh.
One more vote for never heard it called shampoo but it couln’t be anything else from the crossings.
Hi Derek, I’m glad you’re feeling more confident. Stick to it! 🙂
While it’s true there were a couple of less well-known words, I think the cluing was fair here, and the unknowns guessable.
Regarding ‘shampoo’, while I, like Kathryn’s Dad, was too young to be drinking champagne in the 50’s and 60’s, I do vaguely remember family and schoolmate jokes and things like that.
BTW, I was poking around the Quiptic archive and came across this amusing gem, “Ban all Quiptics for perfect harmony! (5,1,5,4)”. No doubt the detractors of these puzzles would approve the surface! To me it says fun can be had from simplicity as well as brain torture.
😆