Guardian Quiptic 587 / Arachne

13 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 587 / Arachne”

1. Many thanks Gaufrid.

   I really enjoyed this which I considered somewhat more difficult than our usual fare.

2. Thank you, Gaufrid. Is it really six months since the Quiptic blog started? Time flies (as does your new owl – a very handsome bird).

   Arachne’s been consistently good with her Quiptics in that time, I think, and I enjoyed this one. About the right level, but with some cleverly constructed clues. I too didn’t much like KICKERS for ‘rugby players’; and CYCLE for ’round’ in 13dn? I’m sure someone will come up with a sentence where you could interchange these two words, but right now I can’t.

   But they’re small niggles. I really liked ONSLAUGHTS, EDUCATED GUESS and TROPIC.

3. Hi K’s D
   Having spent the best part of 2½ years sat on his perch, Mr Owl was getting a little portly so I decided after Christmas that it was time he had some exercise.

   I too initially questioned round/cycle but I could see a connection and then found that under ‘cycle’ Chambers Thesaurus gives “circle, round, rotation, oscillation,…..”.

4. Thanks Gaufrid for your blog of this thoroughly enjoyable puzzle. Forgive my ignorance, but I wonder if someone could explain how Joanna = Piano? The clue was simple enough but the definition defeats me. I loved Urban Rabbit, with its use of URBAN=OF THE TOWN.

5. Hi Wanderer
   Joanna is a slang term for a piano. It comes from Cockney rhyming slang and rhymes because a Cockney would pronounce piano as pianner or piana.

6. Hi K’s D and Gaufrid

   I wondered about cycle = round, too, then thought of ‘the daily round’ – Chambers’ dictionary gives, for cycle, ‘a period of time in which events happen in a certain order’ and, for ’round’, ‘a cycle [!] or recurring series of events and doings’.

   I don’t do the Quiptic every week but reckon to do Arachne’s, because I like her puzzles. I’d agree with K’s D’s assessment.

   My favourites in this one were PIANO [Cockney rhyming slang, Wanderer] and EDUCATED GUESS.

7. Aha. Another new one on me. Many thanks Gaufrid and Eileen.

8. Thanks Gaufrid and Arachne

   I have been doing most of the Quiptics since the blog started and commented several times that they were absurdly difficult for newcomers. But I found this to be a Goldilocks Quiptic – just about right. Nothing too obscure or convoluted, a nice range of clue types and some humour sprinkled through so that beginners can understand why we persevere.

   Luckily for me, Cockney rhyming slang begat Australian rhyming slang. As a kid, our piano was “the goanna” so it wasn’t much of a stretch. A big ask otherwise I suppose.

9. Nice one, Arachne, and thanks to Gaufrid for his useful blog. 🙂

   I was familiar with ‘chopper’ as a type of bike, but hadn’t realised it was also a motorcycle.

   Re. clue 6: ‘punish’ is in the Chambers Crossword Dictionary as an anagram indicator, so I guess it must be OK.

   I thought this was OK for a Qiptic with a number of anagrams. I, too, was not particularly impressed with KICKERS for rugby players; didn’t know that KICKER is the German colloquial term for a soccer player

10. Whoops! How could I forget the choppers in easy rider 8)

11. Thanks for stepping in, Gaufrid.

    I enjoyed this, as usual with Arache – more fun than today’s (Tuesday) cryptic.

    I didn’t remember ‘chopper’ for bikes, but Joanna vaguely rang a bell (or sounded a note 🙂 )

12. Nice puzzle and perfect for a Quiptic.

    27ac – In rugby the guy who kicks conversions and penalties is usually the same one all the time and he is often referred to as the team’s ‘kicker’. IMHO the clue is fair!

    My thanks to Arachne, for a pleasant interlude over breakfast,and to Gaufrid for the review..

13. Not the easiest, nor the most difficult. Just about right as too easy teaches nothing.

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