A Quiptic from Moley that is clearly aimed at the target audience, but which I found a bit clunky in places, with some unconvincing cluing at times. Perhaps I’m being a bit unfair.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Stock up, maybe, with hard confectionery
TUCKSHOP
(STOCK UP H)* I didn’t have the dubious privilege of going to a public school; but for me, a TUCKSHOP is where posh kids went to buy confectionery, rather than the confectionery itself. Some posh kid can no doubt put me right.
5 Erase scratch
DELETE
It’s a dd, but neither it nor the surface is very convincing.
9 University given commendation and put in top place
UPRAISED
A charade of U and PRAISED.
10 Son to analyse words in a sentence that are few and far between
SPARSE
Well, if you’re a regular visitor to Fifteensquared, you’ll know that we live to parse, so it’s a charade of S and PARSE.
12 Joint leader is a fool
KNUCKLEHEAD
A charade of KNUCKLE and HEAD.
15 It comes back to article concerning duty to the Church
TITHE
A reversal of IT and THE. An old church tax, where a tenth of your earnings was taken to support the clergy.
17 At that point three moved aloft, with no going back
THEREUPON
A charade of (THREE)* UP and a reversal of NO.
18 Broadcast for a trifling amount
PROGRAMME
A charade of PRO for ‘for’ and GRAMME for ‘a trifling amount’. More commonly spelt GRAM, but both versions are in dictionaries.
19 Bird the French gave a name to
TITLE
Well, it’s TIT for ‘bird’ and LE for one of the words in French for ‘the’. But surely the cryptic grammar is wrong here? The solution should be TITLED, or ‘gave’ should be ‘give’. Otherwise it doesn’t work, does it?
20 VAT tax anger perhaps exceeding reasonable bounds
EXTRAVAGANT
(VAT TAX ANGER)*
24 Slinky five in sleet, dancing!
SVELTE
An insertion of V for the Roman numeral for ‘five’ in (SLEET)*
25 Incorrect term for Scrooge receiving no money, originally
MISNOMER
Another insertion, of NO and M in MISER.
26 The Spanish, consumed by misplaced envy for the diarist
EVELYN
And another insertion: of EL for one of the words in Spanish for ‘the’ in (ENVY)* It’s referring to John Evelyn (1620–1706), the diarist. No, I’d never heard of him either.
27 Not put on the spot and not in the frame
UNPLACED
Another not very convincing dd. Is one of the definitions referring to snooker?
Down
1 Dealing with up and coming locations in service stations
TRUCK STOPS
A charade of TRUCK for ‘dealing’ (‘I will have no truck with him’) and a reversal of SPOTS. ‘Up and coming’ works as the reversal indicator because it’s a down clue.
2 Dishonesty? Rot!
CORRUPTION
Another dd.
3 Perhaps risk Frenchman intruding with a smug smile
SMIRK
An insertion of M for ‘Monsieur’ in (RISK)*
4 Superior reckoning the appraisal’s too high
OVERESTIMATE
A charade of OVER and ESTIMATE.
6 Practical and businesslike
EXPEDIENT
Another not very elegant dd.
7 Change our English money
EURO
(OUR E)* for the currency that’s in deep doodoo at the moment.
8 You were told to produce a jug!
EWER
A homophone (allegedly, but let’s not get into a homophone fracas) of YOU WERE.
11 Slowing down to read election review
DECELERATION
(READ ELECTION)*
13 It’s about the sight of a loch path I’m running
OPHTHALMIC
(LOCH PATH IM)*
14 Character appearing in Dune broadcast is illiterate
UNLETTERED
A further insertion of LETTER in (DUNE)*
16 In all honesty, home lay vacant after the flap
EARNESTLY
A charade of EAR for ‘flap’, NEST for ‘home’ and LY for the outside letters of ‘lay’.
21 Cancel annual as it’s one article short
ANNUL
ANNU[A]L
22 This one’s sceptred, according to Shakespeare
ISLE
Is it just me, or is this not a very cryptic clue? It’s referring to the passage from Richard II.
23 There are some ditherers in this place!
HERE
Hidden in ditHERErs.
Thank you to Moley for the puzzle.
Thanks Pierre
You have already mentioned the incorrect vowel in the clue for 19ac and 1ac is similar. A confectionary is where confections are made or kept so this could be the definition of a TUCK SHOP (the enumeration should have been 4,4 according to Collins and Chambers).
Thanks for the blog, Pierre. I agree with your points re 19a & 22d although with the latter I was not familiar with Britain being known as the “sceptred isle”.
Re 1a, in Collins ‘confectionery’ is defined as both 1/ sweets and other confections collectively, and 2/ the art or business of a confectioner. Although I’m not a “posh kid”, I did go to a public school and we had a tuckshop but it sold a lot more than just confectionery, e.g. sandwiches, pies, pasties, sausage rolls, biscuits, fruit etc.
For 26a, I was thinking of the diaries of Evelyn Waugh, as I have read them but not John Evelyn’s.
My favourites in this puzzle were 20a, 26a, 21d, 1a, 1d & 17a.
New word for me was OPHTHALMIC.
Gaufrid@1
Good point about “confectionAry”.
I start to think that maybe tuck shops are different in the UK, because in Australia we were able to buy our lunch (not just lollies) at the tuck shop.
Thanks, Gaufrid. Never had you down as a posh kid. Looks like another puzzle where it makes you reflect on why The Guardian is called The Grauniad …
Michelle, you’re no doubt right about EVELYN Waugh.
Many thanks Pierre, Gaufrid & Moley.
This was a breeze.
I also assumed it was EVELYN WAUGH.
I thought this was the right level for a Quiptic and was a pleasant solve.
I share the same doubts about 1ac and 19ac, although with the latter I generously took ‘name’ to be the definition with some padding around it. It’s not like the Guardian is constrained by Ximenean principles.
Thanks for the blog, Pierre.
I don’t think you’re being unfair: I can’t see a double definition in DELETE, EXPEDIENT or even CORRUPTION and in 4dn ESTIMATE has the same meaning in both wordplay and answer. And I don’t think ISLE is cryptic.
However, I did like 11dn.
Sorry to disagree, Michelle and Bryan, but I’m sure John Evelyn is the diarist intended, as that’s what he is primarily known for [he was a contemporary and friend of Pepys and like him, wrote about the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London] although, as this entry http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/evelynnotes.html points out, he did a great deal more. It gives this quotation from Pepys:
`In fine, a most excellent person he is, and must be allowed a little for conceitedness; but he may well be so, being a man so much above others’.
[Although Evelyn Waugh wrote diaries, I have never heard him referred to as a diarist – and I think it would be unusual to clue him by his first name.]
The OED gives a definition of Confectionary similar to that quoted by Gaufrid @1, but gives as one definition of confectionery “A confectioner’s shop”, and several online dictionaries concur.