Guardian Quiptic N° 713 by Moley

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THe puzzle may be found at http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/quiptic/713.

I wondered for a while if I was going to be able to blog this one – I could not access the Guardian website from Friday evening to Sunday morning, but fortunately normal service was resumed in time. I did not find anything which strayed from the Quiptic rubric, but in the blog I spent quite a time pondering over 6D and 15A, eventually deciding that I could not find anything which looked better to me. If anyone had any better ideas, I would be happy to hear them.

Across
1. Did drunken brutes get inside, when provoked? (9)
DISTURBED An envelope (‘get inside’) of STURBE, an anagram (‘drunken’) of ‘brutes’ in ‘did’.
6. Cleaner, quiet river flows to Ripon, initially (5)
PURER A charade of P (piano, ‘quiet’) plus URE (‘river’ in North Yorkshire) plus R (‘Ripon, initially’; Ripon is on the River Ure)
9. Reasonable, when five dial incorrectly? (5)
VALID A charade of V (‘five’, Roman numeral) plus ALID, an anagram (‘incorrectly’) of ‘dial’.
10. Safety panel to dismiss security officer (9)
FIREGUARD A charade of FIRE (‘dismiss’) plus GUARD (‘security officer’).
11. Negative report indicating maiden’s name (3)
NEE A homophone (‘report’) of NAY (‘negative’).
12. Royal priest’s skill conveys steadiness (11)
RELIABILITY A charade of R (‘royal’) plus ELI (‘priest’) plus ABILITY (‘skill’). In the wordplay, the apostrophe s would be interpreted as ‘has’.
14. Dines, for a change, outside old city, under cover (7)
INSURED An envelope (‘outside’) of UR (‘old city’) in INSED, an anagram (‘for a change’) of ‘dines’.
15. Perhaps wanted good vibrations when instrument’s plucked? (7)
TWANGED An anagram (‘perhaps’) of ‘wanted’ plus G (‘good’). There is a problem with the definition as I have given it, in that it calls for a plural noun, TWANGS, say, rather than a past participle. ‘Vibrations’ might be explained as a second anagrind, but I cannot see a definition which fully satisfies me. However, the intent is clear – and there is the question mark.
16. Daughter’s first caveat: building to be emptied (7)
VACATED An anagram (‘building’) of D (‘Daughter’s first’) plus ‘caveat’.
19. About outrage: taking time off to heart (7)
COURAGE A charade of C (circa, ‘about’) plus ‘ou[t]rage’ without the T (‘taking time off’).
22. Call lookalikes, those knowing the ropes in church (4-7)
BELL-RINGERS Definition and literal interpretation; if you prefer to call it definition and cryptic definition, or a charade (as I did in 10A), that’s fine by me.
23. Prompt in summoning rescuers (3)
CUE A hidden answer in ‘resCUErs’.
24. Time for post at midday (9)
AFTERNOON A charade of AFTER (‘post’) plus NOON (‘midday’).
26. George’s nom de plume for T.S (5)
ELIOT George Eliot was the nom de plume of the novelist Mary Ann Evans.
27. Discrimination, thanks to Lawrence (5)
TASTE A charade of TAS (‘thanks’; if TA is regarded as a noun – say an instance of the use of the interjection TA – it can be given a plural – or similarly for a verb) plus TE (‘Lawrence’ of Arabia).
28. Relegated team showing signs of age (9)
SIDELINED A charade of SIDE (‘team’) plus LINED (‘showing signs of age’).
Down
1. Fictional code for artist (2,5)
DA VINCI A cryptic reference to Dan Brown’s bestseller novel The Da Vinci code.
2. Son’s lovers upset code-breakers (7)
SOLVERS A charade of S (‘son’) plus OLVERS, an anagram (‘upset’) of ‘lovers’. No, ye are not called, sit down.
3. Financial guarantor providing support to Dickens, for example (11)
UNDERWRITER A charade of UNDER (‘providing support’) and WRITER (‘Dickens, for example’).
4. Puzzled, so checked the sound (7)
BAFFLED Double defenition, with ‘checked’ to be interpreted as impeded.
5. Worker below bedroom is sleeping (7)
DORMANT A charade of DORM (‘bedroom’) plus ANT (‘worker’), with ‘below’ indicating the order of the particles, in a down light.
6. Scapegoat’s wooden leg (3)
PEG I think that this is a double definition, with peg in the sense of pretext, and hence scapegoat, which seems a bit of a stretch. A hidden answer in ‘scaPEGoat’.
7. Studying a place in Berkshire (7)
READING Double definition.
8. Revolutionary looked tearful (3-4)
RED-EYED A charade of RED (‘revolutionary’) plus EYED (‘looked’).
13. Succinctly dealt with all hunts in England, initially (2,1,8)
IN A NUTSHELL An anagram (‘dealt with’) of ‘all hunts in’ plus E (‘England, initially).
16. Lively six converted barn on time (7)
VIBRANT A charade of VI (‘six’), Roman numeral again) plus BRAN, an anagram (‘converted’) of ‘barn’ plus T (‘time’).
17. Solicit criminal with disease (7)
COLITIS An anagram (‘criminal’) of ‘solicit’.
18. Dogs‘ noise abates (7)
DINGOES A charade of DIN (‘noise’) plus GOES (‘abates’).
19. Slim inside a month, returning purified (7)
CLEANED An envelope (‘inside’) of LEAN (‘slim’) in CED, a reversal (‘returning’) of DEC (‘a month’).
20. Caution about a sale (7)
AUCTION An anagram (‘about’) of ‘caution’.
21. Chosen for special ones by journalist (7)
ELECTED A charade of ELECT (‘special ones’) plus ED (‘journalist’).
25. So-called rank of deer (3)
ROE A homophone (‘so-called’) of ROW (‘rank’).

8 comments on “Guardian Quiptic N° 713 by Moley”

  1. Hi PeterO

    I don’t usually do the Quiptic – just looking here though I thing that the PEG is a ha in scapegoat.

  2. I think this was a good Quiptic with a pleasing variety of clue types. I particularly liked 27a, 18d, 28a, 12a, 19d, 20d.

    Thanks for the blog, PeterO. I needed your help to parse 4d.

    bruce@1
    I also parsed 6d as a hidden answer – scaPEGoat.

  3. Thanks, Peter.

    I think Moley’s produced a very good Quiptic here. As is meant to be, it didn’t detain me long, but I enjoyed it. Plenty of good clues, but DINGOES in particular tickled me today.

  4. Thanks Moley for a good Quiptic.

    Thanks PeterO for a nice blog. In 6d, I took the ‘s as ‘has’ showing the ha as suggested @1&2.

    Like K’sD@3, I liked DINGOES and COURAGE.

  5. P.S. I took ‘vibrations’ in 15 as the anagrind, with ‘when instrument’s plucked’ as the definition.

  6. All good clean fun as required.

    Another way of approaching 15A is to assume the apostrophe indicates the sort of pronunciation in which “is” has been abbreviated.

  7. Solved it right through without using “cheat” (although I did “check” a few times). A first for me, so yay!

    I parsed 16A slightly differently, taking the “first” to refer to the fact that the anagram comes before the “d” for daughter. If “son” on its own can mean “s”, then “daughter” can mean “d”, surely?

    Just a minor point from a newbie, still trying to figure out the finer points of cryptic cruciverbalism.

  8. Kathryn @7

    Yay indeed! You bring up an interesting point about 16A. It seems to me that both parsings are equally valid, and it is perhaps not as rare as one might think that there is more than one parsing of a clue that leads to the right answer. Mine hews to the word order more closely, making for a marginally neater blog, but yours may well be what Moley had in mind. The answer to your question is a definite “yes”, D for daughter is an abbreviation which crops up regularly in crosswords.

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