Well, come on, tell me what you thought. Lurkers are particularly invited to comment.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Imagine many in Rome are unhappily married
DREAM
A charade of D for the Roman numeral for 500, (ARE)* and M. ‘Unhappily’ is the anagrind, and I’ve never understood why D is the setters’ number of choice for ‘many’.
4 Intruding unsuccessfully to catch daughter with George
INVADING
An insertion of D in IN VAIN followed by G for ‘George’ in its regal sense.
8 Top quality support should arrive the next day
FIRST-CLASS POST
A charade of FIRST, CLASS and POST. That’s it.
10 Discourteous? I am the complete opposite
IMPOLITE
A charade of I’M and POLITE.
11 Bone structure can be learnt
ANTLER
(LEARNT)*
12 Dishonest for a French worker to protect revolutionary communist
UNDERHAND
Provis is asking you to put a reversal (‘revolutionary’) of RED in UN and HAND.
15 Urge knight on to scorn
SPURN
A charade of SPUR and N for the chess abbreviation for ‘knight’.
17 To some extent, appointment as teacher makes sense
TASTE
Hidden in extenT AS TEacher. One of the five senses.
18 Offering a conclusion on the back of abridged text
EXTENDING
[T]EXT plus ENDING.
19 Crude oriental painting with heavy frame
EARTHY
A charade of E for East or ‘oriental’, ART and HY for the outside letters of ‘heavy’.
21 Publicity by record company before first performance
PREMIERE
A charade of PR for Public Relations or ‘publicity’, EMI for the setters’ fave record company, and ERE for the archaic word for ‘before’.
24 Organised workers crippled NATO industries
TRADE UNIONISTS
(NATO INDUSTRIES)*
25 He joins in the fun to compete against another team
PLAYMATE
A charade of PLAY and (TEAM)*
26 Annoyed that every other part of train went in front
RILED
Another charade: of RI for the even letters of tRaIn and LED for ‘went in front’.
Down
1 Problems if Formula One craze dies at the borders
DIFFICULTIES
An insertion of IF, FI and CULT in DIES. Formula One is not a sport, btw, just like golf isn’t. The former is just like Scalextric; the latter is a good walk wasted.
2 Curious pride I harboured in EU’s classical dramatist
EURIPIDES
(PRIDE I)* in EUS.
3 Possibly lead me to think about law, initially
METAL
The metal with atomic number 82 and the symbol Pb is a charade of ME, and TAL for the first letters of ‘think about law’.
4 Anxious I will shortly meet a wind-up merchant
ILL AT EASE
A charade of I’LL, which is an abbreviation of ‘I will’, and A TEASE.
5 Massive tax besets Sweden
VAST
An insertion of S for ‘Sweden’ in VAT.
6 Puts trust in son after department’s closure
DEPENDS ON
A charade DEP, END and SON.
7 Half of hyenas have a large bone in the nose
NASAL
The second half of hyeNAS is followed by A and L.
9 Offended by strange dress fashion
TRANSGRESSED
(STRANGE DRESS)* with ‘fashion’ as the anagrind.
13 Horribly rude about the Yes vote — regret it happened
RUE THE DAY
The setter is asking you to put THE in (RUDE)* and follow it with AY. ‘The Ays have it.’ Will the Ays have it in Scotland next month? Doubtful.
14 Establish what belongs to me as supporter of the Queen after Edward retires
DETERMINE
Since it’s a down clue, it’s DET for a reversal of TED for ‘Edward’, followed by ER for Elizabeth Regina and MINE.
16 Worldwide Anglo-Dutch company sacks the French on half pay
UNIVERSAL
Hmm. The ‘Anglo-Dutch company’ is UNILEVER. Take LE for one of the French words for ‘the’ out of that and you’ve got UNIVER. Then put SAL for half of the letters of SAL[ARY] on the end of that and you’ve got a word meaning ‘worldwide’.
20 Two rivers in the country
RURAL
A charade of R and URAL for the river that drains into the Caspian Sea.
22 Child taken from mum in orphanage
MINOR
Hidden in muM IN ORphanage.
23 Island for a Cambridge graduate
CUBA
I suppose that if you were a ‘Cambridge graduate’ then you’d be a CU BA. Except that Cambridge graduates quickly qualify to become MA (Cantab) without having to lift a finger. CU for ‘Cambridge University’ is common in abbreviations at the university, except for the netball team. Which is why they call themselves Cambridge University Women’s Netball Team.
Thank you to Provis for today’s puzzle.
Thanks Provis and Pierre
Well, I found it much harder than today’s Rufus, with two or three solutions unparsed (thanks for DREAM, RILED and UNIVERSAL, Pierre).
I don’t agree about golf, Pierre – btw the usually quoted expression is “a good walk spoiled”. I (as with many others) thought it was one of Mark Twain’s, but apparently there is considerable doubt, and variants have turned up over the years (one possibility even being Gladstone!).
Once again, more difficult than today’s Rufus offering. Does anyone know why the crossword editor continues to do this?
Thanks for the blog Pierre, it provided welcome smiles to start the day.
It took me about 30 minutes to complete this puzzle, and I was unable to parse 20d.
My favourites were 16d, 21a, 23d, 4d, 4a, 10a and 1d.
Thanks Provis and Pierre.
Hello,
I hate it when people comment about how quick they were, but I’m so often at odds with other comments that I’m struck with an overwhelming desire to comment!
Having done the Rufus first and read the 15^2 comments for that, I was expecting this to be a bit of a challenge – the Rufus took around 40 minutes – but most of these Quiptics were write-ins with the whole thing taking less than 15 minutes.
I’m a reasonably practised solver but have only been doing them daily for 5 years or so. I wonder if there’s a ‘newbie/old-skool’ thing going on here which is why some people seem to find Rufus so easy (perhaps a more ‘traditional’ form of crossword with lots of DDs and CDs) and this more difficult (with more ‘wordplay’) while I have been cutting my teeth on Paul and Boatman and the like and so find the latter form a bit more natural…?
Anyway, I’m just interested because I regularly see complaints that the Quiptic is harder than the Monday morning Rufus, and I can’t think of a single instance where I’ve actually agreed! Just thought I’d throw that out there, really.
Anyway, thanks to Provis, Pierre (and Rufus!) for a lovely morning’s puzzling.
Agree completely with Stozzel at 4 even though I’ve only been doing these for the past few months. I’ve somehow never found the Rufus puzzle easier than the Quiptic, and have always been surprised at the comments here.
Stozzel@4 – it took me quite a while before I started to find Rufus’s puzzles as straightforward as I do now so I know what you mean. I’m one of the solvers who occasionally finds the Quiptic more difficult than the Rufus, but today wasn’t one of them. Although this Quiptic had plenty of excellent wordplay I found it very accessible, although I can see how it might present a few problems for newer solvers.
I’m still learning and wouldn’t even imagine trying to do 2 xrds and find time to work. But in general I find the quiptics more difficult than Rufus and setters do seem to introduce a variery of clue types which is good for practise. I’ll do Rufus tomorrow. But just on this quiptic, I thought it was a good standard for those that have learned some of the techniques but can’t always put the parse together. Underhand made me smile because I was able to build the answer through the cryptic pointers. Difficulties because I got the answer then smiled at the parsing. Universal and spurn i couldn’t parse but got the answer.
I’ve been doing crossword for over forty years. I can’t do Rufus crosswords, Azed takes about an hour usually. Thank goodness there’s so much variety available.
Nice to hear from new commenters – welcome.
The fact that it’s usually Rufus in the Grauniad on a Monday, when the Quiptic appears, has provoked many comments along the lines of ‘Rufus was easier than this’. My two penn’orth is that Rufus has such an individual style (CDs and DDs) and such conciseness in his cluing that it’re really difficult to make a comparison. As sidey says, he’s not everyone’s cup of tea, although personally I do enjoy him. But generally the Quiptic is accessible, so well done to the editor for inventing it and keeping it going.
And if you talk to setters, they’ll often say that an ‘easy’ puzzle is the hardest to set. Something along the lines of setting with one hand tied behind your back.
Funny how often Euripides, Erato and etui appear in Crossword land.
F1 a sport? Well umm no not really. Cambridge clue was odd but at least there wasn’t any attempt to claim there’s a BSc. Seen that before.
Thanks Pierre for the double duty and Provis, a fine interlude.
Thanks setter and poster.
Finished this with no great problems, except for having to look up the spelling of Euripides.
I’veonly been attacking the cryptic and quiptic in the Grauniad for a couple of weeks having grown up on Telegraph cryptics.
After so many comments about this being harder than the Rufus, I too was surprised at how straightforward it was. I thought this was quite close to the Quiptic brief – mainly because all the definitions were fairly obvious (which allows beginners to reverse engineer their way through the cryptic bits of the clue).
But I’d still love to know if these are being written to order. Because, if you are trying to compose an accessible crossword, why would you introduce a convoluted clue like the “Anglo-Dutch” one?
“Offended by strange dress fashion (12)” is a lovely clue – both in misleading surface, and that (each having 7 letters) either ‘strange’ or ‘fashion’ could be the Anagram Indicator.
Thanks to both.
I’m very much a beginner. I started attempting cryptics in October of last year.
I live in Jakarta. I print out both the Quiptic and Rufus on Monday afternoon and meet my pal, a more experienced solver, in the pub, after work on Monday evening and we make a joint attempt.
I’m getting the hang of Rufus, but the level of Quiptic difficulty seems to vary tremendously. Had I only been attempting the Monday quiptic and not Rufus, I would have become discouraged. I shall persevere.
Please do persevere, Wilber. The Quiptic can vary in difficulty, but often – in my case at least – that’s down to the solver’s knowledge or perhaps being unfamiliar with some of the conventions. If you’ve been doing cryptics for less than a year and can manage a Rufus, then you’re doing really well. And beer and cryptics are soulmates.
Pierre, you were right for the wrong reasons wrt sport. Traditionally a sport was hunting, shooting, fishing. Other things were games. But common usage and dictionaries confused the terms, as they always do.