Quiptic 785 by Hectence – Fifteensquared

Hectence returns to the Quiptic slot with a puzzle that I thought had just the right amount of head-scratching required to get the sluggish Monday morning brain into gear.

I’m a little pressed for time so I will only add that there is much to enjoy here.

Across
1	REPRODUCTION	Expert in scaling down copy (12) An insertion (in) of PRO (expert) in REDUCTION (scaling down)
8	AUSTERE	Jane’s brief religious education is puritanical (7) AUSTEN (Jane) with the last letter deleted (brief) RE (religious education)
9	CEILIDH	Girl’s romance backfired in church dance (7) A reversal (backfired) of DI (girl) plus (‘s = has) LIE (romance) in (in) CH (church)
11	RINGS UP	Calls gang to have a drink (5,2) RING (gang) SUP (to have a drink)
12	RAINIER	Fresh Erin air is more showery (7) An anagram (fresh) of ERIN AIR
13	WASTE	Kill with a sawn-off gun (5) W (with) A (a) STE (gun = STEN, with the last letter deleted ‘sawn-off’)
14	WOBBLIEST	Bits below belt are most flabby (9) I was going to say that I didn’t understand this. Then I realised that it’s an anagram (belt) of BITS BELOW
16	SMELL A RAT	Suspect whiff of grass? (5,1,3) A cryptic definition. Grass here is a rat, or informer
19	STUMP	Must solve Papa’s puzzle (5) An anagram (solve) of MUST followed by P (Papa in the phonetic alphabet)
21	ATTIRES	After a time, gets fed up of clothes (7) TIRES (gets fed up) following (after) A (a) and T (time)
23	EQUABLE	Even queen’s taken in by beau warring with the French (7) Q (queen) contained in (taken in by) an anagram (warring) of BEAU plus (with) LE (the French)
24	EARNEST	Electronic composer’s way too serious (7) E (electronic) ARNE (composer) plus (‘s = has) ST (street = way)
25	OUTLAWS	Bans hoods? (7) A double definition. Hoods as in hoodlums
26	PLAYING FIELD	Having lots of partners in sporting arena? (7,5) A double cum cryptic definition. If you play the field you might have lots of partners
Down
1	RESENTS	Is grumpy about shows not starting (7) PRESENTS (shows) minus its first letter (not starting)
2	PRESSIE	Insist on invulnerable casing for gift (7) PRESS (insist) plus (on) IE (the first and last letters ‘casing for’ INVULNERABLE)
3	OVERPOWER	Beat partial hangover with juice (9) OVER (part ‘partial’ of HANGOVER) plus (with) POWER (juice)
4	ULCER	Sore about breaking silly rule (5) An insertion (breaking) of C (about) in an anagram (silly) of RULE
5	TRIVIAL	Not very important kind of pursuit? (7) A double cum cryptic definition. The reference is to the game Trivial Pursuit
6	ORIFICE	Piece of calorific eclair in the mouth (7) An answer hidden in (piece of) calORIFIC Eclair
7	NARROW ESCAPE	Near thing, with dart piercing two points on son’s head (6,6) An insertion (piercing) of ARROW (dart) between N and E (two points, of the compass) plus (on) S (son) plus (‘s = has) CAPE (head)
10	HARD TO PLEASE	High maintenance firm has better contract (4,2,6) HARD (firm) plus (has) TOP (better) LEASE (contract)
15	BETTER OFF	Gambler’s leaving richer (6,3) Better (gambler) plus (‘s = has) OFF (leaving)
17	ENTHRAL	Doctor learnt how first to hypnotise (7) An anagram (doctor) of LEARNT and H (the first letter ‘first’ of HOW)
18	LARCENY	Clear out American city’s petty crime (7) An anagram (out) of CLEAR followed by NY (New York ‘American city’)
19	SHUTTLE	Endeavour, maybe, to go back and forth (7) A double definition, the first being by way of an example. The reference is to the space shuttle Endeavour
20	UPBRAID	Raised offer to bag artist for lecture (7) Up (raised) BID (offer) around (to bag) RA (artist)
22	SET IN	Become established in underclass (3,2) This puzzled me for a time before I realised that it’s IN below (under) SET (class). You have to split ‘underclass’ into two words to get the correct cryptic reading

12 comments on “Quiptic 785 by Hectence”

Thanks Hectence and nms
I found this rather hard – much harder than a Quiptic should be, I think – and I took ages to complete the SE corner. I also failed to parse CEILIDH and HARD TO PLEASE, and some of the others were quite obscure too (“Jane’s brief” = “AUSTE”, “composer” = “ARNE” etc.) Would have been more appropriate as a daily puzzle – and not a Monday one at that!

In 24A, the ‘way’ is ST, from Street.

Many thanks NMS & Hectence.

I have to admit that I was stumped by 19a but now all is clear.

I think Arne must be the most commonly used composer in crossword land. At least once a week, and sometimes more. This week twice already (and I haven’t started on the FT, Times or Telegraph). See 1 down in today’s Raich in the Indy, for the other one to date.

Thanks NMS & Hectence.

A bit tricky in parts. The lift-and-separate for LET IN is quite advanced. Traditionally, the ‘p’ in pursuit in 5 should be capitalised. As I understand things, it is normally OK to add a capital to mislead but not normally to take it away from a proper noun.

I particularly liked HARD TO PLEASE and STUMP.

P.S. Although it seems to be used a lot in crosswords, where would lie be used to mean romance these days?

Thanks Hectence and newmarketsausage.

I agree with muffin @1, this seemed much harder than I would normally expect for a Quiptic. I still enjoyed it for the most part, although I must admit ‘girl’ = DI had me grumbling like an old radiator and I though ‘belt’ was a bit of a stretch as an anagrind.

Robi @6: wouldn’t it be the other way around, with ‘romance’ being used to mean ‘lie’?

Thanks Alastair @ 2. I’ve corrected the blog. I don’t know where that RD came from.

On the question of the capitalisation of ‘pursuit’ at 5d, since pursuit is given directly I don’t think the use of the lower case is a hanging offence.

As far as level is concerned, I must admit that since starting to do the Quiptics I’ve been surprised to find that they’re not generally as straightforward as I thought they would be.

Whether they find their intended target or not I can’t say. I imagine that Hugh Stephenson and his team of setters have a much better idea of this than I do.