(Please click here for this same blog but with a picture quiz added. Please do NOT post hereinbelow any comment relating to the picture quiz. Thank you.) A typical Quitic, good as an introduction to the Cryptics. Thanks to Pan. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Hate taking part in a pedalo at Henley (6)
LOATHE : Hidden in(taking part in) “pedalo at Henley “.
4 Cook fed more with ease (7)
FREEDOM : Anagram of(Cook) FED MORE.
9 Using audit, test unorthodox views (9)
ATTITUDES : Anagram of(Using … unorthodox) AUDIT, TEST.
10 River sport has state backing in the country (5)
RURAL : [ R(abbrev. for “river”) placed after(… has, in an across clue) RU(abbrev. for the sport, rugby union) ]+ reversal of(… backing) LA(abbrev. for the American state, Louisiana) .
11 Tree next to large curved structure (5)
LARCH : L(abbrev. for “large”) placed before(next to …, in an across clue) ARCH(a curved structure).
12 Wash old Egyptian dye out of cosmetic (3,6)
EYE SHADOW : Anagram of(… out) [ WASH + O(abbrev. for “old”) + E(abbrev. for “Egyptian”) + DYE].
13 Immature creature found in rotten old peat (7)
TADPOLE : Anagram of(rotten) OLD PEAT.
15 Small and bent, the result of vitamin deficiency (6)
SCURVY : S(abbrev. for “small”) plus(and) CURVY(of a bent shape).
Answer: A disease from lack of Vitamin C.
17 Risks posed by pointed sticks? (6)
STAKES : Double defn: 1st: What you risk losing if you bet.
19 Shouted about second point in argument, then had a punch-up (7)
BRAWLED : BAWLED(shouted, especially of babies and children) containing(about) the 2nd letter of(second point in) “argument “.
22 Plant rice and/or bananas (9)
CORIANDER : Anagram of(… bananas) RICE AND/OR.
24 Places of confinement for little boys (5)
NICKS : NICKS(short for more than one boy named Nicholas, cf. the 2 Ronnies).
Defn: …, say, in a police station.
26 Puzzling arrangement of plants reported in cereal crop (5)
MAIZE : Homophone of(… reported) “maze”(an arrangement of, say, plants, to form a puzzle – how to enter the maze and come out the other side).
27 Double time? (3,2,4)
TEN TO FIVE : A ratio of 10 to 5, or more usually 2 to 1 is twice or double the base number, as in “they were outnumbered 2 to 1”.
Defn: … of day.
28 Iran’s beginning to learn about democratic part of Europe (7)
IRELAND : The 1st letter of(…’s beginning) “Iran” plus(to) LEARN + D(abbrev. for “democratic”).
29 Frank listened to stretch of water (6)
STRAIT : Homophone of(… listened to) “straight”(frank;straight-talking).
Defn: …, narrow and connecting 2 larger bodies of water.
Down
1 Flyer felt sick after dodgy ale (7)
LEAFLET : Anagram of(… sick) FELT placed below(after, in a down clue) anagram of(dodgy) ALE.
Defn: A printed or written page of advertisement distributed by hand or mail.
2 Post forming essential part of rafters (5)
AFTER : The inner letters of(essential part of) “rafters “.
Defn: …, as opposed to “ante”;before.
3 Film director has slight problem with bird (9)
HITCHCOCK : HITCH(a slight problem;a snag) plus(with) COCK(a fowl bird).
4 Looks after lager (7)
FOSTERS : Double defn: 2nd: With an apostrophe, a brand originally from Australia.
5 What did you say about paintings of a planet? (5)
EARTH : EH?(an interjection meaning “What did you say?”) containing(about) ART(collective word for paintings, etc.).
6 Dread being beaten by immoral reckless character (9)
DAREDEVIL : Anagram of(…being beaten) DREAD plus(by) EVIL(immoral).
7 I am standing to protect legitimate rule in African country (6)
MALAWI : Reversal of(… standing, in a down clue) I AM containing(to protect) LAW(a legitimate rule).
8 Stick with a duke to get present (6)
ADHERE : A + D(abbrev. for “duke”) plus(to get)HERE(signifying presence, at a roll call).
14 Check setter’s resolve (9)
DETERMINE : DETER(to check;to put off) + MINE(setter’s;possessive pronoun used self-referentially by the crossword setter).
Defn: …, as a verb.
16 Athlete carrying out ablutions (5,4)
USAIN BOLT : Anagram of(carrying out) ABLUTIONS.
Answer: Jamaican sprinter, regarded as the fastest person ever.
18 Having ditched husband, she went out with someone and calmed down (7)
SEDATED : “she” minus(Having ditched) “h”(abbrev. for “husband”) + DATED(went out with someone).
19 Drilling holes is tedious (6)
BORING : Double defn.
20 Leave, heartened by second pudding (7)
DESSERT : DESERT(to leave;to abandon) containing at its centre(heartened by) S(abbrev. for “second”, in time notation).
21 Naughty child leading setter to shellfish (6)
SCAMPI : SCAMP(a naughty child) placed above(leading, in a down clue) I(self-referential pronoun for the crossword setter).
23 Neighbourhood welcoming new place for sporting events (5)
ARENA : AREA(say, that surrounding one;neighbourhood) containing(welcoming) N(abbrev. for “new”).
25 Cockroach in ambassador’s cups and saucers! (5)
CHINA : Hidden in(…’s) “Cockroach in ambassador “.
Defn: …, collectively.
(Please do NOT post hereinbelow any comment relating to the picture quiz. Thank you.)
Thanks Pan and scchua
I completely missed the “hidden” in 25d and was puzzled why “ambassador” was not “HE” as usual!
I am back after a break. I don’t know if the rules I have set for myself the typical ones for the commentators here. My rules are:
1. No reference look ups. No googling for varieties of butterflies or Kent towns or names of cricket clubs.
2. No pattern matching help from sites like onelook.com ( a?e?a? will find all words matching the pattern, including family names, proper nouns, etc.) Using it is cheating in my book.
The standard cryptic becomes nearly impossible for me, (raised in rural South India, English not my first language) which is rife with inside jokes between the setters, themes like butterflies or sailing terms etc, one clue depending on another etc etc. Curiously there are times I find the cryptic within my limited abilities and some commentators say it is tougher than usual. And the ones I find impossible are generally considered easy in this forum.
Finally decided to switch to quiptic, works well in my rules. I typically get 20 to 24 clues per session quite easily and finish many of them completely. Did 30 quiptics in two weeks. Wish the regular cryptic will retain the more complex constructions, but depend less deep domain knowledge, and not be set it up such that a few clues must be solved first and their answers used in many remaining clues.
Is there an indicator for the hidden clue in 25 down?
Thanks.
Thanks Pan and scchua.
Had trouble trying to parse RURAL and NICKS. Liked TEN TO FIVE, DAREDEVIL and AFTER.
ravilyn @2. no.1, I think reference look ups, or googling to check something, is alright and educational (and fun), but I agree with you at no.2, and have never done it. Be interesting to see what others think.
Thanks Pan & scchua.
Generally fine for a Quiptic.
Alastair @3, I suppose the ‘s means ‘has’ and therefore is a kind of hidden indicator.
ravilyn @2; your self-imposed rules seem pretty difficult to me. I don’t think it matters how you arrive at the solution as long as you enjoy it. I don’t need to use word searches usually for Quiptics and Everyman etc but I do use them for difficult cryptics. You still sometimes get several tens or hundreds of possible answers and you still have to parse the right one, so I don’t think it is cheating [and who cares anyway, it’s not a competition!] I prefer to have some help and finish the grid rather than just get stuck with some holes left at the end. Googling also helps one to learn new words/expressions.
This was just right for a Quiptic, I think. Not so easy as to be child’s play but not so difficult as to be off-putting for beginners.
ravilyn @2
What is the point of your self-imposed rule set? Even as a native speaker, unfamiliar words and phrases crop up most days, so how else is one supposed to learn about them? Personally, when all else fails, I think there is more to be said for using alternative means to find an answer than for simply giving up because you can’t dredge it from your mind – assuming it’s even there in the first place.
For me, a large part of the enjoyment in solving cryptic puzzles is derived from working out what an answer appears to be from its wordplay construction and then looking it up to confirm its definition. Take 22d from last Friday’s cryptic: Nymph born thus (4) – which had the crossing letters: _E_O. I figured ‘born’ could be NE (from né) and ‘thus’ could be SO, but I’d never heard of NESO, so I looked in my dictionary and it wasn’t there, so I searched Wikipedia and landed on this disambiguation page which not only revealed that it was the name for one of the Nereids – which I already knew to be sea nymphs – but also that it was one of Neptune’s moons, whereupon I twigged that some of the other answers were also moons of the solar system, and so I had spotted the puzzle’s main theme.
Alastair @3
Yes. In the wordplay you need to interpret the apostrophe-s to be a contraction of ‘has’.
Thanks Pan an scchua.
Robi and Angstony, thanks.
@3 alistair: The in is part of the solution, so it could not be used as hidden clue indicator. That is probably why there is an ! at the end. Usually ! or ? at the end means some part of the clue does double duty. Here in is part of the solution and doubles as indicator.
Thanks for letting me know that these conditions are not typical. Of course I do look up onelook.com and google, but that is after I have given up. After I discovered this blog, I don’t have to search to find the answer or explain the parsing.
A good puzzle by Pan, mostly under-daily level.
Yet, not everything was as clear as it perhaps should be.
I think 10ac (RURAL) is the most problematic clue of the set.
“RU + R + AL (rev of LA)” is probably what’s intended.
But I do not like “River sport has” for “RU + R”. Not even sure whether it’s right.
Don’t like LA for “state” either. Why not go for Los Angeles? After all it’s a Quiptic.
Moreover, Pan should have seen that the Ural is a river too, something that unnecessarily blurs the clue.
For me, thumbs down here.
The lack of a real hidden indicator in 25d, other than apostrophe-s, should also have been avoided in a Quiptic, a puzzle designed for solvers who want to improve (I assume that’s what it stands for).
Both 26ac and 29ac are of the ambiguous type “A homophone indicator B”.
Both clues are fortunately rescued by the fact that answer and homophone fodder have a different number of letters.
Still, setters should try to avoid these kind of clues.
Now, it might look that I am Panning this crossword.
I’m not.
The vast majority of it was absolutely fine and I liked the crossword as a whole!
As a matter of clarification, I did parse it as RU + R + AL, viz.
R[the second R](river) placed after(… has) RU(sport) + etc. with the ellipsis standing for “river”.
I know, scchua.
One can read it as “River that sport has”, ie “Sport has river”, = RU + R.
But I don’t like it, not in a daily and certainly not in a Quiptic where constructions such as this shouldn’t be there.
I really enjoyed this puzzle. I think it was a perfect Quiptic.
My favourites were 18d and 27a.
I needed help to parse 10a.
Thank you Pan and scchua.