Guardian Quiptic 806/Pan

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Not sure what to make of this one.  The grid wasn’t helpful to the solve; there were some clues I found hard to parse; and I think one clue is faulty.

 

 

 

Abbreviations
cd  cryptic definition
dd  double definition
(xxxx)*  anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x]  letter(s) missing

definitions are underlined

Across

1 Kind landlady’s last drink
BRANDY
A charade of BRAND and Y for the last letter of ‘landlady’.

4 Try to accommodate the foreign tenor in restricted residential area
GHETTO
An insertion of HET and T in GO.  HET could be one of the Dutch words for ‘the’, or (THE)*  I suspect that Pan intended the latter.

9 The end of Eid in Ali’s restaurant ruined by an earthquake?
NATURAL DISASTER
An insertion of D in (ALIS RESTAURANT)*  Good surface.

10 Process corn to start with, then harvest ripe East Sussex hops
THRESH
The first letters of Then Harvest Ripe East Sussex Hops.

11 Lego man I anthropomorphise admits selfishness
EGOMANIA
(LEGO MAN I) with ‘anthropomorphise’ as the unlikely anagrind.

In fact, as muffin points out, this is a hidden answer.

12 Completely exhausted, having lost essential part of thyroid gland
PROSTATE
PROST[R]ATE.  The middle letter of ‘thyroid’ gives you the letter to remove.

14 More enthusiastic person wailing over the dead?
KEENER
A dd.  KEEN is a dialect word – mainly in the North I fancy – for ‘cry’ or ‘wail’.

15 Minister supported by uncle Richard
CLERIC
Hidden in unCLE RIChard.

18 Asbo taken out before gate’s destroyed in attempt to thwart progress
SABOTAGE
(ASBO)* plus (GATE)*  The anagrinds are ‘taken out’ and ‘destroyed’.

21 Cardiff’s first theatre collapsed into drain
CATHETER
A charade of C plus (THEATRE)*

22 A secondary route in another country
ABROAD
A B-ROAD.  Do B-roads exist any more?

24 Baronet let out with torch to locate writer
CHARLOTTE BRONTË
(BARONET LET TORCH)*

25 Joint found in jacket
REEFER
A dd.

26 The gambler to beat?
BETTER
Another dd.

Down

1 Gossip close to dumb state of agitation
BLATHER
A charade of B for the last letter of ‘dumb’ and LATHER.  ‘Oooh, she’s in a right lather.’

2 A prompt for actor to keep last part of Hamlet intense
ACUTE
The last letter of ‘Hamlet’ in A CUE.

3 Money made by doctor given to a Chinese relative
DRACHMA
A charade of DR, A, CH and MA for the currency that Greece will soon be using again if they don’t get their arses in gear and pay off some of this debt.

5 Keeps footwear in item stored under pew in church
HASSOCK
HAS SOCK.  The kneely cushion thing that is indeed stored under pews.

6 Try to get upset mate to accept new will
TESTAMENT
A charade of TEST and N in (MATE)*

7 Former old means of communication with two setters
ONE-TIME
A charade of O, NET, I and ME.  Couldn’t see this for ages.

8 Stick carried by mad hermit
ADHERE
Hidden in mAD HERmit.  Except it isn’t.  And it isn’t an anagram of ‘hermit’ either.  And ADHERM isn’t a word.  So I don’t know what’s cracking off.

13 Extra cost of cleaner during sudden increase in employment
SURCHARGE
An insertion of CHAR in SURGE.

16 Hide article within grasp — almost
LEATHER
An insertion of THE in LEAR[N]

17 Each dot dispersed by negative terminal
CATHODE
(EACH DOT)*

18 American desserts served up in layers
STRATA
A reversal of A TARTS.

19 Blackberry bush found by bishop on gentle walk
BRAMBLE
A charade of B and RAMBLE.

20 Hard working individual in government obtains support for Upper House
GRAFTER
A charade of G and RAFTER.  Another good surface.  Not everyone is fussed about surface readings, but I am.

23 Marsupials taking time to find somewhere to sleep
ROOST
A charade of ROOS and T for where birds sleep.  When they flock together and swoop around at dusk before roosting, it can be a spectacular sight.

Many thanks to Pan.

13 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 806/Pan”

  1. Thanks Pan and Pierre
    Sorry, Pierre, but you have an error in 11a – it’s a hidden rather than an anagram.
    Despite the problem with ADHERE, I quite enjoyed this.

  3. Thanks Pierre and Pan.

    My favourites were 16d and 5d.

    I also wondered about the parsing of 8d and concluded it must be a mistake.

  4. I suspect that the clue for 8dn originally read “heretic” rather than “hermit” but it got mistyped at some stage and the error wasn’t picked up. To be honest I didn’t even notice it while I was solving the puzzle.

  5. Thanks for the blog.

    A very nice puzzle – I particularly liked the anagrams CATHETER and CHARLOTTE BRONTE. I was a bit surprised that 9a didn’t get a quick rewrite given the weekend’s events (since it’s just a definition, it wouldn’t have been too hard to substitute in something like “flood” or “hurricane”) – it’s just one of those horrible coincidences that all setters dread, I suppose.

  6. Thanks Pan, I thought this was on the tricky side for a Quiptic. I solved the bottom half fairly speedily but then was faced with a nearly empty top half.

    Thanks Pierre; two-and-a-half hiddens – I think Andy B is probably right that this should have been heretic in the clue. I did notice this problem but it failed to prevent completion of the puzzle. As far as I know ‘essential’ as in 12 can mean any of the interior bits of a word. For a Quiptic, it might have been better to use central or some such. For 24, I would have preferred a secondary anagrind (flickering?) for torch as the ‘out’ is a bit misplaced, I think, to act on both bits of fodder.

    Like Pierre, I think surfaces are important, and therefore I also liked GRAFTER.

  7. Thanks Pan and Pierre,

    Quite hard going today. I needed help with parsing LEATHER. GRAFTER and ROOST, among others, were good. Andy B’s suggestion for ‘heretic’ being meant in 8d seems correct.

  8. I agree with others that Andy B’s explanation of the ADHERE clue is a good one. I’m sure it’s just a typo; Pan is usually careful with his/her setting.

  9. Can anyone see anything at all which distinguishes this from a normal Guardian crossword (apart from the extra Hidden Word clues maybe)? The standard seems the same…and it even has its own misprint!  :)

    Amusingly, there are now ‘Special Instructions’ which say: “8 down – the original clue has been corrected.” – but it still says hermit!
    [at the time of posting this].

  10. Limeni, you’re not the first to raise this question. The Quiptic used to be described as ‘part quick, part cryptic’; then it changed to ‘for beginners and those in a hurry’. Now on the Grauniad website, it’s gone back to the original description, which it never was: there are no ‘quick’ clues in the Quiptic.

    Generally it will be an ‘accessible’ puzzle. So no themes, no obscurities, usually a solver-friendly grid. But essentially no different to one of the easier daily cryptics in the paper. But if it encourages some newer solvers to have a go, then fair enough.

    As for the typo and the (lack of) correction, this is the Grauniad, remember.

  11. Yes, sorry – I hesitated before pressing “Submit Comment” because I know there is usually at least one person every week who makes essentially the same point (actually I think it’s usually me!); although this one did seem particularly wide of the Quiptic mark.

    It’s just so frustrating though because there are so many less proficient solvers out there who love to see Rufus’s name above a puzzle, as they know they might be able to finish it. I would have thought that Quiptics should be even-slightly-easier-than-a-Rufus (but without all the CD/DD’s!), and should be printed in the paper itself.

    Oh, and not published on a Monday when we already have the easiest crossword of the week.

    Anyway – preaching to the choir I’m sure!

  12. A belated thank you, Pierre for helping me (and my recently converted Mother), to understand Pan’s clues where we failed;
    Ghetto and Surcharge

    There were another 3 this time that we couldn’t parse or weren’t confident with;
    One Time (Although we had the answer, I wasn’t confident and had no idea where the answer came from),
    Blather (for the B)
    Leather (Lear[n]-almost)

    Definitely trickier than the usual.

    Nic

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