Quiptic 821 by Provis

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Our favourite Dickensian returns to the Quiptic slot to pummel our dozy Monday morning brains.

Well, perhaps ‘pummel’ is putting it too strongly. But some head-scratching certainly required for this sluggish solver, with a number of clues taking a little unravelling.

But good fun as usual and a nice challenge to be presented with.

Across
7 PREPARED
Ready peeled in advance (8)

PRE (in advance) PARED (peeled)
9 CANCEL
Stop party for foreigners held in unfinished room (6)

ANC (African National Congress = party for foreigners) contained in (held in) CEL (unfinished room = cell minus its last letter)
10 IFFY
Uncertain whether family has lost heart (4)

IF (whether) FY (first and last letters ‘has lost heart’ of family)
11 HONOURABLE
Hard on this paper’s expert to be principled (10)

H (hard) ON (on) OUR (this paper’s) ABLE (expert)
12 DISOWN
Deny any connection with Sid’s returning to confess (6)

DIS (a reversal ‘is returning’ of Sid) OWN (to confess)
14 MARRIAGE
Union anger over opening of investigation following damage (8)

RAGE (anger) containing (over) I (opening of investigation) after (following) MAR (damage)
15 IMPEDE
Obstruct international politician joining journalist going to Europe (6)

I (international) MP (politician) next to (joining) ED (journalist) next to (going to) E (Europe)
17 IDEALS
Ladies could be perfect examples (6)

An anagram (could be) of LADIES
20 STRESSED
Upset after princess removed under pressure (8)

A deletion (after … removed) of DI (princess) from DISTRESSED (upset)
22 TOERAG
Despicable person finally bought old English newspaper (6)

T (finally, i.e. last letter of, bought) O (old) E (English) RAG (newspaper)
23 BRUSH ASIDE
Reform he is absurd to ignore (5,5)

An anagram (reform) of HE IS ABSURD
24 GREW
Middle-age regret reportedly increased (4)

G (middle letter of AGE) plus a homophone (reportedly) of RUE (regret)
25 CLEVER
Intelligent Catholic has the means to gain an advantage (6)

C (Catholic) plus (has) LEVER (the means to gain an advantage)
26 ENORMOUS
Giant turns sour on me (8)

An anagram (turns) of SOUR ON ME
Down
1 GRAFFITI
Fliers qualified to wear soldier’s decorations (8)

An insertion (to wear) of RAF (fliers) and FIT (qualified) in GI (soldier). It took me a little while to see this. I didn’t immediately think of graffiti as decorations
2 SPRY
Active resistance intercepts agent (4)

An insertion (intercepts) of R (resistance) in SPY (agent)
3 ORPHAN
Harry Potter possibly is in favour of turning up at Hollywood awards night, initially (6)

A reversal (turning up) of PRO (in favour of) next to (at) HAN (the first letters ‘initially’ of Hollywood awards night)
4 ACQUIRED
Got a hundred pounds to guard empty residence (8)

A (a) C (a hundred) QUID (pounds) containing (to guard) RE (first and last letters ’empty’ of residence)
5 INVALIDATE
Cancel Levant aid I arranged (10)

An anagram (arranged) of LEVANT AID I
6 JET LAG
Flight delay causes travel sickness (3,3)

LAG = delay but I’m not sure JET = flight. But that’s what’s intended, I think
8 DYNAMO
He is full of energy — for Monday, anyway (6)

An anagram (anyway) of MONDAY
13 OPPRESSIVE
Work I’ve found boxing papers is burdensome (10)

OP (work) and IVE (I’ve) containing (boxing) PRESS (papers)
16 DESPAIRS
Reps said doctor is without hope (8)

An anagram (doctor) of REPS SAID
18 SHAMEFUL
Scandalous counterfeit drug for flu, perhaps (8)

SHAM (counterfeit) E (drug) FUL (an anagram ‘perhaps’ of flu). I can’t account for the ‘for’ here
19 ADVICE
Guidance from daddy regularly at fault (6)

AD (letters 2 and 4 ‘regularly’ of daddy) next to (at) VICE (fault)
21 THRILL
Up to about an hour of excitement (6)

TILL (up to) containing (about) HR (an hour)
22 TREMOR
Shake up capital after tax rebate starts (6)

A reversal (up) of ROME (capital) following (after) TR (first letters ‘starts’ of tax rebate)
24 GAME
It’s involved in developing amenities for sport (4)

An answer hidden in (it’s involved in) developinG AMEnities

14 comments on “Quiptic 821 by Provis”

  1. Thanks for the blog, newmarketsausage.

    An excellent puzzle for the Quiptic slot, apart from 6dn, which I thought was rather weak.

    Some great misdirecting surfaces elsewhere – top favourite being ORPHAN.

    [nms, you’ve accidentally omitted the C {a hundred} in 4dn – I liked that one, too!]

    Many thanks to Provis for an entertaining and enjoyable puzzle.

  4. Thanks Provis and newmarketsausage.

    Most enjoyable, just right for the Quiptic spot. TOERAG was a new word.

    I particularly liked PREPARED, STRESSED, GRAFFITI, ORPHAN and CLEVER.

  5. Thanks nms and Provis.

    My favourites were ENORMOUS, IMPEDE, ACQUIRED, ORPHAN, PREPARED, GRAFFITI & TREMOR.

    I thought that this was a bit too difficult to be a “Quiptic” but then again the term quiptic is often quite baffling – or at least the puzzles that are deemed to be “quick and easy puzzles for beginners”. I don’t blame Provis – maybe the Guardian needs to have a puzzles editor and a system for working out what is to be categorised as a quiptic. Otherwise newbies and beginners will be disheartened and give up on the idea of doing cryptic crosswords.

  6. Thanks nms.

    I didn’t think this was particularly easy, not helped by some loose cluing, I thought.

    If the parsing of PREPARED is as given, it seems to be the wrong way round. ‘Decorations ‘for GRAFFITI seems to be a bit of a stretch. The ‘doctor’ in 16d should, I think, come before the fodder.

    I liked the ADVICE.

  7. Thanks Provis and nms
    I only entered 3 across answers on first pass, so I found this harder than Rufus. I was hoping for a convincing explanation of JET LAG. I wonder if it is intended just as a double definition?

    Last summer I stayed in the “Graffiti Park Hotel” in Capo di Ponte, Italy; so-called because of he myriad of figures carved into the glacially-smoothed rocks in the valley. These were certainly “decorations”.

    Some examples here

  8. Thanks, both. I thought that this was a pretty sound Quiptic, so just dropping in to say so. I have spent most of the hour or so of the day that I dedicate to crosswords trying to sort out how to download the Indy. Which you can’t any more. At least not on the day of publication.

  9. Kathryn’s Dad @8
    That’s a bit mean of the Indie, isn’t it? The “paste URL” method I have been using (occasionally) loaded yesterday’s puzzle OK, but refused today’s.

  10. I found this tougher than I should have done. I’m not sure why as the clueing seemed fair to me, except perhaps the position of “doctor” in 16d as Robi wrote @6. I don’t have a problem with GRAFFITI as “decorations”, though certainly not all graffiti is decorative.

    Thanks to Provis and newmarketsausage.

  11. I thought that this was a pretty sound Quiptic and found little to complain about. 6d was not the best of clues
    but jet/flight could be used in a similar manner. How about :

    I took a jet to Rio.
    I took a flight to Rio.

    I liked MARRIAGE, BRUSH ASIDE (two possible anagram indicators reform and absurd), ACQUIRED and DYNAMO (took a while to see Monday anagram).

    Many thanks to nms and Provis ( I bet the name Magwitch had been used already !)

  13. I gave up half way through and did the cryptic instead, which I finished. I thought the Quiptic was supposed to be aimed at beginners, but clearly Provis didn’t get that memo.

  14. Only got around to this puzzle tonight.

    I agree with those who didn’t find this crossword that easy.
    However, I liked it and that is mainly because Provis’ style is based on constructions rather than cryptic and double definitions.

    Yes, 6d was weak, very weak actually.
    And I am not keen on the use of ‘doctor’ as an anagram indicator when it follows its fodder (16d).
    NMS, you’re right when you object to ‘for’ in 18d.
    It shouldn’t be there. Not even for the surface, Provis should have looked for a different option.
    I must admit that I can’t think of one right now.

    But having said all this, a really good puzzle.
    Not specifically a Quiptic, could have been a Magwitch.
    I am sure we will see her at one point in the dead tree version (as happened to Nutmeg (and Arachne)).

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