The lunar eclipse was awesome. Was this Quiptic awesome? Perhaps not, but I’m only your ‘umble blogger.
I wouldn’t pay too much attention to my opinion of this puzzle, since I’ve been up most of the night watching stuff in the sky. But if you want my opinion, the grid didn’t help and there was some tricky cluing.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
5 Gang encountering Italian outlaw
BANDIT
A charade of BAND and IT.
6 Setter employed in factory is easy to persuade
PLIANT
Today’s setter, I, inserted into PLANT.
9 Angelfish swallowing monarch
CHERUB
It’s clever, but is it Quiptic? You tell me. What some people call a ‘lift and separate’ clue. Separate ‘angel’ from ‘fish’. Your ‘fish’ is the CHUB, then you need to put ER for the longest serving English monarch inside that. Alles klar?
10 Clergyman turning to speaker for drink
VERMOUTH
A reversal of REV followed by MOUTH.
11 Home help is very cross about source of ironing
MAID
An insertion of I for the first letter of ‘ironing’ in MAD.
12 Loud noise welcoming popular bloke getting married in restaurant
DINING ROOM
A charade of DIN, IN for ‘popular’ and GROOM.
13 Throat surgery transformed chatty Romeo
TRACHEOTOMY
(CHATTY ROMEO)*
18 Gathering sees Wally and bride finally married with ostentatious display
ASSEMBLING
A four-part clue: ASS, E for the last letter of ‘bride’, M for ‘married’ then BLING for ‘ostentatious display’.
21 Those voting against speaker’s good judgement?
NOES
A homophone of NOSE. ‘He has a nose for a bargain.’ The homophone indicator is ‘speaker’s’.
22 Animal with go ruined plant
MAGNOLIA
(ANIMAL GO)* with ‘ruined’ as the anagrind.
23 Bird accepted by poet
LARKIN
A charade of LARK and IN. ‘They mess you up, your mum and dad …’ Or something like that.
24 Sin about to produce a healthy glow?
LUSTRE
A charade of LUST and RE.
25 It makes no sense to push learner
DRIVEL
A charade of DRIVE and L.
Down
1 I’d return runaway criminal
INTRUDER
(ID RETURN)*
2 Vice overcoming naughty literary sailor
SINBAD
Since it’s a down clue, it’s a charade of SIN and BAD for the fictional sailor.
3 Woman keeping in time with instrument …
CLARINET
An insertion of IN in CLARE followed by T. The problem with this clue, for a Quiptic at least, is that ‘woman’ could be quite a lot of things. And yes, I know, crossing letters …
4 … instrument revealed by party swapping Liberal for Tory leader
TABOUR
[L]ABOUR with T for the first letter of ‘Tory’ inserted. It’s a drum, and I’m guessing that it’s the root of ‘tambourine’. But that could be 14dn.
5 Remove a vital part of Shed’s insides during ball
BEHEAD
This is one of my pet hates. If I’ve understood this correctly, the surface only works by referencing Shed, another Guardian setter. And most people doing the Quiptic will not even know that Shed is a Guardian setter. It’s HE for the inside letters of ‘Shed’s’ in BEAD for ‘ball’. Given what’s going on in the world at the minute, perhaps not the most tasteful clue.
7 Permanent reminder of soldiers’ nocturnal entertainment?
TATTOO
It’s a dd, but what ‘nocturnal’ is doing in there I have no idea.
8 Eve and Cain all upset about gossip primarily based on the gospels
EVANGELICAL
(EVE CAIN ALL G)*
14 Shoemakers with balls
COBBLERS
A dd. Based on Cockney rhyming slang for ‘cobbler’s awls’.
15 Chap goes to small wood to get tree
MANGROVE
A charade of MAN and GROVE.
16 Animal taking trouble to attack
ASSAIL
A charade of ASS and AIL.
17 Talk of food crop in The Archers?
SERIAL
A homophone of CEREAL. The Archers is the longest running UK radio serial drama. From when he first came into the village, I knew that Rob Titchener was a nasty piece of work. But then Helen Archer has always been gullible.
19 Joshua finally leaving Frank for another man
ERNEST
You need to take A for the last letter of ‘Joshua’ out of ‘earnest’. Given Oscar Wilde’s sexuality, this is a really clever clue. But should it be in a Quiptic?
20 Lass with raw material aplenty
GALORE
A charade of GAL and ORE.
Many thanks to Pan for this morning’s Quiptic.
Thanks Pan and Pierre
A few too many new words (CHUB fish, TABOUR, COBBLERS = testicles) so it was not so quick and easy for me. I enjoyed it but I would not call it a “Quiptic”.
My favourites were CHERUB & ERNEST.
Repetition of ASS @ crossers 18a and 16d was disappointing
12: rather a stretch to equate dining room and restaurant.
21: ‘those voting against’ is the bit that should be underlined.
Flavia@2 – I agree with you about 21a
For 12a, I thought of clubs (and some hotels) which often use the word DINING ROOM rather than restaurant
Tattoos are usually nocturnal as a tattoo was originally “Mil. A signal made, by beat of drum or bugle call, in the evening, for soldiers to repair to their quarters in garrison or tents in camp.” and the ‘entertainment’ derives from it.
Thanks, sidey. Never knew that bit about TATTOO.
Thanks Pan and Pierre (I also watched the eclipse and am feeling really dim today).
I particularly liked CHERUB and ERNEST but, along with CLARINET, they are perhaps not suitable for a Quiptic.
The Royal Edinburgh Military TATTOO immediately came to mind, it a series of nocturnal entertainments with participants from all over the world and is televised in many countries http://www.edintattoo.co.uk
I thought it was quite well pitched, though I did think the construction of ASSEMBLING was perhaps a bit complex for a Quiptic (I wasted a while looking for anagrams of “Wally” + “bride”).
The origin of COBBLERS is quite well known, I think.
CHUB turns up quite often in crosswords, though not on fishmongers’ slabs. I think any anyone with an angler in the family would know it, and fishing is supposed to be the most popular participation sport in Britain. I take Pierre’s point about using “lift and separate” in a Quiptic, though.
TATTOO’s evening origin may not be widely known, but like Cookie @6 I guessed it from the big televised tattoos.
I knew TABOUR, though only spelt without the U, but I suppose it is quite obscure.
I agree BEHEAD is a bit tasteless, but I don’t think the clue relies on knowing Shed is a Guardian setter as it still works without the capitalisation (possibly better as thinking of Shed as a person misdirected me for a while).
I don’t see any problem with ERNEST. Yes, “another man” is as vague as “woman” in 3d but I feel that is is better as it can be worked out from the construction whereas CLARE requires you to guess the answer and reverse engineer it or get it from crossing letters. If Pierre’s doubt about including it in a Quiptic is based on the sexual orientation implication being inappropriate for the Quiptic’s possibly younger solver population, I think beginners and people wanting an easier puzzle come in a wide range of types, I don’t think younger solvers need protecting from that and anyway, the clue is quite discreet.
My favourites were ASSEMBLING and CHERUB, possibly because they are slightly more complex than some.
Thanks to Pan and Pierre.
Given that the point of the Quiptic is to give beginners a way in, I actually thought CHERUB was quite a good clue. “Angelfish” is a very obvious lift-and-separate – it’s just asking solvers to split straightforward compound word (as opposed to, say, Boatman asking you to split “hasten” in the middle of a morpheme to make “has ten”), the letters _H_R_B point pretty clearly to the solution, and the wordplay borders on being a chestnut.
I was going to make the same comment as Schroduck @8. I think one of the best things for a Quiptic setter to do is to introduce the various cluing tricks in gentle ways like this.
I seemed to be in good form today, racing through this and understanding the parsing of every clue. (In general, there are at least a couple where I need help with the parsing, even in a Quiptic.) As an American, it’s not surprising that I didn’t know the slang meaning of “cobblers,” but “shoemakers” pretty much gave it away anyway.
A good start to the day. Thanks to Pan!
Hi jennyk. I didn’t have the slightest problem with the sexual orientation bit of ERNEST. I was only musing about whether Pan had The Importance of Being Earnest in mind when the clue was written. I was just opining that the clue itself was a bit tricky for a Quiptic. Or at least I found it tricky at five o’clock this morning.
Thanks Pan & Pierre.
I thought this was largely OK as a Quiptic. I guess beginners have to be introduced to lift-and-separate clues at some stage.
Pierre @10
I find most clues tricky at 5am, whether that’s because I’m up late or up early. I wish we’d known about the lunar eclipse in time to see it ourselves. We were commenting on the moon as we walked home yesterday evening, but the first I heard about the eclipse was on this morning’s Today programme. 🙁
Thanks Pan and Pierre
I thought that this was pitched just right, given the length of time I took to complete (i.e. not much). My only problem was for some time reading “gathering” in 18a as a noun rather than the required verb. I liked CHERUB very much, and agree that it wasn’t necessary to recognise Shed as a compiler to get “he”.
I’m not all that convinced by “nose” = “good judgement”. I also think of TABOUR without the U, but I might be being led astray by June of that ilk.
muffin @13
I thought of the wonderful June Tabor too. Although dictionary checks show that both spellings are acceptable, “tabor” gets 29,000,000 hits on Google whereas “tabour” gets a mere 218,000.
jennyk @14
Yes, isn’t she? How many of the 29 000 000 are about her rather than the instrumen, I wonder?
muffin @ 15
I included “drum” in the search term both times (which I forgot to mention) so probably most are for the instrument. Searching for “June Tabor” only gets 178,000 :-(. I’d guess that most of those are from the UK.
Any point in mentioning that Elizabeth is not just the longest-reigning monarch of England?
Alastair @17
Mmmmm – Pierre said “English monarch” rather than “monarch of Emgland”. You could argue that she is specifically English, not Welsh, Scots etc. (although you could also argue that she is German!)