Guardian Quiptic 836/Anto

20 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 836/Anto”

1. I think that Anto has improved a lot. All of the clues ‘work’, maybe apart from 22d which I can’t parse, and I did enjoy 7a.

   That said, I’m still not a fan.

   Thanks to Pierre and Anto.

2. BOTOX is for wrinkle suppression, it’s collagen for trout-pouts isn’t it?

   Odd constructions, dreadful grid, not Quiptic material.

3. Thanks Anto and Pierre
   I found this extraordinarily difficult, and eventually gave up and cheated on most of the SE. Not Quiptic standard at all, though there were some nice clues – RESIT and BODLEIAN were my favourites.

4. Thanks Anto and Pierre;

   As Pierre says, not a grid for the Quiptic spot, but surely the editor should control that? Anto has used it before (Quiptic 815).

   I found solving very hard, but some of the clues were really good, in particular I liked MORTAL SIN, RESIT and BODLEIAN.

5. Re 22d, my fashion guru tells me the phrase is ‘smart casual’, so ‘smart companion’ is simply ‘casual’.

6. Thanks Anto & Pierre; I sometimes think setters use these grids so that they have the minimum of clues to write.

   Much harder than Rufus today. I used word searches fairly liberally at the end to complete this. Definitely not Quiptic material.

   Some nice touches but generally spoilt by loose/inaccurate cluing. BOTOX was a howler. Just adding ‘that’ would improve it. Botox is not generally used to plump lips although I see on the Web that it can be used to provide a modest effect by injecting at the side of the mouth, but then people cannot talk properly!

7. I know it is hard to find exactly the right level for the quiptics, but it is very frustrating when the quiptic is harder than rufus. The quiptc, for me, should be about as hard as the Everyman. As a beginner I usually persist through to the end, with liberal use of check/reveal, just to learn more about how clues are formulated. I couldn’t even be bothered to do that as I thought this was a poor crossword overall. The grid, as others have mentioned, was simply not for beginners. The Times seem to do a fine job of putting together a daily quick cryptic, so I’m not sure why the Guardian seems to find pitching this so difficult on a weekly basis.

8. Thanks Anto and Pierre.

   I enjoyed both this and today’s cryptic.

   As the form of the grid is not an aspect I’ve previously given much thought to and the subject has been raised today, I’d appreciated some enlightenment about what it is about this grid that has raised some objection.

9. Is this your first comment, Bramspal? If so, welcome.

   Some solvers get more exercised over grids than others. There is a ‘rule’ in cryptics that all solutions should have at least 50% checking letters: in other words, a seven-letter clue should have four of them. Not all setters follow that tradition, but generally in the ‘easy’ crosswords, they do. Everyman on Sundays in The Observer does; so does Quixote in the Indy.

   So for me personally, this grid shouldn’t be used for a Quiptic. If you have clues along the top and bottom rows and first and last columns, then you’ve got some starting and ending letters for the remaining solutions once you’ve solved those four (or more). Which makes life easier, I think. Grids like this one are good if a setter wants to put a hidden message (a Nina) around the perimeter, but for a beginners’ crossword, we’re not going to need that.

   Others may have different views.

10. Oh, and I’m glad you enjoyed the puzzle!

11. Many thanks Pierre, it wasn’t my first post but the welcome is still very much appreciated.

    I see what you mean about the grid, that makes sense, thanks very much for the help. I’ll start to take more notice of the grid design from now on.

12. Better than previous Antos and nearly right for this slot. I needed 3 cheats which is about average for me on a Quiptic.

    A few of the definitions were loose as others have noted which meant fewer of those ‘a ha!’ moments when the penny dropped. I did enjoy 14ac though!

13. Like others, I thought this was harder than the usual quiptic, but vastly better than the setter’s previous offerings. I think that just about all the clues actually can be parsed in a sensible way, which is a welcome improvement.

    I think that you missed part of the explanation for 11d. It refers to the phrase “as fit as a flea” and also to “flea circus”. A sort of double-definition, I guess.

    Probably obvious, but I figured I’d mention it anyway.

    Thanks, Pierre and Anto!

14. I thought this would be OK for a ‘normal’ weekday puzzle (bar the BOTOX slip) but much too difficult for a Quiptic, even though I did eventually complete it.

    Take FIG LEAF as an example. I knew “Adam and Eve it”, but if you don’t, how do you get into it? When the actual answer is the rhyming slang, you stand a good chance of getting it from the crossers, but not here. Even if you manage to guess the answer from the crossers, you aren’t much nearer to parsing the clue without online research. I think it would be very disheartening for an inexperienced solver, one of the declared target audiences for Quiptics.

    Having said that, I agree that there were some good clues. I liked CANNIBALS, ALLERGIC, HISSY FIT, ETONIANS and BODLEIAN. THE SNIP made me smile too.

    Thanks to Anto and Pierre.

15. For the second time, I’ve printed off Anto but cannot bring myself to look at it. I gave him/her three goes and judging by the comments, there has been little improvement so until I read something really positive, I won’t be
    attempting this Quiptic. Why publish Anto, when there must be thousands of aspiring setters who would do a much better job ?. Is it nepotism I wonder !.

16. I thought this was the best so far by this setter. Probably still not really fulfilling the claimed role of the Quiptic slot – ie to encourage beginners – it was at least a very enjoyable solve.

    I’m really not interested in unch-counting. (n-1)/2 crosscheckers is surely adequate.

    I have the feeling that Anto is by nature a setter of tough puzzles and that his attempts to adapt for the Quiptic slot are not quite gelling. It would be interesting to see what (s)he might produce with guns blazing freely.

    As you can see I had to guess the gender there. I wonder why the paper doesn’t give a bit of background on who new setters are. They’ve generally got form somewhere else before the Guardian takes them on.

17. This is only the second Anto I’ve tried, and I’ve enjoyed both quite a lot. I don’t mind the Quiptic being a bit tricky because it makes up for the fact that Monday’s Cryptic is traditionally pretty easy.

    The only one I had difficulty parsing was 21D and, now that I’ve seen how completely bloody obvious it is, I’m kicking myself! I was looking for something sneakier. 🙂

18. Thanks, Pierre, I agree with all you say.
    Wouldn’t the clue to 3d be better (or, at least, fairer) as “Certainly not”?

19. Late as usual. I consider myself a perennial quiptic level solver mainly due to not being a UK’er and probably a lower general knowledge than most successful solvers (never was good at trivia). All that said, I love the “mechanics” of cryptics and have a lot of fun. This Anto was much better than last offerings. I completed it with no cheats, one check and a Google. Thanks to Pierre and Anto.

20. Sorry to be so late. I have criticised this setter in the past but this was an improvement

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