Another Monday, another Quiptic from Anto.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letters removed
definitions are underlined
Across
8 Banal description of old wrist watch?
TIME WORN
A cd cum dd.
9 How you may be taken by surprise
ABACK
A cd.
10 It helps to make you a bit degenerate
GENE
Hidden in deGENErate, and a dd.
11 Doctors chose a twit to make their hospital uniforms
WHITE COATS
(CHOSE A TWIT)* but surely we need ‘doctor’ as the anagrind?
12 Actively creating objection to development around lake
NIMBLY
An insertion of L in NIMBY
14 Warped space is medium for fantasy
ESCAPISM
(SPACE IS M)*
15 Ruin immoral-sounding hermit
RECLUSE
I can’t parse this.
17 Guardian site has dropped one charge
STEWARD
S[I]TE plus WARD.
20 Agreement over trade
DONE DEAL
A charade of DONE and DEAL.
22 Most confident issuer gets it by ignoring the odds
SUREST
The even letters of iSsUeR gEtS iT.
23 Routes to land pal sighted at sea
GLIDE PATHS
(PAL SIGHTED)*
24 Film that justified all water safety principles
JAWS
The first letters of Justified All Water Safety and an attempt at an &lit. Except of course that if you need to indicate the first letters of a word, you need ‘principal’ and not ‘principle’, so the clue is illiterate.
25 Prisoner holds back negative response to officer
NO SIR
Hidden reversed in pRISONer.
26 Brag about connections to get kinky porn made
NAME-DROP
(PORN MADE)*
Down
1 Rescue is on hand for some readers
LIFELINE
This sounds like a homophone, but I can’t parse it, I’m afraid.
2 Peg leg finishes off once great footballer
PELE
Take the last letters off the first two words and you’ve got your answer.
3 Impossible to find resistance inside country …
NORWAY
An insertion of R in NO WAY.
4 … against information on what delivers immunity
ANTIGEN
A charade of ANTI and GEN.
5 Damage done when thesis edited
PAPER CUT
A cd.
6 Jarrow poem changed what Britain used to be
MAJOR POWER
(JARROW POEM)*
7 They may roll stock account excess limits
SKATES
The outside letters of StocK AccounT ExcesS.
13 Bull can create more direct stampede
BALDERDASH
A charade of BALDER and DASH.
16 Potential spies that keep their earholes open
SLEEPERS
A dd.
18 Wine club provides material for cabinet, perhaps
ROSEWOOD
A charade of ROSE for a type of wine, and WOOD for a type of golf club.
19 Second language good for criticism
SLATING
A charade of S, LATIN and G.
21 Connected individual holding nothing back …
ONLINE
An insertion of NIL reversed in ONE.
22 … praises amenity that includes plant
SESAME
Hidden in praiSES AMEnity.
24 Hardy character with an unfamiliar nickname
JUDE
Apologies, but I have no idea how this works.
Many thanks to Anto for this morning’s puzzle.
15 RECLUSE
I can’t parse this.
Homonym of wreck + loose
1d, you have a LIFELINE on your hand – still trying to parse 15a…
minty 1, ahh, thanks.
Thanks Anto and Pierre
Anto’s best so far, though too hard for a Quiptic. One or two little problems as you say, Pierre, though lifeline is OK – it’s referring to plam-reading.
I liked NIMBLY, NO SIR and SLEEPERS.
[If I may indulge myself, NORWAY reminds me of a story. When I was at school (some time ago) the oboist Leon Goosens came to give a talk. He told a Thomas Beecham story. At the conclusion of a concert, Beecham leant over to Goosens and siad “Come round to my dressing room – there’s someone I’d like you to meet.”
When Goosens turned up, there was a distinguished elderly gentleman standing there. Beecham said “Leon, I’d like you to meet my very old friend, the King of Sweden.” The old gent just said “Norvay”.]
1D Think palmistry
(should I have said homophone in that last comment?)
1 down
“LIFELINE
This sounds like a homophone, but I can’t parse it,”
I think it is the life line that palm readers see on your hand
15a. I think Anto would like us to believe that ‘RECLUSE’ is a homophone of ‘WRECK LOOSE’. Trouble is, it isn’t.
24a. Thomas Hardy’s title character Jude was nicknamed, by Hardy, the obscure (= unfamiliar)
Jude the Obscure – Hardy character
I think PAPER CUT is more of a charade in it’s second part – paper = thesis, cut = edited
Smacked wrist – its, not it’s!
Thank you Anto and Pierre.
This was an enjoyable crossword for me, but too tricky perhaps for a Quiptic.
11a, I thought “doctors” was all right as an anagrind since the answer and definition were both plurals, but “Doctor chose a twit to make hospital uniforms” might have been better?. 24a, “principle”, COED gives “5 a fundamental source, a primary element”, so that could cover first letters of words.
NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) was a new “word”, for me. TESS first came to my mind for 24d, then I realised that “JUDE the Obscure” was the answer.
Thanks both. Better stuff from Anto this time, still a bit hard. I don’t understand the 2nd bit of SLEEPERS – I get the potential spies section, but not the part about earholes
Shirl @12
Sleepers are little bits of metal that people with pierced ears put in the piercings when they are not wearing earrings, as otherwise the piercing might close up.
(Don’t ask me how I know that – the idea of making holes in yourself to hang things off has always seemed odd to me!)
Thanks muffin!
Shirl @12, a SLEEPER is also a ring worn in a pierced ear to keep the hole from closing, rather a good dd.
Far too difficult for a quiptic IMHO and some loose clueing to boot
if i could crave the same indulgence as muffin @4 with another Beecham story:
During a break in the music in a rehearsal the leader of the orchestra, an elderly spinster, said ‘excuse me Sir Thomas, your buttons are undone and your er thing is sticking out.’ Beecham did not look down, as most of us would have done, but directly at her and said ‘you flatter yourself madam, it is hanging out not sticking out’
Shirl, SLEEPERS are apparently what people with pierced ears wear when they haven’t got their earrings or other stuff hanging off their lugholes. Apologies – should have explained that better.
Several people have beaten me to it about SLEEPERS. But that’s what it is, so thank you to them.
Sorry, muffin, we crossed – your definition is better than that in the COED, they say “ring”, but it can just be a “post”.
Shirl, those with pierced ears need to wear something in their ears to keep the pierced holes open and stop them healing over. The plain studs often worn are called “sleepers”.
Sorry, crossed with too many to mention!
Good to see Pierre is still on the go after the deities failed him…
[David @16
You remind of a Winston Churchill quote. After it was pointed out that his fly-button was undone: No matter. The dead bird does not leave the nest.]
The likes of SLEEPERS, LIFELINE BALDERDASH, TIMEWORN, RECLUSE and JUDE are all decent clues but tricky. To have so many clues at this level in a Quiptic, and for there to be a concentration of them in the NW corner, made this puzzle into a challenging solve/parse so I’m afraid for me, yet again Anto has failed the brief. Nice puzzle, wrong slot.
SLEEPERS was a new word for me but otherwise I felt that this was a fairly “quipticky” puzzle, although I suppose JUDE was a bit tricky. Maybe I’m just not as thick as I’ve always assumed.
Enjoyed this. Thanks to Anto and Pierre.
Nice to see Anto getting some slack, and indeed agree that this was too tricky for a quiptic; nevertheless enjoyably chewy: particularly liked NIMBLY, SLEEPERS and (LOI)RECLUSE which last seemed like a reasonable homophone to me – can only assume that rog@7 didn’t like the lack of matching scansion on “wreck loose”. Am I close at all?
I’m with Alphalpha on RECLUSE: seemed a fine homophone to me.
Overall, a dandy little crossword, I thought. I laughed aloud when I got some of the clues, especially SLEEPERS>