Anto’s turn in the Quiptic slot this week.
An enjoyable puzzle, with Anto’s usual invention and humour on display. But, as we have also come to expect from Anto, it’s rather more difficult than a quiptic ought to be, if it really is a puzzle designed for beginners and those in a hurry.
There are a couple here where the parsing eludes me, I’m afraid.
| Across | ||
| 1 | OVERHIT | Go too far starting heavy industry in plain (7) |
| HI (the first letters – ‘starting’ – of heavy industry) contained in (in) OVERT (plain). Not sure ‘go too far’ is a terribly good definition of ‘overhit’ | ||
| 5 | THE ARTS | Mad Hatter’s cultural occupations (3,4) |
| An anagram (mad) of HATTERS | ||
| 9 | EARLIER | Prior could be seen as more than a lord, perhaps (7) |
| If you were more than a lord you might be said to be EARL-IER | ||
| 10 | REPAVED | Enthused about old record being flagged again (7) |
| RAVED (enthused) containing (about) EP (old record). The flags here are paving stones | ||
| 11 | OIL STRIKE | It can provide or deny fuel (3,6) |
| A play on the two meanings of strike. If you strike oil you find it. But an oil strike could equally be the workers in the oil industry downing tools, leading to disruptions in supply | ||
| 12 | RANGE | Explore scope for selection (5) |
| I took this as a triple definition. Explore = RANGE. Scope = RANGE. Selection = RANGE | ||
| 13 | NIGEL | His name means nothing, if he abandons good English (5) |
| If you deleted G (good) and E (English) from the name NIGEL, you would be left with NIL = nothing | ||
| 15 | ABSENTEES | Those missing beats seen to get in a tangle (9) |
| An anagram (to get in a tangle) of BEATS SEEN | ||
| 17 | FACE CREAM | Take on elite — it may make you look better! (4,5) |
| FACE (take on) CREAM (elite) | ||
| 19 | OP ART | Oscar role in picture that dazzles the eye (2,3) |
| O (Oscar) PART (role). The question of whether ‘picture that dazzles the eye’ is a reasonable definition of op art I will leave to someone who knows something about art | ||
| 22 | LOUSE | Bug where French enter London college (5) |
| An insertion (enter) of OU (where French, i.e. the French word for where) in LSE (London college) | ||
| 23 | MICROWAVE | Small gesture can warm things up (9) |
| MICRO (small) WAVE (gesture) | ||
| 25 | SUNDOWN | Local star is dejected, when the lights come on (7) |
| SUN (local star) DOWN (dejected) | ||
| 26 | LISSOME | Graceful line is what I’m all about (7) |
| I can’t parse this. I can see L (line) and IS (is) but the rest of it escapes me
Edit See baerchen @ 1. ‘What I’m all about’ = SO ME |
||
| 27 | PILATES | Exercise taken by pupil at estate (7) |
| An answer hidden in (taken by) puPIL AT EState | ||
| 28 | NUTTERS | Nurse worried about limits of test for eccentrics (7) |
| An anagram (worried) of NURSE containing (about) TT (first and last letters – limits – of test) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ONE DOWN | Where you are, having conceded the first goal (3,4) |
| This clue is 1 Down | ||
| 2 | EARPLUG | Almost merit promotion for reducing noise (7) |
| EAR (almost merit = earn with the last letter deleted) PLUG (promotion) | ||
| 3 | HOIST | Lift engineer is hot! (5) |
| An anagram (engineer) of IS HOT | ||
| 4 | TERMINATE | Spell with natural sounding finish (9) |
| TERM (spell) INATE (a homophone – sounding – of INNATE = natural) | ||
| 5 | TERSE | The grasses are oddly clipped (5) |
| The odd letters (are oddly) of the grasses | ||
| 6 | ESPERANTO | Poet’s near crazy for made-up language (9) |
| An anagram (crazy) of POETS NEAR | ||
| 7 | REVENUE | Regret taking on steady sales line (7) |
| RUE (regret) containing (taking on) EVEN (steady). I may be being dim, but I can’t equate ‘sales line’ with ‘revenue’ | ||
| 8 | SADNESS | The Blues Brothers send a solo piece back (7) |
| AN answer hidden in reverse (piece back) in brotherS SEND A Solo | ||
| 14 | LOCKED OUT | Opened in opposition to being excluded from work (6,3) |
| Other than seeing what seems to be the definition I can’t parse this at all
Edit See Rullyttully’s suggestion @ 2. It may be that Anto is asking us to see LOCKED OUT as the opposite of ‘opened in’ |
||
| 16 | SEMICOLON | Lions come circulating; there’s one! (9) |
| An anagram (circulating) of LIONS COME | ||
| 17 | FILLS UP | Gets emotional with pack over drink (5,2) |
| FILL (pack) above (over) SUP (drink) | ||
| 18 | CHUNNEL | Demolished luncheon dropping over the way to France (7) |
| An anagram (demolished) of LUNCHEON, minus the letter O (dropping over) | ||
| 20 | A LA MODE | Fashionable place in Texas journalist wrote up (1,2,4) |
| ALAMO (place in Texas) plus a reversal (wrote up) of ED (journalist) | ||
| 21 | TIELESS | Some restaurants bar anyone so unconnected! (7) |
| A double definition | ||
| 23 | MINUS | Master in America means to take off … (5) |
| M (master) IN (in) US (America) | ||
| 24 | ONSET | … and start working group (5) |
| ON (working) SET (group) | ||
in 26a LISSOME, “what I’m all about” = “so me”.
As for LOCKED OUT I have absolutely no idea.
Bit surprised to see NUTTERS in the Graun and not to see some self-referencing in ESPERANTO
Usual mixture of some good ideas but some incomprehensible stuff. All been said before.
Thanks to Anto and NMS
Re LOCKED OUT, I took this to be the opposite of OPENED IN.
Thanks to s & B.
I wasn’t sure about LOCKED IN either, but Rullytully’s explanation @2 works for me.
I enjoyed ONE DOWN, OIL STRIKE and SEMICOLON.
I meant LOCKED OUT, of course.
Thanks Anto and nms
What a good crossword! I loved EARLIER, ABSENTEES, PILATES, HOIST (for the blind alleys I went up before seeing the obvious), SADNESS, SEMICOLON (COD), CHUNNEL and MINUS. Main problem – not a Quiptic.
I was puzzled by LOCKED OUT, LISSOME and REVENUE too, and am more familiar with “wells up” for “gets emotional”.
Opposite of clocked in? Enjoyable brain stretcher. Cheers Anto
Re REVENUE I thought that “steady” was doing double duty either by accident or design. Good puzzle, generally smooth surfaces. Thanks Anto and nms.
Thanks both. Probably Anto’s best ever, even though it is too hard for the slot. Didn’t like 25a, as the SUN in both parts is the same. But nice to see an improvement!
Ive previously been critical of some of Anto’s clues in the past but had no major problem today-a perfect antidote for a very feeble Rufus.
baerchen @ 1.
Nice to see you in these parts.
Don’t think I would ever have seen ‘what I’m all about’ = SO ME. Thanks.
Rullytully @ 2
If you’ve have correctly divined Anto’s intention in the LOCKED OUT clue, and you may well have, I’m not sure it’s much of a clue.
PS I use the word ‘divined’ advisedly 🙂
Andy Smith @ 7
Not sure I can see ‘steady sales line’ as equating to ‘revenue’ either.
My favourite was MICROWAVE.
Like others, I was unable to parse 26a and 14d, as well as REVENUE.
Thanks Anto and nms.
As regards 7d, there is a “sales line” and a “cost line” in accounting, the first being the REVENUE.
Thank you Anto and newmarketsausage.
An enjoyable crossword, even if rather too challenging for a Quiptic. I know little about OP ART, but optical illusions certainly dazzle my eyes. The clues for ONE-DOWN, NIGEL, and LISSOME, among others, were fun.
Not a puzzle of quality, and Anto’s style would be a challenge perhaps because of the general inaccuracy even in the full daily slot.
This for us was perfect quiptic and we did it comforyably over a midmorning coffee. Thanks for the explanation. We got all the answers but couldn’t parse them all.
michelle @11
I forgot to include MICROWAVE in my list of favourites too.
I agree with what seems to be the consensus view: enjoyable, and certainly better than some of Anto’s previous efforts, but hard for a quiptic.
Personally, I think that the joke in 9a would be much better as “more like a lord” or “more of a lord” rather than “more than a lord”. Being more “earl”y intensifies your lordliness; it doesn’t transform it into something else.
I particularly liked the hidden definitions in 1d and 16d.
This may be a transatlantic thing (I’m writing from the US), but I don’t know how “fills up” means “gets emotional”, and I don’t see it in my dictionaries. Can anyone supply an example of this usage for me?
I have been critical of Anto before for setting puzzles that are too difficult for the Quiptic slot so let me congratulate him now for getting the pitch almost exactly right. Yes, there were a couple of poor definitions and a couple of tricky cryptic definitions – but there were more than enough “easy” clues to provide crossing letters to fill in the blanks. My favourite clue today was ONE DOWN. Thanks Anto and thanks nms.
Ted @ 17
For ‘fill up’ Chambers has ‘to have one’s eyes fill with tears’.
You might say, ‘I was really filling up at the end of the film’.
It’s not in Oxford or Collins online but dictionaries are often very bad at phrasal verbs.
Thanks, newmarketsausage!
Loved this. 1D, 16D, 26A and 23A (my LOI) were especial favorites, making me chuckle aloud.
It took me a moment to parse (as per Rullytully @2) LOCKED OUT, but when I did I groaned pleasurably as at a pun.
@1: “Usual mixture of some good ideas but some incomprehensible stuff. All been said before.”
I think you’re being unjust to Anto in this statement. Others here have found everything in the xword perfectly comprehensible.
When I started this crossword tonight, I was surprised to see – given Anto’s reputation – to make such steady progress.
Starting in the NE, everything fell in place quickly and more importantly without too many grumbles if at all.
The rest followed at a somewhat slower pace but I think this was a good Quiptic.
One of the better puzzles of a setter who suffers from inconsistency.
Last time we had (if I remember well) seven cryptic definitions, today we had none.
All good then?
There were some really nice ideas (for example 13ac, 16d, 1d).
But there were also a few technical issues (yes, I know, some cannot be bothered) that spoiled the party for me.
In 20d, how on earth does ‘journalist wrote up’ leads to DE?
That is so bad, it should really have been ‘journalist’s written up’.
In 22ac, ‘enter’ should absolutely be ‘enters’ or ‘entering’.
As NMS’s nice blog mentions 25ac = SUN (local star) + DOWN (dejected).
The use of ‘is’ in this clue is completely out of place, no setter with care for precision would have used it.
The clue can just do without, anyway.
In the end, for me, another curate’s egg but tasty enough.
[ps, I don’t like eggs 🙂 ]
Did anyone else get misled by Roget for 13ac? Rot as in worthless hence nothing. Seemed to make “good English ” do double duty.
Others here are probably not beginners. Anto is far too hard for this slot, I don’t know why they persist with him/her.