The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27134.
Remember Arachne when she started doing Quiptics? This is largely a throwback to that time (although 5D SUBMICRON might have raised a few complaints), and an absolute delight. Ah me, those were the days!
| Across | ||
| 1 | ASEPTIC | Sanitised account full of subtle spite (7) |
| n envelope (‘full of’) of SEPTI, an anagram (‘subtle’) of ‘spite’ in AC (‘account’). | ||
| 5 | STREWTH | Scatter most of the crumbs (7) |
| A charade of STREW (‘scatter’) plus TH (‘most of THe’), for the mild expletive. | ||
| 9 | INCUR | Contract eaten by dog? (5) |
| IN CUR. | ||
| 10 | AMBERGRIS | Ms Rudd at last agreeing blubber constitutes whale product (9) |
| A charade of AMBER (‘Ms Rudd’, UK Home Secretary) plus GR (‘at last agreeinG blubbeR‘) plus IS (‘constitutes’). | ||
| 11 | CUSTARD PIE | Antics of Cupid stare one in the face (7,3) |
| An anagram (‘antics of’) ‘Cupid stare’. Simply delightful. | ||
| 12 | ACT | Banks excluded from data legislation (3) |
| [f]ACT[s] (‘data’) minus its outer letters (‘banks excluded from’). | ||
| 14 | OBSCURANTIST | One who makes dim, daft subtractions (12) |
| An anagram (‘daft’) of ‘subtractions’. | ||
| 18 | SURPRISINGLY | Unexpectedly morose guards quietly revolt (12) |
| An envelope (‘guards’) of P (‘quietly’) plus RISING (‘revolt’) in SURLY (‘morose’). | ||
| 21 | ALE | Drink and be sick over the telephone (3) |
| Sounds like (‘over the telephone’) AIL (‘be sick’). | ||
| 22 | DISBARMENT | Burundi’s barmen trying to comprehend legal ban (10) |
| A hidden answer (‘to comprehend’) in ‘BurunDI‘S BARMEN Trying’. | ||
| 25 | GALLIVANT | Gad about, dashing round eastern half of Kyiv (9) |
| An envelope (’round’) of IV (‘eastern part of KyIV‘ using the official Roman form for the city generally called Kiev) in GALLANT (‘dashing’). | ||
| 26 | ODOUR | Bees leaving Bob with grim smell (5) |
| A charade of ‘[b]O[b]’ minus BB (‘bees leaving’) plus DOUR (‘grim’). | ||
| 27 | TREACLE | Mawkishness of Malcolm periodically restrained by elder? (7) |
| An envelope (‘restrained by’) of ACL (‘mAlCoLm periodically’) in TREE (‘elder?’). | ||
| 28 | NOSEGAY | Posy makes horse noise, according to Spooner (7) |
| A Spoonerism of GOES NEIGH (‘makes horse noise’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | APIECE | Each primate touring individual church (6) |
| A charade of APIE, an envelope (‘touring’) of I (‘individual’) in APE (‘primate’); plus CE (‘church’). | ||
| 2 | EXCUSE | Overlook tip of extremely cross-sounding waiters (6) |
| A charade of E (‘tip of Extremely’) plus X (‘cross’) plus CUSE – ‘-sounding’ like QUEUES (‘waiters’). | ||
| 3 | THREADBARE | Shabby trio carrying plug and soap? (10) |
| An envelope (‘carrying’) of AD (‘plug’) plus BAR (‘soap?’) in THREE (‘trio’). | ||
| 4 | CHARD | Finally found beneath tea leaves (5) |
| A charade of CHAR (‘tea’) plus D (‘finally founD‘). | ||
| 5 | SUBMICRON | Small particle of chromium oxide in rising cloud (9) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of CRO (‘chromium oxide’; CrO is one of them) in SUBMIN, a reversal (‘rising’ in a down light) of NIMBUS (‘cloud’). A particle too small to be seen under an ordinary microscope. | ||
| 6 | RARE | Excellent case of Rioja leads to riotous evening (4) |
| A charade of RA (‘case of RiojA‘) plus RE (‘leads to Riotous Evening’). | ||
| 7 | WARFARIN | Endless conflict over fashionable drug (8) |
| A charade of WARFAR[e] (‘conflict’) minus its last letter (‘endless’) plus IN (‘fashionable’). | ||
| 8 | HESITATE | Shocked at these, I pause (8) |
| An anagram (‘shocked’) of ‘at these I’. | ||
| 13 | INGLORIOUS | Our lingo is rustic, like Gray’s mute Milton (10) |
| An anagram (‘rustic’) of ‘our lingo is’, for a reference to Grey’s Elegy written in a Country Churchyard, and the line:
Some mute inglorious Milton may here rest. |
||
| 15 | CASTIGATE | Reprimand head of compliance over Italian wine scandal (9) |
| A charade of C (‘head of Compliance’) plus ASTI-GATE (‘Italian wine scandal’). | ||
| 16 | ESCARGOT | Slow food in Melbourne’s cargo terminal (8) |
| A hidden answer in ‘MelbournE‘S CARGO Terminal’). | ||
| 17 | TRUE BLUE | Loyal Tory Unionist, twice and thrice over (4,4) |
| TREBLE (‘thrice’) ‘over’ U (‘Unionist’) ‘twice’. On the subject of numbers, one definition or two? | ||
| 19 | BELONG | Are members of English Left enthralled by sound of Big Ben? (6) |
| An envelope (‘enthralled by’) of E (‘English’) plus L (‘left’) in BONG (‘sound of Big Ben’). | ||
| 20 | STOREY | Floor of yard behind shop (6) |
| A charade of STORE (‘shop’) plus Y (‘yard’). | ||
| 23 | BATON | Don’t get out truncheon! (5) |
| BAT ON (‘don’t get out’, cricket). | ||
| 24 | DISC | Vicious about AC/DC’s last album? (4) |
| A charade of DIS, a reversal (‘about’) of SID (‘Vicious’, of the Sex Pistols) plus C (‘ac/dC‘s last’). | ||
A gem from start to finish.
I really enjoyed this puzzle. My favourites were OBSCURANTIST, BATON, NOSEGAY, CUSTARD PIE.
I was unable to fully parse 10a and 2d and new word for today was WARFARIN.
Thanks Arachne and PeterO.
This was another joy to solve – no clunkiness (apart from the solver’s brain) and a real gem at 15d. In the past I’ve criticised the ubiquity of the -gate suffix, but this is just hilarious. I will never look at the word in the same way again. Hadn’t come across this use of TREACLE before.
Thanks to Arachne and PeterO
Lovely puzzle as always from Arachne. As PeterO says, it seemed on the easy side for her but had all of her characteristic wit. Favourties were THREADBARE, NOSEGAY, STREWTH and DISC. Many thanks to A and P.
It has all been said already – thank you Arachne for a lovely start to Thursday morning.
Thank you to PeterO too
Me too, crypticsue, over far too quickly but a gem nonetheless.
Loved STREWTH, EXCUSE, INCUR, SURPRISINGLY, & NOSEGAY.
Giggled over ESCARGOT being ‘slow food’, and loved the surprising anagram of subtractions.
You’re an artist, Arachne, thank you.
Nice week, all.
Thanks, PeterO.
As crypticsue says, a lovely start to the day. As always, it’s worth going back and relishing again the wit of the surfaces – there’s not a dud one among them.
My top favourites today were the cross-sounding waiters losing out on their tip and the Rioja-inspired riotous evening. Oh, and Cupid’s antics and Ms Rudd’s admission and … I’d better stop.
Copmus said it all @1. Huge thanks, as always, Arachne – you’re a star. 😉
A gem from start to finish
Many thanks Arachne, lovely stuff as always, every clue a delight.
I particularly liked STREWTH, INCUR, ALE, RARE,CASTIGATE and ESCARGOT
Thanks PeterO, I had missed the parsing of 17d
Thanks. This was lovely. Char as tea was new for me.
Another lovely puzzle from this setter, and I’m happy to admit to having been delayed for some while through trying to solve 18a using an anagram of “morose guards”. Very clever, very fair and often amusing cluing throughout. Thanks to Arachne and also to PeterO
I enjoyed this a great deal. Just one quibble: SUBMICRON isn’t a noun, hence can’t be a small particle. I took the definition to be “small”, but then can “particle of chromium dioxide” be CRO?
Loved it – many thanks to Arachne and PeterO.
The scandal of ASTI-GATE was the cleverest fodder for 15d CASTIGATE.
I had SCRATCH for 5a, thinking if you get the leftovers to eat you have “scratch” for tea (the crumbs), and using some letters of “scatter”, though I knew the parsing was off. I finally twigged to WARFARIN, the blood-thinning drug, at 7d, and just about laughed out loud on the train to see STREWTH as my LOI.
Thanks Arachne and PeterO
For me it was OBSCURANTIST that stopped it being a Quiptic; as others have said, lovely but over too quickly. Favourites were (as with others), CASTIGATE, and TREACLE.
Thanks Arachne and PeterO.
It always puts me in a good mood when I see Arachne’s name at the top of the puzzle. Smashing clues with enough misleads to put this above a Quiptic. I was trying to use an anagram (shabby) of trio in 3d and thought it must be a ‘soap’ programme that I had never heard of, doh!
The only ‘Inglorious’ I know is Tarantino’s ‘Inglorious Basterds’ (sic.) I ticked EXCUSE, STREWTH and ODOUR at the beginning but there were plenty more that followed.
Thank you Arachne and PeterO.
A lovely puzzle, lots of smiles, CUSTARD PIE, ESCARGOT, OBSCURANTIST, THREADBARE, CASTIGATE and I could go on…
As regards SUBMICRON, Collins also gives it as a noun.
I forgot to say that I smiled to see Ariadne using ‘bees’ to clue ODOUR, after Picaroon’s humming = ODOROUS yesterday. [But, as Dogberry said, ‘Comparisons are odorous’. 😉 ]
Ariadne?? – ARACHNE!!
poc @12; not only Collins but also Chambers gives SUBMICRON as a noun.
Robi @19 and Poc @12, so does the Oxford Dicionary online.
I agree that this was a lovely, witty puzzle, great fun to do, and not too hard. Hardly any clues you had to construe after you’d guessed the solution. But 2d: how can “excuse” be a synonym for “overlook”? Am I missing something everyone else got?
Leo Pilkington @21, the COED gives foe EXCUSE “overlook or forgive (a fault or offence).”
Leo Pilkington @21 I think you will find that “excuse” and “overlook” are considered to be synonyms by most of the online synonym websites eg thesaurus.com, synonyms.net etc
Yes this was a lovely puzzle. My favourites were STREWTH and INCUR.
Eileen @18 – has there been a setter called Ariadne? It would be a great name for one, with its suggestion of guiding someone through a labyrinth. And of course the word “clue” originally meant a ball of thread.
Couldn’t get into the site yesterday and only got in today via the refresh button. What’s going on? Has Nicola Sturgeon sabotaged it? I think we should be told!
This puzzle was lovely. Arachne is on the way to becoming my favourite setter and I can only echo what others have said. LOI was DISBARMENT because I didn’t clock that it was a hidden word.
Thanks Arachne.
Subtractions/OBSCURANTIST is brilliant.
The drunk being sick over the telephone, the primate touring the church, the Rioja leading to the riotous evening, the much-admired asti-gate. Also the doubt about the English Left’s feelings about Big Ben!
Loved the inglorious clue, but I don’t know about “rustic” as an anagram indicator.
Robi @15 — your misspelling of Tarantino’s title isn’t misspelled enough — it’s “Inglourious.” (I’m glad I haven’t got automatic spellcheck!)
This had the combined merits of being relatively quick to solve without being particularly simple – just elegant and witty clues throughout. (C) Asti gate was especially delightful. Thank you setter and blogger.
A joy from start to finish. 10A threw me for a bit because I thought Amber was too obvious and spent some time wrestling with two Ms etc before resorting to looking up things you can make from whales. Many thanks Arachne & PeterO
Wonderful, and it compensates for the horror of Tuesday. Obscurantist tremendous, ditto nosegay and castigate.
Less sure about ambergris and disbarment but all in all a gem.
Oh what a web she weaves…..
As usual with Arachne, I can’t fault this, though it is quite gentle by her standards. THREADBARE was last in. Ticked OBSCURANTIST, NOSEGAY, CASTIGATE and ESCARGOT
Thanks to Arachne and PeterO
Very enjoyable, all-in-all, and, unusually for except for Mondays, I was able to complete it without any reference to a dictionary or thesaurus.
However I do groan every time I encounter a “regularly” or “periodically” clue (27A) – so corny, I saw this device for the first time only fairly recently, but now see it very regularly rather than periodically.
All very nice, as we’ve come to expect from her, and as mentioned elsewhere the ASTIGATE was worth the solve on its own. Loved some of the definitions, eg the slow food and ‘one in the face’. Not quite sure why rustic and subtle are anagram indicators, but happy to run with them.
After yesterday’s political storm (see @41 in the blog for 27,133), is there more controversy today in the running together of 2d and 17d? But on whose behalf is this plea for clemency? Theresa May for her stance on Brexit? Gove’s treachery? BoJo in general?
Thanks to Arachne and PeterO. Lke Peter Aspinall@25 I could not get access to this site yesterday or until an hour ago. I needed help parsing TRUE BLUE and missed waiters=queues for EXCUSE. BELONG was my LOI. Great fun.
I must agree with most of the comments so far. This was gentler than some recent Arachne puzzles, but none the worse for that. So many inventive clues and humour throughout, I had a smile on my face throughout lunch and it wasn’t the risotto.
One clue surprised me. After yesterday’s discussion on parochialism I thought that 5ac would generate comments on whatever the opposite is called, since I have only ever heard Australians say “strewth”. But I see it is in the dictionaries as a British exclamation. In the last 40 years I have had more British than Australian friends and colleagues but never once heard it said. Is it obsolete or confined to “stay-at-homes” in the UK?
Lovely clues, a joy to complete and just enough head-scratching to see us through lunch. Thanks to everyone.
It’s all been said, but this was definitely not a Quiptic for me. My LOsI (9,14,22a & 2,3,4d) were all 11as’ when they tumbled into place – lovely clueing. Favourite was 5a – my dad used to use it as his permissible swear word in the presence of little people, but it’s rarely heard these days when much stronger expletives are commonplace- and brilliant misdirection with crumbs as the definition. Thank you Arachne and Peter O.
Super puzzle from the Spiderwoman. Hugely enjoyed it.
To respond to Peter’s comment in his preamble, a little bird has told me that Arachne might just be making a comeback in the Quiptic slot soon.
Thanks, both.
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! Witty, elegant surfaces, deft misdirections, sparkling wordplay. A complete gemstudded joy. She stands out from the clumsy crowd……
Copmus @1 said it all – and so did many others. A delightful puzzle with well-crafted clues and good surfaces.
Thanks to Arachne and PeterO.
Lovely crossword and the blog did it justice, so thanks to both. I’m with WhiteKing @37 in that my Father also used STREWTH as a mild but effective ejaculation and since it has gone out of fashion its appearance here was very nostalgic for less aggressive times. My own favourites were NOSEGAY and INGLORIOUS; the first also being a lovely word in its own right.
STREWTH is a corruption of “God’s truth”, I think, hence milder than “Gor blimey” (God blind me!)
Thanks to Arachne and Peter0
Complete and utter joy from beginning (1ac) to end (22ac). Loved 16dn and 10ac was special too.
Not too difficult for the spiderwoman – I managed nearly all of it in two 20 minute tube journeys.
My late father was a “strewth” user too. Plus ruder words (“you didn’t hear that did you?”)
JimS @24, if you’re still there [I’ve been out since before lunch] –
I’ve always thought that if I were to set crosswords [it will never happen] Ariadne would be my pseudonym of choice, for the reasons that you mention. As far as I know, there hasn’t been one yet.
This is a wonderful puzzle: such an elegant selection of vocabulary in the grid, avoiding regular plurals and past participles, combined with smooth and witty clues throughout.
Many thanks to Arachne and PeterO.
Nice puzzle – but can someone explain how subtle is an anagrind?
Moose @46
I too wondered about ‘subtle’ as an anagrind. I think it’s ok, because the word can mean cunning, wily or devious, which might be regarded as extended definitions of the original usage, but they are still valid definitions.
Moose @ 46
eChambers includes in its definitions of subtle: ‘refined, rarefied, artful, devious’, all of which, I think, can mean “take the letters and change them”.
Moose @46: I think in, for example, ‘subtle strategy’, the adjective indicates ‘crafty’ or ‘ingenious’ – both of which, in my opinion, would be acceptable anaginds … so why not ‘subtle’ too?
Sorry for echoing previous postings. Next time should try reloading the page first.
Eileen @44, go on Ariadne, you can do it…
I would do an Ariadne crossword…
Thanks Arachne and PeterO. Nothing to add to hymns of praise and in particular to Eileen@7.
I don’t usually comment unless I think I have something different to say but this was so full of smiles that I feel the need. Favourite if I had to chose one would be “waiters” for CUSE. I’m with Eileen @ 7 on that.
Sorry, PeterO I should have thanked you for the excellent blog though such was the clarity of the surfaces and the fairness of the clues that just for once I needed no help with the parsing.
This is one of the most enjoyable crosswords I’ve seen for a long time, and I think it’s the best Arachne has produced. I wondered at first my enthusiasm was fanned by comparison with yesterday’s puzzle, but no, this is a fine puzzle in its own right. Witty clues throughout – for me, STREWTH was the best of a splendid bunch. The emphasis here was on fun rather than difficulty for the sake of it, and if that makes it a Quiptic than I should start doing the Quiptics. Terrific stuff.
cruciverbophile @55
I agree with you that “STREWTH was the best of a splendid bunch.” I came to that corner last (for no particular reason), and that just about capped the whole lot. I’m with you on the fun element too, as that’s really the reason I stick at this pastime above others for mental stimulation.
I didn’t find this easy (unlike some solvers who have commented), but it wasn’t difficult either, and that also contributed to a ‘perfect crossword’ today.
I didn’t put chard in for ages because I always thought it was spelt cha and that char is a cleaning lady. However I see that Chambers gives both, while noting that char is the cockney spelling of cha. Who knew? My Dad also used to say strewth, and so do I occasionally if I’m in company where I think a stronger word would cause fainting in the ranks.
[I look forward to unravelling my first Ariadne puzzle, Eileen@44.]
PS The next day… I meant to say that my heart beat a little faster when I started this puzzle by misreading 10a as MR Rudd our past Aussie Prime Minister and when I saw Melbourne in the hidden at 16d – I thought it was an Australian-themed puzzle! Sadly it was not to be. But when I got my LOI at 5a, I felt very nostalgic about the old days in Australia when I recalled how often my Dad used STREWTH as a mild expletive – it was one of the commonest of “swear words” Aussies employed (cf HKRunner’s comment @35), even though as many of you have now said it was also used widely in Britain and so was an import to the Antipodes originally.
As with pino @53 I feel compelled to applaud this along with the rest. Smooth surfaces etc etc
Only gripe for me was a few dodgy anagrinds although I see the one (subtle) has been explained.
oops: ‘that one’ not’ the one’
Julie @58
Re ‘Strewth’, I remember a 1980s TV ad in the UK for Foster’s Lager in which Paul Hogan, the Australian funny man, said
“Strewth! There’s a bloke down there with no strides on!”
This line was fully intended to sound 100% Australian, including the choice of that mild expletive to start it off.
Robi@19 and Cookie@20: well colour me flabbergasted. I should have checked but I’m sure I’ve only ever seen SUBMICRON used adjectivally, see for example https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/submicron
poc @62
You have a point. I’m sure ‘submicron’ started life [100 years ago, according to one source] as an adjective, so that it is valid and meaningful to say ‘a submicron particle’. The noun meaning ‘a submicron particle’ might well have been introduced at some point, but I’d love to know what authority Chambers and Oxford have for it, other than “Well, that dictionary’s got it, so we’ll have it.” I don’t own or subscribe to the most authoritative and comprehensive sources.
Certainly the setter is on solid ground, and I don’t think she meant CrO to be a particle (it’s a molecule).
Finally finished it today! An unusual puzzle for me in that my first one in (1 down) was eventually proved wrong, and after much struggling, the correct answer to that clue was my last one in.*
CASTIGATE made me laugh out loud.
*attempt 1: anagram of EACH with P for PRIMATE and L (fishing abbreviation for INDIVIDUAL fish length; I was grasping at straws) = CHAPEL