If you were here earlier looking for the blog, you will have seen that I posted a note to say that this morning’s Quiptic had not yet been published on the Grauniad website and I had to go out to work. On my return, I find a well-constructed and enjoyable Quiptic from Hectence, with just one or two tricky parsings.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
5 Vehicle’s taking heavyweight container
CARTON
A charade of CAR and TON.
6 Fight to protect large American animal
WALRUS
An insertion of L in WAR followed by US.
9 Overcome death nearly with heart of iron
DEFEAT
An insertion of FE in DEAT[H]
10 Drawn out reorganisation is not right and proper
UNTOWARD
(DRAWN OUT)*
11 Look after sailor in port
OSLO
A charade of OS for Ordinary Seaman or ‘sailor’ and LO! for the archaic word for LOOK!
12 Country house has good English minced beef and mash
COTTAGE PIE
A charade of COTTAGE, PI for ‘good’ (short for ‘pious’ and only seen these days in crosswords, I fancy) and G and E. Had this for tea last night, as it happens. Add a handful of sultanas to the next one you make; you won’t regret it.
13 Head off big cat outside, after Jack’s put in danger
JEOPARDISED
A charade of J for ‘Jack’ before [L]EOPARD and (SIDE)* What some folk call a ‘lift and separate’ clue; nothing to do with bras, but the fact that you have to separate ‘outside’ into ‘out’ and ‘side’ so that ‘out’ can function as your anagrind.
18 Trouble from iffy cult I’d abandoned
DIFFICULTY
(IFFY CULT ID)*
21 Some acclaim a Muslim leader
IMAM
Hidden in acclaIM A Muslim. I think ‘leader’ has to be the definition, otherwise you’ve got ‘Muslim’ doing double duty.
22 Hey! Make allowances for setter
EXCUSE ME
A dd, with the latter definition being a bit whimsical.
23 Passes water hearing struggle for breath
WHEEZE
If setters continue to put the homophone indicator (in this case, ‘hearing’) in the middle of the clue, they will continue to attract some mild criticism from solvers who don’t like that sort of thing, because two possible answers present themselves. I personally am chilled about it. A homophone of WEES for ‘passes water’.
24 Endless tedious travelling is to become less common
DIE OUT
(TEDIOU[S])* with ‘travelling’ as the anagrind.
25 Regret being without key to recovery
RESCUE
An insertion of ESC (look top left of your keyboard if you’re accessing this on a laptop) in RUE.
Down
1 Repugnant having several pursuing unnatural urge
GRUESOME
A charade of (URGE)* and SOME.
2 About to quote work that’s lyrical
POETIC
A reversal of CITE and OP.
3 Imparts a dash to cold meat
PASTRAMI
(IMPARTS A)* with ‘dash’ as the anagrind. Think ‘the ship was dashed on the rocks.’
4 Look round, having heard bee within flower
BROWSE
Another ‘lift and separate’ clue. It’s B followed by W in ROSE. You need to separate ‘within’ into WITH and IN to give you the material and instruction to insert W for ‘with’ in ROSE.
5 Finish raw edge in pleat
CREASE
An insertion of R for the ‘edge’ of ‘raw’ in CEASE.
7 Pops back to collect gunners’ wrench
SPRAIN
An insertion of RA for Royal Artillery or ‘gunners’ in NIPS reversed.
8 Goat runs away from insects
BUTTERFLIES
Goats have been know to butt, so one might be a BUTTER. Put FLIES after that and Robert est votre oncle.
14 Heard Sheeran’s invested in truck
PICKED UP
Hectence getting down with the kids. An insertion of ED in PICK UP. Referring to ED SHEERAN, the 26-year-old UK singer-songwriter who has had much chart success of late.
15 Proof that even cider production’s not right
EVIDENCE
(EVEN CIDE[R])* The anagrind is ‘production’ and you have to read the apostrophe s as ‘has’ and not ‘is’.
16 Knight, unknown in Jedi order, brought bad luck
JINXED
An insertion of N for the chess ‘knight’ and X for the mathematical ‘unknown’ in (JEDI)* The anagrind is ‘order’.
17 Blinding light where bends cut through valley
DAZZLE
Two Z bends inserted into DALE.
19 Fine instruments found in woodwind section
FLUTES
A charade of F and LUTES.
20 Showed sign of tiredness with break of new day
YAWNED
(NEW DAY)* with ‘break’ as the anagrind.
Many thanks to Hectence for a fine Quiptic and apologies for the late blog, but it wasn’t my fault, guv’nor, honest.
It’s there now. What is going on with 4D? Presumably the ROSE is the flower, but the B isn’t “within” it, and where does the W come from?
Jason
You need to split one of the words in the clue so the parsing becomes: B plus W (with) in ROSE.
I thought quite a lot of this was quite tricky for a cryptic, let alone a Quiptic. I didn’t see how BROWSE worked either, nor POETIC or STRAIN.
I’ll look back in when Pierre has had chance to post.
btw there’s a big gap between the “Preview comment” and the Captcha. Is this because it’s a placeholder?
muffin @3, look at 7d again, I think you have the wrong answer…
Muffin, STRAIN is not the answer
You’re right, Cookie – SPRAIN makes a bit more sense. I tried and failed to link “pops” with “nits”!
(Big gap now not present)
Oh, and I need to read POETIC upwards
My loi was 13a, which I thought was good, but a bit too tough for a Quiptic.
By and large this felt like a good quiptic (i.e. challenging but not impossible for relative newbies like me). I’m still struggling on a few though, and can’t yet work out how the clue for 25a gives “rescue” even though I’ve got the answer.
Griff @10
The key is ESC – “escape” key on a computer. This has been turning up quite often recently.
Ah, thanks muffin. And “without” signifying “outside” for rue. Got it now…
Thank you Hectence and Pierre.
I found this an enjoyable Quiptic. Having the crossers, I rushed in with CARBOY at 1a, but it would not completely parse. Favourite clues were those for POETIC, BROWSE, JINXED, DAZZLE and SPRAIN.
Thanks Hectence and Pierre
I took IMAM as an &lit, so “double duty” wasn’t a factor. YAWNED was my favourite. I still do think that some of the parsings were above Quiptic level; certainly I solved the Rufus in less than half the time this one took.
In fact, I think I did Saturday’s Prize more quickly (while waiting for the crosswords to appear online), though it was an unusually easy Paul, I thought.
Personally, I don’t mind the ambiguity caused by putting the homophone (or reversal) indicator in the middle of a clue as in 23a, as long as the puzzle gives a way to figure out which one is meant. In a case where the letter counts of the two possibilities are different, it certainly seems overly fastidious to complain about it.
I was, on the other hand, all set to complain that butteflies are lepidoptera, not insects, but fortunately I went and looked it up and found that lepidoptera are insects, and hence that I’d been laboring under a misapprehension for many years.
I thought this was toward the trickier end for a Quiptic — I couldn’t parse BROWSE — but quite enjoyable.
I could not parse 4d.
Thanks Pierre and Hectence.