Hectence takes her turn in the Quiptic slot this week.
| Across | ||
| 8 | FRONTIER | Fellow run out by new opener has row on boundary (8) |
| F (fellow) RO (run out) next to (by) N (first letter ‘opener’ of new) next to (has … on) TIER (row) | ||
| 9 | AWOKEN | Inspired one with zero knowledge (6) |
| A (one) W (with) O (zero) KEN (knowledge) | ||
| 10 | SCAB | Strike-breaker finally arrives by taxi (4) |
| S (last letter ‘finally’ of arrives) next to (by) CAB (taxi) | ||
| 11 | MADE BETTER | Cured crazy online gambler? (4,6) |
| MAD (crazy) E (online) BETTER (gambler) | ||
| 12 | FILTHY | Rotten to hit fly carelessly (6) |
| An anagram (carelessly) of HIT FLY | ||
| 14 | SQUAWKED | Screeched, as second tremor trapped wife and daughter (8) |
| S (second) QUAKE (tremor) containing (trapped) W (wife) plus (and) D (daughter) | ||
| 15 | ENVELOP | Doctor even has student work to cover (7) |
| An anagram (doctor) of EVEN next to (has) L (student) OP (work) | ||
| 17 | ASPIRIN | Hoping endlessly for painkiller (7) |
| ASPIRING (hoping) minus its last letter (endlessly) | ||
| 20 | SIGHTSEE | I get she’s desperate to visit as a tourist (8) |
| An anagram (desperate) of I GET SHES | ||
| 22 | MUESLI | Use new £1 after 1 March for breakfast (6) |
| An anagram (new) of USE after (after) M (1 March, i.e. first letter of March) L (£) I (1) | ||
| 23 | BACKGROUND | Setting for retreat’s next to sports field (10) |
| BACK (retreat) next to (‘s, i.e. is, next to) GROUND (sports field) | ||
| 24 | PURR | Backing up, luxury car makes vibrating sound (4) |
| A reversal (backing) of UP RR (luxury car, i.e. Rolls-Royce) | ||
| 25 | CAJOLE | Try to persuade old king to protect a judge (6) |
| COLE (old king) containing (to protect) A (a) J (judge) | ||
| 26 | LAS VEGAS | Left savage, southern waste for a better place in America (3,5) |
| L (left) followed by an anagram (waste) of SAVAGE and S (southern) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | FRACTION | Subsection of right infiltrating activist group (8) |
| An insertion (infiltrating) of R (right) into FACTION (activist group) | ||
| 2 | SNUB | Cut cakes up (4) |
| A reversal (up) of BUNS (cakes) | ||
| 3 | DISMAY | Vicious recession has PM in shock (6) |
| A reversal (recession) of SID (Vicious, of Sex Pistols fame) next to (has) MAY (PM) | ||
| 4 | PRUDISH | Proper game between Portugal and Germany is hard (7) |
| RU (game) contained by (between) P (Portugal) and D (Germany) IS (is) H (hard) | ||
| 5 | HARBOURS | Long time getting round variety of bar’s ports! (8) |
| HOURS (long time) containing (getting round) an anagram (variety of) of BAR | ||
| 6 | WORTHWHILE | Helpful to owl with her hatch (10) |
| An anagram (hatch) of OWL WITH HER | ||
| 7 | SEVERE | Strict with reduced number joining regiment (6) |
| SEVEN (number minus ‘reduced’ its last letter) next to (joining) RE (regiment, i.e. Royal Engineers) | ||
| 13 | TIE THE KNOT | Marry ultimately perfect man in Windsor, for example? (3,3,4) |
| TIE KNOT (Windsor, for example) containing T (last letter ‘ultimately’ of perfect) HE (man) | ||
| 16 | OBSERVER | Outside broadcast gets player hitting first ball to spectator (8) |
| OB (outside broadcast) next to (gets) SERVER (player hitting first ball) | ||
| 18 | ILL-TREAT | Abuse indulgence for being sick? (3-5) |
| ILL = sick and TREAT = indulgence. Whether that adds nicely up to ‘indulgence for being sick’ I leave it to you to decide | ||
| 19 | TEQUILA | Note who the French shot? (7) |
| TE (note) QUI LA (‘who’ and ‘the’ in French) | ||
| 21 | IN A WAY | Kind of trendy to take Alpha course (2,1,3) |
| IN (trendy) next to (to take) A (alpha) WAY (course) | ||
| 22 | MODEST | Humble poem breaks woman’s sympathetic heart (6) |
| An insertion (breaks) of ODE (poem) into MS (woman) next to (‘s = has) T (middle letter ‘heart’ of sympathetic) | ||
| 24 | PEEP | Look both ways! (4) |
| PEEP (look) is a palindrome (both ways) | ||
Thanks Hectence and nms
Very nice, with particular favourites SCAB, MADE BETTER, ENVELOP, PURR, DISMAY and TIE THE KNOT.
[Did you know that Davy Crockett had three ears? A right ear, a left ear and a wild front ear.
I’ll get me coat!]
Thanks both. Fine Quiptic, just right for the slot
(Muffin @1 – although I am old enough to remember Davy Crockett on the telly, that joke has been updated to Kirk in Star Trek – punch line “final front ear”!)
Thank you Hectence and newmarketsausage.
A good Quiptic with some fun clues, in particular TIE THE KNOT, SCAB, DISMAY and PURR.
Yes, of course it’s TEQUILA, but I was very pleased with my answer of RECUILE – RE is a note, CUI is Latin for who (as in cui bono) and LE is French the. RECUILE is, though, the recoil rather than the shot.
@muffin, I’m sure you are aware, but in a similar way Captain Kirk of the Enterprise also had 3 ears: The left, the right and space, the final front ear.
14a I carelessly wrote “SQUWAKED”. It now looks better to me than the “correct” way.
9 In what sense does AWOKEN equate to INSPIRED?
Gasmanjack @6 — I think it’s something like this: “That sunset has awoken / inspired a sense of awe in me.” It’s certainly a bit loose: one word suggests creating something that wasn’t there before, while the other indicates, well, awakening of something present yet dormant.
I found this one a bit harder than the usual Quiptic, but maybe I’m just sleepy this morning.
I’m having trouble justifying “hatch” as an anagram indicator.
Ted @7
How about “hatch a plot” meaning to develop one, hence “arrange” it?
I had trouble with several of the down clues. I forgot about harbour having a u, never heard of OB before, and I would never have suspected hatch of being a anagrind. I probably could have gotten TEQUILA if I’d given it a little time, but I felt too beat down by then.
Perhaps slightly tricky for a Quiptic (the construction of MODEST particularly struck me) but still a good start to my crossword week. Favourites included PURR, LAS VEGAS and DISMAY. Sid and Mrs May are such an unlikely pairing in a clue.
Thanks, Hectence and newmarketsausage.
muffin @8 —
Yes, something like that is probably the intent. I sometimes wonder how many levels of indirection are acceptable in an indicator. “Arrange” can certainly indicate the act of anagramming. Then a word like “hatch”, which is more or less synonymous with a different sense of the word “arrange”, becomes acceptable. After not very many such steps, it seems that practically any word becomes an anagrind.
That’s my dose of curmudgeonliness for the day. I should add that I did quite enjoy this puzzle.
Ted @11
Yes, it does seem to be going in the direction of “anything goes” as an anagram indicator. “Hatch” isn’t the most off-the-wall that I’ve seen!
gasmanjack @ 6
As an example, “interest was awoken by” = “interest was inspired by”
I too was a bit puzzled at first, but then hit on this usage — fair enough, I think.
I found TIE THE KNOT difficult to parse, although obvious from the crossers. I remembered that a windsor was a type of knot, but not that it was specific to ties. (Been a long time since I wore won of those . . .) Many thanks for the explanation, newmarketsausage.
I was wondering if today’s Shed was an attempt by the setter to break into the Quiptic slot . . .
If anyone sees this, can s/he please explain to me why, in 4d, RU = “game”?
A belated thank you to Hectence and newmarketsausage.
Geoff @14
RU is the abbreviation for Rugby Union, as opposed to RL which is Rugby League. Both are games but the former is used more frequently in cryptic puzzles.
Gaufrid @15
Thank you very much!