Quiptic 925 by Matilda

17 comments on “Quiptic 925 by Matilda”

1. Thanks both. Promising start, although I thought that MARE and CHINA were too tough for a Quiptic

2. Thanks nms – you’ve missed out the answer to 7d (though you have spelled it out in your explanation), and you seem to have confused yourself about the definition of 27a.

   I thought this was mostly well suited to the Quiptic slot, so welcome to Matilda, though I agree with Shirl about MARE and CHINA; especially the former, as ?A?E notoriously has a very large number of possibilities (Chambers gives 160).

   Brighton & Hove has been a unitary authority since 1997, so maybe that is the sense in which it is no longer in East Sussex.

3. I’ll see Shirl @1 and raise her ORGANIC and CANTATA as being beyond the Quiptic remit. Otherwise, fairly clued and enjoyable.

4. Andrew, thank you. 7d answer now there.

   I intended the comment at 27a to apply to 18d – I’m not sure ‘wrong’ is a very good definition of travesty. That is also now sorted out.

   On Brighton, I wondered about the unitary authority business. But does that mean Brighton isn’t in East Sussex now (or Sussex, as I still think of it.) 🙂

5. another member of the G Brighton mafia?

6. Thank you Matilda and newmarketsausage.

   An enjoyable Quipic, but agree with Shirl@1 about the clues for MARE and CHINA. I especially liked the clues for DARK HORSE, LIBEL, AVOCADO, ALLOTMENT and CANTATA, as well as those for the two long answers.

   As Andrew @2 states, the City of Brighton and Hove is now a unitary authority, apparently it is geographically considered to be part of East Sussex, but in governance terms it acts independently of both East and West Sussex – rather confusing as regards the clue and I wonder how one now addresses envelopes?

7. Thanks Matilda and nms.
   I read 8D as ALL OVER (finished) THE (article) on (connector) PLACE (location)

8. Teaching bad habits to newbies tut tut! That means I think this is too ‘loose’ by the way.

9. Welcome to Matilda.

   One or two less convincing clues, and I didn’t much like CHINA or MARE (in fact, I gave up on the latter, since I never think of looking for ‘lift and separate’ clues in a Quiptic).

   But overall, some pleasing stuff for this level, I thought. Always like to do two or three puzzles from a new setter before offering any definitive comments, so I’ll look forward to the next ones.

   Thanks to nms for the blog.

10. @Ramki

    Thanks. In the breakdown for 8d I forgot to put ‘article’ in brackets after the THE. Now corrected.

    Must have been a bit dozy this morning 🙂

11. Thanks Matilda and nms
    Very pleasant, though with MARE, CANTATA and CHINA not really Quiptic (though CHINA was my favourite clue, in fact.)

12. An iota is tiny, but I don’t think an it is a “part” of anything. The solution to 20 could just as easily be Sunday as sundae, with the definition being “day off”. These ambiguous homophone clues should always have a crosser to resolve them. In this case the deciding letter was the last, so the correct solution amounts to a fiat by the setter.

13. Rompiballe @12
    “Ice cream on day off”, it’s said (6)
    I don’t think the solution could be SUNDAY – “it’s said” clearly refers to the day off, so the solution is the other homophone.

14. @muffin
    I agree with you about the lack of ambiguity in the solution for SUNDAE. My problem is with the word “on” in the clue

15. baerchen @14
    “Day off from ice cream, we hear” would unambiguously give SUNDAY without the awkward “on”

16. I also wondered about the “once” in 2d. If Wikipedia is to be believed, East Sussex is a “ceremonial county”. If one is worried about the distinction between that and an actual county, then 19a, not 2d, is the clue that needs some sort of modification. It seems clear that East Sussex is still something, and that Brighton is currently in it, so “once” in 2d isn’t right.

    On another topic, I’m generally in favor of including lift-and-separate clues in Quiptics. They show up often enough in the regular cryptics that it’s good for new solvers to be exposed to them. But everything else about such a clue should be especially gentle and straightforward. Personally, I thought that CHINA was more appropriate for a Quiptic than MARE.

    In general, doesn’t the Guardian use numerals, rather than numbers written out as words, for cross-references in clues? I didn’t think that “Fifteen” in 11a could be a cross-reference for that reason.

17. I read 1d as a double definition: “hardly any” (metaphorically) and “low tide” (somewhat cryptically, but literally).

    Thanks, Matilda and nms.

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