Anto is on the oche for the Bank Holiday Quiptic. I am out now for the rest of the day but will be happy to answer any queries on my return.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Vitality of English model occupied by publicity
ESPRIT
An insertion of PR in E and SIT.
5 Musical territory initially extended!
OKLAHOMA
An explanation of this one is beyond me, I’m afraid. Some kind soul will come to my rescue, I’m sure.
9 Bully British legal lord gone astray
BLUDGEON
A charade of B, LUD and (GONE)*
10 Mother and grandmother provide a vague timeline
MAÑANA
A charade of MA and NANA.
11 Where criminals are starting to spend time in rehab
STIR
The first letters of the last four words of the clue.
12 Landlord’s position, where conversion is successful?
OVER THE BAR
A cd cum dd, referencing rugby in the second part.
13 Drunk in dry section is nasty
UNKIND
Hidden in drUNK IN Dry.
14 Capture invaders’ leader inside stronghold? No way!
FORGET IT
An insertion of GET and I in FORT.
16 Heather by lake provides attractive covering
LINGERIE
A charade of LING and ERIE.
19 Pathetic thing with a replacement for old …
ABJECT
OBJECT with the O replaced by A.
20 … working stiffs from Haiti, perhaps
LIVING DEAD
A charade of LIVING and DEAD, and referencing (I think) the voodoo tradition from Haiti. Someone can perhaps explain this more fully than I am able to.
22 Spinning line for a boundary return
AXIS
A charade of A and SIX reversed.
23 Metal container for one doubly fine light meal
TIFFIN
An insertion of I and FF in TIN.
24 Protest turning to take on mean sort of bandit …
ONE-ARMED
An insertion of NEAR in DEMO reversed.
25 … determined he will shortly corrupt
HELL-BENT
A charade of HELL (from HE’LL) and BENT.
26 Poles central to fat star’s decline
SUNSET
An insertion of N and S in SUET.
Down
2 The answer is to be finally solved, for example
SPLIT INFINITIVE
A SPLIT INFINITIVE is shown in the clue: ‘to be finally solved’. The ‘don’t split an infinitive’ rule is a load of bollocks.
3 Either way, it pings your location back
RADAR
RADAR is a palindrome.
4 Where customs are surprisingly bothered by river
THE BORDER
(BOTHERED R)*
5 Object of advice from Shakespeare about being straight?
OWNSELF
Referring to the Shakespearean quote from Hamlet: ‘to thine ownself be true‘.
6 Perimeter came down, infiltrated by Military Intelligence
LIMIT
An insertion of MI in LIT, I think.
7 Such coordination needed for effective strike
HAND-EYE
A (not very convincing) cd.
8 Language for Whitehall type to take away, perhaps
MANDARIN CHINESE
A charade of MANDARIN and CHINESE.
15 What to do, if letter can’t be delivered? Study cover
READDRESS
A charade of READ and DRESS.
17 Fail with gun reform? It can be rewarding
GAINFUL
(FAIL GUN)*
18 Occasion where French is accommodated for balance
EVEN OUT
An insertion of OÙ in EVENT.
21 Writer neglected part about style
GENRE
Hidden reversed in writER NEGlected.
22 Protection for source of maternal bonds?
APRON
Referring to the phrase ‘attached to mummy’s apron strings’.
Many thanks to Anto for today’s Quiptic.
5a: the title of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical has an exclamation mark at the end, and Oklahoma was a Territory (or two) before becoming a state in 1907.
In 2d, “to finally be solved” would be a split infinitive; “to be finally..” is not, so the clue is faulty as well as hopelessly vague.
Six-letter answers with only two checked letters, in a Quiptic?
I think I’d better leave it there.
Thanks Anto and Pierre
Usual mixed bag from Anto. I liked UNKIND, LINGERIE and AXIS. I have no idea about OKLAHOMA either. BLUDGEON doesn’t mean “bully” in any sense. Why is a landlord “over” the bar? OWNSELF would be impossible if one doesn’t know the quotation.
I solved about half of this puzzle, and gave up due to shortage of time. Unfortunately, I saw the answer to 2d in the Guardian blog and it spoilt my attempt at solving this puzzle, not knowing if I would have solved that clue or not.
It was interesting to read the blog, but I do not think this puzzle can described as “quick and easy for beginners” by any stretch. Pity, because sometimes it is fun to do two puzzles in one day – but I do not have hours and hours to spend on it!
Thanks blogger and setter
In the song Oklahoma! the first O is stretched out as in ‘Oooooooh klahoma’. Does that explain the ‘initially extended’ here? Agree that the split infinitive isn’t one! Some odd clues and answers. Thanks to setter and blogger.
Good suggestion, Alison!
Thanks both. Once again I remind myself that this puzzle is free and I don’t have to do it, but it is typical Anto, with all that implies.
I thought that, as OK is the abbreviation for Oklahoma, this could be “extended” to make the full word. But I do like Alison’s version @4
Thank you Anto and Pierre.
I, too, think Alison Copland’s @4 idea for OKLAHOMA is good, I was completely foxed by the clue and first entered FINLANDIA, which is not a musical. I also entered GENET first at 21d before spotting the hidden word.
I liked the clues for LINGERIE, APRON, UNKIND, ONE-ARMED and HELL-BENT, but, if Alison is right, my favourite is OKLAHOMA!
muffin @2, BLUDGEON is given as a synonym for ‘Bully’ on several on-line sites, I admit I had to check.
Hi Cookie
I associate “bludgeon” with blunt instruments and physical force!
Hi muffin @8, me too, but the COED also gives for BLUDGEON “coerce v.tr. persuade or restrain (an unwilling person) by force (coerced you into signing)”.
Typical Anto. It took longer to do this than the normal DT Rufus.
Re 5a. I suspect its a reference to the fact that before Oklahoma became a state it consisted of two territories, Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory.
As usual, tough for a Quiptic.
I agree with others about the unsplit infinitive – easily rectified and something the editor should have picked up.
I liked SUNSET and READDRESS.
Re AXIS, doesn’t a boundary = four?
swatty @11
Cricket commentators have indeed started referring to “boundary fours” and “maximums”, but, when I was playing, fours and sixes were all “boundaries”.
how can there be triple unches in any G crossword, much less one aimed at improvers?
baerchen @13
I did raise an eyebrow at that, and they were two of my last three in (with AXIS), but I did think that UNKIND was a nice unexpected “hidden”, which, after all, should be the easiest type of clue.
Inexcusable puzzle.
I don’t buy any of the explanations for 5a.
As noted, 2d is wrong. If you’re going to clue something as a cryptic definition, with no subsidiary indication, is it too much to ask that the definition be right?
“The border” is not a set phrase as far as I know.
“Ownself” is not a word, and I’m pretty sure that it’s written as two words in every edition of Hamlet that I’ve seen.
(I know there’s a culture of politeness at this site, and that overly negative comments are frowned upon. In general, I like that very much, but in some cases negativity is warranted.)
I have found an instance of “ownself” here
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/hamlet/hamlet.1.3.html
I agree that “own self” seems to commoner, though.
My original objection that there was no way to solve this without knowing the quotation stands, though.
Ted @15 again
I don’t understand your objection to THE BORDER. The customs station is at “the border”, surely?
@muffin 17
precisely.
The answer is “at the border”.
Unfortunately, we are required to enter “the border”.
Tweeting replies to Donald Trump and posting constructive criticism of Anto Quiptic crosswords are the two most pointless activities on earth
muffin @17 —
Sharks swim in the ocean. Is “the ocean” a suitable light in a crossword? I don’t think so.
Yes, I see what you both mean. It does seem to requite the “at”.
“require”!
[baerchen
I suspect that you might enjoy this
]
@muffin
[your suspicions were bang on! Thanks…]
As usual, Anto left me with lots of questions. The one about how a six can be a boundary has been answered and I feel in good company being flummoxed by OKLAHOMA and miffed about the unsplit infinitive but I’d appreciate it if someone could help me with these:
– what is this LUD/legal lord thing?
– what does “over the bar” mean with respect to a landlord?
It seems Anto has replaced Otterden as the whipping boy of the crossword world!
BloeDot@24
“MuLud” is what “My Lord” sounds like in English courts. As I said earlier, “over the bar” baffled me too.
@BlueDot
m’lud= my lord, of course, but I don’t personally think the two components “m'” and “lud” can be separated.
Drinks are served “over the bar”. A landlord is “behind the bar”.
I think.
No, not an impressive effort, I’m afraid.
Three consecutive unchecked letters is really not acceptable in what is supposed to be a relatively easy puzzle.
I don’t have a particular problem with 5a. The name of OK-LAHOMA does extend the initials by which it is known. As the (dreary, IMHO) song, has it “Oklahoma – O K!”
I can’t make up my mind about 9a. Granted, the expression “m’lud” is never split into its component parts; but it is the (pompous) lawyer’s way of saying “my lord” and accordingly “legal LORD” is indeed “LUD”
12a just about works. “Over” meaning “put in charge of”.
I don’t see anything at all wrong with 22a – a six is a boundary; it is not necessary that a boundary must be a six. However, I really can see nothing at all to commend 20a.
2d is really rather a shame. With a bit of care on the part of the compiler or the editor, this would have been quite a neat little clue.
5d is naughty. Chambers 11th ed (the most recent I’ve got) doesn’t include OWNSELF, though Wiktionary suggests it exists in “Singlish” (a form of English-based creole spoken in Singapore) and the online OED suggests that it may be a regional usage. We ought to have been given some indicator that the answer was non-standard English. Had it been given as (3, 4) it still wouldn’t have been very good, but it would have been legitimate.
Initially, I didn’t want to say anything about this puzzle.
But Neil H @28 mentioned some things I fully agree with, including his explanation of OKLAHOMA (5ac).
It’s clear that the main gripes are 2d, the grid and 5d – all three should not have gone past the editor.
But it’s carelessness of the setter too.
Apart from that, I’ll have to say that about 80% of this crossword fell into place rather quickly without my usual Moaning & Groaning.
Anto’s technique has become less sloppy, in my opinion, but his cryptic definitions should still be banned for a while (like 12ac (in part), 5d, 7d and 22d).
On earlier occasions, I’ve questioned the (over)use of this device in a Quiptic anyway.
Some solvers (here and at the Guardian thread) made clear that Anto doesn’t belong in the Quiptic section but, instead, should be ‘promoted’ to the Cryptic.
The first thing is true, the second a misunderstanding.
Let’s leave it there.
I’m glad that others have been commenting on this being rather harder than “for beginners and those in a hurry”, as I found it rather a slog.