Anto’s turn in the Quiptic slot this week.
| Across | ||
| 1 | MIASMA | Morning’s end sees return of bad atmosphere (6) |
| A reversal (sees return) of AMS (morning’s) AIM (end) | ||
| 4 | PLANET | Energy content of vegetation on which we live (6) |
| An insertion (content of) of E (enegry) into PLANT (vegetation) | ||
| 9 | UNCHARTED WATERS | A crew that’s under-represented creates new situation (9,6) |
| An anagram (represented) of A CREW THATS UNDER | ||
| 10 | GANDHI | Hindu pacifist engaged in booing and hissing (6) |
| An answer hidden in (engaged in) booinG AND HIssing | ||
| 11 | PHONETIC | Pitch one made strange as it sounds (8) |
| An anagram (made strange) of PITCH ONE | ||
| 12 | DEAD HEAT | Suffocated by temperature: it couldn’t be closer (4,4) |
| I assume this is intended to be DEAD (suffocated) next to (by) HEAT (temperature). But is ‘suffocated’ really equivalent to ‘dead’? | ||
| 14 | NEATER | Narrative account editor gutted is now in better order (6) |
| The first and last letters (gutted) of NarrativE AccounT EditoR | ||
| 15 | VACANT | Blank sign that you can enter bog (6) |
| Two definitions. Blank = VACANT. Sign that you can enter bog = VACANT | ||
| 18 | IN CREDIT | Showing a surplus, having incorporated Republican amendment (2,6) |
| INC (incorporated) R (republican) EDIT (amendment) | ||
| 21 | ASTERISK | Having lost weight, squander chance to be a star (8) |
| ASTE (squander = waste, with the W = weight removed) RISK (chance) | ||
| 22 | ACROSS | The way to go when solving this type of clue (6) |
| A vaguely cryptic definition | ||
| 24 | UNDER THE WEATHER | Terribly rude, when theatre is off (5,3,7) |
| An anagram (terribly) of RUDE WHEN THEATRE | ||
| 25 | LUSTRE | Temptation to acquire stone showing such radiance (6) |
| LURE (temptation) containing (to acquire) ST (stone) | ||
| 26 | CURSED | Swore when son landed in pickled (6) |
| An insertion (landed in) of S (son) in CURED (pickled). I assumed there was a misprint here at first, the surface reading not making much sense | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MAN CAVE | Staff warning — women not welcome here? (3,4) |
| MAN (staff) CAVE (warning) | ||
| 2 | APHID | Insect sheltered under a pinhead (5) |
| HID (sheltered) below (under) A (a) P (pinhead) | ||
| 3 | MARMITE | Spoil little kid that really divides opinion (7) |
| MAR (spoil) MITE (little kid) | ||
| 5 | LOWDOWN | Mean gossip (7) |
| Two definitions. Mean = LOWDOWN. Gossip = LOWDOWN | ||
| 6 | NOTRE DAME | Dreamt one rebuilt a French cathedral (5-4) |
| An anagram (rebuilt) of DREAMT ONE | ||
| 7 | TURBINE | Dry riser in energy generator (7) |
| A reversal (riser) of BRUT (dry) followed by IN (in) E (energy). A second outing for E = energy | ||
| 8 | DESPOT | Base where society is hiding tyrant (6) |
| An insertion (where … is hiding) of S (society) into DEPOT (base) | ||
| 13 | DIAMETERS | Servant climbing damaged trees to get ring widths (9) |
| A reversal (climbing) of MAID (servant) and an anagram (damaged) of TREES | ||
| 16 | ARSENAL | Planes race to carry back store of arms (7) |
| An answer hidden in reverse (to carry back) in pLANES RAce | ||
| 17 | Wire three times? Strange way to send short message (7) | |
| An anagram (strange) of WIRE and TTT (three times) | ||
| 18 | INK JET | Print technique used to protect squids (3,3) |
| A reference to a squid’s ink sac | ||
| 19 | CHATEAU | It can make wine from cat water in France (7) |
| CHAT (French for cat) EAU (French for water) | ||
| 20 | INSTEAD | Rather stained potty (7) |
| An anagram (potty) of STAINED | ||
| 23 | ROTAS | Lists item dropped by riot teams (5) |
| RIOT TEAMS minus (dropped) the letters of ITEM | ||
Thanks both. Too difficult for a Quiptic, IMHO. I share your misgivings about 26a
Thanks Anto and nms
Very nice – more amusing than Nutmeg’s cryptic, unusually. Several good anagrams, especially PHONETIC and NOTRE DAME. A pity about the nonsensical 26.
I wonder if the French hear “castle” as “cat water”. I always wondered what they made of the Chinese leader Chou-En-Lai?
26 could have been CURSES: Swears when son lands in pickles
…though I suppose the version as given might e referring to picking up an offspring from the airport after he had overindulged in alcohol on the plane?
I think Anto is improving and not a bad Quiptic considering Nutmeg’s excellent Cryptic was headlining
Not bonkers on the CHATEAU clue(both obvious and inelegant) but really liked MARMITE.
Thanks everyone.
The Wellbeck household enjoyed marmite too, and chateau had a pleasingly silly quality to it. (We’d never considered how the French feel about it, but we like the fact that for them, a ‘water-tower’ is a ‘water-chateau’….)
Another fine Anto puzzle – but hardly satisfying the stated aim for the Quiptic slot.
I sense a tougher setter struggling to be easy but not quite making it.
Thanks Anto and nms
I agree with Shirl @1 and Muffin @2 about the difficulty.
While I understand the concern about suffocated = dead in 12a, I have a bigger problem with temperature = heat. I can still recall my science teacher saying, “There’s more heat in a bucket of cold water than a red hot pin.”
I think in many ways the setter has an easier task compiling a Cryptic puzzle. To achieve a challenging Quiptic without straying too deeply into Cryptic territory can’t be easy. Though todays was on the edge I thought Anto did a good job.
Now the ‘easier’ Monday puzzle seems to be a thing of the past, the Quiptic slot is all the more relevant. Hopefully it won’t just end up an easier Cryptic for the experienced solver.
I found this much too difficult. There were several clues I didn’t get until I used Chambers Word Wizard, which I regard as cheating. I’m not nearly as advanced a solver as many people here, but it’s been a while since I’ve been thoroughly defeated by a Quiptic.
I agree with both complaints about 12a, and 22a is a very weak cd, but otherwise the cluing was sound and sometimes clever, so other than the difficulty I thought it was a pretty good puzzle.