Guardian Quiptic 984/Anto

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One of the regular Quiptic setters, Anto, is on the oche this morning.

 

 

 

Some of the arrows he/she has thrown at us are, only in my opinion of course, missing the target, or in a couple of cases, missing the dartboard altogether. His/her supporters will no doubt disagree, and I can feel nil carborundum coming on. Over to you.

Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) missing

definitions are underlined

Across

1 Where can you finds items in store so disorganised? (3,4,3,4)
ALL OVER THE SHOP
The last time I checked, only the third person singular of regular verbs in English inflected by adding an s, so we’ll just put ‘finds’ rather than ‘find’ down to the setter’s carelessness. A cd cum dd.

8 Lightly cover edges with a versatile material (5)
LYCRA
You need to add an A to the ‘edges’ of the first two words of the clue to arrive at the solution.

9 Biographical advice for the dead boring (3,1,4)
GET A LIFE
The best I can say about this is that it’s a whimsical cd.

11 Vintage poster depicting Boys in Blue (3,4)
OLD BILL
A charade of OLD and BILL.

12 Rural post office converted into salon (7)
PARLOUR
(RURAL PO)*

13 Island displays measure of interest in racing centre (5)
CAPRI
An insertion of APR for Annual Percentage Rate in CI for the central letters of ‘racing’.

15 Upset academic spoke at length (7,2)
RATTLED ON
A charade of RATTLE and DON.

17 Spotted outbreak contracted from child’s waste container (5,4)
NAPPY RASH
A cd.

20 Half of them rumble with a rhythmic sound (5)
THRUM
The setter is asking to you take half of the letters of THem and RUMble to get your answer.

21 Damaged carriage lacking starter causes turbulence in flight (3,4)
AIR RAGE
([C]ARRIAGE)* I’m not an aviation expert, but the surface seems meaningless to me.

23 It’s shown to those getting cards (3,4)
THE DOOR
Another cd.

25 Finished on the double? That’s a bit excessive (8)
OVERDONE
Two synonyms for ‘finished’ – OVER and DONE – give you the solution.

26 Complain about check on basic piece of information (5)
BITCH
A charade of BIT and CH, with the only problem being what to do with ‘about’, since BITCH doesn’t mean ‘complain about’. You can’t say ‘Pierre bitched Anto’s crossword as usual’.

27 Dealing with old remains in a mad alcoholic rage (14)
ARCHAEOLOGICAL
A charade of A and (ALCOHOLIC RAGE)* Good clue, good surface, nice spot for the anagram.

Down

1 Complete dietary description appreciated by gluttons (3,3,3,3)
ALL YOU CAN EAT
Another not very convincing cd cum dd.

2 Tied up leaders in long and complicated European debates (5)
LACED
The initial letters of the last five words of the clue.

3 Chance of success when Vatican replaces Head of Debt (9)
VIABILITY
You need to replace the first letter of LIABILITY with V. V is the international car registration for Vatican City.

4 Frequent customer having predictable movements (7)
REGULAR
A dd.

5 Dangerous location from which to get stolen jumpers returned (3,4)
HOT SPOT
A charade of HOT and TOPS reversed.

6 Reflect back some natural oscillations from the sun (5)
SOLAR
Hidden reversed in natuRAL OScillations.

7 Propose restricting route for this type of vehicle (3-6)
OFF-ROADER
An insertion of ROAD in OFFER.

10 Gather in support for impressive parade leader (5,7)
GRAND MARSHAL
I can only suggest that this is a charade of GRAND for ‘impressive’ and MARSHAL for ‘gather in support’. How the subsidiary indication tells us to get there, I know not. The term is flagged in all my dictionaries as American English usage, which means that the term is unlikely to be immediately obvious to most solvers. I am politely suggesting, in other words, that this is not an ideal clue for a puzzle advertised as being for ‘beginners and those in a hurry’.

14 Re-approve complicated approach to handling unwelcome cracks (5,4)
PAPER OVER
(REAPPROVE)*, referencing the phrase PAPER OVER THE CRACKS.

16 Old carrier with defect, one that damages the environment (9)
LITTERBUG
A charade of LITTER in its ‘stretcher’ sense and BUG in its computer sense.

18 Express disappointment with problem — it all sounds so daunting (7)
AWESOME
A homophone of AW! (or perhaps AAAW …) and SUM with ‘it all sounds so’ as the homophone indicator.

19 Attractive lead, perhaps taking time out for curry? (3,4)
HOT MEAL
I suppose if you take ‘lead’ as ‘leading actress’ the surface makes some sense. But you need to read it as the metal ‘lead’ (Pb) to get your solution: it’s a charade of HOT and ME[T]AL.

22 Express frustration after removing clip from graphical representation (5)
AARGH
AAAW, AARGH … Anto is full of emotion this morning. (GRA[P]H[I][C]A[L])* with ‘representation’ as the anagrind.

24 It measures spirits of subject as temperature drops (5)
OPTIC
TOPIC with the T moved two positions down.

Many thanks to Anto for this morning’s puzzle.

23 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 984/Anto”

  1. In 10, gather = marshal, “in support” means it’s below the word meaning impressive. But I agree it’s not a great clue.

  3. Thanks Anto and Pierre

    This was mostly fine, with ARCHAEOLOGICAL favourite (once I had put the second A in!). The last few proved sticky, though. GRAND MARSHAL was unknown to me, so guessed from crossers. HOT MEAL doesn’t see to have a proper definition (“curry” isn’t called a “hot meal”, even if it might be one), and the HOT isn’t clued properly either.

    OFF-ROADER is weak as the “road” has the same meaning in the wordplay as in the definition.

  5. Shirl @4

    You wouldn’t say “I’m going out for a hot meal” if you meant “I’m going out for a curry”, would you?

  6. I have to confess, I was disappointed with much of this one. I couldn’t parse Capri, Viability and Lycra – so many thanks to Pierre for your reliably lucid explanations – although even then it still took me a while to ”see” Lycra. I also agree about Grand Marshall and the “about” in Bitch. I winced at Aargh, and wasn’t wild about Hot appearing twice – although I don’t mind a curry being described as a hot meal. My faves were Archaeological and Optic. Thanks to Anto – now for the cryptic…

  11. Thanks for the blog. Colloquially “to bitch about” and “to complain about” are synonymous IMO. With some notable exceptions I thought the surfaces were quite good, enjoyed the puzzle.

  12. I had no trouble with this and I am usually on the lookout for a dodgy clue from Anto.

    I thought he kept a clean sheet here-especially compared to the so-called cryptic.

  15. Check on basic piece of information leads to complaint ??
    (Have A bitch about)
    Thank you Anto and Pierre.

  16. The reason, BlogginTheBlog, that Pierre nearly always gets to blog Anto is that Pierre is scheduled to blog every other Quiptic and Anto is a regular Quiptic setter.  If you mean by ‘predictable’ that I usually opine that some of Anto’s clues are not great, or inappropriate for the Quiptic slot then that’s because they aren’t.  That’s my opinion (and, if you reread previous blogs – not just mine – the opinion of a good many other contributors).    I, and the other volunteers, could just explain the parsing of thirty clues and not express an opinion about them, but the point of Fifteensquared is that we can all offer our thoughts on the puzzle and help less experienced solvers to understand what’s going on.  You obviously thought it was an okay puzzle, although you didn’t take the time to say so or explain why.  Just bitching about who the blogger is isn’t really contributing much to the discussion.

  17. Thanks to Anto for the puzzle and to Pierre for the blog.

    I thought that having both the intersecting long answers at 1a+d beginning with ALL, plus the double use of HOT **** in col 9 was a bit inelegant. Also, Anto does tend in my opinion to use grid entries which seem to be snipped from longer phrases, exemplified here by THE DOOR, which don’t really mean anything – to me, at any rate.

    What we’ve certainly learned over the last couple of years is that Pierre doesn’t rate Anto overmuch and that Hugh clearly does.

  18. Thanks Anto, Pierre

    I’m intrigued by GET A LIFE. I can see at least three ways of getting to the solution: biographical advice = get a life (buy a biography), advice for the dead, and ‘boring’ as a general interjection/complaint. Or maybe it’s ‘biographical advice for the dead + boring’ or maybe it’s ‘biographical advice/advice for the dead boring’.

    Oh, the irony

  19. Compared with Anto’s earlier efforts, I thought this was quite good. (Sorry if that sounds like faint praise.) Some of the CDs were uninspired, but the clues were mostly sound, and the surfaces and overall level of playfulness were much better than in previous offerings.

     

     

  20. Thank you Anto and Pierre.  I appreciate very much the bloggers, both for explaining the parsing where I have been to dense to see it, and for their opinions on the puzzle with added explanations.  I also love the (usually) witty banter in the comments.  So thanks to all, really.

  21. Thanks, Pierre. I solved the puzzle, in that I successfully filled in the letters, but I couldn’t fully parse OVERDONE, VIABILITY, OR OPTIC without your help. Pierre, is it a problem in 19d that the “lead” in the solution is different to the “lead” in the surface? It didn’t bother me that they’re homographs, but is that generally not done?

  22. Hi Matt.  No, the ‘lead’ and ‘lead’ bits of 19d are exactly the kind of misleading homographs that setters use.  I didn’t explain myself very well.  The clue works fine.

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