Hectence is in the Quiptic slot this week.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SATIN | Located fashionable fabric (5) |
| SAT (located) IN (fashionable) | ||
| 4 | SNATCHES | Beats back revolutionary’s initial success in short bursts (8) |
| A reversal (back) of TANS (beats), CHE (revolutionary) next to (‘s = has) S (initial success = first letter of success) | ||
| 8 | MATRON OF HONOUR | Chief bridesmaid, running to ’n’ fro after mother, gets praise (6,2,6) |
| An anagram (running) of TO N FRO after (after) MA (mother) next to (gets) HONOUR (praise) | ||
| 10 | OMELETTE | At home let tea include cooked eggs (8) |
| An answer hidden in (include) hOME LET TEa. The ‘at’ seems to be just window dressing | ||
| 11 | TUREEN | Go to cover drugs with dish (6) |
| TURN (go) containing (to cover) EE (drugs) | ||
| 12 | DEEP SPACE | Went back to room that’s out of this world (4,5) |
| A reversal (back) of PEED (went) next to (to) SPACE (room). A second outing for ‘back’ as a reversal indicator | ||
| 15 | RUPEE | Aristocrat, briefly following sport, gives money (5) |
| PEE (aristocrat briefly = peer minus its last letter) after (following) RU (sport) | ||
| 17 | TARRY | Remain with car caught in river (5) |
| RR (car) contained in (caught in) TAY (river) | ||
| 18 | DWINDLING | Getting less flatulence after starting dinner with fish (9) |
| WIND (flatulence) following (after) D (starting dinner = first letter of dinner) next to (with) LING (fish) | ||
| 19 | REJOIN | Check girl’s included in come back (6) |
| An insertion (is included) of JO (girl) in REIN (check) | ||
| 21 | MIGHTIER | May hear broadcast, it’s more powerful (8) |
| I assume this is intended to be MIGHT (may) and then IER, a homophone (broadcast) of hear with the aitch dropped | ||
| 24 | ON THE SMALL SIDE | Towards the thin end of the wedge? (2,3,5,4) |
| I don’t understand this, I’m afraid. Is it intended as a cryptic definition? | ||
| 25 | EASY LIFE | I say flee disorder for a stress-free existence (4,4) |
| An anagram (disorder) of I SAY FLEE | ||
| 26 | SWEAT | Worry about waste (5) |
| An anagram (about) of WASTE | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SAME OLD STORY | Mayoress told off, it’s happened before (4,3,5) |
| An anagram (off) of MAYORESS TOLD | ||
| 2 | TO THE REAR | Small child and woman are travelling behind (2,3,4) |
| TOT (small child) next to (and) HER (woman) and an anagram (travelling) of ARE | ||
| 3 | NOOSE | Used for hanging key with small ring on back (5) |
| A reversal (back) of E (key) next to (with) S (small) O (ring) ON (on). A third outing for ‘back’ as a reversal indicator | ||
| 4 | SHORTHAND | Temporary help with stenography (9) |
| SHORT (temporary) HAND (help) | ||
| 5 | ACHE | Each movement causes pain (4) |
| An anagram (movement) of EACH | ||
| 6 | CONQUERED | Agreed report’s to be suppressed (9) |
| A homophone (report) of CONCURRED (agreed) | ||
| 7 | ELUDE | Flee from Spain after ridiculous duel (5) |
| E (Spain) following (after) an anagram (ridiculous) of DUEL | ||
| 9 | UNDERGARMENT | Perhaps slip down ahead of man carrying weapon (12) |
| UNDER (down) before (ahead of) GENT (man) containing (carrying) ARM (weapon) | ||
| 13 | STYLISHLY | Still shy about start of year with class (9) |
| An anagram (about) of STILL SHY followed by Y (start of year = first letter of year). A second outing for ‘about’ as an anagram indicator | ||
| 14 | ELIMINATE | With distance to return home, dined on take out (9) |
| A reversal (to return) of MILE (distance) followed by (on) IN (home) and ATE (dined) | ||
| 16 | PRIMITIVE | Proper musical makes brief comeback after one that’s crude (9) |
| PRIM (proper), I (one) followed by a reversal (makes … comeback) of EVITA (musical) minus its last letter (brief) | ||
| 20 | JENGA | Judge England/Australia game (5) |
| J (judge) ENG (England) A (Australia) | ||
| 22 | HALTS | Stops husband taking keys (5) |
| H (husband) followed by (taking) ALTS (keys) | ||
| 23 | ASTI | Amphora still contains wine (4) |
| An answer hidden in (contains) amphorA STIll | ||
Thanks Hectence and nms
Not one of Hectence’s best. I only got 24a by guessing and checking, and it doesn’t make sense to me either. 6d isn’t a good homophone as the words are stressed differently, and a case could be made for entering CONCURRED as the answer. “Flee” and “ELUDE could both mean “escape”, but in different senses.
I didn’t parse NOOSE.
Favourites were DWINDLING and SWEAT.
Thanks both. Tricky for a Quiptic
Re 21a – I think that “ear” is sometimes equivalent to “hear”, not just to Cockneys!
CONCURRED and CONQUERED are simply not homophones.
JENGA was new to me, but it’s not really Quiptic-friendly.
I shall now cease being a grumper and thank H & N.
Thanks Hectence and nms
Some lovely examples of what a good surface should be. 5 is a gem.
Thanks Hectence and NMS.
I think CONQUERED and concurred are near enough homophones even if the stressing is different. I did try concurred as the answer at first.
I thought this was going to be easy as about 3/4 went in quickly, but I then ground to a halt. Overall, probably a bit more difficult than today’s cryptic from another Quiptic setter.
I agree with Robi about concurred / conquered – and, indeed, have encountered several equally loose homophones in crossword clues.
This was a curate’s egg crossword for me: Ache, Dwindling, Mightier, Primitive and Shorthand were clever and satisfying to solve; 25A, however, was anything but! I’ve never encountered “the thin end of the wedge” being used in connection with smallness – although in the end I incorrectly put in “On The Small Size” since I could make nothing else of it and I was hoping that, as so often, the FS blog would reveal some brilliantly convoluted parsing which had escaped me. I made a mess of 4A too: I had Swatches rather than Snatches – reasoning “swat” for “beating back”, and swatches of material being…well…small pieces. Was no happier with this than with 24A, admittedly. Clearly I’m not on form today, but be that as it may, would I be right in suspecting Quiptics are no longer designed to be at an easier level than Cryptics?
Thanks to Hectence for the brain-teazing, and the Newmarketsausage for the much-needed virtual aspirin…
I found this extremely difficult and wasn’t able to fill in the entire right side until I started cheating. I was convinced that 6D had to somehow be CONFORMED with form = report. I was also defeated by REJOIN and JENGA. I’ve heard of Jenga but I must have never seen it written as I still had to google it after I revealed it.
What I thought was great here was the number of clever and witty surfaces, some sounding like quirky headlines, others just conjuring up nice images. “Mayoress told off, it’s happened before” was maybe the best, but there were lots more.
Many thanks Hectence and newmarketsausage.
This was by far the most difficult Quiptic I’ve seen in ages. I managed to struggle through, but just barely. I’m not usually a member of the homophone police, but both of today’s homophone clues seemed dodgy to me, and I remain baffled by 24ac.
I liked 24ac. A wedge has one large side and one small side (like a door stop or cartoon slice of cheese). If you’re “towards the thin end (i.e. small side) of the wedge”, then you’re “on the small side” of the wedge.