Another delightful Quiptic from Carpathian, just right for this slot. Since the puzzle, and the blog, are essentially aimed at new or less-experienced solvers, I have tried to explain the clue structures in a bit more detail this morning. If lurkers need any more detail, I will be happy to help – just ask.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Entertained by commercial featuring Clio, perhaps
AMUSED
An insertion of MUSE in AD. Clio is one of the nine MUSES in Greek mythology (of history in her case), and is nearly but not quite as popular with setters as her mate Erato. The surface is of course referring to the Renault car.
6 Watch voyeurs playing without ball
SURVEY
(V[O]YEURS)* The ball is the letter O (by convention – it’s round); the removal indicator is ‘without’; the anagrind is ‘playing’.
9 Suspicions of Heather being covered in tattoos
INKLINGS
An insertion of LING in INKS. LING for ‘Heather’ is very common in cryptics, so is worth tucking away for future use. Heather, like Clio and Erato, is a popular girl. She can also transform herself into Erica.
10 In favour of politician having time for cause
PROMPT
A simple charade: of PRO, MP and T.
11 Joined forces with strangely adorable clot
COLLABORATED
(ADORABLE CLOT)* with ‘strangely’ as the anagrind.
13 Small matter involving national industry leaders
MINI
The first letters of the second, third, fourth and fifth words of the clue.
14 Dreamer I trade with first
IDEALIST
A charade of I DEAL and IST. The last element is also very common and is based on the fact that IST – given a favourable font – could look very similar to 1ST.
17 Tolerate rotten deadlock
STAND-OFF
Another simple charade: of STAND and OFF.
18 Negative about time of day
NOON
And another: of NO and ON. ‘Her thesis was on/about Marxist economics.’
20 Dish with notches on angle
FISH AND CHIPS
‘With’ and AND are accepted synonyms in crosswordland, so it’s a charade of FISH for ‘angle’, AND and CHIPS for ‘notches’.
23 Tree is one of five on borders of college
QUINCE
A charade of QUIN and CE. When a setter uses ‘borders of’ or ‘edges of’, she’s indicating that you should use only the outside letters of the word in question.
24 Popular feature of church deacon originally encouraged
INSPIRED
A charade of IN, SPIRE, and D for the first letter (‘originally’) of ‘deacon’.
25 Small jugs forming waste disposal system
SEWERS
There are certain words that you will come across frequently in cryptics which are probably not in your active vocabulary and which you certainly wouldn’t bring out down the pub. EWER for a ‘jug’ is one of them, and I would put it on your ‘must remember that’ list. A charade of S and EWERS.
26 Lives comfortably in outskirts of Dungeness
DWELLS
Add ‘outskirts of’ to ‘borders’ and ‘edges’. The same device as in 23ac. An insertion of WELL in DS.
Down
2 Forge perfect bundle
MINT
Not a dd, but a td – a triple definition. ‘The coins were minted.’ ‘The car was in mint condition.’ ‘He made a mint.’ Isn’t English wonderful?
3 Choice of the Spanish in part
SELECTION
An insertion of EL for one of the words for ‘the’ in Spanish in SECTION. A certain knowledge of some basic words in European languages is always a help in our little world.
4 Hang Duke by corner
DANGLE
We’ve had ANGLE for ‘fish’; now we’ve got ANGLE for ‘corner’. A charade of D for ‘Duke’ and that.
5 Unhappiness of sadists upset about international group
DISSATISFACTION
An insertion of I in (SADISTS)* followed by FACTION. The insertion indicator is ‘about’ and the anagrind is ‘upset’.
6 Sat following drink and considered
SUPPOSED
A charade of SUP and POSED.
7 Spanish wine and Brazilian port getting positive response from Germany
RIOJA
More foreign languages: a charade of RIO and JA for the German word for ‘yes’. The Spanish wine and Brazilian port are doing better than Teresa, then.
8 Former journalists oddly disown word or phrase
EXPRESSION
A charade of EX, PRESS and ION. The last element is composed of the regular letters of dIsOwN. ‘Oddly’ normally means ‘take the odd letters of’, whereas here it is the even letters we need. I will try to keep Carpathian out of jail by saying that ‘oddly’ could be interpreted as ‘take the odd/occasional letter of’. She’s a big girl so can fight her own corner if need be.
12 Deliver detective inspector’s commendation
DISTRIBUTE
A charade of DIS (you have to take it as DI’S in the surface reading) and TRIBUTE.
15 Obtain playground equipment to get overwhelming election victory
LANDSLIDE
A charade of LAND and SLIDE.
16 Post Office buries clues
POINTERS
A charade of PO and INTERS.
19 Touched middle of disc in overturned writing table
KISSED
An insertion of IS for the middle letters of ‘disc’ in DESK reversed. The reversal indicator is ‘overturned’, which works because it’s a down clue. KISS is ‘touch’ in its most common sense, but I think the setter is giving us a nod towards things like bullets and snooker balls.
21 Thing engineered to hold sort of joint
HINGE
Hidden (‘to hold’) in tHING Engineered.
22 Laze around, showing enthusiasm
ZEAL
(LAZE)*
Many thanks to Carpathian for this morning’s Quiptic, and commiserations to her for me doing double duty for her today. Those of us who solve, blog and care about the Everyman puzzle should encourage her to dust off her cv and send it to the editor. She’d be good at that gig.
Thank you Pierre and Carpathian.
An excellent Quiptic, but it took me a while to work out MINT.
A bonus feature is that this puzzle is a pangram
Thanks for the great crossword and explanations. Much appreciated.
So it is, peterM. Well spotted. (For those who don’t already know, a pangram is a puzzle where the setter includes all the 26 letters of the alphabet at least once. They do it just for fun.)
Thanks Carpathian and Pierre
A DNF for me, as I had a partly parsed FEELINGS for 9a, hence I didn’t get MINT. Favourite was POINTERS.
Perfect Quiptic, I thought – thanks Carpathian [a double dose with the Indy today]
I liked the FISH AND CHIPS, yummy!
Thanks Pierre for a good blog.
Thanks for that, I completed all but two of the clues (suggesting it was a little easier than average) but couldn’t quite understand the parsing of a few of them. This site is such a great resource!
Thanks, Pierre, perfect explanations with a great sense of humour. First time I have completed the crossword in under 4 hrs, so I am making great progress!
As I am slowly improving my solving abilities, I was wondering if I should have a go at Monday’s cryptic or even the Everyman, or would I be out of my depth very quickly?
A really satisfying puzzle and a joy to complete. For once I suspected the pangram early enough for it to be useful, for I was actively looking for somewhere to place an X and a Q – which helped with QUINCE. Thanks to Carpathian for some cracking clues, eg. MINT, which was superb, and to Pierre for the ever-entertaining and instructive blog
Well done, Martin – practice makes perfect. You could certainly have a crack at the Monday Guardian cryptic. It’s usually on the easy side, but don’t worry if you can’t finish it: you’ll learn from the bits you can do and find out what you didn’t know from the blog. I would usually say definitely do try the Everyman, but it’s going through a bit of a wobble at the minute, so I’d stick to doing any of the Everyman puzzles from the last couple of years from the Guardian site (there’s a search facility and you can choose Everyman either by number or by month). Have fun.
Many thanks, Pierre, appreciate the prompt response and the advice.
Got INKLINGS but couldn’t get MINT even with M?N?. Brain freeze. But the rest flew in in record time without any extra help from trial and error checks. Thanks, Carpathian for the ego boost.
Thanks, Pierre. I’ve been working backwards through the Quiptics for the last year or so (just did 720). Your blogs have been a great help. Do each day’s Cryptic now. Generally DNF, but happy with 80% success or so. Sometimes I’m blown away 5 days in a row. Thanks to you and Martin for the tip about the Everyman.
A nice, doable Quiptic and an excellent blog – thanks, both
As you invited lurkers, here I go. How does Heathers become Ling? I assume the popularity comment refers to the movie, but don’t get the connection.
Hi Newbie2019 and welcome. Ling is one of the common types of heather in Europe. My sideways comment about Erica was just to point out that Erica is a genus of plants that includes some heathers, so setters often use Heather (capitalised to allow them to include it as a girl’s name) to clue ERICA. ERICA and LING are useful to setters because they are common letter combinations that can be used to create an answer. To probably confuse you further, a LING is also a fish.
Thank you Pierre and Carpathian. As a newbie, I was wondering if the four H’s made by the dark squares had any significance.
I don’t think so, H. Sinister. Just the way the grid has fallen out.