Hectence is one of the long-established setters of the Quiptic, having contributed puzzles since the early days. She’s good at this kind of stuff: here’s a carefully constructed crossword that will encourage newer solvers to have a go and entertain more experienced cruciverbalists over a morning coffee.
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 Bags finally skiing silver in winter sport
LUGGAGE
An insertion of G for the last letter of ‘skiing’ and AG for ‘silver’ in LUGE.
5 Bison maybe? Expert has a look
BUFFALO
A charade of BUFF, A and LO! Is a bison a buffalo? In common usage, yes; but Hectence has sensibly put a ‘maybe’ in there to keep the pedants happy.
9 Get hold of key file
GRASP
A charade of G for the key with one sharp and RASP.
10 Enter parking space in Paris and get charge
PENETRATE
A charade of P, EN for the printers’ ‘space’, ET for the French word for ‘and’, and RATE.
11 End soccer career on a high
CRESCENDO
(END SOCCER)*
12 Start playing and thrash Italy
HIT IT
A charade of HIT and IT.
13 Skipped exercise on field
LEAPT
A charade of LEA for the ‘field’ and PT for Physical Training or ‘exercise’. LEAPT is one of those past participles, like DREAMT, that can be SPELLED/SPELT two ways.
15 Get in uni abroad, taking first year with skill
INGENUITY
A charade of (GET IN UNI)* and Y.
18 Get soldiers in after Trump briefly gives order
JUDGEMENT
Our setter kindly spares us a reference to The Donald. A charade of JUD[D] and MEN for ‘soldiers’ inserted into GET. The Trump is Judd Trump, who’s a snooker player. He’s world champion, so don’t moan that you’ve never heard of him.
19 Art supporter left after rest
EASEL
A charade of EASE and L.
21 Large number yearn to find hidden treasure
CACHE
A charade of C for the Roman numeral for 100, which is a ‘large number’ and ACHE.
23 Suppression of heartless monarch by church has popular backing at last
QUENCHING
A charade of QU[E]EN, CH, IN and G for the last letter of ‘backing’.
25 Drastic action to put in autocrats
DICTATORS
An insertion (‘put in’) of TO in (DRASTIC)* The anagrind is ‘action’ (as a verb).
26 Street maps have your report in colour
AZURE
A charade of AZ (more strictly A to Z) for the city ‘street maps’ and URE, a homophone (‘report’) of ‘your’.
27 Crow’s foot right inside shellfish
WRINKLE
An insertion of R in WINKLE.
28 Writer’s back and she’s working to describe women family members
NEPHEWS
A charade of PEN reversed and W inserted into (SHE)* The anagrind is ‘working’ and the insertion indicator is ‘to describe’.
Down
1 Makes sense to have a lot of gin in pub
LOGICAL
An insertion of GI[N] in LOCAL.
2 German party takes horse-drawn cart up to cemetery
GRAVEYARD
A charade of G, RAVE and DRAY reversed. The reversal indicator, since it’s a down clue, is ‘up’.
3 It holds food suspended when photo’s taken
ASPIC
A charade of AS and PIC. Larks’ tongues, anyone?
4 Drug’s ten pounds? Even divvied, it’s pricey
EXPENSIVE
A charade of E for the ‘drug’, X for ‘ten’, PENS for ‘pounds’ and IVE for the even letters of dIvViEd.
5 Game with house to win?
BINGO
A cd.
6 Large risk? Not likely!
FAT CHANCE
A charade of FAT and CHANCE.
7 Expect a humorist to collect top award
AWAIT
An insertion (‘to collect’) of A for the first letter of ‘award’ in A WIT.
8 Obviously young support liberal revolt
OVERTLY
The setter is inviting you to let Y ‘support’ – in other words, be underneath – (REVOLT)* The anagrind is ‘liberal’.
14 For example, Chessington‘s motif has pirate’s head on old ship
THEME PARK
A charade of THEME for the musical ‘motif’, P for the first letter of ‘pirate’ and ARK for Noah’s vessel.
16 Harvests and sorts the grain around the beginning of September
GATHERS IN
An insertion (‘around’) of S in (THE GRAIN)*
17 Set up society
INSTITUTE
A dd.
18 Boy by first light striking north to see bird
JACKDAW
I always said that Hectence was one of the best, if not the best, Quiptic setter on the planet. The obligatory Pierre bird link shows you the common corvid feeding (and also reminds you why a 27ac is so called). It gets its name from its call, which transliterates into ‘tchack’. Oh, and it’s a charade of JACK and DAW[N].
20 No pins to be hammered
LEGLESS
A cd cum dd. ‘Pins’ is a colloquial expression for ‘legs’.
22 Ipecac tincture contains desert plants
CACTI
Hidden in IpeCAC TIncture.
23 Repeat question on love note
QUOTE
A charade of QU, O for ‘love’ (Wimbledon starts in a minute) and TE for the seventh ‘note’ of the tonic sol-fa.
24 Applaud men coming in to immobilise car
CLAMP
An insertion (‘coming in’) of M in CLAP.
Many thanks to Hectence for this morning’s Quiptic.
Thanks both. Fine Quiptic, much better than today’s Cryptic.
And a bird for Pierre, hooray!
Fabulous – a lovely example of how even simple clues can be misleading but utterly straightforward once seen in the correct light. And it is a pangram. How much fun. Thank you Pierre for the enthusiastic blog which this puzzle thoroughly deserved.
Surely a CRESCENDO Is not a “high”, but “getting louder”
Otherwise a good Quiptic – thanks to Hectence and Pierre
Thanks, thezed, for spotting the pangram. Missed that. For newbies, it’s a puzzle which contains all 26 letters of the alphabet somewhere. Just for fun.
I agree with Pierre’s description of this puzzle. Purists might object to “first year” for Y and “top award” for A, but clues like those don’t bother me since the intent is clear. Anyway, I actually interpreted “top award” as a grade of A.
Thanks to Hectence and Pierre.
Agree with Shirl@1 as to respective qualities – this was an enjoyable test. Didn’t parse PENETRATE, so thank you Pierre. And failed to spot the pangram. Lovely being on holiday and able to tackle multiple crosswords!
Judy @3 see: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/crescendo – as in the expression “reach a crescendo”
Thanks for the blog and the explanation of judgement. Good puzzle, but probably tricky for newbies IMO.
Nice puzzle, with no problems. But in 21A, is “C” really a large number? We have googolplexes these days and 100 is really quite small!
Phil @7
Whatever Collins may say, I’m with Judy. ‘Reach a crescendo’ makes me shudder.
And the Guardian’s own style guide is with us:
‘crescendo
a gradual increase in loudness or intensity; musically or figuratively, it is the buildup to a climax, not the climax itself (we frequently get this wrong)’
I liked it.
Compilers are allowed to break the Guardian style guide, and often do, but have to obey Chambers or Collins, and, much as I hate it, Chambers gives the figurative use of Crescendo as “a high point”. It’s Italian for increasing. And Bison is fine by Chambers. A very good Quiptic, I thought; a pity the Cryptic was easier than the Quiptic though. And a most enjoyable blog. Thank you.
There is in fact a difference (5 across). You can’t wash your hands in a buffalo…
Blaise @13 Are you from Birmingham by any chance? 🙂
I’ve told you this one before, so forgive me for going even further off-topic.
Q: What did the mummy buffalo say to her little boy when he left for school?
A: Bison
Great Quiptic with super blog and comedy comments all round.
Thanks Hectence, Pierre et al
I agree that this was better (and a smidgen more difficult) than the Monday offering today. You can quibble that in “large number” to signal C, the word “large” is unnecessary–and anyway, whether 100 is a large number is a matter of context. For example, it’s a large number of customers in a pub, but a very small number of customers at a professional football game.
The usage of “crescendo” for the high point itself rather than the buildup to it is one of those wrong usages that has, alas, become common enough that we have to accept that language changes. Sort of like how “begs the question” has come to mean “raises the question,” despite all us pedants screaming ourselves blue about it.
Also, just for fun: it was pointed out in a puzzle I did over the weekend that “fat chance” and “slim chance” mean the same thing.
Thanks Hectence & Pierre for both a well-pitched crossword & blog.
Plenty to like and, yes, more enjoyable than today’s Cryptic.
As far as I am concerned, that is probably mainly because Hectence doesn’t really do cryptic definitions.
If I had to be picky (but why should I?), I’d question ‘makes sense’ = LOGICAL (in 1d), and also the anagram indicator ‘sorts’ [with an s at the end] (in 16d).
But, of course, I see what Hectence wants us to do and, true, for most solvers that is enough.
I am one who doesn’t like ‘first year’ for Y but some setters do it, I know. Hectence is one of them and therefore I was on alert. By the way, ‘year’ [without ‘first’] is also Y, although it would give us a lesser surface.
Talking about abbreviations,
if O = ‘old’ then Y = ‘young’?
If W = ‘women’ then M = ‘men’?
Hectence doing a Chifonie?
A while ago I would have added: if B = ‘boy’ then G = ‘girl’?
Not anymore though, since I was ticked off for using B = ‘boy’ which was, much to my surprise, not in any of the dictionaries.
Seeing that this puzzle was a pangram helped me in finding (but not in understanding) 18ac.
I am afraid I never heard of the snooker player.
My world stopped after Stephen Hendry ….
Fine crossword.
The clue for ASPIC gave me a grin. I’m afraid I don’t get the parsing for BINGO though. It could be a US vs UK thing.
I should have explained BINGO more clearly, BlueDot. Bingo is a UK game where numbers on cards from 1-90 are marked off as the caller reads them out: he or she draws balls from a bag (or used to – it’s probably electronic now). When you have crossed out all your numbers, you call ‘house’ to signal that you’ve won. So the cd is based on that. If you’re not UK based, then I can see you’d be a bit banjaxed …
Thanks Pierre for the help parsing, quite a few BIFD (penetrate; judgement; graveyard; expensive; institute; quote) BUT managed to complete my first ever (!) Quiptic. Not too far off on the Cryptic either, stumped by some unfamiliar words there.
Thanks Pierre – that clears up everything. The US version is identical except we yell “Bingo” to indicate that we filled the card.
Sil–what’s wrong with M for men and W for women? Think restroom doors.
But I too found Y for “young” a bit odd. (The problem is that O for old is most common in dictionaries (e.g., OE for old English, ON for old Norse, etc.), but in that context the opposite is modern, not young.) The only context I could think of where Y stands for Young was the YMCA, which I guess is well enough known. then if you can find an initialism anywhere in the world that contains the word, the result will be that any letter can stand for anything. And we can’t have that. In SCUBA, B stands for breathing; in NIMBY for back, in BFF for best, and in SOB for bitch. Where does it end?
My problem (if it is), mrpenney, is that M = ‘men’ is not in any dictionary while W = ‘women’ is.
And dictionaries are usually the books which setters rely on.
In that sense M is similar to Y or G.
And I only refer to Chifonie because he uses these abbreviations too without the editor making any intervention.
Another (in)famous one of this setter is M = ‘man’.
At some point someone has to come up with B = ‘blue’, don’t you think so?
🙂
For OVERTLY, leaving aside the question mark of whether Y can be young, is “support” right? Shouldn’t it be “supports”? (Of course that would make the surface ungrammatical, but still…)
A minor point in a good crossword, but maybe it matters.
You’re totally right, Nila Palin.
But nowadays no-one cares about proper cryptic grammar anyway.
Still a good crossword, though.
Sil, I think Azed wouldn’t let it go. The Times and Telegraph would probably veto it too.
Re 9a explanation – a rasp should be sharp but could be too flat (g minor) ??
I don’t think the clue is referring to the details of musical keys, RinOntario – it’s just giving us the G for the first letter. RASP is just the file.
Agreed – but since you mentioned 1 sharp I couldn’t resist pointing out the alternative for G since both have a slight relevance to rasp. Guess I didn’t lose all of my odd English humour when I emigrated 😉
Nila Palin and Sil Van Den Hoek, Couldn’t you justify ‘young support liberal revolt’ by saying it’s an imperative? As in the setter telling the pieces what to do in order to make the definition?
Yes, Blue Teddy, you could justify it that way.
That said, I have my doubts about whether that was Hectence’s intention.
But if so, fine.
Excellent crossword for us beginners, a well-written blog by Pierre, full of useful information relayed in the usual witty fashion. Many thanks.
Gillafox @21, pardon my ignorance, can you please let me know what BIFD means? I looked it up on the interweb and only got “The British Institute of Funeral Directors”, which I don’t think is correct. In fact, if someone could give a list of the abbreviations used by the solvers that would be much appreciated, I guess LOI is “Last One In”, after that, I’m lost. Doesn’t say much for my crossword solving skills does it 🙂
Evening, Martin. BIFD is an acronym in Crosswordland for ‘Bunged In From Definition’. In other words, ‘it had to be that but I couldn’t parse it’ – and possibly a reason why Fifteensquared is a popular site. I don’t think there are that many others (apart from the ones I give in the introduction to all my blogs). FOI – first one in; LOI – last one in. The other term is ‘lift and separate’, which I’ve explained in previous blogs. If there’s anything you don’t get in future puzzles, just ask – all the bloggers are always pleased to help.
And well done to Gillafox for completing his or her first Quiptic – always a good feeling.
Good Evening or Good Morning Pierre, never know when I’m 8 hours adrift from the UK. Many thanks for the explanations. Always appreciate your prompt responses. Have to confess many of my answers are BIFD, with much time spent -afterwards – parsing the clue to convince myself it’s correct. The main thing is I have fun and as my maths teacher often said, “Every day’s a school day”. Very true where crosswords are concerned.