Quiptic 1,029 by Hectence

17 comments on “Quiptic 1,029 by Hectence”

1. I thought this a pretty good quiptic, with a range of devices, a spread of difficulties and some very nice surfaces. Solving this would teach people a lot of basics, and I enjoyed the homophone of “entrance” although the rest of the wordplay was clunky, as were a couple of the charades.

   Thank you Hectence, and for the blog newmarketsausage – first time you’ve blogged the Guardian?

2. I think that this was a very good Quiptic, and fun to solve. My favourites were MY FOOT, WOOF, JAYWALKING + BEWITCH (loi).

   Thank you Hectence and nms

3. Thanks both. Excellent Quiptic, much better than last week’s!

4. A very enjoyable Quiptic.  Hectence can usually be relied on to produce entertaining surfaces, and nearly all of these were just that.

5. What everyone has said so far. I didn’t know WAFFLING except in the sense of being indecisive, but the wordplay was clear and Collins put me right. Thanks to Hectence and newmarketsausage (who has blogged many Guardian puzzles, TheZed @1).

6. Excellent Quiptic, I thought.

   I ticked CRIMINAL, RAMBLING ON, FELLOW, IRON WILL and AIR STEWARD.

   Thanks Hectence and nms.

7. I found this a very enjoyable and well-constructed quiptic. Thanks to Hectence and newmarketsausage.

   I can’t find young = Y in my dictionaries, although that’s probably just because I have the wrong dictionaries. I wonder in what context this abbreviation would be used.

   (I know that Y stands for young in longer abbreviations such as YMCA, but, as many have pointed out, we can’t accept that sort of thing, or else there would be far too many valid abbreviations for every letter of the alphabet.)

    

8. You’re right, Ted. Y = young isn’t in Oxford, Collins or Chambers, which would be the usual sources for abbreviations. I’m so used to seeing it used for young that I don’t think I’ve ever checked before.

   It is, however, in Chambers XWD: A Dictionary Of Crossword Abbreviations. I have no idea what its derivation is.

    

9. Long-time lurker on this wonderful site, first time poster.

   Very enjoyable puzzle. I particularly liked 19D (LOI).  I may be reading too much into this, but the lack of a comma after “Entrance” made the rest of the clue look like a defining relative, thus forcing me to look again at the significance of “which”. Then I realized why “that” had not been used here. Very subtle!

10. Welcome Apteryx – glad you decided to join in the fun. There was a similar thing in a clue last week where the wordplay indicated an ‘s’ ending, but the definition was singular, hinting at a word (like “trousers” but not that – I’m trying not to spoil a puzzle others might have saved up!) which was singular in spite of the ‘s’, which led me to the solution.

11. Yes indeed, welcome Apteryx. Glad you enjoy the site 🙂

12. 19D is a superb clue. Way above Quiptic level, if that means anything. Thanks to Hectence

13. @DaveinNCarolina – “waffle” is a fascinating word. https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/205119/the-origins-and-usages-of-waffle

14. We are just learning to do cryptic crosswords and although we didn’t finish it, we had a good workout!

15. Lovely Quiptic and great blog. Thanks Hectence and NNS. My favourite was WOOF and my last in, and greatest howl of rage, was BEWITCH.

16. I was stuck because I had FLOG at 24a: F (“fine”) + LOG (“cut timber”), and “bark” in the sense of skinning. Would that have been a plausible parsing?

17. Hello Braze

    I can see F = fine and cut timber = LOG. So far so good. But I can’t see FLOG = BARK, even in the sense you describe 🙂

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