Quiptic 1,033 by Anto

by

Anto’s turn in the Quiptic slot this week.

Across
1 AFTERS Supports abandoning original recipe for dessert (6)
RAFTERS (supports) with the R deleted (abandoning original recipe)
5 TRIVIA Minor details of Queen leaving coastal area on time (6)
T (time) followed by RIVIERA (coastal area) with the ER deleted (Queen leaving)
8 IN A WORD Briefly, where all works of Roald Dahl begin (2,1,4)
All books begin with a word

Edit: Commenters below suggest that the first letters of ‘all works of Roald Dahl’ spell out A WORD. Not sure where the IN comes from in that case
9 TWIN-TUB Old cleaner puts bag in back seat (4-3)
An insertion (puts … in) of WIN (bag) in a reversal (back) of BUTT (seat)
11 POCKET BILLIARDS Foolishly broke plastic lid for game one plays with oneself (6,9)
An anagram (foolishly) of BROKE PLASTIC LID
12 ARID Unproductive attack when resistance moves East (4)
RAID (attack) with the R (resistance) moving to the right (moves East)
13 WATER LEVEL Smooth on natural moisturiser — it should be dry above it (5,5)
WATER (natural moisturiser) followed by LEVEL (smooth)
17 THE COLD WAR Watch older revolutionary creating ideological stand-off (3,4,3)
An anagram (revolutionary) of WATCH OLDER
18 MRSA Wife of Aristotle initially causes trouble for medics (4)
Aristotle’s wife might be referred to as MRS A
20 CRUEL AND UNUSUAL ANC ruled out striking as unacceptable kind of punishment (5,3,7)
An anagram (out) of ANC RULED followed by UNUSUAL (striking)
23 LADETTE Crude young woman reports what’s owed by the Spanish (7)
LA (the Spanish) and DETTE a homophone (reports) of DEBT (what’s owed)
24 TROTSKY Commie sounds disapproving stuck in besieged city (7)
An insertion (stuck in) of TSK (sounds disapproving) in TROY (beseiged city)
25 NESSIE She is sensibly hiding return of monster … (6)
An answer hidden in reverse (hiding return of) in shE IS SENsibly
26 DRESSY … dapper poet might couple her with (6)
A rhyme for NESSIE (poet might couple her with)
Down
2 FRANCHISE Where ‘entrepreneur’ originally came from when acquiring his business licence (9)
FRANCE (where ‘entrepreneur’ originally came from) containing (when acquiring) HIS (his)
3 EXOCET Executive officer ready to report on missile (6)
EXO (executive officer) and CET a homophone (to report) of SET (ready)
4 SIDEBOARD Team directors make a place to display trophies (9)
SIDE (team) BOARD (directors)
5 TOTAL Sum that’s endlessly beyond reach, perhaps (5)
I can’t explain this, I’m afraid

Edit: Thanks to those who have explained that the parsing is TOO TALL (beyond reach) with the last letters of each word deleted (endlessly)
6 INITIALS They make cash out of corn and soy husks (8)
The first letters of Corn And Soy Husks spell ‘cash’
7 INTER Italian footballers unable to react when temperature rises (5)
INERT (unable to react) with the T (temperature) moving up
8 IMPRACTICAL I can make stuff that doesn’t work (11)
I’M PRACTICAL (I can make stuff)
10 BASIL FAWLTY By law, flat is converted for incompetent hotelier (5,6)
An anagram (converted) of BY LAW FLAT IS
14 EVALUATED Sized up getting moved out if Liberal becomes Conservative (9)
If the L (Liberal) in evaluated becomes C (Conservative) you have EVACUATED (moved out)
15 VIRTUOSOS Masters overturned emergency broadcast, released half of rivals (9)
A reversal (overturned) of SOS (emergency broadcast) OUT (released) RIV (half the letters of rivals)
16 POLLUTES Corrupts elections when hustler regularly takes part (8)
An insertion (takes part) of UTE (letters 2, 4 and 6 of hustler) in POLLS (elections)
19 FURORE Essentially confused, Europe misreads public anger (6)
The middle letters (essentially) of conFUsed euROpe misREads
21 UNDUE France 1: Italy 2 — that’s too much! (5)
UN (one in French) DUE (two in Italian)
22 NIECE Issue sibling has online occasionally over church (5)
NIE (letters 2, 4 and 6 of online) above (over) CE (church)

 

30 comments on “Quiptic 1,033 by Anto”

  1. I thought this was harder than today’s cryptic so thanks for blogging it NMS and thanks for the work-out Anto. A nice variety of clues, though “on” in “exocet” seems out of place to me as the link word. Otherwise very smooth and nicely put together I thought. “water level” held me up for a while as a bit too simple!

    “total” = “too tall” minus the ends…hence beyond reach?

  2. Thanks (?) Anto and nms

    Anto back to his very worst, I fear. Loose defintions and constructions all over the place; also far too difficult for a Quiptic. I revealed MRSA – quite ridiculous to give it as (4)!

    I did like TRIVIA and TWIN-TUB.

  3. Thanks to Anto and NMS.  Agree, a cryptic rather than a quiptic.  For 8a IN A WORD, I parsed it as IN, plus the first letters of All Works Of Roald Dahl.

  4. Once again I failed to enjoy an Anto puzzle. I think that ‘evacuated’ is a perfectly sound solution for 14d.

  5. I wondered if 5 was an allusion to ‘too tall’ ?

    Both this and the cryptic had some nice clues but too many quibbles for me today.

    Thanks to Anto and newmarketsausage.

  8. George Clements @4 I disagree over “evacuated”. The clue gives the definition first (it is always first or last) so it has to be “evaluated”. Secondly, the grammar clearly states that the answer is “sized up” but you get “moved out” if you change “L” to “C”. “Evacuated” would require the definition to be in the middle and some weird reverse wordplay. I’ve seen much worse examples of this!

  9. Thanks to those who’ve pointed out the parsing of 5d TOTAL. I’ve edited the blog.

    Not sure about the suggestions for 8a IN A WORD. I can see that the first letters of ‘all works of Roald Dahl spell out ‘a word’ but where does the ‘in’ come from?

  10. Re 8a: All works of Roald Dahl begin “IN A WORD” (though then it might have to be “begins”). Maybe “Where a work of Roald Dahl begins”?

    Anyway, an enjoyable solve, though, like others, I found it harder than your average Quiptic.

    Thanks, as usual, to blogger and setter.

  11. Thanks to NMS for the (as always) excellent blog.

    I’m not Anto’s greatest fan but I actually thought this was among his/her better ones (just a matter of opinion of course – I have no real justification for this judgment). I do agree that it was much too hard for a Quiptic, however, and it does seem strange that Anto is allowed to continually do this (cue the usual comment about lack of editorial supervision here!).

    For 8a I parsed it essentially as follows:

    Definition part: “Briefly” (as others have said).

    Cryptic part:

    Qu: where (do) “all works of Roald Dahl” begin?

    Ans: (they begin) in “A-W-O-R-D”.

    Somewhat stretched grammatically but the “in” does then make some sort of sense.

  12. Not sure why so many people have quibbles today. It may have been (slightly) more difficult than today’s cryptic, but as a Monday cryptic is traditionally “a gentle start to the week”, it must be difficult to ensure that the quiptic is even easier. Especially as they are set independently of each other.

    As for loose definitions, I don’t think any were more loose than I’ve come to expect these days. And many people seem to enjoy loose definitions and vague synonyms as it makes the puzzle “more of a challenge”. It’s difficult to please everyone, I suppose….

    I thought this was straightforward enough, and if more difficult than usual – well, only compensating for an unusually easy Cryptic.

    Thanks, Anto and newmarketsausage

  13. Really nice Anto puzzle for a change.  Parsed “in a word” as “where” for “in” and “all … Dahl begin” for “a word”.  I think it’s a perfect clue.  And “total” as “too tall” both endless, which is just a bit of a stretch!  Liked “twin tub”; I remember using a twin-tub for the kids’ clothes not so long ago, so “old” had me worried at first!  Thanks Anto

  14. I agree that as a quiptic this was punching above its weight.

    As usual I thought most of this was pretty good.

    But  TOTAL did not quite work for me although I could see what he meant.

    And I agree that it was difficult to decide between EVALUATE and EVACUATE.

    And that MRSA is a mess.

    An editor could have made this a good (cryptic) puzzle. But its the Graun(DIY editing)

    Thanks to bangers,

  15. As an example of a loose definition, how about POCKET BILLIARDS? Unless it’s a unlikely very rude reference (unsuitable for a family newspaper!), it’s not a game “one plays with oneself”. See here, for example.

    Perhaps it is meant as the rude one?

  16. I think muffin is right about “pocket billiards” being a rude clue.  Being totally ignorant about billiards I assumed it was on the level.  Nothing wrong with “mrsa” and “evaluate” is clearly the correct answer.

  17. muffin@15:  I immediately assumed the rude reference for 11a given the “plays with oneself” part of the clue – for the reasons you give, it doesn’t make sense otherwise.

  18. I agree with Trismegistus – this was an enjoyable Quiptic and after the doddle of a Vulcan, it was good to have a bit more of a challenge. I especially like 6 down.

  20. I agree with muffin about POCKET BILLIARDS. People sometimes complain about Paul’s naughtiness, but this strikes me as much more vulgar than anything he does. Since I’m fairly puerile myself, it didn’t bother me, but I was surprised to see it.

    I failed to get MRSA, but I think it’s a perfectly fair, and indeed quite cute, clue. I also liked the clue for INITIALS. On the whole, I found this puzzle far more difficult than the usual Quiptic, but enjoyable.

     

     

  21. hi ted

    my objection to mrsa wasn’t the clue, which i agree is quite nice. i just don’t see how it can be justified as (4) (despite guardian style), rather than (1,1,1,1)

  22. muffin — Would you say the same about all abbreviations? I think I’d be OK with

    Astronauts work there in hyena sanatorium (4)

    instead of (1,1,1,1), for instance.

    I think it makes a difference that in that case the answer is an acronym (pronounced as a single word) rather than a mere list of initials pronounced separately. And I believe that at least some people pronounce MRSA as “mersah”, which would put it in the same category.

     

  23. I think you have put your finger on the crucial difference – can you pronounce it as one word?

    I’ve never heard anyone say “mersah” though!

  24. Some sources seem to indicate that the “mersah” pronunciation is American (as am I). I guess that could explain our different experiences.

  27. Thanks to newmarketsausage and Anto

    I think setting the “Quiptic” might be the hardest job in crosswordland: not too easy, not too hard – make it cryptic but not very etc. etc. This did the job pretty well I thought.

    My Collins lists mrsa as noun. I’m not sure if this means it’s no longer just an abbreviation because they also list it as MRSA.

    It lists UNESCO for instance as “noun acronym”, so I assume there must be a difference.

  28. The “mersah” spelling was my own creation. Now that I think about it, I don’t know why I put the H on the end: “mersa” is a much more natural spelling for this pronunciation.

  29. 2 Entrepreneurs develop new products and services;  franchisees, by definition, don’t.  Yhey exploit other people’s products and services.

    3  Where is exo an abbreviation of executive officer?

    13  Level simply does not mean smooth.

    18  Describing 18 as (4), when it’s (1,1,1,1), is not on. On that basis, 10 should be described as (11).

  30. Actually found this more doable than most Anto Quips although missing some encyclopaedic knowledge (had to look up exocet and twin-tub)
    When the old ‘harder than a cryptic’ argument comes up I consider that the idea of a Quiptic is a quicker cryptic for beginners and those in a hurry. ie. Should be quicker solve than a cryptic and more accessible for beginners. Anto often isn’t but I’m used to him/her now.
    Also thought 11ac funny and suitable in the context. Innuendo is a frequent cryptic device, no? And is there such a thing as a ‘family newspaper’? My ten-year old might browse a news story with guidance but she’s not attempting the cryptic crosswords…

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