Always a pleasure when I see Matilda’s name on opening up the Quiptic. I found this an entertaining puzzle, with one or two clues requiring a bit of head-scratching; but it was all fair and fell out nicely in the end. Brava, that woman.
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 We leave waitress organising apples and pears
STAIRS
The setters is inviting you to remove the ‘we’ from ‘waitress’ and make an anagram, so it’s ([W]AITR[E]SS)* The removal indicator is ‘leave’ and the anagrind is ‘organising’. Oh, and you have to know that ‘apples and pears’ is cockney rhyming slang for STAIRS.
5 After Betfred ruined me, finally back in the black
DEBT-FREE
A charade of (BETFRED)* and E for the last letter of ‘me’. For those who have been living on another planet for the last decade (or perhaps more importantly, for overseas solvers) Betfred is one of the UK’s leading online gambling companies, and has (along with their competitors) indeed ‘ruined’ many lives.
9 Little 7 is poorly accommodated in a loft conversion
FLOTILLA
A FLOTILLA is a little FLEET (7dn) and is also ILL inserted into (A LOFT)* The insertion indicator is ‘accommodated in’ and the anagrind is ‘conversion’.
10 Draw shade in layers
TIERED
A charade of TIE and RED.
11 Crossing Jordan almost spoiled by sycophancy
ROAD JUNCTION
A charade of (JORDA[N])* and UNCTION. The removal indicator for the letter N is ‘almost’; the anagrind is ‘spoiled’.
13, 18 Starting point for Swiss city lacking top wine
BASELINE
A charade of BASEL and [W]INE.
14 What may be banned in summer is tights and slippers accompaniment
HOSEPIPE
A charade of HOSE and PIPE. HOSE for ‘stockings’ is in Chambers, but is marked as ‘archaic’. It’s from Old English and is cognate with the German Hose (think Lederhosen). In modern English, HOSE for ‘tights’ is American usage, in PANTYHOSE. Pipe and slippers, especially if accompanied by the cardigan, are old codger uniform.
17 Slimy act represented as ‘spiritual‘
MYSTICAL
(SLIMY ACT)*
20 Half contribute to lower building, which is critical to airport operations
CONTROL TOWER
A charade of CONTR[IBUTE] and (TO LOWER)* The anagrind is ‘building’.
23 Attack one politician with a plastic gun
IMPUGN
A charade of I, MP and (GUN)* with ‘plastic’ as the anagrind.
24 How to get to Brussels? Possibly, routes are endless
EUROSTAR
(ROUTES AR[E])* The anagrind is ‘possibly’ and the end letter removal indicator is ‘endless’.
25 Listened to musicians’ covers
WRAPPERS
A homophone of RAPPERS. I would like to personally thank Matilda for avoiding confusion by not putting the homophone indicator between the two elements.
26 Bugger study — it’s very wet
SODDEN
A charade of SOD and DEN. Some sensitive Grauniad souls will object to the language here, but personally, I care less. You might want to object to the equivalence of SOD and ‘bugger’, although as descriptors of the sexual act, you can’t really argue, can you?
Down
2, 22 Whistle-blower‘s story about Archer?
TELLTALE
Matilda is whimsically suggesting that if you dobbed on the famous ‘archer’ William Tell (of son and apple fame) then you might be a TELLTALE.
Telltale tit,
Your tongue shall be split,
And all the little birdies
shall have a little bit.
(Other animals are available.)
3 Meet some splinter section
INTERSECT
Hidden in splINTER SECTion.
4 Endless fruit for Muslim ruler
SULTAN
SULTAN[A]
5 The elder Trojans revised old farewell texts
DEAR JOHN LETTERS
Brilliant, if only for reminding me of this wonderful expression. (THE ELDER TROJANS)* with ‘revised’ as the anagrind. The old-fashioned way of ending a relationship; now superseded by ghosting, breadcrumbing and various other electronic techniques. The expression seems to have originated in America during the Second World War.
6 Roof of bus station rebuilt for plant expert
BOTANIST
(B STATION)*
7 Fast ships
FLEET
A dd.
8 Spectacular Rise of Popeye — dropping second half
EYE-POPPING
Since it’s a down clue, it’s POPEYE reversed, followed by PING for the second half of ‘dropping’.
12 Young kangaroo who may now be holder of a bus pass
BABY BOOMER
A charade of BABY for ‘young’ and BOOMER, an Australian word for a male kangaroo. We (and I use the pronoun carefully, since I qualify for said bus pass on Friday of this week) were born in the post-war period but are now entering what used to be called old age.
15 Look back in despair, suffering as Britain is now
POLARISED
An insertion of LO! reversed in (DESPAIR)* with ‘in’ as the insertion indicator and ‘suffering’ as the anagrind. You can’t argue with the definition.
16 Bum smoothing cream at first new in make-up
SCROUNGE
A charade of S and C for the first letters of ‘smoothing’ and ‘cream’ and N inserted into ROUGE.
19 Promise onboard weapons
SWORDS
Matilda is using the ‘insert into SS’ trick for ‘onboard’. It’s WORD in SS in this case.
21 President’s bottom, bottom President
TRUMP
The gift that keeps on giving. A charade of T for the last letter of ‘president’ and RUMP.
Many thanks to Matilda for this morning’s Quiptic.
Thanks Matilda and Pierre
Very nice, but a full-strength puzzle rather than a Quiptic. IMPUGN was favouirte, though there are several others deserving of mention.
In primary school I learned:
Telltale tit
Yer mammy can’t knit
Yer Daddy can’t go to bed
Without his dummy-tit
Happy Birthday Pierre and thanks to Matilda
My favourites were POLARISED, TRUMP, SCROUNGE, TELL TALE.
Thanks Matilda and Pierre.
Thanks Pierre and Matilda. I thought this was a master class in the setting of good surfaces. Some laugh out loud, like 26 and 16. But 5 across is near genius.
Brava, like Pierre said. Really brightened up my Monday.
A really good crossword, though as muffin @1 suggests, a bit difficult for a Quiptic.
I totally agree with Conrad Cork @4 that 5a DEBT FREE was brilliant.
Many thanks Matilda and Pierre.
A super puzzle and I’ll second Conrad re the surfaces. Many thanks Matilda and Pierre.
I can’t help being reminded of this which I use with students to stress the importance of punctuation:
Dear John,
I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are kind, generous, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we are apart. I can be forever happy – will you let me be yours?
Alicia
Alternative punctuation may give this another slant !
For those of you teased by The Prince of Darkness’s Dear John letter, here’s the alternative (which really is a Dear John letter in the sense Matilda meant):
Dear John,
I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are kind, generous, thoughtful people who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn. For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we are apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me be?
Yours
Alicia
I have used this myself when teaching punctuation and was pleased to be reminded of it.
I actually found this to be easier than some recent Quiptics, with only SCROUNGE giving me more than a minute’s pause. Good fun, though. In addition to the brilliant 5a, I also loved the surfaces of 15d and 21d, even though both were reminders of the dismal state of the world beyond crosswordland.
Thanks to Matilda and Pierre.
Pierre, I forgot to credit Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss. Is that where you found it ?
Re Baby Boomers and bus passes,
Happy Birthday in advance !
And on being under-charged for my opera season ticket this year I protested twice that I was not a pensioner, signorina. She blithely carried on and sealed the envelope saying pensions were immaterial, I just needed to be over 65.” But I’m only 51 !” She was so embarrassed that she made me accept the discount and I had to remember not to bound up the opera house stairs two at a time.
It was indeed Lynne Truss’s book. I am a bit of punctuation pedant, so I want to have her babies.
5a is fantastic. Very enjoyable puzzle.
Why is a hosepipe banned in summer? (US questioner)
Are under-65’s not allowed bus passes in the UK? Here anyone can have them but seniors get them cheaper.
Valentine: the UK drought of 1976, a year I just mentioned in the cryptic comments.
Good crossword with a lot of smooth clues.
I particularly enjoyed DEBT-FREE, POLARISED and SCROUNGE. Entertaining story IPDO @9.
Thanks Matilda and Pierre.
I looked at 21d and thought, “What’s the name of a US president in 5 letters, starting with T?”, and for the first couple of times I looked at it, I couldn’t think of one. It was bliss to have somehow forgotten about that man for those few minutes.
I found this pretty hard for a quiptic; a DNF for me as I had to resort to the Internet for “what will fit these crossers?” for the last couple in, having steadily been through the alphabet in my head for the blank squares twice. Some very nice clues and surfaces, though… DEBT-FREE and TRUMP especially, but many others.
Or maybe my crosswording head isn’t on straight at the moment, as I haven’t yet finished yesterday’s Everyman, either!
Thank you Matilda and Pierre.
(Valentine – the “bus pass” being referred to gives UK seniors free travel on buses, and the pass itself is also free. I just missed getting mine at 60, as they (the ubiquitous Them) shifted the qualifying age up to 65. Possibly when I get to 65, They will move it up again, as They clearly have it in for me.)
@Ted I envy you
@Troglodyte Same here with a lot of the Guardian’s quiptics
I breezed through about half of the clues before I hit a wall. Had the hardest time with WRAPPERS, FLEET, and (for some reason) TIERED. As for my handicap (i.e., being from the US), I did know apples and pairs=stairs and bum=scrounge (though it took a bit for me to remember), but got tripped up by EUROSTAR (maybe heard of it once or twice?), the bus pass thing, and could only think of Bern for a Swiss city. I also had a bit of trouble with TELLTALE, as here in the states it only means a (passive) indication, not an (active) informer. (Never heard of ‘talebearer’ either, but have heard of the kids’ term ‘tattletale’)
Words: 1
Characters: 4
How come noone’s mentioned that “backside” theme yet? Bugger, bottom, bum. Surely no coincidence? 🙂
25. But are rappers musicians? I would have thought not.
@19 — spoken like a true Baby Boomer 🙂
I had terrible trouble with SCROUNGE, BABY BOOMER (got hung up on JOEY for the kangaroo) and WRAPPERS, goodness knows why this last. I adored BASE LINE and ROAD JUNCTION. Thanks Matilda and Pierre both.
And Pierre, I have to ask, is the apparent punnery deliberate in your intro? “… requiring a bit of head-scratching; but it was all fair and fell out nicely in the end”? I don’t want to split hairs but it sounds like a deliberate brush with humorous meanings …
I used to have ginger hair, vogel421, so will fess up to it being completely unintended punnery …
?
That last was meant to be a smile but looks to have suffered in transit …
Andy Cotgreave @18: and TRUMP
This was a very inventive crossword with a good mix of easy and not-so-easy clues. I filled in about a quarter of the grid quite quickly, the core took some time, then an avalanche of answers in the home stretch. With checking but no reveals.
Getting better at spotting what to shuffle, but still learning the setters’ encryption syntax.
Strugglers were: TIERED (and I still don’t see how ‘red’ comes from Pierre’s explanation – should shade be shared?), OVERBOARD (I twigged board, but I thought an over had eight in it, as in my schooldays), BABYBOOMER (I have been in Oz for 20 years and never heard kangaroos called boomers, only joeys and roos, as in ‘roo bars’ on the front of a vehicle). Never heard of DEAR JOHN LETTERS, but spotted what to shuffle and the crossers helped.
I was also misdirected in a few clues, such as Archer; I thought this was a reference to Geoffrey Archer!
On the whole a pleasant diversion. Thanks!
PS I don’t think answers should depend on other clues as in 9 and 7. If you don’t get 7, 9 becomes harder and vice versa. Fortunately both 7 and 9 were not difficult in this case.
I’m learning by back dating…. this was my first ever write in. Joy! Love debt free & bottom president.