Guardian Quiptic 1,058/Hectence

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[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here

Hectence is a long-standing setter of the Quiptic and can always be relied on to produce an easy-end puzzle that fits the bill for those new to cryptics. This was a pleasing and well-constructed crossword which, as an added bonus, was …

… a pangram. For those who don’t know, that’s a puzzle where all 26 letters of the alphabet are used at least once. It’s just a bit of fun for setters, so don’t beat yourself up if you didn’t see it.

 

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 Good call to bring in articles for meeting
GATHERING
An insertion of A and THE for the ‘articles’ in G and RING.

6 Sidestep a big hole
AVOID
A charade of A and VOID

9 Much about future leader is up in the air
ALOFT
An insertion of F for the first letter of ‘leader’ ‘future’ in A LOT.

10 Complete transformation of main coins
SEA CHANGE
A charade of SEA and CHANGE.

11 Began task of getting doctor’s old boat in river back working
EMBARKED ON
An insertion of MB for ‘doctor’ and ARK in DEE reversed (‘back’) followed by ON for ‘working’.

12 In for a language exam?
ORAL
Hidden in fOR A Language.

14 Fellow loves putting extra heart into leading tea dance
FOXTROT
A charade of F, XTR for the ‘heart’ of eXTRa in O and O for ‘loves’, followed by T for the first letter of ‘tea’. You have to separate out ‘into’ into ‘in’ and ‘to’, I think, to make the clue work properly.

15 Old pals do get about with workers’ association
REUNION
A charade of RE and UNION.

17 Stands up to ugly sisters
RESISTS
(SISTERS)* with ‘ugly’ as the anagrind. Great surface.

19 Picks clubs and hearts, having zero diamonds and spades
CHOICES
A charade of C, H, O, ICE for ‘diamonds’ and S.

20 Press one’s right to finish point
IRON
A charade of the four letters of the answer: I, R, O for the last letter (‘finish’) of ‘to’ and N for the ‘point’ of the compass.

22 Ditched, having flown over island — no point coming back
JETTISONED
More compass ‘points’. An insertion of I for ‘island’ and NO S reversed in JETTED.

25 Interfered with policemen and regretted hampering exercise
DISRUPTED
A charade of DIS and PT for Physical Training or ‘exercise’ inserted into RUES RUED.

26 Herbivorous animal‘s right at home with endlessly hot housing
RHINO
A charade of R and IN inserted into (‘housing’) HO[T].

27 Mean no holy man to enter
NASTY
An insertion of ST in NAY.

28 Fish seen around lake mean freezing weather
COLD SPELL
An insertion of L in COD followed by SPELL. A clue like this could spell/mean trouble in the hands of a setter less capable than Hectence.

 

Down

1 Browse and look round central part of library
GRAZE
An insertion of R, the central letter of ‘library’ in GAZE.

2 Left also goes ahead and fights manual workers’ cases
TOOLBOXES
A charade of TOO, L and BOXES.

3 Introduce broadcast award for business
ENTERPRISE
A charade of ENTER and PRISE, a homophone (‘broadcast’) of PRIZE.

4 Have a good look wearing half-glasses
INSPECT
IN SPECT[ACLES]

5 Dazzle briefly, possessing instant and universal allure
GLAMOUR
An insertion of MO and U in GLAR[E]

6 Longing to get first hole in one
ACHE
An insertion of H for the first letter of ‘hole’ in ACE.

7 One having uncapped tranquilliser
OWNER
[D]OWNER

8 Houses students in horrible new digs
DWELLINGS
An insertion of L and L for ‘students’ in (NEW DIGS)* with ‘horrible’ as the anagrind.

13 Ill at ease, having no more classes?
OUT OF SORTS
A cd cum dd.

14 In favour of retreat after offer is vetoed
FORBIDDEN
A charade of FOR, BID and DEN.

16 Carrot‘s nice in stew, throwing in turnip top and swede at the end
INCENTIVE
I can’t quite get this to work. It’s an insertion of T for the first letter of ‘turnip’ in (NICE IN)* and E for the last letter of ‘swede’. But where does the V come from?

18 Way to accommodate church’s priest in charge, while remaining unconvinced
SCEPTIC
An insertion of CE and P in ST, followed by IC. You have to read the apostrophe s as ‘church has’ to make sense of the cryptic grammar.

19 Channel Islands’ reservists take on key fortress
CITADEL
A charade of CI, TA and DEL for the key on your computer. TA is for Territorial Army or ‘reservists’. It’s not called the TA any more, but setters conveniently haven’t noticed.

21 Nomad swims regularly in watering hole
OASIS
The regular letters of nOmAd SwImS.

23 Doctor on round longs to be amusing
DROLL
A charade of DR, O for ’round’ and LL for two ‘longs’.

24 Cornish resort has no new wharf
QUAY
[NEW]QUAY

Many thanks to Hectence for this morning’s entertainment.

27 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 1,058/Hectence”

  1. Thanks both. Slightly threw myself by entering LOFTS for 9a. Didn’t see the pangram or the missing V in INCENTIVE

  2. My favourites were OUT OF SORTS & CITADEL.

    I also only got as far as Pierre in parsing INCENTIVE and could not work out where the V came from.

    Thanks Pierre and Hectence.

  4. Thanks Hectence and Pierre

    Me too with the V. Also “Herbivorous” seems superfluous in 26a. Otherwise very nice, with EMBARKED ON my favourite.

  5. Slightly unwisely I had a look at the crosswords for Monday just past midnight. So I was a bit late to bed again! On first scanning through this one, I couldn’t seem to find a toehold at all, but it yielded steadily and satisfyingly, more or less from the bottom upwards. Once I had the J and the Q in, I suspected it might be a pangram, so it was satisfying to have the Z in GRAZE towards the end. I did think it was at the upper end of difficulty for a quiptic; with IRON and FOXTROT, for example, being slightly complicated assemblages. I can’t see where the V in INCENTIVE comes from, either! I liked many of the surfaces, but especially that for DWELLINGS. Ah, those shared student houses – slugs in the lean-to kitchen, mould coming up the stairs, lights going a bit dim when the kettle went on; great days.

    Thanks for Hectence for the midnight feast and Pierre for the blog.

  8. Good Quiptic with a lot of nice clues.

    I noticed the missing ‘v’ in INCENTIVE and think it is just a mistake. I liked JETTISONED, CHOICES, SEA CHANGE, EMBARKED ON and DWELLINGS. As I’ve said before, I don’t much like the first/leading etc and ‘to finish’ really doesn’t mean ‘o,’ IMHO.

    Thanks Hectence and Pierre.

  12. One of Hectence’s best, I think. Not a dodgy clue or a clunky surface in the bunch, and all straightforward except for a bit of (perhaps unintended) misdirection at 10a, where I initially took “transformation” to be an anagrind and tried to form an anagram of “main coins.” All parsed easily enough except for the troublesome V and part of 28a (couldn’t see how spell = mean, so thanks to Pierre for the enlightening example).

  13. Pierre — I think you meant the leader of “future” in 9a ALOFT.  And where are the letters of “to” in FOXTROT?  The wordplay accounts for all of them without “to”.

  14. Pierre and Valentine, I think the clue for FOXTROT works without separating “into” (putting extra heart into loves), although it makes the grammar a bit Yoda-ish.

  15. It just about does, Dave, which is why I put ‘I think’ in my comment.  It works more elegantly if you separate out the two parts, since ‘to’ then just becomes a joiner (you don’t need it to make FOXTROT).  Which way you look at it depends on how much you like Yoda.

  16. It looks like there was a mistake in both today’s cryptics, then. If no one here can work out where the V comes from, it must be a slip. I enjoyed this more than the Cryptic today.

     

  17. I’m relieved that others can’t justify the V in INCENTIVE, as it was bothering me. GBA’s theory sounds likely to me too.

    With that one exception, this was a beautiful Quiptic. Easy, but none the worse for that. I particularly liked the smooth way Hectence got all four suits into the clue for 19a (CHOICES). The surface would have been even more natural with “no” instead of “zero”, but Hectence probably chose “zero” deliberately to make the clue slightly easier for the Quiptic.

    I wondered about the definition for SCEPTIC, as I’ve only ever seen this word as a noun, but some dictionaries list it as an adjective.

    One small quibble: The definition for 11a doesn’t quite match. The equivalent of EMBARKED ON is “began”, not “began task”. I think that the clue would have worked better as “Began getting …”

     

     

  19. Another coming here in search of the missing v. But while I’m here… What a delightful crossword and not so easy, at least not for me but certainly full of quips. And thanks Pierre for the elegant blog.

  20. Concerning 16d, could it not have been this?

    “In Norse mythology, Vili and Vé (pronounced /?v?li/ VILL-ee and /?ve?/ VAY) are the brothers of the god Odin (from Old Norse Óðinn), sons of Bestla, daughter of Bölþorn; and Borr, son of Búri ” (from Wikipedia)

    Not exactly a Swede, I suppose, and rather recherché…

  21. Apologies to all about 16dn – INCENTIVE. It should have read – Carrot’s nice in stew, throwing in turnip top and very last of swede

  23. I no longer do crosswords by Hectence mainly because I can’t countenance constructions such as “first” = “first of”(each to their own and all that), but I do look most weeks in case things have changed, and this week I am beset by another conundrum – “which policeman is a DIS”?

    All replies gratefully received.

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