Quiptic 1,061 by Matilda

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Another enjoyable Quiptic from Matilda this morning. (Or last Thursday, for those who noticed it was erroneously published early under the Cryptic heading on the Guardian website.)

The wordplay in 11a and the definition in 21d made me think of Paul’s crossword clues; Matilda, has he been leading you astray? And I liked the curiously inappropriate surface of 17a, as well as the old-but-clever trick that had me puzzled for a long time. Thanks Matilda for the fun.

Definitions are underlined; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.

ACROSS
1 GLUCOSE Lettuce covered in sticky stuff (sugar) (7)
COS (a variety of lettuce) covered by GLUE (sticky stuff).
5, 10 MOTHER’S RUIN Distressed mourners hit the gin (7,4)
Anagram (distressed) of MOURNERS HIT.
Slang term for gin.
10 See 5
11 BONE TO PICK Having covered just the beginning of easy subject, go to bed with an unresolved grievance (4,2,4)
Beginning letter of E[asy] + TOPIC (subject), all covered by BONK (go to bed with).
As in “I’ve got a bone to pick with you” = introducing a conversation about a perceived offence.
12 DEBATE Discuss stick trapped in river (6)
BAT (stick? An item of sports equipment may be called a bat or a stick, but I can’t think of an example where both words apply) in DEE (there are several rivers with this name in the UK and elsewhere, but my first thought would be the one in North Wales / Cheshire).
13 INSPIRED Stirred spin about Italy’s head Communist (8)
Anagram (about) of SPIN, then first letter of I[taly] + RED (slang for Communist).
Stirred in the sense of roused to enthusiasm = inspired.
14 STAB WOUND Try curled causing injury (4,5)
STAB (try, as in “have a stab at”) + WOUND (curled, as in “wound up in a ball”).
16 KENYA Mr West gets his vowels confused in this country (5)
KANYE (Kanye West, American musician / pop culture celebrity), with the two vowels swapping places.
17 DANDY Extremely dreary man about town (5)
The extremes (first and last letters) of “dreary” are D AND Y. It’s an old crossword trick.
19 WATERSHED Liquid spilt at 9 o’clock (9)
WATER (liquid, at room temperature anyway) + SHED (dropped = spilt).
Time of day after which it’s considered acceptable for TV stations to broadcast programmes not suitable for children; in the UK this is 9pm.
23 ADDITIVE Extra tie David knotted (8)
Anagram (knotted) of TIE DAVID.
24 FRIEND Buddy getting tiniest bit of nettle cooked outside (6)
Just the first letter (tiniest bit) of N[ettle], with FRIED (cooked) outside it.
26 SALT CELLAR Last tatty basement found in the kitchen (4,6)
Anagram (tatty) of LAST, then CELLAR (basement).
Container for table salt; it might be found in the kitchen, but I think it would more usually be on the dining table.
27, 18 NICE AND EASY In New York, as CIA need to move carefully (4,3,4)
Anagram (to move) of AS CIA NEED, in NY (abbreviation for New York).
28 CYGNETS Picked up rings for baby birds (7)
Homophone (picked up = heard) of SIGNETS (a type of finger rings).
Baby swans.
29 REFRESH Update: Judge right? He’s wrong (7)
REF (referee = judge) + R (right) + anagram (wrong) of HE’S.
DOWN
2 LOUDEST Most showy tousled style (7)
Anagram (style = reshape?) of TOUSLED.
Loud = showy = brightly coloured.
3 CONGA Dance erratically, collapsing after taking pills (5)
Anagram (erratically) of COLLAPSING with the letters of PILLS removed.
4 SUB-ZERO Reserve nothing extremely chilly (3-4)
SUB (substitute = reserve = replacement player in a sports team) + ZERO (nothing).
Zero is either chilly or very chilly, depending on whether you’re measuring in Celsius or Fahrenheit, but I think “sub-zero” is normally used in the context of Celsius where zero is ice-cold.
6 OBTUSE Stupid sort of angle (6)
Double definition. Obtuse angle = between 90 and 180 degrees.
7 HAPPINESS Topless man craves small pleasure (9)
[c]HAP (man; topless = first letter removed) + PINES (yearns = craves) + S (small).
8 ROCKERY China’s leader ignored garden feature (7)
CROCKERY (china as in plates and dishes) with the leading letter ignored.
9 INDIAN GAZELLE Nazi and GI crazy over her, French elegant creature (6,7)
Anagram (crazy) of NAZI AND GI, then ELLE (“her” in French).
A species of gazelle, also known as chinkara; gazelles are generally considered to be graceful as well as fast-running, but I hadn’t heard of this species.
15 BADMINTON Where horses may be game (9)
Double definition: the Badminton Horse Trials, or the sport with racquets and shuttlecocks (which has just had its All England Open Championships this weekend).
18 See 27
20 ENFORCE Ensure observance with part written for cello (7)
Hidden answer (part) in [writt]EN FOR CE[llo].
21 EUNUCHS They have no balls for regular returns — such madness! (7)
Alternate letters (regular) in [r]E[t]U[r]N[s], then an anagram (madness) of SUCH.
22 DIRECT Ghastly court order (6)
DIRE (ghastly = awful) + CT (abreviation for court, especially in street maps).
Direct (verb) = order.
25 INNER Breadwinners’ hidden secret (5)
Hidden answer in [breadw]INNER[s].
Secret as in “inner sanctum” = private room.

 

19 comments on “Quiptic 1,061 by Matilda”

  1. Thanks Matilda and Quirister

    I found this extraordinarily difficult, and not just as a Quiptic. It was a DNF, in fact, as I couldn’t see DANDY. “Mr West” means “Peter” to me, so I needed the crossers for that one. “Tiniest bit of nettle” for N is clumsy. NEWMARKET is a better answer for 15d (I wasn’t tempted, as I had CYGNETS).

    Favourite was ENFORCE.

  2. Sorry to disagree with Quirister, but I found this a very poor puzzle, and one Paul is quite enough for me. Unsuitable for a Quiptic, and I found some of the surfaces, such as 24 and 26a, ludicrous.

  3. As seems to have happened often lately, this Quiptic was harder for me than today’s Cryptic.

    Never heard of the programming WATERSHED, though I suppose there’s one in the US too.  I don’t know what it’s called.

    Here in Fahrenheit land sub-zero weather means “very cold”.

  6. Don’t usually do the Quiptic puzzles but this one was out of place on the website and a friend drew my attention to it, so i did it as a warm-up to Saturday’s prize.

    I didn’t find it as difficult as some others have indicated but I have to agree with our blogger’s comments – there were one or two definitely Paulian clues!

    The rivers Dee, by the way, derive their name from the old celtic word for water.  (Modern Welsh dw^r, breton dour).  There are still placenames in France ending in -dour.

    Thanks Quirister and Matilda

  7. Didn’t enjoy this very much, apart from ROCKERY, ENFORCE and WATERSHED. Way too hard for a Quiptic.

    Cheers anyway.

  8. Personally, I’ve given up expecting Quiptics to be easier than the Monday Cryptics. Come to think of it, Monday Cryptics are often not the easiest ones of the week anyway. So, with that in mind, I didn’t have an issue with this one although quite a few solutions fell into the guess-first, parse-later category – but then, I’m getting used to that, too! I liked EUNUCHS, WATERSHED and CYGNETS, and enjoyed the surface to MOTHER’S RUIN. Thanks to Quirister for help with some of the parsing, and to Matilda for a bracing mental work-out.

  9. I agree that this was hard for the Quiptic slot, but my difficulty was primarily with the UK-centric WATERSHED and BADMINTON, the latter of which I had to reveal in order to get DANDY. Otherwise I have no complaints, so thanks to Matilda. Thanks also to Quirister for explaining what in the world 9 o’clock has to do with watersheds.

  11. I also found this somewhat more difficult than the usual Quiptic, but I enjoyed it more than some commenters seem to have done. I failed to parse three clues (DANDY, CONGA, ENFORCE), but they’re all perfectly fair. I’m frequently surprised by my inability to spot hidden-word clues like ENFORCE, which seem like they should be the easiest.

     

  12. Quite a tough one, for a quiptic. I misled myself by flinging in NEAT AND TIDY for 27&18, without checking the anagram. I hadn’t seen the trick in DANDY before, but I did puzzle the parsing out after putting in the answer as what would sensibly fit. I had only a vague memory of BADMINTON being anything to do with horses, so that needed all the crossers before I saw it. I initially thought that 3D might be CANED, as slang for being totally wrecked, which might happen after taking pills… eventually the crossing A put me right, but I couldn’t see how it worked, so thanks, Quirister, for the explanation; and to Matilda for the workout.

  14. Well I enjoyed every minute of it as I always do with Matilda’s crosswords. Certainly more enjoyable than the cryptic and not more difficult

  15. I always smile when I see her name. We must be on the same wavelength. And they are always fun

  17. I am a newcomer to Quiptics and found this a rather hard one, but was able to complete it without any reveals!! So very pleased with myself.

    There were quite a few that I could not decipher entirely. Most  of my replies were based on stabbing at half a clue, using crossers and checking as I went along. So I am delighted to have stumbled on 15^2. Now I can review the mind games of the clues.

    A suggestion: on the Guardian crossword page, alert readers to the existence of 15^2. It is very useful.

    And I see that there is quite a lot of crossword jargon in the form of abbreviations e.g. mrsm, LOI, EPT, etui and so on. Perhaps a note explaining these? (I figured out LOI but not the others.)

    Thanks for the ‘quiptic’ and especially the notes of explanation.

     

     

     

  18. Graham, welcome to Fifteensquared, and well done for getting through this tricky puzzle.

    The abbreviation LOI (last one in) is specific to Fifteensquared bloggers and commenters, I think.  There is a “FAQ” (frequently asked questions) page on this site but it doesn’t include this particular abbreviation, so I’ll see if I can get it added.  I’m not sure where you saw the other terms in your list, though – they don’t seem to be part of this crossword, its blog entry or the comments, and I don’t think I recognise them as crossword jargon.

  19. Hello Quirister and thanks for your reply. I saw the other abbreviations in the Guardian Quick crossword comments. I no longer do the Quick ones, so if that is the only place they appear, that’s fine.

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