An excellent Quiptic as always by Carpathian.
This puzzle is full of surfaces that immediately conjure up a mental image, which of course is there to mislead the solver: “police got a criminal” is a good example. Everything is clearly clued, and there are some standard tricks for beginners to pick up; I’ve tried to identify these below, but please ask if I’ve missed out an explanation you need. My favourites were 12a (I’m sure we’ve all seen people like that) and 13d (a bizarre image that eventually resolves neatly into something quite unexpected), but there are too many good clues to list them all. Thanks to Carpathian.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | RESTIVE | Uneasy sleep I have (7) |
| REST (sleep) + I’VE (I have). | ||
| 5 | STAINS | Marks way by road from Edinburgh to London, north to south (6) |
| ST (street) + AI (A1 = the main road between Edinburgh and London) + N[orth] + S[outh]. | ||
| 9 | FLIPPANT | Breathe heavily after somersault that’s frivolous (8) |
| PANT (breathe heavily) after FLIP (somersault; gymnastics experts may insist that the two aren’t exactly the same move, but for most of us they’re equivalent). | ||
| 10 | TATTOO | State stood endlessly for military display (6) |
| [s]TAT[e] [s]TOO[d]; endlessly = with the end letters removed. Tattoo in the military sense: originally a piece played by drummers, later a general display / performance by armed forces. For example the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, which should have taken place this weekend but was another inevitable casualty of these strange times. |
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| 12 | ASPIRATIONAL | Organised PA is reasonable and ambitious (12) |
| Anagram (organised) of PA IS, then RATIONAL (reasonable). | ||
| 15 | APOLOGETIC | Police got a criminal showing remorse (10) |
| Anagram (criminal) of POLICE GOT A. | ||
| 17 | IMP | Chimpanzee throttling little devil (3) |
| Hidden answer (. . . throttling) in [ch]IMP[anzee]. | ||
| 19 | ROT | Last bits of clover to compost and decay (3) |
| Last letters from [clove]R [t]O [compos]T. | ||
| 20 | PARTICULAR | Fastidious individual (10) |
| Double definition: the first means “paying careful attention to details”, the second “a specific one”. | ||
| 22 | CROSS-SECTION | Angry religious group disowns oddly deficient representative sample (5-7) |
| CROSS (angry) + SECT (religious group) + [d]I[s]O[w]N[s] with the odd-numbered letters removed (oddly deficient). | ||
| 26 | KITTEN | Equipment to catch returning animal (6) |
| KIT (equipment), then NET (as a verb = to catch) reversed (returning). | ||
| 27 | MEATBALL | Food item setter gets at party? (8) |
| ME (the setter of this crossword is speaking) + AT + BALL (dance party). | ||
| 28 | SEDATE | Some losing heart on romantic assignation, lacking fire (6) |
| S[om]E (losing heart = without the middle letters) + DATE (romantic assignation). Sedate in the sense of “slow and uninteresting” = lacking fire. |
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| 29 | ENDLESS | Unceasing, depraved idleness I rejected (7) |
| Anagram (depraved) of [i]DLENESS, rejecting the letter I. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | RAFT | Service on front of the platform (4) |
| RAF (Royal Air Force, one of the armed services) + first letter (front) of T[he]. | ||
| 2 | SPIN | Draw out small nail (4) |
| S (small) + PIN (nail: specifically a thin nail for woodwork, with little or no head so that it doesn’t show on the surface.) | ||
| 3 | IMPOSTOR | Unlimited time following gold fraud (8) |
| [t]IM[e] (without the limits = end letters) + POST (following, as in post-war) + OR (heraldic term for gold). Crossword beginners may like to note that “gold” is usually OR (the heraldic term for gold / yellow) or AU (the chemical symbol Au, from the Latin aurum). | ||
| 4 | ENNUI | Broadcast relating to number one cause of boredom (5) |
| Homophone (broadcast = spoken on radio) of ON (relating to) + WEE (number one = slang for the act of urination). I’m not quite sure where “cause” fits in, though it’s needed for the surface. I think it’s wee = “number one cause” = the reason for going to do a number one. Or perhaps the definition is “cause of boredom”, but I think “ennui” = boredom itself rather than a condition causing it. |
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| 6 | TRAGIC | Disastrous little bit of toxic smoke rising (6) |
Pedants might argue that there’s a difference between tragedy and disaster, but the meanings are close enough for a crossword clue. |
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| 7 | INTANGIBLE | Imponderable popular taste gets bile churning (10) |
| IN (popular) + TANG (taste) + anagram (churning) of BILE. | ||
| 8 | SPOILSPORT | Plunder harbour causing misery (10) |
| SPOILS (plunder = goods seized by the winners of a battle) + PORT (harbour). Spoilsport = misery = one who disrupts other people’s enjoyment. |
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| 11 | RACIST | Vehicle overturned on street trapping one bigot (6) |
| CAR (vehicle) reversed (overturned), then ST (abbreviation for street), containing I (one in Roman numerals). Note for beginners: the “on” indicates that RAC comes before ST, because it’s “above” it when reading downwards. However, the convention in across clues is different: “RAC on ST” usually means that RAC is “added on to” ST and therefore comes after it. |
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| 13 | FAIRY CAKES | Show agreement to carry about a thousand small sponges (5,5) |
| FAIR (show, as a noun = festival / market) + YES (agreement), containing (to carry) C (circa = about) + A + K (prefix indicating kilo = thousand). Sponge = short for sponge cake; fairy cake = similar to cupcake, but usually a smaller version. |
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| 14 | FOXTROTTED | Tango spoiled after cheat danced (10) |
| T (Tango in the radio alphabet) + ROTTED (spoiled, as in food “gone off”), after FOX (a cunning / deceitful person). Foxtrot = a type of dance. I don’t think I’ve seen it as a verb before, but there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be one; “waltz” works perfectly well as either noun or verb. As does “tango” in the dance sense, of course. And “foxtrot” for F is another radio alphabet character, so this is a more intricate clue than it first appears. |
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| 16 | ERASER | Rubber wearers cavorting topless (6) |
| Anagram (cavorting) of [w]EARERS without its first letter (topless). The surface is a little naughty for those who know the US meaning of the word “rubber”, and may need reminding that in the UK it means a pencil eraser. UK readers may need reminding that when talking to Americans about stationery, they should always call it an eraser. |
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| 18 | ACCOSTED | Account expense journalist challenged (8) |
| AC (abbreviation for account) + COST (expense) + ED (editor = journalist; one for crossword beginners to note, because it’s used a lot). | ||
| 21 | ASPECT | Face idiot kissed audibly (6) |
| Homophone (audibly) of ASS (idiot) + PECKED (peck = slang for kiss). | ||
| 23 | THEME | Topic those people start to explore (5) |
| THEM (those people) + starting letter of E[xplore]. | ||
| 24 | RAZE | Lay waste to carbon-free fad (4) |
| [c]RAZE (fad = widespread but short-lived enthusiasm for something), without the C (chemical symbol for carbon). Raze = lay waste to = completely destroy (a building, town etc); often the phrase is “raze to the ground”, which sounds like a contradiction in terms until you realise it wasn’t “raise”. |
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| 25 | PLUS | Regularly applauds bonus (4) |
| Alternate letters (regularly) from [a]P[p]L[a]U[d]S. Plus = bonus = an unexpected extra benefit. |
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Pleasant activity over a coffee. FOXTROTTED was LOI. Solid clueing if nothing too challenging after the Prize at the weekend. Thanks Carpathian and Quinster
Lovely puzzle for a relative newbie. Really enjoyed it. Foxtrotted my LOI too. Worked my way steadily through it with just a little help from the check button. Thanks to Carpathian and Quirister.
I enjoyed this, but couldn’t parse foxtrotted (the tango really confused me), ennui or tragic. Thanks Carpathian and thanks Quirister for the clear explanations for beginners – the explanation of how ‘on’ works for down and across clues was very useful.
I found this pleasingly straightforward – which is just what I need on a Monday morning. Lots to like, especially APOLOGETIC, FAIRY CAKES – and the doubling-up in FOXTROTTED. Thanks to Quirister for the blog and to Carpathian for getting my week off to a good start!
There’s always a lot of back-and-forth on the difficulty of the Quiptic, but Carpathian seems to solidly hit what in my opinion is the right level of difficulty for a Quiptic, although FOXTROTTED certainly baffled me for a while.
APOLOGETIC was a well disguised anagram that I missed on first pass, and FAIRY CAKES was also great. PARTICULAR was a great example of how to do a dd well.
Surely a bit of a Bank Holiday afternoon theme here? ENDLESS, RESTIVE, ENNUI, SEDATE…
Foxed by foxtrotted..pottered through after the Pan, then wandered off unfinished and forgot to come back. Agree with Quirister, if you can have waltzed, tangoed, etc, then sambaed, foxtrotted, twostepped.. why not? All part of the fun, thanks both.
Enjoyed solving this. Didn’t know of AI (in 5A) but could work it out. LOI was FAIRY CAKES – took time to realise that “show” and “agreement” have to be translated separately! Thanks Carpathian and Quirister.
Very enjoyable Quiptic with the precise cluing of Carpathian.
I loved FAIRY CAKES, which was my LOI.
Thanks Carpathian and Quirister.
Really enjoyed this, although my heart sank a bit when I saw C_K_S for the second half of 13d. I thought, this will turn out to be a familiar bakery item with a name I’ve never heard of, and so it was. Like Ramki @7, I took a long time to separate “show agreement.” Carpathian is so good at that sort of thing! Thanks to her and to Quirister for a thorough blog.
Thanks Carpathian and Quirister
I found this hard for a Quiptic, and didn’t parse ENNUI or LOI FAIRY CAKES. Lots of nice clues, though.
One quibble – IMPONDERABLE means “too dificult to think about”; INTANGIBLE means you can’t touch it.
6D. I feel it should be T(oxic) in place of T(ragic).
A lovely Quiptic to start the day, with quite a few nicely vivid surfaces.
Incidentally, if you do come over to the US and refer to a pencil eraser as “rubber”, you’ll not only be misunderstood but also thought somewhat old-fashioned: I don’t think that the prophylactic sense has been in common use for quite a while. “Rubbers” also used to refer to waterproof overshoes (essentially the same as “galoshes”), but I haven’t heard that sense in many years either.
(A far worse misunderstanding would arise if you used a common three-letter slang term for a cigarette over here, as that word is quite a nasty slur in the US.)
‘Cause of’ in 4D is like ‘causing’ in 8D: it’s a link between the wordplay and the definition, equivalent to an equals sign. ‘Makes’ and ‘gives’ are similar linking words which are often used to help the surface reading of the clue.
Good puzzle and blog.
Hi Alison @3.
Re the different uses of ‘on’ in across and down clues. Note that, at 11d, Quirister wisely uses the words ‘convention’ and ‘usually’ in reference to the former. 28a goes against this convention, by using ‘on’ to indicate that ‘se’ precedes ‘date’ in ‘sedate’. Not all setters play by the same ‘rules’!
Lovely Quiptic. I do agree with Muffin re Imponderable and intangible. That aside, very enjoyable and an excellent blog. Have not been able to find the blog for today’s Pan, which was also fun. Anyone else having that problem? Many thanks to Carpathian and Qurister. Weather here dire so a good opportunity to catch up with the Cryptics…
VDS Prasad @11: thanks, blog now corrected.
greensward @14: indeed. Perhaps best to say that “on” means “next to”, but not necessarily in one particular direction!
Pauline: the blog for today’s Pan appears just before this one on the home page, or at least it does for me. But if you can’t see it there for some reason, it’s here: http://www.fifteensquared.net/2020/08/31/guardian-28266-pan/
A delightful puzzle.
Pure Paul in 4dn, of course.
Thanks very much, Quirister. I shall try the link. Pauline
Hi all. I’m new to all this having taken it up in the last month. This one was about right for me and very enjoyable, albeit with a lot of help from various sources. The guardian app says it took me a little under two hours. My question is what people think is an acceptable level of assistance to stimulate the completion of such puzzles? I am sure I will get quicker as the level of progression is rapid and accordingly reliance on such aids should reduce but what is the norm here at this, very high, level? I understand that there are many that would complete this in their coffee break with no aids. I may never get there. To what extent do others use help such as anagram solvers, synonym lists, internet help to derive words where you have most of the crossers? Chambers crossword dictionary helps for inspiration in my case, but most seem to use it to check rather than try and solve. So falling short of actually googling the clue, what is considered par for help in such a puzzle? Surely I can’t be expected to know all rivers, poets, places, fish etc. although not a problem this time. Clearly responses will be contextual, but would like to understand how much normal people normally get what sorts of help.
Rocker: First of all, welcome to Fifteensquared – and if you’ve been doing cryptics for less than a month, you’re doing well to finish one by whatever means you have available.
I don’t think there’s really any “acceptable” level of assistance for puzzles; some people here may boast of never using anything beyond their own brain, but most will do some sort of looking-up even if, as you say, it’s just for checking. Those of us who learned to do crosswords before the internet age will probably work out anagrams by writing the letters down on paper (in a random arrangement, in a circle, in alphabetical order – whatever). Or we may guess a solution that might match the definition, and then write it down on scrap paper to look at patterns in the letters and see if we can see anything to fit the wordplay. We also get quite good at inventing “a word that might mean X”, then looking it up to see whether it exists. Experienced solvers will probably get most of the way through a puzzle, then (if necessary) resort to additional tools (for example a crossword solver website that will suggest words matching the crossing letters you have) to help with one or two stubborn ones.
For rivers, poets, fish and so on, you’ll find that some specific ones keep cropping up, especially ones with only a few letters. Some of the bloggers here, especially those who cover the puzzles aimed at beginners, will point these out in the blogs so you can make a note of them for later. Also look out for things like chemical symbols and (surprisingly common) slang terms for recreational drugs. As for the references to music, sport, literature and so on – well, it depends what you like, but for example you can go a long way with a few common musical terms and the names of a few composers, without having to be an expert.
The bottom line is, though: the best way to get better at cryptics is just to do them, using whatever methods you find helpful, without trying to compare yourself to anyone else; and the more you do, the more you’ll find you can do without help. Everyone has to start somewhere!
Thanks for the contextual answer. I guess it is really up to individual circumstances and self fulfilment requirements? I am generally time poor, task orientated and internet savvy so just enjoy getting them done and appreciating the skill of the setter (and thrill of solving). If I were the opposite of those things, and maybe one day I will be, perhaps I will luxuriate in doing it unaided. For now, until I get better, i will use all the aids (except actually googling the answer) although some seem to do that. I do marvel at how people learned this stuff pre-internet etc though. The learning curve must have been much more gradual. This site has been a godsend in the progression for me. Keep up the good work!
Perfect quiptic, thanks for parsing 14d.
Pretty difficult quiptic for me (as you can tell by the timestamp, since I only just finished it). I think 8d SPOILSPORT was my LOI. Though I might’ve made a serendipitous typo for 13d, as I had -A-RY|CAKES for ages and at that point was trying to come up with anything that might be similar to johnnycake. Another late answer was 10a, which should’ve been way easier than it was, but I got sidetracked trying to run through names of countries. Trickiest ones, imo, were 3d and 4d. Maybe 13d, too.
So yeah: Britishisms this time include FAIRY CAKES, A1 (I got the —-NS part of 5a fairly easy; the rest of it baffled me until I started guessing). I’ll also throw in ASS as ‘idiot’ rather than ‘jerk’ (which is the more common implication in the US). Not sure if 1d fits in this category: RAFT = platform aren’t really that synonymous in my vocabulary. Unless the setter’s using a different definition (e.g., RAFT=slew), you might as well say bench and plank are synonymous! RAF, otoh, I knew about and should’ve remembered, but it wasn’t until long after I guessed the answer from R-F- that I finally parsed the clue.
I was going to call foul on 7d, because something that can’t be touched is not the same as something unthinkable… buuuut it turns out IMPONDERABLE is a physics term (from the weight-based etymology of ‘ponder’, natch).