Guardian Quiptic 1,104/Matilda

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Matilda has produced a pleasing Quiptic this morning, which I think meets the brief – ‘for beginners, and those in a hurry’ – pretty well. For those in the former category, additional explanation is available on request as always.

 

 

 

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 Homage to muscle, amongst others
RESPECT
An insertion of PEC for one of the muscles that gym bunnies get exercised about in REST. The insertion indicator is ‘amongst’.

5 Officialdom requires extremely rare draft copy
RED TAPE
A charade of RE and DT for the outside letters (‘extremely’) of ‘rare’ and ‘draft’ and APE.

9 Thoughts and principles left out
IDEAS
IDEA[L]S

10 Send a signal about fresh bread found on the beach?
WINDBREAK
An insertion of (BREAD)* in WINK. The insertion indicator is ‘about’ and the anagrind is ‘fresh’. Cf 25ac.

11 Carl and Betty designed a slogan
BATTLE CRY
(CARL BETTY)*

12 Sign spotted in time to turn back
TOTEM
Hidden reversed in tiME TO Turn.

13 Complains aloud of strained sinew — it’s the booze!
WINES
Two for the price of one: a homophone (‘aloud’) of WHINES; and (SINEW)*

15 Occasions for home positions
INSTANCES
A charade of IN and STANCES.

18 Endless charm shown by heavy drinker, indicator of what comes next
HARBINGER
A charade of [C]HAR[M] and BINGER.

19 Scandinavians born in a backward miserable setting
DANES
An insertion of NÉ in SAD reversed. Né is the past participle of the French verb naître, to be born. Most often it’s seen in its feminine form, née, to refer to a woman’s maiden name; but Collins gives it as this version when it’s referring to the original name of a titled man, so Matilda is on firm ground.

21 Language used by lousy leader ain’t working
LATIN
A charade of L for the first letter of ‘lousy’ and (AINT)* The anagrind is ‘working’.

23 Like Bridget Jones, divulge secrets twice!
SINGLETON
Bridget Jones’s Diary was originally Helen Fielding’s column for the Independent (you can thank Andrew Marr, who was editor at the time, for giving it its first airing). It then became a book, and subsequently a film with Renée Zellweger as the eponymous and unattached heroine. Divulging secrets twice – often after too many glasses of Chardonnay – would have been typical Bridget. A charade of SING and LET ON. Vg clue.

25 Cause a stink, having barked about securing victory
BREAK WIND
An insertion of WIN in (BARKED)* The insertion indicator is ‘securing’ and the anagrind is ‘about’. Cf 10ac.

26 To the audience a line from the more popular song
ASIDE
For those of a certain age (ie wrinklies like me who form the bulk of cryptic solvers). A sort of dd. The A-SIDE (as opposed to the B-SIDE) was the song which was the potential ‘hit’ on a vinyl single.  To see how dated it is, ask a millennial what an A-SIDE is.  The first definition is referring to a comment to the audience in a play, for example.

27 Record revolutionary coming to a point
TAPERED
A charade of TAPE and RED.

28 In retrospect, realise it’s a ghost
SPECTRE
Hidden in retroSPECT REalise.

 

Down

1 Wet weather front of many colours
RAINBOW
A dd cum cd.

Edit: as several commenters have pointed out, it is in fact RAIN for ‘wet weather’ followed by BOW for ‘front’ (of a boat).

2 Bribe sometimes taken with coffee?
SWEETENER
A dd.

3 Stand for hire, top to bottom
EASEL
Matilda is inviting you (since it’s a down clue) to move the L in LEASE from the top to the bottom.

4 Watch out, monarch gets a beating
THWACKING
A charade of (WATCH)* and KING. The anagrind is ‘out’.

5 What Giuliani used to do is not solid
RUNNY
Most of what Rudy has done in his life could be described as ‘not solid’: believing Trump’s BS for so many years (and as I write, being lined up to defend him in the second impeachment proceedings); having a bad hair(dye) day when addressing a press conference on a warm afternoon; and ‘tucking in his shirt’ in the latest Borat film. However, the part of his life the setter is referring to is his time as mayor of New York City – hence RUN NY – so it’s a dd.

6 Misusing it may cause bad credit
DEBIT CARD
A cad. The whole clue defines the solution. (BAD CREDIT)*

7 Top section having skill
ADEPT
A charade of A (‘top’ as in exam grades, for example) and DEPT.

8 Love, kiss me madly — we’re Northerners!
ESKIMOS
(O KISS ME)* with ‘madly’ as the anagrind. ESKIMO is increasingly considered an unacceptable term, and ‘Inuit’ is preferred among most people from Alaska and the Arctic regions.

14 Regularly tack in top sail
SPINNAKER
An insertion of AK for the even letters of ‘tack’ in SPINNER.

16 Woos Ms Williams and Mr O’Connor
SERENADES
If the tennis player and the lately deceased entertainer got together, it would be the SERENA and DES show.

17 Harsh after Tory squeeze
CONSTRICT
A charade of CON and STRICT.

18 Fishtail seen on a badly built fish
HALIBUT
A ‘lift and separate’ procedure with ‘fishtail’ is required here, giving you H for the last letter of ‘fish’. It’s a charade of that, A and (BUILT)*

20 True from the time of Roman Empire origins
SINCERE
A charade of SINCE and RE for the first letters of ‘Roman’ and ‘Empire’.

22 Somewhere in Belgium is missing an idiot
TWERP
[AN]TWERP

23 Saw cottage, for example, within Scotland’s borders
SPIED
Nice misdirection (well, it misdirected this solver, at least). An insertion of PIE in SD for the outside letters of ‘Scotland’.

24 Holiday dump
LEAVE
A dd.

Many thanks to Matilda for this morning’s Quiptic.

36 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 1,104/Matilda”

  1. Thanks Matilda and Pierre

    Yes, a very good Quiptic. SINGLETON my favourite too.

    I’ve read somewhere that INUIT is only a bit less inaccurate than ESKIMO, as the name only applies to one tribe of northerners.

  2. Fine stuff from Matilda – but a note of disappointment that there’s not a single bird, Pierre?

    RUNNY and SPIED were my favourites. Not really convinced about RAINBOW – the wording felt a bit stretched.

  3. I found the symmetrical anagram echoes in this delightful – RESPECT echoed by SPECTRE, RED TAPE by TAPERED, WINDBREAK by BREAK WIND, IDEAS by ASIDE. Wonderful work, Matilda!

  5. Fun puzzle, but not a so-called ‘Quiptic’ in my opinion. Found it more difficult than today’s Cryptic, which I managed to finish.

    Failed ASIDE – I see that it is very clever/amusing.
    Could not parse SPINNAKER.

    Favourites: SINGLETON, SERENADES, DANES, HALIBUT, TWERP, SPIED, ADEPT.

    Thanks, B+S

  6. Well spotted, TassieTim. I clocked the WINDBREAK/BREAK WIND one, but not the others. Unusual to have some kind of theme in a Quiptic, but cleverly done, as you say.

  7. Delightful. I feel that I’ve seen something similar for DEBIT CARD before but what a great clue. BREAK WIND, RUNNY and SINGLETON were all amusing. Ta Matilda & Pierre.

  11. I thought this was beautifully put together, with just a few “meaty” ones – it took me a while to parse HALIBUT and ASIDE.
    Surely 1dn is RAIN (wet weather) + BOW (front of a boat)?
    According to Wikipedia, the word Eskimo etymologically derives from the Innu-aimun (Montagnais) word ayas?kimew meaning “a person who laces a snowshoe” and the offensive connotation of the word as supposedly meaning “eater of raw meat” comes from an etymology which has been discredited.
    But as many Inuit and Yupik people see it as derogatory, I guess we should avoid using it.
    Thank you Shirl @8 for doing something unusual and pointing out a dig at The Dear Leader which I had missed!
    And thanks as ever to Matilda and to Pierre.

  12. One of two very enjoyable cryptics in today’s paper. A good start to the week – my COTD was SERENADES, which provoked a giggle!

  15. Copmus @13 some singles were released as “double A sides”. I’m too young to know whether Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane was one, though.

  16. Hi Pierre, Thanks for breaking this down. Am a beginner. Can you pls help with SPINNAKER. Didn’t quite understand. Thanks in advance.

  18. TassieTim @3. Not just simple anagrams but also reversals of syllables, RE-SPECT SPECT_RE. I assume that by symmetrical you meant the grid positions

  19. I always like a Matilda Quiptic even though ASIDE defeated me. Can you have a HARBINGER of anything but doom? Surely not another dig at our Great Leader???

  20. Morning Sunny – if this is your first comment, welcome. The ‘top’ being referred to is a spinning top that might be used as a toy.

  21. Enjoyed that very much – started off at a rush and then got held up in the SE for while. Didn’t manage to parse DANES.

    TassieTim @3 – what fun

    Same favourites more-or-less as michelle@5

    Thanks to Matilda and Pierre – now off to try the cryptic

  22. Good Quiptic, I thought.

    LOI was ASIDE; I just didn’t see the A-side. Thanks to TassieTim @3, Martin S @18 and Shirl @8 for the extra information.

    I did like the clues for BREAK WIND and SINGLETON.

    Thanks Matilda and Pierre.

  23. Thanks Matilda and Pierre, I really enjoyed this. Two questions if I may, 1. does ‘regularly’ always indicate even letters, or could it be odds, or say every third letter would also have regularity? 2. Should an abbreviation such as pec for pectoral not be indicated? Thanks in advance

  24. Afternoon, Cody

    My experience is that ‘regularly’ can refer to either the odd or even letters of a word; very occasionally I have seen it refer to every third letter. ‘Oddly’ (when it’s not an anagrind) will usually point you to the odd letters only.

    ‘Pec’ as a stand-alone abbreviation is fine, I think, since it’s commonly used in speech that way. ‘Abs’ gets the same treatment.

  27. I love Matilda and always enjoy her crosswords., this one included. I missed the double anagrams, which are so clever, and made me appreciate it even more

  28. I think that “spinner” refers to a sail on a windmill. I couldn’t parse it myself, but married a boy who used to sail boats, so knew the word.

  29. Brilliant Quiptic, thanks Matilda and thanks Pierre for the blog! 23ac and 6d seem like classic clues to me; for 6d I was thinking “The definition can’t be that straightforward” and then I saw the wordplay. 23d also misdirected me, I was trying to think of “saw” as a tool or old saying but it’s defined the way it’s used in the clue!

    Didn’t get the parsing for 26ac (for a bit I was trying to see if I could get NOISE or something from No. 1) and eventually worked it out from the theme–four pairs of symmetrically placed answers have their halves switched (wind/break, tape/red, as/ide, spect/re). I was a bit worried that 24d would turn out to be LEASE for the same reason!

  30. Petert @ 19: snowdrops and daffodils are often described as HARBINGERS of Spring.

    Couldn’t parse ADEPT. Loved the clue for TWERP.

  32. Very enjoyable. I managed to completely miss the symmetric pairs of lights.

    [The masculine NÉ in 19ac is indeed unusual. I hadn’t thought about its being used for titled people. Nowadays, as we are (fortunately) less wedded to rigid gender roles, it could have broader use: at least a few males that I know of changed their names upon marriage. And of course there’s no reason the usage has to be tied to a marriage: why not say Cary Grant né Archibald Leach?]

  33. [Ted @32
    You’ve reminded me of my favourite Cary Grant story. He had called in to see his agent, when the agent got a telegram saying “How old Cary Grant?”. Grant insisted his agent replied “Old Cary Grant fine. How you”?
    Person-dropping – I once visited BRistol Zoo at the same time as he did.]

  34. TassieTim @4. If 3d and 4d were linked, wouldn’t 7d and 22d also need to be linked to maintain the symmetry?

    Very nearly completed without checks today. With just 23a, 20d AND 24d to solve, I resorted to trying and checking for the initial letter of 24d. Once I had that letter, the rest just fell into place.

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