Guardian Quiptic 1,136/Matilda

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A delightful puzzle from Matilda this morning, which hits the spot for a Quiptic perfectly, I think.

 

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 Criminal crossing mink with a polecat
KLEPTOMANIAC
(MINK A POLECAT)*  The anagrind is ‘crossing with’.

8 Country has organised crime within its borders
AMERICA
An insertion of (CRIME)* in two As. The insertion indicator is ‘has within its borders’; the anagrind is ‘organised’; the fact that the ‘borders’ are two letter As is not explicit, as far as I can see.

9 Will and Harry, but not quite Diana?
PRINCES
Will and Harry are indeed PRINCES, but Diana is a PRINCES[S]. Or was.

11 Catch sight of Cinders dancing
DISCERN
(CINDERS)* with ‘dancing’ as the anagrind.

12 Topic of citizen in a monarchy
SUBJECT
A dd. I live in a constitutional monarchy, but I’ll stick to being just a citizen, thank you.

13 Play back recording, including kiss for someone far from home
EXPAT
An insertion of X in TAPE reversed. The insertion indicator is ‘including’ and the reversal indicator is ‘play back’.

14 Breathes in dodgy parasites
ASPIRATES
(PARASITES)* with ‘dodgy’ as the anagrind.

16 They write baroque poems in heartless covers
COMPOSERS
An insertion of (POEMS)* in CO[VE]RS. The anagrind is ‘baroque’; the insertion indicator is ‘in’; and ‘heartless’ is the instruction to remove the middle letters. One of the definitions of ‘baroque’ in my Chambers is ‘flamboyant’, so the anagrind is fine.

19 More old paintings rejected
EXTRA
A charade of EX and ART reversed (‘rejected’) gives you the most common solution in contemporary cryptic crosswords. I assume that is because E, T and A are commonly occuring letters and naff all else sensible fits E?T?A.

21 Check out chief of police in hexapod
INSPECT
An insertion of P for the initial letter of ‘police’ in INSECT, the famous ‘six-footer’. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.

23 Weary sexy chap stripped — just topless
EXHAUST
A charade of [S]EX[Y], [C]HA[P] and [J]UST.

24 Ship having its mast and sails overwhelmed by destiny
FRIGATE
An insertion of RIG in FATE. The insertion indicator is ‘overwhelmed by’.

25  More luxurious, like Sir Dicky!
SILKIER
(LIKE SIR)* with ‘dicky’ as the anagrind.

26 Dine out with coppers, restricting study for freedom
INDEPENDENCE
A charade of (DINE)* and DEN inserted into PENCE for ‘coppers’. The insertion indicator is ‘restricting’ and the anagrind is ‘out.

Down

1 Joint drink party
KNEES-UP
A charade of KNEE and SUP.

2 I have brought up depression, to be clear
EVIDENT
A charade of I’VE reversed and DENT. The reversal indicator, since it’s a down clue, is ‘brought up’.

3 Cost of travelling coach sounds reasonable
TRAIN FARE
A charade of TRAIN and a homophone of FAIR. The homophone indicator is ‘sounds’.

4 Miserly old person, evidently scammed to begin with, is upset
MOPES
The initial letters of the first five words of the clue.

5 Fix pub providing service found on the high street
NAIL BAR
A charade of NAIL and BAR.

6 Old-fashioned inheritance excluded heir
ANCIENT
Matilda is asking you to exclude ‘heir’ from ‘inheritance’ and make an anagram. To do this, you need to lift and separate ‘old-fashioned’. So it’s (IN[HERI]TANCE)* with ‘fashioned’ as the anagrind.

7 Cloth handbag at first could be ranked most important
HANDKERCHIEF
A charade of H for the initial letter of ‘handbag’, (RANKED)* and CHIEF. The anagrind is ‘could be’.

10 Upsetting a fascist party in power is acceptable
SATISFACTORY
A charade of (A FASCIST)* and TORY. The anagrind is ‘upsetting’. A party in power, but not in control, some might say.

15 Had group that’s armed Isis held every now and then
POSSESSED
A charade of POSSE and the even letters of ‘Isis held’.

17 Neglect one on purpose
MISSION
A charade of MISS, I and ON.

18 Manage to give a speech about gym session
OPERATE
An insertion of PE in ORATE. The insertion indicator is ‘about’.

19 Trim tech billionaire’s status
ECHELON
A charade of [T]ECH and ELON, for the billionaire Mr Musk.

20 Bullish stimulant
TAURINE
A dd. The first is an adjective along the lines of bovine, ovine, murine, etc; the second is a naturally occuring compound in animal tissues, but is also widely used as a stimulant in energy drinks.

22 Compiler’s back in the 12
THEME
The solution to 12 is SUBJECT, so this is a reversal of ME, the ‘compiler’ in THE.

Super Quiptic from Matilda – thank you to her for the start to my crossword week.

40 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 1,136/Matilda”

  2. Remember doing a study on the cognitive effects of guarana, but hadn’t heard of taurine. Given bullish, though, it had to be that. Did wonder momentarily about baroque as indicator. Nice quiptic, ta M and P.

  3. I enjoyed this Quiptic. A good mix of easy and harder clues.

    Liked: INSPECT, AMERICA, KLEPTOMANIAC, ANCIENT, EXHAUST, ECHELON.

    Thanks, both.

    * Taurine was new for me, but as I have recently started a Latin language course, I was on the right wavelength 🙂

  5. Reasons to be cheerful: the sun is shining and Matilda sets the Quiptic. The question of whether a kleptomaniac is a criminal, and a subject a citizen can be left to the philosophers. Thanks, both.

  6. Thanks Matilda and Pierre
    Very nice, but can someone explain why ECHELON is “status”? It means arrowhead to me!

  9. Merci, Pierre. I love the way you get into the quiptic spirit with your extremely explicit explanations “for beginners and those in a hurry’.

  11. Well thanks Matilda, that went down great and thanks for a couple of parsing Pierre. Can someone clarify 25a please?

  12. Enjoyed this – made for a lovely start to a rather dull day – off to the cryptic now.

    Lots to like. I think my favourites were ANCIENT, POSSESSED, COMPOSERS, INDEPENDENCE, EXHAUST

    Thanks Matilda and Pierre

  13. 25a – More luxurioius like Sir Dicky! = SILKIER, with dicky being the anagrind for the letters “like sir”

  14. Still awake at midnight, so started the quiptic. First time I’ve finished before fifteensquared published! Parsed everything except the lift and separate “old-fashioned” – when will I learn!?

  16. I think that the 25A clue probably incorporates a reference to the British actor and director, the late Richard Attenborough, who was known to everyone as ‘Dickie’ [sic]. He became a ‘Sir’ when he was knighted in 1976; and although ‘Dickie’ would not serve as an anagrind, ‘Sir Dicky’ would strike many people as a fleeting allusion to the great man. It certainly struck me sufficiently to be a brief red herring as I tried to unravel the clue.

  19. With AMERICA it’s not clear if Pierre was quibbling the lack of As or not? Felt a bit unusual – but totally fair given the crossers – for a Quiptic to pull the stunt of providing a cryptic definition that requires extra wordplay. It’s the sort of thing that usually leaves me stumped, but as usual Matilda has found an easier variation.

    erike44 @ 14 – the lift and separate seems to be a tic of Matilda’s – I’m sure I see it more often with her (?) than other setters, especially compared to other setters in the Quiptic slot.

  21. I thought 8a AMERICA was a very unusual clue for a modern crossword – we have a definition (“country”), and wordplay for the central five letters; but for the first and last letters we only have “borders” with no wordplay to indicate what those borders might be. I’m not complaining because the answer was readily gettable, but it seemed a bit odd.

    I say “for a modern crossword” because I think this sort of clue used to be more common many years ago. I was recently looking at Afrit’s “Armchair Crosswords” (published 1949) and was struck by such clues as “Mediterranean islanders who always end up with rows (8)” for CYPRIOTS, where there seems to be no wordplay for the first three letters, and I thought “You wouldn’t see that sort of thing these days”.

    But was I wrong? Are such clues around in modern crosswords and I just haven’t particularly noticed them?

  22. An excellent Quiptic.

    I’m usually quick to complain about dodgy anagrinds, but “baroque” seems perfectly fine to me. I often hear it used metaphorically to mean “intricate” or “complicated” (generally with an implication that the complication was needless).

  24. I only know TAURINE as an essential substance in the diet of cats (which is why you can force a dog to be vegan, but not a cat). Utterly foiled by Sir Dicky and ECHELON=status (though I knew Mr. Musk had to be involved).

    Good fun as always from Matilda.

  25. [Spooner’s catflap
    You can do links more neatly by using the “link” button above the text box. Copy the URL, highlight some text in the box, click on “link”, paste the URL, then OK it. Helps a lot when the link is very long, as in the Guardian thread!]

  27. [gladys
    Look at Spooner’s catflap’s post @32 on the Guardian thread to see the advantage of making the “link” thing work!]

  28. Unsightly as it is, it’s less annoying than a string of my posts trying, but failing, to include a working link.

  30. Thanks Pierre and Matilda. This was an enjoyable teatime solve for me.

    For 8ac, I took “its borders” to indicate that the country defined was also providing the wordplay, since we often see “America” to indicate the letter A. Kind of a weird self-reflexive clue and I’m not entirely convinced it works, but good effort, Matilda.

    Pierre mentioned energy drinks generically, but specifically, TAURINE is one of the key ingredients in Red Bull (along with caffeine), which is where the brand gets its name. And taurine gets its name from the fact that it was originally produced from bull testicles.

  31. [Just did a bit of fact checking on myself – it would be more accurate to say taurine was first isolated from bull bile. The taurine in red bull is synthetic, not animal derived]

  32. I also parsed the American borders as did Widders@30. It made sense to me!

    I don’t always do the Quiptic but I had some spare time today and really enjoyed this from Matilda. I specially liked EXHAUST and SILKIER, with its very apt reference to Sir Dickie. The only one I hadn’t parsed properly was HANDKERCHIEF as I got stuck on HAND being “handbag at first” – a nice misdirection. Thanks to Pierre for his enlightenment., and Matilda for the fun.

  33. widdersbel (and AllyGally): interesting theory about 8a. I think I can just about see it. If so it renders my pondering about old-style clues otiose. I wonder what Matilda intended?

  34. I’m not entirely convinced by my own explanation, but it’s reassuring to know I wasn’t the only one who saw it that way!

  36. (CRIME)* is found within the borders of the answer (‘its’).
    These borders are not further cryptically explained.
    Re-reading the clue I am totally fine with it.
    I see Lord Jim’s point @21 but I don’t think solvers should try to find some other kind of justification (because there isn’t, in my opinion – like it or not).

  37. Thanks Pierre as I wrote in POSSESSED from crossers, couldn’t immediately see why and then forgot about it, and everyone for the discussion of the missing borders, especially LordJim@21 for the clue from yesteryear – it must have been like the Wild West back then!
    Contrary to AllyGally@32 I didn’t like the repetition of HAND which could have been avoided (eg Cloth held at first) but otherwise this was a more than SATISFACTORY solve – that one plus a few other standouts with my favourite the beautifully constructed ANCIENT, thanks Matilda.
    [Spooner’s Catflap @23 – i think your Wikipedia rule is fair enough for barred/prize/Enigmatist puzzles but anticipate considerable grumbling if EITHA appears in a standard daily puzzle. Especially as I can imagine it being clued with a dodgy homophone – “Welsh flower reportedly one of a pair?”!]

  38. This was one of the few Quiptics that I managed to complete, but with lots of crossers and elimination to get a solution. Your explanations are so helpful for L platers like me, so thank you Pierre.

  39. Dare I say that “its mast and sails” is rigging and that “rig” is a verb?

    Thanks Pierre and Matilda

  40. Thank you Pierre and Matilda for a great blog and puzzle. It took me for ever and I feel quite depressed about this – Matilda’s a great setter so I must be a bad solver. Sheesh. Ho hum.

    “Composer” took me for ever due to a terrible red-herring-down-a-rabbit-hole thing to which I’m too ashamed to admit. But I do agree that Baroque is an absolutely ok anagrind.

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