I have been known to preface my Quiptic blogs with a remark along the lines of ‘I’ll be recommending this to newer and less experienced solvers’. I won’t be doing that today.
There are other setters who compile both the Quiptic and the daily Guardian cryptic (Pasquale, for example, or Pan, who appears in the paper today), but they – and the setters who compile only the Quiptic – can generally be relied on to specifically set the puzzle at a level that will attract newer solvers and briefly entertain more experienced ones. I have the impression that Anto doesn’t do that, and that the editor (who he?) makes the choice between the two on the basis of ‘that’ll do’. Add to that some untidy clueing, like today, and you end up with a Quiptic that doesn’t fulfil its brief.
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 Serious chap from Spain disposes of heroin for son
SOMBRE
The setter is inviting you to remove the H from HOMBRE and replace it with an S.
4 Prepared for fighting sea that’s rising …
WARMED UP
A charade of WAR, MED and UP. You need to read ‘that’s’ as ‘that has’.
9 … couple assist oldest centres to find positive angle
UPSIDE
The middle letters of coUPle, asSIst and olDEst.
10 Worries about EU blocking new flower varieties
NEUROSES
An insertion of EU in N and ROSES. I can’t see what the ‘about’ is doing in this clue.
11 Which state caps recycling? You may soon find out here
WATCH THIS SPACE
(WHICH STATE CAPS)*
13 Cleaner works forever on TV!
SOAP OPERAS
A charade of SOAP and OPERAS.
14 Young energetic type is originally hard to find
YETI
The initial letters of the first four words of the clue. ‘Hard to find’ is a description of a YETI, not a definition of it.
16 Way to torture supporter, having lost bet
RACK
[B]RACK[ET]
18 Prime Paris renovation is developed underground
MARIS PIPER
(MARIS PIPER)* How can ‘is developed underground’ or ‘developed underground’ be seen as a reasonable definition of a potato variety?
21 Display of determination to take care of surplus material
MIND OVER MATTER
A charade of MIND, OVER and MATTER.
23 Floored a criminal with what protects many churches
LEAD ROOF
(FLOORED A)*
24 Roman queen overturns a country in Africa
REGINA
A reversal of A NIGER.
25 One seeking satisfaction coming with large inventory …
DUELLIST
A charade of DUE, L and LIST.
26 … including a balloon!
AS WELL
A charade of A SWELL.
Down
1 Twisted swordplay?
SPUN
You need to perform a lift and separate manoeuvre on ‘swordplay’ to give yourself ‘s’ and ‘wordplay’; then it’s a charade of S and PUN. All very clever, but not really the sort of thing that is ideal for a Quiptic.
2 Arab gentleman raised a very large amount
MUSTAFA
A reversal of A FAT SUM.
3 Communist agent, one withholding sensitive information
REDACTOR
A charade of RED ACTOR.
5 Ballpark figure, perhaps, to reset mini-cameras
AMERICANISM
(MINI CAMERAS)*
6 Choice between meathead and fool? What a mess
MORASS
An insertion of OR for ‘choice’ in M for the first letter of ‘meathead’ and ASS. ‘What’ seems to be surplus to requirements here.
7 Show contempt for facility that makes you sick
DISEASE
A charade of DIS and EASE.
8 Bill on Ireland coming up later
POSTERIOR
A charade of POSTER and ROI (for Republic of Ireland) reversed.
12 Poor time with those abandoned around harbour …
THE HAVE NOTS
An insertion of HAVEN in (T THOSE)* The insertion indicator is ‘around’ and the anagrind is ‘abandoned’.
13 … confused and drained, after being told to leave
SCRAMBLED
A charade of SCRAM and BLED.
15 Ideal condition for teenagers rarely applies to their rooms
SPOTLESS
A whimsical dd.
17 Depressed liberal leaves assembly
CONCAVE
CONC[L]AVE
19 Unadulterated passage read out? That’s just childish
PUERILE
A homophone (‘read out’) of PURE AISLE.
20 Plant supervisor reloads component
SORREL
Hidden in superviSOR RELoads
22 Make fast arrest — it may be filed
NAIL
A triple definition.
Many thanks to Anto for this morning’s Quiptic.
As so often happens Quiptic and Cryptic swapped places today
This was enjoyable. Thanks Anto
Note to the editor @ the Guardian: this puzzle is better categorised as a Cryptic than a Quiptic. I spent longer on it than today’s Cryptic by Pan, and did not even manage to finish it.
Failed to solve 1d and 12d despite having all the crossers.
I did not parse 16ac.
Favourites: MUSTAFA, POSTERIOR, DUELLIST, WATCH THIS SPACE.
New for me: MARIS PIPER.
Thanks, both.
Oh dear. One of those days when I remind myself that the Quiptic is free (I do pay for the paper). As observed elsewhere, a simple swap of Cryptic and Quiptic and all is well.
It’s almost as if the editor of the Quiptics and the editor of the Cryptics don’t talk to each other (yes, yes, I know …).
As said harder than the cryptic
I parsed SOAP OPERAS as soap (cleaner) op (works) eras (forever) but I suspect the blog’s version is better.
Liked DUELLIST, SCRAMBLED, SPUN
Thanks Anto and Pierre
I’ve yet to do today’s cryptic but this was not the gentle start I expected!
As often the case, michelle @2 summed it up well. Once I forgot it’s the Quiptic, it was fairly enjoyable.
DrW @4 🙂
Nice to see MARIS PIPER pop up. I’ve never looked up its origins but it’s an odd name although euphonious. Clue fine for me: potatoes developed underground. Chambers Thesaurus has “grow” under “develop”.
Thanks Anto (you’re probably as surprised as the rest of us to see this as Quiptic) and Pierre.
Fiona Anne @5 – I parsed SOAP OPERAS the same way but queried forever=eras. Pierre’s version works.
Thanks Anto and Pierre. Some very good clues here but… well, I think its all been said already.
Maris Piper is the most widely grown potato variety in the UK, and is named after the Maris building at the plant breeding institute in Cambridge where it was developed.
…but I think the definition in the clue is too much of a stretch, especially for a Quiptic.
MIND OVER MATTER and WATCH THIS SPACE we’re delightful, but this was ‘Chewy stuff’ unlike the Cryptic.
Ta Anto & Pierre
I thought about both parsings of SOAP OPERAS. At first I thought there was an extra S if you read OPERA as works, but i suppose musical operas are works, too, but that makes the second part of the clue less cryptic. The first time in a while that I have needed to use aids to finish a Quiptic.
I learnt in my brewing days that Maris Piper was a hybrid barley type (probably from those two names who were at Cambridge ( I think) and this when malted made it the brewers choice for decent English ales .
But then it could be a folk rock band
copmus @13 – isn’t the barley maris otter? Or is there a maris piper barley as well?
Or were you talking about the potatoes? Funnily enough, there was a thing on telly last night where they were recreating a wartime Christmas, including making beer from potatoes (which they apparently did due to grain shortage).
Thanks both. I thought it was all worth while just for the admirable SPUN.
gladys @9 – thanks for the Maris Piper link. Now I know why it’s just a bizarre name – Maris comes from a local lane and Piper was arbitrarily chosen by the son of one the breeders!
On the clue, there’s a consensus that the whole thing was too tricky for a Quiptic. I suspect the editor, faced between the devil and the deep blue area, bunged it in!
Never heard of a MARIS PIPER. Thought I was doing well to know KING EDWARD, which I also learned from this puzzle.
Surely it’s “spotlessness” which is a condition, not SPOTLESS.
Thanks, Anto. This was tough but fun. And thanks, Pierre.
I’m relieved to see the consensus here that this was too difficult for a Quiptic. I struggled to finish this one.
Putting the difficulty to one side, though, I found this puzzle very enjoyable, with quite a number of clever, satisfying clues.
I thought this fine for a quiptic. Some very easy clues to get started and some harder ones to learn on and tease out, and an absence of obscure words and GK, and very little of the abbreviations and terminology that only exist in cryptics suggests to me it’s very accessible to newbies. Solvable by brainpower rather than knowledge of 16th century dramatists! (Also based on Sundays to Tuesdays being about my level). And on subject of Maris Pipers; very common in all veg shops, supermarkets as a go to roasting/mash potato.
SimpleS @19 – agreed with regard to vocabulary, but there are a few elements that seem slightly out of place in a crossword supposedly aimed at beginners, the trick used in 1d being by far the most glaring example.
And as Pierre notes in his blog, there are extraneous words in some clues, and one or two stretchy definitions – these might be deemed unfairly misleading.
I did think it was mostly very good though. I especially liked ‘…including a balloon’ – a beginner (or even, ahem, a more experienced solver) might find it tricky to spot what’s going on here, but that’s a case of being misleading in a good (and perfectly fair) way.
A question for UK residents: when MARIS PIPERs are sold in supermarkets or elsewhere, are they identified as such?
DrW – yes. They’re especially prized for chips, so attract a premium price over generic all-purpose ‘white’ potatoes.
widdersbel@23 gotcha, thanks.
Thanks Pierre.
Whether a half-definition or not, 18ac is pretty poor (as is the definition of 14ac).
And 13ac is just more of the same: whether the definition is ‘forever on TV’ or ‘on TV’ – with or without an exclamation mark – it is a poor one too.
1dn (SPUN)?
Clever? Perhaps.
For me, this is Anto doing a Philistine.
I agree with Pierre that this kind of lift-and-separate, acceptable only in Guardian crosswords (and perhaps the FT’s), is out of place in a Quiptic.
Quiptics are for those learning the game, they say, and this ‘device’ is really not a suitable one.
It’s clear that here I totally disagree with Alphalpha @15.
In the end, this crossword – which has some nice touches too – took me a Lot (yes, capital L) more time than Pan’s in the actual paper.
That said, that puzzle was really very very easy (as it perhaps should be at the start of the week).
I’m sure there is a good reason why the Guardian is unable to produce a puzzle suitable for beginners, but for the life of me, I don’t know what it is.
DrWhatsOn @ 21 and widdersbel @22
[Yes Maris Pipers are sold in supermarkets as are King Edwards (my favourites for roasting, mashing and chips) sometimes there are also Desiree for sale – another good roaster and chipper favoured by Delia Smith]
HoofItyouDonkey @25 : The Times Quick Crossword is set on a 13×13 grid, and is reasonably welcoming to the uninitiated (although not promoted as such).
This, on the other hand, took me longer to complete (I revealed THE HAVE NOTS) eventually) than the 15×15’s in today’s Guardian, Times, and Independent !
As an incentive to inexperienced solvers, this was a failure in spades. It’s more likely to scare such people away because they feel intimidated.
Can’t decide whether 1d is a good clue or not. Had to check on the lesser known meaning of POSTERIOR. Enjoyed the puzzle even though it was most certainly not remotely Quiptic. Entirely agree with Hoofit’s remark above
I agree with the preface.
If a new generation of cryptic puzzle fan is developed it will not be because of Anto, but inspite of Anto.
@timesrefugee I do times quick, I do reasonably well there. I would like Times Cryptic. They say it is more strict compared to Guardian. Guardian sacrifices some Ximeneanness ( or is it Ximeneanality? ) for better wordplay.
Senior moment there with MARIS OTTER and MARIS PIPER
Far too hard for a Quiptic (as is usual with this setter) and some very loose definitions.
Thanks Pierre, I had WARMED UP as a double def ( ie the sea is rising because of global warming) but you have it better. I agree that we had to reach for a couple of definitions and some link words got in the way a bit, but I generally enjoy Anto’s style and this was no exception. I do sympathise with anyone expecting something more straightforward as promised by the “Quiptic” billing, surely it is in neither Anto’s nor the solvers’ interests to have this one listed as such? My biggest complaint however is that this had possibly the highest “unnecessary ellipses” count of any crossword that I have attempted. DUELLIST was my favourite, thanks Anto.
Hard but fun. I liked SPUN and MARIS PIPER, whilst understanding the objections. Thanks Anto and Pierre.
A taxing affair, considering; far too difficult for a Quiptic in my view too. Had it been in the cryptic slot, fair enough, but this looks misplaced to me and far more likely to discourage newcomers than draw them in.