Hectence on good form this morning, with a Quiptic that was well-constructed and fairly clued, and which would have been a good challenge for the beginner.
There were a few that took me a while to parse, but it was all there if you went looking for it. No outlandish vocabulary, and a pretty solver-friendly grid too; so add in the fact that it’s a pangram, which might have helped you get the last few if you twigged that it could be one, and we’re pretty much fitting the bill, 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
8 Stick out for diamonds in authentic setting
PROTRUDE
A charade of PRO and D inserted into TRUE. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
9 Sides with boxer finally winning on points
ALIGNS
A charade of ALI, for the world’s most famous boxer (in crosswords, anyway), G for the final letter of ‘winning’, and NS for two ‘points’ of the compass.
10 Son has spine endlessly rotated as part of the healing process
SCAB
A charade of S and BAC[K] reversed. The letter removal indicator is ‘endlessly’ and the reversal indicator is ‘rotated’.
11 Cut short a book’s English verbatim translation that’s miles out
ABBREVIATE
A charade of A, B and (E VERBATI[M])* The anagrind is ‘translation’ and the letter removal indicator is ‘miles out’.
12 Reportedly miss big town’s laid-back attitude
LAXITY
A homophone (‘reportedly’) of LACK CITY.
14 Screen star has rude journalist retreating
SUNSHADE
A charade of SUN, (HAS)* and ED reversed. The anagrind is ‘rude’ and the reversal indicator is ‘retreating’.
15 Still recalled catching tube with shopping cart on wheels
TROLLEY
An insertion of ROLL in YET reversed. The insertion indicator is ‘catching’ and the reversal indicator is ‘recalled’.
17 Uniform with plaid top’s ill-fitting and prickly
UPTIGHT
A charade of U for the phonetic alphabet ‘Uniform’, P for the initial letter of ‘plaid’ and TIGHT.
20 Official language
MANDARIN
A dd. The first definition comes originally from ‘an official in any of the nine top grades of the former imperial Chinese civil service’. But it’s now widely used – in this country at least – for any senior Civil Servant.
22 Rick and Jenny’s child?
WRENCH
Last one in for me, and took a bit of pencil chewing to see it (I know, I know …) The wren is Britain’s commonest bird, and her nickname is Jenny Wren. So her child might be WREN CH.
23 With energy run out, longs for a bit of Chinese food
SPRING ROLL
A charade of SPRING (‘she has a spring in her step this morning’), RO for the cricketing abbreviation for ‘run out’, and LL for two lots of L for ‘long’.
24 Sound disapproving of motorway expansion
BOOM
A charade of BOO and M.
25 Picked up a tissue with sign of a cold coming
SNEEZE
A homophone (‘picked up’) of ATISHOO!
26 Finally Cambridge University college involved in meetings for schools
EDUCATES
A charade of E for the final letter of ‘Cambridge’ and U plus C inserted into DATES. The insertion indicator is ‘involved in’.
Down
1 Provide professor with somewhere comfortable to sit
ARMCHAIR
A charade of ARM and CHAIR.
2 Keep tenor in reserve for last short piece
STUB
An insertion of T in SUB. The insertion indicator is ‘keep’.
3 Feeling anxious, having lost ID in quayside scuffle
QUEASY
(QUAYS[ID]E)* The letter removal indicator is ‘having lost’ and the anagrind is ‘scuffle’.
4 Sailor’s back on ship pursuing ocean fish
SEA BASS
A charade of SEA, AB for ‘able seaman’ reversed and SS for ‘ship’. I always read ‘pursuing’ as ‘coming after’ in clues like this, but I know other folk interpret it differently.
5 Get a sleep apnoea disorder, lacking oxygen after partaking heartily
TAKE A NAP
A charade of TAK for the ‘heart’ of parTAKing and (APN[O]EA)* The letter removal indicator is ‘lacking’ and the anagrind is ‘disorder’.
6 Popular swimmer’s holding course for end of race
FINISH LINE
An insertion of IN for ‘popular’ in FISH and LINE (‘he took an unusual line/course of action’). The insertion indicator is ‘holding’.
7 Upper-class twit and earl’s daughter get married
UNITED
A charade of U, NIT, E and D.
13 The Italian boy’s high dives becoming reckless
ILL-ADVISED
A charade of IL for one of the words for ‘the’ in Italian, LAD and (DIVES)* The anagrind is ‘high’.
16 Good soldiers come in first thing with tea
EARL GREY
An insertion of G and RE for Royal Engineers or ‘soldiers’ in EARLY. The insertion indicator is ‘come in’.
18 Threatened to change the decor
HECTORED
(THE DECOR)*
19 Amused by strange need to conceal success
ENJOYED
An insertion of JOY in (NEED)* The insertion indicator is ‘to conceal’ and the anagrind is ‘strange’. ‘Any joy with the Quiptic this morning?’
21 Term for mountainous area with lake and wood
ALPINE
A charade of A, L and PINE.
22 Intend to complete broadcast and not prepared to compromise
WILFUL
A homophone (‘broadcast’) of WILL and FULL.
24 Give away secret British science establishment
BLAB
A charade of B and LAB.
Many thanks to Hectence for this morning’s Quiptic.
Thanks Hectence and Pierre
I haven’t attempted the Cryptic yet, so I can’t compare, but I found this difficult (possibly because of an early morning shop?)
I liked TAKE A NAP and ILL ADVISED. I didn’t parse SNEEZE, even though I now remember seeing this trick before.
I didn’t understand JOY in 19d, but your example explains it, Pierre.
The only clue I didn’t like was SPRING ROLL. “Energy” for SPRING is rather loose, and “longs” for LL is just lazy.
Tough puzzle, not very “quiptic” if that is supposed to be a puzzle for beginners and those in a hurry.
I failed 22d and 22ac (wow, hard to parse that!)
I could not parse 23ac, 25ac, 5d.
Liked: ill-advised, protrude.
Thanks, both.
I thought this on the slightly more difficult side for a Quiptic, (like muffin @1). Unlike muffin, I had done the Cryptic, which I found easier. I did most of this with my wife, who is expressing interest in learning about how cryptics work, and I have to say that two heads are definitely better than one – there are probably half a dozen she spotted from the definitions while I still didn’t have a clue (even though she didn’t always understand the parsing). Overall, a pleasant experience – both the crossie and the joint solving. Thanks, Hectence, Pierre (and Anna!).
Three subtractive anagrams in a Quiptic? Hmmm…
22A was LOI, and needed a spot of Chambers (I was wondering about WRETCH for a child). I only knew RICK as ‘mistake’ – you might hear a goalkeeper described has ‘having a rick in him’.
Thanks Hectence and Pierre.
Could it be that “Jenny’s child” should be read as ‘WREN has CH’? Although “‘s” only really means ‘has’ as an auxiliary verb (e.g., he’s made a mistake), it is sometimes used in cryptics standing for ‘has’ to join two elements of a charade or to indicate a containment.
In 6dn “Popular swimmer’s holding” in its cryptic meaning is what we like to call ‘poetic’ word order for the more natural ‘swimmer’s holding popular’. Not ideal, but acceptable.
In 19dn, ENJOYED definitely doesn’t mean “amused”, as your underlining suggests, @Pierre. I think the setter meant “amused by” to be the def, but that doesn’t quite work either: ENJOYED means “was amused by”.
Jim @4. While your definition of ‘rick’ is absolutely new to me – although certainly most Scottish international goalkeepers of the 60s and 70s would fit that description (anyone else remember Alan Rough?) – I did know the phrase,’rick one’s back’, meaning WRENCH, something my father was rather prone to doing.
Definitely on the tough side for a Quiptic. I’m with Tony Collman on ENJOYED, unless someone can come up with a more convincing example of enjoyed and amused being synonymous (“amuse bouche” is all that energies to mind, and I’m not convinced).
SE corner was tough, but I was indeed helped by a missing W for the pangram.
I think it shows how hard it is to pitch a Quiptic at just the right level, when one of the best setters perhaps errs for once on the demanding side. A very enjoyable puzzle, though. WRENCH was great. For a moment, I was worried it was going to be a specialist word for a young wren.
Much joy with the Quiptic this morning, thanks, Pierre. Definitely towards the more challenging end of the Quiptic spectrum, but a nice start to a Monday for me. Thanks, Hectence.
Like Monkey – the W was the last letter I was missing from the pangram, so that definitely helped me get WRENCH.
I didn’t bat an eyelid at 19d while filling the grid, but can see why the definition is slightly problematic now others have raised it.
Agree with all the comments about the amused/enjoyed correspondence. It doesn’t quite work, does it?
Pierre, I’m not so sure it’s a friendly grid. At least, it would have been a lot more friendly if the bulk of the first row and column had been white. Few crossers provided the first letter of a solution.
Surely it’s time to start seeing Hectence in the Cryptic considering the consistent comments regarding the difficulty for a Quiptic on every one of her Monday releases…
Ta for the blog.
I thought this well-crafted – thanks Hectence. No-one has complimented you on your elegant smooth surfaces, so I will !
Monkey, your comment @11 reminded me that I hadn’t included the completed grid in my blog, which I have now done. I know what you mean about the top row and left-hand column giving you lots of starting letters (or not, in this case), but I think it’s pretty helpful: lots of interconnectivity and comparatively few black squares, meaning you get good value for money once you’ve got a foothold in the puzzle. There are a lot of Grauniad grids that are a lot worse …
[ Pierre – interesting that the wren is now by a long way the most common UK bird – when I were a lad it was a surprise to see/hear one. Chaos, population boom and bust at work, I guesst. I quite often also see tree creepers/nuthatches these days, rare as hens’ teeth back in the day. ]
[Andy Smith @15
Being so small, wrens are often hit by hard winters. The milder ones we’ve been having have probably had a beneficial effect on their population.]
[Wrens have always been common; but because they are shy and inconspicuous, they perhaps get seen and remarked on less than their larger and noisier cousins. In another random and completely off-topic factoid, they used to appear on the farthing coin.]
“larger and noisier”, Pierre? Wrens are by far the noisiest birds in our garden!
Pierre, I think you’ve missed a trick in 9a. The final letters of “winning on points” are the required GNS, and “on” in an across clue for points N S doesn’t quite work, in my opinion. I thought this was an acceptable version of a quiptic. Jenny for wren is only for the old hands, I fear, and ROLL in 23 was tough. Also TAK was not an easy one to see for a beginner. We all live and learn…
I was actually treating “Jenny” as the name for a female ass, at first. I had to look it up to be reminded that it’s also a wren.
Andy@19, it’s not unusual to see ‘on’ meaning ‘attached to’ in an across clue. Some, apparently, will only accept it to mean ‘attached at the rear’, but I think that’s a minority.
I discussed this on the blog for another puzzle recently with someone who was of that minority(?) group. Can’t remember where now, I’m afraid.
Definitely harder than today’s cryptic. Someone on the Grauniad’s blog said they took one look and went for the cryptic! But still lots of fun. I agree with the comments about ‘enjoyed’ but I also felt that to ‘hector’ isn’t really to threaten, is it? And similarly feeling queasy means feeling sick as in sea sickness or me, not anxious.
But thanks for the ride and the parsing, everyone!
Tony @21, yes, this has been discussed before. Many (most?) crossword editors suggest that ‘on’ in an Across clue means after, and in a Down clue it means below.
Sorry, I meant of course in a Down clue it means on top of; silly me!
And in previous discussions, someone (Tramp, I think) pointed out that you can say ‘the fly is on the ceiling’, giving a nod to the idea that ‘on’ can be interpreted situationally in a number of contexts. Similarly, ‘Stoke-on-Trent’ suggests that the city is next to, but not directly on top of, the river. I seem to remember the discussion became a long one …
[Pierre @25
There are some even more insistent names indicating the town is “on” the river – Newcastle upon Tyne and Kingston upon Hull, for instance!]
Found this tough going, especially with the dearth of first letters. That always holds me back, and thus puts me off somewhat. But all fair. Thanks H and P
The example I came up with was the handle on the door. And the handle on the other side of the door.
Glad to see other more seasoned posters say it is on the tough side for a quiptic.
I’m like Monkey @7 and widdersbel @9 — I don’t think I’d have managed to finish this without noticing the missing W from the pangram. Definitely tougher than the usual Quiptic, but all perfectly fair nonetheless.
Like others, I can’t think of any occasion when “amused” = “enjoyed”. “I amused my girlfriend” certainly doesn’t mean the same as “I enjoyed my girlfriend”. But thanks for the fun, Hectence, and the blog, Pierre.
I didn’t notice the “amused” / “enjoyed” problem, but now that it’s pointed out I agree that the definition doesn’t work.
I think those commenting on the amused/enjoyed problem should bear in mind what I said when first drawing attention to this, namely that the setter probably meant the def to be “amused by” (contrary to the blogger’s indication). However, that is still not 100% right, imo, as it still needs ‘was’ before it to match the answer.
I enjoyed this – thanks both. Got but couldn’t parse Take A Nap. Struggled for a while with Mandarin and Educates, my last in.
Thanks both,
I had ‘engaged’ for ‘enjoyed’ which seemed at least as good a fit.
I hadn’t heard of Jenny Wren (having left England as a child in 1960, so I guessed (once having guessed the answer) that maybe Wren referred to the WRNS (Women’s Royal Naval Service). Several sources I found through a Bing search, said that although a nautical woman now joins the Royal Navy rather than a separate WRNS, she is still informally called a “Jenny” (cf. Jack Tar).
I’m sure that others on this blog with naval experience could elaborate.
Shakescene, I have no nautical experience, but as Etymology Online says:
Jenny is attested from c. 1600 as female equivalent of jack (n.), and like it applied to animals (especially of birds, of a heron, a jay, but especially Jenny wren, 1640s, in bird-fables the consort of Robin Redbreast).
Sailor(esse)s of the WRNS were called ‘Wrens’ for obvious reasons and the nickname of ‘Jenny’ followed for equally obvious reasons, given the above.