Apologies for the late blog. The Guardian didn’t post the puzzle online till mid-morning. In the end, it was worth waiting for a delightful puzzle from Hectence to please the beginners and entertain those in a hurry.
The only other thing of note is that it’s a pangram: all twenty-six letters of the alphabet appear at least once. This setter has form in this regard.
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 Take any exit out in panic
ANXIETY
(ANY EXIT)* with ‘take out’ as the inclusive anagrind.
5 Intertwine funeral flowers with last of foliage
WREATHE
A charade of WREATH and E for the last letter of ‘foliage’. English spelling and pronunciation are infuriating, but at least WREATH and WREATHE are only separate in pronunciation by the difference in the -TH sound. Cf BREATH and BREATHE.
10 Plane detailed to carry peacekeepers for a month
JUNE
An insertion of UN for the ‘peacekeepers’ in JE[T]. You have to read ‘detailed’ as ‘de-tailed’ to give you the instruction to remove the last letter.
11 Flinch seeing husband run and fall going round defender
SHRINK BACK
An insertion of H and R in SINK, followed by BACK. The insertion indicator is ‘going round’.
12 Condense detective’s suspect list
DISTIL
A charade of DI and (LIST)* with ‘suspect’ as the anagrind.
13 Sir reportedly better for a drink before bed
NIGHTCAP
A charade of NIGHT for a homophone (‘reportedly’) of KNIGHT and CAP.
14 Gradually got rid of pronounced lack of confidence going on stage
PHASED OUT
A charade of PHASE and D plus OUT for a homophone (‘pronounced’) of DOUBT. ‘It’s just a phase/stage she’s going through.’
16 Twelve from Australia engaged in study
DOZEN
An insertion of OZ in DEN. The insertion indicator is ‘engaged in’.
17 Advise re FBI involvement
BRIEF
(RE FBI)* with ‘involvement’ as the anagrind.
19 Close to wish for inclusion in first-class team
ALONGSIDE
An insertion of LONG in A SIDE. The insertion indicator is ‘for inclusion in’.
23 Pleased oil’s produced with island flowers
GLADIOLI
A charade of GLAD, (OIL)* and I. The anagrind is ‘is produced’.
24 Pester doctor in case
MOLEST
A charade of MO and LEST.
26 Persevere in rejecting denial after horse involved in suspicious result
STRUGGLE ON
An insertion of GG for the children’s ‘horse’ – a GEE-GEE – in (RESULT)* followed by NO reversed. The insertion indicator is ‘involved in’; the anagrind is ‘suspicious’; the reversal indicator is ‘rejecting’.
27 Keen to be seen in ABBA video
AVID
Who wouldn’t be? Hidden in ABBA video.
28 Took on a day’s work with odd bits of tree down
ADOPTED
A charade of A, D, OP, TE for the odd letters of ‘tree’ and D for ‘down’.
29 Respectable army officer left pinching golf equipment
GENTEEL
An insertion of TEE in GEN and L. The insertion indicator is ‘pinching’.
Down
2 Provide food for tourist, endlessly hot after noon
NOURISH
A charade of N, [T]OURIS[T] and H.
3 Still turning up in Montmartre nightlife
INERT
Hidden reversed in MontmaTRE NIghtlife.
4 Fought trade unions over first of strikes ahead
TUSSLED
A charade of TUS for ‘trade unions’, S for the initial letter of ‘strikes’ and LED.
6 Break promise about green energy
RENEGE
A charade of (GREEN)* and E.
7 Challenging range on satellite over America
AMBITIOUS
A charade of AMBIT, IO and US. IO is a moon of Jupiter (as well as a crossword setter).
8 Replace the acre with a metric measurement
HECTARE
(THE ACRE)* with ‘replace’ as the anagrind.
9 When ill in quarters, ordered a sedative
TRANQUILLISER
An insertion of ILL in (QUARTERS)* The insertion indicator is ‘when … in’.
[Much more likely parsing: (ILL IN QUARTERS)*]
15 Drug’s power overcoming poor sleeping policeman
SPEED BUMP
An insertion of BUM in SPEED and P.
18 Connected empty rifle with dead duke
RELATED
A charade of R[IFL]E, LATE and D.
20 Candidate takes a long time over housing fund
NOMINEE
An insertion of MINE in EON reversed. The insertion indicator is ‘housing’; the reversal indicator is ‘over’.
21 Hate to pass on tackling review of heartless murders
DISLIKE
The trickiest parsing today, I think, but understandable with a bit of pencil-chewing. An insertion of KI[L]LS reversed in DIE. The insertion indicator is ‘tackling’; the reversal indicator is ‘review’; ‘heartless’ tells you to remove the middle letter.
22 Big mistake keeping spectacles on head in energetic dance
BOOGIE
An insertion of OO in (BIG)* followed by E for the initial letter of ‘energetic’. ‘Spectacles’ is crosswordspeak for OO (think Harry Potter, Billy Bunter). The insertion indicator is ‘keeping’.
25 Craft ale pint suddenly went up
LEAPT
A charade of (ALE)* and PT. The anagrind is ‘craft’.
Many thanks to Hectence for this week’s Quiptic.
Thanks both. 8d particularly pleasing.
I parsed 20d but I wasn’t entirely happy with MINE = FUND
Is it as in “a mine of information”? Though I’d be more likely to say “a fount of information”
9 down is an anagram of (ILL IN QUARTERS)*
@3 agreed, it’s an anagram of all three words, indicated by ‘ordered’.
Mostly straightforward, if a couple of ‘interesting’ anagrinds for a quiptic (‘involvement’, ‘craft’). Wasn’t totally happy with equating DISLIKE with ‘hate’ as I think there’s a difference in intensity between the two concepts, but maybe I’m overthinking it. Also agree with @2 on ‘fund’ = MINE raising an eyebrow.
But good fun though, and easier than the cryptic, as it should be.
Very pleasant 20 minutes, just as a cryptic should be. Favourites were ANXIETY and MOLEST.
Ta Hectence & Pierre
I don’t think a tranquilliser is a sedative. One makes you feel less ANXIETY, the other puts you to sleep.
Pleasant morning. Thanks, Hectence and Pierre.
I thought this was quite hard for a Quiptic, but maybe it’s just me in a postprandial stupor.
DISLIKE was my LOI; I thought MOLEST had an insertion of doctor at first. I liked TUSSLED and BOOGIE for the surfaces.
Thanks Hectence and Pierre.
DISLIKE beat me, I had ‘despise’, which of course ruined GENTEEL. I did like AMBITIOUS.
Wasted a lot of time trying to justify DESPISE, after racking my brains for a word dism??e. Eventually realised that a word meaning murders had to be disemboweled. Thanks for the work-out, Hectence.
I’m sure I’m just being more than usually stupid, but I can’t see how to make AHEAD = LED in 4dn. I also wondered about FUND = MINE in 20dn. But despite these minor quibbles, I found this to be a very enjoyable Quiptic.
Ted – I think it’s as in “She led the field”, “She was ahead of the rest..”
Agree that dislike and hate aren’t the same.
Also, in 1, anxiety and panic really aren’t the same thing.
Well I liked it, despite also noticing the eyebrow-raising not-quite-synonyms mentioned above.
Still not sure of the justification for “when” in 9d, though.
I liked DISLIKE and STRUGGLE ON in particular. Thanks to both Hectence and Pierre. It must make life difficult when the crossword appears after hours.
Some pretty tough ones here for tyros, and a lot very easy. So a partial Quiptic.
A pair of spectacles isn’t crossword-speak, it’s the term for a batsman (apologies to the ladies – batter) getting out for zero in both innings in a cricket match (so: a 0 and a 0 on the scorecard). Alternatively a pair of ducks, a duck being scoring no runs in your visit to the crease).
Top quiptic(?)-top puzzle-teeny weeny niggle
Wouldnt it be a bit better if read detective suspect list so the S isnt doing double duty
But I seem to a be a bit picky as it was a great solve and worth waiting for
American cryptic novice here. Not knowing what a “sleeping policeman” was, I had SPEED TRAP instead of SPEED BUMP, plus a few other mistakes. The clue for STRUGGLE ON completely flummoxed me, not knowing that GG means horse; likewise for OO meaning spectacles, although at least that’s inferable.
I have a question about 2D though: doesn’t every word in a clue have to serve some purpose? I don’t see how “after noon” does anything at all—all you need for H is “hot”.
Quite tough. Did the SE corner last.
Did not parse 20d.
Liked PHASED OUT, RELATED, STRUGGLE ON, ALONGSIDE, DISLIKE, genteel (LOI).
Thanks, both.
NickH@18
The ‘after noon’ gives us the N at the start of N OURIS H
NickH@16 – Look again. You need “after noon” to give you that leading N.
Thank you @Michelle and @Khitty, that makes sense. Clearly my late night brain wasn’t firing on all cylinders.
I’m encouraged to see this was hard for a Quiptic. Looking forward to the next one!
NickH — remember the strange GG (which I remembered as related to horse racing), but it comes up frequently.
JohnB@16 — Thanks for the explanation of “OO” — spectacles always seemed a bit odd, especially in a vertical clue as today.
I was one who found this a bit difficult, but eventually got it all with parsings.
(It didn’t help that when I started the “quiptic”, the daily puzzle had been posted at the link.)
I parsed 14 as PHASED sounds like “fazed” (a lack of confidence) and OUT as meaning going on stage.
I’ve been floundering my way into cryptics for the past few months, and I found this way harder than loads of other Quiptics.
More experienced hands: is it common to be the only person in the room who finds a crossword difficult, where everyone else seemed to find it a doddle?
I feel like a dunce today.
Late to the party – just catching up on things.
I agree with Calgal@23 for 14a. The whole thing is a homophone.
Delboy@24 – don’t worry about that as we all see things differently. I had huge trouble with DISLIKE and that affected how I saw that corner. The main thing is, did you get there. This was a harder quiptic.
Delboy @24: I think most of us floundered with cryptics when we first started, so definitely don’t go into ‘dunce’ mode if you struggle with a particular puzzle. Don’t forget that the folk who comment here are a real minority of the people who do the crossword, and the degree of difficulty depends on so many other things than your level of experience: what else is going on in your brain that morning, your particular areas of interest, being on the same wavelength as the setter …
So don’t be discouraged – keep checking in here and telling us how you’re getting on.
Delboy @24. I am fairly experienced but, like quite a few above, I thought this hard for a Quiptic, especially the bottom right – often called the SE on this blog. Keep at it!
I liked the surface read on 10 across
Another floundering beginner who did not complete this one after trying for a week. The bottom right/SE section defeated me.
Even though I got “adopted”, I still have no idea where the OP came from in that clue.
@29 fellow flounderer, “OP” as an abbreviation of “Opus”, clued by “Work”