Guardian Quiptic 1187 Pasquale

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Thank you to Pasquale. Definitions are underlined in the clues.

Across

5. Compostable items left in rubbish? (6)

PLANTS : L(abbrev. for “left”) contained in(in) PANTS(informal term for rubbish/nonsense).

6. The French blunder? Go wild (3,3)

LET RIP : LE(French for “the”) + TRIP(to blunder/to stumble)..

9. One-time group of performers (6)

FORMER : Hidden in(group of) “performers“.

10. An editor out of control should be restricted (8)

RATIONED : Anagram of(… out of control) AN EDITOR.

11. See 15

12. Certainly not the best policy! (10)

DISHONESTY : Cryptic defn: From the proverb “Honesty is the best policy”. Am I missing something here?

13. Singer and friend outside university with academic attire on? (4,7)

PAUL ROBESON : PAL(friend) containing(outside) U(abbrev. for “university”) plus(with) ROBES(attire worn during ceremonial occasions, in this case by academics) ON.

18. Agent suffering setback (and cut off) kept going (10)

PERSEVERED : Reversal of(… suffering setback) REP(abbrev. for “representative”, an agent eg. one in sales) plus(and) SEVERED(cut/sliced off).

21. You are part of the crew, reportedly making money (4)

EURO : Homophone of(…, reportedly) “you row”(denoting you are part of the crew of a rowboat).

22. Scottish island’s so typical of a long-ago time (8)

JURASSIC : JURA(a Scottish island)‘S + SIC(so/thus/repeated exactly as it is).

23. Prison block needing the ultimate in security (6)

CHOKEY : CHOKE(to block/to prevent free flow) plus(needing) last letter of(the ultimate in) “security“.

Defn: Slang for …

24. Money deposited by the German road joining an autobahn? (6)

FEEDER : FEE(money paid, in this case, deposited for the services of a professional) plus(by) DER(German for “the”).

Defn: A road for traffic to join a highway, an example of which/? is the German autobahn.

25. Comfort in abstaining from alcohol — what’s on the table? (3,3)

TEA SET : EASE(comfort/absence of difficulty) contained in(in) TT(abbrev. for “teetotal”/abstaining from alcohol).

Down

1. Island has job getting rid of king — madness ensues (8)

TASMANIA : “task”(a job/a piece of work) minus(getting rid of) “k”(abbrev. for “king” in chess notation) placed above(… ensues, in a down clue) MANIA(madness/mental illness).

Defn: … in Australia.

2. Some items to redeem, not on public display? (6)

STORED : Hidden in(Some) “items to redeem“.

3. Went across street, we hear, ahead of all others in front (8)

BESTRODE : Homophone of(…, we hear) “road”(street/thoroughfare) placed under(… in front, in a down clue) BEST(ahead of all others/unsurpassed).

Defn: …/straddled.

4. Small wooden area with duck in narrow channel (6)

GROOVE : GROVE(a small piece of ground with trees growing on it/a small wooded area – “wooden” being used loosely?) containing(with … in) O(letter representing 0/duck in cricket scores).

5. Make nothing of repeated dirty stuff (3-3)

POO-POO : Twice(repeated) POO(slang for excrement/dirty stuff).

7. Lots missing a penalty, sadly (6)

PLENTY : Anagram of(…, sadly) “penalty” minus(missing) “a“.

8. Actor is out with naughty nobs (11)

ARISTOCRACY : Anagram of(… out) ACTOR IS plus(with) RACY(naughty/risqué).

Defn: Persons of high social position/nobs, in slang.

14. John, one wanting office outside, maybe spent to much? (8)

LAVISHED : LAV(short for “lavatory”/john in slang) + I(Roman numeral for “one”) plus(wanting) SHED(an outhouse/an outdoor/outside toilet/office, euphemistically/maybe).

15, 11. Insignificant place that could be nowhere? Not so (3-5,4)

ONE-HORSE TOWN : Anagram of(could be) NOWHERE? NOT SO.

16. Polish again getting snub? (6)

REBUFF : RE-BUFF(re-polish/polish again).

17. Game held up with fellow needing immediate attention (6)

URGENT : Reversal of(… held up, in a down clue) RU(abbrev. for the game “rugby union”) plus(with) GENT(a fellow/a chap).

19. Hiding in bush, a very young lad (6)

SHAVER : Hidden in(Hiding in) “bush, a very“.

Defn: Informal term for …

20. Taken off, as a ship needing repair? (6)

DOCKED :

Defn: 1st: …/cut short, an animal’s tail, say; and 2nd: Put a ship needing repair into, well, a dock/shipyard.

21 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 1187 Pasquale”

  5. Thanks Pasquale and scchua
    Not a Quiptic. 12 is feeble. 14 the clueing for SHED is very obscure, not helped by the misprint of “too”.
    I liked PAUL ROBESON.

  6. I just popped in to quote the incomparable Stephen Fry as General Melchett: “A whole regiment destroyed…by POO-POO”

  7. Unlike our Prime Minister, I have no real problem with DISHONESTY. Usually Pasquale manages the difficulty level of a Quiptic very well, but I found this on the hard side.

  8. PAUL ROBESON. Fortunately I remembered him from my grandfather’s HMV and his visit to the Sydney Opera House in support of the construction workers in 1960.

    EURO got me. I saw U R as the middle two letters and wondered what EO meant as crew.

  9. Not a ‘Quiptic’. Did not finish. Failed 19d (never heard this word before), 24ac, 9ac, 12ac, 3d.

    Did not parse 14d apart from LAV = john.

    I was tempted to give up after solving only 6 clues on my first pass as I did not have a lot of time for a tricky puzzle. Sadly, this could be a real turn-off for beginners. No fault of Pasquale but of the editor who chooses where to slot puzzles.

    Thanks, both.

  10. Interesting comments. I managed this in one sitting – although more than one pass – which seems right for a Quiptic.
    I think sometimes one just gets on the setter’s wavelength and sometimes one doesn’t. It doesn’t make it a ‘bad’ quiptic.
    There’ve been a few times when I’ve come to this blog for enlightenment on a crossword I couldn’t get anywhere with, only to find the blogger/commenters saying how easy it was!

  11. Michelle@9: My dad used to call us boys “Young Shavers”, but I have not heard the term in years.
    Sschua: you don’t think WOODEN wass a misprint, do you? That was my thought.

  12. I found it quite tough for a quiptic, definitely harder than the last few weeks and about on a par with today’s cryptic. Two things briefly held me up: looking for a secondary meaning in DISHONESTY as it seemed too simple; and the typo (to/too) in the clue for LAVISHED, as I assumed it was deliberate and was looking for a good reason for it…

    Liked: BESTRODE, TASMANIA, PERSEVERED.

    Cheers both.

  14. Rob T@12 – on the online version they have corrected the typo in the clue for 14D. I struggled with this – definitely not a Quiptic imho.

  15. I’m relieved others found this difficult for a Quiptic. I feared it was just me. I don’t think any particular clue is unfair, but taken as a whole it was pretty hard.

    I didn’t know the word CHOKEY, and I would never spell POOH-POOH without the Hs, but both were gettable. I didn’t put in the obvious answer for 12ac (DISHONESTY) until I had a few crossers, because I thought that Pasquale must be up to something more interesting than that.

  16. We didn’t find this particularly difficult but were a little disappointed, mainly from the points others have raised:
    12ac – not very cryptic;
    23ac – we’ve only encountered the spelling ‘choky’;
    4dn – ‘wooden’ should be ‘wooded’;
    5dn – we would also always spell it ‘pooh-pooh’;
    14dn – ‘to’ should br ‘too’ (although we didn’t spot that at first).
    On the other hand we did like JURASSIC, TASMANIA, ARISTOCRACY and ONE-HORSE TOWN.
    So thanks, Pasquale and scchua

  17. Fourth quiptic I’ve attempted thus far. Even though it felt harder than last week’s offering, I made slow, steady progress and got tantalizingly close to finishing unaided, missing only GROOVE and a letter in ROBESON (whom I hadn’t heard of before despite being American). Thanks Pasquale for the puzzle and scchua for the writeup.

    Things I learned:
    RU = rugby union
    duck = 0/O
    nobs = aristocrats (should’ve known but had to look it up)
    TT = teetotaler
    there’s a Scottish island called Jura

    Enjoyed the clues for LETRIP, EURO, TASMANIA, and BESTRODE. These are fun!

  18. I liked TASMANIA – naturally. Did this late. Some tricky bits, but not too much so for a Quiptic, I thought. Thanks, Pasquale and scchua.

  19. Finished across two days, not at all bad for me. It had a few clues which didn’t make sense at first, so definitely less Quiptic than previous puzzles.

    6A and 8D were favourites: 15D/11A made me laugh when I got it.

  20. Too hard for me – obscure words (like BESTRODE) are fine if the clue is more transparent but I’m never going to get through both.

    Never heard of a FEEDER road, a CHOKEY, or a SHAVER by those definitions, nor of PAUL ROBESON ever … and that’s not how I pronounce EURO.

    I did like TASMANIA and I was kicking myself over not spotting ONE-HORSE TOWN.

    Was confused why UR needed a reversal indicator because it is already a game!

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