A thoughtfully constructed and most enjoyable Quiptic crossword from Carpathian this morning.
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 Picnic for Americans with meat served in baked dough
CLAMBAKE
An insertion of LAMB in CAKE. The insertion indicator is ‘served in’. Dictionaries mark this as Canadian/US usage, hence ‘American’. It’s characterised by the serving of seafood, but it’s always outdoors, so you could certainly describe it as a ‘picnic’.
5 Small bits of shirt showing signs of wear
SCUFFS
A charade of S and CUFFS.
9 He ranted about disciple
ADHERENT
(HE RANTED)* with ‘about’ as the anagrind.
10 Temporary brand to fit the bill
MAKE-DO
A dd.
Edit: As Rob T points out, this is in fact a charade of MAKE for ‘brand’ and DO for ‘fit the bill’, with ‘temporary’ as the definition. Thanks to him for the correction.
12 Present a plant
HOSTA
A charade of HOST and A gives you the plant that is a waste of time cultivating because it will always, always, be eaten overnight by slugs.
13 Parent dancing by river shows charm
ENRAPTURE
A charade of (PARENT)* and the Yorkshire river URE. The anagrind is ‘dancing’.
14 Performance with ball introduced by Carol
SONG AND DANCE
A charade of SONG and DANCE.
18 Withdrawal method?
EXIT STRATEGY
A cd. The Vatican were about to send a delegation to a conference on contraception, but the Pope told them to pull out at the last minute.
21 Wonders if anemone’s held back by level of acidity
PHENOMENA
A charade of PH (strictly written as pH, the chemist’s measure of acidity/alkalinity) and ANEMONE reversed (‘held back’). Good spot by our setter this morning for the entire word reversal.
23 Country, say, next to unknown point
EGYPT
A charade of EG for exempli gratia, Y for the mathematical ‘unknown’ and PT.
24 Tear away fleece
RIP OFF
A dd.
25 Soldiers link the god of war with little Harry and son
MARSHALS
A charade of MARS, HAL and S.
26 Good record for the upper classes
GENTRY
A charade of G and ENTRY.
27 Breeding establishments keep promise to be hard working
STUDIOUS
An insertion of IOU in STUDS.
Down
1 Church having a tea dance
CHA-CHA
A charade of CH, A and CHA.
2 Stupefied by silver tile over top of skull
AGHAST
A charade of AG and S for the initial letter of ‘skull’ in HAT. ‘Tile’ is BrEng slang for HAT. Originally from a tile hat – a tall, silk hat – and the expression was first recorded in 1823, apparently.
3 Stop pubs hosting ‘unlimited hour’ — it’s vulgar
BARBAROUS
A charade of BAR for ‘stop’ and [H]OU[R] in BARS for ‘pubs’.
4 Head of kitchen prepared great dinner for school
KINDERGARTEN
A charade of K for the initial letter of ‘kitchen’ and (GREAT DINNER)* The anagrind is ‘prepared’.
6 Husband in army quarters is the winner
CHAMP
An insertion of H in CAMP. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
7 Common worry about queen and naked gent
FREQUENT
An insertion of QU and [G]EN[T] in FRET. The insertion indicator is ‘about’.
8 European embarrassed after display gets washed
SHOWERED
A charade of SHOW, E and RED.
11 Stop harlot dating around
GRIND TO A HALT
(HARLOT DATING)* with ‘around’ as the anagrind.
15 Prepared to cross Italy and Greece initially, but strayed
DIGRESSED
An insertion of I and G for the initial letters of the two countries in DRESSED. The insertion indicator is ‘to cross’ and you could read I as a stand-alone abbreviation for ‘Italy’ if you want.
16 Golfer and PA playing game
LEAPFROG
(GOLFER PA)* with ‘playing’ as the anagrind.
17 Biography to encompass one’s entire existence
LIFESPAN
A charade of LIFE and SPAN.
19 Energetic person flipping lots during party
DYNAMO
An insertion of MANY reversed in DO for ‘party’. The reversal indicator is ‘flipping’; the insertion indicator is ‘during’; and despite it being that day of the week, (MONDAY)* is nowhere to be seen. Brava.
20 Way a relative reaches state of equilibrium
STASIS
A charade of ST, A and SIS.
22 Present from the Queen
OFFER
A charade of OFF and ER for Elizabeth Regina, who will have the pleasure of meeting our new Great Leader on the morrow. Good luck with that.
Many thanks to Carpathian for this week’s Quiptic challenge.
18ac first thought same vein as Pierre in the other direction … coitus: don’t interruptus
Thanks Carpathian and Pierre
Excellent Quiptic, as ever from this setter. Favourite also PHENOMENA.
Defining MARSHALS as “soldiers” seemed just a little odd – there are other closer possible synonyms.
Good quiptic, right kind of difficulty level in my view.
Liked DYNAMO, LEAPFROG and CHA-CHA. A couple of GK gaps here: HOSTA was a guess (plants are not my forte ) and tile for HAT is new to me, though AGHAST was gettable through definition and crossers.
Minor blogging query: isn’t 10a def+wordplay rather than a double def? The ‘brand / to fit the bill’ breaks down into the charade MAKE / DO rather than being a definition of the two-word phrase in its own right.
Cheers both.
As I turned the laptop on this morning, I thought I could do with a pleasant Carpathian puzzle to ease my mind into gear and lo and behold there was one. Thanks, both.
Great Quiptic and excellent blog Pierre!
I thought raw cake was usually called ‘batter’, not ‘dough’. Other than that, no complaints.
Thanks Carpathian & Pierre. Exemplary Quiptic and blog. PHENOMENA is a great find.
Nice and straightforward for this duffer, as a Quiptic should be. PHENOMENA was very elegant.
Lin @6. As a baker, I thought the same, but Chambers has one definition of cake as a baked dough.
[@Pierre I guess we have a slug deficiency around here since Hostas grow like a pretty weed. Neighbors often offer new variants (mostly variation in leaf color) when their beds are overrun. ]
lin and Crispy: Dough in America is any uncooked cake/biscuit. Eg Ben and Jerry’s “Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream”.
I did not parse 10ac or 22d OFF = from?
New: HOSTA.
Thanks, both.
Cheers to Pierre for the blog, and thanks to Carpathian for a fun puzzle that hit the sweet spot for me: not too easy, and not so hard that I couldn’t suss out the tougher ones. I got a bit stuck at the end at the cross between AGHAST and HOSTA, not knowing the slang meaning of tile, but nothing else fit for AGHAST and “host” means “present” so I figured HOSTA must be one of the myriad plants unfamiliar to me. I loved the long anagrams for KINDERGARTEN and GRIND TO A HALT.
For EXIT STRATEGY, I parsed it as withdrawal = exit and method = strategy, with the two words together being a clue-as-definition.
Fastest I’ve ever filled in a Quiptic – in about an hour, after work.
Thanks to Carpathian and to Pierre for the blog (complete with embellishments).
michelle@12 Maybe it’s not the Queen’s English, but I grew up saying such things as “I got a present off her” rather than “from her”
lin @15
Where I was brought up, it would more probably have been “….off of her”.
In business, “exit strategy” often refers to what a startup company does after taking investment from venture capital firms. The usual exit strategy is either that the startup is acquired by a bigger company or else goes public. In either case there’s a big payoff and investors get their money back plus a lot more. (Withdrawal?)