Quiptic 1,193 by Chandler

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A good example of a Quiptic, with clear clues and nothing too obscure.

There was one unfamiliar word at 17d, but it’s a very logical name for an unpleasant plant and therefore easy to guess. I had slight quibbles with 14a and 8d, as noted below, but they both work. Some lovely surfaces, in particular 21a, 22a, 1d, 5d and 7d; and special mention to 26a for the literal use of what looks like an obvious homophone indicator. Thanks Chandler for a fun puzzle.

Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.

ACROSS
1 DESKTOP
Some French geek ultimately gets best type of computer (7)
DES (“some” in French) + last letter (ultimately) of [gee]K + TOP (best).
5 COMMAND
Mark’s new director in authority (7)
COMMA (a punctuation mark) + N (new) + D (abbreviation for director).
9 SONAR
Younger relative is given a hand system for underwater detection (5)
SON (younger relative) + A + R (right hand).
10 ELIMINATE
Dispose of money in area hoarded by select group (9)
M (economists’ abbreviation for money) + IN + A (area), contained in (hoarded by) ELITE (select group).
11 SHUT UP SHOP
Quiet hotel stopping concession has to close permanently (4,2,4)
SHUT UP (shut up! = quiet! = a command to stop talking), then H (Hotel in the radio alphabet) inserted into (stopping) SOP (a concession).
12 PEWS
Penny followed by three bridge players into church seats (4)
P (p = abbreviation for penny) followed by E W S (East, West and South = three of the four players in bridge).
14 EXPLANATION
Old estate for growing has no end of disinvestment? This makes things clear (11)
EX (old) + PLAN[t]ATION (estate for growing) without the first T which is the end letter of [disinvestmen]T. The wordplay “no T” doesn’t quite work because there is still a T, even though we’ve taken one away – but it’s clear what the setter meant.
18 NOTICEBOARD
See directors get somewhere to display information (11)
NOTICE (as a verb = see) + BOARD (directors of a company).
21 ECHO
Noise that resounds among fine choristers (4)
Hidden answer (among . . .) in [fin]E CHO[risters].
22 LIKE A CHARM
A calm hiker is reoriented perfectly (4,1,5)
Anagram (reoriented) of A CALM HIKER.

As in “the plan worked like a charm” = worked perfectly.
25 CHECKLIST
East European composer cited points to be considered? (9)
Homophone (cited) of CZECH (East European) + LISZT (the 19th-century Hungarian composer Franz Liszt).
26 ALOUD
A line couple rejected audibly (5)
A + L (line), then DUO (couple) reversed (rejected).
27 MODESTY
Shyness in manner shown by good person to boy in the end (7)
MODE (manner) + ST (saint = good person) + last letter (in the end) of [bo]Y.
28 RETIREE
One that’s finished work on Hebridean island (7)
RE (on = on the subject of) + TIREE (island in the Inner Hebrides).
DOWN
1 DESIST
Stop soprano getting enthralled by crazy diets (6)
S (abbreviation for soprano) contained in (enthralled by) an anagram (crazy) of DIETS.
2 SINFUL
Some offenders in Fulham characterised by wrongdoing (6)
Hidden answer (some . . .) in [offender]S IN FUL[ham].
3 TURBULENCE
Brute with uncle stirred up a problem when flying? (10)
Anagram (stirred up) of BRUTE + UNCLE.
4 PRESS
Lean on a set of newspapers? (5)
Double definition. To exert pressure on (literally or figuratively); or a collective term for newspapers and those who create them.
5 CHIPOLATA
Greek character devised a plot to acquire a small banger (9)
CHI (Greek letter) + anagram (devised) of A PLOT, adding on (to acquire) A.

Banger = slang for sausage; chipolata = a thin sausage.
6 MAIN
Principal part of New England, it’s said (4)
Homophone (it’s said) of MAINE (one of the US states making up the region known as New England).
7 ACADEMIC
A cricket club welcoming assembled media for university fellow (8)
A + CC (abbreviation for cricket club), containing (welcoming) an anagram (assembled) of MEDIA.
8 DRESSING
Something often required by salads is decoration (8)
Double definition, though not quite a true one because they’re variants of the same meaning. A sauce (often containing oil and/or vinegar) added to salad; or something added as decoration, as in “window dressing”.
13 HANDICRAFT
Ship worker in charge on floating platform shows workmanship (10)
HAND (ship worker, as in “all hands on deck”) + IC (abbreviation for in charge) + RAFT (floating platform).
15 PUBLICITY
Drinking haunt permitted over year to supply promotional material (9)
PUB (drinking haunt) + LICIT (permitted; a word probably more common in its negative form “illicit”), before (over, in a down clue) Y (year).
16 INTERCOM
Popular expression around firm for a means of contacting others (8)
IN (popular = fashionable) + TERM (expression), around CO (abbreviation for company = firm).
17 ITCHWEED
North American stinger? Eccentric chewed it (8)
Anagram (eccentric) of CHEWED IT.

A poisonous North American plant, otherwise known as corn lily, false hellebore, or many other names. I hadn’t heard of it, but the name is easy to guess from the anagram fodder.
19 FAVOUR
Support a voluntary courtesy (6)
Double definition. To agree with; or as in doing someone a favour.
20 SMUDGE
First of shirts with dirt, say, held up has blurred mark (6)
First letter of S[hirts] + MUD (dirt), then EG (e.g. = say = for example) reversed (held up = upwards in a down clue).
23 ENTER
Go into headquarters in New York avoiding cold (5)
[c]ENTER (US and therefore New York spelling of centre = headquarters, for example the World Trade Center) without the C (abbreviation for cold).
24 SKIS
Second sign of affection almost for winter sports equipment (4)
S (second) + KIS[s] (sign of affection) without its last letter (almost).

27 comments on “Quiptic 1,193 by Chandler”

  1. I found this fitted the Quiptic slot being a quick solve introducing cryptic techniques, which sort of matches what it says on the tin.

    Lots to enjoy here. Thank you to Chandler and Quirister

  3. About right for a Quiptic. I only managed to confuse myself by misreading stinger as singer in 17d and only realised my mistake when I googled ITCHWEED to see if she or he was an obscure country music performer.

  9. The quickest I’ve done a quiptic by a long way – sub-15 minutes. I quite often chunter that quiptics are more difficult than they should be, yet this went the other way today. But to be fair, more often than not they do land somewhere in the Goldilocks zone 🙂

    ITCHWEED was indeed obscure as a word, but so clearly clued that I didn’t mind at all.

    I tend to agree with the minor quibble on the removal of the T in PLAN[t]ATION… wording that had specified removing a T would have been cleaner, but saying there is no [T] is subtly but importantly different, and technically incorrect in this case. But, I got it and the quibble is a technicality about precision, so not a massive deal.

    Thanks both!

  12. ‘There was one unfamiliar word at 17d, but it’s a very logical name for an unpleasant plant and therefore easy to guess.’
    Just as well you could guess it, as it isn’t in the Shorter Oxford Dictionary.
    It is, I assume, a US word.

  13. Jeremy @12: itchweed is in the Chambers dictionary, and also in the Collins online dictionary – those are the two references I normally check for crosswords, along with Wikipedia. Chambers says it’s the same as “Indian poke” which is yet another name for the North American plant; Collins says the name is used for two different plants, one North American and the other European / Asian.

  15. Thanks Chandler & Quirister. I think the blog sums it up perfectly – a nicely done Quiptic.

    I had the same quibble over 8d – technically sound, I suppose, but not hugely satisfying to solve. Plenty of other very good clues to make up for it though.

  17. Itchweed may be an American term and presumably an American plant, but I’ve never heard of it.

    Nice puzzle, thanks Chandler and Quirister (not Quinster).

  18. No idea whether or not an American term is fair in a Quiptic, but my life has been brightened by knowing there is a plant known as ‘itchweed’ : )

  19. A very nice Quiptic. This was the first time ever that I managed to solve a cryptic crossword without having to revisit clues (i.e., I could solve each clue that I looked at right away, using only the clue and the crossers from previously solved clues, before moving on to another clue), a goal that I’ve had for many years. I started with the 4-letter answers and then filled the grid from there, mostly tackling clues where I already had at least one crosser. There were a few words I didn’t know and had to confirm after solving (itchweed, the island Tiree, and that sop can mean concession), but that’s okay in my opinion. So my next goal is to manage to do the same for a regular cryptic one day.

    Thanks Chandler and Quirister!

  21. Despite being American, I’ve never heard of ITCHWEED, but I agree it was quite gettable from the wordplay. I stumbled over the same misreading as Petert, thinking the clue said “singer”, but Chandler’s certainly not to blame for that, nor for my ignorance of the Hebridean islands.

    I agree that this puzzle hit the Quiptic spot nicely.

  22. Lovely Quiptic and great blog and comments. Thanks Chandler, Quirister and all. I thought “shut up shop” was very cleverly clued.

  23. I’m still at the stage of revealing the answer (even after 6 months practicing!!), then looking at how to arrive to it, then looking on Fifteensquared for the explanation. But I enjoyed this one.

  24. Heidi @23 I managed to get going when my husband found me “Secrets of the Setters” on a second hand book site. It used to be the prize for the winners of the Guardian Prize crossword on a Saturday and I always wondered why, as anyone who could win it must already know all the secrets!
    So I’m sure you could find it somewhere! It has 15 crosswords to solve where you are given a few crossers to start you off.

    By the way I am still not very good, slow and often needing google or Bradford’s crossword dictionary, but that book really helped.

    Good luck!

  26. Am I alone in thinking that notice board is two words, not one? That tripped me up for a bit.

    But, great Quiptic! Thanks, Chandler and Quirister.

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