Guardian Quiptic 1,196/Matilda

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A bright and breezy – and thoroughly approachable – Quiptic from Matilda this week. I wouldn’t be surprised if this fell into the ‘first Quiptic I have solved unaided’ category for someone, somewhere.

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 Inspiration from the bar, drunk!
BREATH
(THE BAR)* The anagrind is ‘drunk’.

4 Is youngster able to eat here?
CANTEEN
A charade of CAN and TEEN.

9 Examples of species penultimately displaced by humans
SPECIMENS
Matilda is inviting you to take the last but one letter of ‘species’ and replace it with MEN.

10 Right oven should do this
ROAST
A charade of R and OAST.

11 Had dinner in said school
EATEN
A homophone (‘said’) of ETON.

12 Nag’s comment beginning to bother the Guardian’s local resident
NEIGHBOUR
A charade of NEIGH, B for the initial letter of ‘bother’ and OUR. In this context, ‘the Guardian’s’, since it’s the newspaper we are reading (online in this case, of course), is used to clue OUR; but as just ‘the Guardian’ it can also be used to arrive at WE or US.

13 At the end, Spanish flu victim lost blood and so made to feel bad
HUMBLED
A charade of HUM for the last letters of ‘Spanish’, ‘flu’ and ‘victim’ and BLED.

15 Bug an Ingrid or Heidi, perhaps
GERMAN
A charade of GERM and AN. The ‘perhaps’ is there because these are definitions by example.

17 Playing spades is approved
PASSED
(SPADES)* with ‘playing’ as the anagrind.

19 They say take in bird food and be a winner!
SUCCEED
A homophone (‘they say’) of SUCK SEED.

22 Modern resort appears regularly in the Times?
NEWSPAPER
A charade of NEW, SPA and PER for the even letters of aPpEaRs.

24 Right river for country
RURAL
A charade of R and URAL.

26 After love, one is overwhelmed by French rejection — it’s a tear-jerker
ONION
A charade of O and I inserted into NON for the French word for ‘no’. The insertion indicator is ‘overwhelmed by’. It certainly is a ‘tear-jerker’ – I am a martyr to onions and resort to wearing swimming goggles when dicing them. Good job I live on my own.

27 Useful in case of flat or round belly
SPARE TYRE
A dd.

28 Some severe storm would impede climbing it
EVEREST
Hidden in sEVERE STorm, and a cad.

29 Look, new space suit at last
ASPECT
A charade of (SPACE)* and T for the last letter of ‘suit’. The anagrind is ‘new’.

Down

1 Beg for starter of bacon and cheese crackers
BESEECH
A charade of B for the initial letter of ‘bacon’ and (CHEESE)* The anagrind is ‘crackers’.

2 Happening to be seventy without clothing
EVENT
[S]EVENT[Y]

3 Different alert sign shapes
TRIANGLES
(ALERT SIGN)* with ‘different’ as the anagrind. Today’s factoid: (TRIANGLE)* is ALERTING, ALTERING, INTEGRAL, RELATING and TANGLIER. Which must be some kind of record for an eight-letter word.

4 Actors call for throwing out lines
CASTING
A dd.

5 Back on route to Hull initially — not south!
NORTH
A charade of ON reversed, R,T and H for the initial letters of ‘route’, ‘to’ and ‘Hull’.

6 Pay vet mostly to turn up, speak and disappear
EVAPORATE
A charade of PA[Y] VE[T] reversed and ORATE. Since it’s a down clue, the reversal indicator is ‘to turn up’.

7 Type of sodium? True/false
NATURE
A charade of NA and (TRUE)* with ‘false’ as the anagrind.

8 For each agreement, a drink
PERNOD
A charade of PER and NOD.

14 Email, when sloshed at the same time
MEANWHILE
(EMAIL WHEN)* with ‘sloshed’ as the anagrind.

16 Instruments for court officials
RECORDERS
A dd.

18 Down payment is back in store
DEPOSIT
An insertion of IS reversed in DEPOT. The reversal indicator is ‘back’ and the insertion indicator is ‘in’.

19 Butter, jam, or marmalade and many other things on the table
SPREAD
A dd. ‘Janet and John put on a great spread for us.’

20 Most boring Washington DC airport, plus its terminal?
DULLEST
A charade of DULLES and T for the last letter of ‘airport’. Washington Dulles International Airport is often referred to just as Dulles.

21 Trendy fish found underfoot?
INSOLE
A charade of IN and SOLE.

23 Coins from church supporting writer
PENCE
A charade of PEN and CE.

25 Poetry heard in prime time
RHYME
There is a homophone (‘heard’) of the solution to be found in ‘prime time’.

Edit: much more logically, ‘prime’ and ‘time’ rhyme …

Many thanks to Matilda for this morning’s puzzle.

39 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 1,196/Matilda”

  2. I felt this definitely fits into the Quiptic slot as a crossword for a beginner. I don’t think I’ve solved a crossword faster.

    The only clue I needed all the crossers for was GERMAN, because I looked at the girls’ names and thought Swiss, Danish, Swedish? and my first thoughts for bugs weren’t helping either.

    Thank you to Pierre and Matilda.

  3. Lovely stuff, Matilda. It takes some skill to make a crossword so accessible without making it trite and boring – this was lots of fun. Would be interested to know how the genuine beginners got on with it.

    Thanks for the blog, Pierre. I’m with Shirl on the parsing of 25d.

  5. Agreed: a lot of fun with some nice surfaces. I solved RHYME as Shirl@1 did, and got in a tangle trying to re-sort “appears” for NEWSPAPER instead of looking for the spa resort (well, it nearly works). Favourites SPARE TYRE, PERNOD and EVENT.

    (and the site still refuses to remember me…)

  6. I’m with all those giving praise for a perfectly-pitched Quiptic, and with Shirl & Widdersbel on RHYME. I got a bit snagged on the parsing of NEWSPAPER, which I wanted to be NEW + an anagram of APPEARS…

    Lovely stuff. Thanks Matilda, and Pierre.

  7. Thanks Matilda and Pierre
    Yes, a genuine Quiptic. My only question – is there a source for “route” = RT?

  11. I parsed RHYME as Pierre did initially. Isn’t it possible that Matilda had both in mind? If so, very neat. GERMAN was my only bung ‘n shrug. As others have said, a very nicely pitched Quiptic. Thanks, Matilda and Pierre.

  13. Agree with others, GERMAN the only one I couldn’t parse. Thanks M and P.
    [but I did today’s cryptic without help! And parsed them all! Yay!]

  14. I thought EVENT and NATURE were both great examples of what Widdersbel said about accessible but not trite. Great stuff.

  15. Perfect level for a quiptic! I don’t often time myself but I happened to start pretty much on the hour and was done by 20 past.

    Please sign my petition to get Matilda to set the quiptic every week 🙂

  16. I think your surmise in your preamble, Pierre was probably spot on: a model Quiptic puzzle and most enjoyable.

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  17. All very straightforward, with the exception of a Washington airport! Sheesh! Otherwise a very quick and enjoyable solve (with no knowledge required of British rivers or initialisms — yay!).

  18. I was sure it would be ORPHAN at 15a but couldn’t find an insect called an ‘orph’, nor who poor Ingrid was. The crossers eventually convinced me to drop that notion.

    All good fun with a few pauses for thought. A thank you M & T.

  19. Absolutely spot on for a Quiptic!

    Only got stuck on 9A, which I stared at for ages before realising I had put EEVNT in 2D. Doh!

  20. I found this a bit more difficult than today’s Cryptic. I could not parse 5d, 25d.

    New for me: German cockroach/bug for 15ac.

    Thanks, both.

  21. I parsed 25dn, like Pierre, as what I thought of as a novel clue type: the ‘hidden homophone’. I was even going to do some sounding out to see what others thought of this apparent novelty. However, I now agree it was in fact a definition by example: “prime time” is a rhyme.

  23. Michelle @20 – I parsed that as germ = bug/virus/cold + AN, with Heidi and Ingrid as examples of German girl’s names.

  24. steve @22 Michelle probably did what I did and googled ‘German bug’. Apparently the German cockroach (Blattella germanica) is a small coachroach, colloquially known as the croton bug. Which is, of course, irrelevant once you’ve been to 225 and read Pierre’s far more plausible parsing. But, still, we are left knowing about the existence of a croton bug – it’ll probably put me off soup for life!

  25. Both cryptics in today’s Guardian completed in roughly the same time and equally enjoyed.
    I am with Gladys and Jim (at 5 & 6) in thinking that resort was a clever anagrind (well, it is) but then I was left with a rogue A .
    The correct parsing is of course perfect for a Quiptic and I should have known better

  27. RobT@15, I will happily sign your petition, although I would also vote for alternating with Orlando, if he is still around.

    (Imagine the wordplay around the dinner table at the home of Matilda and Philistine. The mind bloggles.)

  29. I’m a beginner, and enjoyed this one. Finished on the same day, and enjoyed the process. I knew “evaporate” had to be right, but didn’t understand the clue until reading the explanation here, so thanks!

  30. I concur that this was a perfect Quiptic: easy without being trite or dull. I know I’ve solved British cryptics more quickly, but not often–this was under 15 minutes.

    Mildly surprised that folks on your side of the pond are expected to know of Dulles. [Incidentally, of the three DC area airports, Dulles (IAD) is the hardest to get to from anywhere sensible–it’s waaay out in the Virginia suburbs, and it’s not served by train. DCA (Reagan National) is right across the river from the city and has a Metro stop, and BWI (Baltimore-Washington, which no one calls anything other than BWI) is at least accessible by commuter rail. So there’s your DC travel advice: all else being equal, DCA > BWI > IAD.]

  31. mrpenney@30

    “Mildly surprised that folks on your side of the pond are expected to know of Dulles [Airport]”

    I’m more than mildly surprised. I’d certainly never heard of it, but guessed it, having heard of the infamous anti-Communist warmonger, John Foster Dulles in whose honour (?I presume) it was named. Not sure, though, which is more obscure: the dead politician, or the hard-to-reach airport.

  33. Thoroughly enjoyed 6d. The surface made me laugh before I’d even begun to parse it!

    I thought it mildly extra clever that TRIANGLES are not just shapes, but the shape chosen for alert signs!

    Also, Pierre, you would be better off covering your nose than your eyes when chopping onions; it is breathing the vapour that causes the tears, not it getting in your eyes. Then again, covering everything couldn’t hurt!

  34. As a secondary note, I don’t see why we shouldn’t know Dulles but are expected to know about the Ural. Personally, I’ve heard of Dulles and got that clue immediately, but I had to reveal RURAL because I was convinced that “right” meant “backwards” and I was trying to find a word that was a river backwards and a country forwards.

  35. “I wouldn’t be surprised if this fell into the ‘first Quiptic I have solved unaided’ category for someone, somewhere.”

    This was me this week. Great cryptic. Had no idea how roast was parsed, knew it was right but had never heard of an oasis before.

    Other than that, while plenty took time I was also just pleased that u understood them all. Particularly enjoyed Specimens as a really good classic cryptic example.

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