With a Quiptic from Pasquale, you always know that the setter will have constructed the puzzle with the less experienced solver in mind. He has given us this morning a generous grid, concision in the surface readings, and precision in the clueing. Bravo.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
8 Woman in vehicle (old make)
CAROLINE
A charade of CAR, O and LINE.
9 Rush to convey a shout of joy
HURRAY
An insertion of A in HURRY. The insertion indicator is ‘to convey’.
10 Provides coal for scientific unit
STOKES
A dd. Not the best-known scientific unit, I have to say. The SI unit for kinematic viscosity is square metres per second; but the STOKE is an alternative and is equivalent to one poise divided by the density of the fluid in g/cm³. So now you know.
12 Joyful Anglican Church turning lifeless?
ECSTATIC
A charade of CE reversed and STATIC.
13 Urge for food?
EGG
A dd.
14 Defeated king is stern — nothing left in possession
HAROLD
An insertion of O and L in HARD gives you HAROLD Godwinson, the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king, whose defeat at Battle in 1066 was a turning point in the history of this sceptred isle. It also had a lot to do with why English is such a rich language, with the assimilation of Norman French into what is now our mother tongue. Which is one of the reasons it makes it a great language for cryptic crosswords.
16 Tolerating Jolson sounding like a cow?
ALLOWING
A charade of AL and LOWING.
17 Dearth of gold in quiet conurbation
PAUCITY
An insertion of AU in P for the musically ‘quiet’ and CITY. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
20 Fuss about Romeo becoming a monk?
BROTHER
An insertion of R for the phonetic alphabet ‘Romeo’ in BOTHER. The insertion indicator is ‘about’. Don’t fancy clueing ‘monk’ as BROTHER? Try FRIAR instead, and thank the Norman French invasion.
23 Cut in advance to be ready?
PREPARED
A dd. The first definition is better read as PRE-PARED.
24 French writer — some of his art renowned
SARTRE
Hidden in hiS ART REnowned, and a cad, since Jean-Paul SARTRE’s work is certainly well-known, in literary circles at least.
26 Tax vessel containing booze?
VAT
A dd.
27 Worry about Gath, troubled old city
CARTHAGE
An insertion of (GATH)* in CARE. The insertion indicator is ‘about’; the anagrind is ‘troubled’; and Gath – as well as CARTHAGE – is indeed an ‘old city’, mentioned in the Bible as one of the main five Philistine cities.
28 Walk and talk at length
RAMBLE
A dd.
31 Go away and ask for money when it’s time for lunch?
BEGONE
A charade of BEG and ONE.
32 Danseuse cavorting for Africans
SUDANESE
(DANSEUSE)* with ‘cavorting’ as the anagrind.
Down
1, 2 Leave job to produce serial publication
PART-WORK
Took me ages to get this, mainly because I was fixated on POST being the second element. A charade of PART and WORK.
3 Failed to hear sound of film
MISSED
A homophone (‘sound of’) MIST.
4 Wild gales around north-east country
SENEGAL
An insertion of NE in (GALES)* The insertion indicator is ‘around’; the anagrind is ‘wild’.
5 Music maker who painted his mother?
WHISTLER
Another dd. The second reference is to this painting, commonly known as ‘Whistler’s Mother’.
6 Notice wife going into retreat — somehow fail to make progress
TREAD WATER
An insertion of AD and W in (RETREAT)* The insertion indicator is ‘going into’ and the anagrind is ‘somehow’.
7 Virtue of Patricia, exceptional niece
PATIENCE
A charade of PAT and (NIECE)*
11 Rower and duck on a river
OAR
A charade of O, A and R.
14 Short flight is hard work
HOP
A charade of H and OP.
15 Violent action: coup leading to control by enemy forces
OCCUPATION
(ACTION COUP)* with ‘violent’ as the anagrind.
18 Prince William gestures audibly? They bring us a broadcast
AIRWAVES
A homophone (‘audibly’) of HEIR WAVES.
19 Domestic rows?
TERRACES
A cd. You have to make ‘rows’ rhyme with ‘crows’ rather than ‘cows’.
21 Grass in one of the Cinque Ports
RYE
A dd.
22 Contrary daughter immersed in a bit of poetry?
ADVERSE
An insertion of D in A VERSE. The insertion indicator is ‘immersed in’.
24 Virtuous type to go on bike or walk?
STRIDE
A charade of ST and RIDE.
25 Bill has club set up
TAB
A reversal (‘set up’, since it’s a down clue) of BAT.
29, 30 Woman in picture a man fashioned with oils
MONA LISA
(A MAN OILS)* with ‘fashioned’ as the anagrind; and a cad.
Many thanks to Pasquale for this week’s Quiptic.
Thanks Pasquale and Pierre
Some odd ones. STOKES is a very obscure unit, especially for a Quiptic. Topically, he could have done something with “cricketer”! I’ve never heard of PART-WORK, so that was LOI. I don’t see how “domestic” works in TERRACES.
I’ll forgive it all for the MONA LISA clue, though!
muffin: Terraced houses?
Thanks lin. Not entirely convinced!
I much prefer the Don’s Quiptics to his Cryptics.
Nice puzzle, neither too easy nor too hard.
Liked CARTHAGE.
New for me: Rye = one of the Cinque ports; PART-WORK; STOKES= unit of kinematic viscosity.
Thanks, both.
I’ve just checked with my engineer daughter to see if she knew STOKES as a unit, as my studies in fluid dynamics were a long time ago, and she didn’t know it. However, there are a lot of odd units in those fields.
I needed all the crossers to be convinced of the TERRACES.
Otherwise a straightforward solve, with the north-east corner going in last as I was also held up by PART-WORK.
Thank you to Pasquale and Pierre.
Not many comments along the lines of “harder than the quiptic” today, I suspect….
I am another who spent too long trying to construct something with POST for PART WORK and also had STROLL for STRIDE briefly, but I admire Pasquale’s ability to vary the difficulty of his crosswords. [ I briefly thought Pierre was casting aspersions about Sartre’s character; I feel he was more of an &lit than a cad]
Generally good, although the NE corner was a bit chewy for a Quiptic. I DNK PART-WORK, ‘woman’ was a bit vague, and STOKES was a little obscure.
I did like TREAD WATER for the wordplay, HOP as a short flight, and TERRACES for a clever cd.
Thanks Pasquale and Pierre.
Some grid trivia… with 34 lights this grid has the highest clue count of all the grids in the Guardian library
Did my school physics experiments and theoretical calculations in centistokes ( same school as Jay I believe ! ). The ending in ‘s’ form is more usual that Stoke / Centistoke as this was the surname of the influencing physicist. Perhaps he’s an ancestor of Ben the cricketer who made such a contribution to the T20 World Cup final, yesterday !
A little trickier than I expected, but all good.
I remembered STOKES (the man) from the Navier-Stokes equations, probably fair to say the most important equations in fluid dynamics, and the basis of most weather-forecasting models. So we all get a bit of him every day.
19a had to be TERRACES, but like muffin @1, I didn’t see why it was “domestic”, but thanks to lin @2, I (just about) get it now.
Thanks, Pasquale, I would say this is the best Quiptic I’ve seen in a long time. A joy to solve.
STOKES is new to me, but with a generous 4/6 letters checked and a straightforward first definition, it couldn’t be anything else.
TERRACES was my last in but my favourite – a delightful PDM for a clever cryptic definition (and I’m not sure why anyone objects to it). Second favourite was MONA LISA – simple but elegant.
The NE corner was a bit chewy – I’m sure I only know STOKES from looking in Chambers for ‘s’ indicators – but otherwise this was nice Quiptic fare. I’m with Widdersbel @14 on TERRACES, it’s lovely.
Thanks Pierre and Pasquale.
I’ll just add that I thought TERRACES was a really neat cd as well, making perfect sense in a whimsical kind of way. Glad everyone else enjoyed the puzzle as well.
Did not know STOKES so did not finish – but otherwise a great Quiptic. Thanks Pasquale and Pierre.
In 27a, I heard an echo of Virgil’s introduction of Carthage in the Aeneid (at I:12): “Urbs antiqua fuit … “. Deliberate?
Tell it not in Gath, but I struggled with the NW corner.
I suspect that I wasn’t the only one, and that two comments above show a little geographical confusion!
STOKES was our FOI (but then, one of us did a lot of viscosity measurements at one time) and there were no problems with the rest of this enjoyable puzzle. We liked PATIENCE and AIRWAVES.
Thanks, Pasquale and Pierre.
Nearly always see STOKES as “centistokes” like the decibel never “bel”.
It was suggested that the unit of abrasion should be the “zwicky” after the Bulgarian/Swiss/American astrophysicist Fritz Zwicky, reflecting his character, but only the millizwicky would be required for practical purposes.
Beautifully constructed by Pasquale and elegantly blogged by Pierre.
I enjoyed TERRACES for domestic rows with the question mark. Nicely misleading def, a much happier solution.
MONA LISA favourite.
PeterT@8 🙂 “Sartre’s character …. more of an &lit than a cad”
As someone who lives in a terraced council house, I thought domestic rows an excellent clue and really can’t see how there can be any objection.
Monkey @19 – yep, and I use GPS so much too, not helped by dancing on the Meridian. I did think about writing top left, but I have think about that too. It’s my worst manifestation of the familial dyslexia, that and switching hands typing, so typing i for e or k for d.
Eastern half went in easily, the western half less so.
MONA LISA best of the lot, though WHISTLER and AIRWAVES made me smile when I twigged.
An excellent puzzle, probably just the right side of the fine margin Quiptics have to straddle.