Anto has been known for setting “too hard for a Quiptic” puzzles. Don’t worry, this isn’t one of them – it’s definitely a Quiptic.
Having dealt with a few of Anto’s earlier puzzles in this slot, I was pleasantly surprised when the first few entries went in more or less straight away. I did wonder whether 1a was an acknowledgement of previous criticism? As noted below, a couple of clues weren’t totally convincing, but only because they didn’t seem quite cryptic enough. Favourites include 11a, 19a, and 4d (all very neat), and 9d despite the rather unpleasant surface image. Thanks Anto for the fun.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | OBSCURE |
Unclear how unfortunate cubs got covered in mineral (7)
|
| Anagram (unfortunate) of CUBS, contained in (covered in) ORE (mineral). | ||
| 5 | HAYWIRE |
It’s much taller, said Spooner, getting confused (7)
|
| Spoonerism of WAY HIGHER (much taller). | ||
| 10 | ACME |
Top class haven for millions — it can’t be bettered (4)
|
| ACE (slang for excellent = top class), containing (haven for . . .) M (abbreviation for millions).
Acme = the highest possible standard. The word always reminds me of classic cartoon films in which a character makes use of the “ACME Patent Banana-Straightener” or some similar fanciful device. |
||
| 11 | CALL TO ARMS |
Small actor excited by order to fight (4,2,4)
|
| Anagram (excited) of SMALL ACTOR. | ||
| 12 | SUDOKU |
University gets kudos, having cracked this puzzle (6)
|
| Anagram (cracked) of U (university) + KUDOS. | ||
| 13 | SCRUTINY |
Inspection finds minuscule attachment to fastener, reportedly (8)
|
| TINY (minuscule) attached to a homophone (reportedly) of SCREW (fastener). | ||
| 14 | BEEFSTEAK |
Food colonists found initially inside wood (9)
|
| BEES (colonists = creatures that live in colonies), with the initial letter of F[ound] inside, then TEAK (a tropical hardwood). | ||
| 16 | BANAL |
Pedestrian being initially very fussy (5)
|
| Initial letter of B[eing], then ANAL (slang for very fussy or obsessive; derived from psychoanalytical theories about people who never properly grow out of the childhood stage of fascination with excretory functions). | ||
| 17 | MUFTI |
Plain clothes include a couple of accessories lacking finish (5)
|
| MUF[f] + TI[e], two clothing accessories, both lacking the last letter (finish).
Civilian clothes worn by someone who would normally be in uniform. |
||
| 19 | EDITH PIAF |
Singer paid thief, when compromised (5,4)
|
| Anagram (compromised) of PAID THIEF. | ||
| 23 | OFFICIAL |
Approved adding spicier centre in cheapest meat (8)
|
| Centre letters of [sp]ICI[er] added into OFFAL (liver, kidneys or similar bits of an animal, cheaper than the prime cuts of meat). | ||
| 24 | SLOPPY |
Careless agent retaining cut (6)
|
| SPY (agent) containing (retaining) LOP (cut). | ||
| 26 | GORGONZOLA |
French author going after ugly woman for cheese (10)
|
| ZOLA (19th-century French author Emile Zola) after GORGON (a female monster in Greek mythology = ugly woman).
Blue cheese named after the town in northern Italy where it was historically produced. |
||
| 27 | CYAN |
Colour of extremely comfy afghan (4)
|
| End letters (extremely) of C[omf]Y A[fgha]N.
A colour between blue and green. |
||
| 28 | ATTRACT |
Pull back piece of dustcart taillight (7)
|
| Hidden answer (piece of . . .), reversed (back), in [dus]TCART TA[illight]. | ||
| 29 | REPEATS |
Theatre worries, showing cheap TV programmes? (7)
|
| REP (short for repertory theatre) + EATS (worries, as in “what’s eating you?”. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | BECAUSE |
The reason inquisitive children get eventually (7)
|
| Cryptic (or not very cryptic) definition: when children go through the stage of constantly asking “Why?”, frustrated parents may eventually assert their authority by just declaring “Because”. It’s somewhere between “Because I said so”, “You wouldn’t understand the explanation”, and “I’ve had enough of answering questions”. | ||
| 3 | CREDO |
Company boss integrates R&D as an article of faith (5)
|
| The letters R + D merged into CEO (company boss). | ||
| 4 | RECOUNT |
Tell the story of disputed election result (7)
|
| Double definition. To tell a true or fictional story; or as in “re-count” = the action of counting votes again because the original result was very close or unreliable in some way. | ||
| 6 | ACTORS |
Agents dropping fine group of players (6)
|
| [f]ACTORS (people who do business on behalf of someone else = agents), without the F (abbreviation for fine). | ||
| 7 | WYATT EARP |
Liberal Party wet a renowned law enforcer? (5,4)
|
| Anagram (liberal = free) of PARTY WET A.
US lawman: Gunfight at the OK Corral and all that. |
||
| 8 | ROMANIA |
Right old passion for country (7)
|
| R (right) + O (old) + MANIA (passion). | ||
| 9 | FLESH AND BLOOD |
Disorganised NHS lab flooded with body parts (5,3,5)
|
| Anagram (disorganised) of NHS LAB FLOODED. | ||
| 15 | FAT FINGER |
Quite large digit can cause input error (3,6)
|
| FAT (quite large) + FINGER (digit).
Perhaps not the most satisfactory cryptic clue; a “fat finger” error is a mistake caused by pressing the wrong key on a keypad, supposedly because one’s fingers are too big to press just one key at a time, so the wordplay is pretty much the same as the definition. |
||
| 18 | UP FRONT |
Open and happy face (2,5)
|
| UP (in a happy mood) + FRONT (face = the visible or forward part of something).
Up front (which can also be hyphenated or a single word) = open about what one is saying or doing. |
||
| 20 | TESTATE |
Willing to put everything one has under tension (7)
|
| ESTATE (the goods inherited after one’s death = everything one has) after (below, in a down clue) T (abbreviation for tension).
Testate = having written a will; perhaps more common in its negative form “intestate”. |
||
| 21 | ASPHALT |
Regularly pass up rest to get the black stuff (7)
|
| Alternate letters (regularly) from [p]A[s]S [u]P, then HALT (rest).
Slang for asphalt used in road surfacing; perhaps best known from a 1980s TV play and subsequent drama series about a group of road surfacing workers from Liverpool. |
||
| 22 | PICNIC |
Constant pessimist has no yen for alfresco dining (6)
|
| PI (mathematical constant) + C[y]NIC (pessimist) without the Y (symbol for the Japanese currency yen). | ||
| 25 | ON CUE |
When to act? As soon as union gets involved (2,3)
|
| ONCE (as soon as), with U (abbreviation for union) included (involved). |
Forgive me if I disagree about this being easy. Just couldn’t get on the right wavelength.
I thought this more approachable than many an Anto crossie. We solved it withoout too many problems, though the parsing for PICNIC escaped us. GORGONZOLA was nice, as were BEEFSTEAK and TESTATE. Thanks, Anto and Quirister.
Liked FLESH AND BLOOD.
Thanks, both.
Not quite a PICNIC (which I too failed to parse) but not too OBSCURE. WYATT EARP was my favourite.
Thank you Quirister, especially for PICNIC. It wasn’t a picnic for me.
I liked FLESH AND BLOOD, FAT FINGER and WYATT EARP.
Generally agree with the summary re trickiness.
FLESH AND BLOOD has a nice anagram but the meaning of flesh and blood is human nature, or one’s relatives, not body parts. Body parts would be wordplay.
Spot on for difficulty, and quite fun. I agree that FAT FINGER wasn’t great. I got PICNIC entirely (and easily) from the definition; I don’t see cynic and pessimist as having the same meaning.
The only one for which I wasn’t on the wavelength was HAYWIRE, which made me laugh when I revealed it. Though after getting the middle S of BEEFSTEAK I spent a while trying in vain to fit ANTS in there.
[One of the most profitable customers of the ACME Corporation is Wile E Coyote, who we now know from a recent crossword is Ethelbert.]
All solved and parsed, except HAYWIRE as my brain stalls on these fake Spoonerisms and having worked out the answer, from definition and crossers, I didn’t stop to puzzle out the wordplay.
Flesh and blood as body parts didn’t bother me, I read enough crime fiction scenes which have gobbets of flesh and pools of blood in the descriptions, it’s the literal rather tban metaphorical meaning.
I took longer to solve this than the Cryptic, so, although I found it easier than some Anto Quiptics, I still didn’t solve it anywhere near as fast as I usually solve Quiptic and Everyman crosswords. (i.e. more double the time yesterday’s Everyman took me.). I’m with those saying easier, but not that easy.
Thank you to Anto and Quirister.
Wyatt Earp is such a cool name, compared to banal ones like Billy the Kid et al. Among the dozens of series (Gunsmoke, Paladin, Sugarfoot etc etc), was there one about him?
grantinfreo @10: There was a pretty poor tv series called The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp back in the late 1950s. It starred Hugh O’Brian as the lawman in Dodge City and Tombstone bearing only a superficial similarity to the historical figure. Surprisingly while acting as the town marshal in Dodge City he never ran into Matt Dillon of Gunsmoke who was also the town marshall.
Like Crispy and others, I respectfully disagree with our esteemed blogger. This took me several goes today, and I’ve only just finished it now – and I’ve been doing these things for 40 years!
BEEFSTEAK was a real toughie, and I never did parse PICNIC – now that I see the parsing, I’d agree with Monkey that a cynic and a pessimist are two different things (or people).
The reason I post this is not to keep having a go at Anto, who is clearly an accomplished and entertaining setter (I just wish the Graun would keep him in the regular cryptic slot).
Rather, it’s to reassure any genuine beginners who come across this blog (and for whom the Quiptic puzzles are ostensibly intended) that, if they struggled, they are not alone!
Thanks A & Q.
[There have, of course, been several films featuring Wyatt Earp. “My darling Clementine” was probably the best; there’s also that interminable Kevin Costner film…]
Did this one reasonably quickly, so I am on Quirister’s side as to whether it was easy enough. I agree that the clue for BECAUSE was not really cryptic enough. The art to a good cryptic definition is to mislead–put some twist in there were a different meaning is implied–and that one just doesn’t meet the mark. But it’s an amusing clue anyway, so I’ll forgive it. Ditto for FAT FINGER.
Agree with a few here. Anto never writes an easy quiptic and this certainly wasn’t a gentle stroll. Some very questionable general clues and a lot of 3 part deductions for me.
Took me a while, but got there in the end.
Wile E Coyote’s reliance on ACME products was referenced in a Family Guy episode as well.
Thank you essexboy. Having built up my confidence in recent months on Everyman and Quiptic this brought me down with a bang. Never even heard the word MUFTI. Well, I guess it’s a learning process. Upwards and onward !
Add me to the list of people who found this not so smooth going. I never figured out HAYWIRE, CYAN or ACTORS but gave up because it is Saturday afternoon here and that is long enough to be puzzling over it. Kicked myself about CYAN when I read this blog, and I should have got ACTORS – don’t know why that eluded me. And without the A I had no hope with 5A.
As a beginner (only started these earlier this year), I am very happy to know that others found it tricky.