Hectence is a long-standing setter of the Quiptic and has produced a pleasing puzzle this morning which was solvable with a bit of pencil-chewing.
Degree of difficulty is such a moveable feast when it comes to crosswords: it depends on your ability and experience, of course, but also on your frame of mind, how rushed you are, and that famous wavelength thing that solvers talk about. I found this mostly accessible, but a bit chewy in one or two places; however, it’s all fair, which is the minimum requirement for a puzzle in this slot. Two other features of this one are that it’s a pangram (all 26 letters of the alphabet appear at least once) and Hectence has given me a bird.
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 Tiniest note accompanies letter from abroad that’s returned
MINIMUM
A charade of MINIM and the Greek letter MU reversed.
5 Put on clothing article for conditions outside
WEATHER
An insertion of THE in WEAR. The insertion indicator is ‘clothing’.
9 Report sets down formalities
RITES
A homophone (‘report’) of RIGHTS WRITES.
10 Hanging around‘s tiring Leo out
LOITERING
(TIRING LEO)* with ‘out’ as the anagrind.
11 Affected home education, including detailed command of language
INFLUENCED
An insertion of FLUENC[Y] in IN and ED. The insertion indicator is ‘including’; ‘detailed’ needs to be read as ‘de-tailed’, which is setterspeak for remove the last letter.
12 Overturned laws barring electronic libel
SLUR
A reversal of RUL[E]S. The removal indicator is ‘barring’; the reversal indicator is ‘overturned’.
14 Daughter larks around, awfully sozzled
DRUNK AS A LORD
A charade of D and (LARKS AROUND)* with ‘awfully’ as the anagrind.
18 Hard time coming back down south to Reading and Maidenhead in a cloudburst
THUNDERSTORM
A multi-element clue: it’s HT reversed, followed by UNDER, S, TO, R and M. ‘Reading’ is one of the ‘three Rs’; ‘Maidenhead’ needs to be read as a first letter indicator. Keep an eye out for Gateshead in future.
21 Unwilling to work, reclined drinking last of fizz
LAZY
An insertion of Z for the last letter of ‘fizz’ in LAY. The insertion indicator is ‘drinking’. LAY is the past tense of LIE, so ‘reclined’ works perfectly. She lies in bed all day; she lay in bed all day; she has lain in bed all day.
22 Relax, flying a kite followed by drinks at day’s end
TAKE IT EASY
A charade of (A KITE)* TEAS and Y for the final letter of ‘day’. The anagrind is ‘flying’.
25 Blunder, cutting wrong ties in alarm
TERRORISE
An insertion of ERROR in (TIES)* The insertion indicator is ‘cutting’ and the anagrind is ‘wrong’.
26 Recluse has more time without golf
LONER
LON[G]ER
27 Charge to take back Big Bird outfit
COSTUME
A charade of COST and EMU reversed.
28 Churchman’s tackling complex issue that’s neglected
DISUSED
An insertion of (ISSUE)* in DD for Doctor of Divinity or ‘churchman’. The insertion indicator is ‘tackling’ and the anagrind is ‘complex’.
Down
1 Good drive up, taking me to northern border
MARGIN
A reversal of G and RAM followed by I and N. The reversal indicator, since it’s a down clue, is ‘up’.
2 Inform of new books provided over year
NOTIFY
A charade of N, OT for Old Testament or ‘books’, IF and Y.
3 Fancy dress ball prevailed upon to include square dancing
MASQUERADE
An insertion of (SQUARE)* in MADE. The insertion indicator is ‘to include’ and the anagrind is ‘dancing’.
4 Fruit‘s ascendant in Siciliano lemonade
MELON
Hidden reversed in SiciliaNO LEMonade.
5 Fish with squirming maggot on line?
WHITEBAIT
A charade of (WITH)* and E BAIT. The anagrind is ‘squirming’ and E-BAIT, whimsically, is the maggot you might buy ‘online’ to use to catch a fish.
6 Old man climbing Everest’s first to cross summit
APEX
A charade of PA reversed, E for the initial letter of ‘Everest’ and X. The reversal indicator, since it’s a down clue, is ‘climbing’.
7 Handmade edges by Irish weaver’s a family thing
HEIRLOOM
A charade of H and E for the outer letters of ‘handmade’, IR and LOOM.
8 Mounting rush to enter fashion in the clothing industry
RAG TRADE
An insertion of DART reversed in RAGE. The insertion indicator is ‘to enter’ and the reversal indicator is ‘mounting’. Elderly people like me will remember the sitcom of the same name.
13 Reasonable having young dogs speaking in children’s stories
FAIRY TALES
A charade of FAIR, Y and a homophone of TAILS. The homophone indicator is ‘speaking’.
15 Unexpectedly, ‘retain VAR’ is in report!
NARRATIVE
(RETAIN VAR)* For those not familiar with the beautiful game, VAR stands for Video Assistant Referee, who in Premier League footie sits in a studio and reviews footage of the game, mainly clips concerning offside where a goal is disallowed because the striker’s bell end was just protruding past that of the last defender.
16 Fit shelves evenly in loft
ATHLETIC
An insertion of HLE for the even letters of ‘shelves’ in ATTIC. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
17 Excitement when going round road to find birds of prey
BUZZARDS
A charade of BUZZ and an insertion of RD in AS for ‘when’. The insertion indicator is ‘going round’. Buzzards are – I learned this morning – now the commonest and most widespread UK bird of prey. They are often seen – round here at least – in pairs. The obligatory Pierre bird links shows you the characteristic wing pattern when they are soaring.
19 Just an organisation for outings
JAUNTS
(JUST AN)* with ‘organisation’ as the anagrind.
20 Noteworthy bridge contains a combination of different elements
HYBRID
Hidden in NotwortHY BRIDge.
23 Correct spaces before last word
EMEND
A charade of EM, EN and D for the final letter of ‘word’. EM and EN spaces are printers’ conventions – originally the width of a lowercase letter m and a lowercase letter n. These days you might only come across them as em-dashes and en-dashes, not to be confused with the hyphen.
24 Bean curd, tomato and onion for starters suitable for everyone
TOFU
A charade of the initial letters of ‘tomato’, ‘onion’ and ‘for’ and U for ‘universal’ in film parlance.
Many thanks to Hectence for this week’s Quiptic.
Couldn’t parse whitebait, but having seen it above, it made me smile. Thanks Hectence and merci Pierre.
A fair start to Monday. Easier than the Cryptic but not too easy. I only failed to parse EMEND. I had a vague idea that eMS and ENS were something to do with printing, but did not know what.
Thanks both for an enjoyable outing
[We get buzzards and red kites, so I’m learning how to tell them apart by their tails]
Thanks Hectence and Pierre
Very nice. Favourite ATHLETIC.
Very nice pangram. Favourites were DRUNK AS A LORD and HYBRID.
Ta Hectence & Pierre.
A very chewy Quiptic, I felt – but plenty to enjoy. Teeny quibble with your excellent blog – isn’t 9ac a homophone of WRITES?
Thanks to P & H
Thanks to Pierre for parsing whitebait. I had assumed it was some sort of cryptic definition with “white” being a nickname for a maggot.
John+@6 – I agree re WRITES in 9ac
9 WRITES, surely?
When I used to letterset for the school printing club – we had a little letterpress machine and produced cards or invitations on it – ems and ens were specific bits of lead to place in the formes, so that’s a very concrete concept for me. The letters were all bits of metal that get positioned in frames, the formes, and tightened to hold them together for printing, with lead strips to hold the lines in place and space them apart. Which you chose was really what looked better in the situation; the whole thing is a real art.
We too have red kites and buzzards here, even over the town – so much further east than my childhood memories of buzzards circling the cliffs in Dorset.
I found that about the same as the Cryptic, but solvable. Thank you to Pierre and Hectence.
You are all of course right about RITES being WRITES. Blog amended.
Thanks, Hectence and Pierre. Enjoyable as ever from this reliable setter of Quiptics (and from our reliable writer of blogs). I was a bit slow on the uptake this morning and struggled with RITES and WHITEBAIT but they seem obvious now.
Shanne @9 – I regret being a bit too young to have ever worked with letterpress, but em and en are still live concepts in the publishing world (defined as the width of the letters m and n in a given font, for anyone unfamiliar with them).
Nice Quiptic. I was too LAZY to slog through the parsing of THUNDERSTORM, and missed the squirming WITH in WHITEBAIT. Favourite was ATHLETIC.
Here in W. London red kites are commoner than buzzards: the spreading reintroduced population from the Chilterns has now reached us and they are a regular sight.
Athletic made me smile — lovely surface.
I hadn’t seen de-tailed before, and like it a lot.
I also haven’t seen “dogs” referred to as “tails”. Or am I missing something that would make this make more sense? Wait — I’ve just got it. They both mean “to follow”.
Can someone please explain where the ‘i’ in Margin comes from, in 1d?
I found this a bit tough I places for a quiptic as noted by Pierre. THUNDERSTORM and WHITEBAIT went in from crossers and definition rather than parsing. Re WHITEBAIT, I’m not persuaded that one can add ‘E-‘ to just anything and use ‘online’ as the indicator. That seems a little thin-endy to me.
And EMEND used one of my pet peeves, lacking a possessive for a single letter indicator (as in, I’m not keen on ‘last word’ = D… ‘last/end/close/etc of word’ or ‘word‘s last/end/close/etc’ are accurate ways of denoting the letter D – ‘last word’ is not)
Apart from that, an entertaining puzzle. And the first time I’ve noticed a pangram during the solve! Thanks both.
Shoogled@14
I think it comes from the “me” in the clue.
Enjoyable puzzle, neither too easy nor too hard.
I did not parse 5d apart from BAIT and also 9ac (like Pierre, I was thinking of RIGHTS not WRITES.
Liked THUNDERSTORM, ATHLETIC.
Thanks, both.
[Since spending time in the UK, I am able to recognise red kites but I’m not sure if I have seen any buzzards]
Shoogled@14
the I is ‘me’ in the clue for MARGIN
I found this easier than yesterday’s Everyman, which I usually do on Monday morning. EMEND nearly tripped me up, but once I’d twigged TAKE IT EASY, it dropped in nicely. THUNDERSTORM was my CotD.
I found this more difficult than the Cryptic but enjoyable.
I liked the daughter larking around. For 1D MARGIN, I and me are not interchangeable unless you’re West Indian; one could have been used instead.
Thanks Hectence and Pierre.
I’m another who completely failed to parse 5dn (WHITEBAIT), but it gave me a smile when I saw the explanation here. I think I’ve seen ME used to clue I before, but like Robi I’m not enthusiastic about it.
[I always thought that a buzzard was not a bird of prey because it was a carrion bird. Turns out I was wrong on two counts: buzzards do eat live prey, and carrion birds do seem to be categorized as birds of prey. In North America, buzzard is often used as a synonym for vulture, explaining the first half of my error.]
Another who failed to parse WHITEBAIT.
Our most common bird of prey here in the US is the red-tailed hawk, a very handsome guy. Apparently new-world hawks and old-world buzzards are in the same family, which is not something I knew before.
I agree with Rob T @15 about “last word” being a sketchy way of cluing the letter D, for exactly the reasons he says.
I am pleased to report that this is the first time I have finished a Quiptic. At 54, I am new to this and am learning. As a result I really enjoyed it!
I used to work in publishing, so I knew about EM and EN spaces, but with the two E’s already parsed, I couldn’t get past elegy being the last word. It’s funny how you have to shut out unhelpful preconceptions to make progress.
A red letter day for me. Thank you to Hectence for the very clear notes and Pierre.
Tips @22 – well done!! It’s a milestone to be proud of 🙂
Yes, bravo, Tips. It’s always a satisfying feeling when you finish a cryptic for the first time, isn’t it?
Lovely stuff though for the life of me I still don’t understand 3d how prevailed means “Made” and it’s really bugging me.
Liked the description of the offside law.
Olyjohn @ 25 – he prevailed upon the setter to explain the clue / he made the setter explain the clue
Congratulations also to Tips – it’s a great milestone to pass. There are probably only three universal milestones in cryptics – the first time you immediately see how a clue works and solve it, the first time you complete a whole puzzle, and the first time you solve an unknown word through the wordplay alone. The others are ones that people set for themselves – the first Paul they’ve completed or whatever.
Parsed “last word” as END (being the last word of a book, usually after THE), and overlooked the plurality of “spaces”. This would have solved the concerns of Rob T@15, I think!
Thanks Ben+T