There were some carefully-constructed clues in this Quiptic from Anto, but as so often with this setter, a number of imprecisions which would have made it harder – and more frustrating – for those in the ‘beginners’ category.
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 Sweet provided with cooked meal on wheels
CARAMEL
A charade of CAR and (MEAL)* with ‘cooked’ as the anagrind.
5 First of poems Yeats read, surrounded by an ancient monument
PYRAMID
A charade of PYR for the first letters of ‘poems’, ‘Yeats’ and ‘read’ and AMID.
9 Paris seminar includes piece about Argentinian scoring maestro
MESSI
Hidden reversed in ParIS SEMinar. He’s a moderately famous footballer, if you didn’t know.
10 Positive response to dodgy trade by Yankee recently
YESTERDAY
A charade of YES, (TRADE)* and Y for the phonetic alphabet ‘Yankee’. The anagrind is ‘dodgy’.
11 Agent came across to acquire ship that has intimidated governments
BOND MARKET
A charade of BOND and an insertion of ARK in MET. The insertion indicator is ‘to acquire’. A rather arcane reference: it was mainly the reaction of the BOND MARKETS to Liz Truss’s economic growth package that led to her having to resign after only 49 days.
12 Tree one found by river
ACER
A charade of ACE and R. It’s the genus of trees that are commonly known as maples.
14 Such underwear may reveal more than you think!
FREUDIAN SLIP
I don’t really get this. FREUDIAN SLIP is a less scientific term for a parapraxis, or a slip of the tongue said to reveal unconcscious wishes or feelings (according to Freud, anyway). But it’s not really ‘underwear’, so I don’t see the cryptic bit. Someone may have a better explanation.
18 Studious type has breakdown; it may help to outline future
SWOT ANALYSIS
A charade of SWOT and ANALYSIS. Short for strength-weakness-opportunity-threat analysis and a widely used business tool for framing future strategy.
21 Did she carry your cousins in the middle of the beauty centre?
AUNT
A charade of the middle letters of beAUty and ceNTre.
22 Religious fared badly during Exodus
GODFEARING
An insertion of (FARED)* in GOING. The anagrind is ‘badly’ and the insertion indicator is ‘during’.
25 Ordered own kind to profess ignorance
I DON’T KNOW
(OWN KIND TO)* with ‘ordered’ as the anagrind.
26 Warm location in mountain glen
INGLE
Hidden in mountaIN GLEn.
27 Hand warmer, light and not too loud
MUFFLED
A charade of MUFF and LED.
28 Manage routes for taxis, perhaps
RUNWAYS
A charade of RUN and WAYS. But ‘taxis’ in the definition sense is a verb, and RUNWAYS is a noun, in which case ‘routes’ is doing double duty. Which is not ideal in a Quiptic (or, some would argue, ever). Alternatively, Anto is defining RUNWAYS by ‘for taxis, perhaps’, which is rather imprecise.
Down
1 Get invitation to visit
COME BY
A dd. ‘Come by tomorrow afternoon.’ ‘He came by the grandfather clock when his uncle passed away.’
2 Object to having issued message again
RESENT
A dd.
3 Help spoil information held by staff, revealing outlaw’s lover
MAID MARIAN
An insertion of AID, MAR and I in MAN. The insertion indicator is ‘held by’. Robin Hood’s squeeze.
4 Film depicting attorney lacking weight
LAYER
LA[W]YER
5 Charity acquires rebuilt store for future generations
POSTERITY
An insertion of (STORE)* in PITY. The anagrind is ‘rebuilt’ and the insertion indicator is ‘acquires’.
6 Partially fair-headed bird
RHEA
Hidden in faiR HEAded and a chance for the obligatory Pierre bird link. It’s not cute, is it? But of possible interest to word lovers is that it was named after the Greek Goddess Rhea, whose name in Ancient Greek is derived from the word for ‘ground’. Why? Because it’s flightless.
7 Checks for disease when sea is covering coastal state
MEDICALS
An insertion of CAL for California in MED IS. The insertion indicator is ‘covering’.
8 Dean occasionally sits on stripy plastic during such outings
DAY TRIPS
A charade of DA for the odd letters of ‘dean’ and (STRIPY)* The anagrind is ‘plastic’.
13 Sign that independent country has upright police force
INDICATION
An insertion of CID reversed in I NATION. The insertion indicator is ‘has’ and since it’s a down clue, ‘upright’ is the reversal indicator.
15 Simple name-dropping is not admired
UNADORNED
The setter is indicating that if you remove the N for ‘name’ from the solution you will get UNADORED, which is a definition of ‘not admired’; but I’m not a fan of these ‘back-to-front’ clues, and don’t think they are particularly appropriate for the Quiptic slot.
16 Spaces I’m adapting to provide some fun
ESCAPISM
(SPACES IM)* with ‘adapting’ as the anagrind.
17 Complain when volume is not available
SOUND OFF
A dd.
19 By means of gravity, artist creates something arousing
VIAGRA
A charade of VIA, G and RA gives you the blue pill.
20 Ugly type of growth needing no publicity
OGRESS
[PR]OGRESS
23 Fine pitcher is down in numbers …
FEWER
A charade of F and EWER.
24 … and others are coming up behind
ET AL
A reversal (‘coming up’, since it’s a down clue) of LATE. The ellipses between the clues can be ignored. They are just there to make a bit more sense of the surface readings.
Many thanks to Anto for this week’s Quiptic.
As always, my heart sinks when I see Anto is the Quiptic setter. Still, I always give it a go in the hope that it will be okay this time. It wasn’t. Swot Analysis? Really? In a Quiptic? I wouldn’t have grumbled about it in a cryptic, but it’s a bit obscure for this level. I agree with Pierre on the Freudian Slip clue.
Again this week the quiptic took me longer than the cryptic, but Carpathian’s was very straightforward. Lots to enjoy in this, and nothing too obscure. The only one I wasn’t familiar with was SWOT ANALYSIS, although I can see why it’s probably common parlance in certain lines of work. I thought that the clue for UNADORNED didn’t really work properly — removal of the “is” might improve it. Thanks, Anto & Pierre.
I notice that commenters on the Grauniad site have enjoyed this puzzle, but I just cannot warm to Anto’s style, and I agree with Pierre that some of the clues are not really suitable for a Quiptic.
I enjoyed this because I like Anto, but… it took me half as long again as the Quiptic.
SLIP is underwear, but I thought that clue a bit loose, and needed a lot of crossers to solve that one. I read RUNWAYS as for taxis, and again thought it was a bit loose. I’ve been involved in SWOT ANALYSIS exercises, but again needed a lot of crossers. BOND MARKET was my last in as although I saw the Market I wasn’t sure about BOND until I had everything else in.
We had a wildlife park bring rheas into our primary school, once. They peck hair, clothes, and tower over primary children. We were all terrified.
Thank you to Pierre and Anto.
Thanks Anto and Pierre
I agree with your quibbles, Pierre, and SWOT ANALYSIS has no place in a Quiptic (or a standard cryptic, I would say – much too specialised GK). I didn’t parse OGRESS, and would question the equivalence of growth and progress.
I remember Anto’s early Quiptics and this is so much better, so I won’t criticise. Glad to say I’ve never heard of SWOT ANALYSIS, but it seems to exist.
I quite liked the idea that a revealing SLIP could be called a FREUDIAN SLIP and am glad my SWOT ANALYSIS days are behind me. I agree that UNADORNED looks more like a clue for “unadored”, but the numeration makes it clear enough.
I know Anto likes to play around with crosswording conventions, often wittily, but today I thought too many clues were a bit messi.
I agree with Pierre’s quibbles, and I’ve got a few more of my own:
– RESENT just means ‘issued again’, not ‘issued message again’.
– I DON’T KNOW means ‘I profess ignorance’, not ‘to profess ignorance’.
– Surely the wordplay for AUNT is spoilt by the ‘the’, whichever way you read it:
Middle of (the beauty centre) = UTY
Middle of the (beauty centre) = TYCE
Middle of (i.e. take central letters from each of) (the beauty centre) = HAUNT
Lots of nice clues as well – I liked CARAMEL and the picture of Yeats reading out his poems by the PYRAMID. Thanks A & P.
I agree with many of these quibbles. FREUDIAN SLIP and BOND MARKET were both gettable but required odd leaps of association that weren’t really evident in the clues, unless we’re all missing some more logical parsings. And yes, the clue for UNADORNED is first and foremost a clue for UNADORED, and only a clue for UNADORNED if one reads the sentence in a specific way. Fine in a cryptic but not for this slot.
Oh well, fingers crossed for next Monday…
Thanks!
Enjoyable puzzle.
Liked FREUDIAN SLIP (which I think is intended as a fun clue), VIAGRA, OGRESS (loi).
I am fine with the other quibbles raised.
Thanks, both.
Once I had got SWOT ANALYSIS (after first trying SPOT ANALYSIS and finding it was wrong) I vaguely remembered having to do one, once, long ago. The sort of term you either know only too well or not at all. The allusive definitions for that and BOND MARKET were a bit vague for a Quiptic, and I share the reservations about FREUDIAN SLIP, though it made me laugh.
I do like Anto, but not as a Quiptic setter. I liked AUNT, GODFEARING and VIAGRA, and I even remembered MESSI.
A SLIP is a female undergarment – like a nightshirt, I believe. I didn’t have a quibble with that one, but I fell down on BOND MARKET (my own fault, as I didn’t see the dd in COME BY) and SWOT ANALYSIS was completely new to me – I’ve heard of SWOT and ANAL, of course, and SPOT ANALYSIS sounded reasonable. Not very satisfying.
On 21a, Anto should have performed some SWOT ANALYSIS, spotted the threat of 15^2 criticism, noticed the opportunity of precision and dumped
Did she carry your cousins in the middle of the beauty centre?
in favour of
Did she carry your cousins in the middle of beauty clienteles?
I enjoyed this but I’m SOUNDing OFF for POSTERITY that there are definite INDICATIONs that it’s more cryptic than quiptic.
Thank you Anto and Pierre.
Don’t really understand the chorus of disapproval of SWOT ANALYSIS, it’s widely understood term and if the clueing is a bit loose that’s not out of character. SLIP is underwear, so again, a slightly loose but acceptable clue in my view. My own inner pedant bridled a bit at POSTERITY, because pity is not synonymous with charity, but…
My criticism is more general. More and more often the Guardian’s Monday cryptic is easier than the quiptic. It seems to me that there should be some clear blue water between the beginner’s puzzles and those for more experienced solvers.
14A brings up from somewhere in the depths of my memory a Punch cartoon entitled “Freud’s first slip”, showing him admiring himself in a mirror, wearing one. Further delving into my memory is not recommended.
Agree with all the quibbles, and that this was, yet again, harder than the cryptic. Also, don’t planes taxi on the taxiway, not the runway?
Seems a clear consensus of opinion about this one and I concur. I’d have been a bit happier with 14 if unadored was not such an ugly word and so little used in common parlance.
Perhaps a bit on the tough side for a Quiptic.
SWOT ANALYSIS would be familiar to anyone who has worked in the business field, and therefore maybe no more obscure than Greek gods, Shakespeare plays etc. The clue for RUNWAYS was a nice idea but fell down for the double-duty routes, and also as mrpenny @16 pointed out in that the description really gives taxiways. However, I suppose sometimes planes do taxi a short way at the top of a runway before opening up the throttle. I quite liked the clue for OGRESS. The clue for AUNT would have been better without the ‘the’ IMHO.
Thanks Anto and Pierre.
I agree with Petert @7 and Michelle @10 that FREUDIAN SLIP was a fun clue. It may not fit the standard rule book of cryptic crosswords, but I don’t see that as a negative. I found the suggestion that a revealing piece of underwear could be referred to as a FREUDIAN SLIP quite amusing.
SWOT analysis is a narrowly understood term. It didn’t get mentioned in my accountancy training. Agree with all the moans. Most of the problems are about imprecise use of English.
SWOT ANALYSIS may be a familiar term in business schools but I can imagine the howls of rage at a clue with an answer like Butterworth. or Chebyshev which are well known to electronic engineers and are at least single words. It clearly does not belong in a Quiptic. OGRESS was a stretch too far for me as well, though the crossers did not leave many choices
Another lovely crossword from Anto … maybe more for the cryptic slot, although certainly some of the Quiptics should be a little challenging, to make the transition easier for beginners.
I think some expect ‘imprecision’ from him – and so he gets called out more than he should.
Planes do taxi on the runway btw … according to some at least.
Perhaps “Austrian underwear…” might have worked better for 14a.
Thanks Anto and Pierre.
I found the bottom half harder than the bottom half of Carpathian’s Cryptic, and the top half easier, so clearly both puzzles were wrongly placed in part.
My favourite clue was 14a FREUDIAN SLIP, which elicited an out-loud laugh.
Thanks, Anto for the fun and Pierre for the blog. The plcture of the rather MESSI pair of RHEAs made me think that the goddess the bird was named after was in fact an OGRESS.
Thanks Pierre for educating me on BOND MARKET. Lacking in UKGK for that one.
Even though I have very little business acumen, I didn’t have any trouble with SWOT ANALYSIS. It may be ‘specialised’ as muffin said@5, but it was gettable from the wordplay and crossers and I thought it fair. Had heard the term, but as with so many clues, the definition often comes later. (I for one find football terms specialised GK.)
VIAGRA favourite for the surface and wordplay.
Still only a relative novice at crosswords, but the majority of this Quiptic went in fairly easily. 19d was LOI (but raised a… grin when it did). The first word of 18a went in based on the wordplay: despite having encountered the whole term, the rest of the clue lacked that “something” to fully provide the answer. Shame.
Did enjoy 14a, though, and I’ve probably heard the same line somewhere before 😉
Why is SWOT ANALYSIS any more obscure than ET AL, INGLE etc.?
Surely part of the fun is learning new words and phrases – regardless of your level of experience?
Cheers P&A
Bodycheetah @27
You may come across ET AL or INGLE as part of your general experience and education (as indeed I have), but you are unlikely to have heard of SWOT ANALYSIS unless you have the misfortune to be involved in some sort of corporate activity.
I had largely the same quibbles as everyone else, particularly with UNADORNED. Really relied on the crossers and the thesaurus for this one!