Guardian Quiptic 1,220/Bartland

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Bartland, a comparatively new setter of the Quiptic, returns to provide us with this week’s offering for beginners and those in a hurry.

I have commented positively on the previous puzzles from this setter that I have blogged, and I thought this one was also thoughtfully constructed. An overuse of the ‘outside letters’ device, perhaps, and one dubious definition, but generally a good cryptic for this slot. Let’s see what others made of it.

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 Upset father by breaking flute
FRETFUL
A charade of FR and (FLUTE)* The anagrind is ‘breaking’.

5 ‘Vacant’ needed to follow punctuation mark in dictation
COMMAND
A charade of COMMA and N[EEDE]D.

9 Organs are not working with extra pedal ultimately
OFFAL
A charade of OFF and AL for the last letters of ‘extra’ and ‘pedal’.

10 Outrageous drag is coming at the end of March carnival
MARDI GRAS
A charade of MAR and (DRAG IS)* The anagrind is ‘outrageous’.

11 Hostility among outsiders initially greeting mixed seniors
AGGRESSION
A charade of AG for the outside letters of ‘among’ , G for the first letter of ‘greeting’ and (SENIORS)* The anagrind is ‘mixed’.

12 Alumnus has extremely obscure pipe
OBOE
A charade of OB for ‘old boy’ and OE for the outside letters of ‘obscure’.

14 Tsk! Flipping tantrum routine and it’s upturned ice cream
TUTTI-FRUTTI
A charade of TUT, FIT reversed, RUT and IT reversed.

18 Stretching green mantle is out of order
ENLARGEMENT
(GREEN MANTLE)* with ‘is out of order’ as the anagrind.

21 Error in copy taking turnover
TYPO
Hidden reversed in cOPY Taking.

22 This sharpens good skin’s colour
GRINDSTONE
A charade of G, RINDS and TONE.

25 Invasive presence in part of the bowel is extremely eager
COLONISER
A charade of COLON, IS and ER for the outside letters of ‘eager’.

26 Quick signal
ALERT
A dd.

27 Hold down core pressure to some extent
REPRESS
Hidden in coRE PRESSure.

28 Discharge English bloke with a terrible fringe
EMANATE
A charade of E, MAN, A and TE for the outside letters of ‘terrible’.

Down

1 Formal borders, speaking of flowers
FLORAL
More outside letters: here F and L for those in ‘formal’ followed by ORAL.

2 Guy returning if accepted by centre left and groovy extremists
EFFIGY
And some more: an insertion of IF reversed in EF for the middle letters of ‘left’ and GY for the outside letters of ‘groovy’.

3 Failed attempt to produce most counterfeit watercolours, for example
FALSE START
The solution can be rearranged to give FALSEST ART.

4 Large cars garaged by official I’m ostracising
LIMOS
Hidden in officiaL IM OStracising.

5 Burn pieces of bacon, sire!
CARBONISE
(BACON SIRE)* with ‘pieces of’ as the anagrind.

6 Girl composed on the radio
MAID
A homophone (‘on the radio’) of MADE.

7 Jumble: coats, bra, tumblers
ACROBATS
(COATS BRA)* with ‘jumble’ as the anagrind.

8 Sadly devastated about former lover I have difficulty in reading
DYSLEXIA
An insertion of EX and I in (SADLY)* The insertion indicator is ‘about’.

13 European capital‘s terror is linked to volcanic emissions
BRATISLAVA
A charade of BRAT, IS and LAVA.

15 Believers embracing alternative thinkers
THEORISTS
An insertion of OR in THEISTS. The insertion indicator is ’embracing’.

16 Can’t turn in unusually rare hired vehicle
RENT-A-CAR
Two anagrams and an insertion: of (CANT)* in (RARE)* The anagrinds are ‘turn’ and ‘unusually’ and the insertion indicator is ‘in’.

17 Eggy booze with turkey? That’s a complete change of direction!
FLIP-FLOP
A charade of FLIP and FLOP. The first element is referencing an EGG FLIP, which has a multitude of different recipes but usually involves a raw egg and brandy; the second is the reason that the country formerly known as Turkey now wants to be called Türkiye, and has officially registered this change with the UN. It’s not much fun when your motherland is associated with being a failure, is it?

19 Empty bistro and stuck-up old wine shop
BODEGA
Yet more outside letters: this is B[ISTR]O and AGED reversed. The reversal indicator, since it’s a down clue, is ‘stuck-up’.

20 Pay for rest
SETTLE
A dd.

23 Vikings coming from north or south-east
NORSE
A charade of N OR SE. To equate ‘Vikings’ and NORSE is a slight stretch, I would aver. ‘Viking’ without the ‘s’ and used adjectivally would have worked better; but ‘Vikings’ as a group is surely better rendered as NORSEMEN.

24 Part of remark needs a bit of articulation
KNEE
Hidden in remarK NEEds.

Many thanks to Bartland for this week’s Quiptic.

19 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 1,220/Bartland”

  2. Minor quibbles: ‘extremely’ is repeated as an indicator, and ‘upturned’ doesn’t really reverse in an Across. Some of the letter-picking indicators , e.g. ‘Floral borders’, ‘centre left’, ‘terrible fringe’ aren’t quite for me either, more of a waft in the general direction of what you’re being asked to do, although entirely solvable.

    But overall a good quiptic, and MARDI GRAS was particularly good.

    Thanks Pierre & Bartland.

  3. Yes, right level for a Quiptic – no convoluted parsing or obscure vocabulary. Agree with Pierre about the outside letters. Wasn’t sure about his quibble, and found that Collins equates “the Vikings” with “the NORSE”, so Bartland off the hook with this one.

    Thanks B&P

  4. Eminently soluble, without anything that really held me up or particularly stood out, which for a Quiptic is fair enough.

    Thank you to Pierre and Bartland.

  5. Done in ten minutes, so it lived up to its name. Good fun, nothing obscure. I didn’t parse TUTTI-FRUTTI because it was obviously right and the wordplay looked convoluted. (Why waste brain cells?) The closest I could come to a niggle is whether a brat and a terror are the same.

  6. A bit tough for a Quiptic.

    I did not really understand 26ac.

    Favourite COLONISER = invasive presence; EFFIGY.

    Thanks, both.

  7. Good quiptic, though I agree with Amoeba @2 on the grammatical looseness of those particular outer letter indicators (I was taught that such indicators need a possessive element). Liked GRINDSTONE and FALSE START a lot.

    Thanks both.

  8. I liked BRATISLAVA, GRINDSTONE and MARDI GRAS. While I appreciate a surface that is totally misleading, I also like one like here that alludes to the answer, an almost clue as definition.

  9. michelle@6 : spoiler ALERT = SIGNAL not to take too much notice if you want a surprise. ( also a well used noun in alarm systems ) / ALERT -> QUICK ( of the mind ).

    Just right for a Quiptic. No need for AGGRESSION or GRINDSTONEs. Deserve a TUTTI-FRUTTI now.

    Ta both.

  10. Surely a FLOP is a film that fails at the box office and could also be called a ‘turkey’? I don’t think it’s got anything to do with the country.

  11. No, it hasn’t, WhiteDevil. But that’s why Turkey made the request to the UN for a spelling change, because it didn’t want to share a word with negative connotations.

  12. Not bad for a quixotic but have to agree there were too many clues using unnecessary outside letters. For example 28A could have been clued as Discharge English bloke consumed.

  13. Thanks for explaining 17D. I figured it out from the letters and part of the clue but couldn’t parse it. 12A made me laugh.

  14. I quite liked the repeated use of outside letters, a few more ways of clueing these have gone into my learners notebook, which means when they crop up again in isolation I’ll know what to do. If the quiptic is pitched for beginners then this is helpful training I think.

  15. Well done to Bartland for a great Quiptic. The outside lettering is great for novices (like me) and the different indicators show how they can be presented.

    4d and 18d – despite the relative simplicity – were favourites, and made me smile.

    Thanks to Pierre for shining light onto a couple of dark corners.

  16. Many thanks to all for the lovely and very useful feedback, and to Pierre for the fabulous blogging, as always. Glad that the puzzle has gone down well 🙂

  17. I loved it. FALSE START is my favourite. I didn’t mind the outside letters, at all. In fact, I had the impression that there were a lot of hidden words, but didn’t notice the repeated outside letters at all. The crossword, the blog, and discussions were fun.Thanks everyone.

  18. I’ve come across a handful of crosswords before that make repeated use of the same device as a means of coaching novice solvers and have always found it useful. Very suitable for a quiptic, in my view.

    Thanks Bartland and Pierre. And extra thanks especially to the former for checking in here, which is always appreciated.

  19. Generally happy with a dubious definition here and there, as long as it’s still clear and the surface benefits from the change. This was a rare full completion for me! As a commenter on the site itself said, it seemed difficult to grasp at first, but loosened up quickly with some crossers.

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