Anto is never going to be my favourite setter, but this was competently done, though with a few niggles, as noted below. Thanks to Anto.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | FRISSON | Father is with child? It’s really exciting (7) FR + IS + SON |
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| 5 | PICASSO | Artist employed by Olympic Association (7) Hidden in olymPIC ASSOciation |
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| 9 | ALPHA | Nato uses it as a contribution to vital phase (5) Hidden in vitAL PHAse. The word for A in the NATO phonetic alphabet is actually spelt ALFA |
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| 10 | VIEWPOINT | Compete with purpose for position (9) VIE + W[ith] + POINT (purpose) |
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| 11 | TARDIGRADE | Tiny resilient creature is slow sort, they say (10) Homophone of “tardy” + GRADE (to sort) |
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| 12 | TAME | Subdued when there aren’t many exciting openings (4) First letters of There Aren’t Many Exciting |
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| 14 | RHYMING SLANG | It’s made two composers get drunk in the East End (7,5) Cryptic definition, alluding to the cockney (East End) phrase “Brahms and Liszt” = pissed = drunk |
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| 18 | RE?ENLISTMENT | Joining service again when lenient terms revised (2-10) (LENIENT TERMS)* |
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| 21 | PAVE | Put flags on quiet little street (4) P + AVE[nue] |
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| 22 | BRUTALISED | Cruelly treated aide blurts out … (10) (AIDE BLURTS)* |
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| 25 | STOP START | … ‘give over jerk’ and becomes fitful (4,5) STOP (give over) + START (jerk, twitch) |
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| 26 | MIAMI | Setter’s intention to return to city once associated with vice (5) Reverse of I’M AIM, and a reference to the TV series Miami Vice |
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| 27 | LEFTIST | One favouring state involvement went first (7) LEFT (went) + 1ST |
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| 28 | PUNGENT | Strong bet, having inside information (7) GEN (information) in PUNT (bet) |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | FEALTY | Extremely fine admiral totally generates strong allegiance (6) The “extreme” letters of FinE AdmiraL TotallY |
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| 2 | IMPART | In central Crimea, expat’s sortie creates supply (6) A similar construction: the central letters of crIMea exPAt’s soRTie |
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| 3 | SPANISH FLU | Devastating outbreak involving strange pains and bizarre flush (7,3) PAINS* + FLUSH* |
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| 4 | NEVER | At no time does doubling it provide extended payment terms (5) Doubling NEVER gives [the] “never-never”, meaning Hire Purchase or so-called “easy terms” |
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| 5 | PSEUDONYM | Dumpy one’s in trouble for creating new identity (9) (DUMPY ONE’S)* |
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| 6 | CAPO | Criminal head of international ring (4) CAP (an international player of various sports) + O (ring) |
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| 7 | SLIP AWAY | Go quietly when adding 9 to launch area (4,4) SLIPWAY with A (alpha) “added” – to me that suggests putting it on the end, not inserting in the middle |
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| 8 | OUTWEIGH | Override available study (8) OUT (available) + WEIGHT (to study) |
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| 13 | A SINGLE MAN | A poor innings by chap lacking a partner (1,6,3) A SINGLE (which would be a poor innings in cricket) + MAN (chap). Chap seems to be doing double duty here |
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| 15 | MISCREANT | Vandal toppled crane that’s shrouded in fog (9) CRANE* in MIST |
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| 16 | PROPOSAL | One paid companion to go over large submission (8) PRO (professional, one paid) + OS (outsize) in PAL |
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| 17 | LEAVE OFF | Holidays cancelled? You’re joking (5,3) LEAVE (holidays) + OFF (cancelled) |
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| 19 | ESCAPE | Scarper with key copy (6) ESC (key on computer keyboard) + APE (copy). It’s a bit unfortunate that ESCAPE is also the full name of the key |
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| 20 | ADRIFT | Commercial break is lacking purpose (6) AD (advertisement, commercial) + RIFT |
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| 23 | TOT UP | Calculate best cover for worker’s group (3,2) TU (Trade Union) in TOP (best). I would have written it as “workers’ group”, but I suppose the singular form is possible |
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| 24 | ASTI | It’s a rising wine region (4) Reverse of IT’S A |
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Thanks, Anto and Andrew!
Enjoyed the puzzle and the blog.
A minor point:
ALPHA
I think you can underline ‘NATO uses it as a’ as the def.
Andrew, there’s a typo in your explanation of 8D, you have WEIGHT for WEIGH.
I can, I suppose, understand your aversion to Anto. There is something idiosyncratic about his style that is slightly off-putting at first. As to your specific objections, I (like Anto, presumably) had never registered that A was spelt Alpha in the NATO alphabet, so that delayed me not at all, I had no problem with adding A in the middle of SLIP WAY or with a singular worker being a TU member, and I agree that chap does double duty in 13D and that ESCAPE is rather inelegant. I’d add that some LEFTISTs are not in favour of state intervention, anarchism is alive and well.
However, taken as a whole I thought this a pretty good puzzle, quite a quick solve but with some nice clues of which TARDIGRADE was my favourite.
Thanks to you and to Anto.
…Alfa not Alpha. Sorry.
An enjoyable pursuit, thanks Anto. Never heard of a tardigrade, and I expect that I’m not alone.
PSEUDONYM went straight in as the anagram fodder was so close to Dumpynose, the pseudonym (haha) of Chris Brougham the crossword setter.
Otherwise I thought ALPHA was good, and I never realised it was spelled Alfa in the NATO alfabet.
As somebody who regularly gives negative comments about Anto, I thought I’d better say that I quite enjoyed this. Niggles are minor, and agree with Charles’ comments.
Thanks Anto and Andrew.
Andrew sums up my views.
Also never heard of Tardigrade! This was ok for me. I started faster than yesterday but the last 5/6 took me a bit of headscratching. Thanks Anto and Andrew.
I wonder if 22a is a dig at a recent resignation.
Probably a coincidence.
I know that Anto is not everyone’s cup of tea but he does seem to be judged against a standard not applied to other setters. I enjoyed this and am with Charles in his summation.
Thanks to Anto and Andrew.
Thanks Anto and Andrew
I liked quite a lot of this, especially the neat hidden PICASSO, and ALPHA (I wasn’t aware of the “correct” spelling either).
I had some of the same niggles as you, Andrew – the placing of the A in 7d, and ESCAPE being the actual meaning of the ESC key. Also “vandal” is a rather loose definition for MISCREANT.
Needless to say I didn’t like the “In” in 2d!
Tardigrades are fascinating. They are almost indestructible, and surprisingly common (though very small). See here.
Managed this OK despite having to do it online as the paper has only just been delivered now! Much harder on the tablet. Had to reveal TARDIGRADE. Probably won’t remember it either. Agree with Andrew’s quibbles, although I also hadn’t really thought how ALFA might be spelled differently from the Greek.
Thanks Anto and Andrew
Very enjoyable. A Quiptic-ish puzzle from Anto. I prefer him to other regular setters who will remain nameless 😉
Favourite: RHYMING SLANG, PROPOSAL (loi).
New for me : TARDIGRADA (well clued).
I was fine with the position of the added A in 7d.
I always assumed that NATO spelt it as Alpha not Alfa – is that an Americanism?
Thanks, both.
[Lovely sunny morning with clear blue skies in London today, I will go for a walk along the canal towpath now 🙂 ]
I knew some of the NATO letters had special spellings to stop them getting mispronounced, but didn’t know about ALFA. Failed on OUTWEIGH, but otherwise enjoyed this: RHYMING SLANG was fun, also liked FRISSON, SPANISH FLU (good surface), PAVE (oh, that sort of flag!) and the outers-and-inners pairing of FEALTY/IMPART.
I rather enjoyed this one. I knew of TARDIGRADE for some reason, and also liked RHYMING SLANG (a late entry, but Brahms & Liszt was knocking around my head for a bit). No issue with the ‘a’ in SLIP AWAY; if you add an ingredient to a dish it’s typically in the middle.
Agree it’s a shame about ESC. I’d forgotten about the variant spelling of ALPHA, which is apparently to make it more pronounceable to more people around the world.
Thanks Anto & Andrew.
Did the top half really quickly but took a while to complete the bottom half.
Liked: MISCREANT, FRISSON, TARDIGRADE, PUNGENT
Thanks Anto and Andrew
Greatly helped by what I thought was a very friendly grid today. Which meant that with four crossers in place I was able to track down and identify the nhob tiny creature at 11ac. What was most astonishing was that I couldn’t see how PICASSO worked and only when I came on here did I realise it was a hidden word. As I say, astonishing, must be getting a bit past it. Some very helpful anagrams too. Many thanks Anto and Andrew
This LEFTISH SINGLE MAN would NEVER have Adam and Eve’d it that two symptoms would have shown up in Spanish Fl e?a? u and discretely separate too. It IMPARTed a FRISSON of excitement on me. Thought RHYMING SLANG OUTWEIGHed all others.
Thank you Anto and Andrew – the A GRADEs of Setter/Blogger combos and not TARDy in PAVing the puzzle and TOTting up the parsings, respectively.
I breezed through this and share the view of Charles @2 in finding it most enjoyable.
I did know about the Nato ALFA spelling (see also Juliett and Whiskey) but that minor detail didn’t hold me up at all – I thought it was a nice clue with a cleverly disguised definition.
Thanks, Anto and Andrew.
I always enjoy Anto’s offerings when correctly placed, such as today. It’s only when they appear in the quiptic slot that I have reservations. Thanks Anto and Andrew. p.s. it took me a while to realise this blog had been posted as it hasn’t been categorised in the Guardian folder.
TARDIGRADE last made an appearance in a BONXIE (what happened to him?) puzzle on Jan 20 2012 “Water bear is slow to hear order”, also blogged by Andrew.
Fifteen Squared didn’t supply the clues in those days – a great omission – so I looked this up under puzzle number 25, 537. There were 20 odd comments!
Thanks Anto and Andrew
Good puzzle, enjoyed this. RHYMING SLANG my favourite. Had to fish TARDIGRADE from the back of my mind, but the wordplay helped a lot here. Had the same observation as you, Andrew, about A SINGLE MAN but it didn’t bother me.
Pleasant puzzle from Anto with several Everyman style clues. I recognised the ‘tiny resilient creatures’ immediately but it took a couple of crossers for me to recall the name of the organisms. Good anagrams and surfaces for RE-ENLISTMENT and SPANISH FLU.
Pity about the spelling of ALPHA and the double duty of the celibate, and ESCAPE could just have been ‘Scarper with key’, but these didn’t spoil my enjoyment.
Thanks to S&B
Enjoyable puzzle despite the niggles.
I thought PICASSO was well-hidden; I spent ages thinking of Olympic Associations, doh! I also liked the simple PAVE for the definition, RHYMING SLANG, where CHOPIN did not make an appearance, and SPANISH FLU for the clever surface.
I’m slightly surprised that people haven’t heard of TARDIGRADE; some of them crash-landed into the moon. However, all seems to be well because it’s not thought they survived despite being more than one ‘tiny resilient creature’.
Thanks A and A.
….and what would setters do without the fizz from Piedmont 🙂
…although credit to Anto for defining ASTI as region rather than a wine – the province produces some good reds (eg Barbera d’Asti) as well as the notorious Spumante.
The etymology of ‘scarper’ is contentious. It is sometimes explained as rhyming slang: Scapa Flow = ‘go’, but this body of water only became well known after the sinking of the German fleet in World War 1. The more likely alternative is from the Italian ‘scappare’ = ‘escape’ because the usage is recorded in the mid 19th century (which makes the clue even more pleonastic 🙂 )
Thanks to Anto and Andrew.
I wonder if non-solvers appreciate the excitement associated with doing crosswords – I recently reported the dreaded FRISSON associated with getting to the end of the ‘across’ clues without a solve. Thankfully no such problem today.
I thought ALPHA was very clever in spite of being there in plain sight (but then perhaps I would (wouldn’t I)). (And if I Google ‘NATO alphabet’ I find as many ‘Alphas’ as ‘Alfas’, not that I doubt your take on it Andrew – it just seems to rank as a popular misconception.)
OUTWEIGH survived an alpha-trawl with all the crossers and I had to wait for the solution to swing Tarzan-like in from the peripheries of the cerebellum. I enjoyed that.
I’ve only encountered TARDIGRADE in a crossword and fairly recently – perhaps not in a Guardian offering.
Good fun from Anto and I needed Andrew’s help with CAPO – I’ll get the international connection eventually.
[TILT: Pleonastic – thanks Gervase] [Now to work it into a conversation…]
A fun and swift solve until I hit the wall at 8d. That took me as long as the rest put together – I just had a blind spot for the answer.
I liked VIEWPOINT and CAPO, both simple and neat.
Thanks Anto and Andrew
Appalled by ALFA.
Thanks muffin@11 & Robi@24 for the phascinating links about TARDIGRADEs. Especially the fotografs.
Liked the puzzle especially PHRISSON and SPANISH PHLU.
Thanks A & A. It was phun. 🙂
I had no quibbles myself, but was wondering if others thought that RHYMING SLANG required one too many hops (apparently not) or that it is an ‘a’ not an alpha that gets added to slipway (apparently appearance is all that matters).
Liked MIAMI=city once associated with vice.
I know this setter has his detractors, but I always enjoy his output. Likes include PICASSO, VIEWPOINT, RHYMING SLANG, RE-ENLISTMENT, MIAMI, PUNGENT and SPANISH FLU. I also liked the opposite devices used in the first two down clues. NHO of TARDIGRADE but guessable.
Ta Anto & Andrew.
19 works (and even better) without the copy bit. Scarper with key? (6)
Like Larry @20, I’ve only just found the blog, having been ready to post much earlier. Must remember to go to the ‘Home’ page in future.
Nice puzzle. One tongue in cheek quibble was 13d, a “single” is not necessarily a poor innings – see J Leach, 1 not out vs the Australians at Headingley in 2019.
Another good Anto puzzle.
Alfalfa 😉 @28: Thanks for the nod. I always call a spade a horticultural implement. Why say ‘tautological’ when you can say ‘pleonastic’? 🙂
Thanks Anto, that was enjoyable. Most setters seem to have their “anti-fan” clubs but Anto is on my must-do list. I liked ALPHA, MIAMI, PUNGENT, and ADRIFT; I needed a word finder to solve TARDIGRADE. Thanks Andrew for the blog.
[Gervase @25: Without Asti, setters would have a “red” like “Rioja” as so many do now.]
Thanks for the blog , really enjoyed this, a cleverly disguised with in VIEWPOINT , nice touch to have RHYMING SLANG as the actual answer,PAVE simple and effective,
TARDIGRADES also called desiccated water bears , last for ages , just add water.
[AlanC@34 perhaps you should stay behind for extra IT lessons, even I know how to find the home page. ]
I’m another in the Rather Liked This camp.
As soon as I saw 14A I thought, well it HAS to be Brahms & Liszt – but they wouldn’t fit. Ashamed to say it took ages before the penny dropped.
One of my early entries was CALL, for 6D. It seemed so obvious to me (C: head of criminal, all: international, and the phone usage of “ring”) that I didn’t, for one moment, think it was wrong…. Until the only remaining clue was 10A.
Oh well, got there in the end.
Thanks to Anto & Andrew
What’s not to like? Fair clues, some amusing, all easily parsable.
Thanks both.
@35 Mandarin: You beat me to it!
Gervase@37 et al. I learned from my linguist friends that the “it” in “it is raining” is pleonastic. In this case not so much tautological but fulfilling a grammatical requirement without adding any new information.
Dr. W @ 44
“ci” in Italian can have a number of usages, one of which is a similar pleonastic-type one.
I am another who likes Anto and was pleased to see his name today. And I enjoyed this puzzle, liking RHYMING SLANG as I too wondered how to work Brahms and Liszt into that answer. I also thought ALPHA was valid, and I’ve looked the NATO alphabet up a fair few times outside crosswording. Other than ESCAPE being the full name of the key, I didn’t have any quibbles.
I’m sure TARDIGRADE has come up somewhere more recently than 2012. Maybe the Everyman?
Having said I like Anto, i don’t think he’s a good Quiptic setter as the quirks and twists I find fun aren’t always speed or newbie friendly.
Thank you to Andrew and Anto.
Shanne@21 Yes, it has come up more recently, but I was talking about just the Guardian crossword:
Enigmatic Variations Ploy Feb 2021
FT Mudd Mar 2020
Guardian Genius Dec 20i
Azed Sep 2018
Guardian Genius Dec 2018
(I have temperamental keys)
We really like Anto, and thoroughly enjoyed this. Favourites ALPHA, LEAVE OFF and RHYMING SLANG. Thanks Anto, and Andrew for the blog.
[Roz @40: I wish you could give me lessons, I’m sure it would be most informative].
14A reminded me of the Brahms & Liszt nightclub in Manchester, back in my student days. Made my morning, that did.
[AlanC @50 – be careful what you wish for . Students who incur my wrath get sent to biosciences to do some colouring in ]
If Alpha is spelt Alfa in the Nato alphabet why isn’t Whisky spelt Wisky?
… because it’s spelled whiskey
Kia ora 🙂 It’s my first comment here but I’m a long-time appreciative lurker on the blog as I sloooowly learn to solve the Guardian cryptic. As an elder-millennial Antipodean I lack some of the general knowledge!
This might be a silly question, but in 7a (Go quietly when adding 9 to launch area = slip away) I don’t understand how the 9 becomes the additional alpha/a?
RB: the 9 refers to the answer to 9 across, which is ALPHA. This is a common convention, though sometimes setters will try to fool us by using the number literally, so 9 could lead to NINE or IX, for example.