Quiptic 1,231 by Chandler

24 comments on “Quiptic 1,231 by Chandler”

1. A fair number of smiles, no groans, nothing too obscure. Can’t complain. Thanks Chandler & Oriel.

2. I thought the ‘moving a bit’ in 13ac was [n]udging. Nice Quiptic, so thanks Chandler and Oriel for the blog.

3. Hello Oriel, haven’t met you before but I see you have a history with the FT. Thank you for coming over to “our” side and for your clear and detailed blog. 6D PLAGUE was tricky, for me anyway, with the river overlooked.

   Enjoyed this. Maybe a few too many first letter clues. I did like the SPIDERY lines on the papers. LAUGHING STOCK was a great find, and chuckles abounded in the surfaces of CLARINET, DREGS, ENTERTAIN, OFFISH, AGGRIEVED, and DO AWAY WITH.

4. I don’t often do it, but know from comments about the Monday Cryptic that the Quiptic is often thought then harder of the two. Not today, for me at least, and the Cryptic was easier than usual too. But nothing to complain about, and a straightforward starter-level puzzle for those new to crypic crosswords. I did have to think a little about parsing PLAGUE and GRUDGING (I went for [n]udging, like Steven@2, but either works just fine).
   Thanks Oriel and Chandler.

5. Enjoyable puzzle.

   Favourite: ROOKERY.

   I also was thinking of nudging rather than budging – I think both work?

   Thanks, both.

6. I had G for Greek plus (t)rudging but nudging and budging after Gr definitely sound better! I missed the parsing for 6d but overall a lovely Quiptic with plenty to enjoy. Thanks Chandler and Oriel.

7. Like everyone else, I had [n]udging. A nice surprise to find a nice easy Quiptic after the last few weeks. Plenty of nods too.

8. I was trudging too, but like Hawa , I see the alternatives are far superior ROOKERY was a good clui,

9. Another fair quiptic. As an experiment could not The Guardian get the same setter to set both quiptic and Monday cryptic. Would allow us more challenged setters to get used to a particular setters style.

10. Why is FISH a school member???

11. Excellent Quiptic, just right I thought.

    Thanks both.

12. Doh! Just realised about the fish! It is Monday morning is my only excuse!

13. Again, this is quite tricky for a Quiptic but mercifully easier than last week’s one. The bottom half went in fairly easily but struggled quite a bit with the top half. Never heard of 2D but the clue is clear enough and did smile at 20D and 23A.

14. My weekly cry for help if it is tolerated…

    I have 1, 12, 17, 26 across and 4 down.

    I’m not looking at the blog yet.

    What kind of clues are some of these please?

15. My ignorance of golf knows no bounds, so I’d never heard of Mr. or Ms. FALDO, but the wordplay told me what to do. I failed to parse PLAGUE, but now that I see how it’s done it makes perfect sense.

16. Didn’t quite get there today, but that’s on me — I agree the two I didn’t get (22 and 28) were fair.

    Re 22: I was reading gradually as the definition, and was tripped up by the definition being gradually introduce (and introduce is usually a word play indicator, so this was good misdirection).

    Re 28: I also failed to read engineer as an anagrind. I like this one — another quite misleading one as (I’m sure) engineer is usually meant to be an abbreviation of some sort.

    Thanks setter and blogger:)

17. When will I ever learn, do not try to solve any crossword when you are tired, I took another stab this morning and said to myself”No wonder you struggled”. A nice way to start the week.

18. One for the software nerds, because SWAGGER is, in fact, a framework; now called OpenAPI.

    OK, “framework” is a bit of a stretch, but it was pleasingly congruent.

19. Steffen @14

    My weekly cry for help if it is tolerated…

    I have 1, 12, 17, 26 across and 4 down.

    1. is an inclusion of SUM in CONE,
    12 is the inclusion of an anagram of LOTS (mill about) in JE – fringes of JamboreE
    17 is a charade of various bits DR (doctor) + EG (say) + S (close to bottles)
    26 is an anagram of PLACE and CRETE
    4D is an anagram of TIMES around D and W (capitals of Delaware and Washington)

    of the ones that are left
    14 is an anagram using two parts of the clue
    28 is an anagram inside two letters you have to work out
    9D is an anagram indicated by haphazardly
    27 is hidden
    10A, 3D, are double definitions
    and then the rest are a mixture of charades (adding bits together)

    And trying to explain this I can see why others found this not the most straightforward Quiptic.

    Thank you to Chandler and Oriel.

20. Delighted to have Samosa’d this !

21. Shanne@19 ,if you’re still about
    14: one part of the anagram is A for American
    28: British and Yard can be represented by B & Y
    9d:The clue has tomake sense, so it is the 13 letters before haphazardly are going to be the ones you want. The rest is the definition. This is a simple anagram, no adding or subtracting letters;
    27: Hidden and reversed, comeback
    10a: Yes both are slang
    3d: Yes again, Look up swagger in a Theasaurus. I am sure it will jump out at you.
    If you manage those then you will have more crossers to help

22. Nicbach @21 – I solved this OK and, unlike others, faster than the Cryptic. I don’t give times as it’s depressing when you’re learning to see how fast others solve these.

    I was trying to answer Steffen @14, who has been trying to learn cryptic crosswords with the weekly Quiptic. And finding when I was trying to explain, this wasn’t straightforward. I’ve been spending most tube journeys recently teaching my daughter, mostly using the FT crossword, and knowing how hard she finds this, here noticing how few clear anagrams there were.

23. Well, @Steve69 please tell me too why fish are school members? Is this a British thing?

24. @expelliarmus16, school is a collective noun for fish.

    I also struggled with the top half, with several unusual words. I got there with help from an experienced friend, though. We got everything without the blog.

    Thanks, everyone.

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