Thank you to Anto. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1. It’s not unusual to hold a position (7)
STATION : Anagram of(… unusual) IT’S NOT containing(to hold) A.
5. Guardiola attending lecture that’s intentionally encouraging (3,4)
PEP TALK : PEP(Guardiola, currently Manchester City Football Club manager) plus(attending) TALK(an informal lecture)
10. Old English queen full of fever? Not so certain (6)
VAGUER : VR(abbrev. for “Victoria Regina”, once Queen of England) containing(full of) AGUE(a fever).
11. Secret ice store is in pieces (8)
ESOTERIC : Anagram of(… is in pieces) ICE STORE.
Defn: Likely to be understood by only a few with specialised knowledge or interest.
12. Withdraw from dire pub job in the end (3)
EBB : Last letters, respectively, of(… in the end) “dire pub job“.
13. Old city that’s almost perfect (6)
THEBES : Last letter deleted from(almost) “the best”(perfect/the greatest).
Defn: … in ancient Greece, or another in ancient Egypt.
14. Suddenly criticised for being aroused (6,2)
TURNED ON : Double defn: 1st: …/attacked someone verbally; and 2nd: …/caused to be excited.
15. Fear is no longer maintaining resistance (5)
DREAD : DEAD(… and gone/is no longer) containing(maintaining) R(symbol for “electrical resistance” in physics).
16. Work with someone managing to secure zero energy charge (9)
COOPERATE : COP(someone managing/policing? – not sure of this) containing(to secure) O(letter representing 0/zero) + E(symbol for “energy” in physics) + RATE(a charge/fee).
The alternative COPER(someone managing/coping) unfortunately does not work with the rest of the clue.
19. Early Christian duo wrote many songs (4,5)
PAUL SIMON : [PAUL(the Apostle) and SIMON(Magus)](two figures in early Christianity).
Defn: One who …., viz. the American singer-songwriter, once half of the duo, Simon and Garfunkel.
One of the many songs:
21. In central Iraq once, Fahad established a large farm (5)
RANCH : Respective middle letters of(In central) “Iraq once, Fahad“.
24. It might enhance domestic harmony, if iron is hung differently? (4,4)
FENG SHUI : FE(symbol for the chemical element, iron) + anagram of(… differently) IS HUNG.
Defn: Traditional Chinese practice that supposedly uses energy forces to harmonise individuals with their environment, say, home or office.
An example of what not to do and what to do:
26. Stretch on grass — it’s a faster way to work (3,3)
RAT RUN : RUN(to stretch/extend in a particular direction) placed after(on) RAT(to grass/to inform on someone to the authorities).
Defn: A minor road taken by commuters during the rush hour to avoid the congestion on the main roads.
27. Heavies regularly protecting first lady (3)
EVE : 2nd, 4th and 6th letters of(… regularly protecting) “Heavies“.
Defn: The … in the Bible.
28. Landlord with lots on deposit (4,4)
MINE HOST : HOST(lots/a crowd) placed after(on) MINE(a deposit/an accumulation serving as a source).
Defn: A jocular term for the … (or landlady) of a pub.
29. Cover on centre intended to protect pupil (6)
EYELID : LID(a cover over the top of a container) placed after(on) EYE(the centre of a flower, or a storm or hurricane).
30. North African city proving more spicy? (7)
TANGIER : Double defn: 1st: … in Morocco; and 2nd: …/more tangy.
31. Act in accordance with class (7)
PERFORM : PER(in accordance with) + FORM(a class in school).
Down
2. Tutor hurt during school session cut short (7)
TEACHER : ACHE(hurt/pain) contained in(during) “term”(a school session/period in the year when teaching is done) minus its last letter(cut short).
3. Short digital sketch? (9)
THUMBNAIL : Cryptically a short portion of a digit, in this case, a thumb.
Defn: A …/a small image representation of a larger image, often used in this digital age of computers.
4. Trespasser goes climbing, carrying this unpleasant specimen (6)
OGRESS : Hidden in(…, carrying) reversal of(… climbing, in a down clue) “Trespasser goes“.
A Hollywood makeover:
6. Leave priest cavorting outside in selfish activities (3,5)
EGO TRIPS : GO(to leave/depart) contained in(… outside) anagram of (… cavorting) PRIEST.
7. Comforting words available repeatedly in that place (5)
THERE : Word which when repeated/available repeatedly gives “There there”(phrase said to comfort an upset person).
8. Arranged for aggressive young man to accept help (4,3)
LAID OUT : LOUT(an aggressive young man/ruffian) containing(to accept) AID(help/assistance).
9. Engineer boycotted site — it must be settled by criminal (4,2,7)
DEBT TO SOCIETY : Anagram of(Engineer) BOYCOTTED SITE.
Defn: That which is paid/settled by lawbreakers by undergoing punishment.
17. Seriously criticise complaint about food rejected by vegetarians … (5,4)
ROAST BEEF : ROAST(to seriously and severely criticise) + BEEF(a complaint/a grievance).
18. … which gets pulled after chicken dinner (8)
WISHBONE : A forked bone which, after a cooked chicken is eaten, is pulled by two people to see who is entitled to make a wish.
20. Country centrally engaged in crusade (7)
AMERICA : Country, the United States of America in full, abbreviated to the 3 middle letters of(centrally engaged in) “crusade“.
22. Attendant losing time working as messenger (7)
COURIER : “courtier”(an attendant in a royal court) minus(losing) “t”(abbrev. for “time”).
23. Easy task, they say, to find such cheeses (6)
BREEZE : Homophone of(they say, to find such) “bries”(French cheeses).
25. Composer about to enter live performance (5)
GREIG : RE(about/with reference to) contained in(to enter) GIG(a live performance by a musician or group playing popular or jazz music).
Defn: Misspelling of GRIEG(Edvard, Norwegian composer)
Thank you scchua. COOPERATE: Someone managing is a COPER, containing the O for zero
Thanks, scchua. It does seem likely that 25d is a misspelling, as you and many of the commentators on the Guardian site have suggested – but that led me to check, and there is a modern composer. Alastair, who would fit the bill. A bit of a long shot…
Love your illustrations, scchua. And you were very gentle with GRIEG.
Favourites FENG SHUI, DEBT TO SOCIETY and EGO TRIPS for surface, wordplay and def.
I have an EMI CD of Peer Gynt that misspells the name the same way on its spine — so this wasn’t the first time …
Couldn’t parse PEP TALK until I’d looked up who Guardiola is, and I only parsed AMERICA after I came here (d’oh!).
I’d have clued CO-OPERATE as 2-7, but that’s the closest I can come to a quibble. An enjoyable experience, thanks Anto & scchua.
So there is ZW@2. Thanks to Anto, Alastair GREIG’S now more well known.
Paddymelon, re CO-OPERATE, if you parse it by putting an O in COPER, how does the ATE work? I tyink scchua’s explanation is probably correct. Odd clue though — perhaps it’s intentionally or otherwise misleading.
Oops, I withdraw my comment about COOPER with acknowledgment to scchua and GDU@6 for putting me right.
And it would seem a bit of stretch to clue COP as someone managing to secure with secure doing double duty.
Thanks both. Interested to know where the requirement to pull the wishbone after the meal comes from. Never lasted that long in our house (maybe explains why none of the wishes came true) and a quick google check did not help.
Thanks Anto and Scchua.
Wonder how many other people thought they’d been spelling GRIEG wrong all these years too.
A lovely scchua blog in an inimitable scchuaistic style!
Just was reading the blog and the comments (didn’t try the puzzle).
COOPERATE: Maybe there is an error in the clue.
COP Chief of Police, and secure doing double duty?
Wiki: A chief of police (COP) is the title given to an appointed official or an elected one in the chain of command of a police department, particularly in North America.
or
Cambridge Dictionary: UK, informal, to take or hold:
Cop (hold of) that, would you – I can’t carry both myself.
Going to bed now. Look forward to waking up to the solution in the morning, if I get any sleep that is 🙂
It’s only Monday!
I don’t think I have ever spelt GRIEG before, so I didn’t notice. I needed to come here to parse AMERICA, but it was late in the puzzle and I was not trying so hard to justify entry. I suppose COPs manage marches etc., at least, nominally, so I shrugged that off.
I enjoyed this, although all three of the easier Guardian puzzles areon the harder side this week. Any comments from beginners?
Thanks Anto and scchua
Some nice clues. I liked EGO TRIPS and BREEZE.
Edvard Grieg got his surname from a Scottish ancestor (great grandfather?) called Greig.
paddymelon @ 5: I find that very hard to believe, especially after Edvard’s brilliant but arguably overexposed piano concerto featured on the First Night of the Proms on Saturday!
Thanks scchua.
19A PAUL SIMON – Simon Magus appears briefly in Acts; Simon Peter features more prominently.
paddymelon oops, I completely mis-parsed your comment @5!
Mostly harmless, as expected for a Monday. GREIG is an error, I reckon, and 16ac produces COOPERRATE, seemingly.
I did like the neat STATION (though it’s probably not original), MINE HOST and FENG SHUI.
If we can’t have ‘actress’, why do we allow the much more pejorative OGRESS? 🙂
Thanks to S&B
16a. “Work with someone” managing (cope) to secure zero (o) energy charge (rate)?
It’s not long since Anto spelt KEIR as KIER so with this GRIEG/GREIG thing I’m beginning to think it’s some weird (or wierd?) blind spot he has with IE and EI.
Oh, for a crossword editor who actually paid attention…
Pete HA3: well done, I think you’ve finally nailed it. I loved DEBT TO SOCIETY. I really enjoy Anto’s puzzles and this was definitely at a quiptic level.
Ta Anto & scchua.
Enjoyable puzzle.
I could not parse 29ac, 20d.
New for me: RAT RUN.
Thanks, both.
Hadn’t heard MINE HOST to mean a landlord before, though looking it up brought me to a stack exchange where someone calling themselves araucaria contributed, which was funny.
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/457758/shakespeares-macbeth-conduct-me-to-mine-host-mine-host-vs-my-host
Really like THEBES.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
Re GRIEG. As Eric Morecambe would have said about the solution:
“He’s got all the right letters, but not necessarily in the right order”
Thanks Anto, but as is often he way I found this Quiptic quite a bit harder than today’s Cryptic. I put in GREIG without noticing the misspelling, but couldn’t get 28a (MINE HOST) so this was a DNF for me. Vulcan was more straightforward!
Pete HA3@19. I was so looking forward to putting this to bed, but isn’t there is a grammatical mismatch between ‘managing’ and ‘cope’. ?
PH@19 and AC@21, nice try but I don’t think that quite works, as ‘managing’ would give us ‘coping’ not ‘cope’. I think the clue is probably wrong as per Gervase@18.
Can’t believe I missed the USA in crUSAde! Anto does like the middles of words, doesn’t he (see RANCH). This was an odd solve: I had the entire NE/SW axis completed very quickly but the other two quarters stayed blank for ages. As usual with Anto, this is rather tough for a Quiptic, but I liked DEBT TO SOCIETY, THUMBNAIL, BREEZE (ouch!) and PAUL SIMON, though I think the intended SIMON is Simon Peter rather than Simon Magus.
Just got back from Italy, so I had 31a as CONFORM from ‘with’ class. Works so well with ‘ act in accordance’ I never reconsidered.
paddymelon and MattS, you’re right. I’ve probably seen too many US crosswords as I’d likely use “I’m coping” and “I cope” interchangeably, even though they’re not quite the same.
No one’s even mentioned Simon Zealotes,
who is more likely than Simon Magus but less likely than Simon Peter (who after all is usually just called Peter).
The errors in COOPERATE and GREIG bugged me, as did the double duty required of “lecture” in PEP TALK. I had never heard of a RAT RUN, so I cheated on that one.
Andyppp@29: yes I had CONFORM at first.
Andyppp@39, Gladys@32: I had CONFORM as well (thinking chili con queso). I was expecting 23d ending with O to be some cheese I hadn’t heard of, possibly homophonous with an -er expression for something easy. The check function set me right eventually. RAT RUN also new to me so I was having a bit of trouble in the SE.
With “GREIG” I thought, “I’m not sure how that’s spelled… oh only one spelling works with the wordplay” so it’s a case of he who hesitates isn’t lost this time! COOPERATE seems like it must be intended as a loose definition of COP to me.
There’s an reasonably well known Scottish poet called Andrew GREIG
It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve seen this composer misdirection
Cheers S&A
Strictly speaking, “AMERICA” is not a country; it’s a pair of continents. The “usa” in the clue refers (correctly) to the “United States of America”.
In our family, the wishbone was dried for a few days before pulling. Even then, I usually managed to get the bigger part by pulling faster and harder.
Ta to all.
For once a quiptic from Anto which fits the bill perfectly, so thanks for that.
Re the spelling of Grieg/Greig, there is/was a school of thought in Norway that Norge (Norway in Norwegian) should be spelled Noreg, and some stamps were issued with that spelling. Perhaps they’re doing the same with Edvard.
The quiptic was fun, quiptics generally are, but I just wanted to say how brilliant today’s blog was. I mean, the blogs are all good and informative and helpful – but all those extra bits today were magic, scchua! Especially the Paul Simon clip, which I’ve gone back to several times during the day.
Thank you very much. And thanks of course to Anto for the preceding entertainment.
Found this pretty complicated for a quiptic, but managed to mostly complete it.
I thought that the ordering of the clue for 23d was the wrong way around – it heavily implies that the answer to put in the grid is BRIES, not BREEZE. Obviously the number of letters gave it away but I think this is incorrect.
The “they say” after easy task suggests this is the homophone, and “to find such cheeses” also suggests that “such cheeses” is the answer.
Hello. Long time listener, first time caller here. Isn’t the COP in COOPERATE managing as in “to cop a feel”? Wish I could think of a more innocent example, but that’s the only one that comes to mind.
Finally finished this, with a bit of help. Quiptic it ain’t.
Simon Peter not only appears more prominently in the Bible than the minor heretic Simon Magus, but “Peter and Paul” are frequently conjoined as a duo in Christian practice.
This is my thoughts on COOPERATE
Someone who is managing can be said to COPE, if they secure zero energy we get C-O-OPE (Zero = 0 = O secured in COPE). Charge =RATE so altogether