A pleasing Quiptic as always from Hectence, with some delightful surface readings.
A few straightforward anagrams to start the grid fill, then mainly a diet of cleverly constructed charades for the solver to construct. All clearly clued, and with the trademark pangram – in other words, all 26 letters of the alphabet appear somewhere. And I took my own advice of being aware of the possible pangram if you’re stuck on the last few and seeing if there is still a letter to include: this helped me with my LOI, which was BOUQUET when I realised I was missing a letter Q.
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 Starts counting oodles of stars right out by the sea
COASTAL
A charade of C and O for the starts of the first two words of the clue, and AST[R]AL.
5 Ball player injured leg, having run after pitcher
JUGGLER
A charade of JUG, (LEG)* and R. The anagrind is ‘injured’.
9 Following fool’s gold drained light battery
ASSAULT
A charade of ASS, AU and L[IGH]T.
10 Yobbo’s stopped by good old watchman
LOOKOUT
An insertion of OK and O in LOUT. The insertion indicator is ‘stopped by’.
11 As religious leader, taking on bishopric in good faith
SINCERELY
A charade of SINCE, R for the initial letter of ‘religious’ and ELY for the ‘bishopric’. Which makes a change from having it clued as ‘see’.
12 Person with record time’s over 90
EX-CON
A criminal record, of course. An insertion of XC for the Roman numeral ’90’ in EON. The insertion indicator is ‘over’.
13 Succulent plants are routine in the Channel Islands
CACTI
An insertion of ACT in CI. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
15 Stinging insect has boy turning blue — bring in doctor with case of epinephrine
BUMBLE BEE
A charade of B for ‘boy’, MB for ‘doctor’ inserted into (BLUE)* and EE for the outside letters of ‘epinephrine’. The anagrind is ‘turning’ and the insertion indicator is ‘bring in’. Great surface reading.
17 Marlin maybe has tricky task with Nemo initially in aquariums
FISH TANKS
A charade of FISH and (TASK N)* The anagrind is ‘tricky’.
19 Live successfully on old money
DWELL
A charade of D and WELL. D (for denarii) was part of the pre-decimal currency of LSD, which was superseded in 1971, so can certainly be described as ‘old’. My children tell me that paper and coin money generally is for ‘old people’ these days. I’m not convinced.
22 Drink a lot, taking leak behind back of pub
BOOZE
A charade of B for the final letter of ‘pub’ and OOZE.
23 Living at host’s expense is standard when current credit cut
PARASITIC
A charade of PAR, AS, I for the symbol for ‘current’ and TIC[K].
25 Cat runs, hiding in tree bearing biscuit
OATCAKE
An insertion of (CAT)* in OAK followed by E for East or ‘bearing’. The anagrind is ‘runs’ and the insertion indicator is ‘hiding in’.
26 Engagement’s finally broken off, still I left with flowers
BOUQUET
A charade of BOU[T] and QU[I]ET.
27 Replace mid-terrace with home in the country — it’s about money
FINANCE
Hectence is inviting you to replace the R – the middle letter of terRace – in FRANCE with IN for ‘home’.
28 E–genius?
EGGHEAD
It took all the crossers for me to be able to see this. It’s a whimsical dd: E is the first letter of EGG, so ‘egg head’; and it also means ‘genius’. The trick in the first element is seen when setters clue the letter G as ‘Gateshead’ or the letter N as ‘midnight’.
Down
1 Middlemarch, for example, is about young woman in charge
CLASSIC
A charade of C for circa or ‘about’, LASS and IC. George Eliot’s novel is certainly considered a classic of English literature, although I’m afraid it went into my ‘too long and dense’ tray when I was younger and has never emerged from it. So I can’t say whether there’s an element of truth in the surface reading.
2 Toxin scare in building
ARSENIC
(SCARE IN)* with ‘building’ as the angrind.
3 Sharp about-turn’s key for peace
TRUCE
A charade of CURT reversed and E for the musical ‘key’.
4 Animal’s young born in rubbish container
LITTER BIN
A charade of LITTER, B and IN.
5 Extremely happy
JOLLY
A dd. I’m jolly pleased that you’re feeling so jolly today.
6 Crawled up valley beneath small wood
GROVELLED
A charade of GROVE and DELL reversed. The reversal indicator, since it’s a down clue, is ‘up’.
7 Abridged story about male deer briefly raised with a predator’s offspring
LION CUB
A charade of LI[E], ON and BUC[K] reversed. Again, the reversal indicator is ‘raised’.
8 Soldiers can use empty train
RETINUE
A charade of RE for Royal Engineers, TIN and U[S]E.
14 Generally then I cooked with Mum at home
IN THE MAIN
A charade of (THEN I)* MA and IN. The anagrind is ‘cooked’.
16 Blame rise in disorder for melancholy
MISERABLE
(BLAME RISE)* with ‘in disorder’ as the anagrind.
17 Makes feeble excuses when free on board drinks ultimately abandoned
FOBS OFF
A charade of F, OB, S for the final letter of ‘drinks’ and OFF.
18 Decrease working hours, shedding uniform by 10
SHORTEN
A charade of (HO[U]RS)* and TEN. The anagrind is ‘working’. U for ‘uniform’ is from the phonetic alphabet.
20 Gush about husband’s treatment under hospital department
ENTHUSE
A charade of ENT, H and USE.
21 Found cold tea horrible
LOCATED
(COLD TEA)* with ‘horrible’ as the anagrind.
23 Annoy Victor, fencing with modified epee
PEEVE
An insertion of the phonetic alphabet V for ‘Victor’ in (EPEE)* The anagrind is ‘modified’ and the insertion indicator is ‘fencing with’.
24 Goaded by ascendant German fans
STUNG
A reversal (‘ascendant’, since it’s a down clue) of G and NUTS.
Many thanks to Hectence for this week’s Quiptic.
Thank you Pierre. Agree. delightful surface readings. Not sure about 16. MISERABLE Is the def ‘for melancholy’?
MISERABLE
‘melancholy’ (as an adjective) seems all right as the def (as underlined in the blog).
17FOBS OFF unparsed. Didn’t know F for free and OB for on board. I could have looked it up, I suppose, but don’t have Chambers.
Although it was pretty clear from def and enumeration, BUMBLE BEE was clever, with the extra pointer epinephrine
Oh, KVa @2, so obvious when you point it out. An adjective.
Thanks Hectence and Pierre
I took as long to get my last two, STUNG and EGGHEAD, as to do the rest of the puzzle.
I spent some time trying to justify DWELL as “do well” with the O removed, before seeing the correct parsing.
Delightful with lots of ticks Pierre don’t you mean ‘G’ for midnight?
Ta both.
paddymelon@3: I’ve not seen F on its own as an abbreviation for Free, but Free on Board (abbreviated to FOB) is a business term relating to transfer of title to goods being bought/sold.
Good puzzle, though I didn’t like ‘runs’ as an anagrind in OATCAKE.
Thanks Hectence/Pierre.
I do, Alan C. Blog amended.
Ah, thanks beaulieu@7 for FOB. A TILT.
beaulieu@7: of course, it’s fob as free on board as the abbreviation. Did know that expression and should have spotted it. Thank you.
17d was my only unparsed — not familiar with FOB for “free on board”. All else parsed beautifully. Favourites were FINANCE & BOUQUET for their lovely surfaces. Thanks Hectence & Pierre.
16d -melancholy as adjective – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8y4iMtHov0
Thanks, Hectence and Pierre. Super puzzle, very enjoyable, and a lovely blog to go with it.
Middlemarch is one of my all-time favourite books. It does take a bit of getting into but really is worth the effort. And yes, the clue does reflect the story – Dorothea Brooke is one of the great literary heroines – so 1d was easily my favourite clue today.
Count me as another admirer of the surfaces here. Thanks,both.
Excellent crossword. On the tough side for a Quiptic but enjoyable nevertheless.
Perfect! Precisely timed to a diner breakfast!
Thanks Hectence and Pierre! I was coming over to say how smooth many of the surfaces were and found it was the first thing Pierre mentioned!
[I second Widdersbel’s endorsement of Middlemarch. It is dauntingly long, but it’s worth it. I read it during a time when I had a long daily commute by train.]
And I second his remark abut it being dauntingly hard to get into. It took me three tries, but I now think it THE great 19th-century English novel.
Tough but enjoyable.
Thanks, both.
I’m not sure I am a good judge of these things, but OMG how is this a “quiptic”?!
[Another one here to endorse the genius of Middlemarch. All the characters are complex, as people are in real life, but some of them are also hilarious caricatures (notably the girls’ uncle). The intertwining plots are genius. And it contains one of my all-time favourite pieces of advice: ‘Of all forms of mistake, prophecy is the most gratuitous’.]
Great crossword as well, btw. So satisfying as each element in a charade unfolded to reveal the whole.
Steffen@21: We had at least one easier Cryptic this week, so I think your comment is justified. I enjoted it, but I was in no particular hurry.
@Steffen: This is a Quiptic because I completed it – mostly within an hour. If it hadn’t have been I wouldn’t have. Difficulty-wise on a par with an Everyman or Monday cryptic. If I ever complete a Guardian midweek crossword I am very chuffed although the comments usually say how noddy it was.
Great stuff. Many thanks to Hectence and Pierre.
Utterly defeated. Impenetrable and Pauline in its difficulty. Not sure I’m up to this quiptic malarkey, let alone cryptic.
Took me a couple of days, but got there in the end. Plenty of delightful surfaces. EGGHEAD was the only one I didn’t parse.
I have to raise an objection to MISERABLE because that means melancholic not melancholy, so I was struggling to find a synonym.
Didn’t get EGGHEAD at all