[New comment layout] - details here
Anto sets for both the Quiptic and the Guardian Cryptic, and I’m yet to be convinced that he makes an effort to offer the editor clearly defined puzzles for each genre.
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 Finished following fine trip
ALL OVER
Anto has a habit of using this construction, which I haven’t noticed any other setters adopting. It’s almost a back-to-front clue: if you add F for ‘fine’ to the solution, you get FALL OVER, which means ‘trip’. I am not madly in love with this device.
5 Guide for riverside in Italy
POINTER
A charade of PO, the river, and INTER, the Italian football side (more fully, Inter Milan). You have to do what some folk call a ‘lift-and-separate’ manoeuvre on ‘riverside’, to turn it into ‘river side’.
9 Become defensive when told to start eating …
DIG IN
A dd.
10 … a biscuit red head produced
GINGER NUT
A charade of GINGER and NUT. The ellipses between the two clues can, as almost always, be ignored. They are just there to make a bit more sense of the surface readings.
11 Irate chum suffering with stiff joints
RHEUMATIC
(IRATE CHUM)* with ‘suffering’ as the anagrind.
12 Authoritative ruling from soccer body that wants active leaders
FATWA
A charade of FA for Football Association and TWA, the initial letters of ‘that’, ‘wants’ and ‘active’.
13 Cutting head of weed off when growing
AXING
[W]AXING
15 Embittered expert judged to have stolen book
ACERBATED
A charade of ACE and B inserted into RATED. The insertion indicator is ‘to have stolen’. A slightly unusual word, although I suppose ACERBIC will be known to most.
18 Dried rose cooked as an addition to main course
SIDE ORDER
(DRIED ROSE)* with ‘cooked’ as the anagrind.
19 Odds, oddly, may be this!
EVENS
A play on words clue.
21 Nomads use trails central for these tribes people
MASAI
A charade of the central letters of noMAds, uSe and trAIls.
23 Oxford museum compiled article on tree growth
ASHMOLEAN
A charade of ASH, MOLE and AN.
25 Exercise expected to captivate eager teacher
PEDAGOGUE
A charade of PE and an insertion of AGOG in DUE. The insertion indicator is ‘to captivate’.
26 Pursue game that’s hiding quietly
DOGGO
A charade of DOG and GO, the board game.
27 Abandoned pipe not mine
OPEN PIT
(PIPE NOT)* with ‘abandoned’ as the anagrind.
28 Beat chap — it’s not the main issue
TANGENT
A charade of TAN and GENT.
Down
1 Country road ran randomly
ANDORRA
(ROAD RAN)* with ‘randomly’ as the anagrind.
2 Drop back to keep seat warm?
LAG BEHIND
A cd.
3 Upsetting part of sermon evoked rancour
VENOM
Hidden reversed in serMON EVoked.
4 Proper worker, a man indispensable to the boss
RIGHT-HAND
A charade of RIGHT and HAND.
5 Criticise extremely idiotic hysteria
PANIC
A charade of PAN and IC for the outside letters of ‘idiotic’.
6 Popular oath can be impossible to say
INEFFABLE
A charade of IN, EFF (as in effing and blinding) and ABLE.
7 Conviction for injecting double energy into high explosive
TENET
A double insertion of E in TNT. The insertion indicator is ‘injecting’.
8 Win support for essential truth from small part of England
RUTLAND
A charade of [T]RUT]H and LAND. England’s smallest county. Multum in Parvo.
14 Division in band that’s getting older
GROWING UP
An insertion of WING in GROUP. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
16 Alternative theatre is most indecent
EARTHIEST
(THEATRE IS)* with ‘alternative’ as the anagrind.
17 Dog at sea enabled Darwin to develop his evolutionary theory
THE BEAGLE
A barely cryptic definition. HMS BEAGLE was the ship on which Charles Darwin sailed to observe and collect samples which led to his theory of natural selection, expounded in his book On the Origin of Species.
18 Player needing second income source when promise broken
SEMI-PRO
(PROMISE)* with ‘broken’ as the anagrind.
20 Occasionally stern solicitor dispatched
SENT OUT
A charade of S[T]E[R]N and TOUT.
22 Small border plant
SEDGE
A charade of S and EDGE.
23 Specialist language used to describe advance in painting?
ARGOT
An insertion of GO in ART. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
24 Historical centre of holy study
OLDEN
A charade of hOLy and DEN.
Many thanks to Anto for this week’s Quiptic.
ASHMOLEAN & RUTLAND were a hard ask for us Antipodeans. Not into Italian football either. Still don’t get LAG BEHIND.
Chuckled at INEFFABLE.
@Geoff #1: If you drop back you lag behind, like a laggard.
If you insulate a pipe you lag it, so fancifully if you lag (insulate) your behind (buttocks) then your seat (buttocks) would be kept warm.
Thanks Chris, I was blissfully unaware of the second meaning.
I enjoyed that. Realised I did not know the meaning of INEFFABLE – although I worked it out and like GDU @ 1 it made me laugh.
Also liked PEDAGOGUE, ASHMOLEAN, POINTER
Thanks Anto and Pierre
Thought it was a bit kinder than other Anto toughies, but also had a prob with Ashmolean – knew the museum, so got clue, but don’t understand – the mole for compile .
Quite tough for a Quiptic/beginner puzzle but very enjoyable. Pierre, I think it is up to the editor to choose what goes into the Quiptic slot so I do not blame Anto in this case.
I could not parse 19ac or LAG in 2d – thanks Chris@2 for explaining this.
New for me: ACERBATED.
Favourite: INEFFABLE.
Thanks, both.
Getting there@5
for 23ac it is AN (article) on/added to ASH (tree), MOLE (growth)
Getting there @5. The MOLE is the growth. I should know, I’m covered in them…
I had AGING (= growing), and assumed there was some weed I couldn’t think of that needed its first letter removed. If the intention is that head of weed = W, which then needs to be taken off waxing (= growing), then I think this is an incredibly clumsy clue. And not the only one (ALL OVER, THE BEAGLE). On the other hand, I liked ASHMOLEAN, OPEN PIT, GROWING UP. I can’t say anything about INEFFABLE, though (lovely word though it is). Thanks, Anto and Pierre.
Very gentle for an Anto if a touch trickier than the ideal quiptic, with the very Anto-esque reverse logic in ALL OVER and the lift & separate in POINTER.
I liked SEMI-PRO, OLDEN, INEFFABLE (a word I learnt from Good Omens!) and ARGOT.
Thanks both.
Entertaining puzzle with several characteristic Antoisms: ALL OVER (nice surface, though) and AXING have already been noted, but in the clue for INEFFABLE ‘can be’ is verbal but ‘able’ is adjectival.
Many good clues: OPEN PIT and EARTHIEST are neat. POINTER has a clever deception, apart from the lift-and-separate, in that both parts of the charade are Italian (Pierre: the full name of the football team is Internazionale Milano, but in Italy it is always shortened to Internazionale, or more commonly just Inter, never with the ‘Milan’ though this is a common mistake by English speakers).
Thanks to S&B
Gervase @11 ‘abel’ can also be verbal – honestly – it’s in Chambers!
I thought this was a lot closer to the Quiptic brief than Anto sometimes is
Cheers P&A
Able. Obviously 🙂 Some sort of biblical autocorrect maybe
[The other top level Milanese team is AC Milan, so named because it was founded by English expats, although during the Fascist period it was forced to call itself AC Milano, with the standard Italian name of the city. In fact, as it happens, in Lombard dialect the name is actually Milan – pronounced as in French]
bodycheetah @12: I don’t able understand how! 🙂
I thought this was a great Quiptic and one of Anto’s more accessible offerings. Struggled a bit to parse 1A but otherwise thought these were pretty fair and entertaining clues that went in quite quickly – maybe I was just on his wavelength today!
This is the first time since I was a child that I’ve seen the word ineffable. it’s in the hymn O worship the King. I haven’t been to church since I left school but this lovely word has always been stuck in my head.
O measureless might, ineffable love…
I completed this in a swift Quiptic time, as a spectacular thunderstorm rumbled directly overhead last night, so didn’t havd a problem with this puzzle appearing in the Quiptic slot.
I found it Anto at his most accessible – but I too knew INEFFABLE from hymns and it was a word I was pleased to see.
Thank you to Anto and Pierre.
I have nothing to say about this that hasn’t been said; the [w]AXING and [f]ALL OVER device is not only annoying, but also written in a way that seems to suggest you do the opposite of what’s required. It’s that aspect of it that made me try AGING instead of AXING, and I see I’m not the only one. The old saying in this business is that you don’t have to mean what you say, but you must say what you mean, and he doesn’t.
After a long and frustrating tussle with today’s Cryptic, this was just what I needed! Thanks to Anto and Pierre
I agree with Bonnylass: I normally do the Cryptic first on a Monday, then turn to the Quiptic for light relief – but today’s Cryptic is an absolute barsteward, so after wrestling with it for an age I tried the Quiptic to cheer myself up. And it did.
I grinned at LAG BEHIND & INEFFABLE (a lovely word) & liked TENET.
I really wasn’t bothered by the devices used in ALL OVER & AXING.
Thank you Pierre for the blog, and Anto for the fun
I’m still stuck on CAN and ABLE in 8dn. I don’t have access to the One True Chambers at the moment, so I can’t see what bodycheetah @12 is referring to. The online Chambers doesn’t have anything to support an equivalence between these two words, and I can’t find anything in the other dictionaries I have access too. Some sources do suggest that “able” could be a verb, but even then, it’s a standalone verb, not an auxiliary verb like “can”. That is, I can’t find anything that suggest you can say “I able solve this puzzle” (to be the equivalent to “I can solve …”), and I’m very skeptical about the possibility.
15a – where does ‘B’ come from?
Brutally difficult.
Some argue that Anto uses devices that other setters don’t, and this is annoying or sloppy. I say that it shows originality, and is to be commended. I had trouble parsing a few including 1a ALL OVER, but on reading Pierre’s excellent blog I realized that the fault was mine, and the clues were fine.
I enjoyed this well-pitched Quiptic, so thanks Anto and Pierre for the diversion.
Steffen @23 – B is from “book” Judged (RATED), to have stolen (“taken in”) book (B).
When Anto first appeared as a quiptic setter, I found his puzzles much more difficult than those from other setters. Recently, like today’s, I felt it fitted the bill exactly right. Is he getting easier or am I getting more on his wavelength? Anyway, thanks Anto for the enjoyment today.
I loved the clue for LAG BEHIND!
I found this to be a delight. Only looked at it today, but so many ticks – POINTER, ASHMOLEAN, PEDAGOGUE and my LOI, GROWING UP. Thanks Anto.
Pierre, 21 ac, the answer refers to tribes people not Nomads which is part of the wordplay so the former should be underlined.
Not quite seeing where NUT comes from in 10a? Is there a way nut means “produced”?
I rather enjoyed this Quiptic, and of course the excellent blog and comments. Thanks Anto, Pierre and all.
Check @30 – NUT is slang for head and GINGER NUT or GINGER or common nicknames for red heads, whatever age they are.
Came to Quiptic for a confidence boost after losing my mojo completely on regular Cryptics. What a mistake. Ridiculous. Or perhaps I am losing it.
Eric@33. Hang in there. For some time now there have been comments about the relative difficulties of the Cryptic and Quiptic. It changes almost week to week. I’ve got to the point where I have a quick look at who’s the setter on both, and make a decision based on how I’m feeling that day as to which I’ll tackle first.
(@oakvillereader “Ineffable” is currently doing the rounds as a descriptor of the main characters in the very recent TV adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens, since they have been nicknamed the “ineffable husbands” by it’s legions of fans)
Since I am only now just leaving this clue, taking 8 days to complete it, I’m gonna say this Quiptic was way too hard by quiptic standards.
If nothing else Ashmoleon, Doggo (with this meaning) and Acerbated are all pretty obscure by quiptic standards.
Some nice clues elsewhere. Disagree on The Beagle. I actually really liked that one.