Good morning everyone. It’s the start of a new week, and a new adventure for me covering the Quiptic grid.
And what a lovely grid it is! Pasquale can sometimes be a bit of a handful, so it’s a pleasure to solve one of their crosswords in the slightly more forgiving environs of the Quiptic.
There’s plenty of meat for anagram fans to get their teeth into, with quite a few of the down clues featuring a mash-up. I think my favourite of all the offerings was the opener at 9a: a lovely mix of three alternative words, with the option of guessing it from the down crossers if needed.
Thanks to Pasquale for the puzzle.
Surface definitions are underlined.
ACROSS
9. Religious leader always given a duty – gosh! (9)
AYATOLLAH
Always [AY] given a duty [A TOLL] – gosh [AH]
10. Some controller seen as a monster? (5)
TROLL
Hidden word clue indicated by “some”: controller
11. Bad king, the man with symbol of punishment (5)
HEROD
The man [HE] with symbol of punishment [ROD]
The rod in this case as something to beat someone with, e.g. “spare the rod and spoil the child”
12. Criticise set of lectures in conversation (9)
DISCOURSE
Criticise [DIS = “Disrespect”] + set of lectures [COURSE]
13. Edits Socialist book (7)
REDACTS
Socialist [RED] book [ACTS]
Acts of the Apostles, usually just known as “Acts”, is the 5th book of the New Testament in the Bible.
14. Waterproof coat found by a mother – something on road? (7)
MACADAM
Waterproof coat [MAC] found by a mother [A DAM]
Macadam is the tar surface used on roads. “Dam” is very frequently used as a word for “mother” by setters. It’s a middle English word which is the source for the modern English “dame”.
17. Stop little woman getting musical instrument (5)
BANJO
Stop [BAN] little woman [JO = “Joanne]
19. Fellow entertained by Londoners (3)
DON
Hidden word clue indicated by “entertained”: Londoners
20. A Russian leader set about religious follower (5)
RASTA
A Russian leader [A TSAR] set about [placed backwards].
Rasta is short for “Rastafarian”
21. Gesture of respect abrupt? Certainly back to front! (7)
CURTSEY
Abrupt [CURT] Certainly back to front [YES backwards]
22. Star can work (7)
CANOPUS
CAN + OPUS
Opus is used in music to describe a single or body of musical compositions. Wikipedia tells me Canopus is a star in the Carina constellation
24. Persist if flying planes in war (9)
SPITFIRES
Anagram of PERSIST IF indicated by “flying”
26. Fifty songs in places of hiding (5)
LAIRS
Fifty [Roman numeral = L] + songs [AIRS]
28. Unsuccessful person is nearer, but not first (5)
LOSER
“Closer” [=NEARER] with first letter removed
29. A nasty boil removed, got rid of (9)
ABOLISHED
A [A] + nasty boil [anag of BOIL] + removed [SHED]
DOWN
1. Club and hotel in city (4)
BATH
Club [BAT] and hotel [H]
2. Bowler perhaps looking hot with bad feeling (6)
HATRED
Bowler perhaps [HAT] + looking hot [RED]
3. Musical guides? They used to be on buses (10)
CONDUCTORS
Double definition: bus conductor and musical conductor for an orchestra
4. British females ignoring one? They are sharp (6)
BLADES
British [B] + females ignoring one [LADIES without “I” (roman numeral for one)]
5. Bishops brought on board? (8)
CHESSMEN
Not quite sure on this one, other than it seems like a straightforward cryptic definition. Maybe I’m overthinking this!
6. German boy unaffected by upset (4)
OTTO
Otto a very common German male name. “Unnaffected by upset” is an indicator for a palindrome (word that reads the same way forwards/backwards)
7. Colleagues do scream excitedly (8)
COMRADES
Anagram of DO SCREAM indicated by “excitedly”
8. Oxbridge competitor unhappy (4)
BLUE
Double definition. Varsity sports competitors for Oxford or Cambridge universities are known as “Blues”, due to either wearing light blue colours for Cambridge, or dark blue for Oxford.
13. Old instrument to be buried in sports ground (5)
REBEC
To be [BE] buried in [placed inside] sports ground [REC = recreation ground].
A Rebec is a three-stringed, violin-type instrument used in the middle ages.
15. So a girl can play musical instrument! (3,7)
COR ANGLAIS
Anagram of: SO A GIRL CAN, indicated by “play”
16 Off-shore isle’s housing English agency (5)
MEANS
Off-shore isle’s [MANS = Isle of Man] housing English [E placed inside]
18. Most edgy – isn’t ever relaxed (8)
NERVIEST
Anagram of: ISNT EVER, indicated by “relaxed”
19. No night vision? (8)
DAYDREAM
Cryptic clue, usually indicated by the question mark.
22. Star actors going wrong (6)
CASTOR
Anagram of: ACTORS, indicated by “going wrong”.
Our second star of the grid, in this case in the constellation of Gemini.
23. Page gets frivolous in a predicament (6)
PLIGHT
Page [P] + LIGHT [= frivolous]
24. Sailor rested, having crossed lake (4)
SALT
Rested [SAT], having crossed [placed around] lake [L]
25. Money paid for food? (4)
FARE
Double definition of “FARE”
27. Maybe the right team? (4)
SIDE
Double definition of SIDE
Am I going mad? 6D is surely OTTO, crossing with T-ROLL and DISC-O-URSE.
Thanks Pasquale and Leedsclimber
Bit of a glitch in the blog (not the grid) for 6d!
Very good Quiptic. Not happy with 14a, though – the road surface is “tar macadam”, hence “tarmac”.
btw the grids for this and the cryptic are the same. What are the chances of that?
Thank you Leedsclimber for the blog. Does anyone say “ay” for “ever” “these days except in dialect or crosswords? Genuine question.
I believe that the German boy unaffected by upset is the palindrome OTTO.
I knew MACADAM as a road surface down this way. Perhaps this may settle things, at least superficially.?
Thanks pdm. I’ve never heard referred to without the “tar”.
Yes, I think we’ve established that 6d is OTTO.
This was very enjoyable, thanks Pasquale. New to me: MACADAM, CANOPUS & CASTOR.
A few musical instruments, probably not enough to qualify as a theme?
[Why does the English horn have a French name, and the French horn an English one? Just curious.]
[If the English refer to something as “French” it is usually in a derogatory sense (and vice versa!)]
Very nice Quiptic. I imagine that beginners would find it accessible and entertaining, and it certainly hit the spot for this one in a hurry. I am in the TARMACADAM camp, muffin. Is this your first blog, Leedsclimber? Don’t think I have seen you before. Excellent blog in any case (and I shared your shrug at CHESSMEN). Thanks also to Pasquale.
[Muffin@9: As in “capote anglaise”?]
BANJO – The JO is JOsephine March in “little womEn” – [some underlines missing, Leedsclimber]
@muffin You are not going mad (in this respect: I can’t speak for anything else!). The lcue for 6d has been corrected.
My only, very tenuous, defence, is that it was early and I’d had an almost identical clue in a grid I’d done the night before.
Thanks to all those who spotted my faux pas.
Very enjoyable Quiptic, good for beginners.
Favourites: HATRED, ABOLISHED.
New for me: MACADAM, CANOPUS.
Thanks, both.
Thanks for the blog, Leedsclimber. Very clear and readable. You meant “anagram of ACTORS” in 22d, of course.
An enjoyable Quiptic at the right level.
I think the original Macadam was a surface of crushed stone of various sizes, bigger lower down, smaller at the top. If you bind these with tar, you get tarmac(adam). Good Quiptic as usual from Pasquale.
Nice and simple, just like a Q should be. I hoped I’d be the first to point out JO was a Little Woman from the book, but FrankieG beat me to it.
[15dn reminds me of a moment on the old radio programme “My Music”, which I suspect some readers of this blog will remember. It’s a panel quiz show, with two of the panelists being Frank Muir and Dennis Norden, who also appeared in “My Word”. One of the panelists (Muir, I think) was told that his task was to identify the instrument being played in a piece of music. Before hearing the recording, he said, “It’s the cor anglais. It’s always the cor anglais.” And sure enough, so it was.]
Idiotically had 25 as Fork (to ‘fork out money’ was the logic though it obviously doesn’t work), but otherwise had a lot of fun with that. OTTO got me started and CANOPUS was my last (a new one on me.)
Only one I couldn’t parse was AYATOLLAH. Still not sure why always means “AY”.
Excellent Monday puzzle from Brendan with its clever non-theme theme.
I wonder if our Antipodean colleagues are more familiar with CANOPUS – it’s the second brightest star (as seen from Earth) after Sirius but is only visible in the southern hemisphere.
Niall @19: The hymn with words by John Milton paraphrasing Psalm 136 goes:
Let us with a gladsome mind
Praise the Lord, for he is kind,
For his mercies aye endure,
Ever faithful, ever sure
Aye, or AY is an archaic synonym of ‘always’ – replaced by ‘shall’ in some modern versions.
Thanks to Brendan and Leedsclimber (beautifully clear blog)
This was a very fast solve for me–it’s amazing that the Don can pitch his difficulty level so well to get a true Quiptic when he wants one. (Though I admit I was going so fast that I carelessly entered DAYBREAK instead of DAYDREAM, until hitting “check all” at the end put me right.) I’ve only skimmed the other comments–has it been pointed out that our setter put himself in the center of the grid?
Couldn’t parse 16D, 22A or 23D. Struggled with 20A thinking Russian leader was R and religious follower was ST. Had DAYBREAK for 19D and CHAIRMEN for 5D so safe to say I am not on the Don’s wavelength. Have no idea how you get AY from Always.
Exemplary Quiptic, as always. Thanks, Pasquale and Leedsclimber.
Petert @16 – indeed, macadam predates tarmac(adam) by about 100 years.
22. I am in the same boat as you, except you did much better!
I managed the top half (with use of Word Wizard).
I rarely want to weigh in on whether a quiptic is “really a cryptic”, but I found myself shaking my head and asking if this was in the right slot.
Ay for always, knowing the team colours for a couple of random (albeit famous) universities, rebec AND cor anglais? (I could go on…)
I like leaving a crossword feeling like I learnt a new word, but there’s an optimum obscurity ratio in a quiptic, and I think this surpassed it. Obviously, I’m biased here, as one person’s obscurity is another’s well known general knowlege.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
Gervase @20. I knew Canopus, but not necessarily because I’m from down under. My in-laws lived in a suburb of Canberra where all the streets were named after stars. Of course it’s quite possible they were specifically named for southern stars (Antares Cr is another that springs to mind).
Good blog thank you
Surely the shortened form of disrespect is diss not dis?
I thought I was doing well on this as half of it went in really easily, but unfortunately found the other half impossible. No idea how I was meant to get 6d.
Cattedown industrial estate in Plymouth has a road called Macadam Rd. Occupants include the Council’s Highways team.
Suggests that they were either struggling for inspiration during the street naming phase of that project, or they chose an apt name for a predetermined resident.
As others have said, for an American, the “little woman” is obviously a reference to Jo March.
And, as an American, blue was the one answer I just could not get. And we say macadam over here, so that was not a problem.
Gervase @ 20: I know Canopus from the works of Doris Lessing.
@25 Horexio Helgar, I’m with you on the obscurity. I loved the puzzle, especially the links between some of the clues, but I didn’t get either star because I simply hadn’t heard of them. Same with REBEC, but I did know COR ANGLAIS. As a result I found the puzzle hard, but fun and ‘learning’ too.
Thanks to Pasquale and Leedsclimber for the first Quiptic outing.