All the right notes, all in the right order, simple time signature, no accidentals, and marked throughout as semplicemente. If it were a musical score, that’s how I would describe it; but it’s a crossword, so I’ll just say that in my opinion it hit the spot perfectly for a Quiptic.
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 Belt for clothes
CLOBBER
A dd.
5 The splits demonstrated by little school miss dancing
SCHISMS
A charade of SCH and (MISS)* with ‘dancing’ as the anagrind.
9 One foreign friend or another with energy
AMIGO
The first ‘foreign friend’ is a French one – AMI – and adding GO to that gives us another, Spanish one.
10 Beef Santa cooked for substantial meal
BEANFEAST
(BEEF SANTA)* with ‘cooked’ as the anagrind.
11 Environmentalist coming to land gets signal to go
GREEN LIGHT
A charade of GREEN and LIGHT.
12 Asian caught in that hailstorm
THAI
Hidden in thaT HAIlstorm.
14 Realistic, i.e. not up in the air
DOWN-TO-EARTH
A dd cum cd.
18 African lion disturbed an American
CALIFORNIAN
(AFRICAN LION)* with ‘disturbed’ as the anagrind.
21 Lord with a bit of wisdom, not quiet?
EARL
[P]EARL. The P is for musically ‘quiet’ and Pasquale is referring to the phrase ‘a pearl of wisdom’.
22 Fellow with a beagle, surprisingly well-behaved?
MANAGEABLE
A charade of MAN and (A BEAGLE)* with ‘surprisingly’ as the anagrind.
25 Try to agree in international game
TEST MATCH
A charade of TEST and MATCH.
26 One daughter with a house somewhere in the USA
IDAHO
A charade of I, D, A and HO.
27 Doctor had met death at sea maybe
DROWNED
A charade of DR and OWNED.
28 Some in a circle maybe getting qualifications
DEGREES
A dd.
Down
1 Alter money coming back?
CHANGE
Another dd. An increasingly rare phrase in shops these days: ‘Here’s your change, sir.’
2 Boy with nothing wanting a bit of meat?
OLIVER
A charade of O and LIVER. And of course Dickens’ Oliver did ask for more, so it’s a cad.
3 Like toast not fit for consumption making one fed up
BROWNED OFF
A charade of BROWNED and OFF.
4 Some Arab bigwig and a prominent Jew?
RABBI
Hidden in ARAB BIgwig.
5 Food on toast? Get this and pa will be excited
SPAGHETTI
(GET THIS PA)* with ‘will be excited’ as the anagrind.
6 Bit of a temper shown by husband meeting superior pair of females
HUFF
A charade of H, U and FF. U for ‘superior’ or ‘posh’ is almost exclusively reserved for crosswords these days, so a good one to tuck away for future reference if you are seeing this for the first time. Blame the Mitfords.
7 Attractive folk who are destructive?
SMASHERS
A dd.
8 It’s awful, getting drunk – don’t move
SIT TIGHT
A charade of (ITS)* and TIGHT. The anagrind is ‘awful’.
13 Yours truly in danger, stupidly going off course
MEANDERING
A charade of ME and (IN DANGER)* with ‘stupidly’ as the anagrind.
15 Justified military action – spoke violently
WARRANTED
A charade of WAR and RANTED.
16 What some French characters are – stressed
ACCENTED
A dd. The first definition is referring to the acute, grave and circumflex accents found over some French vowels.
17 A learner painting outdoors
ALFRESCO
A charade of A, L and FRESCO.
19 A bishop with extraordinary zeal, on fire
ABLAZE
A charade of A, B and (ZEAL)* with ‘extraordinary’ as the anagrind.
20 Devils protected by rude monsters
DEMONS
Hidden in ruDE MONSters.
23 A quietly concealed garden pest
APHID
A charade of A, P for musically ‘quiet’ and HID.
24 Article by fellows getting the last word
AMEN
A charade of A and MEN, and the last word from me this morning. Thank you to Pasquale for this week’s puzzle.
Pretty much a write-in, as a Quiptic should be, and no Pasqualy obscure words. All that was missing was a bird!
Very enjoyable. Excellent Quiptic – a perfect puzzle for beginners.
There was a wonderful comment on the Guardian blog:
“Great Quiptic. Please don’t complain it was too easy. It’s meant to be that way.”
Favourites: AMIGO, OLIVER (loi).
Thanks, both.
Thanks Pasquale and Pierre
Very nice Quiptic – easy, but fun. I love an unexpected anagram, so CALIFORNIAN was favourite.
6d reminded me of this from the Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup
You can leave in a taxi. If you can’t get a taxi, you can leave in a huff. If that’s too soon, you can leave in a minute and a huff.
🙂
A well-categorised quiptic, done in about ten minutes, but nevertheless very enjoyable. It’s rare that I don’t have at least one or two in a “Huh?” list. I haven’t heard of a beanfeast or smashers for attractive folk.
Thanks Pasquale & Pierre.
A fine example of the Quiptic, I thought. The only unknown to me – BEANFEAST – was an unambiguous anagram, and everything else slipped down nicely.
Thanks Pasquale & Pierre.
Collins tells me that beanfeast is British slang, which would explain why I’d never heard of it.
A real Ronseal Quiptic.
Normal Monday service is resumed – very straightforward but perfectly formed puzzle to start the week.
EARL was the only clue that took me a moment or two to parse. Favourites: WARRANTED and DROWNED, for the L&S between the surface and the wordplay.
ALFRESCO (‘in the cool’) is one of those foreign phrases like cul-de-sac and double entendre which are not used by native speakers – Italians would say ‘all’aperto’ (in the open).
Tinned SPAGHETTI on toast was commonplace in the UK in the 50s and 60s, but is it still as familiar in these more sophisticated times? Unlike baked beans on toast (bruschetta ai fagioli 🙂 ) which remain popular.
Thanks to S&B
Gervase@9
ALFRESCO
Thanks for the enlightenment!
I thought was a great Quiptic and hope it helps those learning to do cryptic crosswords.
Thank you to Pasquale and Pierre.
Gervase @9 – tinned spaghetti hoops in tomato sauce exist. I don’t know if they’re still eaten on toast (gluten free offspring), but they’re found on the supermarket shelves next to baked beans.
As someone who rarely completes a quiptic without a bit of help this was a rare 100% success in under 30 minutes
Very enjoyable
BROWNED OFF is an expression I haven’t seen recently – in these more permissive times it’s usually upgraded to something a bit more forceful!
Liked the African lion. Pasquale knows how to turn the tough-ometer up or down as required, and this is a perfect Quiptic.
A very pleasing quiptic for me, a beginner. I struggled with “SMASHERS” and didn’t see “DEMONS” for some reason.
I didn’t get the P in [P]EARL but got the answer through the crossers.
I wasn’t sure about “GREENLIGHT”, I get that “GREEN” is a synonym for environmental but is “LIGHT” a synonym for “coming in to land”? I’ve heard of alight, as in please alight here for the British Museum but not “light”.
TheUrgentBaboon@15
(to) land (mostly used in the context of birds)=to LIGHT/LIGHT.
The ‘coming to’ are link words, I assume.
GREEN coming to LIGHT (like GREEN joining LIGHT).
light and lit (landed) are used now and then in cryptic puzzles.
Spot on for a quiptic.
Gervase@9. First time I came across tinned spag on toast was tea at a schoolfriend’s house. Probably 1970. They were adventurous eaters!
Thanks P & P.
Basically, a perfect Quiptic, with one little quibblette.
In 20 down, I don’t think “protected by” is the best phrase to indicate “hidden in”. Isn’t it the case that in the given clue, DEMONS are protected by “ru … ters”?
Other than that, wonderful!
What a great quiptic, a nice solve with my coffee.
That was a lovely Quiptic that lived up to its name. Favourite clues were EARL, WARRANTED and DROWNED. It was a nice, quick one even considering the amount of whiskey (with an e) that I consumed last night.
Gervase@9 tinned spaghetti on toast was a staple during my childhood in the 70s. I still buy the odd can of spaghetti hoops now if I need a quick lunch for any reason.
My 2nd ever finish. Took me hours but I’m still a beginner.
I guessed beanfeast from the wordplay but I’d never heard of it before so that was my only Google. Struggled with 3d since I’m not familiar with the expression, and isn’t edible toast still brown?
Cheers Pasquale and Pierre.
Shaun@21
BROWNED OFF
Like toast=BROWNED (yes. edible toast is brown), not fit for consumption=OFF (as in gone OFF).
@21 Shaun – congratulations. Very satisfying to get a completion when you’re starting out. Your perseverance paid dividends.
Wow! I flew that. Fastest I’ve ever done a Quiptic by a couple of mins. None of which is a complaint or challenge to setters to make them harder. By comparison, last week’s took 3-4times as long.
Wasn’t sure about DROWNED or AMIGO as couldn’t parse them at the timee but they had to be with the letters given. SMASHERS also uncertain – and quite possible something else might fit those checkers. While you might say “I think he/she is smashing”, I’m not sure I’ve heard smashers applied – so a bit hit and hope when I checked the answers.
Nice to have a straightforward solve
Congratulations to Shaun @21 🙂
and well done, Dodgygary @13
I agree that this was toward the easy end for a Quiptic, but none the worse for that. I typically go through all of the clues in a puzzle in order for my first pass. I think this is the first time ever that the puzzle was done when I’d finished that. Is that what people mean when they call a puzzle a write-in? If so, this was my first one, after doing this for quite a long time.
On the British food front, I didn’t know that anyone ate spaghetti on toast. I had heard of a beanfeast, although I would probably have guessed that it was spelled as two words. It’s among the things that Veruca Salt pesters her father for in Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the Gene Wilder film — which is as far as I know the only version called that, as opposed to “Charlie and the …”)
I expect it’s been done before but the clue for 2d OLIVER is still brilliant. Given the current situation I also liked having the Arab and the Jew in the same clue (4d).
Thanks Pasquale for the well-pitched Quiptic and Pierre for the equally well-pitched blog.
An enjoyable crossword. Lots of good clues showing it does not have to be mind-numbingly difficult to be enjoyable. I am a sucker for a good anagram so CALIFORNIAN gets my vote as favourite. Thanks Pasquale and Pierre.
It was beautiful. Congratulations Shaun@21 and Steffen I hope you are trying this one. Thanks Pasquale and Pierre.
No cheats and no checks. That’s not common for me!
Another finish for me in a Quiptic that seemed just that. I was worried at first when I failed to get anything in the NW corner but then I moved to the SW, ACCENTED happened to click for me right away and things fell into place from there.
Last couple were DEMONS which I struggled with for ages, for some reason not considering the possibility of a hidden, followed by SIT TIGHT which I just couldn’t think of until I considered a G might fit before the H.
Not heard of BEAN FEAST, LIGHT for land or TIGHT for drunk. Favourites were MANAGEABLE and BROWNED OFF.
Thanks Pasquale and Pierre
As others have mentioned, pretty much a write-in. After several weeks of flubbing everything, though, I’ll take it!
I know everyone has moved on…but can I just say that canned spaghetti on toast sounds absolutely revolting?
[I can’t disagree with mrpenney@33. If, as I assume, the canned spaghetti hoops are the same as the product we call Spaghetti-Os in the US, then it’s almost more like a tomato soup with pasta in it — there’s lots of sauce, and it’s fairly liquid, or at least that’s my recollection from many years ago. Eating that on toast doesn’t sound quite as strange as my initial impression when I read the phrase “spaghetti on toast” yesterday.]
Ted @34 you’re right – spaghetti on toast uses those cans of spaghetti rings in tomato sauce on toast.
I’m late to the party since I had Presidents Day off but had to chime in. When I saw spaghetti on toast, I knew it had to be slang for something because…surely not. I’m not sure knowing that it was a Spaghetti-Os type concoction makes it better or worse. I loved Spaghetti-Os as a child but now the thought of them makes me a little urpy!
Perfect quiptic. Thanks Pasquale and Pierre. Indeed thanks to all guardian crossword bloggers, this site is invaluable as I (very slowly) improve my cryptic crossword skills.
Apologies to Pierre:
Topic: Shanne’s Zoom Meeting
Time: Feb 21, 2024 06:00 PM London
Meeting ID: 711 1518 3560
Absolutely loved that, could do it all in a single sweep! Hurray! It’s a great feeling. Thanks pasquale and Pierre.
Definitely did hit the mark for a quiptic. My best performance so far on a Guardian quiptic. Practice makes perfect.
Lovely! Thanks, both.