Guardian Quiptic 1266 Carpathian

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Thank you to Carpathian. Definitions are underlined in the clues.

Across

9. Old private moving around Europe working (9)

OPERATIVE : O(abbrev. for “old”) + anagram of(… moving) PRIVATE containing(around) E(abbrev. for “Europe”).

10. Nimble girls regularly taken in by date (5)

AGILE : 2nd and 4th letters of(… regularly) “girls” contained in(taken in by) AGE(to date/to determine how old something is).

11. Sailor achieves goals (7)

TARGETS : TAR(informal term for a sailor) + GETS(achieves/succeeds in obtaining).

12. Entrails served by pubs on both sides of a road (7)

INNARDS : INNS(pubs/watering holes) containing(on both sides of) [A + RD(abbrev. for “road”) ].

13. Passive joiner tweaking cases (5)

INERT : Hidden in(… cases) “joiner tweaking“.

14. Writing about tense traitor getting laid low (9)

PROSTRATE : PROSE(ordinary writing, as distinct from poetry) containing(about) [ T(abbrev. for “tense”, in grammar) + RAT(traitor/betrayer) ].

16. Ingenuous doctor autopsied snitch (15)

UNSOPHISTICATED : Anagram of(doctor) AUTOPSIED SNITCH.

19. Something that removes old farm vehicle (9)

EXTRACTOR : EX-(prefix signifying “old”/former) + TRACTOR(a farm vehicle).

21. Mother and child meeting builder (5)

MASON : MA(familiar form of address for one’s mother) plus(and) SON(a form of address by an older person for a boy/child).

22. Funds seat of government? (7)

CAPITAL : Double defn: Money and other assets owned; and 2nd: City or town serving as ….

23. Worry about horse causing bloodshed (7)

CARNAGE : CARE(worry/concern) containing(about) NAG(an old or sickly horse).

24. Abandons doctor before operations (5)

DROPS : DR(abbrev. for “Doctor”) plus(before) OPS(abbrev. for “operations”).

25. Story of inhabitant crossing a river repeatedly (9)

NARRATIVE : NATIVE(an inhabitant of a particular region) containing(crossing) [A + 2x(… repeatedly) R(abbrev. for “river”) ].

Down

1. Give cheat praise (10)

CONTRIBUTE : CON(to cheat/swindle) + TRIBUTE(praise/commendation).

2. Daring fellow without sense of sound? (8)

FEARLESS : F(abbrev. for “fellow”) + EAR-LESS(whimsical description of someone without the sense of sound).

3. The French experiment is current (6)

LATEST : LA(French for the article “the”) + TEST(experiment/trial).

4. Avoid manuscript about lives (4)

MISS : MS(abbrev. for “manuscript”) containing(about) IS(lives/exists).

5. Cheer pilot flying aircraft (10)

HELICOPTER : Anagram of(… flying) CHEER PILOT.

6. Alluring sorcery hiding trap (8)

MAGNETIC : MAGIC(sorcery/wizardry) containing(hiding) NET(trap made of netting).

7. Mountain range I slip up in South Africa (6)

SIERRA : [ I + ERR(to slip up/make a mistake) ] contained in(in) SA(abbrev. for South Africa).

8. Initially lacked everything near some part of the eye (4)

LENS : 1st letters, respectively, of(Initially) “lacked everything near some“.

14. Blot napkin dispersed directly (5-5)

POINT-BLANK : Anagram of(… dispersed) BLOT NAPKIN.

15. Compromised goal caused ill feelings (10)

ENDANGERED : END(goal/desired result) + ANGERED(caused ill feelings, specifically anger).

Defn: …/jeopardised.

17. Outside of court commend drill (8)

PRACTISE : CT(abbrev. for “court”) contained in(Outside of …) PRAISE(to commend/to honour).

Defn: …/to rehearse.

18. Brooded being upset by insanity somewhere in Australia (8)

TASMANIA : Reversal of(… being upset, in a down clue) SAT(brooded/of a bird sitting on its eggs to hatch them) plus(by) MANIA(insanity/derangement).

20. Dump and kick creep (6)

TIPTOE : TIP(dump/a place where rubbish is left/dumped) plus(and) TOE(to kick with one’s toe).

Defn: …/to walk quietly and carefully.

21. Right about time to be worldly (6)

MORTAL : MORAL(right/just) containing(about) T(abbrev. for “time”).

Defn: …/descriptive of things involving life on this earth.

22. Firm editor rejected rules (4)

CODE : CO(abbrev. for “company”, a commercial firm) + reversal of(… rejected) ED(abbrev. for “editor”).

Defn: A body of ….

23. Gruff dog starting to turn (4)

CURT : CUR(a dog/mongrel) + 1st letter of(starting to) “turn“.

22 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 1266 Carpathian”

  1. Nice gentle quiptic which got easier once I’d read Qu 16 properly, ingenU not ingenI. Enjoyed, thanks both.

  4. I came here very heated to find out how possibly unsophisticated could mean ingenious. And from Grant’s post it seems I wasn’t the only one to fail to properly RtheQ (read the question).

    Perfect Quiptic. Monday morning and Quiptic both polished off prior final sips of breakfast coffee – as it should be. Off to work now.

    Thanks Carpathian and Scchua

  6. A few of these took me longer than they should have, looking at them in retrospect – not least my place of abode… I had to kick myself that 18d needed some crossers. In 21a, I took it that the SON was the offspring of the MA – not just any old child. Thanks, Carpathian and scchua.

  7. This took me longer than the Cryptic did this morning, though I’m not sure why, looking back on both of them. There was a lot to enjoy here.

    SIERRA is just Spanish for mountain range, even though most people associate the word with the Sierra Nevada specifically (which is what I assume the picture in the blog depicts). The Sierra Nevada are the Snowy Mountains, and las vegas nevadas would be snowy meadows. Yet it rarely snows in Vegas–they tell me they get a dusting once every couple years–and there certainly are no meadows.

  9. Also held up by reading the def as “ingenious”. Somewhat relieved to find I wasn’t alone.

    If the cryptics are getting harder under the new regime, the Quiptics lately have been more -er – Quiptic. This was a good one.

  10. Thanks Carpathian and Scchua.

    Just one quibble: 12A ‘Entrails served by pubs on both sides of a road‘
    Shouldn’t it be ‘… a both sides of road’ ?
    Grammatically wrong, I know, but ‘both sides’ refers to ‘road’, not ‘a road’.

  11. Was alert to the U in 16a (great anagram), probably due to the efforts of my prep school headmaster decades ago. Nice Quiptic.

  12. Katherine@10 – in this case RD is not “both sides of RoaD. Rd is a common abbreviation for road (as in London Rd) and Inn…s are on both sides of a+Rd, as Scchua explained

  14. JudithG @12 Thanks, I clearly didn’t read the clue or Scchua’s explanation carefully enough. I stand corrected : )

  15. Agree – nice Quiptic. Favourites already mentioned I think: HELICOPTER for its anagram, CONTRIBUTE and INNARDS for their surface

  16. I especially liked the tempting trickery of 6d MAGNETIC and the ingenious long anagram for ingenuous at 16a UNSOPHISTICATED (anything but).

    Thanks Carpathian for the excellent puzzle and scchua for the fine blog.

  17. [scchua, your picture for PROSTRATE is missing – Google returns: ‘403. That’s an error.
    Your client does not have permission to get URL /proxy/hjEwFwPlxSuGVpIoSictQbhpjulJt9fCzDxITAuJj37VA1PfLxNgXhckaSmbIob4y_RMsvnau-q1HN2qtvygDOUkJ62KxELl_9iFg7vl22J88AlNOOWv0rE1SsFHmV3eH4pH from this server. (Client IP address: 9.99.999.999)
    Forbidden That’s all we know.’]

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