Quiptics on a Sunday now. I am a creature of habit, and this has completely discombobulated me. Good job it’s a sound as a pound Carpathian for me to blog.
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 Crush gourd
SQUASH
A dd.
4 Complaint in e-mail distributed by National Trust
AILMENT
A charade of (EMAIL)* and NT. The anagrind is ‘distributed’.
9 Criminal inmates misguidedly accepting credit
MISCREANT
An insertion of CR in (INMATES)* The insertion indicator is ‘accepting’ and the anagrind is ‘misguidedly’.
10 Fry small piece
SPAWN
Nice misdirection. The ‘fry’ is of the ‘small fry’ or fish egg type. A charade of S and PAWN.
11 Agile and cheerful bachelor missing
LITHE
[B]LITHE
12 Dogmatic vet raises mongrel
ASSERTIVE
(VET RAISES)* with ‘mongrel’ as the anagrind.
13 Talk lazily and quickly
RAPIDLY
A charade of RAP and IDLY.
15 Way to gather pine to make a packet
SACHET
An insertion of ACHE in ST. The insertion indicator is ‘to gather’.
17 Knight returning after posh girl finds wreckage
DEBRIS
A charade of DEB and SIR reversed. DEB is short for debutante: not sure they really exist any more, but when they did, they were certainly posh.
19 Male looked at keeping working to get rich
MONEYED
An insertion of ON for ‘working’ in M and EYED. The insertion indicator is ‘keeping’.
22 Vain simpletons unfortunately missing mass
POINTLESS
(SI[M]PLETONS)* with ‘unfortunately’ as the anagrind.
24 Victor dropping first part of target
INNER
[W]INNER
26 Leading male alpha in commercial
AHEAD
An insertion of HE and A for the phonetic alphabet Alpha in AD. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
27 Controls borders missing knock-off
IMITATION
[L]IMITATION[S]
28 Former partner getting wrong end of cutlass bleeds
EXTORTS
A charade of EX, TORT and S for the last letter of ‘cutlass’. TORT for ‘wrong’ is a legal term (and is also the French word for ‘wrong’).
29 Admire Reverend George regularly
REVERE
A charade or REV and the odd letters of ‘George’.
Down
1 Second, more generous embroidery piece
SAMPLER
A charade of S and AMPLER.
2 In court group gets aggrieved
UPSET
A charade of UP (‘she was up before the beak’) and SET.
3 More certain to hide split and capitulate
SURRENDER
An insertion of REND in SURER. The insertion indicator is ‘to hide’.
4 Bears witness at cricket matches
ATTESTS
A charade of AT and TESTS.
5 Wrong roles for no-hoper
LOSER
(ROLES)* with ‘wrong’ as the anagrind.
6 Deviously rescue revolutionary four by cathedral city
EVASIVELY
A charade of SAVE reversed, IV and ELY.
7 Note singer heard
TENNER
Aural wordplay (‘heard’) for TENOR.
8 Mother has female affliction
MALADY
A charade of MA and LADY.
14 Leader is here holding papers
PRESIDENT
An insertion of ID for ‘papers’ in PRESENT. The insertion indicator is ‘holding’.
16 Frank has a note for applicant
CANDIDATE
A charade of CANDID, A and TE for the seventh note of the tonic sol-fa.
18 Sort that is wearing glasses
SPECIES
An insertion of IE for id est or ‘that is’ in SPECS. The insertion indicator is ‘wearing’.
19 Oddball is fine in US college
MISFIT
An insertion of IS and F in MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the famous Cambridge College.
20 Eccentric grandee put out of place
DERANGE
(GRANDEE)* with ‘eccentric’ as the anagrind.
21 Drug I consumed after work
OPIATE
A charade of OP, I and ATE.
23 House party during revolting period of sexual activity
TUDOR
An insertion of DO in RUT reversed. The insertion indicator is ‘during’.
25 Sound from piano is excruciating
NOISE
Hidden in piaNO IS Excruciating.
Many thanks to Carpathian for this Sunday’s Quiptic.
Thought 29a REVERE a bit odd, giving away the answer in the clue – “Admire Reverend George regularly”
“A charade of REV and the even letters of ‘George’.”
Thanks C&P
I hesitated on REVERE too.
Good solid Quiptic from Carpathian, thank you to her and Pierre for the blog
Liked this, some good surfaces, finished in good time. Couldn’t parse SPAWN and haven’t seen DERANGE used in this way, so that’s the TIL for today.
Thank you to Carpathian and Pierre
Excellent Quiptic – great for beginners!
Favourite: RAPIDLY.
Thanks, both.
SPAWN
Found this online (could not verify everything stated in this):
Fish when hatched from the egg, is called hatchling. When it is 8 to 10 mm in size, it is called spawn, when it is 10 to 20 mm in size, it is called early fry, when it is beyond 20 mm in size it is referred to as late fry or early fingerling, when it crosses 30 mm size, it called a fingerling.
fry=SPAWN in the sense of young fish rather than eggs. Probably, the blog says the same thing.
The Phantom Stranger@3
DERANGE
Merriam-Webster says:
1
: to disturb the operation or functions of
deranged by even the slightest damage
2
: DISARRANGE
hatless, with tie deranged
—G. W. Stonier
(I think both may be interpreted as ‘put out of place’)
9a – I didn’t know VREDIT = CR
11a – is batchelor not BA?
2d – I still cannot understand where UP and SET come from in the clue?
23d – where do ‘DO’ and ‘RUT’ come from in the clue?
TUDOR
DO party
RUT
The rut is the period of the year when some animals such as deer are sexually active, and the males fight each other to mate with the females.
(Period of sexual activity)
Revolting ….a reversal indicator
UPSET
UP in court
SET group
LITHE
B or BA ….bachelor could be one of them
Steffen, B for Bachelor comes from BA or BSc. But only the B bit. Up before the judge means you are in court before him or her. A set of items could be a group of them. A do is a party. Rut is what stags do. Hope that helps.
KVa, that’s pretty much exactly what the blog said, so l’m not convinced we really needed a long quote from the internet from you as a contribution to the thread. Just saying.
Steffen @6 CR = Credit comes from banking / accounting terminology – you see it on bank statements and in accounts. DR for debit also exists.
Pierre@8
Steffen asked some questions possibly because certain things were not clear to him from the blog. My response to him had just one quote from a dictionary (hardly one and a half lines and that was not a long quote to my understanding).
I feel my post was all right.
Nice and simple, as a Quiptic should be. Does leave Monday a bit thin for me though.
I was referring to your comment @5, KVa.
WhiteDevil @11 – You could do what I do and solve earlier crosswords – the first Guardian crossword on line is No. 25,250, a Prize by Paul from 19/2/2011 at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/prize/25250. The weekday ones follow the pattern https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/25251. There are some by Aracauria there, which is a treat. I have a bookmark which I edit to change the number to the next one (or 2 if a Friday).
@5 KVA … thank-you for the more extensive explanation of “fry”. The blog explanation wasn’t as detailed as I’d have liked for something that is more obscure than usual 👍
Took a while to get into this but had a nice scattering of answers after my first readthrough. Slowly they came until I was left with EXTORTS/TUDOR and then finished off with TENNER/SPAWN. All in all never got bogged down for too long so it was an enjoyable solve.
Pierre@8 B is listed as an abbreviation for “bachelor” in the dictionaries (see Chambers, for example). There is no justification for praying the B of BA, BSc etc in aid for it any more than, for example, there would be for using D for “doctor” on the grounds that DSc is an abbreviation for “Doctor of Science”.
All very fair, I thought, and at a nice level for me. Thanks C & P.
And who knows, one day we may all be grateful to have read KVa @5 when some fiend comes up with a clue like: Fry outgrown by one who brings sinister note to piper’s playing (10)
Thank you 7,8,9
Got there.
Thought everything was very fair. I had the same last 4 as HG@15. Took some serious gear turning to figure those ones out.
BLITHE I only every see in relation to a kind of blissful unawareness, so cheerfulness (in my mind) was a secondary aspect of the word.
Hadn’t seen “INNER” used in relation to target before. I’m guessing this is a synonym for a bull’s eye that is standard terminology for archery.
Wouldn’t have thought of ASSERTIVE to mean dogmatic, which I usually interpret as inflexible.
Thanks to Setter and Blogger.
Thank you Pierre.
I was a bit slow with SPAWN as I didn’t immediately cotton on to ”piece”. Groaned at self. How long have I been doing cryptic crosswords and missed the chess thing?! As Pierre said, nice misdirection, the whole clue, fry, and small piece.
Liked the surfaces and economy in OPIATE, TUDOR, NOISE, MALADY, TENNER.
I agree with HG@14 in liking KVa@5‘s comment. And I like PachydermatousMameluke@17‘s clue based on it. 😉
[REVERE – ““A charade of REV and the even letters of ‘George’.”]
As expected – “Your comment is awaiting moderation.”
To be extremely pedantic, in chess terminology a pawn is not considered a “piece”. The word “men” incorporates both pieces and pawns.
I assume that “part of target” for INNER is darts terminology? That’s one of many subjects that come up in cryptics of which I am completely ignorant, but the clue was quite gettable anyway.
Could be darts, Ted, or perhaps more commonly archery.
Thank you so much for your correction of the typo and the odd/even mistake in REVERE, FrankieG. I probably speak for some other bloggers as well when I say I just love it how you are all over every blog that’s posted to point out and correct the inevitable little errors. The blog is an opportunity for you to share your views about the crossword and perhaps contribute something to everyone’s enjoyment of it. It’s not a fricking exam to mark.
The reason your comment went to moderation is that you included three hyperlinks, btw. Quite why you felt the need to do that is a mystery.
A pawn is not a piece
Ted said that @22, Fingal.
Just when I think I’m making progress, I go backwards with this.
Not being a cryptic crossword guru I really enjoyed this crossword. Apart from SPAWN. a lack of encylopedic knowledge of the breeding cycle of fish and amphibians let me down. I even had thought of ‘small fry’ but thought that referred to small fish and that SPAWN was a verb not a noun. I will know the next time! A lot to learn and my heart still sinks when there are any clues to do with cricket or ecclesiastical matters. Thanks to the setter and the blogger for this lovely crossword and answers.
Took me longer to read the blog and comments than to do the puzzle!
I did it today. I print out Everyman, Quiptic and Monday cryptic and save them for later. Quick cryptic is a lovely bonus. 29 seemed too obvious to be right and wondered what George had to do with it: lovely clue. Thank you, Carpathian.
Why is an embroidery piece as “sampler”? Seems an odd general definition to me unless
I’m missing something!
[ Nathan@29 , you see a lot of these in auctions , usually Victorian . Girls from that era must have spent half their time sowing. A sampler would show off their skills ]
Roz@30. When I was in primary school we (girls) sewed “samplers”. It was in Queensland though, a strange mix of country bumpkins and arch royalists.
I quite liked the samplers, paying attention to detail and trying to keep them clean and pretty week after week. I dont think ive ever needed to do a blanket stitch since.