Quiptic 1,274 by Chandler

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A fun Sunday morning Quiptic from Chandler.

A good range of clue types, some witty anagrams and well-crafted surfaces. Thanks to Chandler!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Note doctor near the back of vessel getting updated text? (7)
REDRAFT

RE (note) + DR (doctor) + AFT (near the back of vessel)

5. Scope in confines of grounds for opening moves (7)
GAMBITS

AMBIT (scope) in G[round]S (confines of)

10. Large-scale film following end of empire (4)
EPIC

PIC (film) following [empir]E (end of)

11. Glum Rex upset about stench beginning to unsettle landlocked country (10)
LUXEMBOURG

(GLUM REX)* (*upset) about BO (stench, body odour) + U[nsettle] (beginning to)

12. Greek father consuming a soft sort of brandy (6)
GRAPPA

GR (Greek) + PA (father) consuming A + P (soft, musical term)

13. Director on holiday behind facility became less serious (5,3)
EASED OFF

D (director) + OFF (on holiday) behind EASE (facility)

14. Feeling disinclined to work, I’m so handy when revitalised (9)
MONDAYISH

(I’M SO HANDY)* (*when revitalised)

16. Extreme case of stupidity getting mildly drunk (5)
TIPSY

TIP (extreme) + S[tupidit]Y (case of)

17. Cooker installed in outpost overnight (5)
STOVE

[outpo]ST OVE[rnight] (installed in)

19. Avoid emphasising varied old feats encapsulating party’s leader (4-5)
SOFT-PEDAL

(OLD FEATS)* (*varied) encapsulating P[arty]’s (leader)

23. Part, reportedly, caught by everyone in list of attendees? (4,4)
ROLL CALL

“ROLE” (part, “reportedly”) + C (caught) by ALL (everyone)

24. Inform lots essentially if in US city (6)
NOTIFY

([l]OT[s] (essentially) + IF) in NY (US city, New York)

26. Pay back mean cop set for discharge (10)
COMPENSATE

(MEAN COP SET)* (*for discharge)

27. First person to study devotional painting (4)
ICON

I (first person) + CON (to study)

28. Very formal celebrity in front of hotel in Cyprus (7)
STARCHY

STAR (celebrity) in front of H (hotel, NATO phonetic alphabet) in CY (Cyprus, ISO code)

29. Sprinter, perhaps, allowed to enter rearranged heat (7)
ATHLETE

LET (allowed) to enter HEAT* (*rearranged)

DOWN
2. A poet’s excited to skirt river in coarse grass (7)
ESPARTO

(A POET’S)* (*excited) to skirt R (river)

3. Some adore capitalism in summary (5)
RECAP

[ado]RE CAP[italism] (some)

4. Trip over a year interrupted by cold? That’s mistaken belief (7)
FALLACY

FALL (trip over) + (A + Y (year) interrupted by C (cold))

6. A liberal society overwhelmed by annual test more or less (6)
ALMOST

A + L (liberal) + S (society) overwhelmed by MOT (annual test)

7. Extensive group of players making fierce criticism (9)
BROADSIDE

BROAD (extensive) + SIDE (group of players)

8. Duties provided by fellow among sailors (7)
TARIFFS

IF (provided) by F (fellow) among TARS (sailors)

9. Anne’s ex toiled possibly to get additional cable (9,4)
EXTENSION LEAD

(ANNE’S EX TOILED)* (*possibly)

15. One building properties loved peer in a corrupt state (9)
DEVELOPER

(LOVED PEER)* (*in a corrupt state)

18. Regurgitate rubbish espoused by seller of tickets? (4,3)
TROT OUT

ROT (rubbish) espoused by TOUT (seller of tickets)

20. Tense actor’s representative acquiring new or different line of thought (7)
TANGENT

T (tense) + AGENT (actor’s representative) acquiring N (new)

21. Insult from following in a revolutionary group (7)
AFFRONT

F (following) in A + FRONT (revolutionary group)

22. Begin meal after receiving article (6)
LAUNCH

LUNCH (meal) after receiving A (article)

25. Experiment in court case? (5)
TRIAL

Double definition

 

19 comments on “Quiptic 1,274 by Chandler”

  2. I’d not heard of MONDAYISH before, but this seemed perfect for a Sunday.
    I’m enjoying the Quiptic’s move here. I’d been missing having a fun and relaxing crossword to do on lazy Sunday mornings – and this fits the bill beautifully!
    Many thanks Chandler and Oriel.

  4. Very much at the difficult end for a quiptic I thought. ESPARTO AFFRONT NOTIFY MONDAYISH in particular. But quite enjoyed it and the blog, so thanks to Chandler and Oriel.

  5. I found this an enjoyable solve, but the vocabulary was all in my GK, so no hold ups there. Also reassuringly all parsed, as I’ll be blogging this in a couple of weeks.

    Thank you to Oriel and Chandler.

  6. “Different line of thought” is actually a nice punning description of this sense of TANGENT.

  7. Nicely done. Nina of EID across the middle but can’t see any link. Do themes and Ninas happen in Quiptics just out of interest?

    Ta Oriel & Chandler.

  8. Struggled on my first pass of the clues and then got a grip down the bottom and work my way back up surprisingly quickly given how little I’d seen first time around. Never heard of ESPARTO or MONDAYISH. Couldn’t work out what was going on in LUXEMBOURG clue and had to take a proper look after finishing.

    All in all was done and dusted in the sort of time I like to spend on these

  10. Given time ones this has now become my Monday breakfast coffee crossword which means a nice start to the week.
    That makes 14A completely appropriate.
    Thanks all.

  11. Didn’t notice this till Monday — haven’t adjusted to the new schedule. ESPARTO was the only one I’d not heard of. Not sure about “espoused” as an inclusion indicator.

  12. Quite liked this. MONDAYISH is how I feel today. Scintillating surface though. Ticks also for TROT OUT and AFFRONT.
    ESPARTO I anagrammed a poet’s r as PROTEAS. Thought they might be categorised as a coarse grass, but didn’t check. Not keen on clues like the one for ALMOST, almost all initials and an acronym.
    Thanks Oriel.

  13. I’m still doing the Quiptic on Mondays, hard routine to break. One of my pet peeves is when a word is presented as fodder but remains intact in the solution, i.e. it doesn’t go through the “anagrind mincer”. Here, in 9D, EX stays as EX.
    Good fun though, thanks to Chandler and Oriel.

  14. Oh, and GRAPPA, never knew was a brandy. Have tried it a couple of times. Not a good idea in bushfire season. Knew it was made of seeds and stalks and things. Probably very popular now with the environmentally conscious. Recycled everything. No waste. But grappa seems like a misnomer. Where’s the grapes?

  15. I’m with you Jay@13 on both doing the quiptic on a Monday and the fodder not going through the grinder. But not going to lose sleep over it, going to bed having completed all of last week’s crossies now. I like Mondays!

  17. We too are still Monday Quipticers, and thought this one was spot on.

    Although I am the chess player, Yorkshire Lass got GAMBITS: Of course, only a minority of chess openings are gambits. (Face-saving quiblet).

    Thanks to Chandler and Oriel, and to Shane for stepping up to bloggerdom – good luck!

  18. Paddymelon @14. The stalks and bits come from grapes after the flesh has been made into wine
    Jay @13. There are three Es in the anagram fodder – who’s to say which one originally belonged with the X?
    Like some of the others, I hadn’t noticed the move from Monday to Sunday. Think I’ll stick with Monday – doing three crosswords on a Sunday seems EXcessive

  19. Struggled a bit with this one, but still found it satisfying and learned loads of new words, chief among them being ESPARTO, MONDAYISH (but hell, why not), TROT OUT, and STARCHY. As someone who is a sake professional working in Tokyo, Starchy carries a whole different meaning for me, something a bit more granular ha ha. I was kicking myself over the parsing of TIPSY but I knew this was the answer from the start so it was still quite satisfying. Again, when it comes to words for drunk, I can say I know quite a few. The most annoying clue was 27A. No complaints though, a good solid Cryptic and I look forward to solving another by this setter in the future. As always, great job and thanks Oriel and Chandler.

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