Guardian Quick Cryptic 4 by Picaroon

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This week’s Guardian Quick Cryptic #4 published on Saturday 27 April, a 11 x 11 crossword designed for beginners:

Fifteen Squared uses several abbreviations and jargon tricks, there’s a full list here, of which I’ve used the following in this blog:

  • underlining the definition in the clue – this is either at the beginning or end of the clue
  • capitals to show the letters used in the solution.
  • “quote marks” to indicate a homophone, eg PEALER = “peeler”
  • < to indicate that an element is to be reversed, eg PAN< is NAP
  • brackets around anagram fodder with an asterisk and anagrind for anagram indicator

TODAY’S TRICKS from the puzzle  https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/quick-cryptic/4

Clues begin or end with a definition of the answer. The rest is one of these:
1. Reversal The answer backwards, and a hint that we’re reversing.
‘Deity’s pet comes back (3)’ gives GOD (- adding in the pet is DOG)
2. Soundalike Something that sounds like the answer
‘Excited as Oscar’s announced (4)’ gives WILD (Oscar Wilde)
3. Anagram An anagram of the answer and a hint that there’s an anagram
‘Senator arranged crime (7)’ gives TREASON
4. Charade A combination of synonyms
‘Qualify to get drink for ID (8)’ gives PASSPORT (pass + port)

Quick Cryptic 4

ACROSS
1 DENIM Jeans material dug up from the east (5)  

reversal (from the east) of MINED< meaning dug up.
Denim is a crossword favourite as a useful set of letters
4 ALAS
A girl on the radio makes sorrowful exclamation (4)
soundalike (on the radio) ALAS sounds like “a lass” (a girl)
watch out for the inclusion of an A from the clue – it’s a regular trick.
6 SEVEN-A-SIDE
Possibly devise sane form of rugby (5-1-4)
anagram (DEVISE SANE)* anagrind (possibly)
SEVEN-A-SIDE rugby is also know as Rugby Sevens.
8 EEL Snake-like fish in shelter, retreating (3)

reversal (retreating) of LEE< (shelter) to give EEL the snake-like fish.
9 GO DUTCH Try, with Cockney’s wife, to split the costs (2,5)

charade of GO (try) and DUTCH (Cockney’s wife) to give GO DUTCH meaning to split the costs.

There’s an 1880 song My Old Dutch that refers to a wife as a Dutch – the link is to Wikipedia’s explanation.
12 TENDRIL Manufactured lint with red part of plant (7)

anagram using (LINT + RED)*  anagram indicator (manufactured) – to give TENDRIL, the with is here for the surface but also indicates which words to use in the anagram.
13 DOC Medic’s white fish heading westwards (3)

reversal (heading westwards) of COD< (white fish) to give DOC (medic)
14 PERSEVERES Serves peer strangely and doesn’t give up (10)

anagram (SERVES PEER)* anagrind (strangely)
16 DELI
Food shop in Indian city, reportedly (4)

soundalike (reportedly) of DELI (food shop) and “Delhi” (Indian city)
17 REMIT Clock’s put back – it’s one’s assigned task (5)

reversal ([i]s put back) – TIMER< (clock)
here clock’s is clock is – but watch out for all the possibilities from apostrophes.
DOWN
1 DESSERTS Turned up anxious to get sweet foods (8)

reversal (turned up) of STRESSED< (anxious) to give DESSERTS

I forgot to say this originally – but up in a down clue is another indicator of reversal
2 NOVEL Month with the Spanish work of fiction (5)

charade NOV (month) with EL (the Spanish) = NOVEL (work of fiction)
we see all the three letter abbreviations for months in crosswords
also various foreign articles: EL from Spanish here, but un, le, les and la from French and der, die, das, ein and etc from German are all too useful to ignore
3 MANAGER A German eccentric, maybe Klopp (7)

anagram (A GERMAN)* – anagrind – eccentric
Jurgen Klopp is a football manager (you don’t need to know more, it’s about all I know), here the maybe shows a definition by example.
4 ADS Notices a Detective Sergeant (3)

charade of A (in the clue) + DS (Detective Sergeant) = ADS (notices)
Another source of crossword abbreviations is police ranks – DI, DS, DC for detective inspector, sergeant and constable, for example.
AD(S) for advertisement(s) is another regular.
5 AUDIT Check German car on time (5)

charade – AUDI (German car) + T (abbreviation for time) = AUDIT (check)
7 THICK-SET Heavily built and dim-witted group of pupils (5-3)

charade – THICK (dim-witted) + SET (group of pupils) to give THICK-SET (heavily-built)
10 DELIVER Rescue lambasted revolutionary (7)

reversal ( revolutionary) of REVILED< (lambasted)
12 NIECE Female relative in French seaside resort, we hear (5)

soundalike (we hear) – NIECE the female relative sounds pretty close to the French pronunciation  of “Nice”, which is a regular feature of crosswords – occasionally as a devious indicator of use of French.
13 DURUM Kind of wheat from cathedral city, it’s said (5)

soundalike (it’s said)  DURUM is the hard wheat used to make pasta which sounds near enough like “Durham”, the cathedral city in some dialects (having lived in Sunderland for a while, I recognise that this is not universally so).
15 SKI
Son, king and I slide downhill (3)

charade  of two abbreviations – S = son, King = K and I to give SKI, meaning slide downhill.
K comes from chess notation, which also gives Q for queen, B for bishop, N for knight and R for rook (although that one isn’t as common)

 

38 comments on “Guardian Quick Cryptic 4 by Picaroon”

  2. Rats @1 – and how is that supposed to help beginners, you coming here to say how easy it is? That’s just depressing for people trying to learn. It’s meant to be accessible and you are not the intended audience, for either the puzzle or the blog.

  3. Fun puzzle, very well-clued and set/designed.

    New for me: KLOPP = manager (I supposed either football or rugby); SEVEN A SIDE (loi).

    I feel like I have seen stressed/desserts several times this month, or maybe it is my imagination 🙂

    Thanks, both.

  4. To echo Shanne.

    Let’s keep the comments a bit more positive on this puzzle’s blogs.

    I think that it’s great that The Guardian offers this beginners’ puzzle but such disparaging comments are more likely to discourage new solvers.

  5. I failed with 4a, 8a, 9a.

    4a – I didn’t know ON THE RADIO means “sound like” – I was trying to put AHA + R (like Alan Partridge)

    8a – I thought the answer was EEL but I couldn’t find the letters in reverse order anywhere.

    9a – I thought Cockney rhyming slang for wife was TROUBLE AND STRIFE.

  6. Steffen @5 – there are as many indicators for soundalikes as the setter can dream up – on the radio I’ve seen before, but also: to the audience/listener, we hear, it’s said, apparently. The setter will use anything to make a good surface and mislead.

    LEE is nautical for the sheltered side of a boat or harbour and gives leeside and leeward (which, incidentally, is pronounced loo-wad) – boats pass to windward and leeward racing – I’ve written those in protest reports sailing. It’s a useful word to remember.

    Lots of Cockney phrases, it’s not just one thing and not just rhyming slang. A wife can be a Dutch, as above, trouble, missus, better half or just w, as in genealogy (like the s for son above).

  7. Thanks so much, Shanne, for your blog. I managed to get all the answers this week but not always for the right reasons! Your explanation of the clues is really helping me learn the tricks. I would echo the comments about the quick cryptic needing to be easy for beginners like me. I have previously found cryptic crosswords completely inaccessible but am now getting hooked. Have started trying guardian quiptics too (which take me several days …)

  9. 1a is one of those that could be either answer but the crossers give it away.

    The reverse clues are a joy.

    For the second week in a row, could not parse one of the examples even given the answer. No idea how WILD came from OSCAR.

    Shanne, I’ve worked in the university sector most of my adult life and the worst intellectual snobbery I have witnessed is on the comments of the Guardian cryptics. It’s slightly better on here but people boasting about write-ins and breezes isn’t helpful.

  10. Peter @9 the order of 1A did tell me that had to be DENIM, mostly because these clues are making sure the definition part is at the beginning or end – and the dug up bit was in the middle. I’d agree these reversal clues are often ambiguous, and I often pencil in letters that stay the same on the crossers, if there are any.

    I try to give relative times for my solves, rather than absolute, because we’re all individuals, with different general knowledge (often abbreviated GK) and something that sails in for me because it’s all in my areas of expertise can be challenging for someone else. Also I remember coming back to solving a bit before lockdown, and finding I was taking so long to solve the puzzles compared with those shouting out their times. A few years on, I’ve sped up with practice and acquiring the vocabulary. But I also know I don’t always solve the Independent or FT crosswords as quickly as the more familiar Guardian ones which I’ve started solving more recently (caveat there as some of the setters are the same and set similarly).

  11. @Peter the oscar and wild one… Oscar Wild the writer.

    Didn’t get that either until read your comment!

    Would be handy if the Guardian did or linked formally to this sort of explained solution grid as it’s a great way to learn cryptics.

  13. Wow people gotta take a chill pill here. What’s so disparaging about people saying they can finish a crossword quickly? You should aspire to do the same.

  14. Nutmeg, the much missed Guardian crossword setter wouldn’t agree, she said, in a Guardian Blog interview:

    “As such, the one type of solver I don’t appreciate is the speed merchant, whose only aim is to complete the puzzle in the quickest possible time and who spends no time appreciating the honing that has been applied to the clues.”

  15. James @ 13

    It is discouraging if you have taken over an hour to solve a puzzle to see people saying how easy it was and it only took them 30 secs.

    On the Guardian website there are always people boasting of their times. I just ignore them

    Here on 225 it is much less frequent.

    And since the quick cryptic is aimed at encouraging people to try cryptics I think it is wholly inappropriate to boast about solving times in the comments for the quick cryptic .

  16. I think it is impossible to finish even these in 90 seconds. The simple acts of reading and writing take more time.
    I send these to my children on WhatsApp to tempt them. My eldest is doing them, the second one is a little more advanced and hasn’t said anything and my youngest, well I don’t know.
    However, I think they are perfectly pitched.

  17. James @13

    No “chill pill” needed here. Just pointing out that comments like “I did it in 90 seconds” are in no way helpful to beginners. Rather, it’s intimidating. Let’s encourage newbies to keep coming back rather than making them feel that they are “not worthy”.

    For anyone new. Whether you take 90 seconds or 90 minutes or even 90 hours. Finishing the puzzle will feel like an achievement.

    And, also, in my opinion, there’s nothing wrong with using anagram solvers, dictionaries, shelves full of encyclopaedias, phoning a friend, asking the audience (not sure how 50-50 would work). Then, in time, you’ll find yourself relying less-and-less on aids and more-and-more on your own abilities.

  18. Admin @ 17

    Exactly

    And I used anagram solvers and the rest frequently as I learned. I still use them – especially on more difficult puzzles but less and less and hopefully one day not at all.

  19. Back in the day before the internet, as a student trying to solve Araucaria crosswords, there was often a group of us perched along the Union Bar solving together or at home with every dictionary and reference book out. I even went through dictionaries checking word patterns when I had enough letters. I still use my Chambers Crossword Dictionary to look up synonyms that might fit, particularly on a themed crossword, or indicators for cluing. I have always learnt a lot by having to look up whatever theme was involved that day.

    As Alan Connor says on the Guardian Blog launching this crossword:

    “Finally, solving is not a solitary activity. Find a friend or family member and message them for help. Use the dictionary. Use an online word-finder. There is no such thing as cheating in a crossword. The only point of the thing, after all, is the same as the first answer in the first crossword, published in 1913: FUN.”

  20. Thank you. Really appreciating these quick cryptic. Hats off to those who do them in 90 seconds and to those who take 90 minutes.
    The “in” in 8A can be misleading I think for me and Steffen.

  21. Basher @20 – I realised, after I’d posted, that the in in 8A was probably why the confusion – it suggests a hidden clue. But this week we don’t have any hidden clues, so I discounted that as I solved, especially as I already had a suitable solution.

    If I’d been solving a regular cryptic crossword, I suspect I would have left it until I had some crossers to confirm my hunch, on paper by pencilling in crossers, online maybe entering crossers – the letters that cross other clues – the gaps tell me it’s a guess.

  22. @2 Shanne Totally agree, I could add, ‘that told him/her’! But I suspect it was a ‘him’. I’ve been solving cryptics for years but I still struggle from time to time. It’s good to be reminded of the mechanics of the process. Thank you and Picaroon.

  23. I cannot resist these. I think they are fabulous, and Shanne’s blog is equally top notch.

    I loved the surface of SEVEN A SIDE, and marvelled at all the longer reversal clues. Seems I cannot escape cockney slang though!

    Thanks Picaroon and Shanne

  24. Shanne@19, I think these are a very good way to learn and your explanations really help. I wish there had been something like this when I first attempted Cryptics. I’ve shared these with a couple of friends who are keen to learn and we generally solve them together.

    To all of you who are just beginning to experience the joy of a good Cryptic, can I just echo some of the above points: find a crossword buddy if you can – two heads are better than one; use any research tools that help; don’t worry about whether you finish, or how long it takes; and, most importantly, just enjoy the solve 😎.
    Thank you very much Picaroon and Shanne 👏.

  25. I started doing Cryptics 2-3 years ago on The Times supposedly Quick Cryptic. It was anything but and I would often spend over an hour trying to complete them, often failing. Pleased to say that with practice and effort I have got fairly proficient. That’s the big message to beginners – practice, practice, practice. Few people are naturally good at these from Day1.

    I used the TimesForTheTimes blog where they are all about their times (as the name suggests) but it never bothered me how others did because I don’t know them or their background and I just accepted I was crap at them. I am one of the few people who is happy to say “That took me 1hr40 to fail”. There’s a high likelihood that if you’re still learning you’ll be scrolling past every one else who has knocked them off in 5mins before breakfast – so you’re naturally going to see the good times listed first as you post in the evening having finally given up on it.

    The one thing that really bothered me was what the blogger said. If I’d just spent over an hour wrestling with a QC to find the blogger saying “That was a nice gentle one from Izetti” it was demoralising. The blogger sets the tone and when they seemed to rate it objectively it could really highlight how poor I was. I’m glad to see Shanne has avoided that mistake here.

    As for this one today, I ripped through it but still found myself putting in MINED rather than DENIM, not parsing DELIVER as I bunged it in and likewise DESSERTS. But was able to parse them afterwards. Not familiar with the cockney’s wife either. So while I found it easy to complete, I still think there were some challenging bits for the beginners. For me, at least the “reversal” answers were tough to come up with but then I’m not sure I’ve ever seen those in any of the other cryptics I’ve done – nothing wrong with them though.

  26. Thanks Shanne and Picaroon. I thoroughly enjoyed this one and am really enjoying this new Quick Cryptic format. A kind of Wheat had me stumped for a while and that sort of blocked off the bottom right corner, but it’s amazing what a fresh look can do. My advice to newbies, is take little breaks and refresh the mind now and then… oops I too am a newbie I guess 😅
    Hardest to parse was 4A. I was trying to think of a radio station, but funnily enough, Portugal does have a station called LAS…

  28. Enjoyed this one this week, after last week’s head-scratching this one came together better for me. Thanks for the explainers. I didn’t understand the EEL clue initially, as I’ve never heard lee used as a shelter but the definition was straightforward enough. Same for Dutch for Cockney wife, but I imagine a lot of this slightly unusual language appears in lots of crosswords so it’s good to learn. THICK-SET and DURUM were satisfying when I found them.

    Also had a bash at the Everyman this morning and was pleased to spot the patterns and get a few in place before total befuddlement set in. Onwards and upwards!

  29. I remember the first time I completed a cryptic, set by Rufus (who was known as a “gentle”, easy setter). I was so pleased I kept the completed grid around for months. If you’re a beginner, keep going, and revel in the wordplay as you learn the various tricks and abbreviations. (And, for those of us not in the UK, bits of British slang.) Many thanks to Shanne for setting the helpful tone here.

  30. I just wanted to say how impressive it is to have so many full reversals (STRESSED/DESSERTS, TIMER/REMIT, etc.) all in one place. They’re the hardest clue type to write, so you rarely see more than one per puzzle. There just aren’t that many cases where a word spelled backwards makes a different, valid word. So to any new solvers still reading, I’d say be on the lookout for them, but don’t make it your first assumption about what’s going on.

  31. GO DUTCH – I worked it out from the definition, couldn’t parse it, had to come here to find out.
    STRESSED – Impressive long word reversal. Why have I never realised after all these years that “stressed” reversed = “desserts”?! I bet there’s loads of others out there.
    Overall – I like these, they’re the only crosswords I can do in one sitting. 🙂

  32. Zihuatanejo @31 there are mugs with that message – Stressed is just Desserts backwards, which I’ve seen for sale irl.

    While I’m here, a few other common words that mean something in both directions, I’ve just discovered they’re called heteropalindromes – better list here:
    DEER/REED
    REVEL/LEVER
    GRAB/BRAG
    STUN/NUTS
    STOP/POTS
    TOPS/STOP
    DRAWER/REWARD
    WOLF/FLOW – there was, years ago, a clue that said WOLF? (8) – answer OVERFLOW
    KEEL(S)/(S)LEEK

    and then we see the common palindromes – ROTATOR, MADAM, LEVEL,

  35. Pleased to see this new Cryptic crossword appear. I will encourage my other half to have a go. Thank you Guardian for devising a ‘Teach me cryptic’ set of crosswords.
    I must admit that some of the clues in the main cryptic have me puzzled, so I may well also find these useful.

  36. Love this crossword, slowsly getting my ability to solve crossers back after a long illness (ME/CFS). Delighted to read that “there is no such thing as cheating in a crossword”. Have always paid my tribute by reading thoroughly any wikipedia entry I’ve used.

    One puzzle bit needs solving though- what is this word “surface” that has suddenly appeared in this column please?

  37. Sorry Sue@36 – I did have surface defined at the top last week, but forgot to add it back in when I included it in the discussion for this week.

    The surface is how the clue reads – so in the case above:

    12A Manufactured lint with red part of plant (7)

    The with makes the clue reads as a proper sentence but isn’t part of the words used for the wordplay, in this case an anagram, where LINT + RED is the anagram fodder (letters used in the anagram), the word indicating the anagram (anagrind/anagram indicator) is manufactured, or the definition which is part of plant.

    Last week, we had a clue where the surface conjured up a particularly vivid image:

    10D Lout starts to yell obscenities belligerently (3)

    (That is a acrostic, a type of clue not found in this crossword, the puzzle is here and the blog here).

  38. Sue @36 – the ‘surface’ is how the clue reads as a sentence, namely how you’d read it as a ‘normal’ written/read sentence, rather than as coded information containing a clue and the means to answer it. So it’s how it reads on the surface, if that makes sense. Generally speaking the more you get used to cryptics, the more able you are to get beyond the surface and work out the clue.

    (I hope that’s a clear enough explanation, others might make a better or more succinct attempt but I thought I’d pitch in since no-one else has done as yet)

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