Guardian Quiptic 1,275/Pasquale

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Pasquale in charge of this week’s Quiptic. Which means a carefully constructed puzzle to stretch less experienced solvers which will also act as an amuse-bouche for those who have been solving these things for as long as Pasquale has been setting them. Which is a long time.

Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed

definitions are underlined

Across

4 A group said to grow
ACCRUE
Aural wordplay (‘said’) of A CREW.

6 Liking to combine power with charm
PENCHANT
A charade of P and ENCHANT

9 Beast sailor found by a lake
JACKAL
A charade of JACK, A and L.

10 We had rings provided for happy ceremonies?
WEDDINGS
A charade of WED (representing WE’D or ‘we had’) and DINGS, of the DING-DONG kind.

11 Think about opposing pattern for further development
CONTEMPLATE
A charade of CON and TEMPLATE

15 Significant reason for eating on the floor?
NOTABLE
Well, if there was NO TABLE then you might opt to eat off the floor, mightn’t you?

17 Young swimmer organising top deal
TADPOLE
(TOP DEAL)* with ‘organising’ as the anagrind.

18 Attempt to erase discord produced by awful cheater and liar
CLEAR THE AIR
(CHEATER LIAR)* with ‘awful’ as the anagrind.

22 I will join party subsequently as one impressed by false image?
IDOLATER
A charade of I, DO and LATER.

23 Manly six facing trouble
VIRILE
A charade of VI for the Roman numerals for ‘six’ and RILE.

24 Report coming from Oxford is patchy
DISPATCH
Hidden in OxforD IS PATCHy.

25 Number, any number, is required for game
TENNIS
A charade of TEN, N and IS. N is the mathematical symbol for ‘any number’.

Down

1 Compassionate fellow wearing a colour
HUMANE
An insertion of MAN in HUE. The insertion indicator is ‘wearing’.

2 Generous type has been exceptionally significant element
BENEFACTOR
A charade of (BEEN)* and FACTOR. The anagrind is ‘exceptionally’.

3 Detectives probing a boss who takes LSD?
ACID HEAD
An insertion of CID in A HEAD. The insertion indicator is ‘probing’.

4 A host with a bit of money as a neighbour
ADJACENT
A charade of A, DJ for disc jockey or ‘host’, A and CENT.

5 What you’ll see at funfairs – old clown getting crazy
COCONUTS
A charade of COCO and NUTS. Coco the Clown was a character created by Nicolai Poliakoff who was hugely popular in the mid-twentieth century.

7 Relation in Taunton
AUNT
Hidden in TAUNTon.

8 King perched up for assignment
TASK
A reversal (‘up’ since it’s a down clue) of K SAT.

12 Citation at the bottom of page 6
PREFERENCE
Often ‘6’ can lead you to VI (like in 23 across here). But sometimes (and not so often in Quiptics) it can refer to the clue number, so here you need to look at the solution to 6 across, PENCHANT. It’s a charade of P and REFERENCE, and ‘at the bottom of’ works because it’s a down clue. The solution is a synonym for ‘penchant’.

13 Organise country for charitable act
DONATION
A charade of DO and NATION.

14 intrepid female totally unable to listen?
FEARLESS
A charade of F and EARLESS.  Let’s assume the lack of a capital letter at the start of this clue is just classic Grauniad.

16 Support a method offering retreat
BACK AWAY
A charade of BACK, A and WAY.

19 Greeted in hospital – wasn’t well
HAILED
A charade of H and AILED.

20 Note lord being heartless – or unthreatening?
MILD
A charade of MI for the second note of the sol-fa and L[OR]D.

21 Looking up, see heights
TOPS
A reversal of SPOT.

Many thanks to Pasquale for this Sunday’s Quiptic. That still sounds a bit odd (the day, not the thanks).

30 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 1,275/Pasquale”

  1. This was a quick, fun Quiptic and just shows how skilled he is at setting for beginners as well as being fiendish. I liked PREFERENCE, WEDDINGS and laughed at COCONUTS.

    Ta Pasquale & Pierre.

  2. This was a lovely Quiptic with such smooth clues. Lots of charades meaning digging for synonyms to build the words.

    I wondered about the reference to 6A in a Quiptic, and held myself up by confidently pencilling I’ll as the beginning of IDOLATOR, until disabused by TOPS.

    Thank you to Pierre and Pasquale.

  3. I struggled to get any answers in the NW and moved east and up until finally AUNT, TASK and WEDDINGS went in. After that it was mostly plain sailing but the NW held out to the end and then when I checked all, I found I still had TOPS to do which added another minute or so. NOTABLE made me laugh having initially tried grounds. Happily done in the sort of time I like to spend on these!

  4. I found that an almost perfectly pitched Quiptic. As HG@3 said, the NW was the most chewy for me. I smiled at COCONUTS and NOTABLE. PREFERENCE, WEDDINGS and PENCHANT were favourite clues as well.

    Without giving any spoilers, I enjoyed today’s Everyman too. It’s been a nice Sunday morning for me so far.

    Thanks P&P!

  5. This went in waves, get a few, get stuck, get another leading to more, get stuck again. I liked PREFERENCE. and NOTABLE made me groan.

  6. This was great fun. I agree with AlanC@1 that it shows how skilful a setter Pasquale is. He has long been on my (theoretical) ‘favourites’ list.
    I spent too long mi’s-parsing 21d, trying to find a synonym for ‘looking’ which, when reversed, would yield a synonym for ‘heights’. D’OH.

  7. Really liked your intro to this, Pierre, very inclusive. Makes me want to go and dig into the crossword now (have carefully avoided spoilers!)

  8. Thanks Pasquale and Piere. Discovered a new word for sailor. Found this rather useful blog on the Guardian website although it’s a bit old and I am sure most people doing these already know about it.

    https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/2020/feb/10/cryptic-crosswords-for-beginners-sailors-and-boats

    Felt like a bit of a ninny not realizing that 6. on 12 down was actually pointing to clue number 6 across. Will be on the look out for these in future. All in all, a fun but challenging one with some chuckles along the way, namely, COCONUTS and TADPOLE (young swimmer indeed ha ha).

  9. Pasquale proves once again that less difficult doesn’t mean less fun. Favourites were 12 PREFERENCE and 14 FEARLESS, for their excellent surfaces. Also the enchanting reference to P as preface to 6 and 12.

    Thanks P&P for the fun.

  10. Like Shanne we wondered about 22ac starting with ILL, suggesting 21dn could be ‘Alps’ but as that wouldn’t parse we realised 22ac had to be something else and eventually the penny dropped.
    But as Cellomaniac says, Pasquale proves once again that less difficult doesn’t mean less fun.
    Tkanks, Pasquale and Pierre.

  11. Slightly tough, quite enjoyable. I think this one might be a bit difficult for beginners. I slowed down in the LHS and filled in the NW corner last.

    Favourite: NOTABLE.

    Thanks, both.

  12. Thank you Pierre. I had a bit of trouble with a couple of wordier clues.
    Was attempt necessary in CLEAR THE AIR? old clown in COCONUT?
    And I’m still not clear on the parsing of IDOLATER. Is I will join party the wedding vow I DO? Or is it wordplay, positioning of the elements?

  13. I agree with much of what has already been written, so apologies if I repeat anything

    Let’s start with agreeing with all the positive comments. Overall I found it chewy enough while remaining approachable, with a lot of nice surfaces. Favourites were: – FEARLESS, PENCHANT, ACCRUE and, being a sucker for a good anagram, CLEAR THE AIR

    I too was misled by looking up and see in TOPS. I had the same questions as paddymelon@12. And I did not see DING for ring until reading the blog. It is funny how I can miss the obvious!

    To top it all off, it was an enjoyable blog.

    Thanks Pasquale and Pierre

  14. Enjoyed that! Didn’t quite get there with humane but managed all the rest and could parse them all as I went along, which I was delighted by. Took me an afternoon. 🙂 thanks Pasquale and Pierre.

  15. paddymelon@12, for IDOLATER I just took ‘will join’ as link words telling you to run the particles together. I don’t think we need wedding vows (which are actually ‘I will’, but that’s another story).

  17. Paddymelon@12 I thought it was I and do as in a type of party. Not sure though. This was tricky to parse for sure.

  19. Thanks Pasquale and Pierre
    Very nice. I laughed at NOTABLE.
    I also had doubts about 22a. I think either “will” or “join” could be omitted to give a more satisfactory clue.

  20. I was on holiday last week so did the crossword every day and I would say this is in a way harder than the daily cryptic has been (except for the Friday one, which I needed help with). The clueing is straightforward but I found myself not on Pasquale’s wavelength for the NW corner.

  21. Jay@18. That’s not really a helpful contribution to the discussion or enjoyment of the puzzle unless you explain why.

  22. As others have related, the NW corner was the last to go in for me. Once I figured out ADJACENT things panned out pretty quickly though.

    Really enjoyed the two clues including “six”.

    I was also leaning towards “ill” (and illusion) for 22, having been primed by the same kind of word play in WEDDINGS. IDOLATER is much better though.

    Didn’t love “do” for “organise” in 13.

    Thanks S & B, as always.

  23. Found this one harder than the regular for today! That may have been partly because of my 6ac for trying to start in the top corner and work from crossers, I got 1d and wasn’t able to get any of its crossers till I worked back to it.

    ADJACENT was an especially pleasing construction today! Thanks Pasquale and Pierre.

  24. Thanks for the lovely explanations and I’m beginning to get into the spirit of it drawn in by the Quick Cryptic. Nevertheless, as I am almost totally new to Quiptics (this being my second), I still need help understanding 12D. Noting that 6 points to the clue number is fine. What would make me realise that I have to take the first letter of that clue and that it has to be a synonym of that clue? What is the significance of the word “page” and why does “at the bottom of work because it’s a down clue”? Help for one wet behind the ears would be greatly appreciated.

  25. Hi GD
    Congratulations on your progress.
    “page” gives the P (standard abbreviation), with REFERENCE (citation) “at the bottom” or underneath it. The definition is given by the answer to clue 6.

  26. After three days I gave up.

    I had less than half of this extremely difficult quiptic crossword complete even though the comments on the Guardian pages say it is “straightforward” and “gentle”. I am one of the people that the quiptic is supposedly designed for and this was much too difficult for me.

  28. @26 Peter

    It’s that old intangible “wavelength” coming in, some days I just can’t seem to decipher the setter’s constructions no matter how long I make the tour around the list, while most here breeze through, and on other days I’ll be tutting at the number of write-in clues yet the blog consensus is tricky. No rhyme or reason, it happens to every solver from time to time.

  29. My first Quiptic. I’ve moved here thanks to Guardian’s Quick Cryptic and Shanne’s expositions. It took me a while, not least because the Guardian app lost my initial hard-won entries (East side) and I had to recall them a week later after I’d quit in pique.

    I did it online and did check as I went but only a few answers were outright guesses. Couldn’t see 4D, 12D, 10A (but in each case, crossers led to a word with partial justification), took a long time on 24A (couldn’t shake it was some (ISPATCHY)* and referred to obscure Varsity item). But all in all, enjoyable; I too laughed at COCONUTS and NOTABLE.

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