Always a pleasure to see Hectence’s name on a Quiptic, and in fact always a pleasure to open up a Quiptic to blog these days, now that the new editor has commissioned chosen setters to produce a specific Quiptic, rather than the previous regime’s philosophy of choosing a nominally ‘easier’ puzzle from an established setter and thinking ‘that’ll do’.
One definition I didn’t know, but otherwise for me this seemed a puzzle that the improving solver would enjoy tackling. But I’m obviously not the target audience, so over to you as always.
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 Unpleasant film about posh college boy’s surrender
SUCCUMB
A charade of U and C inserted into SCUM, and B. The insertion indicator is ‘about’. U for ‘posh’ is pretty much only seen in crosswordland these days. Blame Nancy Mitford.
5 Consolidate agreement
COMPACT
A dd.
9 Gets out by cutting loose ties
EXITS
An insertion of X in (TIES)* The insertion indicator is ‘cutting’ and the anagrind is ‘loose’. X for ‘by’ is found in expressions like 4×2 or ‘four by two’ for measuring timber. Or 4×4 for a car, I guess.
10 Went quiet when thrashed in competition
CLAMMED UP
An insertion of LAMMED in CUP. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
11 Doctor honoured fee, reduced for time of crisis
HOUR OF NEED
(HONOURED FE[E])* with ‘doctor’ as the anagrind.
12 Old American tattooist on radio?
INCA
Aural wordplay (‘on radio’) for INKER.
14 List each time scrap’s put on dumper lorry
TIPPER TRUCK
A charade of TIP, PER, T and RUCK.
18 Planned camping by lake on Scottish island
INTENTIONAL
A charade of IN TENT, IONA and L.
21 Break into computer of poor journalist
HACK
A dd.
22 X axis range’s big when detailed
HORIZONTAL
A charade of HORIZON and TAL[L]. You need to read ‘range’s’ as ‘range has’.
25 Delighted by cockapoo running around hotel
COCK-A-HOOP
An insertion of H for the phonetic alphabet ‘hotel’ in (COCKAPOO)* The insertion indicator is ‘around’ and the anagrind is ‘running’. The origin of the phrase is debated; there’s an well-written article about it here if you have five Sunday morning minutes free and are interested.
26 Brief journal that is describing concept
IMAGE
An insertion of MAG in IE for id est or ‘that is’. The insertion indicator is ‘describing’.
27 Supplies back up with very naughty son
PURVEYS
A charade of UP reversed, (VERY)* and S. The anagrind is ‘naughty’.
28 Flower acquires good height without effort
LIGHTLY
An insertion of G and HT in LILY. The insertion indicator is ‘acquires’.
Down
1 Supporters on course upset over man in rage
SEETHE
A charade of TEES reversed and HE.
2 Exclusive group’s intelligence collected in evidence
CLIQUE
An insertion of IQ in CLUE. The insertion indicator is ‘collected’.
3 Hunk endlessly showing off’s ignoring the spirit of the game
UNSPORTING
A charade of [H]UN[K] and SPORTING.
4 Business breaks embargo to get cured meat
BACON
An insertion of CO in BAN. The insertion indicator is ‘breaks’.
5 Prepared clean home for reptile
CHAMELEON
(CLEAN HOME)* with ‘prepared’ as the anagrind.
6 Note setter’s method
MEMO
A charade of ME and MO for modus operandi or ‘method’.
7 Making sense of a complicated pudding
ADDING UP
A charade of A and (PUDDING)* with ‘complicated’ as the anagrind.
8 Nothing wrong with high targets?
TOP MARKS
A charade of TOP and MARKS.
13 Outstanding, however victory’s overshadowed by own goal
STILL OWING
A charade of STILL and WIN inserted into OG. The insertion indicator is ‘overshadowed by’.
15 Roux heartily tucked into poisson, potentially toxic
POISONOUS
An insertion of OU for the central letters of ‘Roux’ in (POISSON)* The insertion indicator is ‘tucked into’ and the anagrind is ‘potentially’. The surface makes most sense if we take it to be referencing the Roux family of chefs.
16 Thing to shift cold: a paracetamol initially and something warm to wear in bed
NIGHTCAP
A charade of (THING)* C, A and P for the initial letter of ‘paracetamol’. The anagrind is ‘to shift’.
17 Stand firm with exhausted teams over race vehicle
STOCK CAR
A reversal of RACK, CO and T[EAM]S.
19 Finally where to find a shoe mender?
AT LAST
A dd cum cd. Cobblers work with LASTS.
20 Dozy fish turned up on top of pond with young
SLEEPY
A charade of EELS reversed, P for the initial letter of ‘pond’ and Y.
23 Drive anxious mile to secure parking
IMPEL
An insertion of P in (MILE)* The insertion indicator is ‘to secure’ and the anagrind is ‘anxious’.
24 Wear out old horse
JADE
A dd. This was my last one in. I didn’t know the second meaning and wasn’t helped by the dreaded ?A?E, which has hundreds of possibilities. However, I should have remembered that Hectence always gives us a pangram, and that I was missing a J. I have mentioned this a million times in my blogs of her puzzles before, so a bit of a ‘Physician, heal thyself’ moment there.
Many thanks to Hectence for this week’s Quiptic.
1a – where do SCUM & B come from?
Took me forever to get JADE, I had forgotten about Hectense and panagrams, if it ever registered. I thought this a Litton the hard side, but that could be me, it took a few reads for the wordplay to click on some clues. Overall, very enjoyable.
Thankyou both.
It was hard for me to get started on this puzzle. I would not recommend it for beginners or those in a hurry. On my first pass I solved only 3 of the across clues and 7 of the down clues.
I failed to solve 24d.
Favourite: EXITS.
New for me: Y=young (for 20d); horizontal = x axis.
Thanks, both.
Steffen: SCUM is the unpleasant film, U is posh, U and non-U coined by Nancy Mitford in the 39’s, I think, and B is an abbreviation for BOY.
Thank you 4.
More cryptic than quiptic, I thought, at least for a lot of it. If I’ve ever heard U for posh before then it’s not stayed in my memory, and feels rather too esoteric/obscure for a quiptic puzzle.
A few other clues felt similarly chewy. I don’t want to sound like I’m carping though as I enjoyed it overall, just felt that it might sit better as a cryptic.
Thankyou Pierre. Revealed JADE. Didn’t know the horse. The whole crossword seemed a bit dated to me. LAM I’ve only seen in crosswords. First time I’ve come across the past tense “lammed”. Roux and poisson are no doubt in Chambers.
Like nicbach and Michelle I had to reread several clues. I can’t quite put my finger on it. I wondered if it was Hectence’s grammar, and multiple words cluing single letters, or unusual indicators like “exhausted”, and/or surfaces that don’t tell a story that grabs me, so the phrasing is hard to get?
My favourites are EXITS for the loose ties, and ADDING UP for the complicated pudding.
It took me a while to remember the horse meaning of JADE – it’s pretty old-fashioned from where I’ve read it (I think Victorian writers or earlier), but checking, according to Merriam-Webster, it comes from Middle-English, so that was my LOI.
I know U and non-U came from Nancy Mitford, but it’s epitomised by Betjeman’s How to Get on in Society – which is from the 1950s, a depiction of fairly esoteric snobbery about minor things (and pretty similar to the descriptions of 18th century ton.)
I found this chewy for a Quiptic, not impossible, but not as accessible as they can be.
Thank you to Hectence and Pierre.
More difficult than I’m used to in a quiptic. Was stuck on “Jade” for some minutes, then went from worn out = Jaded to taking a punt on wear out = Jade…had to google for the second meaning, knew “gem” and “disreputable lady” (from reading Georgette Heyer), but had never heard it applied to an old horse.
Liked “Memo”, “Clique” and “Exits”.
Thank you to Hectence and Pierre.
Don’t know if I just wasn’t in the mood or wasn’t on the setter’s wavelength or whatever, but I found this very difficult and ended up revealing 7 or 8 clues. It just felt very awkward somehow- probably just me. I did like the cobbler and the pudding though.
Alison @10 – judging from the other comments (not a huge sample size, but still), I don’t think it’s just you.
Again, I did like it but just don’t feel that it’s particularly quiptic.
Unlike others, I didn’t feel this was particularly out of quiptic territory – with the exception of JADE. I wasn’t particularly aware of the setter’s rule about pangrams so was not looking out for a missing J and the horse meaning is NHO but looks as if it is linked to the idea of being worn-out.
EXITS, PURVEYS, CHAMELEON, MEMO, STILL OWING and STOCK CAR all earned ticks.
Thanks Hectence and Pierre
Failed on JADE and, like others, generally found this a bit harder than the average Quiptic, but very enjoyable all the same. Funny to see STOCK CAR appear twice in a few days, not a ‘stock’ activity for crosswords I would think. BACON and HORIZONTAL were my favourites for the smooth surfaces. Thanks Hectence and Pierre.
I found this harder going from a Quiptic specialist than several recent ones from “regular” setters (last week’s from Picaroon being a good example). POISONOUS and COCK-A-HOOP were made very easy by the insertion fodder being so close to the answer, but a lot of the rest were quite chewy. I smiled at AT LAST, didn’t remember the pangram until it was too late to be useful, and remembered JADE from goodness knows where.
Nope. Didn’t enjoy this, too many obscurities/crossword tricks for a Quiptic.
Got about 75% done and a couple of reveals helped get a few more but a small number eluded me regardless. Still quite new to the Quiptic so feeling a bit better about it now that everyone has said it was on the more difficult end of the scale. Definitely struggled with how the clues had been constructed like a lot of other people.
Still unable to parse 22A and only slightly more enlightened after reading the definition given here. I revealed it and my take on it was that the X axis part of the clue was referring to the horizontal on a graph which made sense to me (how the rest of it worked was beyond me). Can partially see where the ‘TAL’ comes from (big = tall I assume) but why the dropped L and how do you get horizon from ‘RANGE HAS’? Any pointers gratefully received.
Other than that I must remember the pangram element next time I see the setters name – another new thing learnt today.
I felt I was not at all on the setter’s wavelength but, reading the earlier comments, maybe the setter was not on our’s.
I agree with many of the comments above and all there is left to say is thanks to Hectence and Pierre
LC@16 Range is the synonym for horizon. The ‘s needs to mean has for us to read it as an instruction to put “Tal” next to it. Tall loses its l because it is de-tailed.
Petert@18 – Checked both the Thesaurus and Crossword dictionary and neither of those have a direct link to horizon but if I take range to mean scope then the link can be made easily enough. Looking up horizon does have the direct link though strangely enough. Regarding the ‘s and detail – that makes sense now it has been explained to me so make that a couple more things I have learnt today.
Thanks for that.
I’m another who failed on JADE, and I’m kicking myself for not remembering to look for a pangram. With that one exception, I was on Hectence’s wavelength today, and the rest went in reasonably straighforwardly.
This was a puzzle of two halves for me – I made fairly quick work to begin with, then was stuck for ages with the final 5 or 6. I had to reveal JADE, as nho the term for an old horse. I also had MIME instead of MEMO (thinking MI as note and ME for setter, and MIME being a method of acting?)
AT LAST and BACON both raised a smile, and I was impressed by INTENTIONAL. I bunged in HORIZONTAL stright away, but needed the blog to parse the TAL section – I’d forgotten the de-tailed trick.
Overall, very enjoyable.
Thanks to Hectence and Pierre.
We’re with PostMark in not finding this too difficult at all – but, then, we’re experienced solvers. We did get JADE as our LOI but it was only after that that we realised we had a pangram; we’d forgotten that Hectence’s puzzles always are. No real favourite; it was all good.
Thanks, Hectence and Pierre.
Based on my level of solving ability, if I can do a puzzle in one sitting, it makes the grade as a quiptic. And this was a quiptic for me. 🙂 NHO “tipper truck”, but seemed clear from the context.
This is the most difficult Quiptic I have come across. The daily cryptic is often easier.
For 1a, I read the “unpleasant film about” as MUCUS (backwards), then CB for college boy. Then wondered why the POSH?
Hectence’s insistence on a pangram explains the choice of JADE out of the many other words she could have chosen, but if she knew she was setting a Quiptic I can’t understand the use of the obscure old horse rather than the gemstone. Apart from that, this was a tough but not unreasonable puzzle with enough straightforward clues to provide crossers for the trickier ones.
JADE was the only one I had to reveal.
Thanks Hectence and Pierre
Difficult in places. A DNF for me, in fact – I revealed PURVEYS and JADE. Several unparsed as well. Not a Quiptic.
15ac POISONOUS is barely a clue. You just take one of the S’s from “poisson” and put it at the end, then insert “ou.” Never heard of the Roux family, but I make a roux (fat added to melted butter) any time I make gravy.
I found this harder than most Quiptics, but not unendurably so.
Difficult but excellent Quiptic with some great ideas and a learning opportunity! Thanks Hectence and Pierre and commenters.
I still don’t understand “tipper truck”
There is also an unpleasant film called “SCUM” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scum_(film), which is what I actually thought the clue referred to.
Ha, at last I get to use my (relatively recently acquired) knowledge of cobbler’ tools for 19d! No doubt the next time I employ this useful knowledge will be in another crossword.
I’m late to the party (note to self, find time to start the quiptic on Sunday), and like a lot of other people I found it very difficult. Managed just under half the clues, and found that after revealing I still didn’t understand a fair few of them, which is rare for me these days. I actually still don’t understand TIPPER TRUCK or UNSPORTING (I guess SPORTING = showing off, but why?) even after reading the blog. I did enjoy 12a though 🙂
New for me: U for posh, LAMMED, HORIZON for range, exhausted meaning “remove the middle letters”, LAST and JADE.
Thanks all.
cobblers’
Shaun @ 34:
SPORTING
Chambers: “3 colloq d US someone, especially a man, who dresses in a flashy way, likes to live well, spend lots of money and generally show off.
OED: I.10.b. transitive. To display or exhibit publicly, esp. in an ostentatious way; (now) esp. to possess (a distinctive visual feature).
“…even after reading the blog” – yes I find that too sometimes with Pierre. I think he expects you to look it up in a dictionary, Google it, etc, rather than be spoon fed definitions from the blog.
Ohhh, as in “he was sporting a new haircut”. I think I got a bit too caught up in the surface.
Shaun @34
14A TIPPER TRUCK
List each time scrap’s put on dumper lorry
1. List, as in what a boat does taking on water = lean, TIP
2. Each = PER. These sweets are 20p each. The price is 20p PER sweet.
3. Time = T, frequently abbreviated thus
4. Scrap = a fight or RUCK. Slightly archaic but still used.
TIP+PER+T+RUCK
>>
TIPPER TRUCK
Hth.
I will try to help with definitions of words that might not be in most people’s passive vocabulary, but then it’s a judgement of when to step in. My general sense is that I don’t want to turn the blog into Dictionary Corner, since you’re all educated enough to look stuff up in a dictionary or online (which in itself can be a pleasure). I should have pointed out the PER = each connection, though – thanks to vogel421 for unpacking all that.
@38 thank you. I will have to add TIP=LIST to the list of things I will need to remember as a result of this crossword.
“Jade” for horse is used all the time in Shakespeare. I recently did a readthrough of his plays, so that’s why I know.