This is the eleventh Guardian Quick Cryptic, a series of 11 x 11 crosswords designed to support beginners learning cryptic crosswords. The whole point of these crosswords is support and encouragement of new solvers, so special rules for these crosswords apply – see here. The puzzle can be found here.
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 indicate which bits are part of the answer, eg R in CEASE means that ‘in’ is not part of the answer
- anagram *(SENATOR) shows letters in clue being used,
- anagrind the anagram indicator (arranged)
- surface – the meaning from reading the clue – so often cryptic clues use an English that could only be found in a cryptic crossword, but a smooth surface is a clue that has a meaning in English, which can be pointed or misleading.
TODAY’S TRICKS – from the crossword site – which can be found at www.theguardian.com/crosswords/quick-cryptic/11
Clues begin or end with a definition of the answer. The rest is one of these:
-
- Anagram An anagram of the answer and a hint that there’s an anagram
‘Senator arranged crime (7)’ gives TREASON - Acrostic The first letters of the answer
‘Initially get a good joke (3)’ gives GAG - Alternate letters Choose every other letter for the answer
‘Oddly envied First Lady? (3)’ gives EVE - Letter swap Something suggested by clue with one letter changed
‘Female (not male) cat in mist (3)’ gives FOG
(F = female (mOG) – cat, without m=male)
- Anagram An anagram of the answer and a hint that there’s an anagram
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SOFT-HEARTED |
Kind father dotes wildly (4-7)
anagram *(FATHER DOTES) anagrind (wildly)
a nice helpful anagram to start
|
| 7 | DOUBTER | Sceptic doesn’t often use basic terms explaining reasoning at first (7)
acrostic (at first) from the first letters of Doesn’t Often Use Basic Terms Explaining Reasoning we get D O U B T E R, a sceptic Another way that doubt(ers) gets clued is through the Biblical disciple Thomas, known as Doubting Thomas. |
| 8 | AGE |
Dangles evenly for a long time (3)
alternate letters (evenly) of dAnGlEs
Evenly is helpfully telling solvers to only take the even letters
A long time is a synonym for lots of useful letter groups – age, eon, era and it’s also worth looking out for t=time from physics.
|
| 9 | CRAFT |
Plan originally changing for first bit of cargo ship (5)
letter swap dRAFT (plan) – swapping its first letter (originally changing) for C (first bit of Cargo) to become CRAFT
|
| 12 | OATHS | Has to broadcast promises (5)
anagram *(HAS TO) anagrind (broadcast) |
| 15 | AWARD |
Conscious changing final mark from E to D will result in prize (5)
letter swap AWARe (conscious) swapping the e (changing final from E to D) gives AWARD.
|
| 16 | SABRE |
Oddly scabbarded blade (5)
alternate letters (oddly) of ScAbBaRdEd – a nice find giving a lovely surface making some sense.
|
| 18 | TOTEM |
Motet rewritten for tribal emblem (5)
anagram *(MOTET) anagrind (rewritten)
|
| 20 | ACE | Alternately watches expert (3)
alternate letters (alternately) of wAtChEs gives ACE Ace is one of the first synonyms I reach for for expert when solving, also pro |
| 21 | TORPEDO | Missile originally took out rich people enjoying dining outdoors (7)
acrostic (originally) Took Out Rich People Enjoying Dining Outdoors Origin is synonymous with beginning so is regularly used to indicate first letter(s) |
| 23 | REMORSELESS | Sorrel seems strangely cruel (11)
anagram *(SORREL SEEMS) anagrind (strangely) |
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SEDUCES |
Works out logically swapping leader for son entices (7)
letter swap starting with dEDUCES (works out logically) change the first letter (swapping leader) for S (son) to give SEDUCES.
s for son is one of the many genealogical abbreviations used in crosswords
|
| 2 | FAUNA |
List of animals found around upper Northern area primarily (5)
acrostic (primarily) Found Around Upper Northern Area
Primarily is often used to indicate the first letter, but there have been a few crosswords recently when it’s been used to indicate taking prime numbers of letters (2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 …)
|
| 3 | HUT | Haunts every other character in shelter (3)
alternate letters (every other character) from HaUnTs to give HUT, particularly a mountain shelter. |
| 4 | AIRPORT | Rap trio travelling to transport hub (7)
anagram *(RAP TRIO) anagrind (travelling) |
| 5 | TOAST |
Brown crow losing head for time (5)
letter swap first letter (losing head) of bOAST (crow) being swapped for T (time)
to give TOAST – browning in cooking or tanning (although that’s now known to be dangerous).
|
| 6 | DOE |
Female creature originally depicted on etching (3)
acrostic (originally) of Depicted On Etching gives DOE, a deer, a female deer.
A doe is the female of various animals, but particularly deer. Another crossword trick to watch out for is does which can mean either more than one doe or a form of the verb doing – so very useful to mislead.
|
| 10 | FAR |
Distant, on and off affairs (3)
alternate letters (on and off) of aFfAiRs to give FAR (distant)
The indicators here have been used to make the surfaces make sense – this surface suggests dalliances which on and off ties into but also indicates using alternate letters.
|
| 11 | TWEETER | Loudspeaker in wet tree exploded (7)
anagram *(WET TREE), anagrind (exploded) I wondered about TWEETER meaning loudspeaker as I’ve always thought they needed tweeters and woofers to give the full range of sound, but checking TWEETER is defined in Chambers as a loud speaker for the higher frequencies. |
| 13 | ADO | Fuss about devilled octopus starters (3)
acrostic (starters) of About Devilled Octopus ADO is one of those poetic words (Much Ado About Nothing) that’s far more used in crosswords than in real life as it’s a useful sequence of letters. |
| 14 | SUMMONS | Calls son’s mum out (7)
anagram *(SON’S MUM) anagrind (out) Punctuation in crossword clues is to make sense of the surface, and can usually be safely ignored (until it’s the solution to the clue). |
| 17 | BREAM | Money finally swapped for male fish (5)
letter swap (finally swapped) the last letter of BREAd (money) becomes M (male) to give the fish.
So many synonyms for money get used in crosswords – bread is a regular as is M for money from the money supply indicators (M0, M1, etc)
|
| 19 | THEME |
Herb having change of heart for European subject (5)
another letter swap (change of heart) this time the middle letter of THyME (herb) is swapped for an E (European) to give THEME.
In cryptic crosswords the letter to be swapped in and/or the position in the word are not always indicated. Here Carpathian has been helpful giving both.
|
| 20 | AIR |
Heads of army intelligence ruining atmosphere (3)
acrostic (heads of) Army Intelligence Ruining to give AIR
Air is another of those usefully ambiguous words because it has several meanings, here atmosphere, but also manner, publicity, tunes and as both a noun and verb.
|
| 22 | RUE |
Regret being aroused regularly (3)
alternate letters (regularly) of aRoUsEd to give RUE
RUE is another of the poetic words that get more use in crosswords than real life.
|
Thanks for the explanation of not only the clues but all the extra advice alongside as well! Great grid by Carpathian. Was only stuck on 17, did not know what male fish are called (being raised vegetarian and outside of Europe – but hey you learn something new everyday!) I think it definitely helps to know the types of clues to expect in the grid.
Needed to look for synonyms of brown. Was thinking of corvids.
So many clues seem obvious after you’ve got then and anything but before. I guess that’s the joy
Thank you.
I was stuck with all the letter swaps.
9a – I was trying CLANK, CLANG and CLANS.
1d – I thought “works out” meant an anagram.
5d – I was looking to find the meaning of “brown crow”…I thought that was the definition.
17d – I thought removing the “y” for money lead to MONET/MONER.
19d – I thought “European subject” was the definition, so I was trying to fit LATIN in.
I’ve put my live solve of this up at https://youtu.be/xAV0YDJ87Rs
I’ve made a point of verbalising my thoughts, ideas and impressions of clues as I work my way round the grid which will hopefully provide tacit information beyond how the clues break down. Hopefully it will help beginners to see a perfect solve doesn’t happen but that it’s okay to skip clues, half-see answers and come back to them later.
As for the QC itself, much more approachable than last week. Really helps to have the Acrostic and Alternative letter clues as when a solver spots that, they have the answer right in front of them. Good work Carpathian!
@3 Steffen – nothing wrong with thinking “works out” was looking for an anagram in 1D – I did exactly the same thing.
It sounds like you’re beginning to understand what to do. It’s now just a case of filtering through the possibilities. I promise you they get easier with experience – keep plugging away 👍
Excellent blog, Shanne. As an experienced, but not very proficient, solver and not, therefore, the target audience, I was wondering what I thought of Carpathian’s use of a few crossword chestnuts such as ‘ace’ for expert but by explaining this in the blog Shanne expanded the educational brief of the puzzle.
Insertions and substitutions can be quite tricky so this was a good workout.
Incidentally, exp16, a bream is a species of fish not a word for a male fish (maybe several species of fish).
@6 Arib – your comment about bream not being a male fish suggests you’ve missed a nuance of the clue.
As Shanne states – the clue is looking for a fish. The “Male” part of the clue is there to tell us to what to replace the last letter with (M).
HG@4. Your live solve linked in your post is a wonderful contribution to QC solvers. Thank you for your generosity in providing this. The thing I relate to is moving on if you don’t get an answer first off, then finding ones that will give crossers for further solutions.
Thanks for a great blog, Shanne, and for explaining the example of the letter swap clue (MOG). I understand how the letter swap works but couldn’t think of ‘mog’ for cat, despite having two of them myself!
I like to have a look at these and wish they had been around when I started.
Lovely blog Shanne with lots of tips
Thanks Carpathian
Steffen @3 – solving I tend to read through the clues in order and answer what I can immediately. This one I looked at the first anagram at 1A, it didn’t leap out at me immediately, so I left it thinking I’d have crossers from the down clues when I came back. 7A was a blank (which I kicked myself when I came back through and saw it). Started solving from CRAFT and AGE. Came back through on the downs, and couldn’t see SEDUCES immediately either, so just kept reading through the down clues and answering what I could. Second read through the across clues SOFT- leapt out from the F, so I solved SOFT-HEARTED and DOUBTER, which I thought was very clever. My last two in were SEDUCES and TOAST because I had to think to remember deduces to give SEDUCES and TOAST meaning brown.
On the tougher cryptics, it’s often a couple of clues in a corner you work out from to answer the rest, as each crosser (crossing letter) gives more information.
Naomi @9, I reckon if I have to think about the example, newer solvers are not necessarily going to know the vocabulary being used (the SPIN to SIN for one of the examples throws a lot of people). MOG took a bit of thinking, so it was worth explaining.
Excellent advice from Shane @11 for Steffen @3. I always work round the grid to see what I can solve straight away..but even if I can see it’s an anagram, if it is long I find it easiest to write out the letters randomly and come back later when I have a few more letters from other solves.
I got 11d but thought it was a reference to someone posting on Twitter🥴. Just goes to show that it is always worth checking the answers even when you think you have got the answer
Managed to complete this week’s relatively quickly for me without visiting here for help 😄
But checked in as I like getting some confirmation and for the excellent explanations Shanne provides. Thanks Shanne, and to Carpathian for a nice Saturday morning mental jog.
I do these because I post them on WhatsApp for my children to try. I am probably better than most solvers here, but Paddymelon etc. do them as well, but I like to see the level of difficulty they are exposed to. Naturally I forget that there are only 3 or 4 clue types, so I make it a little harder for myself because the same wordplays keep cropping up.
Anyway, I think this was ideal novice material and I think HG explaining that you can partially fill in an answer and come back must help many. I came here to see what the likes of Steffen thought.
Really enjoying these and for the first time understanding how to approach things. Got everything except 5d.
Thanks for the helpful blogs.
The blogs from Shanne are invaluable. I bought Chambers Crossword Dictionary on her advice.
The video blog of the solving from HG is exactly the kind of thing I’ve been looking for over the last 18 months. Also videos on YouTube from Pat Cousins.
There are some great books that you can buy too Steffen. Eg The Times How to do cryptic crosswords. They take you through all the clue types, pitfalls to avoid etc, wordplay and plenty of practice puzzles. It help me to get started and I still refer back to them as a newbie
What Fiona wrote @10. Additional, TOAST was my last one in also and SABRE,in particular, was a great clue
Thanks Carpathian and thanks Shane for some wonderful information
Ah, thank you Arib and HG. Yes, indeed the M was for substitution, made that mistake in a hurry to post my comment. Did look up bream before posting it. 🙂
Phew, back to normal Quick Cryptic difficulty perhaps? I have to say, I think Carpathian is the perfect fit for the Quick Cryptic. It could of course be entirely subjective, but this week’s felt more like the earlier QC crosswords as far as difficulty was concerned and after two weeks of pretty tricky puzzles, this was a breath of fresh air. No new vocab for me, and I just knew that brown wasn’t referring to the colour somehow, well not exactly; I suppose it kinds of is in a way. My favourite clue was Tweeter. The clues were clear and answers not too obscure. Very satisfying. The QC has become my warm up puzzle before the Quiptic on Sunday. And as always, thanks for the detailed explanations Shanne.
Thanks for the blog Shanne. I am enjoying these and seeing progress. I definitely need to wean myself off the check button on the app. It’s so tempting but I know I find the puzzle more satisfying if I don’t use it.
HG@7 er yes…?
Thank you especially for all of the extra information Shanne, it’s so helpful.
Many thanks to @Shanne for the blog and clear explanations! Struggled with some of the letter swaps, but mostly in parsing which was the definition, then finding the appropriate synonym for the swap!
Was stuck with 1D, 5D and 9A (which I should have got really!)
5D was a nightmare – crow=boast, brown being the definition.
Nonetheless loving these Quick Cryptics for a beginner!
I just posted on QC#9, for @Steffen: Cracking the Cryptic have a 30-60 minute video every Friday where they talk you through the solving of the Times Friday Crossword. Excellent for getting in the mind of a solver: https://youtu.be/EL7TQFbK6dQ
Because this turned up on QC#9 – that I’ve just checked because James posted there – Pat Cousins solves the Guardian Cryptic on YouTube here – https://www.youtube.com/@PatCousins
@23 Arib – apologies, I hadn’t realise you were replying to the comment @1 and thought you were making a general comment directed at the blog. Must admit I wondered why you had put “exp16” when I replied – but now see it’s a username!
@8 paddymelon – thank-you for your kind words 👍
@17 Steffen – glad it was useful. I will keep doing them for a while until I feel I’m becoming repetitive and not adding anything you can’t find in the blog
Great to see so many new names , onwards and upwards . This puzzle is a great initiative and the blog is wonderful .
One point that seems trivial is the grid , this one is perfect, lots of perimeter letters. I think setters should try and avoid sticklebrick grids where all the answers stick out into the edges.
Hi Roz @28 – nice to see you drop by.
We did have a sticklebrick grid for #9, and solvers noticeably found it more difficult. It was set by Carpathian, who set this puzzle too. The other challenge was the clue types were double definitions, hidden words, insertion and charades, so only hidden word could be found in the clue, everything else had to be imported. For this one the anagrams, acrostics and alternate letters are all there, so the letter swaps have more information to help solvers reach the answer.
Type of clues is a good point. I suspect anagrams/hidden/acrostic/alternate are easier for newer solvers. Perhaps two out of these four each week would be ideal .
Ha this is more like it! Anagrams, acrostics, alternates are my favourite types of clue [if i can spot them!]
With one or two exceptions these crosswords are pitched at the right level. I think I remember getting off to a flying start with #1 and #2 only to come a cropper with #3, and #9 was hard also.
Favourites: SABRE, ADO.
New to me: motet. This just had to be anagram fodder.
Wow, what a difference a week (or a day, for Mr. Catchup here) makes! I found this one *way* more straightforward than the last two, and raced through everything except 5d, for which I got a bit of help in the comments on the Guardian page.
I think from now on, every time I struggle with a long clue I’m going to check if it’s an acrostic. Although I can’t say I’ve seen many of those in the wild.
And thanks for the explanation of the letter swap example, Shanne. Surely the examples should be easier than the actual clues…
Ed @32, this particular crossword had a lot of clues where all the letters were included, which we all find easier to deal with – acrostics, alternate letters and anagrams, only leaving the letter swaps where the solver has to think of word from nothing, that can be swapped to give something else.
Shanne @33. Yes, good point. When the tricks are limited in this way, it does make it a tad easier, and the tricks for this one were, as you said, easier than most. Very enjoyable though!
While I’m here, I’ll say that I really appreciate this site and these breakdowns, so many thanks!