This is the twelfth 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
- < to indicate a reversal so DOG< becomes GOD
- 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 https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/quick-cryptic/12
Clues begin or end with a definition of the answer. The rest is one of these:
- Palindrome Hint that answer reads the same backwards
‘Holy woman going back and forth (3)’ gives NUN - Charade A combination of synonyms
‘Qualify to get drink for ID (8)’ gives PASSPORT (pass + port) - Double definition Both halves are definitions!
‘Search scrub (5)’ gives SCOUR - Reversal The answer backwards, and a hint that we’re reversing
‘Deity’s pet comes back (3)’ gives GOD
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | HANNAH |
Biblical woman, she comes and goes (6)
palindrome (comes and goes) name of Biblical woman whose name is the same on reversal. HANNAH is found in 1 Samuel, and is the mother of Samuel.
adding in later (after I’d slept on this) She’s also linked to one of the canticles, the Song of Hannah which prefigures the Magnificat, Mary’s song when she realises she’s carrying Jesus.
The other favourite here is Eve and who I thought of first.
|
| 4 | STAR |
Celebrity rodents going west (4)
reversal (going west) of RATS<
Normally we read left to right – so going east, going west is indicating that should be reversed
|
| 8 | NOTABLE | Famous reason for cancellation of snooker competition? (7)
correcting to double definition (see comments below) where NOTABLE is famous, and NO TABLE would be a reason for cancelling a snooker competition – this sort of cryptic cluing is common in cryptic crosswords. |
| 9 | NAB | Arrest and boycott, on reflection (3)
reversal (on reflection) of BAN< (boycott) To NAB someone is an informal way of saying arrest – as is nick, which also comes up. On reflection is another way of saying reverse the letters being used – often seen with hidden clues to indicate the letters are hidden backwards. |
| 10 | SACK |
Fire and pillage (4)
double definition – to fire someone is to SACK them, and marauders SACK villages when pillaging.
|
| 12 | RENNET |
Paper money returned for cheesemaker’s substance (6)
reversal (returned) of TENNER< (paper money).
RENNET is a mixture of enzymes found in the stomachs of ruminants and used to turn milk into cheese and/or junket, not that anyone makes junket any more, but I do just about remember eating it as a child.
|
| 14 | LEAVES |
Abandons foliage (6)
double definition both abandons and foliage mean LEAVES.
|
| 15 | USED |
Accustomed to American newspaperman (4)
charade of US (American) and ED (newspaperman)
very common both these abbreviations and this particular clue
|
| 18 | VAT |
Tax from museum takes time (3)
charade of VA (the Victoria and Albert Museum in London) and T (time)
VAT is Value Added Tax, a UK purchase tax on goods, currently 20% on most goods and services, 5% reduced rate and 0% on food and other essentials.
VA is in Chambers as an abbreviation for Victoria and Albert. I’d quibble about using it for the museum as someone who attended university and lived in that vicinity for a number of years, V&A is commonly seen for the Victoria and Albert Museum and the V&A use VAM as their abbreviation in their emails.
|
| 19 | CANTEEN |
Cannot even eat here! (7)
charade of CAN’T (cannot) E’EN (even – seen in poetry) to give CANTEEN.
Punctuation is usually ignored in crosswords and here the common contraction of cannot and the poetic use of even are being used.
|
| 21 | LARK |
Songbird’s mischief (4)
double definition – amazing songbird the skyLARK when I hear it, and LARK is a term for mischief. Nowadays, it’s most often used as: “such larks we had” as a reference to older times not being as safe/enjoyable as now.
|
| 22 | SACRUM | Bone and pouch. That’s peculiar (6)
charade of SAC (pouch) + RUM (peculiar) to give the SACRUM, a bone that’s part of the pelvic area. |
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | HUNTS |
Tracks down in small county (5)
double definition – the small county is HUNTS, the standard abbreviation of Huntingdonshire, (adding in after comments below) which was a county in the middle of England until the 1974 boundary changes when it became a local government district of Cambridgeshire. I should have checked, because although I lived in Northamptonshire before the boundary changes, so recognised the county and could even name places within the area, I did think that I couldn’t immediately remember seeing that name recently.
|
| 2 | NET |
Number’s up after tax (3)
reversal (up) of TEN< (number) – in a down clue, one of the ways of indicating a reversal is up, as instead of reading down as normal, the reverse is to read up.
NET in this sense is from accounting – the net profit is the amount of money a company makes after tax.
|
| 3 | ABBA |
Up and down group (4)
palindrome (up and down – in a down clue) of the Swedish Supergroup that often is used in crosswords for its palindromic name.
|
| 5 | TENANTS | Number of workers for lodgers (7)
charade of TEN (number) + ANTS (workers) I don’t think this trick has turned up before, but ANTS and bees are regularly clued as workers. ANTS are also clued as soldiers. |
| 6 | REBUT |
Give the lie to potato upset (5)
reversal (upset – again in a down clue) of TUBER< (potato).
Another one I’d quibble over as there’s no indication of a definition by example – there are lots of tubers, potatoes are only an example of that.
|
| 7 | REFER |
Make an allusion, either way (5)
palindrome (either way) – to REFER to something is to allude to it or make an allusion and it’s one of the palindromic words that are regularly used in crosswords.
|
| 11 | COASTER | Boat that’s under a wine glass (7)
double definition – a COASTER is a boat that operates around the coast – the last verse of John Masefield’s Cargoes is about that COASTER and includes lots of crossword language. A COASTER is also the small mat that goes under a glass or mug adding in a link see here for an article about them. Silver bottle coasters used to be wedding or christening presents. |
| 13 | FENCE |
Barrier for receiver of stolen goods (5)
double definition – according to my Chambers the receiver of stolen goods meaning of FENCE is thieves’ slang, but it’s far more common than that in British English.
|
| 14 | LEVEL | Horizontal – and vertically! (5)
reversal (and vertically!) – LEVEL is defined in Chambers as a horizontal position. I have interpreted this clue as suggesting that on a down clue, vertically suggests a reversal and that the exclamation mark is indicating loose cluing. |
| 16 | DENIM | Material extracted and brought up (5)
reversal (brought up – in a down clue) of MINED< (extracted) For the material named after the place in France (de Nimes) it originated from for workwear and later adopted by jeans manufacturers in the USA. Having just checked it’s a warp-faced twill weave, using white weft threads with coloured warp threads (which makes sense to me, but I dressmake). |
| 17 | ANNA | Frozen princess turned over just the same (4)
palindrome (turned over just the same) – it has to be ANNA not Elsa as ANNA is a palindrome – adding in – Frozen the 2013 film and spin offs, which includes a London musical, finishing in September. |
| 20 | ERR | Make a wrong move, taking queen with rook (3)
charade of ER (queen) with R (rook) to give ERR R for rook is from chess terminology, which also gives us K for king, Q for queen, B for bishop, N for knight. ER for queen is now more usually clued as “old queen” since the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, but was a regular crossword abbreviation for decades. It is found in various places, e.g. the abbreviation on post boxes, and stands for Elizabeth Regina. Queen here can also indicate VR (Victoria) and etc, and we also get the Kings – GR (George Rex), CR (Charles Rex) and so on. |
I’ve gained a pupil. A week or so ago an elderly friend asked me what I might recommend she should be doing to ward off possible dementia. I don’t claim to be an expert, but I persuaded her to try cryptic crosswords. I thought that these new quick cryptics would be ideal, so I selected a few from the last few weeks. With a fair bit of help she is slowly mastering them. More to the point, she’s enjoying them.
But I won’t be using this one in my teaching material, at least for a while. There were several “tricks” that are very familiar to seasoned cryptic solvers, but might be a bit of a stretch for rank beginners, such as ants for workers, ER for queen, rum for peculiar and e’en for even. The biblical and anatomical knowledge required in this one might also be a bit of a stretch, along with the abbreviation of an English county. I struggled with ABBA, as I was determined to find a common noun. Perhaps the clue might have specified a pop group?
Weren’t the quiptics originally recommended for beginners, but over the years the distinction has often been blurred somewhat? I hope this doesn’t happen with these. Perhaps some way down the track I may give this one to my aspiring cruciverbalist. But not yet, as I think it might turn her off.
Thanks for the blog, Shanne.
And I forgot to mention the VA museum!
Considerably harder this week, but I will still post it for my children and see what they make of it.
GDU@1
Your first para: Great! 👍🏼
Shanne! Neat & detailed blog!
REBUT
Agree with your quibble about the absence of a DBE indicator.
LEVEL
Again agree with your observation. The ‘vertically’ seems to be used to mean ‘up and down’. Not sure it’s (vertically) an apt way to hint at a palindrome.
Thank you for the blog.
Largely impenetrable for me. I managed to guess/check most other right hand side of the grid, but the left hand side was blank.
19a – “even” …I took this to mean use the even letters.
Steffen, I started blogging this crossword with five answers missing, all in the top left corner, knowing I was going to get stuff in as I went along. I got NET from the clue as I started putting it together, which with a lot of thought gave me HANNAH, because the palindrome meant double n in the middle. That H gave me HUNTS and the A ABBA. I only got NOTABLE with all the crossers.
As I blogged this I realised quite how challenging it is. Even to E’EN is a regular trick, but it’s assuming a lot of knowledge.
I’ve done another live solve and talk through viewable over here … https://youtu.be/GSdr7UrVLfA
I found that hard work! There was a lot of stuff experienced solvers will have seen which beginners have much lower chance of getting.
Beginners really do need the setters to be making this stuff blatant – the ABBA clue needed to be something like “Up and down pop group”. (On edit – I see Geoff@1 has said the exact same thing – great minds and all that!)
I agree- this one was tough. Similar to our esteemed blogger, my NW corner was sparsely populated for quite a while.
The rest was far from easy.
Thanks Maskerade and Shannew
HG@7
Your YouTube idea is great. I like it.
Hope it goes viral soon!
Isn’t 8 a double definition rather than a charade?
I think that this puzzle should just have been rejected. This format is a great initiative but the editor needs to be very strict with setters to maintain a suitable standard.
HUNTS is not a county, it was for some years but lost the status at least 50 years ago.
I agree it was harder this week. I hope the beginners do not get frightened away!
Favourite: TENANTS.
New for me: SACRUM; HUNTS = Huntingdonshire county – it took me quite a lot of searching to find it as ‘hunts county’ only brought up a company making cricket bats. And now I see that Roz@11 is correct, Huntingdonshire is not a county, it “is a local government district in Cambridgeshire, England, which was historically a county in its own right” but it has not been a county for 50 years. My info came from here: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Huntingdonshire#Status
Geoff@1 – the Quiptic is still described online as being “A web-only, cryptic puzzle for beginners and those in a hurry” but for several years the editors did not make sure the puzzles fitted the description. I would not recommend the Quiptic to beginners.
Thanks, both.
I don’t want to sound blasé but I found this fair and straightforward. Except 22a, which in spite of having the crosses I just couldn’t see. Thanks Shanne for the blog, as even though I puzzled most of it myself it’s very useful to get the details clearly presented.
I agree with Remus@10, surely 8a is a double definition:
Famous = NOTABLE
Reason for cancellation of snooker competition ? = NO TABLE
Many thanks to Maskerade and Shanne
Found this hard. Had to reveal for SACRUM, HUNTS (irritatingly I read the clue as “country” which is probably why I didn’t get it) and COASTER. I managed VAT and CANTEEN without really understanding them (though I did think that E’ER might be the reason for the latter), and I had to Google both the film Frozen and “women in the bible” for 17a and 1a respectively.
8a got a proper out loud chuckle from me though, so I can’t complain too much.
Thanks both.
I don’t think the cluing in itself is challenging, but the GK needed, eg in the ”frozen” princess, maybe. Have never seen Frozen. ”Group” was a bit broad for the definition of ABBA. As well, it helps to be familiar with the abbreviations, VA and VAT, ER and R from bridge, and counties, and archaic words like e’en.
Maskerade was being helpful with TEN twice, once reversed, in NET and TENANTS.
Take heart newbies. Store some of this away for future reference, but not all setters load so many of these in one crossword.
Fav was NO TABLE.
Thanks Shanne. I thought this was tricky and got HANNAH the way you did. I thought your blog was really good because of the explanations such as ants, bees etc. These will come in handy for newer solvers. My friend who is a rapidly improving newer solver has managed every one so far and I’ll be interested to see what she makes of this. I am concerned that this would be off-putting for someone who had not done the others or seen this blog.
Steffen, you are quite right about 19A “even” does mean the even letters most of the time and it was my first thought too.
Done every other Quick Cryptic from the Guardian, but this was by far the hardest, and my first DNF. I got everything but COASTER. Couldn’t see how the wordplay worked and was doubtful of my knowledge of names for boats or wine glasses, so I gave up.
Remus @10 and Humble Tim @14 – I’ve corrected the double definition at 8A
Roz @11 – corrected the HUNTS entry – from where we lived when I was a child we sailed on Graffham Water for a number of years, which was in Huntingdonshire, so Hunts was familiar. I should have double checked, as I spent long enough to learn the positions of the Counties playing Sporcle and it didn’t come to mind reviewing those.
I’ve added in some information about Frozen as it wasn’t obvious to others. (I spent my morning at the Girlguiding showing of InsideOut 2 with 4-7 year-olds (Rainbows), plus some 7-10 year-olds (Brownies), which is why I’m late coming back to correct this, and why I know Anna and Elsa as Disney princesses.)
And I’ve also added a link to the sort of coaster that goes under glasses.
To Geoff Down Under, when I was recovering in rehab from my stroke I was told ‘You must exercise your brain as well as your body’, I always enjoy this challenge every Saturday.
Stay safe and travel safely
This is definitely getting harder because I didn’t get COASTER. Can someone explain the purpose of “wine” in the clue? It completely threw me off, since it doesn’t seem to be relevant to the surface nor the answer. So I was trying to find a wine that began with C, or come up with a type of wine glass.
Never heard of Huntingdonshire but it was the only answer that fitted.
I don’t know much Biblical stuff so I had to guess there was a HANNAH in it. I wonder how many people would complain if we were expected to know about the Qu’ran instead.
Esoteric vocabulary is going to be the downfall of this series, I’d wager.
Beaten by SACRUM which I’d never heard of, and the sac/pouch rum/peculiar substitutions were both a bit of a stretch for me.
COASTER as a boat was also new to me, but was gettable from the clue and crossers.
Thanks Maskerade for the puzzle and Shanne for the clear blog (as ever).
@21 altreus – I’d say the purpose of “wine” is to cue you into the type of glass under which a coaster mat is used. If it just said “glass” – you might be led to thinking about window panes, spectacles or some such. In a tougher cryptic, you wouldn’t get that help.
Huntingdonshire – I’ve only heard of because John Major used to be the MP for Huntingdon. But as a child of the early 70s living on the south coast, I wouldn’t have known it otherwise.
Biblical stuff – I’ve not been to church since Sunday School and couldn’t think of Hannah until NET and ABBA went in – leaving me with -ANNA- to fill.
@9 KVa – thanks for your kind words. Not aiming to become viral or become a Youtube star from it – but hoping seeing a livesolve helps people understand that it won’t all go in at once. And that it’s a combination of experience (we had DENIM in previous QCs #4), persistence and sometimes just plain inspiration!
Struggled much more than recent weeks but on reflection I don’t think it’s too hard, just a different mindset.
Didn’t get sacrum or Hannah, could only think of Eve.
Huntingdon is on my train line which helped.
I took the vertical in level to both indicate a palindrome and to refer to the levels in a structure, esp a multi-storey car park.
Another here, like altreus@21, wondering about ”wine” in the clue for COASTER. Also didn’t know the boat called a ”coaster”. Never seen a coaster under a wine glass, only under beer glasses. Maybe I just don’t move in those circles. No experience of what Shanne said in the blog: ”Silver bottle coasters used to be wedding or christening presents.” So that’s a multiple General Knowledge gap for me in one clue.
I expect to find words I don’t know in crosswords, especially for a non Brit doing the Guardian cryptics, but that’s half the fun, looking them up and learning something. Thanks to Shanne’s link in the blog, I now know the term “tegestologist” for someone who collects coasters. I disagree with the article that cardboard coasters are now rare. I have a collection, but they’re not valuable ones, only to members of the household, as they have phone numbers written on them.
I think we have been progressing steadily in terms of difficulty every week so this was the right kind of challenging for me. Like some others have mentioned, I was thrown off by ‘wine’ and was wondering if somehow a flute or snifter was being charaded. Also agree with Shanne over the quibble around the clueing of LEVEL. Was unable to get HUNTS and parse VAT but that’s from my lack of knowledge of English counties or museum abbreviations. Struggled a bit also to get NOTABLE, it was a nice clue! Thanks for the blog!!
I had two “answers”, 1d and 11d that I couldn’t parse, mostly because they were wrong. At 1d, with the last two crossers in, I immediately thought of Hampshire, abbreviated to Hants, which gave me the biblical lady. At 11d I had craft as a word for boat, and added “er” to make what I assumed was a size or type of wine glass previously unknown to me. I’ve heard of “schooner” as a glass for drinks, so this seemed quite plausible. As some clues had already referenced more or less obscure general knowledge, not having heard of a “crafter” as a wine glass didn’t worry me unduly.
I read “Horizontal – and vertically!” as meaning each way, and therefore a palindrome indicator.
Thanks Maskarade for the puzzle, and Shanne for the clear explanations.
Managed this one without referring to the blog page or using reveal so quite pleasing. Although some I was letter guessing and then having a light bulb moment of what type of clue it was 😄
Like many comments here, HUNTS as a county seemed a stretch but I did at least recall that Huntingdon did have its shire once upon a time 😄
Sorry I have to disagree with all the peeps who say that this was one of the most difficult yet (Geoff @1, nibach @3, HG @7, Martyn @8, etc, etc). Surely #3 or #9 were the most difficult. This one was back to normal Quick Cryptic level – one or two toughies, one or two new words for my vocab, the vast majority gettable.
New to me: RENNET, SACRUM, COASTER (as a boat).
SACK: good misdirection, I didn’t get “sack” = “fire” (an employee).
CANTEEN: didn’t get “even” = “een”. Still bunged it in, as they say.
Thanks again, Shanne. Found this one quite reasonable, only falling foul of 22a. I was confident I’d kick myself after clicking “Reveal this”, but my reaction was actually more of a “yoo wot?”. I got a ‘B’ in my Human Biology ‘O’ Level back while the Earth was cooling, but if I’d ever heard of that, the brain cells storing it have long since died.
For 1a, HANNAH fills itself in once you have all the intersecting downs and realise it’s got to be a palindrome, so no biblical knowledge was required; more like new knowledge acquired. It gave me a flashback to Arrival as well; quite appropriate when it crosses with ABBA.
Loved 8a, and was fortunate enough that it was my second thought — although NOBALLS was my first guess, which is too short, doesn’t fit the definition, and isn’t even a word. Similarly, my first thought for 19a was NUNEATON, but that doesn’t fit either, and would have needed a “we hear” or something to make it work. Not all brainwaves end up being Eureka moments.
Onwards! It’ll be good to chat ‘live’ when I’ve caught up, although when that happens I’ll miss these only being once a week.
Isn’t 14d a palindrome?
Malcolm Parsons @31 – it is a palindrome, and I’ve just checked back – a month ago since I blogged this – and remembered that there is a discussion about how to define it. It’s not the clearest of cluing – and I remember not being sure which clue type it should come under.
I didn’t think this was the best example of a Quick Cryptic for the sloppiness in cluing.