This is the sixteenth 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.
Several new concepts and tricks this week, which made this more challenging than others in this series, including a new clue type, the Spoonerism which many solvers, including me, don’t find easy, lots of great surfaces which often make the clues harder as they are more misleading and a fair amount of required general knowledge. As someone pointed out on the Guardian blog, Spooner’s birthday was 22 July.
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.
- brackets around anagram fodder with an asterisk, in the example below (SENATOR)*
- anagrind (arranged – in the example below) for anagram indicator,
- < to indicate letters being reversed, DOG< in the example below
- surface many cryptic clues are written in an English that could only appear in a cryptic crossword – clues with a good surface read as sentences that make sense – often amusing, pointed and/or misleading.
TODAY’S TRICKS from the puzzle https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/quick-cryptic/16
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 - Reversal The answer backwards, and a hint that we’re reversing
‘Deity’s pet comes back (3)’ gives GOD - Insertion One word inside another makes the answer
‘In favour of republican entering Post Office (3)’ gives PRO from PO around R - Spoonerism Clue also describes answer with words’ first sounds swapped
‘Spooner says rowers let slip sea creature (4,4)’ gives BLUE CRAB from crew blab
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | GUEST BEER |
Spooner’s finest clothing, getting extra ale in a pub (5,4)
Spoonerism of “best gear” (finest clothing) to give a GUEST BEER
I’m not sure how international this concept is, but British pubs are often linked to breweries, so only sell the wares of that brewery. To offer variety they can feature GUEST BEERs as a different type of ale to try.
For those who’ve never seen this crossword trick before, the Reverend Spooner was a British clergyman who is remembered for mixing up consonants in speech – and admitted to saying Kinkering Kongs instead of Conquering Kings announcing a hymn.
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| 7 | REIMS |
US rock group’s going around one French city (5)
insertion R. E. M (US rock group) + S (from the apostrophe s in the clue) going around I (one) to give RE I MS – the French city
General knowledge (GK) here to know that R.E.M. was a US rock group and that REIMS is a French city.
|
| 8 | AT SEA |
Bewildered as tea gets drunk (2,3)
anagram of (AS TEA)* with anagrind of gets drunk
I’m more used to seeing AT SEA as an anagram indicator than a solution, very smooth surface here to add to the confusion
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| 9 | GUT |
Yank spins around, showing belly (3)
reversal (spins around) of TUG< (yank) to give GUT
Yank at the beginning of the clue suggests the slang for American, Yank, not the verb meaning pull – one of those misleading capitals some setters love to use.
GUT – is one of the words with many meanings – in the sense of belly, there are tum, tummy, corporation and there’s also internal gut, so innards, entrails, etc, and guts as in courage – so bottle, spirit …, and then there’s the verb, so disembowel, etc.
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| 10 | ATHEISM |
His team developed a disbelieving attitude (7)
anagram of (HIS TEAM)* with anagrind of developed
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| 12 | BAD DEBT |
Spooner’s father gambled – such money won’t be repaid (3,4)
Spoonerism of “dad bet” (father gambled) to give BAD DEBT.
|
| 14 | SON |
Back numbers for boy (3)
reversal (back) of NOS< (numbers – from No, abbreviation of number) to give SON
As last week, boy can clue SON, lad and various boy’s names.
|
| 15 | NAILS |
Fixes trouble between north and south (5)
insertion of AIL (trouble) between N (north) and S (south) to give N AIL S
All the cardinal directions turn up in cryptic crosswords – North, South, East and West, but I think this is the first time I’ve blogged that in the Quick Cryptic. They can also appear as partners (from bridge) so NS and EW/WE.
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| 17 | EVOKE |
Summon apple thief, receiving fine (5)
insertion of OK (fine) in (receiving) EVE (apple thief) to give EV (OK) E EVE stole the fruit/apple from the tree of knowledge according to Genesis Fine can be clued as OK, as here, but also F from pencil grading (H, B, HB, F, and etc) |
| 18 | GREAT APES |
E.g. gorillas consumed fruit, as Spooner says (5,4)
Spoonerism of “ate grapes” (consumed fruit) to give GREAT APES of which gorillas are an example.
|
| “ | DOWN | |
| 1 | GARAGE BAND |
Oddly, a bad egg ran amateur rock group (6,4)
anagram of (A BAD EGG RAN)* with anagrind of oddly.
A GARAGE BAND is typically (according to my quick Google) a band that practises in a garage, so amateur.
Oddly usually indicates alternate letters, but can be used as an anagram indicator (and had to be here as there are no alternate letter clues in this crossword).
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| 2 | EDICT |
Cited strange order (5)
anagram of (CITED)* with anagrind of strange.
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| 3 | TESTATE |
Parisian is in art gallery, having made a will (7)
insertion of EST (Parisian is) in TATE (art gallery)
Tate is worth remembering as the go to gallery for cryptic crosswords. There are a number of TATE galleries in England, two in London, but also Liverpool and St Ives. The original was TATE Britain, in Pimlico, funded by the sugar magnate (as in Tate and Lyle). I know the Tate and Lyle factory/refinery on the Thames from walking the Thames path, but there are other sugar refineries around the UK. (corrected at the weekend to remove Margate’s Turner Gallery – away from a computer)
Est is the French for is in the third person (he, she – il/elle est)- so Parisian – have also seen es clued (second person – tu es), but that can be clued as art: tu es is nearer to thou art. Parisian often means translate into French, as can other French places, such as Nice.
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| 4 | EVA |
Ms Peron’s Roman greeting’s returned (3)
reversal (returned) of AVE< (Roman greeting) to give EVA Peron, also known as Evita, the wife of Juan Peron, former president of Argentina.
Again GK to know that AVE is a Roman greeting and that EVA was the Christian name of Eva Peron.
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| 5 | RISHI |
Confused Irish prime minister recently (5)
anagram of (IRISH) with anagrind of confused
In case it comes up, RISHI also means sage or wise man, so for the last couple of years, that cluing has also been used. As Rishi Sunak is no longer the UK Prime Minister, as of 5th July, this may no longer be relevant GK.
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| 6 | BAD MANNERS |
Rev Spooner’s crazy placards showing uncouthness (3,7)
Spoonerism of “mad banners” to give BAD MANNERS
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| 11 | HOT SEAT |
Those at ground in uncomfortable place to sit (3,4)
anagram of (THOSE AT)* with anagrind ground (think ground up)
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| 13 | DOING |
Performing canine keeps cool (5)
insertion (keeps) of IN (cool) in DOG (canine) to give DO (IN) G
IN can be clued as cool, hip, happening or popular – all those words that indicate something is the rage.
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| 14 | SLOOP |
Sailing vessel in ponds, heading north (5)
reversal (heading north – in a down clue) of POOLS< (ponds) to give a SLOOP, a small single-masted sailing ship, as heard of in the Sloop John B – with nary a sloop in sight
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| 16 | SUE |
Petition from European Union’s coming up (3)
reversal (coming up – in a down clue) of EUS< (European Union’s) to give SUE (petition)
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Thanks for yet another informative blog, Shanne. I always learn from reading it. I am a bit dense when it comes to spoonerisms, so I thought this was a bit tougher than previous weeks. But there were some nice clues, my favourite was the anagram ATHEISM
Thanks Picaroon and thanks again Shanne
Very thorough blog, Shanne. You’ve addressed the elements that may have made today’s puzzle a little challenging.
Yes, GUEST BEER was new to me. Interesting history of tied pubs and guest beer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guest_beer
Thanks for the blog.
Absolutely bamboozled by this. Beaten all ends up.
Ashamed to say I solved the anagrams and that was it.
And only 2 of the anagrams i saw.
Holy crud! That was TOUGH! Not sure what more to say.
GUEST BEER is new to me so I really struggled with that one, even with all the crossers. Only solved it by using the check button a few times.
Was able to figure out the answers for 7A, 14A, 17A and 13D but without understanding the wordplay, so many thanks as always to Shanne for the clear explanations!
Congratulations to any beginners who finished that!
In my opinion, this was a spectacular fail on meeting the brief of “encourage new solvers to cryptics”. Even ignoring the Spoonerisms and Reversals which are tough enough in themselves there was lots going on in other clues and lesser used words (e.g. sloop).
Anyway I’ve done my usual live solve video – think this will be better for the beginners as it isn’t just a write-in. The link is https://youtu.be/XyD4OYZvkhU
@3 Steffen – don’t feel ashamed about only getting the anagrams – this was horrible. Crosswords are much easier when you have letters on the board to work off. This offered very few gimme clues to set yourself up and get into it.
Over the weeks, I’ve found Reversals/Insertions to be two of the toughest types of clue and have seen Spoonerisms in the Everyman – my heart always sinks when I see one.
I admire you always come back and give it another go every week. Hang in there 👍
Steffen – Spoonerisms are usually my least favourite clue, and I couldn’t answer 1A without the crossers, came back when I’d finished to answer it and 7A, REIMS, not helped on that one by having the spelling of Rheims in my head – which gets to the same place when I google it. That crossing of EVOKE and SLOOP were my last two in, as it took a while to work them out.
As you can see from my explanations, there are lots of very new concepts here:
* use of French and Parisian to indicate that one
* cardinal directions – although those are reasonably straightforward
* some of the general knowledge in REIMS and EVA, plus TATE, although that one is often used
* oddly as an anagram indicator
* BAD DEBT and GUEST BEER are either technical (from accounting) or very UK pub centric,
This was a fun puzzle. It was a good introduction to spoonerisms, even if they took a bit longer to solve than other clues.
Thanks, both.
Quite a few of these clues might not have been out of place in Picaroon’s prize puzzle from last Saturday with the level of misdirection significantly up on previous quick cryptics plus introducing spooner at the same time. But the blog is great and so hopefully next time these tricks are played we’ll all be feeling more prepared! My favourite was probably BAD MANNERS but mainly because it EVOKEd mental images of mad banners!
Thanks Shanne & Picaroon
Definitely harder than the last couple of weeks, and had to resort to a reveal for TESTATE, I got the TATE but but missed the French translation and wasn’t familiar with the definition. Having been working my way through some historic Quiptics, having only anagrams OR insertions rather than trying to parse both at once felt much easier!
Shanne – many thanks!
A suggestion… put the answer at the bottom of the explanation. That way we could scroll the explanation onto the screen a bit at a time, revealling the answer only at the end (e.g. often just clarifying the definition is enough of a clue)?
Spoonerisms are never easy and very much often only work in the mind of the setter. Even with all the crossers, I only finally got 1A because I regularly drink them.
13D and 15A defeated me as only had first and last letters.
9A could have been either, again the crossers helped.
Thoroughly enjoyed this one. I too ended with 17A, so feel in good company. My favourite was 3D. Shane should add that “testate” is the opposite of “intestate” – a word more commonly used in he opposite sense. I tried the cryptic on Wednesday, to see how my training had developed (!), and solved five clues. Had to have a cup of tea after that to recover from the shock.
Thoroughly enjoyed this one. I too ended with 17A, so feel in good company. My favourite was 3D. Shanne should add that “testate” is the opposite of “intestate” – a word more commonly used in the opposite sense. I tried the cryptic on Wednesday, to see how my training had developed (!), and solved five clues. Had to have a cup of tea after that to recover from the shock.
Thanks Picaroon (three consecutive blogs on fifteensquared!) and Shanne
I generally don’t like Spoonerisms, but I thought that these were all quite good. I think it’s important that the phrase makes sense both ways round.
Michael @13, good suggestion – I think what might work is to move the solution to the right hand column with the clue and wordplay in the middle, so you can avoid scrolling over to see the answer until you’re ready.
Thanks Shane – love your commentary – really helpful for this beginner. Thanks Picaroon – loved the spoonerisms – took a bit longer than last weeks but good fun.
Much harder than recent weeks but got there eventually.
I wasn’t familiar with spoonerisms but, after googling some examples to understand, thought they were very good.
I still rarely get more than three or four in the weekday Guardian cryptics so look forward to Saturdays.
Thanks to Picaroon for the extra challenge and to Shanne for the blog.
I agree that some of these clues were at normal cryptic level. It took me the longest of all of these beginner cryptics to complete, appreciated having some new clue types though. Great idea Michael@13 and Shanne@18 to enable access to some of the workings without revealing the full answer. For me that would also be helpful for the main daily puzzle. Thank you for the excellent blog again Shanne and to Picaroon for the puzzle.
Thanks for the blog, Shanne, and may I make a pedantic correction for 3d? The gallery in Margate isn’t a branch of the Tate – it’s called the Turner Contemporary and is independent. (Coincidentally, this came up in a pub quiz I was in this week.)
brian-with-an-eye @22, you can, and I’ll see if I can amend it, but I am away from my laptop. I did Google, because I used to have Tate membership for a while and couldn’t remember Margate being an option, so wondered if it was so long since I had membership.
A little trick that made this just a bit harder was the way of getting an extra S from an apostrophe or plural: US rock group’s = REMS, European Union’s = EUS and numbers = NOS. I agree that some of these wouldn’t have been out of place in a full strength Cryptic: the “Parisian is” device in particular is something beginners probably won’t have seen.
Thankyou! I’m thrilled to have solved my first cryptic using your tips!
Congratulations P!
Just to go against the flow, I found this one relatively easy, possibly as very familiar with Guest Beers and Spoonerisms, which are my partners speciality. But agree the insertions were tricky. Missed ok for fine and didn’t get evoke at all. Also was puzzled why in=cool until reading explanation here but got that answer anyway. Atheism was my favourite. As a beginner, am encouraged to keep going!
I’m afraid I have had to look up all the Spoonerisms. These crosswords are supposed to be for ‘beginners’. There have been some great puzzles ~ I always like Maskerade’s settings. But this was just so frustrating. I’m sure for those of you who waltz through these before progressing to the Everyman one, it was amusing. Alas, those of us still at the cryptic shallow end get very frustrated when we can’t fathom the clues. Tempted to say: do better Picaroon!
I’m afraid I have had to look up all the Spoonerisms. These crosswords are supposed to be for ‘beginners’. There have been some great puzzles ~ I always like Maskerade’s settings. But this was just so frustrating. I’m sure for those of you who waltz through these before progressing to the Everyman one, it was amusing. Alas, those of us still at the cryptic shallow end get very frustrated when we can’t fathom the clues. Tempted to say: do better Picaroon!
You will have to meet spoonerisms sometime, although there is a large anti-homophone spoonerism brigade fighting to get them banned. I don’t think they’ll win!
Thank you very much Shanne, I’m loving these quick cryptics! This one was my hardest yet in places and there were two that I got without fully understanding so it’s great to have this excellent blog to go through, your explanations are extremely helpful! : )
Thanks for the blog, Shanne!
Longtime crossword fan but never got anywhere with cryptics until this series. I’ve been working through the previous 15 puzzles this week and am finally caught up!
I actually got more stuck on several of the previous puzzles than this one, but there were several that I got on the definition without understanding the wordplay (TESTATE especially – missed that ‘is’ was part of the wordplay). GUEST BEER was also a new concept to me.
Spoonerisms were a bit complicated but at least they’re clearly marked! I’ve often stared for ages at a clue trying to make it a charade when it’s a hidden word, or vice versa.
Seems like whether a puzzle is easier or harder than previous puzzles can be quite subjective, which is natural enough.
(Hope it’s OK to make relative comparisons of the difficulty of puzzles?)
I couldn’t finish, had to reveal 3 and then a couple more I either guessed or got from the wordplay only (never heard of REIMS or TESTATE).
I guess spoonerisms also allow homophone type amendments too? I.e. changing gear to geer in 1a.
BAD MANNERS made me laugh and I though apple thief = EVE was clever.
Thanks Picaroon and Shanne.
Certainly one of the first foreign language clues in the Quick Cryptic series – I liked it though, and having meandered my way to the “next level”, one I had seen before.
EVOKE was quite clever, but a tricky one – and a good indicator of a marked, if still subtle, uptick in difficulty for these again, not just because some of the tricks were on the tougher side. I still really enjoy these – and like to come and check my homework with Shanne – so ta! (and to Picaroon!)
Aurelia @32 comparative is fine – we were trying to stop the regulars coming along and saying they’d solved the puzzle in impossible times (30s memorably – I know how fast I can write in clues I’ve already solved and that’s a couple of minutes – I use the app to provide the image and that doesn’t load until 1am. If I’m still up solving, the website loads at midnight, so I can solve, blog, then create the image.)
Shaun@33 – yes, Spoonerisms just have to sound alike, so spellings can vary between clue and answer.
My hear sank when I saw “Spoonerism” in the preamble, and it sank some more when I saw that the first clue was a Spoonerism! I had to get all the crossers and then make a guess, I hadn’t heard of the phrase “guest beer”. 🙁
Liked: ATHEISM and AT SEA anagrams.
EVOKE was tough.
Yet another brilliant blog Shanne, very much appreciated as a former newbie who sometimes needed his head banging on the blackboard many times to understand the explanation. Spoonerisms are up there with homophones as the most contentious clue types as regional accents, with or without a certain sound (like r) causing ructions. Done well they can be brilliant and GUEST BEER, BAD DEBT, GREAT APES and BAD MANNERS would all have been ticked in a daily cryptic as being superb examples.
I’d also say to folks don’t expect to race through a puzzle in 30 minutes. You are at your level. Stop, do other stuff but mull a few clues in your mind. Things tend to come in fits and starts I find. The answers to the Prize and AZED puzzles come out 1 week later for a reason, although these days the Everyman could do with a reveal on say Tuesday.
Almost forgot to tip my hat to Picaroon. Well done that… person.
Oooh, bit of a tough one this week. Mind you, never been great at spoonerisms. I somehow knew the answer to finest clothing had to be best wear or best gear, but just couldn’t figure out what the spoonerism of that would be because of the naughty u in guest. Still, a good clue. My favourite clue has got to be 1D because I just can’t help imagine a band led by a bad egg as a sort of surreal animation or something. Bad Manners and Bad debt also made me chuckle. Don’t often expect to learn new words in these Quick Cryptics, but didn’t know Testate. I was thinking it might be probate before the other letters went in. As always, thanks for the great blog SHANNE, and thanks for the challenge PICAROON.
Enjoyed the clues and the blog (thank you Picaroon, Shanne and contributors): definitely found the spoonerisms challenging, but elegant in their resolution.
And satisfying to have worked through the harder puzzle.
Didn’t do too badly this week, but I’m one of the few who actually likes Spoonerisms, it seems. I eventually revealed 7a, 15a and 13d. I should probably have persisted on the last two, but I’d never have got 7a in a month of Sundays, even if REM did cross my mind as a possibility in the mix. I didn’t like the apopstrophe-s shenanigans, and I’d not heard of the city. Ah well! I’m caught up now, and I’ll be tackling this week’s puzzle shortly.