This is the seventeenth 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.
After suggestions made on the blog last week, where the request was to not see the answer immediately, I’ve changed the presentation this week, so that readers have to scroll down and across to see the answers. The completed crossword is now at the end, rather than the beginning.
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 (for Republican) in PO (Post Office) means that ‘in’ is not part of the answer – see clue below.
- anagram *(SENATOR) shows letters in clue being used, see clue below.
- anagrind the anagram indicator (arranged)
- “quote marks” to indicate a homophone, eg WILD = “Wilde” as in Oscar Wilde in the example below
- 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/17
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 - Double definition Both halves are definitions!
‘Search scrub (5)’ gives SCOUR. - Soundalike Something that sounds like the answer
‘Excited as Oscar’s announced (4)’ - Insertion One word inside another makes the answer
‘In favour of republican entering Post Office (3)’
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 |
Scandalous figures clad inappropriately (11)
anagram of (FIGURES CLAD)* with anagrind of inappropriately
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DISGRACEFUL
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| 7 |
Snake finished going round US emergency room (7)
insertion ER (US Emergency Room) in (going around) SPENT (finished)
to give S (ER) PENT
Usually there is an indicator to show American usage, as here with ER. In the UK we would call the emergency room A&E (Accident and Emergency) or Casualty.
|
SERPENT |
| 8 |
Make a note of timber (3)
double definition to LOG something is to make a note, and a piece of timber is a LOG
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LOG
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| 9 |
Match officials embracing energy banks (5)
insertion (embracing) of REFS (match officials) embracing E (energy)
E from Energy comes from Physics (as in Einstein’s E=mc2)
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REEFS
|
| 12 |
Clean number in advance (5)
insertion of N (number) in RISE (advance) to give RI (N) SE
N for number is in Chambers, also abbreviated as No., can also refer to a number, e.g. 10 or ten, or an anaesthetic, as in something that numbs.
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RINSE
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| 15 |
Voice total (5)
double definition – to UTTER something is to voice it and an UTTER mess is a total mess.
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UTTER
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| 16 |
Audibly step and gaze (5)
soundalike (audibly) of “stair” (step) and STARE (gaze)
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STARE
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| 18 |
Celebration of chocolate from mixed bag (5)
double definition – a REVEL is a celebration, and also a chocolate from this mixed bag – link to Wikipedia.
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REVEL
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| 20 |
Heard pair as well (3)
soundalike (heard) of pair “two” and TOO, as well.
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TOO
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| 21 |
Pays no attention to revolting regions (7)
anagram of (REGIONS)* with anagrind of revolting
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IGNORES
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| 23 |
Pompous pioneer tuts randomly (11)
anagram of (PIONEER TUTS)* with anagrind of randomly.
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PRETENTIOUS
|
| DOWN | ||
| 1 |
Leaves puddings for auditor (7)
soundalike (for auditor) of “desserts” (puddings) and DESERTS (leaves)
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DESERTS
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| 2 |
Wait on start of tennis game (5)
double definition – to wait on is to SERVE and the first stroke of a tennis match is the SERVE
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SERVE
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| 3 |
Grass twisted in wrong direction we hear (3)
soundalike (we hear) of “wry” twisted in the wrong direction and RYE the grass used in lawns. (I added to this explanation below @15)
Wry is an old-fashioned word, but is still present in the name of the wryneck – a bird which can turn its head 180°. It can look as if its head is twisted in the wrong direction, when threatened.
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RYE
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| 4 |
Terrace rearranged for food provider (7)
anagram of (TERRACE)* with anagrind of rearranged
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CATERER
|
| 5 |
Criminal in bog holding either side of loo (5)
insertion: FEN (bog) around (holding) LO (either side of LoO)
Criminal is often used as an anagram indicator, here it’s the definition – so the first misdirection of the clue – especially when followed by 5 letters together (bog & in). Using bog and loo in the surface suggests something to do with toileting, rather than the two parts of the insertion. There’s more about FELON below @15.
Either side of is an instruction to take the letters either side of the next word – there are lots of tricks for this sort of instruction – in this case, endless would also have worked to give LOo.
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FELON
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| 6 |
Fall behind convict (3)
double definition to fall behind is to LAG and a convict is often called an old LAG, usually referring to someone who has been in prison several times. According to Chambers it also means to sentence someone to prison or transportation (which rather dates that term).
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LAG
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| 10 |
Reportedly pine for coat (3)
soundalike of “fir” as in a pine tree and FUR coat for an animal
Pine is another of those useful words with several meanings allowing ambiguity, and use to mislead.
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FUR
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| 11 |
Unfruitful show of hesitation entering steps in wall (7)
insertion (entering) – ER (show of hesitation) inside (entering) STILE (steps in wall) to give ST (ER) ILE
Chambers defines a STILE as a step or set of steps built into a wall or fence – around here we’ve also got stiles in hedges. See also longer explanation below @15
|
STERILE
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| 13 |
Rage that is about right (3)
insertion (about) of R (right) into I.E. (that is – id est) to give I (R) E
i.e. is another useful trick to remember, the Latin abbreviation used to give additional information in writing and legal documents, along with the other often used Latin abbreviations: e.g. (exempli gratia for examples, or say) and N.B. (nota bene to indicate something is important).
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IRE
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| 14 |
Casually listens and signs up (7)
anagram of (LISTENS)* with anagrind of casually
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ENLISTS
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| 17 |
Love an entrance on the radio (5)
soundalike (on the radio) of “a door” (entrance) and ADORE (love)
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ADORE
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| 19 |
Page roves around (5)
anagram of (ROVES)* with anagrind around
Pages can be recto or VERSO – either the front or back of a leaf in a printed manuscript, or in a book on the right or left. The verso is the left hand page in an open book.
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VERSO
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| 20 |
Tilt end (3)
double definition to tilt something is to TIP it and a finger TIP is the end of a finger
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TIP
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| 22 |
Loudly join young louse (3)
soundalike (loudly) of “knit” (join) and NIT a young louse – commonly found on the heads of young children and people in contact with said children.
|
NIT
|
Nice puzzle and wonderful blog. I continue to learn from Shanne.
We all experience crosswords differently, and I found the homophone clues needed thought. I wonder what others thought.
Thanks Carpathian and Shanne
Thanks Shanne. I didn’t know that meaning of WRY.
Martyn@1. I’m quite fond of homophones, and the discussion they engender. I find it best to turn away from the clue, and say what you think it might be out loud, so the brain doesn’t get stuck on the spelling and can ”hear” better.
Also, sometimes it’s difficult, and, on rare occasions, impossible, depending on the crossing letters, to determine which is the definition and which the ”soundalike”, in the grammar of the clue. This often provokes discussion as to who’s responsible, the setter or the solver. Then there’s the question of whose dialect? Some people get very energised by this. I think it’s all good phun. 🙂
Thanks Shanne. I am getting these most weeks but often with a fair amount of guesswork. You’re really helping me to fill in the gaps. Not crazy about the soundalikes but I got most of them in the end. I found the insertions a bit more challenging.
I could not parse 18ac ‘chocolate from mixed bag’ until I googled it and found Revels Milk Chocolate Pouch Bag 112g – never heard of it!
Thanks, both.
I found that challenging in places as I went through the clues but once I had some checkers in place it began to come together. Think there may be one or two that hold the beginners up. My usual live solve video available over at https://youtu.be/SWY9ohfbRqE
I print out these for my enthusiastic cryptic crossword pupil, who’s making slow but steady progress, but they seem to be getting harder, and less suitable for beginners, like the “quiptics” have done over the years. 18a was beyond me — presumably those chocolates are a British specialty?
Thank you for the blog.
I failed with RYE, FELON, STERILE, FUR ( I had FIR), VERSO (nho) and NIT.
I often struggle with soundalikes, so this was good practice for a beginner. Not the easiest, but enjoyable!
But in 1d I really couldn’t see the soundalike indicator in “for auditor”, so it was my LOI. To help me parse it, can anyone help me see how “for auditor” indicates something’s sound?
Thanks Carpathian and Shanne
GDU – I linked those chocolates in the blog because I wasn’t sure how international their reach was. They are ubiquitous here on confectionery shelves, in large “sharing” bags and individual bags. I preferred the original fillings of peanut and coconut.
We used to use the small bags for statistical analysis with the lads we taught. Sharing the bags we were all trying to avoid the orange and coffee flavours, cutting them in half to check if we were prepared to eat them or not, although I dislike the coffee less than the orange.
MC@8 one of the definitions in Chambers for auditor is listener (along with the person who checks accounts). Think auditory.
Shanne@1, thank you, that’s really helpful!
That makes a lot of sense – I was only thinking of it in terms of accounting.
MC@8: An auditor is someone who listens (using the body’s auditory system) and so would hear the homophone. There is another, more common, meaning of ‘auditor’, of course: someone who checks accounts. Setters often use such synonyms for misdirection where the surface suggests one meaning of the word but the wordplay uses another.
I see I was beaten to it while typing!
Well done Steffen@7. I always read the Quick Cryptic comments to see how you’re doing. Homophone clues can be difficult to know which one to go for and, in this case, I think FIR/FUR was an easy mistake to make. I was confused about NIT until I said the word out loud and realised that KNIT was the soundalike and “Loudly” was the indicator.
Thanks Shanne for the excellent blog and Carpathian for the puzzle.
Since when did fur sound like fir?
Steffen @7 “I failed with RYE, FELON, STERILE, FUR ( I had FIR), VERSO (nho) and NIT.”
I would agree that the vocabulary in this crossword included quite a lot of unusual words, most are in my idiolect but for odd reasons.
RYE/wry – I identify grasses, so know that RYE grass is a specific tougher grass, often a major ingredient in lawn mixes, which is why I commented on its use. It’s also used as a grain, used in RYE bread, particularly the black German rye bread I seek out.
I did think of two other ways of thinking about wry – which is still used, but only in very specific circumstances – a wry smile is a twisted smile, and things are awry when they are twisted all about.
FELON is probably best known from the A Policeman’s Lot is not a Happy One from Pirates of Penzance which starts:
“When a felon is not engaged in his employment, his employment
Or maturing his felonious little plans, little plans”
which we sang at school, had on tape at home and I was lucky enough to see the version with Tim Curry, Bonnie Langford, Pamela Stephenson, Sylvester McCoy, Michael Praed and George Cole in the early 80s, so I started typing that without having to look it up.
STERILE – the clean sense of STERILE is referring to the the sterility of the surfaces, so there are no or few bacteria/viruses present to reproduce and cause an infection – but unfruitful as another way of describing the inability to reproduce.
FUR/fir had to be the way round it is, because coat is at the end, and the pine is after the reportedly that tells me that it’s a soundalike/homophone – which in the version of English I mostly speak (MLE or RP, depending on auditors) are soundalikes.
VERSO I wasn’t expecting solvers to necessarily know, hence the long explanation above – I love old manuscripts, and calligraphy, so it’s something I’ve come across when reading up on stuff.
NIT/knit – I used to run preschool groups and still volunteer with Rainbows, 4-7 year olds, so NITs are an occupational hazard – I own and use NIT combs. Knit here is in the sense of bones knitting together, rather than the craft (of which I have a couple of projects needing finishing and/or starting).
I like the way that the Quick Cryptic setters use simpler “tricks”, but make few concessions in the vocabulary department – anyone who does the Quick or the Speedy will have met words like WRY/RYE, VERSO and FELON, though maybe not REVELs in that sense (I’d have been welcome in Shanne’s statistics class since I actually prefer the orange and coffee cremes: eating them is a tough job but someone has to do it…)
Sound-alikes are a minefield because there is always somebody for whom they don’t work. Congratulations to Carpathian for keeping the quibbles to a manageable level.
As per Peter @14, “fir” and “fur” don’t soundalike in my accent (west of Scotland – think Taggart, “There’s been a murder” :-)), so thanks to Shanne for clearing that one up.
I thought VERSO would have been tough for newcomers as it’s an unfamiliar word for many, although IGNORES and PRETENTIOUS were both simpler anagrams which provided helpful crossers.
I’d never heard of wry in the sense of “twisted in wrong direction”, so that had me puzzled for a bit as well.
Overall, somewhat tougher than previous entried in this series.
Thanks to Carpathian and Shanne.
I think familiar or non familiar vocabulary is a very individual thing.
FELON is not an unusual word, if you’re familiar with crime. It has its archaic and poetic meanings too, but it’s very much a word used today to refer to criminals, in some countries more specific to the seriousness of the crime. Donald Trump is repeatedly referred to as a felon.
Similarly, VERSO is in modern use regarding publishing and coins.
What I like about crosswords and these blogs, is that we all bring something different to our solves and contributions.
Thank you Lechien & Shanne.
Couldn’t parse 12A and struggled with 1D due to not getting the soundalike (even though I knew that was what it was) so thanks for the explanations.
Overall found that very enjoyable. Thought the surfaces for 7A and 5D were lovely as well.
We have reached number 17 of a marvelous series of “Beginer’s” cryptic crosswords. I’m enjoying them and the challenge. This one was either easier than some or i’m improving? Got it in 30 minutes over coffee.
Id est has finally stuck in my memory banks and i’m old enough that “older words / usage” are not too much of a struggle. I also remeber “Revels” as a childhood treat 🙂 Like most here i find Homophones remain a challenge and appreciate the various tips given by all of the above.
Thanks for an enjoyable puzzle and for the explanations and tips.
Enjoyed this one!
I knew VERSO from a course in early modern manuscripts – which has turned out to benefit me in many ways as I also use it to decipher people’s handwritings 🙂
I think anagrams are the most difficult clues for me. I’m often surprised by what can be an anagram indicator (“criminal” would never have crossed my mind – which was fine in this puzzle of course!). Is there any rule about what can be an anagram indicator?
These Quick Cryptics were my ground-zero into cryptics which I felt I could never do but I’m finding these a delightful Saturday distraction. I’ve also moved onto the Guardian Quiptics which for me are still very challenging but not as intractable as I’d have once found.
I thought 18ac very amusing but can see that it may be a little too British for some.
Thanks Carpathian for the puzzle and Shanne for the informative blog as usual.
Enjoyable but hard this week. Thank goodness we have anagrams every week! 🙂 I’m not sure that I’ve heard of a reef as a bank (9 across), sand banks perhaps. This clue works without the final word so I managed in the end. Thanks again for the useful explantions
Tim @ 24. Pretty sure i’ve crossed the term bank, meaning reef in one book or another…
Strongest matches
atoll, beach, coral reef, shoal
Strong matches
bank, bar, cay, ridge, rock
Bank reefs are characterized by coral formations in linear or semi-circular clustered patterns that are often larger than patch reefs, which are similar structures.
TanTrumPet, I’m from the Deep South (Dumfries) myself. Some of these so-called homonyms are really a result of some folks not being able to spoke property.
Aurelia @22 – pretty much anything that describes mixing, disruption, confusion or an abnormal state can be an anagram indicator. I have the Chambers Crossword Dictionary (2000, reprinted 2003), and one of the early appendices is a Summary of Common Anagram Indicators – it lists 2 pages of 4 columns across of indicators in their base forms – so arrange is listed but not arranging, arrangement, arranged, etc. There are are around 360 base words in that list that doesn’t promise to be comprehensive.
Tim @24, bank (in Chambers, 1st definition) a mound or ridge, … , a shoal or shallow.
reef (1st definition) gives a chain of rocks at or near the surface of water, a shoal or bank.
Peter @26 and @14 and TanTrumPet @17 – I asked my daughter about the differentiation between the vowel sound in fir, fur and fern. She’s into linguistics, and apparently this is an example of the Nurse Merger (link to Wiki) which means “the vowels in words like fir, fur, and fern are the same in almost all modern accents of English” while “most of Scottish English has some distinction”. More on the attached link if you’re interested.
I absolutely love these – can’t wait for the next one! This super helpful blog is great as well for any extra explanation needed and useful things to remember. Thank you Shanne and Carpathian. : )
Needed your further explanation on the down clues for 3,11 and 13, since although got them, only understood half of the reasoning before I read your blog. Many thanks
Peter @26, surely you mean Dimfries? 🙂
Shanne @28, thank you for that link. I’ve seen much discussion on here previously about rhotic and non-rhotic pronunciation, interesting to see that is the main distinction in the vowel pronunciation aspect. Also interesting to note from the wiki link that the vowel merger disappears if another vowel occurs after the /r/ – so that firry, ferry and furry would be pronounced correctly by the rest of the English-speaking world!
Another satisfying puzzle which I managed to solve before understanding some of the parsing. So this is really helpful for me. Thank you Shanne and Carpathian. I struggle with the inclusions ( for example 12a I was trying to put a number eg 1, one, ten into another word. Once I got R, N,E from the down clues I guessed the answer – and then used this blog for parsing)
Aurelia@22 ‘criminal’ isn’t an anagram indicator. Not in 5down anyway. It’s not an anagram, it’s an insertion. Or am I misunderstanding you?
Aurelia@22. Oh, sorry, yes now I see I was misunderstanding you. And I agree with you, ‘criminal’ would be an extremely obscure anagram sign.
Florrie Boleyn @33/4 – criminal is quite a regular anagram indicator – as is pants – in the standard Cryptic crosswords both are seen a lot.
This week was on the tricky side.
Shanne – thanks for tweaking the format.
Are they getting harder? Really struggling with these. Last week’s by Picaroon with all those Spoonerisms was a disaster. I thought these were for beginners. It is discouraging not to ‘get’ a single clue.
Thank you so much for doing this! I’m learning all the time- I didn’t realise how many words could mean soundalike.
caz@37 – have you tried watching HG @5’s YouTube – his experience of solving this wasn’t dissimilar to mine. I did the same trick of skipping the first few answers until I had crossers, found some words easier. We’re not just writing in answers even if we can solve these puzzles.
Thanks to everyone for their comments, especially Shanne. For those of us who are relatively new to cryptic crosswords this is very helpful, and good fun 😀
After finding the last few too tough or too easy, this one was just about pitched at my level. I only failed on 11d, although I wasn’t 100% sure about 19d VERSO or 22d NIT. I knew VERSO from the painting/phrase pollice verso, but not from books and paper, so it was a fairly confident guess, as that was the only other possibility, given the anagram and crossing letters, would have been VSREO. And for 19d, completely missed “loudly” as a soundalike indicator, so I’ve filed that one away; many thanks!
Couldn’t finish this, couldn’t get STERILE or VERSO (nho), and both RYE and REEFS were educated guesses. Weirdly I don’t think I’ve seen number abbreviated to N before, though surely I must have?
Thanks both
Liked: the two long anagrams DISGRACEFUL and PRETENTIOUS.
Was a bit surprised that Shanne didn’t mention that ER is often clued by “hesitation” etc, I quite often struggled with this at first.
New to me: VERSO.
Zihuatanejo @43, I did wonder about listing all the er, um and other hesitations, but it’s a balance between giving enough information to inform, but not too much and boring. I try not to give masses of information on every clue, just some of them. And that clue had STILE to explain too.
Shanne @44
Ha to misparaphrase the Pet Shop Boys, you’re never boring Shanne!
Mixed emotions here – this is the 17th cryptic crossword I’ve attempted in the last 20 years, but the first I failed to complete (sterile was a bridge, err stile, too far for me).
HOWEVER I cracked a wide grin to myself on getting felon and adore, and I suppose having fun is the whole point!
Thanks so much to the setters and shanne – I look forward every week to attempting the solve and then coming here to understand the clues I just kinda crowbarred in without really getting it.
This is my first ever quick cryptic – what worries me is that I got all the answers right but probably from only half of the actual clue. I have a long way to go before I can tackle a real cryptic, I suspect.