This is the nineteenth 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.
This week we have a selection of devices already used, including hidden and alternate letter clues to give a toehold around the charades and insertions.
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.
- 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/19
Clues begin or end with a definition of the answer. The rest is one of these:
- Hidden word Answer is hidden in the clue’s words
‘Some have altered meat (4)’ gives VEAL - Charade A combination of synonyms
‘Qualify to get drink for ID (8)’ gives PASSPORT (pass + port) - Insertion One thing inside another makes the answer
‘In favour of republican entering Post Office (3)’ gives PRO - Alternate letters Choose every other letter for the answer
‘Oddly envied First Lady? (3)’ gives EVE from EnViEd
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 |
Expendable Detective Inspectors fold fur (11)
charade of DIS (Detective Inspectors) + PEN (fold) + SABLE (fur)
DI is one of those abbreviations to store away, as it is often used to build words like this.
A PEN is a fold in the sense of a sheepfold – a place to keep sheep.
|
DISPENSABLE
|
| 7 |
Most hackneyed stories set in stone (7)
insertion of TALES (stories) inserted into (set in) ST (stone)
ST for stone as in the old imperial weight – someone weighing 8st 4lb (about 52kg)
|
STALEST |
| 8 |
Ninja regularly holding container (3)
hidden (holding) in ninJA Regularly
|
JAR |
| 9 |
Scouser sometimes hides addicts (5)
hidden in (hides) scoUSER Sometimes
|
USERS
|
| 12 |
Parasite left river (5)
charade of L (left) + OUSE (river)
The OUSE could be one of several UK rivers, the river in North Yorkshire that flows through York, or the one that I think of, the Great Ouse, that flows through Northamptonshire and is one of the rivers that empties into the Wash (where King John lost his wagons).
|
LOUSE
|
| 15 |
Foreign article about falsehood (5)
insertion of (about) LIE (falsehood) into AN (an article)
A, an and the often get clued as articles as they are the indefinite and definite articles in English grammar.
|
ALIEN
|
| 16 |
Kill small bug (5)
charade of S (small) + MITE (bug)
S for small as in clothing sizes, along with XS, M, L and XL
|
SMITE
|
| 18 |
Part of pictures I took in second test (5)
hidden (part of) pictuRES I Took
|
RESIT
|
| 20 |
Hawaiian dish partly spoiled (3)
hidden (partly) sPOIled
For this traditional dish in Hawaii
|
POI
|
| 21 |
Coerce mythical creature to consume first piece of orange (7)
insertion of (to consume) O (first piece of Orange) in DRAGON (mythical creature) to give DRAG O ON
“First piece of” is one of many ways of indicating taking the first letter
|
DRAGOON
|
| 23 |
Discourages examination during deaths (11)
insertion of (during) ORAL (examination) into DEMISES (deaths) to give DEM ORAL ISES
Oral is so common as an equivalence in crosswordland that I think of it first when I read exam or examination.
|
DEMORALISES
|
| DOWN | ||
| 1 |
Talk about field sport at start of summer (7)
charade of DISCUS (field sport) + S (the start of summer)
|
DISCUSS
|
| 2 |
Startle vehicle in South East (5)
insertion of (in) CAR (vehicle) in SE (south east) – to give S CAR E
|
SCARE
|
| 3 |
Creature ignoring odd bits of seaweed (3)
alternate letters (ignoring odd bits of) sEaWeEd
|
EWE
|
| 4 |
Carpathian perhaps embracing Latin colonist (7)
insertion of (embracing) – SETTER (Carpathian, perhaps) embracing L (Latin)
Using the setter’s name is often used to clue either SETTER as above, or me, I, my, I’ve, I’m, and etc.
L for Latin is a reasonably common abbreviation in crosswords.
|
SETTLER
|
| 5 |
Small and perfectly formed piece from Punjabi journalist (5)
hidden (piece from) PunjaBI JOUrnalist
|
BIJOU
|
| 6 |
Mistake made by wearer periodically (3)
alternate letters (periodically) of wEaReR
to mistake is to err (it works in a sentence using the verb forms)
|
ERR |
| 10 |
Traitor dreamt on and off (3)
alternate letters (on and off) of dReAmT
|
RAT
|
| 11 |
Second loan provider is remote (7)
charade of S (second) + LENDER (loan provider) to give S LENDER
He has a slender/remote chance of achieving that aim.
|
SLENDER |
| 13 |
Individual bounced regularly (3)
alternate letters (regularly) of bOuNcEd
|
ONE
|
| 14 |
Holds out as former lover takes care (7)
charade of EX (former lover) + TENDS (takes care)
EX for former lover is another abbreviation to remember
She holds out/extends a hand in friendship.
|
EXTENDS
|
| 17 |
Said I omitted section in phrase (5)
hidden (section in) saID I OMitted
|
IDIOM
|
| 19 |
Cries about new elitists (5)
insertion of (about) N (new) in SOBS (cries) to give S N OBS
|
SNOBS |
| 20 |
Walk upwards evenly (3)
alternate letters (evenly) of uPwArDs
adding this later as it’s come up a couple of times now -and although I did add to this below, it’s obviously now buried –
PAD does mean to walk but is more animalistic – wolves pad across the tundra.
|
PAD
|
| 22 |
Trouble caused by oddly deficient facials (3)
alternate letters (oddly deficient) of fAcIaLs
|
AIL
|
A very nice puzzle, and I think the first time a Quick Cryptic has contained a word I didn’t know, POI, though it wasn’t too difficult once I had the two crossers!
I’m not totally convinced by mistake as a definition for ERR. As a verb, I can’t immediately think of an example of it substituting for “err”; “make a mistake” seems a better synonym. For example, “I frequently mistake my facility for crosswords for intelligence” would not work as “I frequently err my facility for crosswords for intelligence”. But good enough for me to be sure of the answer, so not a big issue.
This had an olde worlde feel to it. SMITE, DRAGOON, BIJOU, ST(one). There were a couple of posters on one of the cryptics recently who were saying that the vocabulary and GK can put off younger solvers coming new to cryptics. I tend to think they have a point.
I think SMITE is a great word but I do not think it means “kill”. So saying I will bet someone somewhere has used it to mean kill and it is in Chambers.
Agreeing with Monkey@1, this contained a couple of new words for me and the uncommon use of a few words too. I feel this week was again slightly more difficult than last.
I have a question that I hope others will also find interesting. 22d uses “oddly deficient” as an alternative letter indicator. Is “deficient” there just for the surface, or does it affect the way facials is treated? Putting it another way, would the answer be the same if the clue read “facials periodically”?
Thanks Carpathian and Shanne
No Martyn @3, it wouldn’t make much difference as we are told that we have alternate letters clues today. However, in other cryptics, ”periodically” might mean you have to look and see and find and use every third letter, for example. oddly deficient is much more precise, ie delete the odd letters, but it’s also an interesting/quirky/misleading instruction as it has meaning in it’s own right. I like it..
me@4 continued. The surface for the AIL clue. Trouble caused by oddly deficient facials made me laugh. I’m sure we’ve all seen the trout lips, inability to express any natural emotions.
I think I should retract my comment that Carpathian seemed a bit dated today. Very contemporary clue.
[I did notice my greengrocer’s apostrophe@4, but timed out before I could edit it. 🙂 ]
I did like the little bit of misdirection in a couple of the hidden words. “Ninja regularly” and “Scouser sometimes” had me looking for alternate letters. “Foreign article” then had me thinking of foreign articles rather than English ones.
I think kill = SMITE and mistake = ERR are well within crossword norms, although ERR does seem a little dubious. The verb “to mistake” can mean “to err”, but I think it needs the passive form: I was mistaken = I erred.
Excellent puzzle for beginners.
Favourite: DEMORALISES, SETTLER, SNOBS.
New for me: POI.
Thanks, both.
To err is human …
To err on the side of caution
I enjoyed this one. No problem with err or smite but I was puzzled by oddly deficient in 22 down as I was looking at odd letters but the word ail comes from the even ones. Is that why the word deficient was there? I’ve just read comment number 4. Oddly deficient = delete odd letters. Ok thanks Paddymelon
Mary Hayes @10 – yes, it’s had the odd letters removed is what oddly deficient means, but as always, the crossword setters are trying to make the surfaces make some sort of sense and mislead by their use of words, so it’s something that will fit with the clue and when you read it correctly, is clear.
A good start to the day.
Enjoyed 1A and 23A a lot – both fine clues with a nice surface and I seem to be getting the hang of charades which is encouraging. Struggled to parse 7A and 11D for ages – I knew what the answer was but how to get that from the clue had me very foxed. Got there eventually though.
Huzzah!
Thanks Carpathian and Shanne
This was by far the hardest of these I’ve done. I wouldn’t have expected to see a word I had never heard of (except in Italian!) – POI – in a Quick Cryptic. Some of the defintions were not obvious either – SLENDER, EXTENDS, SNOBS, and PAD.
Congratulations, Lazarus Churchyard @12 – you should see our comments on last week’s prize, which was chewy and many of us took several days to tease it all out.
muffin @13 – you can tell when I think something is a bit obscure: I give a Wikipedia link or an example of that use – so I clarified POI, SLENDER and EXTENDS.
I didn’t think SNOBS for elitists was that challenging – those elitists/snobs don’t appreciate my home cooking.
However, I did dither about clarifying PAD, which is often seen often for walk in the crosswords, it suggests animal movement: e.g. the wolves walk/pad across the tundra.
Thank you, that was very useful. I couldn’t work out the significance of fold and fur in 1A. I need to brush up on lateral thinking skills!
Enjoyed this week’s puzzle, 7a and 20a had me puzzled and had to search for Hawaiian dishes.
All in all very enjoyable, many thanks.
@Martyn
Old language usage of Smite.
“When Jonathan “smote” the Philistine garrison at Geba (1 Samuel 13:3), it is better to translate “attacked” or “defeated” than to think that Jonathan killed them all; Genesis 32:9, Joshua 11:8 (“smote and chased”), and Judges 3:13 are all examples where “attacked” is the best way to translate. But 1 Samuel 17:50 makes it clear that David both “smote” Goliath and “put him to death,” two separate actions. In 1 Samuel 17:35, David smites the lion or bear to rescue his sheep, and if the animal attacks him, he smites and kills it. In Exodus 2:11, Moses sees an Egyptian boss “beating” a Hebrew slave but not killing him (same meaning in 2:14 and in 5:14), but in the very next verse, Moses “smote” the Egyptian and hid him in the sand (verse 15 confirms that this blow was fatal).”
Thank you for the explanations.
Difficult puzzle, and I could not get 1a, 7a, 23a, until I had a few down clues to allow educated guesses.
I’d never heard of OUSE as a river, or POI.
Steffen @11
There are many rivers called Ouse, including in Yorkshire, East Anglia and Sussex, and it is a useful word in crosswords.
I would add regarding the OUSE that us non-UK solvers have discovered that the Green and Pleasant Land has a seemingly infinite array of oddly-named rivers, several of which are worth remembering for those new to this. Besides the OUSE, I suggest you also remember the Ure, the Exe, the Dee, and the Cam, for starters. The Po (in Italy) and the Nile are the only rivers I’ve regularly seen in these things from beyond the UK. “River” might also be the letter R (universal abbreviation on maps).
Then there are all the oddly-named Scottish isles, a topic best saved for the intermediate course.
Steffen @17 – part of the joy of crosswords for me is learning new things – there’s an acronym turns up in the other cryptic blogs – TILT – today I learnt this – as people note new learning. Some of the most enjoyable crosswords I’ve completed have had me deep in reference books working out how the puzzle works.
I had to look up POI, knew about the fire spinning, because a colleague’s son was into it, but not the dish. I know both the Ouse through York and grew up near the Great Ouse, so was aware that it’s a reasonably common river name. Not as common as Avon, but there’s more than one.
I’ll also say, like HG, who has posted a link to his YouTube on the Guardian crossword blog, I started with gaps in the across clues until I had the down clues to complete the crossword – you’re not meant to go through filling in answers. I fill in what I can immediately and go back and fill in gaps as I get crossers.
Also, on POI–funny how general knowledge (GK for short here) works. Hawaiian culture is better known in America–it is a US state, after all. POI is also in that category of short words with more vowels than consonants, making it super-useful for setters of American-style crosswords. So POI was a write-in for me!
A very enjoyable quick cryptic, well done Carpathian and thank you Shanne for another great entry. I have to say I only got DEMORALISES from the cross letters, my old brain seems to find the insertion ones the hardest of the categories used in these, but I guess practice will help.
Thank you Shanne, your blog is much appreciated as always! I needed it for 23a which I got but couldn’t see the workings, I think I find the synonym ones the hardest due to the array of possibles but your helpful comments are noted and ‘examinations’ should be a breeze in future! I failed to get ‘fold’ on 1a as well but worked out the rest of it and was left puzzling as to why ‘pen’ was in there!!! I’m really enjoying these and actually had a go at the Cryptic last week. : )
Thank you guys.
I appreciate the tips.
For me these Quick Cryptics are getting harder each week as different types of clue are introduced. I enjoyed this but it seemed nearly as hard as last Monday’s cryptic. I hope they don’t get too difficult; am learning lots courtesy of Shanne and Carpathian (thankyou) but it’s a fine balance between challenge and confidence building.
Got a bit distracted today watching men’s Olympic marathon so forget to put a link to my Youtube live solve on here – it can be found at https://youtu.be/HkIeAJm0bqg
Good to see Carpathian using words/synonyms that come up regularly such as ERR, AIL, -TALES-, -LIE-, DI, OUSE. Some of the basic building blocks to being able to do cryptics.
Found that much harder, but struggle with the insertion clues although very satisfying when I get them
Liked: ALIEN, LOUSE (but only because I’ve been doing these for over a year now and am familiar with some of the setters’ favourite rivers). In fact, there was a lot to like about a lot of these clues, misdirection, witty surface reading, etc.
Didn’t get: Carpathian = setter. D’oh.
New to me: POI (also: PAD means walk?!)
Very enjoyable. I was stuck on 23A for ages and eventually got it by filling in the blanks and only fully understood how it is arrived at from reading Shanne’s explanation 😀 I got the ‘fur’ bit of 1A quite quickly, but it took a while to see the meaning of the rest of the clue. 20A – a new one for me, now filed away for the next time it is used.
Zihuatanejo @28: always involving animals, as in “the dog padded happily across the floor and gave me a big wet lick to say hello.”
mrpenney@30 I’m sure I’ve read a description of a man padding across the floor – possibly in one of the James Bond books – conveying the animalism of the character, as I’d agree it’s normally used for dogs, wolves, cats, big or other wise.
Not a comment on my performance (I have nothing to brag about anyway!), rather an assessment of the wider difficulty of the QCs: this was the first one that I had to step away from for a while, although I don’t think it broke the bounds of the learning curve we have been on for the last four months and was still highly enjoyable.
8 was a nice deception, “regularly” suggested alternate letters but actually formed part of the hidden word… I quickly installed Carpathian as my favourite when I got started as I like the way things are clued – and this one was no exception! Thanks Shanne, also.
Just got round to this. Although I did get them, I had to Google POI, BIJOU and DRAGOON to double check the meaning. Otherwise I found this fairly straightforward.
First time I’ve finished a quick cryptic for a couple of weeks. And I managed the quiptic too. Maybe I could brave the Monday cryptic and go for the hat trick…
Thanks both.
This one wasn’t too demanding for me in terms of GK (helps that I used to live in York near the Ouse – wouldn’t have known that one otherwise), although I needed Shanne’s explanation for pen = fold; got that one purely from the definition. So I enjoyed some of the trickier wordplay, especially that sneaky “regularly” in 8 (agreed, Perfidious Albion @ 32!). Overall thought this was very well-balanced – took me a comparable time to previous weeks.
Thanks for the blog, Shanne!
This was the first time I was able to get all the words right in one of these without having to check this blog, but I must admit it was a combination of blind luck (“BIJOU must be a real word, right? It doesn’t sound like a real word to me. Eh, I’ll try it”, “DRAGOON? Isn’t that a Pokémon?”, etc.) and just having enough crossers to get the right synonym for the definition part of some clues (ex. DISPENSABLE, DEMORALISES [which my American brain insists should be DEMORALIZES, but oh well])