Quick Cryptic 27 by Carpathian

by

This is the twenty-seventh 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 continue consolidating clue types learned earlier in the series.  This crossword uses anagrams and acrostic clues which provide all the required letters, with soundalike and charade clues that have been met many times before.   Today’s setter sees a welcome return of Carpathian, who hasn’t set for a few weeks.  I did find I wrote in the wrong soundalike for one clue, but otherwise didn’t note any particular challenges.   Following discussions last week, I added more information to the blurb below.

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, e.g. PASS (qualify) to get PORT (drink) or Give A Good (for GAG -joke) see below
  • anagram *(SENATOR) shows letters in clue being used, see clue below.
  • anagrind the anagram indicator (arranged)
  • charade – the description below only gives the example of words being added together, but charades can be more complicated adding abbreviations or single letters to another word – examples previously used in this series are: Son ridicules loose overgarments (6) S (son) + MOCKS (ridicules), Get rid of dead pine (5) D (dead) + ITCH (pine) – D ITCH
  • CAD or clue as definition– where the whole clue gives the definition, sometimes called an &lit.
  • DBE or defintion by example – e.g. where a dog might be clued as a setter – often using a question mark, maybe, possibly or e.g. to show that this is an example rather than a definition.
  • soundalike – where two words with a similar sound are used, the homophone / soundalike is indicated in inverted commas, eg  Oscar “Wilde” (playwright) sounds like WILD (excited)
  • 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/27 – because the clues have moved on from the clue descriptions below, I’ve added more to the descriptions above (Shanne 28/9/24)

Clues begin or end with a definition of the answer. The rest is one of these:

    1. Anagram An anagram of the answer and a hint that there’s an anagram
      ‘Senator arranged crime (7)’ gives TREASON
    2. Charade A combination of synonyms
      ‘Qualify to get drink for ID (8)’ gives PASSPORT (pass + port)
    3. Soundalike Something that sounds like the answer ‘
      Excited as Oscar’s announced (4)’ gives WILD
    4. Acrostic The first letters of the answer
      ‘Initially get a good joke (3)’ gives GAG
ACROSS
1 Store multitude for auditor (5) HOARD
soundalike (for auditor) of “horde” (multitude) and HOARD (store) as in a squirrel hoards / stores nuts for the winter
4
Harvests pears roughly (5)
 REAPS
anagram of (PEARS)* with anagrind of roughly
7
Consumed cube noisily (3)
 ATE
soundalike (noisily) of “eight” (cube – mathematically – 2 x 2 x 2 is the cube of two) and ATE (consumed)
8
German agreement to get child for Greek hero (5)
 JASON
charade of  JA (German for yes, so German agreement) and SON (child)

 

Lots of Greek and Latin general knowledge is assumed in crosswords – Jason and the Argonauts go to find the Golden Fleece.

 

Some German words do appear in crosswords: Ja is a regular, also der, die, ein and und (the, the, a, and)
9
Hairstyling product announced for elk (5)
 MOOSE
soundalike (announced) of “mousse” (hairstyling product) and MOOSE

 

I was glad that the two words have different letter counts because I could have entered either word from the clue.
10
Heads of government organise aid for Indian state (3)
 GOA
acrostic (heads of) using the first letters of Government Organise Aid
11
Bachelor of Arts with article to wash (5)
 BATHE
charade of BA (Bachelor of Arts) and THE (article) to give BA THE  

 

I suspect we have seen BA for Bachelor of Arts before, if we haven’t it and MA are often used.
14
Badly riled shirker (5)
 IDLER
anagram of  (RILED)* with anagrind of badly
17
Satire from incredible Roman orator needed youth initially (5)
 IRONY
acrostic  (from … initially) of Incredible Roman Orator Needed Youth
18
Fish love Italian singer (5)
 BASSO
charade of  BASS (fish) and O (love) – a new word to me, worked out from the parsing – otherwise known as a jorum on this site

 

Love as 0 comes from tennis scoring, but is used a lot in crosswords  – and as usual we swap letters for numbers (0 to O, 1 to I)
20
Opted to change storage area (5)
 DEPOT
anagram of (OPTED) with anagrind of change

 

DEPOT comes from depositing and there used to be a huge store called the Harrods Depository on the Thames near Barnes (now flats).
23
Exploit unhappy sales executives from the start (3)
 USE
acrostic (from the start) of Unhappy Sales Executives
24
Speak of ways to find sources (5)
 ROOTS
soundalike (speak of) of “routes” (ways) and ROOTS (sources)
25
Anger about selection (5)
 RANGE
anagram of (ANGER)* with anagrind of about
26
Falsehood from leaders of leading innovative enterprise (3)
 LIE
acrostic (from leaders of) Leading Innovative Enterprise
27
Instrument in front of Yankee virago (5)
 HARPY
charade of HARP (instrument) and Y (Yankee)

 

adding in – HARPY is another character from Greek and Roman mythology – a harpy is a creature with the head and body of a woman and wings and claws.  They were guardians/wardens of the underworld, snatching things away, so known as unwomanly aggressive creatures, hence virago – a domineering or bad-tempereed woman.

 

Another regular in crosswords is use of the phonetic/call sign alphabet – Alpha, Bravo, Charlie – and etc, from which Y = Yankee, hence the Y here.
28
Criminal leads trades (5)
anagram of (LEADS)* with anagrind of criminal

 

Not sure we’ve seen criminal yet in the anagram list, but it is such a regular in the usual cryptic crosswords.
 DEALS
DOWN
1
Hot island? Dig headscarf (5)
 HIJAB
charade of  H (hot) + I (island) + JAB (dig) to give H I JAB

 

H for hot comes from taps, I for Island from maps – although I’m not sure we’ve seen either before.  (When I’m not rushing to put this together, I’ll dig out the spreadsheet and add information)
2
First bits of Astoria’s silver service English tea are something worth having (5)
 ASSET
acrostic  (first bits of)  Astoria’s Silver Service English Tea
3
Engineer loads gurney precariously (11)
 DANGEROUSLY
anagram of (LOADS GURNEY)* with anagrind of engineer with a brilliant surface
4
Cheaply sold off unpopular book made nerdier after editing (11)
 REMAINDERED
anagram of  (MADE NERDIER) with anagrind of after editing
5
A tax for coral island (5)
 ATOLL
charade of A (from the clue) and TOLL (tax – as in custom tolls)    
6
Announced steep cut (5)
 SHEAR
soundalike of “sheer” (steep) and SHEAR (cut)
12
First of all April gets an oven (3)
 AGA
acrostic (first of all) April Gets An for the AGA ranges found in country styled houses in the UK

 

I grew up with Agas and Rayburns and really like them – but my mother was driven mad by us kids all roosting along the rail when we were cold, cuddling up to Mother Aga,
13
Hotel exists for that man (3)
 HIS
charade of  H (hotel husband) and IS (exists)

 

H for hotel from the same phonetic/call sign alphabet mentioned above for Yankee. (h for husband also exists in genealogy)
15
Audibly pass over stain (3)
 DYE
soundalike (audibly) of “die” (pass over) and DYE (stain).
16
Self confidence, say, above nought (3)
 EGO
charade of EG (say) and O (nought)  

 

EG for say is another regular in crosswords, and I’m sure we haven’t had this one before, also the same trick as above, swapping letters and numbers.
18
Assigned place and Labour’s result announced (5)
 BERTH
soundalike  (announced) of “birth” (Labour’s result) and BERTH – the assigned place for a boat or sailor
19 Small, inadequate track (5) SPOOR
charade of S (small) and POOR (inadequate) to give the sort of track hunters use to find animals

 

SPOOR I know from my eclectic reading habits, and had thought it came from hunters encountering Cape (South African) Ductch, but I’ve just checked and that’s correct.   S is from clothing sizes.
21
Animal people accept never does anything to begin with (5)
 PANDA
acrostic (to begin with) of People Accept Never Does Anything
22
Rests around lock (5)
 TRESS
anagram of (RESTS)* with anagrind of around

33 comments on “Quick Cryptic 27 by Carpathian”

  2. Thank you Shanne and Carpathian! I’m beginning to get the hang of these Quick Cryptics at least. Though I didn’t know what virago means for 27a and wrote in HORNY… :-S

  3. Thankyou Shanne. I wondered if the definition for HIS could be for that man, as that man should be ”he”?
    I liked this. Very unusual to have the two long clues, 3d and 4d, with every letter intersecting with another clue, and 5 x 2 points of connection between the two columns, but as I said on the Guardian blog, I think it’s a lovely demonstration by Carpathian as to what it means to have crossing letters to help you solve cryptics.

  4. Very enjoyable puzzle.

    Favourite: BERTH.

    I agree with paddymelon@3 re 13d HIS = for that man.

    Thanks, both.

  5. DNF as I was feeling lazy, and the bottom left corner was tough. To be fair to myself, I’d neither heard of the words SPOOR or “virago”. Hopefully I’ll remember them.

  6. I’m another who doesn’t see how HIS is ‘that man’, but lovely otherwise.

    I hadn’t heard SPOOR before, but managed to get there from the other parts which is always pleasant.

  7. I’ve added in an explanation about harpies – which according to my offspring are included in all sorts of GenZ and Millennial stuff like World of Warcraft and D&D as well in Greek & Roman mythology, so I didn’t think they were that esoteric.

    Also changed the definition of HIS to include “for that man”.

    Thank you michelle and paddymelon.

  8. Very enjoyable quick cryptic with 18d being loi for me – was caught by Carpathian’s neat political misdirection for a while LOL.
    Has Carpathian given us DEPOT more than once before in the QCs? Was wondering if there was a trend there? We’ve certainly had that as a solution a few times in the QCs I think.
    Thanks Shanne for the blog and Carpathian for the puzzle.

  9. I screwed up 13D by putting HIM thinking EXISTS = I AM and therefore contracts to I’M.

    Overall I thought the SW corner was misjudged (BASSO, SPOOR, HARPY/virago). If these puzzles are try to bring people into cryptic crosswords, they seem too obscure.

    Ended up making a hash of my live solve so I rerecorded a clean video which can be found at https://youtu.be/r0SbV9magrk still detailing the approach and explaining clues

  10. Thank you Shanne and Carpathian! Struggled somewhat with the “Sounds like” clues and 1a. had me for a while as did 18d. Strangely enough Spoor means the same in English and Dutch (was in common usage in my youth).
    Enjoyable accompaniment to the coffee this morning (both of them!).

  11. Thanks Carpathian and Shanne.

    I’m another who put HIM in 13d at first, thinking the definition was “that man”. Changed it to HIS when the crosser required it, but had to come here to understand the parsing – thanks pdm @3.

    I thought the large number of crossers for the long down anagrams was great for this type of beginner crossword.

    (Edit – damn autocorrect, Shane/Shanne)

  14. Closest I have come to being beaten by one of these – the SW corner was a real struggle and I ended up with the wrong second letter for 18D but not strictly counting that as I did manage to parse it correctly.
    That raises the question though – is there an order in the cluing as to which of the two soundalikes it should be when both answers fit and could be correct? For 18D it could have been berth or birth – both fit so how do you know which the right one is? Same problem exists for 6D – it could be sheer or shear. It doesn’t appear to be related to the order that these appear in the clue based on the two examples above so is there a rule regarding these or is it just opt for one and hope a bit?

  15. A thank you to Carpathian & Shanne. I notice that “inadequaate” in the explanation for 19D has an extra “a.”

    Re LC@14: Generally, the definition should be at the start or end of a clue. For clues like 6D &18D, where the two words that sound alike have the same number of letters, a good clue (like here) would put the definition at one end and the soundalike indicator at the other end, so solvers don’t have to wait for crossing letters to fill in the answer.

  16. @14 Lazarus Churchyard – both the soundalike clues 18 BERTH and 6 SHEAR are unambiguous. The Soundalike indicator is next to the word which needs to be soundaliked. The answer is not next to it.

  17. I finished, however I had to google virago and spoor. Googled basso too but couldn’t find anything. Also, add me to the list of people who put HIM instead of HIS for 13.

    Very enjoyable and not too tough. Favourite was PANDA, sort of works as an &lit as well.

    Thanks Carpathian and Shanne.

  18. Steve @10 – yes, spoor comes from Cape Dutch / Afrikaans – which I was pretty sure was its origins from where I originally read it. (1823, according to my search to check)

    Admin @12 – correction to hotel / husband and explanation added.

    worldlyfeline @15 – typo corrected.

    When I was muttering that it seems as if eclectic reading habits are rare now, my daughter responded that for her GCSEs she was unusual in reading entire books, rather than summaries and extracts. Certainly I didn’t find any of vocabulary unusual.

  19. In Kiss Me Kate, Cole Porter rhymed “virago” with “Chicago.” That show was one of the first I did in college, so that’s where I learned that word. (It may be the only word that does rhyme with Chicago–not sure.)

    I’m one of those people in whose dialect “route” sounds like “rout” rather than “root.” That of course is one of the perils of soundalike clues: not everyone pronounces the language the same way. But for the people still new to this, you should know we’ve had too many tedious discussions of that sort of thing here. So if you come across one where that’s your objection, just adopt a different accent while you’re solving, enjoy the clever clue, and move on.

  22. Raced through until SW corner when I had to google synonyms. At least I’d worked out what the definition was in each clue. And once I saw the answer I could have kicked myself. Sometimes I just can’t think of enough synonyms. But doing these crosswords is helping with my memory .
    I also put him rather than his for 13d which didn’t help with SW corner until I realised 18a had to be basso

  23. Introducing new words certainly steps the difficulty up. I did not know SPOOR, and it took me a while to equate HARPY and virago (a far from common word). BASSO is another word not regularly on the solvers’’ lips

    As always, it was an enjoyable and informative blog.

    Thanks Carpathian and Shanne

  24. Basso profundo, a very deep bass voice, is a reasonably common term. I thought this was at the trickier end of Quick Cryptic.

  25. Thanks Carpathian and Shanne. Really enjoying these – although like many others I struggled a bit with the bottom left corner. Can anyone recommend a step up from these? I still find full-blown cryptics pretty intimidating – though I am starting to get one or two clues. Is there an intermediate step? The Quiptic maybe?

  26. Rob Clow @25 – in theory the Everyman and Quiptic – but not today’s Quiptic – try Picaroon and/or Pasquale from the last two weeks. I like Anto, but think he’s misplaced in the Quiptic spot.

    The Everyman is a prize crossword so doesn’t have a check button or blog until the week after. But having said that I’d recommend last week’s or this week’s to try.

  27. @Shanne 7. The Harpies played a role in the story of Jason and the Argonauts, so good of Carpathian to fit them both in the one crosser.
    Thanks for the blog.

  28. Rob@25 I only bother attempting the Quiptic and the Monday cryptic in the Guardian. I’ve been switching to the Telegraph to get my fix later in the week, they generally seem to be gentler than the Guardian.

  29. Kenmac@21. 🙂
    oh no computer@28 and Rob Clow@25. Not a bad idea for people to do both the Guardian and the Tele or others, although some may not want to pay the freight for the Telegraph. I started off on ”straighter” cryptics, where I learned the tools, and spent some time on cryptic crossword sites with helpful examples of clue types, indicators, lists of abbreviations etc, and reading books on how to solve cryptics. Good to have a grounding in the basics before leaping into unknown territory, and sometimes you just want to be able to solve, or up your skills, in a more predictable, comfortable environment.

    I think it’s a big jump to Guardian cryptics, with their quirkiness, and rule-bending, different setters’ styles, and variation in levels of difficulty. If you don’t know the conventions, how can you know when to think outside the square? However, the Quick cryptic and the Quiptic, compiled by setters from the Guardian stable, do give exposure to different styles and Guardian-type tricks, and Shanne has been collating examples over the past 6 months.

    Additional information and some outside resources are listed under FAQ and LINKS on the fifteensquared home page, but there are others. Maybe people can share here what they find helpful?

  30. paddymelon @29 – I was rather hoping that suggestions went on the summary blog as a useful place for collecting that information – I probably need to do that quoting people

  31. Shanne@30. What you are already doing is a huge piece of work, let alone all the extra stuff. I hope that when you put all this together you publish it and are rewarded with more than gratitude.

  32. thanks everyone for the suggestions on the next step in my cryptic journey. I’ll try out the Quiptic and the Everyman and the Tele and see what works.

  33. This was a hard one for me, as I struggled with the soundalikes and didn’t know a lot of the terminology. The bottom left corner was especially rough, with a lot of trial and error.
    Thank you for helping me make sense of a few clues that left me mystified even after getting the answer!

    Unfortunately, as a woman who has herself been accused of not being sufficiently ‘womanly’, ‘virago’ feels like a loaded term, particularly when used to clue another common pejorative used against women.

Comments are closed.