The piratical one is good at this Quiptic stuff, isn’t he?
I judged that this was nicely pitched and carefully clued; but as always, what the beginners and improving solvers thought is much more important than what I think.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
4 American friend had to convert founder of a religion
BUDDHA
A charade of BUD and (HAD)* with ‘to convert’ as the anagrind.
6 How steak may be cooked that’s good for you!
WELL DONE
A dd.
9 Ultimately endure conclusions of Royal Family
LASTLY
A charade of LAST and LY for the final letters of the last two words of the clue.
10 Faulty hearing – Mr Ali’s troubled with it
MISTRIAL
(MR ALIS IT)* with ‘troubled’ as the anagrind. ‘Hear’ is often used in its legal sense in crosswords, as here.
11 Liam and Noel playing with toy in a way that arouses feelings
EMOTIONALLY
(LIAM NOEL TOY)* with ‘playing’ as the anagrind. Feelings were often aroused during their career.
15 In text that’s rewritten, entertaining chapter vanished
EXTINCT
An insertion of C in (IN TEXT)* The insertion indicator is ‘entertaining’ and the anagrind is ‘that’s rewritten’.
17 Perhaps May in that place by South Africa’s capital
THERESA
A charade of THERE, S for ‘South’ and A for the initial letter of ‘Africa’. Referencing one of our recent UK Prime Ministers.
18 Stage make-up isn’t put on musical lead in Phantom
GREASE PAINT
A charade of GREASE, P for the first letter of ‘Phantom’ and AINT.
22 MP has not drunk spirits
PHANTOMS
(MP HAS NOT)* with ‘drunk’ as the anagrind.
23 Laud unclothed couple’s childminder
AU PAIR
A charade of [L]AU[D] and PAIR. ‘Unclothed’ is the instruction to take the outside letters from ‘laud’.
24 Leo stole crackers, getting release from captivity
LET LOOSE
(LEO STOLE)* with ‘crackers’ as the anagrind.
25 Saw blade’s edges grasped
BEHELD
A charade of BE for the outside letters of ‘blade’ and HELD.
Down
1 Condiment that’s hot in cold starter from Indian
CHILLI
A charade of CHILL and I for the initial letter of ‘Indian’.
2 Member one criticises makes laws
LEGISLATES
A charade of LEG for ‘member’, I and SLATES.
3 Problem for driver in boring old Phoenician city
FLAT TYRE
A charade of FLAT and TYRE.
4 Bishop always conceals untruth for person with faith
BELIEVER
An insertion of LIE in B and EVER. The insertion indicator is ‘conceals’.
5 Perverts or some antibourgeois Trots idling around
DISTORTS
Hidden reversed in antibourgeoiS TROTS IDling.
7 Exclude from old American university
OMIT
A charade of O and MIT for Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
8 Snake-like fish in small shelter, turning around
EELS
A charade of S and LEE, reversed.
12 Contents of fine thermos that’s nearest the bottom
NETHERMOST
Another hidden: in fiNE THERMOS That.
13 Ms Blanchett admitting bitterness about having no partner
CELIBATE
Ms Blanchett conveniently (for setters) spells her first name CATE; so here we have BILE reversed in that. The insertion indicator is ‘admitting’.
14 Beaten cricketer with England gutted
BATTERED
A charade of BATTER and ED for the outside letters of E[NGLAN]D. Now that the women’s game is so well established, from club to international level, BATTER is used for everyone wielding the willow.
16 Denial, for example, when entering country
NEGATION
An insertion of EG in NATION. The insertion indicator is ‘when entering’.
19 Someone who cuts dried fruit, right?
PRUNER
A charade of PRUNE and R.
20 Precious stone in ring put on friend
OPAL
A charade of O and PAL.
21 Don’t eat the kind of food served at McDonald’s
FAST
A dd. Good advice.
Many thanks to Picaroon for this week’s Quiptic.
Thank you Pierre. Agree, Picaroon sets beautiful Quiptics, and all cryptics across the spectrum.
I was misdirected with OMIT, def “exclude”. Was going for oust, o(ld)-us (American) – but couldn’t think of a university called T.
The surfaces for the crossing CELIBATE and AU PAIR were amusing.
Liam and Noel (Gallagher/Oasis) playing with toy in EMOTIONALLY was a great find.
Most complex wordplay for me was GREASEPAINT, with the older form of “isn’t”, and the order of the parts (put on).
My last one in was BEHELD, couldn’t see the wood for the trees, but got there in the end.
Agree with Blogger and PaddyM – even down to the loi and difficulties.
Thanks Pierre and Picaroon
Thanks Picaroon and Pierre
Excellent example of a Quiptic.
Slight question mark over equivalence of cold and chill. Aren’t they different parts of speech? In fact I took cold to give the C, but couldn’t explain the HILL.
I agree with Pierre and all who posted above that this is an excellent Quiptic. I would happily recommend it to beginners.
Thanks, both.
Thank you for the explanations.
15a – where does ‘C’ come from?
17a – where does THERE come from?
2d – LEG/MEMBER I don’t understand this.
I’ve never heard of GREASE PAINT and I had no idea how to solve it.
Me @3
I suppose cold and chill are equivalent if they are referring to infections.
Muffin@3 & 6 You can have a CHILL wind
@Steffen
THERE = that place
The C comes from chapter. I didn’t parse that.
grease paint is a type of makeup that doesn’t melt under the stage lights.
Steffen@5, for questions like yours for 15a and 17a, your best bet is to identify which bits of the surface haven’t yet been accounted for by the blogger’s parsing of the wordplay, and seeing whether you can spot an equivalence.
So for 15a you’re trying to get a “c” from the part of the surface not mentioned by Pierre, which is “chapter”. Personally I abbreviate chapter to ch, but c is also used (as you can confirm in your dictionary).
Using the same tactic, for 17a, you’re trying to get “there” from the part of the surface not mentioned by Pierre, which is “in that place by”, from which it should be fairly easy to spot that “there” comes from “in that place” (a literal equivalence), leaving just “by” unaccounted for, which can be taken to mean “next to” and thus indicating the position of the parts of the wordplay.
For 2d “member” should be interpreted with its meaning “limb” (again, see dictionary), and so e.g. arm or leg; in this clue, leg.
Short and sweet and nicely summed up by paddymelon @1. Amusing to see the last word of the clue for GREASE PAINT give the answer to the next one, PHANTOMS. Could that almost be seen as a spoiler by the setter?
Ta Picaroon & Pierre.
…indeed a good part of the fun of cryptic crosswords comes from setters using the less-frequent meanings of words to create misleading surfaces, such as with “member” in this case!
This is the first Quick Cryptic I’ve completed unaided so I must be learning. I could parse most of them though the workings of GREASE PAINT, NETHERMOST and DISTORTS eluded me until I read the blog which, as ever, is illuminating. I don’t always spot the hidden answers, especially if they are reversed, as in DISTORTS.
Way to go Amma! @12. Here’s to many more happy solves.
I think moving the Quiptic to Sunday has been a good thing. More time to enjoy the crossword and have a chat.
Well done Amma! It’s lovely seeing “graduates” from the Quick Cryptic appearing on the Quiptic and other crosswords.
I thought this was a well-balanced Quiptic. I think Picaroon has an advantage setting these as he knows what’s been covered in the Quick Cryptics, having set a good third of them (11/30), so is gradually adding new stuff, or building on tricks already taught.
Thank you to Pierre and Picaroon
I agree with all the comments made above – Picaroon does do great quiptics
And I do like it being on a Sunday too.
Thanks both
Why “Indian” vs just “India”, which seems to make more sense?
Sunday quiptic – nothing better with my muesli and coffee. This was great. >Thanks to Picaroon and Pierrre
Dylan N @16 – Indian meal in UK parlance, which we’d link with chilli. See Goodness Gracious Me episodes various, sending that up.
Thank you for the blog Pierre, I needed it in a couple of cases this week. Didn’t know of the American university, and also 18A: I got it from the definition and crossers, I assume we get “grease” from “musical” ?
Well done Amma and as an aside, maybe a chance to point out what a Nina is. GAME is directly under WELL DONE, and a quick google search reveals that WELL DONE GAME is a thing. Coincidence, I’m sure.
https://well-done-games.com/
….or an overcooked pheasant of course.
Jaytee: yes: Grease as in John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.
My last one in was CHILLI. I was held up by forgetting about the British spelling of that New World food……
Great fun, and once again ideally pitched as a “quiptic”.
Thank you AP.
All the practice with the quick cryptic is deffinately paying off.
Started the Quiptic with a blank… couldn’t get anything for five minutes or so.
Then figured out 2d and the rest cllcked slowly into place. Deffinately some head scratching,
3d and 5d – old Phonecian city took a while i had Carthage stuck in my mind and the reversal in 5d remained unseen until i had the answer worked out.
Very enjoyable, many thanks Picaroon & Pierre.
This went in quickly for me. Didn’t hurt to have “phantom” as part of the clue 18A, and have it be the answer in 22A! Like mrpenney @22 the UK spelling of CHILLI briefly gave me pause.
Similarly to muffin @3 I started parsing 1d assuming cold was C, and I was trying to have H (hot) inside C & Indian with the first letter removed, I mentally tried AILLI, BILLI…ZILLI for inhabitant of an Indian state before noticing the right parsing.
Hurrah – like Amma@12 I completed this , and managed to parse those I got from the definition / crossers by looking again at the clue so thanks AP @9 for confirming this strategy.
However I still don’t understand why it’s tyre for phonecian city in 3d
Was pleased too that I romped through the quick cryptic late last night so I’m hoping I’m on my way to tackling these puzzles. Will now start Everyman and may even have a go at some of the cryptics during the week.
Holly Anderson, I hadn’t heard of the phoenician city either, but this answers the question:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyre,_Lebanon
Holly Anderson, I’ve been attempting the cryptics every day pretty much since I started (from nothing – never even tried a cryptic crossword before) with the first Quick Cryptic but have found the ones later in the week extremely hard. Monday is sometimes OK but other days I struggle to answer two or three clues. But even then if I come to FifteenSquared and work through the blog, I feel like I’m learning so it’s worthwhile. You just have not to let failure dent your confidence!
mrpenney@22 and Nakamova : How do you spell CHILLI, then? Like the country?
Auriga @31
I think the US spelling is CHILI. They often drop one of our double letters – for example, “woolen” rather than “woollen”.
Ah! Thank you, muffin.
Thanks to Picaroon and Pierre. As an improving solver I found this quiptic thoroughly enjoyable and I was very happy to complete it. I may not know any Phoenician cities, but otherwise I was able to parse everything, which is a definite first for me!
Dylan N@16: I think, “Indian” vs “India” makes it less obvious what the definition is. In the same vein, “that’s hot” isn’t necessarily required, but “Condiment in cold starter from India” would make it rather straightforward, wouldn’t it?
(An excellent Quiptic, thank you, Picaroon and Pierre)
I will drop back in to comment about how satisfying it is from a Quiptic blogger’s point of view to see so many positive comments from newer solvers who are finding the Fifteensquared blogs such a help in improving their experience with cryptics. And also from those who have ‘graduated’ from the Quick Cryptic to the Quiptic with the help of Shanne’s excellent blogs on the former thread.
Certainly when I started blogging over twelve years ago, it was with the aim of helping others enter and enjoy our harmless hobby, so it’s pleasing to hear from those who have joined our ranks.
Very enjoyable Quiptic. Took me a few visits to complete but that was more a reflection of my day – busy – than an indicator of difficulty. I think Picaroon sets the level with precision. Just had my usual ‘doh’ moment as I couldn’t figure out GREASE from the clue but then reading through the blog, ‘boom’ it’s obvious.
Thanks Pierre for the explanations and thanks to Picaroon.
Very nearly a finish, however I had to reveal 1d. I think of chilli as a dish in its own right, not a condiment, so it didn’t even occur to me. The condiment would be chilli sauce.
New for me: member=limb.
I agree with all the other comments that this is a well-pitched quiptic. Thanks Picaroon and Pierre.
I’ve been doing the Quick Cryptics consistently for about a month now and recently started on the Quiptics; sometimes I get them, sometimes I don’t. I found this one harder than the other Quiptics in Picaroon’s back-catalogue. “Beheld” was LOI despite being very straightforward – got myself in a tizzy overcomplicating things.
Also had no idea about greasepaint for stage make-up, took all the crossers and then googling types of theatrical make-up to get there. Embarrassing, since I was listening to Olivia Newton-John last night!
Had no clue about the parsing for 2D until coming here. 21D probably my favourite clue.
Referring to discussion above, I think chill = cold works fine. In addition to infections and a chill/cold wind, there’s also the colloquial “we’re cool/we’re chill” to mean a disagreement has been resolved.
A marvellous quiptic – and an excellent analysis from Pierre. I am a relatively new solver who started with the QCs and graduated up via Quiptics – and this one was an excellent example of being equal parts satisfying and educational, which isn’t always the case for some others!
CHILLI worked fine for me, although I thought it was a smart misdirection insofar as I thought the “hot” element had been resolved courtesy of the H in BUDDHA, and I spent a long time staring at the clue before it clicked! Just enough to make one think a little! I liked your point about BATTER(ED) being used over batsman – it causes untold levels of seethe amongst certain members of society, who conveniently forget we never called them bowlsmen or fieldsmen… or wicketkeepsman (I might be flogging that deceased horse a little far with that one 🙂 )
Thanks P and P!
Perfect level for me, I got some very quickly and was only stumped by BEHELD. Stuck thinking about saw blades. I’m definitely getting somewhere with these things!
That’s good to hear, Anzaghi Student. If this is your first comment, welcome.
A first quiptic for me after working through the quick cryptics since the beginning of October. Copious cheats and a couple of reveals. The blogs are invaluable for the wordplays. Great fun! Many thanks .
I discovered the Quick Cryptic about 2 weeks ago and have got as far as Quick Cryptic14. Have found Shanne’s blog and others’ comments invaluable in understanding. I feel a door has been opened to a secret world, in which I am learning a new language with particular rules and vocabulary. Heartened by my growing success with the QC, today I tried the Quiptic for the first time and am ridiculously proud to have succeeded and parsed nearly all without resorting to the Fifteen Squared blog. Though it took me ages to get BEHELD! Thanks for the help and encouragement to newbies like me.