Quiptic 1,304 by Picaroon

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My second Picaroon blog in two days, I’m pleased to discover, as I find Picaroon produces Quiptics that do what they say on the tin. The crossword can be found here

A good range of clue types, with some combinations of clues to change up the options and extend the learning slightly.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1 TWEET
Message on X, dry with little in it (5)
Insertion (with .. in it) of WEE (little) in TT (dry).

We had TT in the Quick Cryptic yesterday too, and it comes from teetotal.  Hunter, from the Temperance movement, who was promoting total avoidance of alcohol, stuttered so it became T-total – teetotal.
4 HEPTAGON
Peculiar pathogen’s shape (8)
anagram of (PATHOGEN) with anagrind of peculiar
8 AUF WIEDERSEHEN
Where I’d see a fun novel – Goodbye to Berlin? (3,11)
anagram of (WHERE ID SEE A FUN) with anagrind of novel for the German for goodbye – and a reference to Christopher Isherwood’s book
10 SPRITZER
Queen behind special, posh hotel getting mixture of wine and water (8)
charade of SP (special) + RITZ (posh hotel) + ER (queen)
11 PIRATE
Criminal in the main is furious, pursuing power (6)
charade of IRATE (furious) after (pursuing) P for power – to give P IRATE
12 CHIP SHOTS
What golfers produce with wedges of fried potatoes and spicy sauce initially (4,5)
charade of CHIPS (wedges of fried potatoes) + HOT (spicy) and S (sauce initially)
15 ABACI
A taxi reversing, one displaying old counters (5)
charade of A (from the clue) + BAC (taxi reversing – so CAB<) + I (one) for the plural of abacus, the old counting tools
17 ANGLE
Old English person, one that’s possibly obtuse? (5)
double definition – the ANGLES were one of the early tribes of England, and an ANGLE can be obtuse, acute or reflex – so a question mark to show it’s a definition by example.
18 SOCIOPATH
Chap is too strange, a very cruel person (9)
anagram of (CHAP IS TOO) with anagrind of strange
19 IMPORT
Product from overseas this person’s left on a boat (6)
charade of I’M (this person’s) + PORT (left on a boat).

 

The clue is saying this person is to give I am – for the I’M. Port is only left on a boat when facing the bow, then it’s the left hand side of the boat and shown by red – lights at night, and the buoys to leave to port.
21 VINE LEAF
Lane with five bats and foliage around grapes (4,4)
anagram of (LANE FIVE)* with bats as the anagrind – with here is saying to use LANE with FIVE
24 UNCONVENTIONAL
Unorthodox place to find nuns interrupting wedding with Albert (14)
insertion of CONVENT (place to find nuns) inside (interrupting) UNION (wedding) to give UN CONVENT ION + AL (Albert)
25 TENDERED
Money senior journalist is offered (8)
charade of TENDER (money – think legal tender) + ED (senior journalist – ed for editor)
26 SUNNY
On the radio, Cher’s partner is cheerful (5)
soundalike of “Sonny” – from Sonny and Cher
DOWN
1 TRANSOCEANIC
Eric Cantona’s moving around, crossing the Atlantic perhaps (12)
anagram of (ERIC CANTONA’S) with anagrind of moving around
2 ENFORCING
Imposing new fencing to protect gold (9)
anagram of (FENCING)* around OR (gold) to give ENF OR CING

We also had OR yesterday in the Quick Cryptic – it’s from heraldry, where colours are still referred to in mediaeval French.
3 TWIST
Unexpected plot development for Dickens hero (5)
double definition – the eponymous hero is Oliver TWIST
4 HEDGEHOGS
He had, for example, upset greedy people and prickly sorts (9)
charade of HE’D (he had) + GE (e.g. upset) + HOGS (greedy people)
5 PARK
Power boat in recreational area (4)
charade of P (power) and ARK (boat – as in Noah’s from Genesis)
6 AMERICANO
A guy touring Morecambe with bagel and coffee (9)
insertion (touring) of A MAN (a guy) around (touring) ERIC (Morecambe) to give A M ERIC AN + O (bagel)

 

Bagel as 0 comes from tennis scores – and in crosswordland 0 becomes O
7 OMEGA
Oscar and Margaret with a character from Greece (5)
charade of O (Oscar – from the NATO phonetic alphabet) + MEG (Margaret) + A (from the clue) to give the Greek letter or character.
9 DELIGHTFULLY
Pleasingly made light, full, yummy sandwiches (12)
hidden in maDE LIGHT FULL Yummy
13 SWEAR-WORD
Don, breaking weapon, produces expletive (5-4)
Insertion of WEAR (don – to put on) inside (breaking) SWORD (weapon) to give S WEAR WORD
14 SECTIONED
Nicest ode composed, divided into parts (9)
anagram of (NICEST ODE)* with anagrind of composed
16 AGAMEMNON
A fun activity on day hosting northern Greek king (9)
charade of A GAME (A fun activity) on MON (day) around (hosting) N (northern) to give A GAME M N ON
20 PENCE
Small change for Trump’s former right-hand man (5)
double definition – Mike PENCE was Trump’s vice president in his first term in office
22 EPICS
The setter caught plugging records, great works (5)
insertion of I (the setter) + C (caught – from cricket) in (plugging) EPS (records) to give EP IC S
23 AVER
Proclaim person at wild parties loses head (4)
deletion / decapitation (loses head) of rAVER (person at wild parties)

 

36 comments on “Quiptic 1,304 by Picaroon”

  2. Thoroughly enjoyable, without having to resort to online aids. Nice to see a quiptic befitting its name.

  3. Very enjoyable, many smiles.i particularly liked AUF WIEDERSEHEN.
    Well blogged for beginners, I thought.
    Thanks both.

  4. As Shanne wrote, there was a nice variety of clues. As other contributors wrote, it was an enjoyable puzzle.

    I managed to answer the clues in order, from 1a to 26ac then 1d to 23dn. A first for me.

    My favourites were the two great anagrams (AUF WIEDERSEHEN & TRANSOCEANIC) and AMERICANO

    Thanks Picaroon and Shanne

  8. Thank you Shanne for the blog, I really enjoyed this quiptic, a nice variety of clue, and as you note, nice to pick up on Picaroon using TT and OR again as in yesterdays QC.

  9. Thanks to both Shanne and Picaroon for today’s Quiptic. I found it thoroughly enjoyable and certain quiptic in nature. My favourite was probably delightfully, I am always mighty impressed when bigger words are hidden!

  10. Great Quiptic, easy to solve, though I don’t tend to hyphenate SWEAR WORD. Also NHO of Eric Morecambe. Thank you Shanne and Picaroon.

  11. There was someone in the Guardian comments too who had never heard of Eric Morecambe. Sad, but probably there will be an increasing number.

  12. Great stuff, and definitely a quiptic. A minor blip when we thought 18ac was a mis-spelt ‘psychopath’ till we looked again at the anagram fodder. No favourite, it was all good.
    Thanks, Picaroon and Shanne.

  14. Gladys@11
    Like mrpenney@13, I only know Eric Morecambe from doing these crosswords. I have never seen him on TV (or wherever he performed in the past).

  16. A lovely quiptic, and a pleasant way to pass some time on a rainy afternoon.
    [mrpenney @13, michelle @14 and others who don’t know Eric Morecambe: I (& countless other Brits) grew up giggling helplessly at him on Sunday evenings.
    My favourite sketch is with André Previn, where they convince him to conduct Eric playing Grieg’s Piano Concerto – & I wanted to brighten your day by including a link to it, which certainly used to be available.
    Alas, a sign now comes up saying the BBC “has blocked it in your country” (I’m currently in London) and so this is the best I can find. It’s a clumsily-edited version, but I hope it helps you understand why Eric Morecambe is utterly adored by so many people….
    (And maybe you’ll have more luck tracking down the full-length version in your own countries!!)
    https://youtu.be/uMPEUcVyJsc?si=r1hY7idP7OfQO2pv

  17. Question: for 11A why is the clue “CRIMINAL IN THE MAIN” and not just “CRIMINAL”?
    How do the words “IN THE MAIN” help us solve the clue exactly? I truly don’t know, not trying to be funny so hope someone can explain it to me.
    Thanks in advance. Sincerely.

  18. I don’t much like clues that require specialised knowledge – I have never either played or watched golf and I therefore had to resort to googling for 12a. Sometimes you can get the answer without the knowledge, but I don’t think you could on this one.

  21. Amanda @17 – in the main is another way of saying at sea – so pirates are criminals at sea or in the main. It’s another trick of crossword setting – using main as a way of indicating at sea, but also the major or other meanings of main. Because it’s then ambiguous and the job of the solver is untangling which meaning is intended.

    Rab the Cat @19 – my knowledge runs to knowing golfers make chip shots – and I could see how it parsed, but whether they use a wedge or not, is as far as I’m concerned, immaterial.

  22. [When I see a clue like 6dn (AMERICANO), I come here in hopes that the latte police will have shown up. Disappointed again.

    For those who don’t know what I mean, people used to complain when the word LATTE was clued as “coffee”, because the word “latte” is Italian for milk, not coffee. Presumably the same objection should apply to AMERICANO. This objection is silly — the English words clearly refer to coffee drinks, regardless of the Italian meanings of their origins — but for reasons I can’t explain it always used to amuse me, and I’m sad to see it seems to have disappeared.]

  25. ABACI defeated me (I considered it, but thought a-back-ee isn’t a word) and I couldn’t parse TWEET (tried and failed to make WET into TWEET with the wordplay).

    I thought using power for P twice was a bit sloppy.

    Overall a fun and funny crossword, thanks Picaroon and Shanne.

  28. Very nearly a finish but I found myself stumped on 5 and 11 for some reason, kicked myself after revealing on both.

    Good quiptic. Thanks Picaroon and Shanne.

  29. This fell into place nicely for the main part but 13d had me puzzled. I guessed it via crossers but then convinced myself that ‘arrow’ was a broken (anagram-ized) weapon and couldn’t see how the Don bit fitted in. So thanks Shanne for the explanations and Picaroon for the nicely pitched Quiptic.

  30. A straightforward finish for me as a beginner, so I suppose a well-made Quiptic. I thought HEDGEHOG was cute. PIRATE my LOI, I didn’t think of “irate” being at the same level as “furious”. AMERICANO gave me pause – while I’m aware of Morcambe and Wise, I fell into the wordplay trap of thinking of seaside holidays…

    RabTheCat @18 – I also don’t like clues requiring specific sports knowledge as I’ve never watched nor played a game of cricket, golf or tennis in my life, but I think the wordplay in this clue was straightforward enough to get to an answer that sounds like it could be a golf reference!

  31. Coming here to brag that I didn’t need to look up any answers except how to spell auf wiedersehen, for which my excuse is that i took french and latin. I got the logic wrong for a couple but that’s not on the test.

    I’m torn on ABACI because surely we have settled on abacuses by now, if one ever encounters a situation with multiple. But I do appreciate a word I’ve never seen in a crossword. If I have to write erne one more time I shall start taking my revenge on the species.

  32. Just finished today’s Cryptic which was also Picaroon and was reminded I had not tried this. It is DELIGHTFULLY crafted, my thanks to the PIRATE, and to Shanne for another great blog. ☠️😎

  33. Totally stumped by auf wiedersehen – even though it’s pretty much the last word in Cabaret – such a clever clue.

    Also took my time over abaci – in it’s general content the Guardian is very anti Latin plurals.

    I have no intention of revising one of my favourite jokes

    I collect abacuses, I’ve got twenty-two of them. Actually I’ve got twenty-three, but one of them is broken so it doesn’t count…

    So pleased to find this site

  35. I got 19a totally wrong! I had no checking letters and I thought it was MELASS: Product from overseas (definition; is melass produced overseas?) this person’s (ME) left (L) to on a (A) boat (SS). It almost works, except for the ‘s after “this person”, which is unjustified! It’s quite cool that one clue can (almost) have two different readings!

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