Quick Cryptic 50 by Ludwig

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This week’s 11 x 11 crossword from the Guardian, intended to teach cryptic crosswords, found here

Ludwig has become a regular in the Quick Cryptic slot, replacing Picaroon. Today we have anagrams and hidden words with all the letters present in the clue, plus charades and a new clue type, cycling, which require the solver to work out the word(s) to manipulate, so can be less accessible.

The whole point of these crosswords is support and encouragement of new solvers, so special rules for these crosswords apply – see here – those rules include not posting solving times.

This blog continues to develop in response to suggestions. We hide the answers and the wordplay descriptions (parsing) too.   To find the solution click on “Answer” and to find how the word play works, click on “Parsing” which will reveal the hidden information. You can choose to reveal everything using the “Expand All” button. If you have partially revealed the page, refreshing it will clear that, and allow you to expand all. The definition is in bold and underlined, the indicator is in red.

For additional help click here

There is a summary of the tricks used in the first six months here and a Guardian Crossword blog called the ultimate beginner’s guide has tips which may be useful for some solvers

For abbreviations and clue tips click here

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
  • indicators are in red.
  • CAPITALS to indicate which bits are part of the answer, e.g. (SENATOR)* for the anagram, haVE ALtered meat for the hidden clue
  • Anagrams – letters used are shown in brackets with an asterisk – so (SENATOR)* becomes TREASON
  • Anagram indicator / anagrind – in this case it’s “arranged”.
  • charades – 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, and early on DR (doctor) + IVE (I have) to give DRIVE.
  • CAD or clue as definition– where the whole clue gives the definition, sometimes called an &lit. These are rare.
  • 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.
  • 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 here – because the clues have moved on from the clue descriptions below, I am now adding more to the descriptions hidden above.

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. Hidden word Answer hidden in clue’s words
    ‘Some have altered meat (4)’ gives VEAL
  3. Charade A combination of synonyms
    ‘Qualify to get drink for ID (8)’ gives PASSPORT (pass + port)
  4. Cycling Move letters from front to back
    ‘No way Jules is cycling (5)’ gives NEVER (from Jules VERNE)

ACROSS Click on “Answer” to see the solutions
1
Smashing primroses for those saying ‘I do’? (9)
Answer

PROMISERS
Parsing

anagram of (PRIMROSES)* with anagrind of “smashing”. Question mark as this is a definition by example:- someone who says I do is an example of a promiser.
7
Briefly read request for winter sport coverage (3,4)
Answer

SKI MASK
Parsing

charade of SKIM (briefly read) + ASK (request) – in this case the division between the words is in a different place: SKIM ASK becomes SKI MASK
8
While cycling, question of identity becomes question of by what means (3)
Answer

HOW
Parsing

cycling (cycling) WHO (question of identity) cycles to become HOW (question of by what means).
9
In that case, I will get fine son over (2,2)
Answer

IF SO
Parsing

charade of I (from clue) + (will get) F (fine) + S (son) + O (over) – F for fine from pencil gradations, S for son from genealogy, O for over from cricket.
10
Not so many dealing with class (6)
Answer

LESSON
Parsing

charade of LESS (not so many) + ON (dealing with – he’s on it / dealing with it)
12
He flies in, surprisingly, marina (6)
Answer

AIRMAN
Parsing

anagram of (MARINA)* with anagrind of “suprisingly”.
14
Russian leader gets arrested – content? (4)
Answer

TSAR
Parsing

hidden clue (content?) of geTS ARrested.
17
Naughty child, somewhat dimply (3)
Answer

IMP
Parsing

hidden in (somewhat) of dIMPly.
18
Went fast – fuss – dangerous wind! (7)
Answer

TORNADO
Parsing

charade of TORN (went fast) + ADO (fuss).
19
After French refusal, give permission to Harold like so, it won’t kill you! (3-6)
Answer

NON-LETHAL
Parsing

charade of NON (French refusal – the French for no) + LET (give permission to) + HAL (Harold)
DOWN
1 Cycling Madrid’s land getting sores (5)
Answer

PAINS
Parsing

cycling (cycling) of SPAIN (Madrid’s land)
2
Near-circular shape; some disapprovals (4)
Answer

OVAL
Parsing

hidden in (some) of disappOVALs
3
Tattoo, black kind of printer (3-3)
Answer

INK-JET
Parsing

charade of INK (tattoo) + JET (black)
4
Set of values from those cycling (5)
Answer

ETHOS
Parsing

cycling of THOSE to give ETHOS (set of values
5
Moiré gowns altered where clothes are mended (6,4)
Answer

SEWING ROOM
Parsing

anagram of (MOIRE GOWNS)* with anagrind of “altered” – not that moiré is the best fabric to alter (says the dressmaker)
6
Snake I hold back: lofty hope! (10)
Answer

ASPIRATION
Parsing

charade of ASP (snake) + I + RATION (hold back) addition later – if too many people turn up for prepared food or items to be donated, will ration/hold back the portions to be able to feed everyone/give everyone something.
11
Éclat’s silly in fortification (6)
Answer

CASTLE
Parsing

anagram of (ECLAT’S)* with anagrind of “silly”
13
Become ready, in rep, for adaptation (5)
Answer

RIPEN
Parsing

anagram of (IN REP)* with anagrind of “for adaptationunderlining” for the readying of fruit.
15
Cycling round shopping centres not big (5)
Answer

SMALL
Parsing

cycling (cycling round) of MALLS (shopping centres) to give SMALL
16
Main burn when cycling (4)
Answer

ARCH
Parsing

cycling (when cycling) of CHAR (burn) cycling two letters to give ARCH – as in arch-nemesis or archangel.

 

 

44 comments on “Quick Cryptic 50 by Ludwig”

  1. I liked ETHOS, SEWING ROOM and HOW, being the clues with decent surfaces. Otherwise not a great deal to write home about.

    It was a nicely informative blog.

    Thanks Ludwig and Shanne

  2. I enjoyed this one, favourites were “NON-LETHAL” and “ASPIRATION”. Clues parse nicely, but some of the components may be challenging for QC beginners e.g. “HAL” for Harold, and a level of indirection for cycling clues e.g. 8a question of identity -> WHO -> HOW.

    Thanks Shanne and Ludwig.

    P.S. There is a typo in 13d parsing: “for adaptation”, not “underlining”, is the anagrind.

  3. To me this was patchy, and not very entertaining, but maybe I just wasn’t in the zone.

    I don’t think the instructions on Cycling were helpful.

    The grammar/punctuation in 19a was challenging/misdirecting. I didn’t mind it, but it may have been a bit much in a QC when the focus is meant to be on learning the clue types.. I believe the definition is Like so it won’t kill you. ie full stop after Harold/Hal in the cryptic reading.

    And TORN in TORNADO doesn’t appear to be the right tense. went fast would be tore. gone fast would be torn , I would have thought.

    Not fond of clues where every letter is clued by a single letter/abbreviation. IFSO.

    Hold back for ration in ASPIRATION don’t appear to be synonyms, not close ones anyway. I couldn’t find them as equivalents in a thesaurus. That’s not to say they aren’t in Chambers or somewhere.

    Looking forward to next week.

  4. Quite a challenging puzzle in places and I believe Ludwig is Alan Connor is Everyman and it felt much like the style over there. I got held up on the end by not seeing ARCH=main and, I think it’s the only cycling clue where you move more than one letter.

    My talkthrough solve available at https://youtu.be/VInH7trCSPw which begins with an explanation of the Cycling example. Useful for anyone looking for tips and tactics on how to approach solving and includes explanations of the clues and answers.

  6. I struggled to understand the explanation of the cycling clue, but managed to solve most of the actual clues easily enough. Arch and Main held me up and there were a few I couldn’t completely parse this week.

  7. Enjoyed this and liked the introduction of the cycling clue type. Had one idiot moment putting in CSAR and wondering how that actually worked and then getting a blank back on my final check-all. Then the light bulb went off when I looked again. Thanks Ludwig for the grid and Shanne for the blog.

  8. HG@5. Yes Ludwig was Everyman/Alan Connor, and, in the early stages, a co-compilation with Enigmatist.
    Tio me today’s QC didn’t have Alan Connnor’s/Everyman’s sparkling surfaces and sense of fun. He’s better than this.

  9. Totally agree Paddymelon@4. I didnt understand cycling until I read Shanne’s blog. I did manage to get all the answers but mostly by guesswork. I am still struggling with Charades. Thanks for a new trick though, will hope i can use it correctly in future.

  10. I disagree Paddymelon@4 about 6D ‘hold back’ is a ration, asp a snake and aspiration a lofty hope. You might find ration in an older thesaurus! I have one from 1940….

  12. Actually beaten by ARCH. The only time I’ve ever revealed anything in one of these. An anagram of a synonym – that’s quite out there for this level.

  13. I enjoyed the ‘cycling’ clues and found them satisfying; I was only vaguely aware of that type of clue before. I didn’t immediately get the meaning of ‘arch’ as ‘main’ but it had to be right, from ‘char’ A good Quick Cryptic with more challenges but fair, I thought.

  14. Gliddofglood @13 – anagrams of synonyms, called indirect anagrams, are frowned on in crossword setting as there are too many options. What is allowed is CYCLING – where one or more letters move from the front to the back or vice versa. There are a couple of setters who like this device so I’ve come across it before.

    Here we have:
    CHAR – two letters to the back = AR CH
    in the example – VERNE to NEVER – two letters cycle to the front
    WHO becoming HOW by one letter cycling to the back
    SPAIN becoming PAINS by one letter cycling to the back
    THOSE (in the clue) becoming ETHOS – one letter cycling to the front
    MALLS becoming SMALL by one letter cycling to the front.

  15. Gliddofglood@13 ARCH was a cycling clue type not an anagram. I admit though I used an online thesaurus to get from ‘burn’ to ‘char’ but did have H and R from crossers.

  16. I was thrown by never having heard of a ski mask. I liked the clue for non-lethal, although it took me a while to get it!

  17. AR @2 – thank you, I’ve corrected the blog

    paddymelon @4 – I am so not underlining “like so it won’t kill you” – it’s not standard English English. I didn’t like that clue either, one of the few I left for crossers to come back and solve. And I agree HAL for Harold is not an abbreviation for a name I knew – I thought it was short of Harry/Henry originally, but apparently HAL is a recognised abbreviation for Harold.

    I winced at TORN too; to be replaced in the clue it should be tore/went fast, but it had to be TORN for TORNADO. Torn and unsure are synonyms in the same tense, which might work as an equivalence in that clue.

    One of the definitions of ration as a verb, in Chambers, is to “restrict the supply of to so much for each” which is how I read that clue.

  18. Like many here, ARCH/CHAR I didn’t see.
    I quite liked NON-LETHAL, but that’s probably because I’m still a beginner and guess more than parse sometimes…
    Also +1 for ASPIRATION – thought this was a good parse once I got ASP for snake, I was easy and RATION fitted the rest.

    It was a bit of a parse of NEVER to get VERNE from JULES as I was expecting a bit more of a straightforward anagram, not synonym but once I got going they were great fun.

    Thx Shanne & Ludwig xx

  19. Re 18a (TORNADO) – Perhaps I’m still missing a trick, but I really don’t see how “torn” can replace “went fast”. Perhaps someone clever can give an example of a sentence where this works.
    Many thanks to Ludwig and Shanne

  21. thecronester @8 – I meant to say – the two recognised spellings for the Russian leaders are CZAR and TSAR – both transliterations of cyrillic script, which is why the spellings we see vary, and from Caesar. CZAR is very useful for Scrabble. TZAR is the online game.

  22. Shanne@22 Thanks. I often confuse CZAR v TSAR and usually get them wrong, like putting CSAR and TZAR. With 14a I just leapt in with my error, thought not sure why this doesn’t quite parse and then moved on 😄

  24. Balfour @24 – I did wonder if Hal for Harold came from American usage, it feels relatively modern. Prince Hal for Henry V is in Shakespeare, and I studied that one for GCSE (and saw Kenneth Branagh on stage at Stratford – a far more entertaining production than the Laurence Olivier film).

  26. Agree with the comments on here that this wasn’t the smoothest of Quick Cryptics. The example in the rules given for cycling could also have been a bit clearer. Thank you Shanne.

  27. HumbleTim @26 – And, for that matter, Hal Prince, the notable director of Broadway musicals. Maybe American, as Shanne speculates.

  28. A nice light work out. I haven’t come across this Cycling device in many cryptic crosswords yet, but it’s nice to see the QC being used to showcase as many devices as possible. Clever use of the word coverage for SKI MASK. I do think the high number of hidden word clues made this a little easier than previous QCs. I also think TORN is incorrect. Surely the past tense of to TEAR (go fast) is TORE.
    Thank you Ludwig and Shanne.

  29. Lovely departure from those of recent weeks which became too reliant on anagrams and hidden word clues. This was a challenge. 19 across is a gem! Many thanks for explaining cycling.

  30. Great work Ludwig. Lovely departure from those of recent weeks which had become too reliant on anagrams and hidden word clues. This was a challenge. 19 across is a gem! Many thanks for explaining cycling.

  31. I actually enjoyed this one, started off too easy but the W and SW caused the making of a second coffee. The cycling clues, strange but clever. As a beginner to cryptic i found it well within my burgeoning skills.
    I enjoyed 6d – 18a and 19a

    18 a To me it reads,
    The holiday is already over.
    The time has simply torn by. (Went fast) ?

    Thanks Ludwig and Shanne

  33. I couldn’t sort out the example given for “cycling” at all! For an example for beginners, that’s a tricky clue, requiring you to identify “Jules” as Verne and then cycle three of his letters. Luckily the real examples in the puzzle were easier. I’m glad to say that cycling clues aren’t all that common, as I always find them difficult.

    I agree about TORN. And after Vlad’s recent summoning of the grammar police, surely LESS shouldn’t be clued as “not so many”?

  35. “if so” was the only clue I couldn’t parse, was expecting a word to indicate first letters, though the insertion of “will get” threw me too. Felt like it was a clue that needed work.
    “I initially found some objects in that case”?

  36. A pleasant solve. Only ARCH really needed a head scratch. Cycling is a tough device for a quick, not helped by the Guardian’s poor explanation. So well done to all who’ve managed it.

    Cheers Shanne and Ludwig

  37. Shanna @15

    Thanks for explaining indirect anagram, cycling distinction. I had treated cycling ones as indirect anagrams. Also, I’m sure that the Guardian did not explain the VERNE bit in the example.

  38. AR@38 I’ve explained a few of those examples as being unhelpfully obscure.

    I think the setter who uses cycling a lot in his clues has used VERNE, which is where I’d seen it before. But unless you’ve done a lot of crosswords, and beginners by definition have not, it’s not obvious.

  39. Found 10a misleading/wrong: clue should have been ‘Not so much dealing with class” – not so many is FEWER!
    Agree that VERNE is not the best explanation. And sometimes the given word in the clue (like THOSE) is cycled, and sometimes it’s another word (like VERNE). Confusing at first.

  40. Well pitched I thought. Agree with the comments on TORN and LESS.

    What I like about this crossword is the repetition of the cycling clues, which has helped to cement the clue type into my brain!

    Thanks Ludwig and Shanne!

  42. Great crossword, but I love smaje’s (accurate – I think) criticism of 10a: less vs fewer. Stannis Baratheon would be tutting!

  43. Ned – Picaroon is working for another paper, and as far as we understand, that precludes him from setting puzzles for other newspapers

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