Guardian Quiptic 1326 Carpathian

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Thank you to Carpathian.  Definitions are underlined in the clues.Across
1. Faculty holding wriggling asp in bag (8)
KNAPSACK : KNACK(faculty/a skill at doing something) containing(holding) anagram of(wriggling) ASP.

  … not to be confused with a backpack.

5. Frequent public area (6)
COMMON : Double defn: 2nd: Piece of open land for public use.

9. Annoyance church meets with a smile (7)
CHAGRIN : CH(abbrev. for “church”) plus(with) [A + GRIN(a wide smile)].

10. Superficial pig crossing lobby (7)
SHALLOW : SOW(an adult female pig) containing(crossing) HALL(lobby/the room just inside the front entrance of a building).

11. Reparteeing as every other piece is consumed (5)
EATEN : 2nd and thereafter every other letter of(… as every other piece) “Reparteeing”.

12. Become aware of arrest (9)
APPREHEND : Double defn: 1st: …/to perceive; and 2nd: … someone for a crime.

13. Criminal crept neatly by end of alley for bit of theft (5,7)
PETTY LARCENY : Anagram of(Criminal) CREPT NEATLY plus(by) last letter of(end of) “alley”.

17. Supply new examination lacking rule that’s opportune (12)
PROVIDENTIAL : PROVIDE(to supply/make available) + N(abbrev. for “new”) + [ “trial”(an examination/a test) minus(lacking) “r”(abbrev. for “rule”) ]

20. Days sadly drinking cola causing indigestion (9)
DYSPEPSIA : Anagram of(… sadly) DAYS containing(drinking) PEPSI(short for Pepsi-Cola, a brand of cola/carbonated soft drink).

22. Dish they emptied to show devotion (5)
PIETY : PIE(a baked dish of, say, fuit or meat or vegetables with a pastry top and base) + “they” minus all its inner letters(emptied).

23. Joins male bears getting caught out (7)
MARRIES : M(a.”male”) + [“carries”(bears/supports the weight of) minus(getting … out) “c”(abbrev. for “caught” in cricket scores)].

24. Hot mixture of gases to fix bend (7)
HAIRPIN : H(abbrev. for “hot”) + AIR(the mixture of gases surrounding earth) + PIN(to fix/attach with a, well, pin).

25. Axe perhaps without centre is ingenious (6)
CLEVER : “cleaver”(a tool with a heavy broad blade, an example of which/perhaps is an axe) minus its middle letter(without centre).

26. Note alien put on fork (8)
CROTCHET : ET(abbrev. for an “extra-terrestrial”/an alien) placed after(put on) CROTCH(a fork/a point where a tree, road or river divides into 2 parts).
Defn: A musical ….

Down
1. Evil initially missing after king gets struck (6)
KICKED : “wicked”(evil/mean) minus its 1st letter(initially missing) placed below(after, in a down clue) K(abbrev. for “king” in chess notation).

2. Looks for article by comedians about acting (6)
AWAITS : A(an article in grammar) plus(by) WITS(comedians/humorists) containing(about) A(abbrev. for “acting”).

3. African region is strangely greenest just before 4th of April (9)
SERENGETI : Anagram of(strangely) GREENEST plus(just before) 4th letter of(4th of) “April”.

4. Help to improve vision as clean contests arranged (7,6)
CONTACT LENSES : Anagram of(… arranged) CLEAN CONTESTS.

6. Heads of organisation run a terrific educational talk (5)
ORATE : 1st letters, respectively, of(Heads of) “organisation run a terrific educational”.

7. Gentle sheep – dead and covered in fungus (8)
MILDEWED : MILD(gentle/not severe) + EWE(female sheep) + D(abbrev. for “dead”).

8. Negative votes involving round bundle at present time (8)
NOWADAYS : NAYS(negative votes, in opposition to “ayes”) containing(involving) [ O(letter describing something round) + WAD(a bundle/roll of paper or banknotes) ].

10. Temporary staff member’s happy lectures stimulated (6,7)
SUPPLY TEACHER : Anagram of(… stimulated) HAPPY LECTURES.
Defn: Substitute/… in a school.

14. Give back position to harvest feature (9)
REAPPOINT : REAP(to harvest/gather) + POINT(a feature/a characteristic of a person or thing).

15. Widespread and impressive encompassing short thought by master (8)
EPIDEMIC : EPIC(impressive/remarkable) containing(encompassing) [ “idea”(a thought/a notion) minus its last letter(short …) plus(by) M(abbrev. for “Master”) ].

16. Interpret scam’s firm (8)
CONSTRUE : CON(a scam/a swindle)’S + TRUE(firm/loyal, as in “a true friend”).

18. High protein food gathered up by gym hunks at first (6)
TEMPEH : Reversal of(… up, in a down clue) MET(gathered/got together) plus(by) PE(abbrev. for “physical education” or gym period in school) + 1st letter of(… at first) “hunks”.

Fermented soy bean – Raw and fried:

19. Hear small seal and little bird (6)
CYGNET : Homophone of(Hear) “signet”(a small seal/devise with a design used to authenticate an official document).

Babies and mother:

21. Banishment from old island by the French (5)
EXILE : EX-(prefix denoting “old”/former) + ILE(French for “island”/isle).

27 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 1326 Carpathian”

  1. TEMPEH was new to me. I was surprised by “looks for” as a definition for AWAITS.

    A good level of difficulty and most enjoyable, thanks Carpathian & scchua.

  2. I made EXILE ex-I(sland)+le (the, French) – but both ways work.

    I found this quite hard for a quiptic, with some fiddly parsing, particularly in the bottom half, and I failed to work out TEMPEH (not actually unknown, but unfamilar enough to not come to mind). Liked the anagrams for SUPPLY TEACHER, CONTACT LENSES and PETTY LARCENY, and the gentle sheep in MILDEWED.

  4. TEMPEH. Classic case of the setter boxing himself/herself into a corner and having to find an obscure word to fill out the grid. Look at the Chambers app and you’ll find that TEMPEH is the only word to fit ?E?P?H……. Hahaha

  6. Nice puzzle. Colourful, illustrated and neat blog.
    Thanks Carpathian & scchua.

    EXILE
    Parsed it as gladys@2.
    REAPPOINT (a minor point)
    Def: Give back position to

  7. A good level of difficulty for a weekday cryptic, but much tougher than I expected for a beginners’ puzzle. Not too many nice surfaces, so no favourites, and I agree with gladys@2 about the fiddly parsing. NHO TEMPEH and I agree with vannucci@4 that it was a painted-in-a-corner clue. It was my last one in and it took quite a while to come up with the answer

    Thanks Carpathian and sschua

  8. Liked the anagrams mentioned by gladys and had to work out the nho TEMPEH from the wordplay. On about the same level as the setter’s cryptic earlier in the week.

    Ta Carpathian & scchua.

  9. Enjoyable but definitely on the trickier side in places, especially the SE corner. The anagrams and some of the less chewy clues helped me navigate.

    Defeated by TEMPEH (though I’ve heard of it) and CROTCHET, which I ought to have got. CYGNET I got without parsing.

  11. I forgot about signet rings – I’d parsed that clue as a shortening of signature (I’m sure they’re cognate so I won’t be entirely wrong).

    TEMPEH would have been LOI or DNF, but I accidentally saw the answer before I’d find out which.

  12. A bit too chewy for a quiptic, particularly TEMPEH; it could have done with a more solver-friendly clue perhaps something like “Agency worker: ‘What cake?’ (6)”

  13. I was making good progress around the grid especially due to the lovely long anagrams but then found SW and NE corners really tricky. TEMPEH was last and I had to reveal it. Would say it was on the harder end of Quiptic in parts but not overly so compared to some weeks. Thanks Carpathian for the puzzle and Scchua for the helpful explanations.

  14. Lots of clues where you have to do multiple operations, which is a bit mean for a Quiptic. I had to cheat a little (check button to make sure there wasn’t a g for “gym hunks at first”) to get TEMPEH and I was trying to stick together half the periodic table before I remembered that AIR is a mixture of gases.

    allan_c @12 I would have had an even harder time with your clue! Is cake the definition here? I do think that TEMP and EH as components would be easier to parse, or even a reference to how famously smelly tempeh is rather than its protein content. The couple of times I’ve cooked it I’ve warned the whole house beforehand because the smell really travels.

    I was going to say the relatively short comment section today means people are still grappling with it, but of course most people will have plans for the long weekend.

  15. Agree with others about this one being well beyond the purported level of a Quiptic. Also that it was a tale of two halves, top was Quiptic level, bottom wasn’t. Agree that the long anagrams were well crafted, helped the solve along and deserve top marks. TEMPEH was a NHO and took a word search to give me the only answer and my LOI.

    On another note, this was the last Observer under the ‘group’ as from next week it’s behind the paywall of the ‘Tortoise’ folks, can’t recall the exact name now, but bitterly resented by the staff. I would assume that there would be an agreement not to compete with a Sunday Guardian for several years, but what then happens to todays’ puzzles? Do Everyman, Quiptic etc move to the Saturday or some other day? Have the Guardian offered to provide them for a fee? Would be a shame to lose our Sunday crosswords.

    Many thanks to scchua for the blog and Carpathian for the puzzle.

  16. Great puzzle, with smooth surfaces as you would expect from Carpathian but this was well beyond Quiptic level. I would say it would be better suited for a Monday but I don’t think it would be amiss in the midweek slot (where I would give it a lot of praise).

    There were quite a lot of complex wordplay, less than the obvious synonyms and some tricky definitions. This took me twice as long as the Everyman.

    I seem to say this every week but I am not sure this puzzle is acting as a Bridget between the quick and main crosswords anymore.

    Favourite clues: DYSPEPSIA, PETTY LARCENY and MILDREWED.

    Thanks Carpathian and Scchua

  17. The Quiptic was a Monday puzzle until relatively recently, so I wondered if it is to be retained by the Guardian … but I don’t know.

  18. Still a relative newbie to crossword land but I’ve never come across ‘r’ for rule or ‘a’ for acting before. Where are these abbreviations from? Usually the ones I don’t know are cricket terms (although I spotted ‘c’ for caught this time). I was among those defeated by TEMPAH.

  19. A for acting comes from jobs – acting CEO. R for rule is from the law /legalese.

    If you look in Chambers these abbreviations are usually there.

  20. Only got to this on the Monday, I agree it was at the tough end of Quiptics in my (relatively limited) experience.
    What a great find is the anagram for 10d that one will stick in my memory!
    Thanks to Carpathian for a good mental workout to start the week, and scchua for the comprehensive blog.

  22. I assume ‘itty-bitty’ clues such as 18D and 23A are meat and drink to accomplished cryptic solvers: I wouldn’t know – I just have to reveal these and move on. Some enjoyable clues, especially in the top half, but I still had half the puzzle unsolved on Monday morning.

  23. I enjoyed this one a lot. I thought the wordplay itself was pretty straight forward with a nice mix of cryptic mechanisms but the words themselves a bit trickier. I had never heard of DYSPEPSIA, but chuckled at the parsing. For me, when I think of cola, I think of the cheap own-brand supermarkt stuff that was popular in the 90s. I thought it was going to be coke or just the letter C for cola, but a good clue that just eluded me. Never heard of REAPPOINT either, but saw the wordplay early on. Was the last one to go in.

    Thank you Carpathian and Scchua

  24. Usually look forward to anything by Carpathian but didn’t find this a great experience. Found it very tough in places and looking at the answers getting something like a third solved was probably as well as I was ever going to do since there was a lot where I really struggled to pick out what was what in relation to the clue.
    Of those I did get 20A, 25A and 7D were ones that I was pleased with as I manged to parse the clue correctly to get the answer instead of working it out after the effect so not a total disaster.

  25. Fun fact about DYSPEPSIA – pepsi is so named because it was marketed as treating dyspepsia, so the clue has turned full circle

  26. I got absolutely nowhere with this. Only managed 9 (and only understood 8!).

    Thanks sschua and Carpathian.

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