Quick Cryptic 56 by Eccles

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

This is the 56th Quick Cryptic, an initiative that’s now been running more than a year. Eccles is not a setter I recognise from either the Quick Cryptics or the usual Guardian crosswords, although the usual Wednesday setter in the Independent is called Eccles. Today we have some familiar clue types of anagrams and hidden clues with all the letters present in the clue, charades and soundalikes that need synonyms finding before the clue can be solved. All clues we have met before in this series, but with a new setter.

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”.
  • Soundalikes are shown by “Wilde” – in the clue below Oscar Wilde sounds like WILD, the answer.
  • 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 is hidden in the clue’s words
    ‘Some haVE ALtered meat (4)’ gives VEAL
  3. Charade Combination of synonyms/abbrevs
    ‘Qualify to get drink for ID (8)’ gives PASSPORT (pass + port)
  4. Soundalike Something that sounds like the answer
    ‘Excited as Oscar’s announced (4)’ gives WILD

ACROSS Click on “Answer” to see the solutions
1
Bird’s segment with crest (9)
Answer

PARTRIDGE
Parsing

charade of PART (segment) with RIDGE (crest) for this bird.
7
Perhaps Sharapova hurryin’ on the phone (7)
Answer

RUSSIAN
Parsing

soundalike (on the phone) of “Rushin'” (hurrying) – soundalike for Russian as Sharapova was a Russian tennis player
9
Some Tesla prices hit (4)
Answer

SLAP
Parsing

Hidden (some) in TeSLA Prices with some nice misleading in the surface (I thought I was looking for a charade using T for Tesla)
10
See you cutting parasol on Guernsey (2,4)
Answer

SO LONG
Parsing

hidden (cutting) paraSOL ON Guernsey for the informal way of saying “Goodbye”.
12
The elm is chopped up for protective equipment (6)
Answer

HELMET
Parsing

anagram of (THE ELM)* with “anagrind” of “is chopped up”.
14
Old friend’s precious stone (4)
Answer

OPAL
Parsing

charade of O (old – as in Old Testament) and PAL (friend) for the semi-precious stone
17
Broadcast spot in open water (3)
Answer

SEA
Parsing

soundalike of “see” (spot) to give SEA (open water)
18
Reportedly stops old-school payment methods (7)
Answer

CHEQUES
Parsing

soundalike (reportedly) of “checks” (reportedly) to give CHEQUES – very old-school payment methods, but does still exist.
19
Unoccupied seats in craft for long-distance travel (9)
Answer

SPACESHIP
Parsing

charade of SPACES (unoccupied seats) + HIP (in) SHIP (craft) but that means the “craft” is doing double duty as it’s also part of the definition because we’re not covering cryptic definitions this week. Corrected in view of first few posts below And HIP for in is very 60s – HIP, man, we used it to parody the hippie types when I was a student and was hoping it wasn’t really in this puzzle.

DOWN
1 Staple in Grandpa’s tankard (5)
Answer

PASTA
Parsing

hidden (in) grandPAS TAnkard
2
Stop the sound of precipitation (4)
Answer

REIN
Parsing

soundalike (the sound of) of “rain” (precipitation). I wasn’t sure which order to write in the soundalike – this is written as definition-indicator-soundalike and to me the sentence could have been soundalike-indicator-definition. I also am not sure I can replace REIN with stop in a sentence – the riders stop/rein in their horses at the roadside – I feel as if it needs rein in/stop (and when I checked the dictionary online I got a similar result).
3
Organised party with Mike, which is irregular (6)
Answer

RANDOM
Parsing

charade of RAN (organised) DO (party) + (with) M (mike – from the NATO phonetic alphabet) to give RAN DO M
4
Section of edit totally the same as above (5)
Answer

DITTO
Parsing

hidden (section of) eDIT TOtally for something used in lists and accounts to repeat the words (seen in old censuses – either as DITTO or do or ”
5
Accessible Vangelis music covers the teaching of Christianity (10)
Answer

EVANGELISM
Parsing

hidden (covers) in accessiblE VANGELIS M usic – and the definition is the original meaning of the word – nowadays the meaning that comes first to mind is “the zealous advocacy or support of a particular cause” including Christianity.
6
Expert’s idea for artificial limb? (10)
Answer

PROSTHESIS
Parsing

charade of PRO’S (expert’s) THESIS (idea) to give the formal name for an artifical limb.
11
Secure fantastic liberation (6)
Answer

RESCUE
Parsing

anagram of (SECURE)* with an anagrind of “fantastic”.
13
Buddhist monk collected beast of burden (5)
Answer

LLAMA
Parsing

soundalike (collected – as in the old-fashioned meaning understood from something said – it’s another word I know in that sense from reading Austen) of “lama” (Buddhist monk). And this is a soundalike where the order goes in wordplay – indicator – solution (and also has different numbers of letters in the words to help)
15
Overweight from fruit pudding, primarily (5)
Answer

PLUMP
Parsing

charade of PLUM (fruit) + P (Pudding primarily) – and this is a nice use of the technique of using a common phrase – fruit pudding – where the word play splits them up and uses them separately – so the fruit is one part and Pudding plus primarily is the second bit. This trick is worth remembering – taken to in extremes the setters split up single words for the same trick.
16
Netting damaged hems (4)
Answer

MESH
Parsing

anagram of (HEMS)* with anagrind of “damaged” for a neat clue with a good surface.

 

 

37 comments on “Quick Cryptic 56 by Eccles”

  1. With a lot of nice surfaces, I particularly enjoyed that puzzle.

    My favourite clues were SLAP (nice and topical), the misdirection in RANDOM (I spent time looking for an anagram), and I thought PROSTHESIS was clever.

    It took me a while to realise a CHEQUE is old-school. I agree with Shanne that REIN in itself does not fully equate to stop

    Thanks Eccles and Shanne

  4. For SPACESHIP – I believe the parsing is SPACES (unoccupied seats) + HIP (in). Avoids double duty and the plural of the first part then works. I had to do a bit of staring to unravel that one!

  5. That was slightly challenging from Eccles but I also believe doable by anyone willing to apply patience to unravel the answers. It challenged me in a couple of places – PARTRIDGE, PLUMP and not helped by missing the hidden EVANGELISM and trying to do a complicated charade/anagram. Wasn’t keen on REIN.

    My talkthrough solve is available from https://youtu.be/8oY42tyhVFc and should provide tips and tactics on how to approach solving.

  6. I originally though 2d might be ‘hail’ because its precipitation but also you hail or stop a taxi.

  7. Thank you to Holypeanut @3 and HG @4 – I’ve corrected the parsing for SPACESHIP – I did think it’s not HIP, is it? while blogging this. No, most setters are quietly forgetting hip, they wouldn’t do it in a Quick Cryptic would they? And then didn’t think further.

  9. I missed EVANGELISM too, and put PARTRIDGE in from the crossers before back parsing. Trying to work out which word(s) ‘Primarily’ applies to has been tricky for me in the main cryptic puzzles (word before, word after, how many words?) so helpful that it was more obvious in 15d. Thanks Shanne for another great blog and Eccles for the puzzle.

  11. Enjoyed this first QC from Eccles. Some trickiness in the soundalikes and the hidden and agree with others w.r.t. REIN. I liked ‘Accessible Vangelis music’ (his soundtrack for Bladerunner is fantastic) and PROSTHESIS was very neat. I wasn’t sure with the parsing of SPACESHIP as kept trying to understand why ‘seats’ and HIP worked, so that was my ‘doh!’ moment for today. Thanks Eccles and Shanne.

  12. Popped in to see Eccles, one of my favourite setters, of the “full” cryptic puzzles. Highly recommended if you are moving up a gear, or two.
    Spaceship stopped my progress for a bit; on which note, I agree with other commenters, “rein” is rather to check (restrain) progress, than to bring it to a full stop.
    I’d usually call it, “rein in”.
    But some synonym listings for “stop”, have it as [ rein (in) ], so the “in” seems optional. Not the best clue, but it’s there to serve a purpose.
    Thanks to Eccles & Shanne

  13. As a QC trainee I liked this a lot. The one that almost stumped me was 3D, because I haven’t fully acquired the Pro trick of analysing each word. Loved PARTRIDGE.

  14. Ah, that’s a more satisfying explanation for SPACESHIP. Notwithstanding, this is the first clue in a quick cryptic that I failed to parse.

  15. Oh I found this very challenging, partly because I started wrongly with 1A. But after correcting that I was surprised that I managed almost all the solutions correctly. I was sticking with ASS for beast of burden so had LASSA which meant 17A was impossible. I also missed REIN which is a great clue. Thanks again for providing a challenging crossword and the essential explanations

  16. A big groan for Russian/rushin’! I did have trouble parsing SPACESHIP, thinking SPACE for unoccupied seats and SHIP for craft, but as Shanne pointed that makes “craft” do double duty, and leaves an unexplained “in”. Many thanks to the commenters here for clearing that up. As I remember, groovy and cool were more commonly used words – or was that 70’s? Thanks again to Shanne for your excellent blog.

  18. Dear moderator,an honest question:Do crossword setters undergo formal training or they simply play by ear? It seems to me this setter belongs to the latter.

  20. Excellent Shanne as always, I love reading the blog even when I’m happy with all my parsing as today. I’ve said it before and feel moved to repeat – I do wish these Quick Cryptics could be more often than weekly! : )

  21. It’s interesting to see Eccles here, not least because most setters change their nom de plume when they set for different outlets. Anyway, quite a clever outing, and chewier than these QCs have often been.

  22. I had to double check I had opened the right paper when I saw Eccles. They are a setter who publishes great puzzles regularly. I don’t often do the Independent but I make an exception for Eccles. Assuming it is the same person.

    I thought this was spot on for a quick, plenty of anagrams, straight forward homophones with a few tricky ones. PARTRIDGE for example had a similar working in the Times main cryptic recently.

    Favourite today was SPACESHIP.

    Thanks Eccles and Shanne. Should I be looking out for Eccles in the Guardian on other days now?

  23. I started with TWITCHERS in 1a, thinking it was an anagram (“segment”) of “with crest” – I did think it was rather weird, and removed it when PASTA came along. I needed all the crossers to get PARTRIDGE.

    I don’t think I would have clocked “collected” as a soundalike indicator, but LLAMA was clear from the crossers, so it had to be.

    Agree with others that this very enjoyable, if a bit on the tough side in parts.

    Thanks to Eccles and Shanne (especially for the parsing of SPACESHIP).

  24. Oh, I missed the opportunity to quote Ogden Nash:

    The one-l lama, he’s a priest.
    The two-l llama, he’s a beast.
    And I will bet a silk pajama,
    There isn’t any three-l lllama.

  25. Thanks to all who contributed to the explanation of 6D and 19A.

    I do think that the combination of anagrams and hidden words along with charades and soundalikes feels like the sweet spot for these quick cryptics. The former providing a decent foundation to assist with the latter more challenging clues.

  26. I think that “collected” as a soundalike indicator is really too obscure for the Quick Cryptic (13d). That meaning of “collect” doesn’t seem to be in Chambers or Collins at all as far as I can see. The SOED has “To form a conclusion, draw an inference. Now usually gather.“

  27. I found this to be very approachable for beginners. 2d gave me pause as I wasn’t sure if it was RAIN or REIN, and I too parsed SPACESHIP incorrectly. Rushin’ and Russian don’t really soundalike, but are close enough to be gettable.

    Thanks Shanne and Eccles

  28. Lord Jim @26: I am inclined to agree on ‘collected’. Shanne in an earlier comment attributed her knowledge of the term to reading Austen, with whose work I am myself reasonably familiar. However, I had to do some searching to find it. Here is one example, from Mansfield Park:

    “I collect,” said Miss Crawford, “that Sotherton is an old place, and a place of some grandeur. In any particular style of building?”
    “The house was built in Elizabeth’s time, and is a large, regular, brick building; heavy, but respectable looking, and has many good rooms.

    And another from Pride and Prejudice:

    After listening one morning to their effusions on this subject, Mr. Bennet coolly observed,—
    “From all that I can collect by your manner of talking, you must be two of the silliest girls in the country. I have suspected it some time, but I am now convinced.”

    As you write, that really, as an obsolete usage, belongs outside the customary sphere of the QC. Besides which, I do not think it works as a homophone indicator.

  29. Balfour @28 – I did think collected was old-fashioned, if not archaic, but was trying not to be too negative in my quibbles for a new setter.

    I have dim memories of it being used again when the Garners and Elizabeth tour Pemberley and/or when they are talking about the things Darcy did to resolve the Lydia-Wickham debacle.
    To me, that use conjures up images of people in Regency dress saying it, not anything more recent.

  30. Yes, Shanne, it occurs in Persuasion as well. I have nor done an extensive search by any means.

    Mrs Smith did not want to take blame to herself, and was most tender of throwing any on her husband; but Anne could collect that their income had never been equal to their style of living,

    However, it does not in any of these instances mean ‘hear’; it means ‘infer’, which is why, archaism notwithstanding, I don’t regard it as a proper homophone indicator.

  32. I think collect gets used in church services as a form of verbalised prayer. That’s what I first thought of when completing the puzzle.
    Still very much enjoying these puzzles, this was a good one. Thanks Shanne and Eccles

  33. muffin @31 – probably, off the top of my head.

    Balfour @30 – I agree – my description was of something inferred. I had a few quibbles across the puzzle, but it’s an interesting balance this blog, trying to help people get why the answers work without getting too heavily into technical issues and putting newbies off.

    NewCrossX @32 – the collects in the Church of England (and almost certainly RC) are usually prayers collecting the themes of the of the service / themes / seasons. There are daily collects that change service to service – (I used to put the service booklets together)

  34. Hadn’t considered “in” for “hip” but I agree it makes sense, and it’s actually far more clever than I’d originally given the clue credit for.

  35. Nice puzzle. Struggled to work out spaceship even once I worked out the answer. Other than that very solvable for a the novice like me

  36. Like Jean @6 I had ‘hail’ for 2d but unlike her I did not manage to correct it and was left with 1A unsolved. As a potential solution to 2d I was aware that the two meanings (precipitation and stop) are more than just homophones as they are also spelled the same way. Is this ever allowable for a soundalike clue or should that have been sufficient to rule it out as the solution?

  37. Hi there,
    I have only just discoveeed the quick cryptic. A big thank you to whoever had this brilliant idea. I have been struggling with cryptics for years and now can do a big part of so e, but nothing in others . I really enjoyed this, thank you again.

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