Quick Cryptic 63 by Ludwig

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

This week we have the sixth Quick Cryptic by Ludwig, who is a recent setter at the Guardian, although according to a recent Guardian blog, this is a name used by several setters. Today we have two clue types with all the letters given – anagrams and acrostic clues, plus charades and a new clue – lose the middle – a different variation on deletions, with the letters given in the clue.

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. RApID for the lose the middle example, Give A Good joke for the acrostic example.
  • anagram – letters being used shown in brackets (SENATOR)* for the clue below to give TREASON.
  • anagrind – anagram indicator – in the case below it is “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 – 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. Charade Combination of synonyms/abbrevs
    ‘Qualify to get drink for ID (8)’ gives PASSPORT (pass + port)
  3. Acrostic The first letters of the answer
    ‘Initially Get A Good joke (3)’ gives GAG
  4. Lose the middle Answer is another word with central letter(s) removed
    ‘Heartless, rapid attack (4)’ gives RAID

ACROSS Click on “Answer” to see the solutions
1
Runaway losing heart – take flight here? (6)
Answer

RUNWAY
Parsing

lose the middle (losing heart) of RUNaWAY, the place where planes take off, so to take a flight here? as a cryptic definition.

4
Quiet auctioneer’s offering intrigue (4)
Answer

PLOT
Parsing

charade of P (quiet – from musical notation) + LOT (auctioneer’s offering) – we’ve come across the P for quiet, meaning piano before, LOT turns up regularly in crosswords too, as the parcels goods are offered at auction. The definition is a noun – a(n) intrigue/plot for his downfall.

8
Little bomb gets you angered, explosively! (7)
Answer

GRENADE
Parsing

anagram of (ANGERED)* with anagrind of “explosively”. There’s a “you” in the clue that’s just there for the surface, not part of the cryptic grammar.
9
Chap mad at Nan at first (3)
Answer

MAN
Parsing

acrostic (at first) of Mad At Nan
10
Middle missing from top hat? Precisely! (2,1,1)
Answer

TO A T
Parsing

lose the middle (middle missing from) TOphAT and respaced to make new words – apparently the phrase comes from to a tittle, where jots and tittles are tiny distinguishing marks in writing that make small differences.
12
Trap coroner becoming disheartened (6)
Answer

CORNER
Parsing

lose the middle of (becoming disheartened) CORoNER
14
Implement resolved rashes (6)
Answer

SHEARS
Parsing

anagram of (RASHES)* with anagrind of “resolved”
15
Heartless usher, one manipulating others(4)
Answer

USER
Parsing

lose the middle (heartless) UShER
18
First pieces of elevated railway – about time! (3)
Answer

ERA
Parsing

acrostic (first pieces of) Elevated Railway About, for one of several three letter synonyms of time.
19
What’s read to those misbehaving in Brazilian city with delicacy (4,3)
Answer

RIOT ACT
Parsing

charade of RIO (Brazilian city) + (with) TACT (delicacy) for a literal act of Parliament from 1714
21
Lived without innermost character and wasn’t true (4)
Answer

LIED
Parsing

lose the middle of (without innermost character) from LIvED
22 EU port doesn’t spread (6)
Answer

OSTEND
Parsing

anagram of (DOESN’T)* with anagrind of “spread” for this port

DOWN
1 Thesaurus writer misspelt ‘ergot’ (5)
Answer

ROGET
Parsing

anagram of (ERGOT)* with anagrind of “misspelt” – ergot is a disease of rye that turns up in crosswords as does this thesaurus writer.

2
Once called ‘nasty’: Edward Elgar (to begin with) (3)
Answer

NEE
Parsing

acrostic of (to begin with) Nasty Edward Elgar for the feminine form of the French for born, used in English for maiden names, but occasionally the male form turns up.

3
First person seeing a reservoir’s edge (4)
Answer

ADAM
Parsing

charade of A (from the clue) + DAM (reservoir’s edge) for the first person in the Bible. Eve is often clued as the first woman too.

5
Rues mantle’s quaking (7)
Answer

LAMENTS
Parsing

anagram of (MANTLE’S)* with anagrind of “quaking”
6
Cosmetic that can be made from next answer! (5)
Answer

TONER
Parsing

anagram of (TENOR)* with anagrind of “can be made from” – and the answer to 7D is TENOR. This is a trick found in cryptic crosswords: using the answer from another clue to solve this one. There was a Gozo (Maskarade) puzzle in the FT recently where a sequence of 8 clues were anagrams of each other, and clued as a chain around the crossword.
7
Pavarotti’s number, alternatively? (5)
Answer

TENOR
Parsing

charade of TEN (number) + OR (alternatively) with a question mark as Pavarotti is a definition by example
11
State how old you are? That’s mean!? (7)
Answer

AVERAGE
Parsing

charade of AVER (state) AGE (how old you are) with a question mark after the mean? because it’s a definition by example – the mean is one of the measurements of average (mode, mean and median).

13
Primarily, fat Ron eyes rather evil French relation (5)
Answer

FRERE
Parsing

acrostic of (primarily) Fat Ron Eyes Rather Evil for the French for brother (as in the nursery rhyme)
14
Leads in stage musical enthusiastically let loose odour (5)
Answer

SMELL
Parsing

acrostic (leads in) Stage Musical Enthusiastically Let Loose

16
Despicable person, editor, made an assessment (5)
Answer

RATED
Parsing

charade of RAT (despicable person) + ED (editor) – ed for editor is a regular cryptic crossword abbreviation.

17
Green stuff in morass (not the centre) (4)
Answer

MOSS
Parsing

lose the middle of (not the centre) of MOraSS – not question mark as I’d expect here as green stuff is quite a broad definition.

20
Starts to actually like English beer (3)
Answer

ALE
Parsing

acrostic of (starts to) Ale Like English

 

 

17 comments on “Quick Cryptic 63 by Ludwig”

  1. Why does 3D need “edge”? I’d think a reservoir’s edge would be a dam wall. The use of “seeing” seemed a bit unexplained too though I suppose you could say it’s because “a dam” “looks like” the answer…

  2. Enjoyable with a sting in the tale.

    Liked TO A T, SHEARS, ROGET, ALE, AVERAGE

    AVERAGE took some time to solve and I wondered the same as Dylan N@1 about 3D. In fact it was my LOI. And isn’t GRENADE backwards? I read the answer as “angered explosively that gets you little bomb”, not vice versa

    Thanks Ludwig and Shanne

  3. My live talkthrough of the puzzle is available at https://youtu.be/JYtt9BxEQFk giving tips and tactics on how to approach.

    Somewhat embarrassing in hindsight to be stumped on 1A as I was expecting the “drop the middle” clues to be a touch harder and require us to come up with synonyms to drop letters from!

    Also wonder if the TONER clue was toned down from “Cosmetic that can be made from Number 7” as that would then play on the makeup brand. Or did they just miss a trick.

  4. I was pleased that it was Ludwig this week – it felt familiar and I suppose my thinking is in tune with that of Ludwig. I got most of the clues quite quickly , but I still need to work hard at understanding charade clues. I find the answers but never sure why so would be snookered without Shanne. Thanks for this blog.

  6. A very enjoyable start to Saturday. Loved RIOT ACT. I liked the tricksiness of 6d and 7d. 11d was second last in for me because it took me little while to think of AVER. 3d was last in as I thought I was looking for a word for a reservoir’s edge 😂, so that was my Doh! moment for this grid. Thanks Ludwig and thanks Shanne for the blog.

  7. Dylan @1. A dam is one edge of a reservoir surely? And then in a charade you usually need a word to connect the two halves of the clue. So “put these bits together PRODUCES definition”, that’s what “seeing” is doing

  8. Thank you Shanne, I really enjoyed that one but was stuck for some time on 4a having forgotten about ‘piano’ – you have reminded me here and it won’t leave the etui again. : )

  9. Very enjoyable. Thanks Ludwig and Shanne. My favourites were also AVERAGE & RIOT ACT, and last in was ADAM. Any ideas why “nasty” might be chosen as descriptor for Elgar? That rather threw me 🙂.

  10. The most straightforward QC in quite a while I thought, and great for beginners. Thanks for the blog Shanne.

  11. Great puzzle for beginners, thanks Ludwig and Shanne. I didn’t know AVER. Liked the reference to another answer in 6d.

  12. Enjoyed it very much. The definition part of 11d had me fooled. Got it from the crossers and then the penny dropped.
    Puzzled by 7dn. Answer fairly obvious but I thought it must be a homophone that sneaked in. Thanks for the explanation Shanne and thanks to Ludwig.

  13. Never before have I gone right through one of these, almost without pause. 3d was the last and took a little bit of thought, but only a little bit. Ridiculously, I feel quite robbed today. Oh if only it meant that at last I was starting to get to grips with cryptic crosswords, but I’d be kidding myself if I thought that was true.

  14. Came back to thanks to Shanne for the blog.

    My thoughts on some of the questions raised …
    @2 Martyn – the surface of your reversed grenade clue doesn’t tell a mini story. That’s what good setters aim to do.

    @4 Mary – interesting you say you are in tune with Ludwig as I’m fairly sure Alan Connor said it is a pseudonym which covers a number of setters.

    @9 Tim – why nasty for Elgar? Setters like to play with our preconceptions and distract. Also I suppose it might have been considered an anagram indicator (almost anything can be). But it could obviously have been nice, neurotic, needy …

    @11 Layman – AVER – definitely a word to remember – I only learned it in Crosswordland but it seems to come up monthly.

  15. I found this very straightforward except for the fact that I’d never heard of ROGET. Parsed it correctly but it with the crossers it was either going to be that or REGOT, I guessed the latter and it was wrong so technically a DNF for me. (I’d also never heard of OSTEND, but the crossers enabled me to guess correctly in that case).

    I’ve never seen the trick used for 6d before, I’ll have to remember that for the future.

    I loved AVERAGE and RIOT ACT.

    Cheers Shanne and Ludwig.

  16. Thanks HG@14. I agree with you and love a “mini story” or nice surface. But the words of the clue must also to accurately lead to the answer. The way I read it, the clue for GRENADE checks the first box but not the second. But I posed it as a question and am open to other views.

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