The only Sunday cryptic offering from the Guardian nowadays, and found here
I don’t recognise Alia and suspect they are a new setter (or using a different name for the Quiptic) with a different style. I started blogging this hoping I’d work out some of the parsing as I typed (which I did), having found this not on the most straightforward end of the Quiptics.
I’m not sure how challenging others are going to find this.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | NOT BAD |
Satisfactory agreement includes indication of ‘more info soon’ (3,3)
|
| insertion (includes) into NOD (agreement) of TBA (‘more info soon’ – To Be Advised) | ||
| 4 | PICKET |
Gather everybody together at first for protest (6)
|
| charade of PICK (gather) + ET (Everybody Together at first – so the first letters of) – for this sort of protest | ||
| 9 | DRAB |
Dreary poet making comeback (4)
|
| reversal (making a comeback) of BARD < (poet) | ||
| 10 | SELF-STYLED |
Less deftly manipulated, like many online ‘experts’? (4-6)
|
| anagram of (manipulated) (LESS DEFTLY)* | ||
| 11 | CAREER |
Rush job? (6)
|
| double definition – with a question mark to indicate that a job is not necessarily a career | ||
| 12 | BALMORAL |
Running amok, Rambo captures a large, large castle (8)
|
| anagram (running amok) of (RAMBO + A + L)* – where the A is from the clue and the L is large, with a final L corrected after the first few posts.
In case this is UK specific, Balmoral is the British Royal family’s residence in Scotland, and where Queen Elizabeth II was staying when she died. |
||
| 13 | GENERALLY |
As a rule, information gathering consumes energy (9)
|
| charade of GEN (information) + RALLY (gathering) with an insertion (consumes) of E (energy – from physics formulae) | ||
| 15 | OKAY |
Fine old animal heading west (4)
|
| charade of O (old) + reversal (heading west) YAK < (animal) | ||
| 16 | TASK |
Shame on you accepting a piece of work! (4)
|
| insertion TSK (shame on you) (accepting) A (from the clue) | ||
| 17 | LAY TO REST |
Put in the ground, or possibly let rot, say (3,2,4)
|
| anagram of (possibly) (LET ROT SAY) to give LAY TO REST | ||
| 21 | PROCLAIM |
Make official statement supporting insurance case (8)
|
| charade of PRO (supporting) + CLAIM (insurance case) | ||
| 22 | ELICIT |
Bring out party drug (legal) (6)
|
| charade of E (party drug) + LICIT (legal) | ||
| 24 | GREAT-AUNTS |
Gross Texan regularly teases family members (5-5)
|
| charade of GR (gross adding later: GR is a standard abbreviation for gross – a dozen dozen |
||
| 25 | ABET |
Provide help for a British sci-fi film (4)
|
| charade of A (from the clue) + B (British) + ET (sci-fi film) – B as an abbreviation for British is in Chambers | ||
| 26 | SPRITE |
Branding activity in place for soft drink (6)
|
| Insertion of PR (branding activity) in SITE (place) for this soft drink | ||
| 27 | ANGLED |
Leaderless gang was in charge on a corner (6)
|
| charade of ANG (leaderless gANG) + LED (was in charge) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | NARRATE |
Errata corrected after end of election recount (7)
|
| anagram of (corrected) (ERRATA)* with N (end of electioN) first – the after gives the order so N ARRATE | ||
| 2 | TABLE |
Item of furniture ultimately not up to the task (5)
|
| charade of T (ultimately noT) + ABLE (up to the task) | ||
| 3 | AUSTRIA |
A short product test covering America or somewhere in Europe (7)
|
| A (from the clue) + TRIA (TRIAl – short product test – says to remove last letter) around (covering) US (America) | ||
| 5 | INSOLE |
One new, exclusive part of Oxford? (6)
|
| charade of I (one) + N (new) + SOLE (exclusive) – and the Oxford being referred to is the shoe. | ||
| 6 | KEY WORKER |
Teacher, nurse, or typist, perhaps (3,6)
|
| cryptic double definition – a teacher or a nurse are KEY WORKERS – and a typist types on keys | ||
| 7 | THERAPY |
Those people taking hit for rehab treatment (7)
|
| insertion (taking) of THEY (those people) around RAP (hit) | ||
| 8 | GLOBAL WARMING |
Good, alarming blow represented danger to us all? (6,7)
|
| G (good) and an anagram (represented) of (ALARMING BLOW)* – to give GLOBAL WARMING | ||
| 14 | EASY CHAIR |
Source of comfort and serenity you initially found in each melody (4,5)
|
| insertion of SY (Serenity You initially) into EACH (from the clue) + AIR (melody) | ||
| 16 | TOREROS |
They battle bulls and wild rooster (7)
|
| anagram of (wild) (ROOSTER)* for the Spanish for bullfighters | ||
| 18 | TREASON |
High-level betrayal requiring time, plus justification (7)
|
| charade of T (time) + REASON (justification) | ||
| 19 | STIPEND |
Regular payment and bonus money put in post (7)
|
| insertion of TIP (bonus money) into SEND (put in post) | ||
| 20 | VACANT |
Empty container inside a different one (6)
|
| insertion (inside) of CAN (container) into VAT (a different one) | ||
| 23 | IN ALL |
Everything considered integral to criminal lawsuit (2,3)
|
| hidden (integral to) in crimINAL Lawsuit |
Alia is Paul’s sister in Dune.
Thanks Alia and Shanne! I thought there were a lot of easy ones, as well as some which were more difficult. I struggled with false indicators (“empty container” in 20d or “treatment” in 7d) and with “angled” = “on a corner” (I thought “angled” meant “having corners”); didn’t know Oxford shoe but the clue was unequivocal so I guessed there must be one. Liked KEY WORKER and NOT BAD.
In BALMORAL, I rather thought “captures” was an insertion indicator for “a large” into (RAMBO)*, with the second “large” being outside it. I guess your parsing may be right, too, but then “captures” would seem to be excessive.
Liked NOT BAD, LAY TO REST and GLOBAL WARMING.
ANGLED
One meaning in Chambers is ‘to corner’/’to put in a corner’.
‘On a corner’ as an adjectival phrase defines ANGLED well, I feel.
BALMORAL: Agree with Layman@2.
Thanks Alia and Shanne.
Thanks Alia and Shanne
Well, I found this harder than yesterday’s Prize.
In GREAT AUNTS the GR must come from “gross” rather than “great”, but I’ve never heard it. Is IN ALL an expression?
I liked NOT BAD.
My first quiptic in ages, and while I suspect it’s on the more difficult end of the spectrum, I thought this was excellent! Some lovely anagram spots with SELF-STYLED being the best of them. Also chuckled at KEY WORKER.
Agree with Layman@2 about the second large not being part of the anagram. Muffin @4 both gr. for gross and in all are in Chambers.
Thanks Alia and Shanne
KVa @3: but still, “in a corner” is not the same as “on a corner” (unless I’m missing something, which may well be the case)
Like muffin, I parsed 24ac as GR = gross + EA + TAUNTS. GR=gross is actually new for me and I found it in Collins with an example being gr. wt. = gross weight
muffin @4 Harder than yesterday’s Prize? Really? Either you are having a bad morning today or I was having a bad morning yesterday, because almost all of this was a write-in for me whereas I found the Prize doable but quite taxing.
Balfour @8
Some of the parsing yesterday was tricky, but I found it fairly straightforward to fill the grid.
Today’s Everyman is very easy.
[I renounced Everyman for ever, muffin, after just one experience of the Observer’s new formatting of it. I sometimes glance at the blog out of curiosity to see how the usual suspects are finding it, but latterly I had not derived much pleasure or amusement from AC’s cluing.]
A very enjoyable Quiptic with clear, succinct clues and some lovely surfaces.
Agree with Blah@5 about the nice anagram spots – for me, ticks for GLOBAL WARMING (alarming indeed) and SELF-STYLED.
Other favourites are NOT BAD, LAY TO REST and GREAT AUNTS.
Thanks to Alia for the Sunday fun and to Shanne for the very clear blog.
Can people wait until next week before discussing yesterday’s prize puzzle PLEASE?
So following the comments various, I’ve edited the blog and I think I’ve cleared all the corrections, quibbles and queries. General knowledge (GK) is an odd thing – it’s difficult to know what other people don’t know, particularly when this is being written for an international readership.
And Crispy @12 is right – we shouldn’t be commenting on the Prize from yesterday.
I took a while to get into this, but I think a lot of that was due to unfamiliarity with the setter’s style: about half way in, the answers started presenting themselves much more readily. Not the easiest quiptic, but a good one all the same.
Really enjoyed that, perfect quiptic IMO. Not a write in and a couple of head scratches and an aha or two. That’s what I look for in a good quiptic.
Hmmm, I didn’t find this very quiptic while completing it, it just didn’t feel like there were many good ways to get off the ground. I’d suggest the lack of anagrams might make this harder for a beginner.
At the finish line I’m not sure there’s actually too much that’s glaringly off FWIW, it feels a lot more like it’s stretching into ‘technically correct’ territory rather than being conventional and elegant. Particularly in the quiptic slot you want more of the latter than the former, but a pretty fair puzzle nonetheless.
BALMORAL and NARRATE I like. GLOBAL WARMING, EASY CHAIR, SELF-STYLED felt a little verbose and goofy on my barometer. AUSTRIA I got, but I couldn’t parse it because I spent too long trying to figure out why you put TRI into USA. D’oh!
Thanks S+A.
Have to disagree Tachi@16, I thought this was excellent, Alia is clearly no novice. Lovely elegant surfaces and totally sound wordplay. It was like a virtuoso playing in first position, which is what the best Quiptic setters are effectively doing.
I thought that this was pitch-perfect for a Quiptic, with nothing obscure to hamper the newer solvers. Agree with others that some of the anagrams were very good. Look forward to seeing this setter again.
Ta Alia & Shanne.
Leto@1 , just to add to your comment , in Paul’s “Meet the Setter” article he states “I always use four letter pseudonyms” (Paul, Punk, Dada, Mudd).
It’s an interesting (conspiracy) theory…
Not terribly difficult. One or two. But quite enjoyable. A nice quiptic.
Thanks Alia and Shanne
For some reason STIPEND took me ages, even though my husband, as a vicar, gets a stipend rather than a salary.
Lots of smiles in a puzzle I found relatively tractable, but very enjoyable
I ticked CAREER, INSOLE, VACANT, and of the many wonderful anagrams BALMORAL and GLOBAL WARMING were my favourites.
Thanks Alia and Shanne
Nice quiptic. In one across I interpreted TBA as “To Be Announced.”
I subscribe to Leto@1 and Jay@19’s theory. Paul would not use his own pseudonym for a Quiptic for fear of scaring off the intended audience, and Alia means other. ( I always thought Alia was a city in Italy with a football club, INTER ALIA. I’ll get my other coat.)
If it is him, he did a great job of hiding his trademark style, and crafting a puzzle suitable for the Quiptic slot while still giving more experienced solvers some things to think about.
If it isn’t him, then welcome to the fold, Alia, and I hope to see more of you in the future. And thanks, Shanne, for your usual well-constructed blog.
Thank you, Shanne, I found this more difficult than the usual quiptic.
Can someone please explain why “online” in 10a?
Thank you, Shanne!
I had problems with parsing because of the abbreviations. I didn’t know ‘TSK’ as ‘shame on you’, ‘GEN’ as ‘information’, didn’t guess about TBA and NOD. That was probably the main difficulty. I filled in 1a and 16a from the crosses.
Also didn’t see the wordplay in 24a.
Liked KEY WORKER and SELF-STYLED.
I also didn’t know about the oxford shoe, but the clue was clear, so filled it in and then googled it.
Crosser @25
I think it’s because the internet is full of self-proclaimed experts. They give weird advice, sometimes for free, publish weird articles, offer to teach you something, although they really know very little. And there are always a lot of self-confident ‘experts’ in the comments.
Found this tricky in places, and a bit obscure, but more obvious in other places. But in hindsight (I.e. after going through Shanne’s explanations LOL) it’s all quite clear and cleverly done. Thanks Shanne and Alia.
PS as per Leto @ 1 I’m going with a Dune connection 😄
I quite liked this one. A good quiptic for me.
Some lovely clues, most of which I could either parse properly or get from the definition and the crossers.
Had to reveal ELICIT, just didn’t parse that at all
Thank you Alia, welcome and Shanne for the explanation.
I thought this was about right for a Quiptic. I think the only quibble more novice solvers may have is that there were a few sneaky wordplay indicators which weren’t doing what you would expect them to do. Otherwise all was far and nothing too obscure.
Liked PICKET
Thanks Alia and Shanne
And can it really be Paul without a questionable homophone or bawdy clue?
Staticman1 @32 – have you solved any Mudd puzzles in the FT? – there don’t tend to be any bawdy clues there.
But I knew the KEY WORKER clue rang a bell, there was a similar clue in May in the FT, clued by Julius, but in reverse.
Excellent Quiptic and blog. Thanks, both!
I took two days to complete this one; I no longer consider myself a beginner, but I can’t agree with the comments here and on the Grauniad calling it straightforward. Plenty of wordplay indicators were red herrings and I had to often work backwards from a thesaurus-derived answer (which I can usually avoid on a quiptic).
11a was my last one in, since I was sure was a cryptic definition (a job that required rushing like a sprinter). 24ac penultimate in, since I thought that 16d was spelt TORREOS.
Many thanks, LunaLo @ 28.
Very much enjoyed this (irrespective of its quipticness); ticks for NOT BAD, SELF-STYLED, VACANT, and CAREER; I’ve seen plenty of double definitions of that, but few this elegant! Thanks and welcome Alia (or hi Paul, if that be so), and thanks Shanne.
Crosser @25 — I think it’s just a somewhat snarky definition: Alia is making a snide comment that many people who claim expertise online are not to be trusted. Sort of like this classic cartoon from the New Yorker.
I am a career beginner but really enjoyed this! Thank you both!
Really not on this at all – three answers after two days on and off and a guess at the answer for 13A but couldn’t parse it so didn’t write it in. Pretty standard fare for the Quiptic where I am concerned and I really do question why I bother at times.
Hard pass from me. Managed about 1/3. And some of those I have no clue how to parse. I’ve been at it all week and I’m no further forward. DNF and utterly soul destroying.
Didn’t manage to finish this one in a week. I can see what I missed now I’ve read the blog, but Key Worker eluded me, as did Sprite and Vacant and Okay. Not Bad had to be that but I couldn’t see why. Feeling more like a beginner than I was a week ago!
I was thrown a little by (in fact couldn’t solve) 6 down’s “teacher, nurse, typist” because while I consider nurses to be “key workers” (as seen during the pandemic), I don’t think of teachers, though very important, to be essential in the same sense, such as in an emergency. Perhaps “firefighter, nurse, typist would have fit better.
I managed to get everything except 6d on my own. Kind of surprised that people found this particularly hard; I mean, I also found it hard, but I find all of them hard…