Quick Cryptic 72 by Maskarade

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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 10th Quick Cryptic from Maskarade, someone who regularly sets Prize Cryptic puzzles at Bank Holidays, occasional Cryptic and Quick Cryptic puzzles. Today, as last week, we only have anagrams with all the letters given, the other clues are charades, double definitions and soundalikes, all of which have been met before, many times.

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. Get A Good joke for the 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.
  • soundalike – shown using quotation marks, so “Wilde” in the example below
  • CAD or clue as definition– where the whole clue gives the definition, sometimes called an &lit. These are rare.
  • DBE or definition 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. Double definition Both halves are definitions!
    ‘Search scrub (5)’ gives SCOUR
  4. Soundalike Something that sounds like the answer
    ‘Excited as Oscar’s announced (4)’ gives WILD (excited) from Oscar “Wilde”

ACROSS Click on “Answer” to see the solutions
1
Cherry playing harmonicas (10)
Answer

MARASCHINO
Parsing

anagram of (HARMONICAS)* with anagrind of “playing” – for this type of cherry – I’d like to see an indication of a definition by example here.
7
Negative report – from Arab, for one? (5)
Answer

NEIGH
Parsing

soundalike (report) of “nay” (negative) – where an Arab is a horse, and here we have two definition by example (DBE) indicators – for one and a question mark.

8
Comment about ideas (5)
Answer

ASIDE
Parsing

anagram of (IDEAS)* with an anagrind of “about”

9
Spots – a large number appearing in short succession (4)
Answer

RASH
Parsing

double definition of the spots on the skin and a series of a large number of events (appearing in short succession) – normally when we see rash used in puzzles, we get the “acting without due consideration” as the second meaning, I’m not sure that these are two different definitions.
11
Sticky stuff dog set to demolish (6)
Answer

STODGE
Parsing

anagram of (DOG SET)* with an anagrind of “to demolish”. The Collins definition of stodge is heavy, filling and high in carbohydrates – not necessarily sticky.

13
Small company’s BLT ingredient (3)
Answer

COS
Parsing

charade of CO (small company) + S (the apostrophe ‘s in the clue) for a variety of lettuce. A BLT is a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich, if you haven’t come across it before. I’d like to see something to indicate a definition by example (DBE) here, as a COS is only one of many types of lettuce. I suspect we’ll have a debate as to whether this is a charade or double definition, as always seems to happen when Maskarade sets these puzzles.
14
Getaway on plane ride (6)
Answer

FLIGHT
Parsing

double definition both as nouns, again, both with similar meanings.
16
Menu option at United Nations party (4)
Answer

UNDO
Parsing

charade of UN (United Nations abbreviation) + DO (party) for an option on a computer menu. We’ve come across DO for party before but not UN for United Nations – both are crossword regulars worth storing away for future use.

20
Could be Cilla Black? No! Purple! (5)
Answer

LILAC
Parsing

anagram of (CILLA)* with anagrind of “could be” and two other tricks: firstly using half of a name as the anagrist – just Cilla from Cilla Black, which is a regular trick in crossword setting to hide the words being used. I could also have labelled “Black? No! Lilac!” as the definition, but I think the “Black? No!” is the second trick to mislead.
21
On edge – perfect? (5)
Answer

TENSE
Parsing

double definition – and these are very different meanings – the second is in grammar, and this time we’ve got a question mark to show that “perfect” is definition by example (DBE).

22
Bring order to shattering characters seen differently (10)
Answer

STRAIGHTEN
Parsing

anagram of (SHATTERING) with anagrind of “characters seen differently” – which I suspect may divide people as to its appropriateness as an anagrind. It’s a very neat anagram.
DOWN
1 Suggested way to stately home (5)
Answer

MANOR
Parsing

soundalike (suggested) of “manner” (way)
2
What a cloud does: holds sway, we’re told (5)
Answer

RAINS
Parsing

soundalike (we’re told) of “reigns” (holds sway)
3
Note duck in central London district (4)
Answer

SOHO
Parsing

charade of SOH (note) + O (duck) for the central London location. SOH is one of several spellings of SO/SOH/SOL from the sol-fa scale. And O for a duck or zero comes from cricket. We have seen both of these before, but not this spelling of SOH.
4
Football team’s suit (6)
Answer

HEARTS
Parsing

double definition – the football team is this one, a Scottish team, the other suit is one of the four suits in a pack of cards.
5
Diana could become a nymph (5)
Answer

NAIAD
Parsing

anagram of (DIANA)* with an anagrind of “could become” for the water nymph.
6
Church bazaar’s destiny announced (4)
Answer

FETE
Parsing

soundalike (announced) of “fate” (destiny) – and those of us who end up involved in these church or village bazaars often call them the fête worse than death when we’re dreading the work ahead.
10
Carpenter’s tool for everyone, I hear (3)
Answer

AWL
Parsing

soundalike (I hear) of “all” (everyone)
11
Drunkard’s small set of books (3)
Answer

SOT
Parsing

charade of S (small – from clothing sizes) + OT (set of books – in this case the Old Testament) – we’ve come across these abbreviations before.

12
Wander to Georgia and Germany (3)
Answer

GAD
Parsing

charade of GA (Georgia – US state abbreviation) + D (Germany – Deutschland – as in the IVR codes) and both these abbreviations are new. American state abbreviations come up a lot, as do IVR (International Vehicle Registration) codes. Certainly in the UK we see D plates on lorries importing goods from Germany. GAD is an old-fashioned word for wandering, I think of Bertie Wooster and his friends gadding about, but it’s older than that.

13
Dance about hotel with one (twice) (3-3)
Answer

CHA-CHA
Parsing

charade of C (about – from the Latin circa) + H (hotel – from the NATO phonetic alphabet) + A (one – a/one thing) to give CHA, which needs doubling (twice) for the dance.

14
Crowd songwriter Collins heard (4)
Answer

FILL
Parsing

soundalike (heard) of “Phil” Collins – I wouldn’t say filling something is crowding it.

15
Land in water no longer available (5)
Answer

ISLET
Parsing

charade/double definition IS LET (no longer available) – every time I blog one of Maskarade’s crosswords, we have a debate about whether a clue is a charade or double definition, and there are three clues in this crossword where I have the same problem.

17
Nine musicians: why can’t they go fishing? (5)
Answer

NONET
Parsing

double definition/charade of NO NET (why they can’t go fishing) and it’s another clue where it’s not clear whether we’re looking at a charade or double definition. There’s a question mark to show that there’s a quirky second part to this clue.

18
The Atlantic wrecked canoe? (5)
Answer

OCEAN
Parsing

anagram of (CANOE)* with anagrind of “wrecked”. Again we have a definition by example (DBE) as the Atlantic is just one version of an OCEAN – which is why the question mark.
19
Party animal (4)
Answer

STAG
Parsing

double definition – for those who’ve not come across them, STAG parties are male only parties before a wedding – and notorious for bad behaviour. I guess STAGs in rut aren’t too well behaved either and checking, the parties are named after the animal, so not widely varying definitions.

 

 

47 comments on “Quick Cryptic 72 by Maskarade”

  1. This was difficult in places.

    MARASCHINO was a wonderful anagram, and I also liked ISLET.

    I had no idea why the football team is HEARTS nor why I should ignore Black in LILAC. Thanks for the steer Shanne, although I confess I am not entirely convinced about LILAC. Talking of not convinced, I still do not understand the second part of RASH.

    And I am afraid you have a typo in 16 -the answer is UNDO, not menu.

    Thanks Maskarade and Shanne.

  2. Thanks Martyn @1 – UNDO corrected.

    I didn’t like RASH either, but you do see “a rash of protests erupting outside asylum hostels” for example, for a very topical example. Like several of these double definitions, I think it’s metaphorical use of the same word, not a second definition. STAG and FLIGHT come into the same category,

  3. I think this one may take the crown of the most tricky quick cryptic yet. NHO COS, AWL, HEARTS as a football team, GAD as wander, RASH as a succession. Enjoyed ISLET, NONET, TENSE and STRAIGHTEN. Thanks Maskarade and Shanne!

  5. Very much set in vein of the old style cryptics found in The Irish Times.Left a few unparsed.14D-didn’t make much sense.Very vague clue for 7A,completely missed that one.20A)very tricky but got that one.Thank you Shanne for the explanations.

  6. Thanks Shanne. 22a needs the answer STRAIGHTEN. (Accidental double-up of TENSE).

    I had similar thoughts about some of the clues: double defs, charades, or a combination with with a bit of whimsy..

    I was ok with the two defs in FLIGHT being sufficiently different. I saw “getaway” in the sense of fleeing as opposed to flying as in the plane ride.

    To me “party animal” is the perfect double def, two words only and the pair together have their own meaning which is different again.

  7. I’ve done my usual talkthrough over at … https://youtu.be/HimOtwxi76A … with tips and tactics on how to solve. I was beginning to panic when I was halfway down the Across clues and nothing had jumped out.

    I thought this was one of the tougher puzzles we’ve had, mainly due to the way clues were set and the answers they were looking for – the comments above highlight support for this.

    Anyway thanks to Maskarade for the puzzle and, as always, to Shanne for the blog.

  8. Really didn’t like 13D. The first two letters make sense but the third feels like an almighty stretch.

    A step up for the quick cryptic, but I’ve been trying the quiptics of late which have really pushed me so this was a bit of a relief not to just start at an empty grid.

  10. I found this tricky at first. Solved only 4 across clues on my first pass – it seemed like it was going to be a struggle. Luckily I got going with the down clues.

    I could not parse 9ac.

    Favourite: NONET.

    New for me: HEARTS football team.

  11. Thanks for the parsing to 7A.

    Perfect is what’s called an aspect, not a tense.

    Where I come from in the U.K., we pronounce fete in (or close to) the French way. And our “ate” rhymes with our “fete”.

    In my opinion, this was too tough for a Quick Cryptic.

  12. I found the two long anagrams tricky, needed the crossers and a quick peek at the dictionary for 1a and a lot of letter swapping to straighten out 22a. Kudos to Masquerade for those, but raised eyebrows for rash and gad. I agree that you see the expression “a rash of protests “ etc but surely that’s a metaphorical use of the first meaning rather than a second definition and to me “gad” implies sudden darting motions such as those performed by a gadfly not the long and a seemingly aimless journeys of a wandering albatross. Perhaps I should get out more…
    Thanks Masquerade for the fun and Shanne, as ever, for a meticulous blog

  13. Having another look at STRAIGHTEN, I’m struck by what Maskarade has done there, intentionally or not. Much of it is to do with the letter count. shattering 10 letters. characters, 10 letters. ”Seen differently” looks like an anagram indicator. Surely he wouldn’t use all these tricks on people he wants to lure into the dark art of cryptic crosswording, or…?

  14. And the quick cryptics get ever harder. Like the quiptics did, which presumably was one of the reasons these were introduced. There’s even a clue in this one that requires UK-specific knowledge.

  15. Definitely tough and felt more in Quiptic territory than a QC in spite of having the 4 clue type hints. Like others I’m split over whether some were charade or double-def. 22a was particularly misleading I felt, but clever. Thanks Maskarade for the challenge, and Shanne for the explanations.

  17. @13 PaddyMelon – BRING ORDER also has 10 letters and while there is a “to” between it and “shattering”; it was another possible anagrist on first glance

  18. Anne @11 – having looked this up, naming the perfect tense the perfect aspect is into grammatical technicalities beyond general understanding.

    According to Wikipedia (because it’s online and I can link to it) calls it either the perfect tense or aspect – and digging further, searching for what the difference between tense and aspect is in grammar, I found that the “tense-aspect-modality” conflation describes how difficult it is to untangle these. I also checked the extensive advice for teaching KS2 English in the Gove curriculum, much criticised for teaching by numbers lots of concepts that aren’t that helpful, and that doesn’t distinguish between tense and aspect and refers to the perfect tense.

    I think perfect tense is good enough for crosswords and a general understanding.

  19. It’s the first time I’ve looked at one of these for quite a while. I’m more impressed with the blogger than the setter. 😁 But to be fair to the latter, if new solvers are going to use this series as a step up to harder, regular cryptics, they’re going to get an almighty shock if they’ve never seen definitions like ‘from Arab, for one?’ before.

    I agree with paddymelon@13 that 22a is clever and misleading, and again this is something that will be seen in cryptics going forward. Sometimes a clue like that will turn out not to be an anagram after all!

    Thanks to Maskarade and especially to Shanne.

  21. Dr Menard@20. Thank you for your warm words. I am far from being The Man! I have been attempting the Guardian Cryptic for more than 50 years and I am aware of my weaknesses.

    What did you think of the clue for NEIGH? I found it pretty difficult – on first reading I thought it would begin with N, but left it until I had crossers. Even with all three I had to give some thought to the clue, and it was pleasant to have solved it.

    I’ve been adding comments below the blogs on this site for about 15 years. I’ll look forward to seeing you on here in the future!

  22. @21,my apologies if I misinterpreted your comments@19.I honestly couldn’t figure it out,I was inclined towards a country but I knew it didn’t fit the bill.

  23. Dr M@22. As Shanne mentions in her blog ‘Arab’ is a definition by example. It’s often difficult to stand back from the surface reading of the clue – what it seems to be about – and concentrate on the cryptic elements. The setter’s trying to mislead us, it’s our task to try to ignore the surface and look for the hidden stuff.

    It’s tricky, but enjoyable

  24. This was tougher than usual, but the comments above convinced me that some of the clues were fairer than I first thought. But can someone comment on fete/fate? These are not homonyms, and I’d say they are not even close homonyms at least in English dialects I know. (New Englander living in Canada, lived in Oxford for a spell). I had this one near first glance, realized that it couldn’t be the answer as no homonym and a church bazaar is not a fete, then it was my LOI.

  25. Thanks Maskarade and Shanne
    I too thought that this was the most difficult so far.

    robjoswel @24
    I’m not slow to complain about so-called “homophones”, especially ones that don’t work for rhotic speakers, but I can’t imagine how FETE and FATE could possibly be pronounced differently.

  26. @muffin

    I guess it is a UK thing I never noticed.

    In the States:
    Fete rhymes with met or set (fet)
    Fate rhymes with mate or sate or late. (fayt)

  27. Thanks robjoswel – I never knew that. That’s how “fete” would be pronounced in France, as in Jacques Tati’s “Jour de fete” (There should be a little hat over the first E!)

  28. Me @27
    I think I remember from O level French that the “little hat” (circumflex) means that at some stage an S has gone from the word, so the original would have been FESTE, which matches feast, etc.

  29. I thought that was easier than some recent QC’s, and was perfectly pitched. There were definitely some clues that were a bit tricksy, but given crossing letters I felt the crossword as a whole was a good level.

    LOI NEIGH, but when faced with N-I-H there was only one possibility.

    I did want TUNA rather than UNDO, but maybe it wouldn’t work?

  30. I think bloggers (and shanne) are being too pedantic about whether the two definitions of 9ac are really distinct definitions. The usages are definitely distinct enough to be giving us two definition-type clues to the one word.

    Definitely enjoyed the crossword. Needed help with 1ac – I knew there was a cherry there, but my mind could only see Mascherano – the footballer. And the SOH spelling of SOL is a new one on me.

    NEIGH was the hardest – but with the crossers I think the only word possible. And then I figured out the parsing – very nice!

    @28 muffin: also matches festa (Italian) and fiesta (Sp).

    Thanks to Maskerade – and to Shanne for the great blogs. Also to @11 Anne – I didn’t know about the difference between tenses and aspects. I do now!

  31. Hello Shane, first time emailer….
    An aspect is a concept, a way of looking at how time moves – in English we have two: continuous (all the stuff with -ing verbs “I am writing this”, “I was running”) and perfect (one thing before another and both related to each other – “sorry for the patronising tone but I have been drinking”). A tense usually refers to which time. So perfect is an aspect first and foremost and the examples of tenses could be present perfect (I have drunk), past perfect (I had drunk) or even past perfect continuous (I don’t know why I had drunk so much before doing the crossword.) As ever, thanks for the blog and clear explanations!

  33. Thank you Rory @31 – my daughter who is into writing languages (sci-fi/gaming) has also been telling me this, and I did read it up.

    My point isn’t that it’s not accurate, because I realise it is, but that it’s a technical meaning in language studies. In the same way, as someone who has studied (and taught) science, there are a lot of words used in accurate scientific ways that are not the same as those used generally, e.g. momentum, mass, weight, and etc, When I’ve taught it I start with, generally, these have wider meanings, but in science you have to learn the specific meanings. Setters have to use the words in general use in crosswords as that’s the way it works for most people, rather than the technically accurate ones in specific fields – so good enough for crosswords is saying it’s as used generally, and near enough.

    Last week we had a clue that clued “hear” as “listen” (or vice versa) which are not exactly the same things, but as I commented at the time, near enough for crosswords. Similarly in today’s puzzle there’s “fill” clued as “crowd” – and I did comment that they aren’t that equivalent, but I’m sure there’s justification somewhere.

  34. Shanne @33
    You have reminded me of this line from Paul Simon’s The sound of silence:
    People hearing without listening

  35. Confirmed Janeite here, and I’m pretty sure that in “Persuasion” Mrs.Musgrove complains that her daughter in law’s nursemaid is always out ‘on the gad’. Not that it helped me solve the clue – it was my last one in.

  36. Shanne on 22a. I’m relieved that nobody has queried the appropriateness of “characters seen differently” as an anagrind because it’s a long time since I saw an anagrind as appropriate as this!

  37. In the ‘land down under’ we wear a rash guard/ vest ( commonly known as a rashie ) to protect us from sun spots & abrasions when enjoying watersports. On a general note, I appreciate the generosity of clueing and of comments in our global interchange of language & expressions in sharing cryptic x-words.

  38. Late enough that you probably won’t see it, but Muffin: it is often the case, for reasons I don’t quite follow, that Americans pronounce French loan words closer to the original French than the British do. In addition to fete, see also valet and garage, for two more I can think of off the top of my head.

  40. @mrpenny, that sounds right to my Bostonian ear! Also, bête, as in bête noire, is homophonic with “bet”.

  42. Found this to be one of the hardest since I started (done about 20) If it had been my first, I reckon it would have been my last! But thanks to Maskarade as I did eventually complete it and as ever to Shanne for the brilliant explanation

  43. I hope I may be permitted to go OT here.

    This morning’s Minute Cryptic clue is

    Temperamental electric air conditioning unit starts malfunctioning under 90 degrees (5)

    Is it permitted to instruct the solver to anagram the results of an acrostic? I thought that a double-operation anagram was regarded as not allowed; I’ve only ever seen insertions of extra letters into an anagram, or – within a charade – an anagram of a shorter word providing a chunk of a longer word. Thanks!

    Thank you!

  44. James @43 – in answer to your question, yes, I’ve seen it in the full-fat puzzles – an anagram of an acrostic or the end letters. It was something Coot did in this Saturday’s Independent crossword, for example.

    Can I suggest that these questions go better in General Discussion or Newbie Corner where others are more likely to see it? rather than just me, getting an email notification of a post.

  45. Found this one quite tricky with several that I struggled to parse. For 3D I split Soho into ‘So’ for ‘note’ and then could not for the life of me think of any connection between ‘ho’ and ducks! It made a lot more sense when you revealed that the break was after the H rather than before!

  46. Shane @33 I’m ok with crowd/fill, eg “The teenage fans crowd/fill the area in front of the stage.”
    Seems ok to me, but I’m also a bit of a novice at these things.
    Thanks for the blogging!

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