Guardian Quiptic 1,343/Chandler

37 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 1,343/Chandler”

1. 3d I could not parse the TED = one with noted quiff. I wondered if it was Edward of Jedward (which I discovered via google search). I totally forgot about the Teddy Boys of the 1950s.

   Favourite: TERMITE.

   22d was not very cryptic?

2. I thought there was a range of difficulty among the clues.

   I ticked OUTSIDE CHANCE

   Thanks for explaining Ted with the quiff. Would someone tell me how does call = TERM in TERMITE? I needed google to solve LAMBADA.

   Thanks Chandler and Pierre

3. Martyn @2, call=name=term, comes up quite often in crosswordland. I didn’t think 21d was terribly cryptic, but otherwise a very nice puzzle and an excellent blog, thanks C & P.

4. I don’t think I’ve encountered a clue that’s a triple Britishism before. 3d — RA, Ted and quiff (the latter “mainly British” according to Collins). And I had to look up NUS.

   Never heard of LAMBADA.

   These were my only speed bumps. All else straightforward and enjoyable.

5. It seemed quite clear what each clue was trying to do and I agree the hooter was barely cryptic. Hopefully, this was a confidence building outing for less experienced solvers. I didn’t notice anything obscure, but then it seems that writing LAMBADA (the forbidden dance!) straight in makes me an outlier.

   Thanks Chandler and Pierre

6. Thanks, Chandler and Pierre. I don’t understand what “male” is doing in 15d. Is it supposed to indicate “male priest” for ELI, or “tiny male” for TIM? In either case, it seems redundant. What am I missing?

7. miserableoldhack@2 and Martin@5 – I agree with you both about 21d not being very cryptic. In my post @1, it is a typo, I meant 21d not 22d.

8. I thought it must that Michelle. (I’d put a smiley face here but it seems that is frowned upon!)

9. A very good and enjoyable quiptic; nothing too difficult or obscure. It was, I felt, definitely easier than yesterday’s quick cryptic. Correctly guessed TED and STUD; was unsure of BEARING UP but luckily it worked. Still don’t understand NUS. I knew LAMBADA well from the ‘80s when it was ubiquitous and caused much annoyance…

   Thanks Chandler and Pierre!

10. I enjoyed this quiptic been ages since I attempted one.I felt it was much easier than yesterday’s quick cryptic.Thanks to Pierre & Chandler.

11. NUS, I discovered, is National Union of Students.

12. NUS = National Union of Students in the UK.

13. verbose@6
    I think the ‘tiny male’ refers to Tiny Tim from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
    Sometimes, setters clue shortened names this way (Tim being short for Timothy). That said, I think the
    clue refers to Tiny Tim.

14. I’m afraid I still can’t parse 7D. Remaining cheerful = bearing up but what is “with relation in the lead” doing?

15. MrsSandgrounder@14, the charade is BEARING is “relation” – (think of “having a bearing on something”) and UP as “lead” (Arsenal were two goals up).

    I found this a bit difficult to get a toehold, but once I did, everything went fairly smoothly.

    Thanks Chandler & Pierre

16. GDU@11, Martin @12, thanks!

17. Thank you to those who have answered the questions this morning while I have been distracted. I love this site.

18. I was about to post along the lines of MrsSandgrounder @14, in regard to BEARING (7D). Still scratching my head a bit over that one. It held up the NE corner for me but I put it in and that helped the rest fall into place.

    Good puzzle, anyway. Well-pitched and I suspect I’m missing something obvious with the clue mentioned.

19. I thought this was fairly nice for a quiptic. TIME LIMIT and BEARING UP maybe a little scratchy but were gettable and certainly outweighed by a nice set of clues for a day like today. SHAVINGS, DRAUGHT and OUTSIDE CHANCE by no means reinvent the wheel but bring a smile. Bruteforcing the Greek alphabet got me over the line for LAMBADA, not a clue what it looks like, but at least I’ve heard of it.
    Thanks Pierre and Chandler!

20. [Pierre, re your discourse on AIRS: if you’re American, you also say “an herb.” Another case where we use a French-er pronunciation of a French loan-word than the British do.]

21. scraggs@18
    BEARING UP
    I think Lechien@15 has explained it satisfactorily.
    relation=BEARING (Her comments had no bearing on our decision–just expanding on the example
    already given @15).
    in the lead=UP (this has been used by many setters and Lechien has given an example
    for this as well).
    Unable to see any unexplained part in the clue.

22. Very nice Quiptic with a good range of clue types. Lovely blog and discussion.
    I finished in the SW, then didn’t fully parse TIME LIMIT (TIM) or UNUSED (NUS). Otherwise no problems.
    Favourites: LAMBADA for the Greek character and TERMITE for close to bothersome .
    Thanks Chandler and Pierre.

23. Pierre, re AIRS, also ‘an hotel’ is this a French loan word?

24. @21 KVa – no it’s been explained, absolutely (and thanks for doing so as well). I’ve clearly got a block.

25. Cantabridgia @23, good call. I personally would say ‘a hotel’, but that one is a bit like ‘historic’ – you hear both.

26. Thanks Chandler and Pierre for a great Quiptic and blog. I thought it was very fair: I struggled with DRAUGHT – I could guess the _GHT but was going round in circles for the rest of it for ages! My last one in was LAMBADA where I tried to fit something into Greek characters with two-letter names: pi and mu and so on. Not a success till LAMBDA leapt off the page at me.

    And thanks, all, for the excellent discussion!

27. Thanks Chandler and Pierre – a thoroughly enjoyable quiptic!!!!

28. KVa @13, yes, I got that “Tiny”’refererred to Tiny Tim. My question was what “male” was doing in the clue. That question remains.

29. It was a fair question Verbose. To which you gave two fair answers. I’m not sure the word is necessary either, but the fact that it works comfortably in either direction, and the three components of the charade are clear, is good enough for me.

30. Interesting that some found this easier than yesterday’s Quick Cryptic. There was much to enjoy here but I found it much tougher: charade clues are not my cup of tea.

31. I enjoyed that: both the puzzle and the blog!

    I’ve been at this cryptic lark for a few months now and have noticed a marked evolution in how I’m approaching them. When I started, I would work to get the answer from the definitions and then check, or back-fit the parsing. Lately, however, I find myself ‘building’ the solution from the cluing much more.

32. That’s satisfying, Horizontal, when you start to look at clues that way. Glad you are enjoying the puzzles and the blogs.

33. My first fully completed Quiptic – and only a day and a half! Does the Qui… really indicate quick? This site is so very useful. Many, many thanks to all involved.

34. seensaw@33, if it takes you a day and a half (with time off to eat, sleep and shower, I hope) then don’t worry about it. It’s not a race or an exam. And personally, I’ve never been impressed with folk who boast about it only taking them 12 minutes (and that’s why it’s strongly discouraged on this site). So what?

35. Liked this as I found it easier than Most Quiptics have been recently I e. I could figure the parsing.and get most of the clues. The explanation of boss/stud was the reason I came to this site though I guessed the solution. A big thank you! I’ve been doing the cryptics for a long time and am improving but still only really competent at the Quiptic level.

36. Very enjoyable. Thanks Chandler and Pierre.

37. verbose @28 “Tiny” alone wouldn’t be a good clue for TIM, would it? The parts of speech don’t agree. It could be “tiny person” or “tiny character” but then the surface reading wouldn’t work.

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