This week’s Quiptic offering is found here
The usual quirky cluing from Anto which I find entertaining, but is not necessarily that straightforward for beginners or those in a hurry – which is the strapline for the Quiptic puzzles. A couple of usages felt a bit dated to me.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SUBTRACT |
Delete replacement document (8)
|
| charade of SUB (replacement) + TRACT (document) | ||
| 5 | ADRIFT |
Commercial division is off course (6)
|
| charade of AD (commercial – short of advertisment) + RIFT (division) | ||
| 9 | RIGHT ARM |
Suitable branch for leader’s most important assistant (5,3)
|
| literal and metaphorical definitions – RIGHT (suitable) + ARM (branch) | ||
| 10 | BIGAMY |
Significant woman causing marital irregularity (6)
|
| charade of BIG (significant) + AMY (woman – woman’s name) | ||
| 12 | PORTRAITURE |
Golden quality in perfect works of art (11)
|
| insertion (in) of OR (golden) + TRAIT (quality) inserted into PURE (perfect) to give P OR TRAIT URE | ||
| 15 | GET ON |
Board work well together (3,2)
|
| double definition – to board a train is to GET ON as is to work well together (think trying to pair up teenagers to work on a project) | ||
| 17 | GO CAMPING |
Leaving party inside to spend some time outdoors (2,7)
|
| insertion (inside) GOING (leaving) with CAMP (party) inside – so GO CAMP ING | ||
| 18 | AVERSIONS |
Dislikes top class interpretations (9)
|
| charade of A (top class) + VERSIONS (interpretations | ||
| 19 | DUPER |
Con artist, half repudiated, making comeback (5)
|
| reverse hidden (half … making a comeback) of REPUDiated < | ||
| 20 | ANGST-RIDDEN |
Greatly stressed when trading ends badly (5-6)
|
| anagram (badly) of (TRADING ENDS)* with an anagrind of “badly” to give ANGST–RIDDEN | ||
| 24 | CHANGE |
Linger in church – it can be transformative (6)
|
| insertion (in) of HANG (linger – as in teenagers hanging around the mall/shopping centre) inside CE (church – the Church of England, but often used in crosswordese to mean church) | ||
| 25 | RIGATONI |
Fix a little pick-me-up and some Italian food (8)
|
| charade of RIG (fix) + A (from the clue) + TONIc (tonic = pick-me-up – a little says to reduce the letters) | ||
| 26 | SNATCH |
Nick is small – of course (6)
|
| charade of S (small – as in clothing sizes) + NATCH (of course) – and to nick as in steal. Natch was first recorded in the 1960s. I’m not sure how much it’s in use now. | ||
| 27 | IGNORE ME |
Don’t pay attention to my views on regime changes (6,2)
|
| anagram (changes) of (ON REGIME)* | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | STRIPAGRAM |
Bare message delivered – take off a little weight (10)
|
| charade of STRIP (take off) + A (from the clue) + GRAM (little weight) – for the sort of embarassing message delivered at hen and stag parties 40 or 50 years ago. I did google to see if I could find a definition, and mostly found stories of them being banned in venues over the last decade, and not safe for work images. | ||
| 2 | BIG BROTHER |
Autocrat runs into serious difficulty (3,7)
|
| Insertion of R (runs) into BIG BOTHER (serious difficulty) for the Orwellian concept described in the novel 1984 | ||
| 3 | RATER |
One evaluating evidence of old volcano having blown its top (5)
|
| deletion of first letter (blown its top) from cRATER (evidence of old volcano) | ||
| 4 | CURLING TONGS |
Exceptionally strong cluing for grooming apparatus (7,5)
|
| anagram (exceptionally) of (STRONG CLUING)* | ||
| 6 | DRIVEN MAD |
Daughter torn apart over mother returning has gone insane (6,3)
|
| charade of D (daughter, from genealogy) + RIVEN (torn apart) over DAM< (mother = DAM – returning means to reverse it) | ||
| 7 | IPAD |
Electronic device lets assistant fill in papers (4)
|
| insertion of (fill in) PA (assistant) fills in ID (papers – identity documents) | ||
| 8 | TOYS |
Trifles raise some jealousy Othello harbours (4)
|
| reverse hidden (raise some … harbours – in a down clue raise is a reverse indicator) in jealouSY OThello < | ||
| 11 | QUICK-SETTING |
Hardening quality shown by compiler doing fast job (5-7)
|
| double definition – the compiler is a setter, so if they are doing a fast job they are quick setting | ||
| 13 | HIPPODROME |
African native died next to capital theatre (10)
|
| charade of HIPPO (African native – an animal that lives in Africa – short of hippopotamus) + D (died – another genealogy abbreviation) + ROME (capital – of Italy) | ||
| 14 | AGGRANDISE |
Rough ganger said make it bigger (10)
|
| anagram (rough) of (GANGER SAID)* | ||
| 16 | NOSTALGIC |
Doctor clings to a longing for the past (9)
|
| anagram of (doctor) (CLINGS TO A)* – and if someone is longing for the past they are NOSTALGIC. The clue surface suggests the answer should be a noun, not an adjective, but the parts of speech do match by ignoring the clue surface. | ||
| 21 | IMAGO |
Insect found in central Crimea, Ghana and Angola (5)
|
| word is found by taking the central letters (so found in central) of crIMea ghAna anGOla – and an IMAGO is usually final stage in an insect’s life cycle – so not the nymph/caterpillar or pupa/chrysalid but the dragonfly or butterfly. | ||
| 22 | ACES |
Watchers regularly become experts (4)
|
| alternate letters – (regularly) of wAtChErS | ||
| 23 | LAVA |
Bog has a very hot flow (4)
|
| charade of LAV (bog – both slang words for a toilet) + A (from the clue) |
Very difficult!Found the right half easier to tackle.Eventually gave up after solving 50% of puzzle.Thank you very much for the wonderful explanations Shanne.
Did they mix this up with a full cryptic? I also thought the LHS was quite difficult
I ticked IPAD and ADRIFT.
All parsed in the end, with several answers coming well before the parsing. Thanks for clearing up the mystery of “natch” = of course. Not in my dictionary. RIGHT ARM is not a term I would use for “leader’s most important assistant”. Would someone please explain what “leader” has to do with it? And, how is “exceptionally” in 4 an anagram indicator? It does not imply movement to me.
Thanks Anto for a quirky puzzle and thanks Shanne for an excellent blog
Yes, a bit on the difficult side for a purported quiptic, but I arrived unscathed and enjoyed the experience. Camp/party had me scratching my head, but I think I see the connection.
I’m a little stunned by the comments above but I guess people can see the same thing differently. I have no issue with any of the vocabulary and I disagree with the adjective ‘quirky’. I enjoyed the puzzle and thought the clueing was excellent. For a Quiptic, there were lots of accessible entry points, some nicely disguised anagrams, clever charades and surfaces and lots of humour. More please.
This was a Quiptic = cryptic puzzle for beginners and those in a hurry???
New for me: BIG BROTHER = autocrat
I found it pretty straightforward but don’t like to discuss appropriateness of Quiptics.
Tiramisu can be translated from Italian as “pick me up”. Clearly not the answer but I imagine Anto was well aware.
Thanks Anto and Shanne
PORTAITURE and NOSTALGIC: my top picks.
RIGHT ARM
Seems fine to me, though it could be a leader’s assistant or anyone else’s.
RIGATONI
little TONIc=TONI….interesting cluing. Can’t say it’s wrong.
TOYS
‘some’ and ‘harbours’: one of them is redundant. Removing ‘some’
wouldn’t hurt the surface, I guess.
QUICK-SETTING
The solution is adjectival, but the def is nounal?
Enjoyable solve overall. The blog is great as usual (detailed and neat).
Thanks Anto and Shanne.
I think I remember asking about DAM = MOTHER (re DRIVEN MAD) when it came up some time ago, so maybe it’ll come to mind more easily if there’s a next time.
Thank you Anto and Shanne.
I found this twice as difficult as other quiptics.
13D HIPPODROME (from, African native died next to capital theatre) illustrates the challenge I found: there are so many possibilities for African native, capital and theatre that I couldn’t get the answer just from the clue, I needed crossers.
I especially liked 10A BIGAMY and 11D QUICK SETTING.
Thank you for the blog. It makes it all look so straightforward.
For me – and I appreciate I am maybe not the best barometer – this was very difficult; 4 clues solved.
After several days last week when I got absolutely nowhere with the cryptics – I managed one solution on Friday – I found this much more approachable and enjoyable. 10a was a bit annoying. Having to come up with a random woman’s name is almost impossible; I found the answer from crossers and the definition.
sofamore @4 – I really enjoy Anto’s Cryptic puzzles personally, but I also enjoy Enigmatist and solved all but one clue of last week’s Prize by Vlad, which was tough. I reckon this was about the level of a midweek Cryptic in the Guardian (I know how long it usually takes me to solve various puzzles from the Guardian newspaper app, to which I subscribe, because it tells me. Anto’s Quiptic today, and in general, usually takes me around the same time as a mid-week Cryptic.)
As the person who also blogs the Quick Cryptic, and has done since it started, I reckon, by now, I’ve got a reasonable feel for what will make newer solvers ask more questions or say what they couldn’t solve – so try to write extra into clues I suspect will cause problems (I don’t always get it right). I found myself having to put more explanation into more clues that I’d usually expect to blogging a Quiptic. (I blog the Quiptic every 4 weeks, but quite often cover if asked, so have been blogging fortnightly for the last few weeks.)
I enjoyed this. Some chewy bits.
LOI snatch because I had carelessly put nostalgia for 16d. I didn’t check the anag. and read longing as a noun not a verb.
WRT comments sections generally, not just this one: as an occasional setter I can tell you it’s a lot easier to pick holes in clues than to make them.
Big thanks to setter and blogger.
Showaddydadito @13 -I’ve also tried setting puzzles, and agree it’s not easy. But I do think that the crossword editor at the Guardian is not great at ensuring that the crosswords published fit the levels he laid out himself in this April 2024 Guardian crossword blog, as the Quick Cryptic crossword was launched, where he says:
“The quick cryptic will contain no Bolivian poets, no interesting species of mould whose names consist entirely of vowels and no style of hat less familiar than, let’s say, the trilby.
…
“And here’s a suggestion for new solvers. Once you’ve built up a kind of toolbox of these tricks, you might want to try our Quiptic puzzle, which will now appear on Sundays. It’s an online crossword “for beginners and those in a hurry”. …
“Since there’s an unofficial tradition here that the Monday puzzle is not going to take up too much of the start of your week, or leave you with a frustratingly unfinished grid, it’s a matter, perhaps, of working your way further and further through the crosswording week.”
Some great surfaces such as PORTRAITURE, GO CAMPING, ANGST-RIDDEN, BIG BROTHER and IGNORE ME. The RATER and LAVA clues could maybe have been linked in some way, as the latter is evidence of a volcano having blown its top. Most definitely a cryptic though.
Ta Anto & Shanne for the clear blog.
Anto regularly produces “too hard for a Quiptic” comments. Most of the clues in this one were straightforward enough, if you could think of the required synonyms, but PORTRAITURE and HIPPODROME, for instance, are not.
I must say I thought it was spelt STRIPPOGRAM (though it’s not something I think of that often) and NATCH defeated me – not helped by carelessly entering NOSTALGIA. I liked Big Amy’s marital misdemeanours.
Shanne – I find your blogs ( and comments to others ) so very helpful. Thank you for the time and effort you put into this.
Funnily enough, unlike others today, I found this manageable – although I was not always able to parse. Like Martin #6 I immediately thought 25a had to be tiramisu – a cunning trap by Anto ! So that held me up for a bit.
But this was an enjoyable morning indoors avoiding the rather grey weather outside.
Will attempt Monday’s Guardian Cryptic tomorrow , although pride usually comes before a fall in my ventures into cryptic crosswords.
I found this harder than the usual Quiptic, but maybe I’m just off my game today.
I’ve never heard of a STRIPAGRAM, but it was clearly-enough clued.
Some quibbles: In 25ac, I don’t like “a little” to mean “almost all of”. To me, “a little [tonic]” suggests T or perhaps TO, not TONI. And the definition in 6dn seems wrong to me. “Gone insane” means “be driven mad”, not “driven mad”.
Shanne @14. I quite agree. I’m sure setting isn’t easy but it is up to the editor to choose what is appropriate for the various slots. I’m a reasonable solver (but not one of those, ‘yawn, that Paul was so easy I hadn’t finished my coffee’ types) and I find the Quiptics very variable. That’s fine by me because I still enjoy them and finish them but I feel sorry for those for whom this is their gateway or perhaps their only weekly solve because they have lives that are too busy to get to grips with the world of cryptics. Likewise, we can often have a bit of a slog on Monday followed by an easier Tuesday. Again, fine by me but for those who decide to move up to ‘easier Monday’ it must be bewildering and off-putting. Generally, I do feel there is little consistency with editorial standards.
Me @18 — I meant to say “been driven mad”, of course.
“He has gone insane” = “He has been driven mad”, not “He has driven mad”.
Pretty tough for a Quiptic! All done in the end, but not, certainly for me, one to be knocked off over breakfast. Having been out all day, I could come back with a fresh eye to complete the awkward NE corner. HIPPO for an African native… well, fair enough but not that obvious. I liked CURLING TONGS, but nothing else sparked joy that much. Maybe it was due to the lack of Bolivian poets?
Many thanks to Anto for keeping what remains of my brain churning and Shanne for the blog.
Me @21 above..NW not NE… and apologies to Anto for being more than a bit grumpy. If I could see how to edit or delete one’s own posts I would have…
There’s a time limit of 4 minutes to edit posts; in that time there’s an edit button, which has the choices of save, cancel or delete.
I found this one more difficult than the prize crossword.
Thank you very much for the explanation, Shanne!
I needed explanations for GO CAMPING, SNATCH. And I guessed about lavatory -LAVA, but wasn’t sure how it worked.
Tricky! On the first try, I couldn’t make head or tail of it. On the second too. On the third try, everything fell into place. Enjoyable puzzle with a lot of funny clues… Thanks Anto.
Ted@18
“A little tonic” – you read it as “a little bit of tonic”, suggesting, as you say T or TO.
But if you read “a little tonic” as “a small tonic” i.e. TONIC reduced or shortened then it works fine.
I’m a bit hit and miss with Anto. Sometimes I’m on his wavelength and get through relatively easily and sometimes it takes ages to get into it. This puzzle was the latter and this time around I guessed a fair few via crossers and then saw the wordplay. But in hindsight, and confirming here, it all seems fairly clued. CAMP = PARTY I was confused with but now see that it’s a political kind of reference, so happy with that. Thanks Anto for a good Sunday challenge and Shanne for the great blog as usual.
Showaddydadito @26 — I confess I’m unconvinced. “A little [in the sense of small] X” means an entire X that happens to be small, not a small part of the whole. If I say that I saw a little dog, I don’t mean that I just saw the tail!
Thanks Anto and especially Shanne for the clear explanations.
Tuesday morning and just finished this with a few visits in down time. Agree with the tone of the comments on difficulty. I find it challenging where charades need synonyms and where “woman” (or “man”) can be any name.
However, if I take the Quick Cryptic as a warm up, then it’s fine that the Quiptic does provide a stretch every now and then, especially if it makes “standard” cryptics more accessible. (I said something similar on Saturday, I think.)
As a newcomer to cryptic crosswords – brought in via Minute Cryptic- I am now racing through the Quick Cryptic on a Saturday and look forward to the challenge of the Quiptic on a Sunday. I see them both as a learning platform. Some clues I can solve without help, some with crossers and some I guess and use “Check Word” to see if I’m on the right track. I can usually parsay most words retrospectively however this site is invaluable for those that I can’t. Thanks so much to all the setters and bloggers for helping on my Cryptic crossword journey. You are all appreciated 💛 For me (living near Birmingham) Hippodrome was easy and as I use them, curling tongs was obvious for me. Natch is a new word I have learned and I will try to remember Camp for Party ( thought it was “DO”.
Coming here for the explanations has the added benefit of Shanne’s comments, always so rational. Thank you!
I suppose it shouldn’t matter that it’s hard one week and easy the next, but one does feel miffed. I vote that Shanne is employed (at a generous remuneration) to test out all puzzles beforehand to make sure they are slot-suitable. 🙂
Finally finishing this after completing in snatched moments. So delayed thanks to Shanne (especially on the double weekend duty!) and to Anto for the enjoyable challenge!
Hello all! Can someone please explain to me why “golden” becomes “or”? I can’t quite work that out.
Hi Nathan @33 – it’s from heraldry – the gold colours on coats of arms are named “or” – quite a few heraldic terms turn up in crosswords. (It comes from the French or Norman French, but or in French is gold.).
That was very difficult. And I’m not sure why – having revealed them they were all perfectly parseable.
A frustrating non-solve. Maybe I’m just not in the zone this week.
A bit above my current level and resorted to some guessing. Had to come here to get a lot of the parsing as well, with some ideas new to me (why is DAM = mother?).
Still fun to see where I need to get to next.
Ben Breen @36 – DAM comes up in Shakespeare, the famous example is when Macbeth has murdered Macduff’s family, when Macduff hears (Act 4, scene III) he cries out “all my pretty chickens and their dam”.
It’s not just archaic; there is a currrent use, in the breeding of horses and dogs, where the mother is referred to the DAM and the father as the sire.
Wow, tough Quiptic! I’d assumed that the African Native, HIPPO, in 13D was a reference to St. Augustine, but perhaps not.