A Monday puzzle from the Don himself.
It's a pleasure to get to solve a Pasquale on a Monday, although it was definitely on the easier side of thr Don's spectrum. STATER may have given some solvers pause, but it's very clear from the wordplay. My favourite clue was the one for FULL STOP, and my LOI was CRAZED but having noticed that the puzzle was a pangram that needed a Z, this was the only possible answer.
Thanks, Pasquale.
| ACROSS | ||
| 5 | COUSIN |
Penny maybe hugs American relative (6)
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COIN ("penny maybe") hugs US (American) |
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| 6 | PHRASE |
Battles may be reported in this combination of words (6)
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Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [may be reported] of FRAYS ("battles") |
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| 9 | JAILED |
Jack was ill, stuck in prison (6)
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J (Jack) + AILED ("was ill") |
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| 10 | VERTICAL |
Upright vicar let rip (8)
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*(vicar let) [anag:rip] |
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| 11 | FELT |
Touched material (4)
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Double definition |
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| 12 | PARDONABLE |
Fellow in Bible story not doomed to punishment (10)
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DON ("fellow") in PARABLE ("Bible story") |
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| 13 | APPROXIMATE |
Rough map pirate unfolded containing old symbol for treasure location (11)
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*(map pirate) [anag:unfolded] containing O (old) + X ("symbol for treasure location" as in "X marks the spot") |
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| 18 | MATCHSTICK |
Fiery striker in game’s given sign of approval (10)
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MATCH'S ("game's") given TICK ("sign of approval") |
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| 21 | ABUT |
Neighbour – a target of ridicule, we hear (4)
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Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [we hear] of A BUTT ("a target of ridicule") |
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| 22 | ORGANDIE |
Material to fade behind church instrument? (8)
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DIE ("to fade") behind ORGAN ("church instrument") |
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| 23 | REMOVE |
Get rid of this writer going the wrong way in ramble (6)
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<=ME ("writer", going the wrong way) in ROVE ("ramble") |
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| 24 | WHINNY |
Sound of horse – for what reason? – outside pub (6)
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WHY ("for what reason") outside INN ("pub") |
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| 25 | STATER |
Old coin, say, with head of Rex or Regina (6)
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STATE ("say") with [head of] R(ex) or R(egina) |
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| DOWN | ||
| 1 | FULL STOP |
What’s the point when the author has finished a bit of writing? (4,4)
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Cryptic definition |
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| 2 | WIND-UP |
Make fun of conclusive act (4-2)
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WIND UP ("make fun of") |
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| 3 | KHARTOUM |
King having a hot rum poured out in African city (8)
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K (King, in chess notation) having *(a hot rum) [anag:poured out] |
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| 4 | MANILA |
Mum with nothing looking down on a foreign capital (6)
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MA ("mum") with NIL ("nothing") looking down on A |
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| 5 | CRAZED |
A bit cracked, in more ways than one? (6)
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Crpytic definition, CRAZED meaning both "deranged" and "cracked" as in crazy paving. |
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| 7 | E-MAILS |
Messages that could bring a smile (1-5)
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*(a smile) [anag:that could bring a] |
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| 8 | OVEREXCITED |
Maiden, possibly former lover, quoted as being too emotional (11)
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OVER ("maiden, possibly") + EX ("former lover") + CITED ("quoted") |
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| 14 | RESIDENT |
Someone having accommodation in desert after wandering (8)
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*(in desert) [anag:after wandering] |
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| 15 | TEAMMATE |
Meat cooked repeatedly for fellow in the side (8)
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*(meat) + *(meat) [anag:cooked] [repeatedly] |
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| 16 | FARROW |
Litter in distant line of terraced houses? (6)
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FAR ("distant") + ROW ("line of terraced houses") |
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| 17 | QUIVER |
The case of an archer making one tremble (6)
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Double definition |
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| 19 | COATIS |
Mammals one’s hidden in garments (6)
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I (one) hidden in COATS ("garments") |
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| 20 | KARATE |
Catherine engages artist in contact sport (6)
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KATE (Catherine) engages RA (member of the Royal Academy, thus "artist") |
Yes, definitely one of Pasquale’s easier creations. I often baulk at too many obscurities, but the only one that was new to me today was the clearly clued STATER. I even new COATIS, having encountered one in South America years ago, which proved to me that they don’t only exist in crosswords.
A most enjoyable experience. (The crossword, not the coati.) 🙂
Didn’t notice the pangram — I never do.
Not that difficult but really not worth the time,on a busy Monday.
An early start today: back problems keeping me awake,so the diversion was especially welcome. All very straightforward and pleasing, i thought. PARDONABLE and APPROXIMATE particularly took my fancy, as did the neat surfaces for FARROW and MATCHSTICK. ORGANDIE brought to mind an early and rather melancholy Simon & Garfunkel song.
Thanks Pasquale and Loonapick.
I have a few queries I hope can be addressed?What is the purpose of having the question mark at the end of clues 24a and 16d?For clue 25a,I’ve never come across a puzzle where one is given an option to choose an opening letter,point in case (Rex or Regina).Thanks in advance.
thanks P and L! in 24a ,”why” is actually a question so “?” is part of the synonym.
Sorry I meant *case in point*.
Thanks loonapick. CRAZED was my second one in, but despite the Z, and the nearby J in JAILED, also early in, I didn’t think to look for a pangram.
What I did notice was that X was the central letter in the whole crossword. Clever. X does mark the spot!
There was a lot happening in the clue for OVEREXCITED. The punctuation is misdirecting and to be ignored. Non cricket aficionados may need a bit of a nudge with “over possibly” meaning a definition by example, a kind of “over” in cricket, i.e. 6 balls bowled without the batter scoring. That’s the way I read the clue anyway.
Liked FARROW for the misdirection of the def “litter”, and CRAZED also for the misdirection of being a little bit mad, but it’s about ceramics. Made me laugh.
Thanks Pasquale for the crossie and the Easter Eggs.
Enjoyable, but over to soon for me. Had to resort to Google for the dnk STATER.
Ronnie B @4: the ‘?’ in crosswords is fairly loosely defined, but you might find it helpful to imagine it’s saying ‘sort of’.
Many thanks to the Don. (I’m surprised he didn’t deploy his other alter ego in PARDONABLE).
A quick finish. Stater was my only unfamiliar word. Thanks for a good start to the week.
Same as Loonapick with CRAZED the last one in helped by spotting a pangram was a possibility. Also not heard of STATER but it was my best guess and probably the only possibility from the wordplay.
PARDONABLE my favourite today.
Seemed very Mondayish in places and far from it in others.
Thanks Loonapick and Pasquale.
Ronnie B @4 – In 24D the question mark is indicating a definition by example (DBE), as a “line of terraced houses” is one example of a ROW.
I do like the way that Pasquale adapts his puzzles to the spots.
Thank you to PeterO and Pasquale.
Favourites: OVEREXCITED, APPROXIMATE, PARDONABLE (mainly because it did not require knowing the name of anyone mentioned in the bible!)
Was unsure how to parse 5d CRAZED (loi) apart from deranged = crazed.
I didn’t notice the puzzle is a pangram.
Not Pasquale’s hardest, but all very neat and tidy. Like paddymelon I found the X positioned at the centre of the grid very satisfying. ORGANDIE was new to me, as was STATER which I had to guess. CRAZED might have eluded me without the pangram. Favourite was the excellent PARDONABLE.
I agree with Shanne@11: you can be sure that a Pasquale puzzle will be suitably hard or easy for its intended slot, and this one fits nicely. STATER is the only relatively unfamiliar word, but the clue is easy enough. COATIS gave me more trouble trying to think of an animal ending in I. I liked the fiery striker and X marking the spot (though I missed the one in the grid), and the suspected pangram helped to get CRAZED.
A couple of thoughts
PHRASE
I think the def should include the ‘this’
(‘this combination of words’ as well as ‘combination of words’ –either can work as an example for PHRASE.
Not sure if intended.)
REMOVE
Def: Get rid of
this writer=ME
Thanks Loonapick and Pasquale.
Thanks Pasquale and loonapick
I wrote in an unparsed SEND UP for 2d before checking, and I still think it fits the definition better.
Favourites PARDONABLE and the neat TEAMMATE.
Not sure why “church” was needed in 22a, though it does make solving the clue easier.
Another demonstration of the fact that a puzzle doesn’t have to be hard to be enjoyable. With nil placed between ma and a, you could say MANILA was an envelope.
KVa @16 thanks for spotting my typo in the parsing of REMOVE. Will amend when I get a chance
Another where CRAZED was last to fall and like loonapick, I realised it had to be that, to complete the pangram. I also had SEND UP at first but couldn’t make it work. My favourites were PARDONABLE, MATCHSTICK, APPROXIMATE and OVEREXCITED. Nice start to the week.
Ta Pasquale & loonapick.
muffin#16. ORGANDIE. Church instrument is what we’d expect from Pasquale. I don’t understand why the QM.
Neatly done, with the superb surface for APPROXIMATE a particular delight.
I suppose it doesn’t make any difference today, because both APPROXIMATE and OVEREXCITED are very clearly clued; but at the moment the Graun does seem to be making a habit of grids containing clues where a majority of the letters are unchecked, and I wish they wouldn’t.
Thanks, both.
Re #4s comment on 25a, what is the point of ‘or regina’
Benbow@22
STATER
I was thinking that the clue was a nice extended def (and the ‘Regina’ didn’t hurt the WP, though the word was
not essential for solving the clue).
Google says:
Ancient Greek staters did not typically feature the head of the ruling king during the early and classical periods; instead, they usually depicted gods, goddesses, heroes, or civic symbols. The practice of putting a living ruler’s portrait on coinage became standard only later, during the Hellenistic period, starting with Alexander the Great and his successors.
Just found it interesting.
I’m the only vote so far for FULL STOP. I also liked CRAZED yet it failed to alert me to the possibility of a pangram; I suspect I don’t think about if the puzzle’s going in smoothly. NHO STATER, and I was pleased to dredge up with COATIS. I’m another who doesn’t see the purpose in the question mark for ORGANDIE.
[This is the second week in a row in which the Quiptic has poorly pitched, IMO. I felt this Monday puzzle was more straightforward, albeit with a couple of less common words. Yesterday’s Quiptic, whilst being a fine puzzle in itself, was more devious… it even had lift-and-separate (albeit easy ones whose solutions were gettable even if you didn’t spot the device). I was surprised by how little grumbling there was, TBH!]
Stator and coatis, though not exactly familiar, were both lurking in the dark recesses of my mind, which implies to me that I have come across them both previously in cruciverballand.
Sadly not in real life, unlike the lucky GDU@1 on his travels
Muffin@16: SEND-UP was my first thought for 2d, but I couldn’t convince myself it could mean ‘conclusive act’, whereas WIND-UP does fit both definitions.
Failed on COATIS I’m afraid.
I’m another who enjoyed this – but I’m struck by how many commenters have saluted Pasquale’s ability to fit the difficulty level to the slot in question.
A few days ago Soup, possibly in response to a large number of comments about how hard that puzzle had been, took the trouble to explain that he was never given a specific date for his contributions, but simply submitted them – the decision regarding the timing of their appearance being the crossword editor’s. Soup himself was equally surprised to see that puzzle on a weekday.
This would seem to imply that Pasquale hasn’t, in fact, designed this one for a Monday – and would also go some way towards answering AP @24’s query as to why some quiptics are harder than weekday cryptics….
I doubt we’ll ever learn the answer for sure, however, as I understand the Guardian’s crossword editor doesn’t bother to read comments.
Hey ho.
Thank you Pasquale for today’s fun and loonapick for the blog
X marks the spot, and a bang in the middle of the two long words making another X, my first two in just after midnight, pangram me thinks, and it was!
ABUT was cute!
Thanks P&L
Petert@17 I laughed out loud at your manila comment
Today is Pasquale’s first Monday of the year, and with it he has joined Brummie and Brendan in completing the daily set for the year. This is the 5th time he has done so (he previously did it in 1992, 1993, 2017 and 2024).
Unlike the Bs, Pasquale has also provided Quiptics, Quick Cryptics and a Genius this year, so his full set is as full as it gets. He is only the second setter to achieve this in a calendar year – Picaroon did so last year.
[Derek the Sheep @3
Here is the S&G song. The lyrics have “organdy” rather than “organdie” though!]
Wellbeck@27 indeed my comment wasn’t a query so much as a sly dig at the editor 😉. It feels to me that there’s not much of a framework of criteria for the Quiptic. Which isn’t ideal for a series that’s aimed at beginners. Last week in particular, the Quiptic “should” have been swapped with the Monday puzzle, and I think one could argue the same for this this week too. Of course, these things are partially subjective – but they should also be partially objective.
Good point well made by Wellbeck @27, we can’t just credit the setter for every well-pitched puzzle and criticise the editor for the others. It’s always the editor.
Not much to add. Like Michelle @12, I was relieved that PARDONABLE was not one of the setter’s religious obscurities. STATER was my LOI. I’m sure it’s listed in Chambers, but that’s where I was looking and I failed to spot it. I learned the word COATI in around 1982 when the band Kid Creole and the Coconuts had a musician called Coati Mundi (born Andy Hernandez).
All quite straightforward with some very visible anagrams. I finished it over breakfast.
Thanks Pasquale and loonapick
I’m usually not a fan of this setter with his tendencies to include obscure words and arcane mediaeval religious conferences, so don’t normally bother to do his puzzles.
In that vein, I did wonder if 18a was going to be some unknown minion of the devil, but it turned out to be much simpler.
Overall I actually quite enjoyed this one, perhaps because it was more straightforward than usual. The central X was a nice touch.
Perhaps the answer to the setter vs editor question is that Pasquale is known to set puzzles of highly variable difficulty for a wide variety of slots, so it should be relatively easy to see which is which, and you know you will need to check. Whereas there are some setters (Anto, who I enjoy, comes to mind) who regularly produce puzzles that are either a bit on the tough side for a Quiptic or a bit on the easy side for a weekday, and could at a pinch do for either – so if you have a Quiptic slot to fill, you reach for a “regular Quiptic setter” like Hectence or Anto without checking.
But how the Soup one didn’t get used for a Prize is baffling.
gladys @35
I agree about Soup’s “Prize” effort, but I’m rather relieved it wasn’t one; there wouldn’t have been a Check button, so I would have only solved about 5 clues!
Good Monday fun although NHO ORGANDIE, COATIS, nor STATER. FARROW seems vaguely familiar, perhaps from another crossword; it’s certainly not a word I have had recourse to in daily life!
ABUT was my LOI, with a groan.
For a long time, and I mean for many years, the Saturday Prize slot has ceased to be consistently the hardest of the week. Indeed, more than one comment re: last week’s Soup was that if it had been published on Saturday with no access to the check button they would have given up sooner, so arguably it was well placed on a Friday. (I don’t think it was Genius material, for what it’s worth – aside from the themed clues with no definition there was no twist that marks out a Genius puzzle; it was just bloody hard!)
In my view, the level of difficulty in the Quiptic is more often than not set by the definition being among the first that you would think of and only rarely an oblique or quirky reference, so that if you can spot it in the clue you’re away, even if the wordplay is a bit more complex. For Quick Cryptics, as well as the clue types coming from a limited and defined menu, both definition and word play are almost always straightforward. Monday puzzles, by Rufus back in the day and Vulcan since Rufus’s retirement, are generally only a small step up, except in terms of the notorious Rufesque cryptic definitions, which can catch anyone out. These days I like the fact that Vulcan appears fortnightly, allowing more space for other setters such as Brendan, Brummie, Philistine and on occasion Pasquale to offer up a more entry-level but still identifiably in their style Monday puzzle.
I would be very surprised if the more established setters don’t submit puzzles to the editor with notes along the lines of “a bit easier this time – perhaps good for a Quiptic/Monday?” or “my test solvers tell me this is a stinker”, but of course the editor will have the final say as to when a puzzle goes in.
Popping in to agree with the consensus: enjoyable and straightforward, LOI STATER was the only unfamiliar one but clear once the crossers were in (I did google RUTTER), thanks Pasquale and loonapick!
Doesn’t Pasquale set Quick Cryptics for The Times as Izetti. I suspect he might have sent this one to the wrong newspaper
This is the first time ever that I have completed a Guardian cryptic with no help or cheating of any kind. Those who get a bit sniffy when they feel a crossword is too easy for them, just think how lovely it is for the less gifted of us to experience now and again the satisfaction of writing in that last answer!
I’m actually a fan of arcane mediaeval religious & cultural references, and I missed those (STATER saved the day, even with the excessive “or Regina”). But I liked an easier version of Pasquale, too. And even with this level of difficulty, unlike for many others, there were a few jorums for me: ORGANDIE, COATIS and FARROW. Thanks Don and loonapick!
Victoria @41: as an improving solver myself, I absolutely agree with you – and congrats!!
I thought this was just fine, no comments.
[I really came here to mention that I just finished Soup’s a few hours ago. I treated it rather like a Prize, in the sense that when I couldn’t complete it on the day, I had a choice of coming here and reading all about what I couldn’t do, or give myself a few more days to do it, sacrificing the opportunity to contribute timely comments. I did the latter, and was pleased I did, since it was satisfying to finish it without revealing any, although it did take days.]
Well done Victoria!
Last one in was CRAZED, which I thought was the weakest clue amongst some very good ones from the Don today. STATER was another I bunged in from the clueing, then looked it up as a nho term/word…
Congratulations Victoria @41 well done on your first full solve!
Good fun puzzle. Excellent for a Monday. Had to google STATER, but was easily got from the wordplay. Like many others last one is was CRAZED.
Isn’t ‘crazed’ a term from ceramics describing a glaze that is damaged by heat, leading to a lot of fine cracks?
Almath@47: Indeed it is, and more widely, fracture by lots of interconnected small cracks, rather than just one big one; many types of polymer fail this way. So, being a (retired) materials scientist), that one was pretty much a write-in!
[Thinking about it, the implication of “crazing” is that it’s dispersed fracture in a more-or-less homogeneous microstructure. Wood (broken across the grain) and artificial fibre composites also fail by dispersed fracture, but along weak interfaces in their multi-component internal structure (that’s why they can be quite tough: i.e. difficult to break completely) but it’s not usually referred to as crazing.]
Victoria@41: Good one!
I’ve found it a nice feature of the Guardian puzzles that, on the whole, they get harder as the week progresses, so that you can measure your progress by how far along the week you get, with or without various levels of help. I’m moderately new to the game, so I feel a real buzz of achievement it I can get a straight run from the Sunday Quiptic (or Everyman back then) to to the Friday Boss Battle, with the Saturday Prize as a bonus ball. It’s still rare enough to be worth celebrating!
Muffin@36, Well, they are American 😉
Thanks Almath@47 and DerekTheSheep@48 – I was struggling to accept the second definition as referring to crazy paving, since I’d never seen it referred to as ‘crazed paving’!
Somewhat surprised to hear everyone say how easy this was – I thought it was by Pasquale standards, but not by Guardian Monday standards. More NHOs than I’d expect on a Monday, though could just be me: STATER, ORGANDIE, the aforementioned definition of CRAZED – plus COATIS and FARROW buried extremely deeply in the recesses of my brain…
Anyway, enjoyable and certainly challenging enough for me at the start of a week! Thanks Pasquale and loonapick.
Friendly puzzle for a Monday, which suited me: puzzles don’t have to be hard to be good. I made it more difficult by going for CLAUSE for 6ac, treating ‘battles’ and ‘claws’ as (not very) equivalent verbs. Just me then?
Thanks to setter and blogger
[I think an interesting light on the setter/editor discussion rumbling on here is provided by Pangakupu, whose puzzles in the Quiptic slot do not carry the Maori nina that his weekday puzzles invariably do, often containing there a hidden reference to the number of weekdays that he has set. This demonstrates that one setter at least is deliberately setting for the Quiptic rather than this slot being filled at the caprice of the editor.]
I began to suspect a pangram after getting OVEREXCITED and QUIVER; I always find them rather pleasing. Nice gentle Monday solve – thanks to the Don and Loonapick.
Jim@51 I don’t think everyone has said how easy this was. Maybe easy for this setter, but not easy for a Monday. I had to take a break and come back to finish eight or nine recalcitrant ones after a couple of lubrications at the pub.
I never look for pangrams, and solved CRAZED without a glance at the rest of the grid. (I recall a comment recently along the lines of “three short of a pangram”. I was unimpressed.)
Last ones on were WIND UP after having realised that send up would not do but failing to find an alternative, and PHRASE, which I just couldn’t see for ages. That’s my Monday experience – no matter how easy the crossword as a whole, there is always one toughie!
Thanks to the Don and our blogger.
[Dr. WhatsOn @43. Re Friday’s Soup. I’m pleased for you. I’m still working at it and only got into double figures over breakfast this morning. In my own defence, I didn’t even look at Soup’s offering until Saturday evening, but then I only solved one clue!]
Thanks Pasquale for a good start to the week with PARDONABLE, MATCHSTICK, OVEREXCITED, & KARATE being favourites. I like how X occupied the center square; it reminded me of a treasure map, a good way to descibe a crossword by Pasquale. Thanks loonapick for the blog.
FARROW was at-the-back-of-my-head faintly familiar from, I think, Wodehouse’s Blandings Castle books, in which the well-being and reproductive success of the Empress of Blandings was a recurrent theme; and more definitely from a Flanders and Swann song, “The Wild Boar”.
“…In monotonous grunts he will tell you of hunts
Where for days he’d eluded the field
He will tell you his sow should be farrowing now
And enlarge on her annual yield…”
I think this was probably the quickest I’ve ever finished a guardian cryptic.
But I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Didn’t spot the pangram, but then I very rarely spot ninas, largely because I never look for them.
Victoria @42: well done lass! It’s a nice feeling isn’t it. Keep going. There will always be some that you just can’t get into. My mum started me on guardian cryptics at the age of 7, that’s 60 years ago and I sometimes flatter myself to think I am now beginning to get fairly good at them, but I still get a sprinkle of “did not finish” and the occasional: “couldn’t even start the damn’ thing”.
Thanks to setter and blogger and all for the comments.
Lovely Monday puzzle. Top half went in in the morning, the bottom in the afternoon. Loi 25a STATER, which I finally got when I twigged to the wordplay — “Rex or Regina” confused the issue, since the word could have ended with OR
10a VERTICAL very funny (“vicar let rip”), 11a FELT concise, 1d FULL STOP I think the longest CD I’ve ever seen, 7d E-MAILS nice little anagram (“a smile”), 15d TEAMMATE neat double anagram
As a late puzzler, due to coming home to tackle it after a day’s work, at this even later hour, my last in was the same as loonapic’s but I didn’t notice the pangram. Instead, after – once all the crossers went in – this was my first option, I still wasn’t overly confident, so I went through every other alphabetical possibility before returning on it and hopefully pressing the check button.
Thanks Loonapick.
On STATER I am going to disagree with our esteemed blogger.
“Old coin, say, with head of Rex or Regina (6)“
Say with head of Rex = STATE (we have a King (Rex) as Head of State)
And then in zeugma-fashion head of Regina is R
Hence STATER. That then explains the OR. Alas nobody will read this as it’s almost tomorrow!
And yes, CRAZED is per pottery. I found that one easier than many.
Thankyou JaMaNn#62 for zeugma.
Gets thanked for zeugma. Nobody cares about STATER. 🤷♂️
She filed her nails and the report.
He turned up the street and down the bed.
Ah well! 🤣