Guardian Quick Cryptic 98 by Budmo

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This week’s 11 x 11 crossword from the Guardian intended to teach cryptic crosswords, found here

This week’s puzzle is by Budmo, their 7th crossword in this spot. Today we have anagrams and acrostic clues with all the letters present, plus charades and insertions which mean the words come from the solvers general and cryptic knowledge.

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. haVE ALtered 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”
  • soundalike – is indicated by “Wilde” – so in the example, Oscar “Wilde”, the playwright and author, is indicating the soundalike WILD.
  • 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.
  • reversals – the reversal element of a clue is indicated by < – so in the example clue below, VieTNAm <.
  • 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 Anagram of answer and 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)
    Although this explanation skips abbreviations – there’s more above
  3. Acrostic First letters of answer
    ‘Initially Get A Good joke (3)’ gives GAG (joke)
  4. Insertion One thing inside another makes answer
    ‘In favour of republican entering Post Office (3)’ gives PRO (in favour)
    from R (republican) inserted into (entering) PO (Post Office)

ACROSS Click on “Answer” to see the solutions
1
Tons to do in diplomacy (4)
Answer

TACT
Parsing

charade of T (tons – abbreviation) + ACT (to do).
3
Work with dodgy ticket salesman, or choose not to? (3,3)
Answer

OPT OUT
Parsing

charade of OP (work – as in short for opus or operation, depending on field) + TOUT (dodgy ticket salesman). I am pretty sure we haven’t seen TOUT before, but it’s a regular in crosswords, often clued as a solicitor.
7
Leaders in Romania insist no dogs bark (4)
Answer

RIND
Parsing

acrostic (leaders) of Romania Insist No Dogs.
8
Hard to get Conservative in panic (6)
Answer

SCARCE
Parsing

insertion (in) of C (conservative – party, on election materials/reporting) in SCARE (panic).
10
Be angry with Dawn, and have a penny-drop moment (3,3,5)
Answer

SEE THE LIGHT
Parsing

charade of SEETHE (be angry) + (with) DAWN (light) – and you often see people talking about penny drop moments or pdm on blogs as that’s the clue that took a while to see. Occasionally it gets expanded to tea tray moment
12
Mother’s taking conceptual branch of science (11)
Answer

MATHEMATICS
Parsing

charade of MA (mother) + (taking) THEMATICS (conceptual). Checking, there is some debate as to whether MATHEMATICS is a science – but it’s usually clustered with the sciences.
14
All the fluid is deadly (6)
Answer

LETHAL
Parsing

anagram of (ALL THE) with an anagrind of “fluid”.
16
Glen melted lead (4)
Answer

DALE
Parsing

anagram of (LEAD)* with an anagrind of “melted”, with lots of misdirection – GLEN is both a boy’s name and the name for a valley in Scotland, as is DALE a boy’s name and also the name for a valley in Yorkshire, where the Dales are famous. LEAD can be read as the heavy metal or as the verb to lead.
17
Equine protecting a husky (6)
Answer

HOARSE
Parsing

insertion (protecting) HORSE (equine) around (protecting) A (from the clue) – and more tricks here – husky is also a breed of dog.
18
Initially, Joe Exotic sold tigers as a joke (4)
Answer

JEST
Parsing

acrostic (initially) of Joe Exotic Sold Tigers.
DOWN
1
Starts to teach every Royal Marine swear words (5)
Answer

TERMS
Parsing

acrostic (starts to) of Teach Every Royal Marine Swear.

There are a few little bits of crosswordese here – RM is the abbreviation for Royal Marines, but there are other things that may be meant with that cluing: jolly also means a Royal Marine as that’s their service nickname. Also we’ve got one of those devious word splits – it’s hard to mentally divide “swear words” as we think of it as one word, but here it has to be split, with one word part of the word play and the other the definition.
2
Knight, in secret, to change religion (7)
Answer

CONVERT
Parsing

insertion (in) of N (knight – from chess notation, K is used for the king) inserted into COVERT (secret).
4
I clear up rocks? Strange (8)
Answer

PECULIAR
Parsing

anagram (I CLEAR UP)* with an anagrind of “rocks” as in shakes up the letters.
5
Row over abhorrent response, primarily (3)
Answer

OAR
Parsing

acrostic (primarily) of Over Abhorrent Response – row as in move a boat, and OAR can be used in the same way.
6
Republican pierces nipple for special occasion (5)
Answer

TREAT
Parsing

insertion (piercing) R (republican) inserted into (pierces) TEAT (nipple) – R for Republican appears in American contexts where C for Conservative is used in Britain.
9
Chase the wild cats (8)
Answer

CHEETAHS
Parsing

anagram of (CHASE THE)* with an anagrind of “wild”.
11
Scowl from stern expert (7)
Answer

GRIMACE
Parsing

charade of GRIM (stern) + ACE (expert)
12
Originally, mixed up large containers holding material to put on garden (5)
Answer

MULCH
Parsing

acrostic (originally) of Mixed Up Large Containers Holding for the sort of bark and other materials placed on gardens, sometimes as weed suppressant, sometimes fertiliser or water retention.
13
Dispatched to collect Penny, exhausted (5)
Answer

SPENT
Parsing

insertion (to collect) SENT (dispatched) around (to collect) P (penny – abbreviation for the coin).
15
Ate terrible meal (3)
Answer

TEA
Parsing

anagram of (ATE)* with an anagrind of “terrible”

2 comments on “Guardian Quick Cryptic 98 by Budmo”

  1. HG
    #1 - Sat 14th Feb 26, 07:49

    That was a good little Saturday morning workout from Budmo with the OPT-OUT / SEE-THE-LIGHT charades going across the word break; PECULIAR one of those anagrams I struggled to unravel.

    As ever I’ve done a talkthrough solve which is available from … https://youtu.be/xeS2IidTzog .. giving tips and tactics on how to solve.

    Thanks to Shanne as always for the detailed blog and to Budmo for an intriguing puzzle

  2. AntonJ
    #2 - Sat 14th Feb 26, 08:12

    Nice puzzle which I suspect beginners may find a bit challenging. I thought 12a parsed better as an insertion of THEMATIC in MA’S. Thanks to both.

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