It’s spring (meteorologically, at least) and Chandler springs into action with a fine crossword for new and improving solvers.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Rental property close to ground now in a mess? That’s disappointment
LET-DOWN
A charade of LET, D for the final letter of ‘ground’ and (NOW)* The anagrind is ‘in a mess’.
5 Plant if such to be cultivated by area
FUCHSIA
A charade of (IF SUCH)* and A. The anagrind is ‘to be cultivated’. I used to struggle to remember how to spell this plant, but some kind soul ages ago on 225 pointed out that it was named after the German botanist Leonhart Fuchs, and I’ve remembered it ever since.
10 Impulse in abrupt removal of people after loss of power
URGE
[P]URGE
11 Vacate Iran suffering turmoil in conflict
AT VARIANCE
(VACATE IRAN)* with ‘suffering turmoil’ as the anagrind. Given the headlines in this Sunday’s papers, and that crosswords are submitted well in advance of publication, this couldn’t be more prescient.
12 Debacle taking place in Sofia’s condemned
FIASCO
(SOFIAS)* with ‘condemned’ as the anagrind.
Edit: this is bollocks. It’s hidden in soFIAS COndemned. Thanks to Pobulose @ comment #3
13 Repeated word, not new, linked to policy for conversational service
CHATLINE
A charade of CHA[N]T and LINE.
14 Commercial exhibition somehow rated reasonable
TRADE FAIR
A charade of (RATED)* and FAIR. The anagrind is ‘somehow’.
16 Correspond with a person keen on recycling, shortly
AGREE
A charade of A and GREE[N].
17 Perform dental hygiene following feeling of deprivation
FLOSS
A charade of F and LOSS.
19 Consider register by old military reserve at home
ENTERTAIN
A charade of ENTER, TA and IN. The TA is the Territorial Army, rightly described as ‘old’: it’s been called the Army Reserve since 2012.
23 Absence of singer Stevie? Hardly a surprise!
NO WONDER
A dd cum cd.
24 Take on a case for some about particular amount of money
ASSUME
A charade of A and SUM inserted into SE, the outside letters of ‘some’. The insertion indicator is ‘about’.
26 Variety of things scattered on mattress
ASSORTMENT
(ON MATTRESS)* with ‘scattered’ as the anagrind.
27 Hostelries favoured by two Poles
INNS
A charade of IN, N and S.
28 Cheapen degree, dear when reviewed
DEGRADE
A charade of DEG and (DEAR)* with ‘when reviewed’ as the anagrind.
29 Some bubbly, cheese and tropical fruits
LYCHEES
Hidden in bubbLY CHEESe.
Down
2 Titled figure, one with old queen previously
EARLIER
A charade of EARL, I and ER for Elizabeth Regina.
3 Prepare article of clothing
DRESS
A dd.
4 Lose intensity with sport cancelled
WEAR OUT OFF
A charade of WEAR and OUT OFF. ‘He was sporting/wearing his new shirt.’
6 Commotion from posh pair over thing for rowing
UPROAR
A charade of U, PR and OAR. U for ‘posh’ is standard, but very dated, crosswordspeak. Blame Nancy Mitford.
7 Eighth lad repaired feature of a car
HEADLIGHT
(EIGHTH LAD)* with ‘repaired’ as the anagrind.
8 Source of sweet smell in faculty, reportedly
INCENSE
A charade of IN and CENSE, aural wordplay (‘reportedly’) for SENSE.
9 A court could issue this direction over criminal
EVICTION ORDER
(DIRECTION OVER)* with ‘criminal’ as the anagrind.
15 Scandal is repressed by Dutch queen, perhaps
DISHONOUR
An insertion of IS in D and HONOUR. The insertion indicator is ‘repressed by’. The ‘queen’ is one of the ‘honour’ cards in games like bridge.
18 Gents, maybe, with king appear largely for brief inspection
LOOK-SEE
A charade of LOO, K and SEE[M].
20 Times shown by a court in Fenland place in a precise way
EXACTLY
An insertion of X for ‘times’, A and CT in ELY. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
21 Small measure seen surprisingly to be huge
IMMENSE
A charade of IMM for one millimetre (a ‘small measure’) and (SEEN)* The anagrind is ‘surprisingly’.
22 Like a checked report with appeal kept by two journalists
EDITED
An insertion of IT in two lots of ED. IT for [sex] appeal is more standard, but outdated, crosswordspeak.
25 Soprano has desire to be impressively smart
SWISH
A charade of S and WISH.
Many thanks to Chandler for this week’s Quiptic.
Favourite: EARLIER (loi).
I did not understand 15d HONOUR = queen. Thanks for explaining.
I couldn’t parse DISHONOUR either – not good on card games – and I needed the blog to explain ENTERTAIN because TA rarely comes to mind. But a really enjoyable Quick Cryptic. I loved NO WONDER and INCENSE. Thanks for the tip about the spelling of FUCHSIA, Pierre. I’ll try to remember that.
12a is a hidden not an anagram!
I’ve been playing bridge for over 40 years and I missed the queen=honour in 15d, too, even after solving it.
I agree with Pobulose@4 re 12ac
I read 12a FIASCO as an anagram too but of course it can’t be because there’s no ‘c’ and an extra ‘s’ in Sofia’s! Easy mistake.
Short but sweet..
I especially liked building up the neat charades ASSUME and EXACTLY. it’s very satisfying, with an almost audible click as the various bits slot into place.
Happily, Stevie Wonder is still with us – though I had to check to make sure. The musicians etc. of my youth are increasingly slipping away.
Thanks, Chandler and Pierre!
Thank you, pobulose #3. Blog corrected.
Good puzzle. The clue for AT VARIANCE is horribly topical, as Pierre notes. The anagrams for ASSORTMENT and EVICTION ORDER are particularly well done.
I was pleased to see that Ely wasn’t a cathedral this time 🙂
Thanks to C & P
This was just about as good as it gets with all sorts of clever devices. I thought FUCHSIA, EVICTION ORDER and EXACTLY were top notch. In a proper Cryptic, I don’t think a setter would be as generous with ‘Stevie’ which for me was either Nicks or WONDER, both favourites from my EARLIER years. Thanks for explaining HONOUR.
Ta Chandler & Pierre.
Enjoyed the edit on 12 ac almost as much as the Crossword
Thanks to all
New commenter here; would like to say thanks to Chandler and Pierre
Please could someone explain why “appear largely” results in SEE[m]? Should it have been something like “appear briefly”?
.
Nice, easy one for a Sunday. I miss the Everyman though.
@Tim Ferguson #12: ‘Largely’ here means most of, although ‘briefly’ would work just as well.
I’m not a fan of letter-by-letter clueing, which Chandler seems to tend to, but he does it masterfully. My favourites were IMMENSE and DISHONOUR (not least for the bridge reference and a non-standard use of “queen”). Thanks Chandler and Pierre!
Tim Ferguson @12: I guess “appear largely” could be read as “appear, for the most part” or “appear, almost entirely”…
Hello, Tim and welcome. It’s always pleasing for the blogging team to see new commenters.
‘Appear largely’ for SEE[M] works if you consider that most of the letters of the word appear in the solution. ‘Largely’ has the sense of ‘mostly’ in this context. ‘Briefly’ in a clue will often indicate that just the first letter of the word is required.
Pierre, thanks for the tip about Fuchs, I’d entered fuschia without it looking wrong until I tried to enter headlight. At last a way to remember a blind spot.
And thanks to Chandler for a fun solve.
Another consistent, and enjoyable, Quiptic setting from Chandler – thanks. I didn’t understand honour == queen so thanks for clearing that up and another bit of general knowledge to tuck away as an alternative to the usually Q, QU and ER etc. used for Queen. Thanks Pierre for the blog.
Not on chandlers wavelength this morning… can someone explain 13a line and where that comes from… and 6d why pair just equals pr
Enjoyable little puzzle, thanks for the blog.
Noticed a little mistake in the parsing, 4D is WEAR OFF not WEAR OUT. Incidentally, I wrote WASH OUT in before getting some more crossers.
Very helpful blog, as always, Pierre, but I think there’s a small mistake in 4d, which should be WEAR OFF (as shown in the image of the completed crossword), rather than WEAR OUT. Thanks also to Chandler for a fun puzzle.
Surely 4d is WEAR OFF, not out, he offers nervously. I’m not confident in my knowledge of British idiom but pretty sure 14a is solved correctly. Ah, I see it is WEAR OFF in the grid, but still out in the explanation.
ntnat@20, I think line is a political usage of line for policy, the Government line is….
I’ve seen pr used as pair in both computing and maths, it’s possibly used elsewhere as well.
Would someone mind explaining why ‘register’ and ‘enter’ are synonyms in 19a please? Can’t see what’s happening there. Thank you.
Hi Mintteabag. Think of a usage like: ‘His name was registered/entered on the rota for volunteer duties.’
Hi Mintteabag @25, I think the usage for “register” could be something like this: If I register for a race, I enter that race. Not sure though.
I was zooming along with this one up til the point where I was left with 15D and 13A both of which had me very stuck for ages. 13A I just had a blind spot, but for 15D I had no idea about the bridge thing, and was just trying to think of a substitution for “queen, perhaps” that was a higher level category for queen, like “ruler” or something.
However, that was mostly fun and I liked ” NO WONDER” and “SWISH” a lot.
@Mintteabag #25
You might register something by entering it in a register.
I found it helped when I learned how to spell fuchsia correctly 😮
“It” for sex appeal isn’t all that dated, really. I give you Bananarama, which…well, is more recent than my birth at least: “She’s got it, yeah baby she’s got it–I’m your Venus, I’m your fire, your desire.”
One of the best quiptics for a while from my opinion the best setter for getting the level of difficulty right whilst keeping the fun and challenge.
I am also one who didn’t know that meaning of honour. I assumed it was an appropriate address for a queen but Google tells me that is in fact a big no no.
Enjoyed the EVICTION ORDER anagram amongst a host of others.
Thanks Pierre and Chandler
Still need help with ‘Repeated word not new’ 13A please. Cha cha cha? Old hat? No doubt the penny will drop but I wanted to get this in while the ‘chat’ is still live.
I got bogged down in the SE, I think mainly because of the number of unchecked letters in clues that just wouldn’t come to me.
Seensaw@32 I think the ‘repeated word’ is a chant. (E.g. Ozzie, Ozzie, Ozzie, Oi, Oi,Oi)So ‘not new’ means leave out the ‘n’ to leave ‘chat’
Thank you Hawa @34. Makes sense now I see it explained.
Very enjoyable and challenging too. Just finished last few with the help of a thesaurus. Thanks Chandler & Pierre.
Curse those pesky charades: three reveals needed this week – just as I thought I was getting the hang of Quiptics! I’ll just have to accept that I’m rarely going to agree with Pierre on what constitutes a “fine crossword for new and improving solvers”.
Great Quiptic and blog – thanks Chandler, Pierre and commenters! I liked 9D for the clever anagram.
A fine crossword for new and improving solvers doesn’t imply that every one of those solvers is going to be able to finish it, Alan. When I first started out on cryptics I had to reveal a lot more than three solutions. The journey is as enjoyable as the final destination sometimes.
Can someone explain where the F comes from in 17a? Presumably ‘following’ or ‘feeling’, but why?
Finally finished this one. Bit of a challenge for me but a satisfying puzzle nevertheless. NO WONDER definitely made me chuckle. Only thing stopping the last one going in was the spelling. I think FUCHSIA was one of the possibilities in my mind from the start but the spelling evaded me. Like, Pierre, I will try to lock this one in my memory for future. I completely missed the use of Close in 1 across to mean last letter of the word again. Just can’t seem to train myself to see these words the way the setter intends. Most difficult clue for me was definitely DISHONOUR. Just couldn’t figure out what the setter was driving at. But, I have pretty much learned the name of every single Dutch Queen, so no complaints.
Thank you as always Chandler and Pierre
Once again, proud to be one of the late commenters on this blog
Scott@40
I think the F is an abbreviation of Following. Not sure where it originates from, maybe family trees or following on in cricket?
I too am glad Stevie Wonder is still with us. I sleep better at night for knowing as much. Many thanks to Chandler and Pierre. Now to finish my pineapple margarita 🙂
Great puzzle, a step up from some easy quiptics. I solved most of it so I feel that I’m making progress. Yes, I, too, enjoyed the 12a edit.