A smooth and accessible puzzle as you’d expect from this highly experienced Quiptic setter
I’m standing in for the regular blogger today and was pleased to see Carpathian’s name when I opened the puzzle in the Guardian app – a setter whose work I always find a pleasure to solve. I’d say this fills the Quiptic brief perfectly, being light and fun with solid, mostly straightforward wordplay and smooth meaningful surfaces. Thanks, Carpathian!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CLAUSE |
Loudly rips part of contract (6)
|
| Sounds like (loudly) “CLAWS” (rips) | ||
| 4 | PAUSES |
Personal assistant exploits interruptions (6)
|
| PA (personal assistant) + USES (exploits) | ||
| 9 | LACE |
Spike netting (4)
|
| Two definitions – to spike eg a drink with drugs and the frilly material | ||
| 10 | UNEQUALLED |
A dull queen strangely without peer (10)
|
| Anagram (strangely) of A DULL QUEEN | ||
| 11 | AGATES |
An entrance with small stones (6)
|
| A + GATE (entrance) + S (small) | ||
| 12 | DRESSING |
Director redesigned singer’s clothing (8)
|
| D (director) + anagram (redesigned) of SINGER’S | ||
| 13 | GRAVEYARD |
Serious distance to resting place (9)
|
| GRAVE (serious) + YARD (distance) | ||
| 15 | FORM |
Class protocol (4)
|
| Two definitions | ||
| 16 | SAND |
Smooth leaders of society attracting new devotees (4)
|
| First letters (leaders) of Society Attracting New Devotees | ||
| 17 | VERSATILE |
Flexible relatives cavorting (9)
|
| Anagram (cavorting) of RELATIVES | ||
| 21 | DOMINEER |
Browbeat active person carrying explosive (8)
|
| DOER (active person) containing (carrying) MINE (explosive) | ||
| 22 | GOVERN |
Control bit of manufacturing overnight (6)
|
| A bit of manufacturinG OVERNight | ||
| 24 | GREAT-NIECE |
Relative is unusually energetic around middle of day (5-5)
|
| Anagram (unusually) of ENERGETIC containing (around) the middle letter of dAy | ||
| 25 | CHEF |
Cook cooked halved elephant fish heads (4)
|
| First letters (heads) of Cooked Halved Elephant Fish | ||
| 26 | EVENLY |
Beryl never holds back consistently (6)
|
| Hidden and reversed (holds back) in berYL NEVEr | ||
| 27 | STURDY |
Solid investigation involving leader of research (6)
|
| STUDY (investigation) containing (involving) the first letter (leader) of Research | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CLANGER |
Vacant colonel with temper makes stupid mistake (7)
|
| ColoneL with the middle letters removed (vacant) + ANGER (temper) | ||
| 2 | AVERT |
Deflect state tracing initially (5)
|
| AVER (state) + first letter (initially) of Tracing | ||
| 3 | SQUASHY |
Coy about question by a school’s head being soft (7)
|
| SHY (coy) containing (about) QU (question) + A + first letter (head) of School | ||
| 5 | AMULET |
Charm a stubborn person over time (6)
|
| A + MULE (stubborn person) + T (time) | ||
| 6 | SPLASH OUT |
Spend a lot of money, getting belt aboard jet (6,3)
|
| LASH (belt) inserted in (aboard) SPOUT (jet) | ||
| 7 | STERNUM |
Bone bird in entirety (7)
|
| TERN (bird) inserted in SUM (entirety) | ||
| 8 | TENDER-HEARTED |
Offer card to editor being kind (6-7)
|
| TENDER (offer) + HEART (card) + ED (editor) | ||
| 14 | VENTILATE |
Air talent I’ve developed (9)
|
| Anagram (developed) of TALENT I’VE | ||
| 16 | SCOURGE |
Whip company into upswing (7)
|
| CO (company) inserted into SURGE (upswing) | ||
| 18 | SEGMENT |
Division of, say, soldiers in street (7)
|
| EG (say) + MEN (soldiers) inserted in ST (street) | ||
| 19 | LARGELY |
Mostly rearranged gallery (7)
|
| Anagram (rearranged) of GALLERY | ||
| 20 | FENNEL |
Aromatic plant found in swamp and North Eastern lake (6)
|
| FEN (swamp) + NE (north eastern) + L (lake) | ||
| 23 | VICAR |
Vehicle after six for clergywoman (5)
|
| CAR (vehicle) after VI (six) |
Now that’s what I call a “quiptic”.
Agreed, GDU@1. The only real holdup I had was at 9a, where you have to fill in _ A _ E. How many words can fit that? But I found the right one in the end. Lots of great clues elsewhere. Thanks, Carpathian and Widdersbel.
Thanks Widdersbel. Agree with your intro.
My stumbling block early on was DRESSING. Director was also 8 letters and I thought it was an anagram of “director” (redesigned) and the definition was some kind of singer’s clothing, a singer, a bird, or what?
My favourite was DOMINEER for the surface and wordplay.
What GDU @1 said. Carpathian is a master of these. I only needed the dictionary for LACE; liked AGATE, SQUASHY and PAUSES. Thanks Carpathian and Widdersbel!
1a/4a brings to mind the riddle about the difference between a cat and a comma (one has claws at the end of its paws and the other is a PAUSE at the end of a CLAUSE).
Like paddymelon@3 I got hung up on DRESSING being an anagram of “directors” (and also the crossing STERNUM) but apart from that it all went in very smoothly.
Thanks Carpathian and widdersbel.
Gladys #5. Love the riddle.
And thank you for standing in Widdersbel. Hope you’ve enjoyed the rest of your day.
Everyone has already said this, but just in case Carpathian reads these threads – a flawless Quiptic. I am always pleased when I see her name pop up, whether Cryptic or Quiptic. It comforts me for the loss of Picaroon.
As already stated, a perfect example. My favourites were GREAT-NIECE, CLANGER and SPLASH OUT.
Ta Carpathian & Widdersbel.
Great Quiptic from Carpathian. They always seem to correctly level set their puzzles, and this definitely fitted ‘for beginners and those in a hurry’ in my opinion. Very clear clueing and my only hold ups were having to do a few thesaurus trawls for some elements along the way. Thanks Widdersbel for the blog, and Carpathian for a perfect early Sunday puzzle.
Pretty please, can we get hidden solutions/parsing here as well?
Andrea @11 – See Admin’s comment #70 on Share Your Thoughts > site comments. (He refers to the question which is actually comment 68)
Great example of how a virtual write-in can still be really enjoyable. Only held up by 9ac and 8dn (had ‘tender mercies’ at first…). Some neat anagrams too.
Another suitable quiptic from Carpathian. I carelessly wrote in Squishy rather than Squashy as I tend to use the former. Only quibble was 25 AC which felt rather clumsy.
I thought this was a great Quiptic too -and was a bit sad that Widdersbel beat me to offering to cover (I got the other crossword on offer for a week away).
Andrea @11 – as the person who puts all the hidden parsing and solutions in the Quick Cryptic, it’s not straightforward, and why I take a Chromebook away with me to blog, rather than offer out the puzzles for cover. To get that coding into the Quick Cryptic blogs means that it has to be written in code – because WordPress doesn’t like that coding and “corrects” it out if I try to use the WordPress friendlier screens. It also takes me three or four times as long to blog those Quick Cryptics than it does to blog a standard crossword with the utility we, bloggers, mostly use to blog, which pulls out all the information from the sites. To transfer the information into the blog means copying across manually, and then correcting as that copying out adds additional stuff. (I blog the Quiptic every 4 weeks on the rota, too, so I get a regular check on this timing.)
Now, I’m not the only blogger who can and does write the blogs in code, but not everyone can, and asking other bloggers to write additional blogs in code may reduce the number of bloggers available, so we’re not being asked to do it. (Ken and I spent ages getting that coding and format right, if you go back to the beginning of the Quick Cryptic blogs you can see us experimenting.)
Thank you to Widdersbel and Carpathian for the puzzle.
Nice quiptic, plenty of anagrams and crosses, but did anyone else think NORM a better answer than FORM for 15 ac? Maybe I am missing something.
Shanne @15 – thanks for sharing your insights into the process. I don’t mind in principle adding the spoiler tags but as you say, it would make writing up the blog take twice as long
Finally managed to parse all; had to use thesaurus for last few which I struggled with: 26A EVENLY & 20D FENNEL, as well as 9A LACE & 2D AVERT; the last 2 seeming pretty oblivious now I’ve got them!
Lots to enjoy and some straightforward cluing. Faves were 1D CLANGER & 5D AMULET.
Thanks Carpathian & Widdersbel.
@15 and @17,
Thanks for the clarification Shanne and Widdersbel. 😉
A great puzzle today which I managed to complete , even if some parsing came after I got the answer. Very satisfying so many thanks Carpathian. And to Widdersbel for the succinct blog. Although as a relative beginner I would, like Andrea @11, benefit from a breakdown as guidance I do appreciate all the work that goes into these blogs and am indebted to Shanne@15 for each week’s quick cryptic. I don’t usually need the extra support for that now but it has been invaluable. Thank you all!
I am with GDU@1 and TassieTim@2.
Now that’s more like it after the last two week’s monstrosities! A near perfect Quiptic for me – accessible enough to not be off-putting as a beginner and challenging enough to be interesting.
Best quiptic in ages. No special knowledge required and perfectly pitched. After the first run through I didn’t think I was going to finish it but no reveals or checks needed in the end. There were quite a few penny drops on the way.
LOI LACE was quite hard with given crossers but just went through the alphabet.
Could 3D also be squishy? I know that requires the extra step of a being one and one being i but squishy seems like a better fit for soft for me.
Can I join the praise for this. Tougher than a quick, not quite as tough as a usual Monday and lots of fun.
LACE and DOMINEER held me up a bit but otherwise plain sailing.
DOMINEER and CLANGER favourites today.
Thanks Widdersbel and Carpathian.
Thanks Carpathian and Widdersbel
Well, it was actually a write-in, but enjoyable all the same.
Ok, I have managed to do it. It has taken me hours and lots of help from the thesaurus, etc, but I got there!
All went in very smoothly apart from the last three, which didn’t intersect with each other, so they were independent teasers. My LOI was LACE – absolutely fair, but a nice bit of misdirection towards pointy things. I went up and down the alphabet I don’t know how many times before the penny dropped.
Nice one, Carpathian, and thanks for the blog, Widdersbel. [I should put Riddley Walker on my re-read list.]
Thanks Widdersbel and Carpathian! Card for heart was new for me (cardiology etc, I guess?) so will bank that one – got the answer from the crossers though. Otherwise a good one to recommend to those stepping up from the Quick Cryptics, I think.
As other have said, a fantastic Quiptic. A welcome, but temporary reprieve perhaps? after two really taxing puzzles that completely defeated me. Favourite ones this time were AMULET, GRAVE YARD, STERNUM, and CLAUSE. As always clever but satisfying and fair. Did need to look up a few words, but didn’t have to use the CHEAT function and enjoyed the challenge. Last ones to go in were the bottom left and top right quadrants, namely DOMINEER, STERNUM, and AMULET. Thank you Widdersbel and Carpathian.
Very nice puzzle. I didn’t solve all the clues but I enjoyed it and learnt a lot. Thank you for the explanations.
Andrea @27 – well done! It will get easier/faster with practice but however long it takes you, finishing at all is a creditable achievement.
Devonhousewife @32 – stick at it and, most importantly, enjoy the journey!
Pauly @30 Heart as in [five of] hearts in a card game, I think.
Very nice. Honestly, frightening the way the mind works sometimes, I was wondering where the other ‘g’ had gone in 18D, thinking ‘Egmen’ for soldiers meant the strips of toast you have with your eggy brekky. Oh dear, overthinking.
Thanks Widdersbel and Carpathian. To Pauly#30 I think heart refers to the suit of cards. Also apparently spike lacing is a way of lacing your trainers. I wonder if Carpathian had that in mind for 9a
Yes, heart[s] as in playing cards. Usually seen in the plural but can be used in the singular, eg: “Why Mr Pickwick had not … roughed the spade, or finessed the heart”
TaichiSue @36 – spike lacing seems a bit too niche a reference for that to be likely. Spike definition 5c from the OED seems most plausible: “To lace (a drink) with alcohol; to fortify (beer, etc.) by the addition of spirits.”
Thrilled to say I’ve finally completed a Quiptic in full—what a satisfying feeling!
Thanks AJ @30, TachiSue @36, and Widdersbel @38 – unbanked and rebanked card/heart!
@15 Shane – should be very easy to come up with a simple workaround editor that will make it easy for bloggers. A simple find replace or regex would do the job simply.
I’m catching up with earlier Quiptics having missed a few weeks, and I really enjoyed this one! Perfectly pitched for newish solvers.