A good Quiptic from our guinea-pig lover. Tough in places, though. What did you think?
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 No hope of French couple’s son getting ahead
DESPAIR
Hectence is inviting you to put S for ‘son’ in between DE for ‘of’ in French and PAIR for ‘couple’.
5 Play on words has some Morse code for experts
PUNDITS
A charade of PUN and DITS. As opposed to DOTS.
9 Before lunch everybody comes back to see this animal
LLAMA
A reversal of AM for ante meridiem or ‘before lunch’ and ALL for the South American mammal.
10 Symbol of courage
CHARACTER
A dd.
11 Softly stroke flower with delight
TICKLE PINK
A charade of TICKLE for ‘softly stroke’ and PINK for the flower, which in this case is actually a bloom rather than a river.
12 Feel scared by loud organ!
FEAR
A charade of F for the musical ‘loud’ and EAR, which is indeed an ‘organ’.
14 For getting on plane: directors get in first, then doctor, then an American behind
BOARDING PASS
A clever clue, which took me ages to see. It’s a charade: BOARD and IN go first; then you’ve got GP; then you’ve got ASS for an American ‘behind’.
18 Kind of blush about poem Ted composed
GOOD-TEMPERED
An insertion of (POEM TED)* in GO RED for ‘blush’.
21 Fashion for old cloth’s elegant, initially
RAGE
A charade of RAG and E for the first letter of ‘elegant’. ‘It’s all the rage/it’s all the fashion these days.’
22 Working out numbers for crime, hit at corruption
ARITHMETIC
(CRIME HIT AT)*
25 English come together with bearing, outwardly cheery in crisis
EMERGENCY
A charade of E, MERGE and CY for the outside letters of ‘cheery’.
26 Drug, in the near future, is about to become a rope around your neck
NOOSE
A reversal of E for the setters’ drug of choice and SOON. The reversal indicator is ‘is about’.
27 Petition hospital department about bringing back volunteers
ENTREAT
A reversal of ENT, the ear nose and throat department, RE and TA reversed. I think the TA is called something else these days, but everyone will know what Hectence means.
28 Religious festival’s name is oriental
EASTERN
A charade of EASTER and N.
Down
1 Water down some Lucozade at first in miserable diet
DILUTE
Hmm. Personally I’m not mad keen on LU for ‘some Lucozade at first’ because I’m never sure how much ‘some’ is. But it’s that inserted into (DIET)*
2 Grab top spot, naturally!
SNATCH
A charade of S for the first letter of ‘spot’ and NATCH, yoofspeak for ‘naturally’.
3 Come what may, a high street’s secured by companies
AT ALL COSTS
Slightly tricky to parse. A charade of A, TALL, and ST inserted into COS.
4 Go over to put a new hat on?
RECAP
A cd cum dd.
5 Invite pal round, when unhappy
PLAINTIVE
(INVITE PAL)*
6 Old boatbuilder‘s working up one final berth
NOAH
Since it’s a down clue, it’s ON for ‘working’ reversed, A for ‘one’ and H for the last letter of ‘berth’.
7 They win a throw by causing obstruction
IN THE WAY
(THEY WIN A)* with ‘throw’ as the anagrind.
8 Gentleman’s award is reported with amazement
SURPRISE
A homophone (for some) of SIR PRIZE.
13 Spies conceal cock-up ere M arrives with contracts
AGREEMENTS
‘Cock-up’ is the anagrind, so you need to put (ERE M)* inside AGENTS for ‘spies’.
15 Artist runs line through space and time
REMBRANDT
This is getting a bit complicated for a Quiptic, although once you’d got the crossing letters, the answer was staring you in the face. It is – I think – R for ‘runs’ in cricket and BR for ‘line’ inserted into EM for the typographer’s ‘space’ and AND T.
16 Distress for Rhode Island woman under gag order
AGGRIEVE
Again, since it’s a down clue, it’s (GAG)* followed by RI and EVE for the first woman (and many since) on the planet.
17 Toilet initially gets put on building site that’s most muddy!
BOGGIEST
A charade of BOG as a slang word for ‘toilet’, G for the first letter of ‘gets’ and (SITE)*
19 Tried to point to overt mismanagement
STROVE
A charade of S for one of the ‘points’ of the compass and (OVERT)*
20 Poles secure Native American panel
SCREEN
More points of the compass, or in this case ‘poles’. An insertion of CREE in S and N.
23 Bust myth associated with energy-giving herb
THYME
(MYTH)* plus E. The anagrind is ‘bust’ and for newer solvers, always (or almost always) ignore the punctuation.
24 Giant dog reeks a bit
OGRE
Hidden in dOG REeks.
Many thanks to Hectence for this morning’s Quiptic. Be more gentle with us next time, please.
Thanks for the great blog Pierre – very helpful as always! A very enjoyable Quiptic from Hectence (though a mite trickier than normal in a few places perhaps?).
I had two possible parsings for 15 down. The first was as you have it (which may well be what was intended). The second was to take “brand” as “line” (where “brand line” refers to products sold under a single brand name) and then insert that into “R EM ***** T” (as you have it).
I take your point about 1 down but let me say something in Hectence’s defense here. The clue suggests that it’s an initial segment of “Lucozade” inside an anagram of diet. As diet has four letters and the answer six, you are forced to take the first two letters of “Lucozade” (and the word lengths tell you this even before you solve the anagram). It doesn’t invalidate your point but I think taking two letters is mor-or-less forced.
Reading your blog again Pierre I see you also felt that the puzzle was a bit tough for a Quiptic – so we’re in agreement there (though, like you, I thought it was a good puzzle). In particular, I also took quite a while to parse “Boarding Pass” (though it produced a slight chuckle when I managed to do so).
Typo in my previous comment: “more-or-less”.
For 25a, don’t you need: bearing = N?
Thank you Hectence and Pierre.
I found this easier than Rufus today, but some of the parsing was tricky. I liked SURPRISE!
typo 27a, no reversal for ENT.
Thanks both. Agree with Cookie that this was a bit easier than the Rufus.
Agree with Rick@1 about 15d
Thank you for the blog Pierre, I agree that ‘some lucozade at first’ was unclear. Initially, I was trying to take the at-first letters S and L to make them fit into DIET*. Perhaps ‘a quarter of lucozade’ or similar would be more appropriate for a quiptic. Aside from that clue, though, I thought everything else was very enjoyable – perhaps a bit tougher than recent quiptics but if you go back through the archives as I’ve been doing recently it’s more middle-of-the-road.
Enjoyable, but a little tricky for a Quiptic. I haven’t tackled today’s Rufus yet, so I can’t compare the difficulty. The one which defeated me was REMBRANDT. I parsed the -ANDT in the same way as Pierre, but I couldn’t parse the beginning. Both Pierre’s and Rick’s parsings seem plausible to me.
Thanks, Hectence and Pierre.
Having struggled for days with the Pan cryptic from 27th July, I found this a bit of a “doddle” (to quote the cryptic)i.e.I managed to finish it! Although “Rembrandt” was obvious, I couldn’t parse the first half and didn’t know the use of “dits”. Like Cookie, my favourite was “surprise”.
I agree that it was tricky in places.
My favourites were emergency, boggiest
New for me was DIT = dot.
Thanks Pierre and Hectence
Thanks Hectence and Pierre
Really quite difficult for a Quiptic, I thought, with some complicated parsings – good puzzle, but not quite fit for purpose.
I couldn’t justify the “of” in the clue for GOOD TEMPERED.
I am an American newcomer to Quiptics, and I love them! I am starting to get fairly good at them now and would like to try some Cryptics. What setter would you recommend for my next challenge?
Lots of people seem to find Rufus the Next Thing after Quiptics.