Guardian Quiptic 890/Anto

by

Apologies for the late blog.  There are several clues that I couldn’t parse, so help is welcome.

 

 

 

 

 

Abbreviations
cd  cryptic definition
dd  double definition
(xxxx)*  anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x]  letter(s) removed

definitions are underlined

Across

1  Ruined plots earlier? Not if you see this first
SPOILER ALERT
(PLOTS EARLIER)*

9  Crook initiates robbery of goods using email
ROGUE
The first letters of the last five words of the clue.  Is a ‘crook’ a ROGUE?  Is ‘initiates’ grammatically correct for an indication of the starting letters?

10  Add a stop during a long passage?
PUNCTUATE
I think that this is a cd, referring to the fact that a full stop ends a sentence.

11  Tiny pop unsettled old mine worker
PIT PONY
(TINY POP)*

12 Guaranteed victory that hurt England’s extremists?

VOUCHED
A charade of V for ‘victory’, OUCH for ‘that hurt’ and ED for the outside letters of ‘England’.

13  Begins absorbing daily horoscopes?
STAR CHARTS
An insertion of CHAR in STARTS.

15  Matter distributed evenly across lift beam
ITEM
Meaningless surface, in my opinion.  It’s the ‘even’ letters of the last two words of the clue.

18  Man from La Mancha picking up stockings, eh?
JOSE
Apologies, because I’m supposed to be here to help you.  I can’t parse this.

19  Starts to call and issue appointments for applicants
CANDIDATES
A charade of C, AND I and DATES, but I’m not sure how the cryptic grammar works.

22  Hide inked images
BODY ART
A cd.

24  Total amount sounds excessive
FULSOME
A homophone of FULL and SUM.

25  Setting designed for The Pearl Fishers
OYSTER BED
A cd.

26  Place underground adding new trainee
INTER
Apologies, but I can’t parse this either.

27  Millions never set out rambling — is it too steep for them?
MOUNT EVEREST
(M NEVER SET OUT)* and an extended definition,

Down

1  Funny looks?
SIGHT GAGS
I think that this is a cd.

2  United move shows skilful style of football
ONE-TOUCH
A charade of ONE and TOUCH.

3  Cheeky cosmetic?
LIPPY
A cd.

4  Made new turning stop around bard’s home
RENOVATED
A reversal of DETER around AVON.  ‘Stop’ is DETER and the home of the ‘bard’ or Shakespeare’ is Stratford-on-AVON

5  Reveal opposition to 21
LET OUT
The opposite meaning to the answer to 21d

6  Contact Romeo, for one
REACH
A charade of R for the phonetic alphabet letter for ‘Romeo’ and EACH.

7  Refuse pardon that accommodates the return of hangings
DRAPES
Hidden reversed in refuSE PARDon.

8  Often described as wonderful, surprisingly
SELDOM
More apologies: I can’t understand this either.

14  Commercial fitting expert can change
ADAPTABLE
A charade of AD, APT and ABLE.

16  Revenge makes tart fit to burst
TIT FOR TAT
(TART FIT TO)*

17  Girl has a key for removing assistant
ADELAIDE
More apologies.  I can’t see how this works.

18  Miscellaneous bunch of biblical characters
JOB LOT
A charade of JOB and LOT.

20  How NATO identifies start of spiky mountain range
SIERRA
The answer is the NATO or phonetic alphabet for ‘S’, or SIERRA, which is the first letter of ‘spiky’.  So it’s a dd.

21  Understand cheat will make it smaller
TAKE IN
Again, apologies.  I can’t understand how this works.

24  Sweet compromise
FUDGE
A dd.

Many thanks to Anto for this morning’s Quiptic.

27 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 890/Anto”

  4. 21d – I think it’s a triple definition. Understand/cheat + make smaller (as a tailor might) = TAKE IN

    That just leaves SELDOM

  5. Only four clues I couldn’t get without getting help from a word list.
    They all turned out to be cryptic definitions, one of which (SELDOM) still eludes me.
    But four clues left in an Anto, I thought was a pretty good achievement!

    On top of that, there wasn’t too much to grumble about this time.
    I don’t think ‘can change’ is a good definition for ADAPTABLE (14d).
    I also do not like the kind of construction as in 26ac (INTER).
    Pierre: if you add N (new) you would get INTERN (trainee).
    A bit the other way round.

    18ac: JOSE (our Spanish friend) is a homophone of HOSE,EH.
    17d: ADELAIDE (our girl) consists of A, DEL (key for removing) and AIDE (assistant).
    21d: triple definition: ubnderstand, cheat, make smaller.
    In the latter, I am not wildly enthusiastic about ‘will’ and ‘it’.

    Perhaps, Anto’s best so far.
    But it took me again too long to (almost) finish.
    Solving lacked a kind of ‘flow’.
    Therefore, in my opinion, once more not an appropriate Quiptic.

    Many thanks to S&B.

  8. Thanks Ben@7. I have been critical of Anto in the past, but I thought this was better stuff, apart from the Irish proverb!

  9. Thanks Anto and Pierre
    Great start with the fine 1ac; VOUCHED also very good. The rest was too hard for a Quiptic, with SELDOM (if Ben’s suggestion is right) being Mephisto standard. I also didn’t understand ITEM, DISCO (which you seem to have missed out, Pierre) and OYSTER BED (the “setting” part).

  10. Muffin @9 – add RD for road to DISCO to get trouble. I suppose an oyster bed is where pearl fishers operate

  13. Thanks Anto and Pierre.

    Harder than today’s Rufus. An Irish proverb; who would know that? Maybe, some Irishmen but not the rest of us. I didn’t like the grammar for INTER; it needs a ‘gives’ or some such, which would ruin the surface.

    I didn’t know SIGHT GAGS but I liked the man from La Mancha.

  14. I don’t often agree with BNTO but do support his persistent requests for the editor to edit!! I thought this was a poor crossword and way too difficult for a quiptic

  15. Decent enough clues, but far too hard for Quiptic level. Other setters strike the right level on a consistent basis but unfortunately not Anto.

    SIGHT GAGS – I don’t think this is the same as Funny looks.
    ONE TOUCH – Does touch = move?
    PUNCTUATE – The clue would work just as well without ‘a long’. Those two words add extra misdirection.
    BODY ART – Could also have been Skin Art
    INTER & DISCO – these types of clues (answer – x = wordplay) are less common and hence harder to solve.

    One or two of the above would have been okay but to include so many in the one puzzle is poor form … I hope we didn’t have any beginners put off today by this. It’s telling, isn’t it, that some of the experienced solvers above, including the blogger, found this to be a challenge.

    Thanks to Pierre and Anto

  17. I think Pierre and the commenters so far have amply illustrated why this is out of place in the Quiptic slot. I eventually parsed all of them except SELDOM, but I needed the Check button for quite a few to be sure they were right. Should 5d (LET-OUT) have been given as hyphenated?

    Like muffin, I quite liked SPOILER ALERT and VOUCHED, and also MOUNT EVEREST and RENOVATED.

    Thanks to Anto, and many thanks to poor Pierre, having to blog this.

  19. Very good in parts (1ac stands out), but 8d is very obscure and Avon = bard’s home is weak (Stratford was his home, not the county or river Avon!) I think Anto needs to work on his cd clues as well. 1d to me did not indicate Sight Gags so much as Clown Face, and I was grateful for the Check button allowing me to remove this mis-step early on.

    Pedantically, 5d should be 3,3 rather than 3-3.

  20. Hi Pierre

    Just looking in out of curiosity, but I think the cryptic grammar of 19ac works by the fact that the initial letters of call and issue are C and I = CANDI.

  21. Seems to me if a blogger cant parse clues this is, yet again, too hard for a quiptic. Ed please do something about this setter. I romped pleasurably through Rufus only to become frustratingly stuck with several clues in a quiptic. I always dread seeing this name

  22. Out of interest, is the setter briefed to set a quiptic or does the editor decide which slot to put it in afterwards?

  24. Is this really a good question?

    If the editor asks Anto to specifically write a Quiptic, he clearly believes that it is the right spot for him/her.
    If the editor does not do this (and Anto is just part of a pool of setters), then apparently the editor thinks the Quiptic is the best place for Anto.
    The end result is the same.

    While I am not as negative as many other posters above about the overall quality of this week’s Anto crossword [yes, there are iffy things and there are far too many cryptic definitions at sub-Rufus level], it is clear – here and at the Guardian site – that Anto and the Quiptic are a complete mismatch.
    That the editor thinks differently is – to say the least – somewhat puzzling.
    On previous occasions some suggested that Anto should be given a ‘daily’ spot.
    Personally, I wouldn’t be so sure that (s)he would be very much appreciated.

    Anto’s crosswords certainly draw a lot of attention, given the number of posts.
    Perhaps, that is what drives the editor.
    Who knows?
    Not me.

  26. Paul B @25 re 19ac:

    I do not know if you saw my comment number 20 on this. I never try solving Guardian puzzles these days, but, seeing the request for help on the preamble, I thought I would look in. To expand on my earlier comment:

    “Start to call” would, I think, be a valid indicator of the single letter C. I think “to” works as well as “of” in that context.

    “Start to issue” would then indicate the single letter I.

    Then “Starts to call and issue” = “Start to call and start to issue” = C AND I.

Comments are closed.