Guardian Quiptic 903/Provis

by

Quite a toughie today, I thought, but you tell me otherwise.

 

 

 

 

 

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

definitions are underlined

Across

1  Drunken men in the East not a problem for elephants
AMNESIA
An insertion of (MEN)* in ASIA.  Elephants never forget, allegedly.

5  Mobbed bird died after missing island
CROWDED
A charade of CROW and D[I]ED.

9  Short of some computer services
TERSE
Hidden in compuTER SErvices.

10  This place makes dad better, without initially trying homeopathy
HEALTH SPA
‘Without’ is an invitation to insert T and H for the first letters of ‘trying’ and ‘homeopathy’ in HEALS PA for ‘makes dad better’.  I’ve given up on saying stuff is &lit, so I’ll just go for a cd.

11  Upset about change of direction by journalist
OVERTURNED
A charade of OVER, TURN and ED.

12  Reportedly regretted being impolite
RUDE
A homophone of RUED for ‘regretted’.

14  Form new board after company becomes prosperous
COMFORTABLE
A charade of  (FORM)* in CO and TABLE for ‘board’.  For newer solvers, think ‘board and lodging’, which means you get fed and somewhere to sleep.  As for the definition, I am COMFORTABLE, but wouldn’t describe myself as ‘prosperous’.

18  Clear partner tans unconventionally
TRANSPARENT
(PARTNER TANS)*

21  Warms up unopened food
EATS
[H]EATS

22  Consent to hang about drinking
SWALLOWING
An insertion of ALLOW in SWING.

25  Brief tip for candidates to be interviewed
SHORTLIST
A charade of SHORT and LIST for ‘tip’.

26  Scent unprincipled reversal after departure of Labour leader
AROMA
The setter is asking you to think AMORAL for ‘unprincipled’, reverse that, and take L for the first letter of ‘Labour’ out of that.  AMORA[L] reversed.

27  Be entitled to see very red after reorganisation
DESERVE
(SEE V RED)*

28  Money to reward workers’ time
PAYMENT
A charade of PAY, MEN and T.

Down

1  Performance of first part of play now showing
ACTION
The first part of a play would be ACT I, and if it was ‘showing’, it would be ON.

2  Tended to run over at speed, regularly
NURSED
A reversal of RUN followed by the odd letters of ‘speed’.

3  I doubt belief system can be said to be healthy
SCEPTICISM
I’ll have a stab at this because I have to go out soon, but others will help if I’ve got it wrong.  It’s a charade of SCEPTIC for ‘I doubt’ and ISM for ‘belief system’.  And it’s referring to the phrase ‘a healthy dose of scepticism’.  Or perhaps not.

4  Detest serious assault on old republican
ABHOR
A charade of ABH for actual bodily harm or ‘serious assault’ and O and R.

5  Guardian could be no cheaper
CHAPERONE
(NO CHEAPER)*

6  Chooses to stop being worried
OPTS
(STOP)*

7  Interrupts usual routines to come back during children’s game
DISTURBS
An insertion of RUTS for ‘usual routines’ reversed in DIBS for ‘children’s game’.  I’ve never come across it in this definition, having only heard of it in the sense of ‘I’ve got first dibs on that’.

8  Condition resulting from bad sweets I chewed after losing wife and son
DIABETES
(BAD[S][W]EETSI)*

13  Still place soldiers next to a railway
STATIONARY
A charade of STATION and A RY.

15  Intend joining women on hot French island for now
MEANWHILE
A charade of MEAN for ‘intend’, W for ‘women’, H for ‘hot’ and ILE for the French word for ‘island’.

16  Worried about sweets
STRESSED
It’s old, but it still works.  A reversal of DESSERTS.

17  Anti-cops riot makes headlines
CAPTIONS
(ANTI COPS)*

19  I’m the first figure to support South American singer
SIMONE
Since it’s a down clue, it’s I’M ONE to ‘support’ S for ‘south’ and it gives you the ‘American singer’ Nina SIMONE.

20  Horrified at embracing terrible hags
AGHAST
An insertion of (HAGS)* in AT.

23  In middle of eclipse in Paris you appeared radiant
LIT UP
Provis is asking you to place TU for the informal ‘you’ in French inside LIP for the middle letters of ecLIPse.

24  Cause trouble in prison
STIR
A dd.

Many thanks to Provis for today’s Quiptic.

16 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 903/Provis”

  1. I agree that it might be a bit on the tough side for a quiptic but I enjoyed it and completed without any problems; so many thanks to Provis. My parsing of 3 down was the same as yours Pierre (and many thanks for the, as always, excellent blog).

  2. Thanks Pierre – I don’t know about it being a toughie, but certainly more of a challenge than today’s Rufus.

    I didn’t think of Nina S for 19d; I just assumed (wrongly, it seems) there was a singer called Simone (first name only, as in Adele et al) that I hadn’t heard of.

  3. Thanks Provis and Pierre.

    Some excellent clues – I ticked SHORTLIST, AROMA, AGHAST and LIT UP. However I felt that there were a few which, although the clues were perfectly fair, were either too convoluted or obscure for a Quiptic – HEALTH SPA, SCEPTICISM, DISTURBS and SIMONE were the ones I was thinking of.

    I thought “the East” for ASIA in 1ac was on the loose side!

  5. Thank you Provis and Pierre.

    A good Quiptic, even if some clues were rather obscure. DIBS I believe is an old name for ‘Jacks’, in my schooldays called ‘Knucklebones’. I spent yesterday afternoon googling Simone ( de Beauvoir, Weil, Veil etc.), but unfortunately Nina did not come up.

  8. Overall I enjoyed this, with 1A being a strong favorite — I applauded.

    3d: the phrase “a healthy scepticism” is current, so I was untroubled by this cluing.

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  9. I also thought it was tougher than the usual quiptic, but satisfying in the end.

    I couldn’t parse 3d. I reckon your parsing is right. I must say I think that that’s a weak clue, partly for the definition, which is more of an allusion, but mostly because breaking up SCEPTICISM into SCEPTIC and ISM is a pretty unimaginative bit of wordplay. Oh, well — they can’t all be gems.

    My watching of British police TV shows taught me about GBH but not ABH, but with the crossers in place it was clear what must be going on. I also didn’t know that DIBS was a game, but again with the crossers the clue was perfectly gettable even without that knowledge.

  10. Oh, and I’ve always spelled it SKEPTICISM. Without a crosser for the second letter I narrowly escaped getting that wrong.

    Chambers indicates that the K spelling is specifically North American, so if I had gotten it wrong it would have been my own fault: for a puzzle in a UK paper the C spelling is unambiguously the right answer.

  11. I’m still a relative newbie to cryptic crosswords and until recently the quiptics had provided the ideal stepping stone from tabloid puzzles to the broadsheets. I found this one crazily difficult though. Even with the explanation given above I find “Health Spa”, “Overturned” (upset?), and “Comfortable” (prosperous?) very tenuous, and surely the setter could have included “Nina” somewhere in the “Simone” clue to give us a hint? She’s been dead 14 years. Although I’ve never heard of the children’s game referred to as “dibs” either, so maybe I’m just from the wrong generation.

    Still enjoyed having a go though, even if I didn’t get very far. Thanks for the answers Pierre.

  12. You’re welcome, Griff. Keep having a go – when I was a newbie, I found that the more I solved, the better I got (although I’m still not that good).

  13. Don’t beat yourself up about it, Griff – I highlighted pretty much the same clues as you did (@3) as not being suitable for a Quiptic. I’m quite an experienced solver, but I found HEALTH SPA and SIMONE far from easy.

  14. I do the Times Quiptics ad find them possible, but as an “unpractised” solver, it took me until Thursday to just give up. C’est La Vie!!

  16. I’m a newcomer myself (hence belated entry) but could 3D be a play on ‘septic’ – could the ‘C’ come from the ‘Can’ in the clue? I also took ‘ism’ to be generic for a belief system

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