The scheduled blogger is still in York so I am covering for him. This is Matilda’s third appearance in the Quiptic slot but the first one I have solved so I didn’t know what to expect.
Whilst progress was reasonably steady (my main delay was in the SW quadrant), I felt that some of the clues were a little tricky for a Quiptic (though my experience of this series is very limited so I may be misjudging the normal level of difficulty).
If I wasn’t wanting to go and cook breakfast, I could mention a few quibbles (eg the anagram indicator in 12ac), but hunger is getting the better of me.
Across
1 Drug / memorial (6)
TABLET – double def.
4 Stop sign, change sides (6)
CANCEL – CANCEr (sign) with the ‘r’ replaced with L (change sides)
9 Where stations are / throughout (3,5,3,4)
ALL ALONG THE LINE – double def.
10 More ferocious male reptile (6)
MADDER – M (male) ADDER (reptile)
11 Bats, beaver or badger (8)
OVERBEAR – an anagram (bats) of BEAVER OR
12 Please Mr Turner, try again (8)
RESAMPLE – an anagram (turner) of PLEASE MR
14 Call in the Spanish to do some painting (6)
ENAMEL – NAME (call) in EL (the Spanish)
15 The British nasty bug (6)
WEEVIL – WE (the British) EVIL (nasty)
18 Height of skill, if learner shifts quietly (8)
ALTITUDE – ApTITUDE (skill) with L (learner) replacing (if … shifts) the ‘p’ (quietly)
21 Arrival of servicewoman with no visa, curiously (8)
NEWCOMER – an anagram (curiously) of [s]ER[vi]CEWOM[a]N (servicewoman with no visa)
22 Strength of one pursued by the beast (6)
BEAUTY – double def. – the second referring to the fairy tale
24 “Leave note yonder … “. Poetry? On the contrary (5,3,7)
QUITE THE REVERSE – QUIT (leave) E (note) THERE (yonder) VERSE (poetry)
25 Stay affected under drug (6)
ENDURE – an anagram (affected) of UNDER followed by E (drug)
26 Candy listened to music by Bach and Handel? (6)
SUITES – sounds like (listened to) ‘sweets’ (candy)
Down
1 Culture makes it legal (7)
TILLAGE – an anagram (makes) of IT LEGAL
2 Boring student bores group (5)
BLAND – L (student) in (bores) BAND (group)
3 Bloke got ripped off to some extent but it made him feel important (3,4)
EGO TRIP – contained in (to some extent) ‘blokE GOT RIPped’
5 Thrash the late competitor (7)
ATHLETE – an anagram (thrash) of THE LATE
6 Someone to get mad with priest (9)
CELEBRANT – CELEB (someone) RANT (get mad)
7 Family wrinkle and what causes it (7)
LINEAGE – LINE (wrinkle) AGE (what causes it)
8 Disregard crazy Ringo — Beatle’s number two (6)
IGNORE – an anagram (crazy) of RINGO followed by [b]E[atle] (Beatle’s number two)
13 Backed bill, left with nothing to replace the first article (9)
ADVOCATED – AD (bill) plus VaCATED (left) with O (nothing) replacing the ‘a’ (the first article)
16 Hang by river — delightful! (7)
EXECUTE – EXE (river) CUTE (delightful)
17 Climb with hero uncovered part of a circuit (7)
LIMITER – [c]LIM[b] [w]IT[h] [h]ER[o] (climb with hero uncovered)
18 Settled on a good pipe (6)
AGREED – A G (good) REED (pipe)
19 Picture 1 across trimmed with gold (7)
TABLEAU – TABLE[t] (1 across trimmed) plus AU (gold)
20 Hates being put back into slowest set educationally (7)
DETESTS – hidden (being … into) reversal (put back) in ‘sloweST SET EDucationally’
23 Not a female spy (5)
AGENT – A GENT (not a female)
Thanks Matilda and Gaufrid
Your instincts are correct, Gaufrid – this was much too hard for a Quiptic. Some strange definitions too – BEAUTY = “strength”? MADDER = “more ferocious”? WEEVIL = “bug”?
I didn’t see what was going in in ADVOCATED, and I was confident that 16d would end URE, so I wasted some time on that.
I liked OVERBEAR, in fact – “bats” was OK as an anagram indicator for me. NEWCOMER was another favourite (though not a Quiptic standard clue).
Thanks both. Far too hard for a Quiptic, another audition for a place in the paper.
Hope you enjoyed your breakfast, Gaufrid
muffin @1
The “strange definitions” can be confirmed in the usual references. For example, under ‘mad’ in Collins it has “(of animals) unusually ferocious”.
I too was happy with ‘bats’ as an anagram indicator. The one I mentioned was the following clue (12ac) which uses ‘turner’.
Gaufrid @3
I don’t know which “usual references” you are referring to, but there is no mention of “strength” under “beauty”, or vice versa in my Chambers; similarly for “weevil” and “bug” (weevils are beetles, in fact).
muffin @4
Chambers Thesaurus gives ‘advantage’ as a synonym for both ‘beauty’ and ‘strength’. Chambers, Collins and the ODE all have ‘any insect’ as a definition for ‘bug’ and I’m sure you will agree that a beetle is an insect.
Tillage = culture? 1d
Chris
From Collins:
culture – the act or practice of tilling or cultivating the soil
tillage – the act, process, or art of tilling
Thank you for standing in, Gaufrid.
I disagree with muffin and Shirl: this was not ‘much too hard for a Quiptic’. All the niggles mentioned were, in my opinion, fine. ‘Turner’ as an anagrind? Seen more esoteric. The SW corner did have some trickier clues (it took me a while to get LIMITER) but overall there is plenty here to get started with if you are a novice, and then more to chew over, some of which – like LIMITER – might show you a less common device.
Thank you, Matilda.
Thank you Gaufrid and Matilda.
I think that this was much too difficult for a Quiptic. Not for the first time I solved last Saturday’s prize crossword without too much difficulty but failed the Quiptic here in the SW corner.
Not sure this was too hard for a Quiptic (whatever that is nowadays), perhaps it was.
What I do know is that I enjoyed this crossword very much.
Yes, Matilda used the ‘one letter replaces another’ device three times, which is a bit of an overkill in any crossword.
In my opinion, ‘turner’ as an anagrind is awful but I’ve seen it being used before – only once, though.
And in my world of crosswords, ‘visa’ needs an extra anagram indicator before deletion (21ac).
There are perhaps a few more quibbles.
But having said all that, it didn’t spoil the fun.
The ‘uncovered’ trick (with multiple fodders) is trademark Philistine & Arachne, surprised to see it here.
Thanks to Gaufrid & Matilda, for the entertainment.
Yes, culture as a more generic term for agriculture. In fact, Latin ‘cultura’ meaning “growing or cultivation” is the origin of the word ‘culture’
Hi again, Gaufrid
Could you give me an example of a sentence in which “beauty” could replace “strength” while retaining the same meaning?
Hi Muffin
Off the top of my head, how about ‘the beauty/strength/advantage of his plan was that it would …’.
Hi Gaufrid
Yes, something similar had occurred to me. The meaning isn’t quite the same though, is it?
I found the reference to bug=insect in Chambers. It is given as N Am.
…I mean a plan can be beautiful without being strong, strong without being beautiful (as many are), and advantageous without being either!
I agree with those who say this is much too hard for a Quiptic. It’s a very decent crossword, but I come to the Quiptic with the expectation of being able to solve it in under 30 minutes. This took over an hour to not finish …