Guardian Quiptic 956/Moley

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A sound Quiptic from Moley to start the week. Plenty of anagrams to get you going, all clearly clued and no obscurities. What a Quiptic should be, in my opinion. What did ‘beginners’ think?

 

 

 

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

definitions are underlined

Across

7 Jerky motions shown in time by coven
TWITCHES
A charade of T and WITCHES.

9 “Shoe“, in a manner of speaking
BROGUE
A dd. BROGUE in the ‘manner of speaking’ sense is most often used in describing a regional British accent, I fancy. ‘He had a delightful Geordie brogue.’

10 Some plant endives for a bet
ANTE
Hidden in plANT Endives.

11 Lost Ian’s carton for flowers
CARNATIONS
(IANS CARTON)* with ‘lost’ as the anagrind.

12 Sadly, Kenya extremists found here in the US
ALASKA
A charade of ALAS and KA for the outside letters of ‘Kenya’.

14 Second-class wine sent back by rail
BANISTER
Moley is asking you to reverse RETSINA B.

15 Terribly sad about sheep in plays
DRAMAS
An insertion of RAM for ‘sheep’ in (SAD)* with ‘terribly’ as the anagrind.

17 Do read novel — it’s much loved
ADORED
(DO READ)*

20 Rot talked about trick following a noise like thunder
CLAPTRAP
TRAP for ‘trick’ follows CLAP for the thundery noise.

22 Vehicle carrying new top for keeper
CAPTOR
An insertion of (TOP)* in CAR.

23 Senseless, unruly trial on air
IRRATIONAL
(TRIAL ON AIR)*

24 Heads for another new opening night later
ANON
The first letters of the third, fourth, fifth and sixth words of the clue. See you anon.

25 Ovation for the Spanish composer
HANDEL
A charade of HAND and EL for one of the words for ‘the’ in Spanish gives you the German-British composer.

26 My hot pal turned out to be a person of wide learning
POLYMATH
(MY HOT PAL)*

 

 

Down

1 Wife entered as the bell rang and smiled with her eyes …
TWINKLED
An insertion of W in TINKLED.

2 … misty eyes covering a glandular infection
STYE
Hidden in miSTY Eyes. Newer solvers often ask what the ellipses are doing in clues like these. The answer usually is nothing. They just enable the setter to run two clues together to make more sense of the surface reading, as Moley is doing here. Just solve the two clues separately; it’s very rare that the setter would play tricks with using an ellipsis as part of the clue.

3 Chap quietly left twice for a dance
CHA-CHA
The musical ‘quietly’ is left out of CHAP twice: CHA[P] CHA[P]

4 Former pupil with date in review secured
OBTAINED
A charade of OB for old boy or ‘former pupil’ and (DATE IN)*

5 Funny kit shown in an illustrated tale
COMIC STRIP
A charade of COMIC and (for example football) STRIP.

6 Nuisance is removed with subtlety
NUANCE
NU[IS]ANCE

8 Clothing worn by theatregoers?
SCRUBS
Not the sitting in the gods type of theatre but the surgical one. A cd.

13 First to see exotic palm wands in marshes
SWAMPLANDS
A charade of S and (PALM WANDS)*

16 Eccentric lady contains violent riot skilfully
ADROITLY
An insertion of (RIOT)* in (LADY)* The two anagrinds are ‘eccentric’ and ‘violent’ and the insertion indicator is ‘contains’.

18 GP purses her lips about nothing for those who quit
DROPOUTS
An insertion of O in DR POUTS.

19 Unlock to get one pup out
OPEN UP
(ONE PUP)* with ‘out’ as the anagrind.

21 Operatic song with officer about a rope
LARIAT
An insertion of ARIA in LT for lieutenant or ‘officer’.

22 Accountant left to marry last year, initially showing equanimity
CALMLY
A charade of CA for [Chartered] ‘accountant’, L, and MLY for the first letters of ‘marry’, ‘last’ and ‘year’.

24 Came around to reach the top
ACME
(CAME)*

Many thanks to Moley for the start to the cryptic week.

15 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 956/Moley”

  1. Thanks Moley and Pierre

    Lovely crossword, not just as a Quiptic. Lots of favourites, including POLYMATH, COMIC STRIP, ADROITLY and DROPOUTS.

  4. I agree; just right for a Quiptic.  Many thanks to Moley for a very enjoyable crossword and Pierre for the excellent blog.

  5. Yes, right level for a Quiptic; the last two BANISTER and SCRUBS took a little longer than most.

    Thanks Pierre; the ‘musical’ in 3 should be ‘dance,’ I think.

  7. As per Robi above, I took a while on BANISTER and SCRUBS, but the rest went in easily enough. Quite Quiptic then, with a little sting in the tail.

  9. Just right for me as a (sometimes) struggling beginner with cryptic crosswords. The first one I’ve completed on the day of publication for sometime. I even managed to parse all the clues. Thank You Moley and Pierre.

  10. Not really a ‘beginner’, but this was certainly a boost for my crosswording ego. Managed all bar two of the clues, but without feeling like it was overly obvious. Nice start to the week.

    Then got woefully stuck on Nutmeg’s cryptic …

  11. Yes I enjoyed this one too – a pleasing quiptic with some lovely neat clues and a satisfying absence of too-horrendously-tortuous solutions. Thanks Moley and Pierre!

  12. Yes beginner here.

    Such a relief; post Rufus I was starting to suspect Monday’s were becoming like any other day of the week with setters aiming at an inner circle of premier solvers!

    Really enjoyed this one!

    Thank you Pierre and Moley

     

  13. Nice to have some comments and thoughts from newer solvers (and contributors, I think – welcome).  I try to give full explanations and a bit of background stuff to help you along.  If you need encouragement, then I was that beginner or near beginner eight or so years ago, and I can manage most of the Indy/Guardian weekday puzzles now most days.  But 8 years x 2 puzzles a day = nearly 6,000 cryptics attempted, so there’s a bit of practice involved.  It is, however, fun and frustratingly addictive.

  14. I thought that a former pupil was a graduate with an AB, so it took me a while to get 4d, but that’s my fault. The rest went in quickly and satisfyingly.

    A little note: the anagram in 15a is in fact a reversal. That’s fine, of course, as a reversal is a special case of an anagram, but my impression is that it’s unusual: a reversal would usually be clued as a reversal, rather than as the less-specific anagram.

    It reminds me of a silly thing that I’ve thought about from time to time. A mathematician would surely include the original word itself in the list of anagrams — that is, she would regard SAD as an anagram of SAD — and would call it something like the “trivial anagram” or maybe “the identity anagram”. The reason is that mathematicians like to define their terms so that various nice properties hold. For instance, they’d like to be able to say things like “an anagram of an anagram is an anagram”, which is only true if you include the trivial anagram in the list. Anyway, it would amuse me (and probably no one else) to see an anagram clue involving the trivial anagram.

     

  15. … which would enable someone to comment that it was an inclusion rather than an anagram, and to formulate a wider class of crossword elements comprising anagrams, inclusions and reversals.

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