Matilda waltzes into town to provide us with the Quiptic this morning. A good one, too. What did you lurkers think? I have tried to provide thorough explanations, but if there is anything that’s not clear, just ask.
One thing I’ll highlight for those newish to this is the grid. If you’ve heard folk complain about ‘less than 50% checking’, this is what they mean. The first two acrosses, for example, have nine and five letters respectively, but there are only four and two letters that are crossed by down clues, so fewer than half the letters are ‘checked’. Purists/pedants/traditionalists (you choose) will say that this is not allowed according to the ‘rules’. It certainly can make solving more difficult. This grid is also not particularly solver-friendly because there are no starting letters around the perimeter and there are only three squares that connect the north and south/east and west, making it almost four mini-puzzles. Mustn’t grumble, though, even though there were once again NO BIRDS.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) missing
definitions are underlined
Across
7 Guessed Rocky meditates (9)
ESTIMATED
An Easy Annie to get us going. (MEDITATES)*
8 What is charged for a poem? (5)
ANODE
A charade of AN ODE.
9 Feed poorly, at first being hopeless (9)
DEFEATIST
A charade of (FEED)* AT and IST. The last bit is 1st with the numeral replaced by a capital ‘I’, which in some fonts (like this one) resembles it.
10 You finally overturned preacher’s taste (5)
UMAMI
A charade of U for the last letter of ‘you’ and IMAM reversed. The reversal indicator is ‘overturned’. The word has crept into English under my radar, I have to say.
12 Quiet rental, if you don’t mind (6)
PLEASE
A charade of P for piano, or the musical ‘quiet’ and LEASE.
13 Give up fish for stodgy food (8)
DUMPLING
A charade of DUMP and LING. The setters’ fave fishes are IDE and LING.
14 Border traditions (7)
CUSTOMS
A dd.
17 Touching silver developed stain (7)
AGAINST
AG for the chemical symbol for ‘silver’ is followed by (STAIN)* with ‘developed’ as the anagrind.
20 Slot a hip replacement here? (8)
HOSPITAL
(SLOT A HIP)* with ‘replacement’ as the anagrind. What, confusingly to beginners, is called an &lit clue, or &littish by those who are frightened of the Fifteensquared &lit police who will castigate you if you if you misuse the term. Some people say ‘extended definition’. I say cad. Or, here, caddish when I think the police might come knocking.
22 Said team expressed sadness (6)
SIGHED
A homophone of SIDE. The homophone indicator is ‘said’.
24 Beat leading triathlete, then mope around (5)
TEMPO
A charade of T for the first letter of ‘triathlete’ and (MOPE)*
25 Poster calling for entry (9)
ADMISSION
A charade of AD and MISSION.
26 Some implore newspaper to modernise (5)
RENEW
Hidden in imploRE NEWspaper.
27 Indeed, organ is saved! (9)
DELIVERED
This another device that some of the Flying Squad don’t like because it’s ‘not allowed’. It’s called ‘lift and separate’ and Moley used exactly the same device in my blog a fortnight ago. You need to separate out ‘indeed’ into ‘in’ and ‘deed’. The LIVER, the ‘organ’ is inserted (‘in’) into DEED to give you the solution.
Down
1 When in good health, too (2,4)
AS WELL
A charade of AS and WELL.
2 Irrationally fear being in elevator? This could save you (4,4)
LIFE RAFT
An insertion of (FEAR)* in LIFT. The anagrind is ‘irrationally’ and the insertion indicator is ‘being in’. Nice surface.
3 New and bouncy building? (6)
CASTLE
I get the ‘bouncy’ bit but I’m not sure what ‘new’ is doing there. Just a cd, I think.
4 Treat disease in Blackpool or Bognor? (7)
SEASIDE
(DISEASE)* with ‘treat’ as the anagrind.
5 Matilda’s outwardly obsessive beast … (6)
ANIMAL
An insertion of I’M for ‘Matilda’s’ in ANAL.
6 … scraps with strange people on backstreet (8)
ODDMENTS
A charade of ODD, MEN and TS for a reversal of ST for ‘street’. Once again, you need to lift and separate ‘backstreet’. Matilda is being v v naughty this morning. Beginners often ask about the ellipses in clues like this. Almost always, they can be ignored, as here: the setter is just using them to make more sense of the surface of the two clues (although here, the two clues would in fact work pretty well as stand-alone offerings).
11 Sticks up for being over-complacent (4)
SMUG
A reversal of GUMS.
15 Closed up one end unwisely (8)
UNOPENED
(UP ONE END)* with ‘unwisely’ as the anagrind.
16 Scrap force, we hear (4)
MITE
Another homophone (‘we hear’): of MIGHT.
18 Whinges tediously, having eaten (8)
INGESTED
And another insertion: in whINGES TEDiously.
19 Note scale of wee organ (7)
BLADDER
Plenty of organs this morning. The one that collects wee is a charade of B for one of the ‘notes’ of the musical scale and LADDER.
21 Tonic and spice (6)
PEPPER
A dd.
22 Alcohol bottle (6)
SPIRIT
And another.
23 Worn out journalist therein took a trip on a bus? (6)
ERODED
Matilda is asking you to insert RODE for ‘took a trip on a bus’ into ED for ‘journalist’.
Many thanks to him/her for this morning’s Quiptic.
Thanks Matilda and Pierre
Very nice – much better than the Cryptic. I particularly liked DELIVERED (sorry, purists!) and LIFE RAFT.
Although they are obviously in the same field, I can’t think of a sentence in which “ladder” and “scale” are interchangeable.
I didn’t see what “new” had to do with CASTLE either. “Newcastle” sprang to mind, but it doesn’t seem relevant.
Pierre,
You wrote:
This grid is also not particularly solver-friendly because there are no starting letters around the perimeter…
Did you mean no checked starting letters?
Thanks Pierre & Matilda
The ‘new’ defeated me too so I didn’t write ‘castle’ because I never enter stuff I can’t parse.
A couple of quibbles.
in 24 ‘beat’ is not a tempo (which is a speed).
in 21 ‘tonic’ is a bit vague and until you have the crossers it could just as well be ginger as pepper.
FWIW I don’t like lift and separate clues either, but having sussed how they work, any word in a clue beginning with ‘in’ has to be checked out to see if it is one.
Another fun and easy puzzle, ie as was the Cryptic today.
My favourites were 10 umami and 2d life raft.
Thanks Pierre and Matilda.
I did indeed, Jam. What did you think of the crossword?
I thought this was a very elegantly clued puzzle, nice surfaces.
Pierre,
The crossword and blog were both hunkydory. I meant to thank both you and Matilda. I do so now.
Agree a nice crossword, better than the cryptic. Lots of favourites: dumpling, sighed, bladder… Only one that slipped under my radar too was ‘umami’. A new word for me
This lurker found this puzzle quite hard for a quiptic but there was certainly nothing that I would consider “not allowed”. I was completely unable to get dumpling (even though I was anticipating “ling”), oddments (new word for me) and castle.
NO BIRDS? No idea.
Thanks both. Excellent Quiptic.
(If this slot is the “nursery” for aspiring setters, how do Matilda et al feel about Vulcan leaping into the Monday “grown up” slot vacated by Rufus?)
Thanks Matilda and Pierre. A really nice Quiptic. Favourite was DUMPLING.
I had both a question mark and a tick for CASTLE, which doesn’t happen often. On reflection I think it’s just a playful clue that is hard to categorise, with the “new” referring to Newcastle. No doubt there will be some who think it doesn’t work but I for one was amused by its presumption.
I also think that 3d must be referring to Newcastle. I think the idea is to give two sorts of definition by example: there’s a type of castle called a “Newcastle” and one called a “bouncy castle”. Of course, the first definition isn’t really a definition, as Newcastle isn’t a castle, but I’m still guessing that that’s the intent.
I’m sure I’m just being thick here, but in what sense does “tonic” = “pepper”?
Ted: a tonic is something that peps you up, so it’s (whimsically) a “pepper.”
Thanks, Lord Jim @13! That makes perfect sense. For some reason I didn’t think of the whimsical meaning of “pepper”, although I’ve certainly seen enough similar usages in other puzzles.
A very late entry (I didn’t have time to start this quiptic till Tuesday morning) but, just in case Matilda him/herself checks this blog, I wanted to say what an utter delight it was. So many smooth and clever clues, my faves being Bladder, Oddments, Life Raft – and my LOI, Anode, which had me hugging myself with glee.
Huge thanks to Matilda for an unputdownable puzzle – and to Pierre for your brilliant blog.
I was held up in the SE until just now. Needed Pierre’s help on 25a, “admission”, to open up the rest of the corner. I think the “New” reference in clue for 3d must refer to the several places named Newcastle around the country. That’s the way I parsed it anyway.