Quiptic 989 by Anto

by

Anto’s turn in the quiptic slot this week, complete with his new name.

Edit: The setter’s name has now been corrected to Anto on the Guardian site. It had previously been ‘Anton’

Across
1 BRITAIN Country cops it in knock out (7)
BRAIN (knock out) containing (cops) IT (it)
5 LEG ROOM The French train provides space to stretch out (3,4)
LE (the French) GROOM (train)
9 FLATS Pads for comfortable shoes? (5)
Two definitions. Pads = FLATS. Comfortable shoes = FLATS
10 DOCKLANDS Cut lights in place for ship-to-shore transmission (9)
I think this is intended as DOCK (cut) and LANDS (lights). But I’m not sure lands = lights. ‘Light on’, perhaps, or ‘alight’. Not sure I understand the definition either

Edit: Thanks to muffin @ 1 for explaining the definition. I had completely missed that reading
11 AQUAMARINE Gemstone a queen pinned to a soldier (10)
A (a) QU (queen) next to (pinnned to) A (a) MARINE (soldier)
12 OVER Finished shelter to exclude cold (4)
COVER (shelter) with C = cold deleted (to exclude cold)
14 STERLING AREA Reagan let IRS shake up old currency group (8,4)
An anagram (shake up) of REAGAN LET IRS
18 PAIR OF TIGHTS Skimpy and close fitting women’s clothing (4,2,6)
I don’t understand this one.

Edit: Thanks to JohnR, Michelle and BlogginTheBlog for explaining the wordplay here. ‘Skimpy’ and ‘close fitting’ are both words for ‘tight’. Thus we have a pair of ‘tights’
21 SHOO Get away with moving heroin left in London area (4)
SOHO (London area) with H (heroin) moved to the left (moving heroin left)
22 PINSTICKER One blindly selecting horse, perhaps, based on legs and heart (3-7)
PINS (legs) TICKER (heart)
25 DAY OF REST Fed a story about Sunday, some believe (3,2,4)
An anagram (about) of FED A STORY
26 PARCH Dry out standard central heating (5)
PAR (standard) CH (central heating)
27 COYOTES Splayed toes on timid animals (7)
An anagram (splayed) of TOES next to (on) COY (timid)
28 ACRONYM She stands for Southern Health Executive as an example (7)
SHE would be an acronym for Southern Health Executive, if there were such a thing
Down
1 BAFTAS Bring up some stars at fabulous awards ceremony (6)
An answer hidden in (some) a reversal of (bring up) starS AT FABulous
2 ICARUS Essentially sick earl must eventually hit the ground (6)
The middle letters (essentially) of sICk eARl mUSt
3 ASSUMPTION Point out a small problem before making hypothesis (10)
A (a) S (small) SUM (problem) in front of (before) an anagram (out) of POINT
4 NADIR Starters in New Age diner include “ram’s bottom” (5)
The first letters (starters in) New Age Diner Include Ram’s
5 LICENSING Such laws restrict service opportunities for landlords (9)
A (not very) cryptic definition, I think
6 GELD Come together with duke to cut off any further issue (4)
GEL (come together) plus (with) D (duke)
7 OMNIVORE Pour out more vino — I will eat everything! (8)
An anagram (pour out) MORE VINO
8 MUST-READ Amount raised on march to create essential publication (4-4)
A reversal (raised) of SUM (amount) above (on) TREAD (march)
13 EGO-TRIPPER Elizabeth understood serial killer being only out for himself (3-7)
E (Elizabeth) GOT (understood) RIPPER (serial killer)
15 RETAILERS They will sell you tales about stalkers (9)
RE (about) TAILERS (stalkers)
16 EPISODIC Long story about earth I told in stages (8)
EPIC (long story) containing (about) SOD (earth) I (I)
17 MISOGYNY Abandoned noisy gym — it doesn’t welcome women (8)
An anagram (abandoned) of NOISY GYM
19 SKI RUN Single family hosts game that goes downhill quickly (3,3)
S (single) and KIN (family) containing (hosts) RU (game)
20 GRAHAM This fellow only half grasps Hamlet (6)
Half the letters (only half) of GRAsps and HAMlet
23 SUTRA Smutty read not regularly found in old Indian text (5)
The odd letters (not regularly found) of SmUtTy ReAd
24 E-FIT Drug induced attack? This helps find the culprit (1-3)
E (drug) FIT (induced attack)

 

20 comments on “Quiptic 989 by Anto”

  1. Thanks Anton and nms

    My first thought was “Misprint or new setter?”. I found this hard, so it probably was Anto. I didn’t understand PAIR OF TIGHTS either, but DOCKLANDS are where goods are transferred (“transmitted”) between ships and the shore.

    I didn’t see how the “tales” fitted into 15d – was it a attempt at a “triple”?

    Favourite was ICARUS.

     

  3. I enjoyed this puzzle.

    My favourites were EGO TRIPPER, GELD, MUST-READ, EPISODIC, SHOO.

    I parsed Pair of Tights as two ways of describing 1/ skimpy and 2/ close-fitting as well as being an article of women’s clothing.

    Thank you Anton and nms

  4. Thanks both. I thought this was good apart from 18a, which seems to be Anto(n) going back to his/her old ways of trying to be too clever

  5. Thanks both. I could not get 18a either but michelle@3 seems to have hit the nail on the head.

    Quite a good crossword overall.

  6. “Skimpy” and “close fitting” are a pair of synonyms for “tight” hence a pair of tights. Innovative or tenuous depending on your point of view.

  7. I’m another who couldn’t parse 18A, and Michelle’s interpretation works far better than anything I could come up with. I share Newmarketsausage’s misgivings about 10A and 5D – but apart from that, I rather enjoyed this. Best of the lot was ICARUS, with SHOO, PIN-STICKER, GRAHAM and EGO-TRIPPER also making me smile. Thanks to NMS for the erudite explanations, and to Anton (or has Anto fallen victim to Grauniad-misprints?) for a pleasant start to the week. Now for the cryptic….

  10. Ah, those abbreviations again!  E is not a stand-alone one for Elizabeth, and S is certainly not a valid one for ‘single’?

    Like muffin I do not see why 15d has ‘tales’ in it.

    23d is strange: “not regularly found” leads to a contradiction as what we actually want is regularly found ….

    Apart from a somewhat minimalistic definition (if it is one) in 2d’s ICARUS, enough goodies to enjoy the challenge.

    Many thanks to newmarketsausage & Anto(n)

  11. Sil @10

    SUTRA is both “regularly found” in SmUtTyReAd and “not regularly found” in sMuTtYrEaD, isn’t it?

  12. Yes, muffin, that’s what I meant to say, and that’s what makes the choice (using ‘not’) a bit strange. At least, for me.

  13. Yes, the clue would be shorter and neater without the “not”. I wonder if Anton was trying to imply that Indian texts aren’t smutty? The most famous “sutra” could be considered to be smutty, though!

  14. For the non-Brits among us, it is worth noting that RU is short for Rugby Union. Not in its sense as a group of teams, but as the game defined the set of rules that the group promulgated.

  15. The name has changed, the miscategorization (miscategorisation?) has not. I found this too hard for a quiptic but it made a mostly excellent cryptic. E-fit, pin-sticker and sterling area were all new to me.  I’ve seen here before but had forgotten the “telling tales” definition of “retailing”.

  16. I thought this was quite good, especially given the (justified, in my opinion) this setter has received in the past. There were a few flawed clues — I don’t see a proper defnition in 2d, and I can’t figure out what the “tail” is doing in 15d. But a number of clues were clever, with well-hidden definitions, and the surfaces were often diverting.

    I particularly liked 25a, and unlike some others, I enjoyed 18a, although I can see why it might not be regarded as a Quiptic-level clue.

  17. Another quibble about 18A: I really don’t think that skimpy=tight. A shame really, otherwise it was a decent cryptic (too hard for a quiptic IMO). Perhaps someone can enlighten me:what’s e-fit ?

  18. Hello rogerb. An e-fit is a computer-generated ‘photograph’ of the face of someone being sought by the police, usually based on the descriptions of witnesses. Or something like that.

  20. Thanks, Andrew. It took them a while. And no note on the site saying that a correction has been made. Perhaps a bit too embarrassing even for the Grauniad to admit they got a regular contibutor’s name wrong 🙂

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