Anto’s first offering of 2020, which didn’t have much to recommend it as a Quiptic, in my opinion. As always, you may think otherwise.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Business mass market leaders entered in force
COMMERCE
An insertion of MM for the first letters of ‘mass’ and ‘market’ in COERCE.
6 Friends perhaps come on site, having absolutely no English
SITCOM
A charade of SIT[E] and COM[E] with the last four words of the clue giving you the instruction to remove the Es.
9 It’s right to discuss at tedious length …
BANG ON
A dd.
10 … issue some would prefer to observe in silence
CHILDREN
A rather weak cd, referring to the expression that children should be seen and not heard. The ellipses are just there to make sense of the two surfaces.
11 One following US soccer’s development
SUCCESSOR
(US SOCCERS)*
13 Severe judge imprisons learner …
BLEAK
An insertion of L in BEAK
15 … who got arrested by constable for having spots
BLOBBY
Normally I write that you can safely ignore ellipses between clues. Here, however, you need to carry forward the L for ‘learner’ from 15ac, then insert it into BOBBY. The insertion indicator is ‘arrested’. I’m not convinced that BLOBBY would be my first choice of adjective for ‘having spots’.
17 Goodbye note found on floor in Japan
TATAMI
I had to use a word search to solve this, which suggests it might be a step too far for a Quiptic. I am struggling to see why Anto chose this word, when other commoner words like SAFARI, SALAMI or HAWAII all fit. It’s a charade of TATA and MI for the third ‘note’ of the sol-fa.
Chambers has:
tatami n a type of mat, of a standard size, made from rice stalks, used as a floor covering in Japanese houses
18 Decide to have new leader for plant
NETTLE
There are lots of ‘plants’ in the world and 26 letters in the alphabet, so this wasn’t a gimme by any stretch of the imagination. Once you had a few crossing letters, you might have been able to suss out that the setter is asking you to replace the first letter of SETTLE.
19 It’s behind atrocities these Russian extremists create
ASTERN
The outside letters of the third, fourth and fifth words of the clue.
21 Social outcast is a bit of a people person
LEPER
Hidden in peopLE PERson.
22 Manoeuvring flaps used a lot
SPADEFULS
(FLAPS USED)* with an extremely vague definition of ‘a lot’.
25 Influence American to abandon holiday passion
LEVERAGE
A charade of LE[A]VE and RAGE.
26 Regularly gave wino rum for them
VOWELS
The even letters of the second, third and fourth words of the clue are all VOWELS. If you told me that this wasn’t an appropriate device for a beginners’ puzzle, I wouldn’t disagree.
28 Journalist Poirot identified going back inside
EDITOR
Hidden reversed in PoiROT IDEntified.
29 Image primarily printed on rag has quality
PORTRAIT
A charade of the initial letters of ‘printed on rag’ and TRAIT.
Down
2 Eggs are declared done
OVA
A homophone (‘are declared’) of OVER for ‘done’. Since the homophone indicator is in the middle of the two elements, this could equally be a clue for OVER, which some folk object to (and yes, I know, there aren’t three letters in OVER).
3 Brilliant soldier hacked into computer
MAGIC
An insertion of GI in MAC.
4 Single bar, played on lute initially, sounds familiar
RINGS A BELL
A charade of (SINGLE BAR)* and L for the first letter of ‘lute’.
5 Key line in legal contract
ESCROW
A charade of ESC for the [computer] key and ROW.
6 Decline to raise grand for film
SKIN
Since it’s a down clue, you’re invited to move the K for ‘grand’ in SINK for ‘decline’ one place upwards.
7 Woman engaged in live data streaming — it could swamp her
TIDAL WAVE
An insertion of W in (LIVE DATA)* with ‘streaming’ as the anagrind and ‘engaged in’ as the insertion indicator.
8 Working to create a large base for theatre event
OPERATIONAL
Again because it’s a down clue, it’s A and L as a ‘base’ for OPERATION. I think the surface makes sense if you think of a ‘theatre’ of war.
12 Rogue angel burned? It’s just not true
URBAN LEGEND
(ANGEL BURNED)*
14 Died ignored
PASSED OVER
A dd. A much more common euphemism for ‘died’ is PASSED AWAY, which might have led to an initial temptation to enter that.
16 Socialist driving side in the UK
ON THE LEFT
A dd.
20 Service provided by leading store
UPKEEP
A charade of UP and KEEP.
23 Reduced numbers affect town’s referral centres
FEWER
A charade of FE, W and ER, which are the central letters of the third, fourth and fifth words of the clue.
24 Match power with attitude
PAIR
A charade of P and AIR.
27 Floral tribute carried by Raleigh
LEI
Hidden in RaLEIgh.
Many thanks to Anto for this morning’s Quiptic.
Thanks Anto and Pierre
Not a bad crossword, but much too hard for a Quiptic. I knew TATAMI from somewhere, but needed a wordsearch for ESCROW.
I know ESCROW from a career in the law, but it doesn’t belong in a Quiptic any more than TATAMI does. Where the latter is concerned, as Pierre points out, there were several far more familiar alternatives which would have fitted the grid.
Some of the cluing was pretty loose. I rather liked 10ac, though.
thanks to Anto & Pierre.
yes, agree that it wasn’t quite suitable for the Quiptic slot.
for 8d I thought the theatre event might refer to a surgical environment?
grr – I had a comment all ready to go and one of my cats walked on my keyboard. She knows all sorts of Windows short-cuts to destroy things!
I too had “theatre” as the hospital type. I thought “vowels” ok as the middle letters were “aeiou” so a good clue which I enjoyed. “Successors” also nicely clued. A bit of an oddity in having one answer the same as in the cryptic (I’ll not say which to avoid spoilers) and I found “nettle”, “upkeep” and “sink” all rather loose.
Many thanks Pierre, for the blog, and Anto for the tougher-than-usual workout.
The surgical ‘theatre’ is obviously the right context for 8dn. Too much war in the world must have pushed me into my interpretation.
Didnt like the ones I got (and parsed) so abandoned it
Esp after Pan
SETTLE/NETTLE is one of those annoying clues where it isn’t entirely clear which way round the source word and the answer are supposed to be. As usual, I chose … poorly. Too many ellipses in this one for my taste. And I fell into the PASSED AWAY trap. And couldn’t parse VOWELS.
The Quiptic is supposed to introduce beginners to a ‘variety’ of devices. This does not mean deliberately including very unusual ones.
Well I really liked it. Lots of range. I wonder how often quiptics and the Monday cryptic have to turn out to be more challenging than expected before we give up on the idea that they’re supposed to be easier? I like to approach crosswords with no preconceptions about what is supposed to be the case. It’s when any preconceptions are thwarted that I have the most fun.
I found this to be a pleasant and fairly easy puzzle. I agree about TATAMI being a bit obscure, but I guessed it quite quickly from the word play. As for ESCROW, I got that in seconds. VOWELS was a very nice clue. So I tend to disagree with the general sentiment that it’s too hard for a quiptic! Thanks all.
Everything I was going to say has been said – no place for ESCROW and TATAMI in a Quiptic. I also don’t like the old-fashioned BEAK for judge. And I wasn’t sure whether to put SKIN or SINK at 6 down. Anto needs A STERN telling off.
ASTERN also crops up in the Pan today. I chose not to try and parse BLOBBY as I feared it may have something to do with Noel Edmonds – relieved to see it didn’t!
Or maybe there was a Noel Edmonds connection? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr_Blobby
Don’t have nightmares
For at least the last year or so the quiptics have, in general, been no easier than the Monday cryptic (I have been timing myself).
i only knew ESCROW because it’s part of the monthly mortgage payment here in the States, and goes towards local taxes. Alas, this has unearthed memories of Mr Blobby, who was loved by my small children in the 1990s.
I got the unfamiliar TATAMI from wordplay and crossers but missed a few others. I’m blaming a nasty head cold for my failures. I agree that this is the toughest Quiptic I’ve seen in the last year, but all fairly clued. Thanks to Anto and Pierre.
I’ll try to forget the comment by bodycheetah @11 as I tackle the Monday cryptic.
xjplotter @8; the instruction for the Quiptic is: ‘A cryptic puzzle for beginners and those in a hurry.’ So this one doesn’t fulfill the brief. I sometimes think the Quiptic setters like to make them more difficult, so people say: “Why not give them a chance in the main cryptic slot” But that surely is not the way to get promoted.
To me the centre of town’s is ‘ow;’ it would have to be towns’ to give the ‘w.’ I agree with Pierre that TATAMI has no place in a Quiptic unless you’re Japanese.
I liked the clues for ASTERN and OPERATIONAL.
Thanks Anto and Pierre.
And on top of all this (much of which I agree with), Anto uses W for ‘woman’ in 7d.
Some setters seem to be quite stubborn (to say the least).
Many thanks Pierre & Anto.
Anyone who practises or has children who practise judo, karate or other martial art will be very familiar with the word tatami. Thanks to Anto
I liked this considerably more than Anto’s previous offerings, although I agree with those who found it to be on the hard side for a Quiptic. I failed to solve a couple without recourse to a word search, I’m sorry to say, although after seeing the answers I confess that the clues that stumped me were perfectly fair.
I’m with xjpotter in all respects on this. My father used to selflessly hand over his half finished Times in the early 90s when I started out; no Quiptic then. I learnt through failure. Escrow and tatami I’ve only ever seen before in a crossword context and surely broadening one’s lexis is part of the learning process.
There was a broad range of devices here and, were I a novice, I wouldn’t have been disappointed to fail here, but would have felt I’d learnt a lot.
Thank you Pierre and well done Anto.
PS Anto – loved the vowels. You almost had me there !
Well, I got there in the end, but my word it seemed a struggle. I was obviously not on the right wavelength today, as the clues were in retrospect fair enough if maybe a bit hard for a quiptic. I was ok with TATAMI, which I don’t think especially obscure. Couldn’t parse VOWELS. Next-to-LOI was CHILDREN, which went in because of “issue” and the crossers, but I couldn’t really justify it. Then ESCROW at last finished it off, to my considerable relief. Thanks Anto and Pierre.
Tatami was very familiar to me — I think the definition is “found on floor in Japan” rather than just “floor in Japan”
I enjoyed this puzzle, although I failed to parse SKIN and EDITOR.
Many favourites: CHILDREN, URBAN LEGEND, LEVERAGE, VOWELS, BLOBBY, BANG ON (loi)
Thanks Anto and Pierre
I rather liked this one. I was ok with escrow and tatami and I thought the clue for the latter was great. But it’s just down to my having stumbled over these words in the past, so I’m not really claiming anything. I got stuck with operational – I could see the answer but not parse the clue as I was hung up on OPERA as the theatrical event and couldn’t make the rest fit! Doh. I liked the vowels one too, and the rare sighting of a connecting ellipsis that actually connects.
Thanks Anto and Pierre both.
Agree this too difficult for a quiptic. But then Anto always is. Why does he remain in this slot? Feel like writing to editor to ask. I mean people have been complaining about him since he started. I also have never heard of escrow or tatami, particularly the latter totally unnecessary
Thanks to Pierre and Anto
Some things others dislike I’m ok with (not W for woman though), but:
9a Someone “banging on” is not discussing (at length or otherwise)
15a “who got” is redundant
26a “Them” is as poor a def as I’ve seen (i.e. it isn’t one)
28a the words are in the wrong order
16d The driving side in the UK is “left”, not “on the left”
The rest was mostly ok
I’m surprised tatami is getting so much grief. It’s the very first clue I got for this puzzle. I guess the Guardian quiptic readership doesn’t overlap much with anime fans?
Words: 39
Characters: 217
Please explain how ‘holiday’ fits in 25ac. Thank you
Alan Spicer @29
“Holiday” is the same as “leave” as a noun, rather than a verb. “I’ll take my annual leave at home this year”, for instance.
Wonder why keyboard clues have taken so long to catch on in crosswords. Thanks, Anto.