(Apologies for late posting: there have been some issues with Fifteensquared’s website hosting today.) As usual, Hectence gets the level just right for a Quiptic, and many of the clues are good examples for beginners learning how this crossword thing works.
Some of the wordplays take a bit of sorting out, but everything is fair, and nothing is unreasonably obscure. Some good surfaces too; I had to smile at 20a when I finally understood it, and 24a even before that. And those who like to hunt for pangrams (puzzles containing all 26 letters of the alphabet) are also rewarded today. Thanks Hectence as always.
Definitions are underlined; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 7 | COMPOUND | Blend egg in cake mixture initially, then beat (8) |
| O (egg – it’s sometimes used to mean zero, as in “duck” in cricket scoring which is short for duck’s egg), in the initial letters of Cake Mixture, then POUND (beat). | ||
| 9 | BEAGLE | Live long, occupying time with dog (6) |
| BE (live), then L (long) inserted into AGE (time). A small hound originally bred for hunting. |
||
| 10 | MINT | Brand-new moneymaker (4) |
| Double definition, though I think the first (as in mint condition) is derived from the second (a place for making coins, or metaphorically a scheme for making money quickly). | ||
| 11 | RAT-A-TAT-TAT | Knock art made with a couple of bits of junk (3-1-3-3) |
| Anagram (made) of ART, then A, then TAT (a bit of junk = something shoddy or worthless) twice. Representation of the sound of someone knocking on a door. |
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| 12 | KINDLY | Good-natured sort left legacy behind (6) |
| KIND (sort) + L (left) + last letter (behind) of [legac]Y. | ||
| 14 | EVALUATE | Reckon online price cut has affected tea (8) |
| E-VALU[e] = price, with the E- prefix making it an online one; cut = last letter removed. Then an anagram (affected) of TEA. Reckon = evaluate = calculate. |
||
| 15 | DAZZLE | Impress daughter with cool music, starting off with the French (6) |
| D (daughter), then JAZZ (cool music) with the starting letter taken off, then LE (French “the”). | ||
| 17 | CYGNET | Caught and gently treated missing large young bird (6) |
| C (abbreviation for “caught” in cricket scoring), then an anagram (treated) of GENTLY without the L (large). A young swan; this word seems to appear in crosswords quite often, perhaps because it’s a long way from the name of the parent bird. (It comes from the Latin or French name for a swan, which didn’t otherwise make it into English.) |
||
| 20 | GREY AREA | Retirement home where things are unclear? (4,4) |
| GREY (or more recently “silver”) is used as a shorthand for “relating to elderly people”, so a place where lots of elderly people live might be a GREY AREA. A situation where rules or classifications are not well defined. I’d prefer not to mention our PM’s speech yesterday, but someone would if I didn’t. |
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| 22 | MAROON | Abandon castle when king’s left protected by another piece (6) |
| ROOK (chess purists will insist it’s wrong to call this piece a “castle” but it’s a common usage), with the K (king) removed, contained in (protected by) MAN (a generic word for a chess piece). This was my last one in, because I took far too long to remember this use of “man”. Maroon = abandon as in “marooned on a desert island”. Nothing to do with the colour, though it makes a nice contrast to the GREY in 20a. |
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| 23 | DROP SCONES | Bagpipe pieces include works about Scotch pancakes (4,6) |
| DRONES (drone = the bit of bagpipes that makes the continuous bass note), including OPS (op = short for opus, a musical work) + C (circa = about). The plural of opus (Latin) is opera, but I guess the plural of op (as used in English) is ops. Small pancakes made by dripping a spoonful of batter onto a hot pan or griddle. |
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| 24 | AVOW | Swear love in a Volkswagen (4) |
| O (zero = love in tennis scoring) in A VW. I’m sure the surface conjures up memories for many; teenagers on a date night perhaps? | ||
| 25 | STYLUS | One plays records from America following brief trend (6) |
| STYL[e] (trend; brief = shortened = last letter dropped) with US (America) following it. The “needle” of a record player. Anyone too young to remember that – well, I’d say “ask your parents”, but you’ll probably ask Wikipedia instead. |
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| 26 | SCAVENGE | Forage in underground chamber cutting tin and germanium (8) |
| CAVE (underground chamber), inserted into SN + GE (properly Sn and Ge, the chemical symbols for tin and germanium respectively). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MODIFIED | Changed doctor provided, that is, daughters come round (8) |
| MO (Medical Officer = doctor), then IF (provided = on the condition that) + IE (i.e. = id est = that is), with DD (daughter, twice) around it. | ||
| 2 | SPOT | Notice jumpers are going up (4) |
| TOPS (jumpers = upper-body garments), reversed (going up, in a down clue). This particular reversal shows up a lot in crosswords. | ||
| 3 | QUIRKY | Leave unfinished line about king being eccentric (6) |
| QUI[t] (leave; unfinished = omitting last letter), then RY (a rather old abbreviation for railway = line) around K (king). | ||
| 4 | OBITUARY | At your send-off, bishop and I included a short life history (8) |
| Anagram (send-off, as in “send off course” I suppose) of AT YOUR, including B (bishop) + I. An extended definition for a write-up of someone’s life published after their death. |
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| 5 | FAST RUNNER | Bolt maybe a variety of beans after a period without eating (4,6) |
| RUNNER (variety of beans) after FAST (period without eating). Usain Bolt, former sprinter and multiple world record holder. |
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| 6 | PLIANT | Physical training keeps pin-up flexible (6) |
| PT (physical training), containing NAIL (pin) reversed (upwards in a down clue). The trick is to separate “pin” and “up”. | ||
| 8 | DITHER | Hesitate to free up article trapped inside (6) |
| RID (free, as in to rid a dog of fleas), with THE (definite article) trapped inside it. Edit: the RID is reversed (up, in a down clue). Thanks Sil @10 for pointing out the omission. |
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| 13 | DIZZY SPELL | Silly son’s 50-50 after exercises, having a funny turn (5,5) |
| DIZZY (scatterbrained = silly) + S (son), then LL (50 in Roman numerals, twice) after PE (Physical Education = exercise). | ||
| 16 | LYRICIST | Songwriter‘s catalogue includes riches, half unknown before (8) |
| LIST (catalogue), including RIC[hes] (half of it) with Y (mathematical symbol for an unknown number) before it. Someone who writes the words for a song. |
||
| 18 | THOROUGH | Scrupulous but informal with thug (8) |
| THO’ (informal version of “though” = but) with ROUGH (thug = aggressive person). Edit: THO’ is probably best described as archaic, but THO (without the apostrophe) is informal, e.g. text messages. Thanks to David @7 and Robi @11 for the clarifications. |
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| 19 | JAUNTS | Heartily enjoy mum’s sisters’ outings (6) |
| Heart (middle letter) of [en]J[oy], then AUNTS (mum’s sisters, or indeed dad’s sisters). | ||
| 21 | RARITY | Gunners side taking international trophy borders on strangeness (6) |
| RA (Royal Artillery = gunners) + R (right; one of two sides, right / left) + I (international) + borders (outside letters) of T[roph]Y. The surface seems to be a dig at Arsenal Football Club. | ||
| 22 | MISHAP | One’s quiet about plan’s unhappy outcome (6) |
| I (one in Roman numerals) + SH (quiet!), with MAP (plan) around it. The grammar of the wordplay is a bit of a stretch, but translates as “I + SH; about that, MAP”. | ||
| 24 | APEX | Top copy with ten underneath (4) |
| APE (imitate = copy), with X (ten in Roman numerals) below it (at the end in a down clue). | ||
Thanks Hectence and Quirister
I didn’t parse MAROON or all of RARITY. Favourites were RAT-A-TAT-TAT, JAUNTS, and CYGNET.
I thought this a bit tricky for a quiptic but worked through it all happily enough. I read “maroon” with “0-0” being castling in chess and King = R to the left but Occam prefers your version Quirister, as do I! I remain unconvinced about “mishap” and think the grammar is just screwy, but enjoyed the pangram.
Thanks Hectence and glad the site is back up.
I read MAROON as did The Zed @2 but agree that Quirister’s parsing is better. The clue for MISHAP is uncharacteristically awkward for this setter, whose clues are usually silky smooth. Enjoyable anyway and perfectly pitched for a quiptic, so thanks to Hectence and to Quirister for the blog.
I thought that you would only refer to a person from Earth as an “Earthling” if he wasn’t on Earth – hence “out of this world”.
Me @4
Sorry – wrong thread
Took a bit longer than the cryptic but I might’ve been dawdling in the sun. One’s quiet plan about unhappy ending would have worked ok. Liked the grey area and the informal though, and 1ac too was another good seeming-anagram misdirect. Thanks both.
Hope the site stays up!
For once I have to disagree, strongly. I don’t think the level was just right for a quiptic. And I don’t think everything was fair.
9A – “with” has been included to make the surface smoother, but it has no legitimate function in the clue and thus us apt to unfairly throw solvers off track.
12A – “legacy behind” doesn’t fairly indicate “y”, and is apt to to unfairly throw one off track as behind is often used to denote positioning of elements in the solution. A fair clue might have had e.g. “last of legacy”.
22D – the grammar of the wordplay isn’t merely “a bit of a stretch”, it’s completely wrong, and the solution is impossible to get if actually following and applying the clue as written.
Personally I’d also query 18D: tho’ is certainly an archaic (and thus, to contemporary speakers, formal) version of “though”, but I’ve never in my life encountered it as an informal usage. So that does strike me as, at best, very obscure.
And if I want to be a real stickler, the clueing in 22A is arguably not really correct either, and certainly misled me in a way I felt unfair. In a clue which already refers to two specific chess pieces, “another piece” can’t logically refer to a generic piece, as (being generic), the two pieces already specifically mentioned are examples of it. But I appreciate others may not share my concern about that.
Either way, some extremely loose, and on occasion simply wrong clueing made for a quiptic which I (as a relative newbie) found exceptionally difficult for a quiptic, and far far more difficult than today’s guardian cryptic. I thought the Guardian was supposed to be Ximenean…
David @7 I’d certainly beg to differ with you on the idea that the same thing cannot be used more than one way in a clue – I (tongue in cheek) did it in the Guardian clue setting blog a while back with “about” used 4 different ways in the same clue! Would you cry unfair at “Sailor’s surprise when another comes around (4)” (=”AB” around “ha” to give “Ahab”)? I think that’s all part of the fun and games of misdirection and some setters (Boatman comes to mind) positively revel in it.
Otherwise, criticisms all fair, just by the time the site was finally up I had lost the will to make too many comments, especially on the cryptic which I thought had issues too!
I really enjoyed your write-up, Quirister: the comments on the side made it a joy to read. Maybe you had a lot of time to tweak it while waiting for the site to come back up?
I agree with David @7 that 22d is not just questionable or the like, it’s wrong.
His objection to ‘legacy behind’ (12ac) is understandable but what’s the difference with a thing like ‘all that ends’ for L,T? (something even the semi-Ximenean Paul uses and no-one ever queries).
I found this the hardest puzzle I solved today and it didn’t feel like a Quiptic to me.
Apparently, Hectence was in a “let’s do it again” mood today.
We have D for ‘daughter’ in both 15ac and 1d.
And ‘up’ is used twice as a reversal indicator, in two consecutive clues (6d, 8d).
[Quirister, you forgot to mention the reversal in 8d]
David: “I thought the Guardian was supposed to be Ximenean?”
I wouldn’t say so.
The cryptic grammar in both 23ac (‘include’) and 2d (‘are’) is not right.
Both should be singular but that wouldn’t serve the surface.
And so, the surface won today.
What is ‘on’ doing in 21d? Is it a link word? Or?
My clear favourite today was 20ac (GREY AREA).
Many thanks to Quirister for the blog & Hectence for the entertainment.
David @7; no, the Guardian is libertarian rather than Ximenean. However, that doesn’t excuse the poor clue for MISHAP, which unless you are Yoda seems to be the wrong way round. Most of the other issues you raise are valid, I think, although this is the Collins description of tho’: Tho’ and tho are very informal written forms of though, so I don’t think one can argue that one.
I don’t think FAST RUNNER is actually a kosher phrase – at least it doesn’t seem to be in all the main dictionaries (although it is in Crossword Compiler), so probably good to avoid in a beginner’s crossword.
Many other clues were fine, and the pangram was helpful, once it was spotted.
Thanks Hectence and Quirister.
TheZed @8; I don’t think your example is comparable to the clue for MISHAP. If it said: ‘One’s quiet plan’s about unhappy outcome’, it would, I think be OK, although still a bit Yoda-ish.
Robi @12 I’d agree with you – my point was about “maroon” not “mishap” tho’ (sic) 🙂
22A – MAROON is king (R) left of the chess notation for castle (OO) in a piece (MAN).
Charles @14 – see comments @2 and 3…
Well, I finished it, but I can’t say I enjoyed it very much. Like others above, I found the clueing in many cases a bit off, and overall it was pretty hard for a quiptic. Hey ho.
I did not find this easy, but I enjoyed solving it.
Thanks B+S
@The Zed – you’ve persuaded me re 22A. I did recognise at the time others might not share my concern. But on reflection, you are right, my concern about “another piece” was unfounded.
@Robi – re 18D – thanks to you too for pointing out that Collins has tho as an informal use. I guess that means I have to concede that it’s legitimate. Tho’ I have to say in that case that it seems to me to be one of those examples where the dictionary is several generations behind the reality of where language is now at. Or maybe it’s me that’s lagging behind how younger generations speak and write nowadays?
@ Sil van der Hoek – re 9A – “all that ends” strikes me as different because “ends” is unlikely to denote anything other than the ends of those words. So even if the wordplay grammar is wrong there, solvers have a fair chance at working it out. In “legacy behind” not only is the wordplay grammar wrong, the word “behind” is most regularly used to denote something other than the end of a word, namely the order of elements in the solution. It’s the combination of wrong wordplay grammar with misdirection as to the function of the word in the wordplay which I think is not OK. In short, solvers should never be expected to negotiate a misdirection by assuming that the setter has used wrong word play grammar.
And even if (contrary to my view) the examples are equivalent, just because other setters do the same thing wrong, doesn’t make it right.
Charles Yule@14:
Thank you for that elucidation of ‘OO’.
I just put in ‘maroon’ because it made sense.
In my experience ‘Tho’ is very common in informal settings like twitter, instagram and text messages