Quiptic 1,109 by Pan

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A slightly harder Quiptic today, with a few unusual words and definitions, but still enjoyable.

Several old friends here (RED, RA, MIT, CH, and a couple of chemical symbols), but also some tricky clue constructions such as 8a/1d and 15d. The SE corner left me feeling quite hungry – if I had a 19d I’d be looking for a 22a for 25a and wondering whether one could include 27a in it. Thanks Pan for the challenge.

Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.

ACROSS
7 GORE VIDAL
Writer‘s blood given to daughter in small bottle (4,5)
GORE (blood), then D (daughter) in VIAL (small bottle).

US writer
8, 1d ERWIN ROMMEL
Field marshal with army engineers backing victory in battle runs for small lake (5,6)
RE (Royal Engineers, in the British Army) reversed (backing), then WIN (victory), then [s]OMME (WW1 battle) with R (r = abbreviation for runs in cricket scoring) UPDATE: instead of the S (small), then L (lake). That all took a bit of working out.

German WW2 field marshal.
9 OMBUDSMAN
Sultanate sheltering Muslim leader shoots official investigator (9)
OMAN (sultanate), containing (sheltering) the leading letter of M[uslim] + BUDS (shoots of a plant).

An official responsible for investigating complaints against the government or administratiion.
10
See 3d
12 PLUNGE
End of loop on rope used to train horses to duck (6)
Last letter of [loo]P + LUNGE (a long rope used to control a horse in training).

Duck = plunge = submerge in water.
13 CENOTAPH
War memorial discovered by musicians in London with drum entering church (8)
ENO (English National Opera = musicians in London) + TAP (as a verb = drum = beat out a rhythm), entering CH (abbreviation for church).
14 GRADATE
Arrange German class to accommodate lawyer (7)
G (German) + RATE (class, as in first rate / first class), containing (accommodating) DA (District Attorney = US lawyer).

Gradate = to arrange in order of grade / rank. Not a very common usage, but supported by dictionaries; the more usual meaning is to shade imperceptibly between light and dark or between two colours.
17 IGNOBLE
Mean goblin dancing close to pixie (7)
Anagram (dancing) of GOBLIN, then closing letter of [pixi]E.

Ignoble = base or dishonourable = mean.
20 MALINGER
Opt to skip work to translate Germinal (8)
Anagram (to translate) of GERMINAL (probably referring to the French novel by Zola, though you don’t need to know that to solve the clue).

Malinger = to feign illness in order to avoid work.
22 RECIPE
Instructions for fixed price given by European (6)
Anagram (fixed) of PRICE, then E (European).
24 ASPEN
A special apple finally grafted onto new tree (5)
A + SP (abbreviation for special) + final letter of [appl]E + N (new).
25 CHARLOTTE
A sweet girl (9)
Double definition. The first is sweet = dessert, and refers to various desserts: apple charlotte (apples baked in a covering of bread), charlotte russe (custard/cream in a covering of sponge cake), or some variation on this general idea. This may have been named after a lady called Charlotte (the second meaning), but nobody seems to be sure.
26 ADMIT
Publicity given to university grant (5)
AD (short for advertisement = publicity) + MIT (short for Massachusetts Institute of Technology = US university).

Grant = admit = to accept someone’s point.
27 CRANBERRY
Shout about bananas ban leading to sin with fruit (9)
CRY (shout), containing an anagram (bananas = crazy) of BAN + ERR (sin, as a verb).
DOWN
1
See 8a
2 RETURNED
Communist harbouring artist almost elected (8)
RED (communist), containing TURNE[r] (the artist JMW Turner; almost = dropping the last letter).

Returned = elected as the result of a public vote.
3, 10a TISSUE PAPER
Flimsy stuff made from purest sepia fragments (6,5)
Anagram (made from . . . fragments) of PUREST SEPIA.
4 BALANCE
Stability shown by graduate with weapon (7)
BA (someone who holds a bachelor’s degree = graduate) + LANCE (a weapon).
5 BREAST
Animal eating bottom of anterior organ (6)
BEAST (animal), eating the last letter (bottom, in a down clue) of [anterio]R.
6 FIRE OPAL
Get rid of old china stone (4,4)
FIRE (as a verb = get rid of = dismiss from employment) + O (old) + PAL (china = slang for friend, from Cockney rhyming slang china plate = mate).

Gemstone displaying occasional flashes of bright green.
11 SNAG
Tin with silver catch (4)
SN + AG (Sn + Ag, the chemical symbols for tin and silver, from the Latin stannum and argentum).
15 RHAPSODY
Music track about chance to set up parties (8)
RY (abbreviation for railway = track), containing (about) HAP (archaic word for chance) + DOS (plural of do = slang for a party) reversed (to set up = upwards in a down clue).

Term for a type of musical composition.
16
See 22d
18 ONCE OVER
Old Norse guard taking in English examination (4,4)
ON (abbreviation for the language Old Norse) + COVER (guard), taking in E (English).

Once-over (I think this is more often hyphenated) = a cursory examination, as in “give it the once-over” = check briefly but not in detail.
19 ORCHARD
I am leaving old king a fertile piece of land (7)
O (old) + R[i]CHARD (one of three English kings), leaving out the I.

Piece of land planted with fruit trees.
21 IBERIA
Large part of Asia ignoring small part of Europe (6)
[s]IBERIA (a large part of Northern Asia), ignoring the S (small).

The peninsula containing Spain and Portugal, in southwestern Europe.
22, 16 RARING TO GO
Artist getting call to visit African country is keen to start (6,2,2)
RA (Royal Academician = artist) + RING (phone call) + TOGO (African country).

An odd phrase, but clear enough from the definition and enumeration. It seems to be a variant form of “rearing” = think of a horse wanting to run and straining against the reins.
23 PETARD
Suspect parted with explosive device (6)
Anagram (suspect, as an adjective = unreliable) of PARTED.

A small explosive device used to breach fortifications; basically a bucket of gunpowder with a fuse. Notoriously dangerous to set up, hence Shakespeare’s phrase “hoist with his own petard” = blown up by his own bomb.

31 comments on “Quiptic 1,109 by Pan”

  1. Found it hard to get started on this puzzle which I think is not very Quiptic-like. I started but put it aside to do the Cryptic first, then returned to it. But I also found the Cryptic hard to get started on today.

    Favourites: ORCHARD, GORE VIDAL, BREASY (loi)

    Took me while to parse the ENO bit of CENOTAPH as I was thinking more of Brian Eno than the Eng Nat Opera.
    Guessed but did not parse RHAPSODY.
    New for me : lunge = a long rein on which a horse is held and made to move in a circle round its trainer.
    I had a vague memory of Rommel (thanks, google) – solved and parsed it later.
    Thanks, P+Q

  2. Difficult to call this a Quiptic. Definately a full on Cryptic as can be seen in 7a, 13a, 27a,15d, and18d to name but a few. Good crossy though just in the wrong category. Thanks to Pan and Quirister.

  3. Definitely a full on Cryptic with some lovely clues such as GORE VIDAL, ORCHARD, OMBUDSMAN, FIRE OPAL and RARING TO GO. Ta Pan & Quirister, especially for parsing RHAPSODY.

  6. Shirl @5: Collins defines “organ” as “a part of the body that has a particular function”, and Wikipedia has something similar, so I think a mammary gland qualifies.

  8. I thought this was relatively straightforward; a lot easier than the cryptic IMHO.

    Good surfaces as usual from Pan. I particularly liked OMBUDSMAN and ONCE OVER.

    For the breast controversy, see at Collins: ‘Either of the two soft, protruding organs on the upper front of a woman’s body which secrete milk after childbirth.

    Thanks Pan and Quirister

  10. Took me longer than usual – especially the bottom half – though not quite sure why as once I got the answers (including with a couple of reveals) I could parse them and wondered why I hadn’t seen it.

    Knew the expression *hoist with his own petard* but did not know the meaning of PETARD and hadn’t heard of LUNGE before.

    Had a quick look at the cryptic and it looks even harder – maybe not my day.

    Thanks to Pan and Quirister

  12. Robi@11 I think the point is that the land does not become an orchard until it’s planted. Would we describe a forest or a copse as “a piece of land?”, but I don’t think that really gets in the way of solving the clue, so no complaints from me.
    Charlotte comes, I think from Queen Charlotte, who was patron of apple growers

  13. Rather too many unusual word, uncommon examples, or ‘two steps’ from clue to answer in this one – poor for a Quiptic in my view:

    TRACK > RAILWAY > RY
    HAP
    CHARLOTTE
    ASPEN
    LUNGE
    GRADATE
    FIRE OPAL
    PETARD
    SOMME [a very well-known battle, but hardly synonymous with the term]

    I’m also not wild on DA just clued as ‘lawyer’ – prosecutor would be alright, but lawyer’s a very broad term.

    I’m sure you could argue a few of these – and I got some of them – the pattern stands. I feel bad for having suggested to a friend over the weekend he should try the Quiptic!

    Moan over. Thanks Quirister, and to an extent, Pan.

  14. Found this really challenging, not enough easier clues to get the ball rolling. Never like all the moans about whether puzzles are quiptic or not but this one seems well off the mark. Even reading answers on here didnt bring many light bulb moments.
    Thanks 225 as ever

  15. Robi@8 I am generally pretty tolerant of surfaces, prepared to roll with the setter and get on with the solving, so it was unusual for me to find myself rebelling against a number of surfaces here which just struck me, even as I solved them, as tortuous nonsense. Yes, I’m looking at you, 8a-1d, and at you, 13a (seriously?) – also at, for example, 15d and 18d. So yes, while there were some good surfaces here, I found others half-baked, frankly. Sorry, Pan, and sorry to any of you out there who had no objections.

  16. I was fairly skating through this (though must admit to having skipped over the parsing of ROMMEL), but was held up for ages by GRADATE and RHAPSODY. The wordplay is straightforward enough for the former, with DA for lawyer and G for German, but the word itself is unusual and the definition obscure; why not put PREDATE in the same slot? Or was Pan thinking that that would be a bit of a chestnut? In the latter, HAP is a weird word, which only really exists in perhaps and happen, and then not with the sense of ‘chance’. So I tend to agree with those that the standard here is not what is expected for a Quiptic, though an enjoyable crossword in its own right.

  17. sheffield hatter @16, also “mayhap” meaning “maybe”, somewhat archaic but with the sense of chance – and “happens to” “perhaps” also has the sense of chance.

    I really enjoyed this, and didn’t find it anywhere near as difficult as today’s cryptic, which has got me well and truly stuck.

  18. Monkey – or as some of us say up north, “Aye, happen”. Not sure how well any of these are defined by ‘chance’, but I don’t want to make a kerfuffle out of this. 🙂

  20. ‘appen you’re right, sheffield hatter. It’s all happenchance, whether we see something as related or unrelated, a synonym or not.

    Leeds magpie (NCFC, not NUFC).

  21. [Monkey – I have a lot of sympathy for you NCFC-not-NUFC Magpies, an ancient and respected club now finding themselves in non-league. Been there, done that, failed in the play offs, etc. You’ve still got a chance this season, I see. Good luck!]

  22. Late to the blog after a busy day, but I had to say thank you to Pan for a lovely crossword, and especially for including my name on my birthday! Serendipity I know, but what a nice surprise. Thank you to Quiruster for the blog also.

  23. Unquestionably a good crossword, but unquestionably not a Quiptic in my view. Categorising it as such does neither the setter nor the solver any favours. A tyro solver would, I’m sure, be deterred from persisting by the obscurities which have already been listed above. As (I think) a more experienced solver (happy with the meatier prize crosswords), I approach a Quiptic with a certain level of expectation: a bit of light relief for a spare 5 to 10 minutes, and with a comparable mindset. This frustrated simply because it didn’t meet that expectation. I can think of a recent Prize which would have sat happily in the Quiptic slot (and which was therefore frustrating for precisely the opposite reason: over far too quickly and with no sense of achievement). The editor should really be taking more of an active role in categorising the crosswords submitted by his setters.
    First world problems, I know, and I am grateful for the free entertainment provided by the Guardian. But it could be done better.

  24. It’s odd how differently solvers experience difficulty levels. I have found the same with setting “easy” exam papers. They only are for those with the same way of thinking about what has been covered.

  25. My word that was tough going. I usually get through a Quiptic in 30 minutes or so – this one took me more than two hours (across two days) before I gave up and came here, still only half complete.

    Going through the solutions and parsings, I’m not surprised I struggled. Fully eight unfamiliar words in there (Erwin, lunge, gradate, aspen, charlotte, fire opal, hap, petard). Add in some slightly dodgy definitions (plunge, orchard), and an unhelpful grid, and I would say that’s the toughest Quiptic I’ve seen in the last three years.

  26. Long time lurker, first time poster – can anyone help me understand why we drop the ‘S’ from SOMME (8a,1d)? Can’t seem to make sense of it even with the description above. Thanks for the ongoing invaluable source of explanations for a budding solver!

  29. Bandersnatch @26: welcome to Fifteensquared, and thanks for your question – it made me realise I’d missed out part of the explanation for that clue. Now corrected.

  30. I feel better now knowing I’m not the only one who had difficulty with this one. I thought I was losing what little edge I have. I filled in about 3/5 of the answers and then had to start revealing them and even then the parsing of many of them eluded me. I haven’t tried the Cryptic yet. Fingers crossed!

  31. I found this difficult but doable. I never really feel qualified to join in the discussion about Quipticness because I don’t have a clear enough view myself. That is, I know the definition but not really where the floors and ceilings fit between! So I’ll just say thanks to setter and blogger both and wish you a lovely week.

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