Guardian Quiptic 1,114/Hectence

51 comments on “Guardian Quiptic 1,114/Hectence”

1. I think that this was unquestionably at a cryptic level but some excellent clues such as SCRATCHY and BOARDING PASS and a pangram to boot.

   Ta Hectence & Pierre

2. In 20 down, I think you meant “country”, not Cyprus

3. Some tricky clues in this, but very enjoyable nevertheless. I think, Pierre, you may have your wounds and wounds mixed up for 1a. And I’m not a follower of ‘Strictly’ but isn’t it Craig Revel Horwood?
   Thanks to Hectence and Pierre

4. VENTURE FORTH was clever, but I couldn’t get it, without all the crossers. I was also misled by thinking that in a hospital department meant that the department had to be outside, so went for AE rather than ENT. All of which made it a bit of a slowptic for me. Thanks for explaining some of the subtleties I missed.

5. Thanks Hectence and Pierre
   I found this very much harder thasn the cryptic, and not particularly enjoyable. A lot of “guess the answer, then parse” clues. FAMILIAR is a good example – you aren’t going to say “capital – that’ll be LIMA, then”.
   I’ve not seen “fog” as an anagram indicator before.

6. Thanks both. Shame about 9a.
   Your “last Quiptic blog” Pierre? I shall miss the obligatory bird links.

7. Ah, I have misread your intro. Please ignore my last comment!

8. I will, Shirl. Thanks to Don and Norbrewer for correcting my typos. Blog amended.

9. This was a stiff workout from Hectence, but thoroughly enjoyable, an excellent opportunity to spot insertion indicators, and a pangram to boot.

   FLOORING and VENTURE FORTH were my faves, but the whole puzzle (apart from getting Craig Revel Horwood’s name wrong) was excellent. I had on of this senior moments when filling in this clue when I had to ask myself whether ‘adjudged’ was actually a word, but once I stopped pronouncing it ‘AD-judged’ it was a lot easier. 🙂

10. Definitely not a quiptic, for me, today’s cryptic was much easier. I didn’t think the surfaces were even close to smooth, either.

11. Isn’t this puzzle a pangram?

12. No Leica

13. Found this a lot harder going than anything last week; from comments here and on the Guardian I’m not the only one…

    Kudos to those who found it enjoyable and straightforward – I usually struggle with Hectence anyway, so not unduly disheartened.

14. Gumption for me is initiative or nerve “he had the gumption to do that” rather than common sense. Chewy but enjoyable. Fav was VENTURE FORTH. Thanks to Hectence and Pierre.

15. This took me a few minutes longer than today’s Cryptic.

    Favourites: MOJITO, TWISTIER, ONE-WAY TICKET, FLOORING

    New for me: for 9ac ADJUDGED and also Craig Revel Hall who did not show up on a google search. It seems that he has changed his name to Horwood now? I have heard of Strictly but I never watch it.

    Thanks, Hectence and Pierre.

16. Definitely not a Quiptic. 1d suggested it was going to be! It’s a good crossword, but never one for ‘those in a hurry’ or beginners.

17. Very tough.

18. In 13a, isn’t the anagrind ‘Doctor’ since working is used as another part of the clue to mean ON? Also, can someone help me understand where IF comes from in 25a? I’m still quite new to cryptics and really struggled today.

19. Apologies, laura. You are quite right – I should have shown ‘doctor’ as the anagrind in 13ac and have corrected it now.

    ‘Provided’ gives you IF in 25ac. Provided/if the blogger explains things correctly, you should get better at these Quiptics.

    Seems like a few folk struggled today, so don’t be too disheartened.

20. Laura @ 18 – IF took me blinking ages too. “Provided” in the sense of “provided we get the cash in time” – eg “IF we get the cash in time”

21. Could someone please explain where the IF in FAMILIAR comes from in 25ac. I can see Artist (RA) and Capital (LIMA) reversed but not the IF.

    Thanks in advance.

    Got off to a good start in this but found the bottom half tricky.

    Thanks to Hectence and Pierre

22. Morning Fiona Anne

    The use of IF has been explained while you were typing …

23. That was tough – definitely at the level of a mid-week Cryptic. Couldn’t parse Venture Forth. Thanks to Pierre & Hectence.

24. Thanks Pierre – yes we overlapped – I get it now (glad I wasn’t the only one who didn’t at first)

25. Thanks all for the responses, glad I’m not the only one who had some trouble with it 🙂

26. [Pl see my post under GD]

27. I’m getting annoyed by quiptic puzzles which are harder than a lot of cryptics (especially Vulcan — today’s cryptic was done in a fraction of the time this “quiptic” took). Is there anyone (eg a crossword editor) who can crack the whip and bring quiptic setters down to earth? Everyman on Sundays is usually at a good quiptic level. I recommend doing Everyman and Vulcan for quiptic puzzles and forgetting this slot altogether!!

28. GUMPTION has the same meaning for me as for ngaiolaurenson @14, but I see that some dictionaries give the “common sense” meaning. Perhaps a regional variation?

    I’d never heard of Craig Revel anything, so the Hall-Horwood confusion didn’t cause me any problem. With enough crossers in place, the answer had to be what it was.

    I found this quite hard for a Quiptic, but very enjoyable.

29. Thanks Hectence and Pierre.
    I’ve got used to ‘doctor’ being DR or MO, or it being an anagram indicator. I forgot about GP.
    (The term should have been FAMILIAR. Missing it probably means I TRULY lack GUMPTION.)

30. Agreed with the “tricky for a quiptic but enjoyable” consensus. FAMIILAR (LOI) was especially satisfying when the parsing clicked into place.

    Thanks Hectence and Pierre for the blog. Needed some help with a couple parsings; for 14ac I figured “river” was FORTH and that led me astray.

31. I don’t think RUGGED means “wild” but rather “sturdy and roughly built.”

    Judge doesn’t change its meaning as a component of ADJUDGED.

    The insertion indicator is for ENT, which isn’t inserted but is at the end of the word.

    Much harder than today’s Cryptic, I agree with the others. But fun, a good puzale and I enjoy it. Thanks to Hectence and to Pierre — sorry for the lack of birds!

32. Valentine @31
    Don’t you remember “round the rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran”?

33. Never heard of GUMPTION=COMMON sense, only the courage-and-initiative meaning. I frankly got tired of this one towards the end: all perfectly correct but nothing to smile about.

34. Puzzled, as often, by everyone’s assessments of difficulty. I thought this to be at normal Quiptic level and easier than today’s Cryptic. Everyone’s mileage differs.
    Some of these clues were tricky but the all made sense to me in the end. Also this grid is much friendlier than the highly partitioned grid of the Cryptic.
    Glad to see that UK has also made the switch to DST so that the puzzles are back to appearing an hour earlier here than they were for the week of transition (we changed our clocks on the 14th.)

35. I don’t want to disappoint you, acrossthepond, but our clocks don’t change here until next weekend (Sunday March 28th). Perhaps the Grauniad clock has changed already.

    Degree of difficulty is always, well, difficult. I usually try to avoid giving too much of a steer in my intro, because that’s just how I found it. I’ve done every Quiptic that’s ever been published and blogged every other one for the last decade, so I’d say I’m in a reasonable position to judge what’s ‘hard’ and what’s not. But everyone is different – one person’s GK is another person’s never-heard-of-it. For me, Quiptic level should be a solver-friendly grid, no themes or obscurities, and clear and concise cluing. Ask setters and they’ll tell you that setting an ‘easy’ puzzle is actually … quite difficult. Which is why I get slightly annoyed when people congratulate setters on ‘graduating’ or ‘moving up’ from the Quiptic to the Cryptic slot. One setter described it not so much as ‘graduating’ as not having to set with one hand tied behind your back, which I think sums it up well.

36. Could someone explain why vermouth is IT in 2d?

37. Marco @ 36
    “Gin and It” = “Gin and Italian Vermouth”, one sort of Dry Martini (though, IMHO, it needs to be Noilly Prat, hence “French”).

38. Muffin @ 36. Thanks for the response but I’m still in the dark

39. Does you credit, Marco! “It” is short for Italian Vermouth (often Martini). Not all that uncommon, and not just in crosswords, though perhaps a bit dated.

40. Really just wanted to say how much I appreciate this blog. Like Laura, I still feel like a relative cryptic newbie – some days I feel I’m getting there, others, nowhere! Blog + comments are so helpful and generally encouraging. (Like Matt, I also thought river = ‘Forth’ in 14ac but that was only one of many stumbling blocks today!)

41. Muffin @ 37. I’ve got it now, thanks to our friend Google. I must confess to having downed more than one or two mojitos over the years but I’ve never heard of a ‘Gin and It’.

42. Marco
    As I said, a bit dated. 50s?

43. I couldn’t agree more with ColinR @27.

    I can well imagine it is difficult for the setter to write an ‘easy’ crossword; nonetheless, that is what the Quiptic is intended to be, and time and again we see efforts that are a) too difficult for a beginner and b) by consensus harder than some of the cryptics! I’d like to see the Guardian take this seriously and explain how it decides what is a Quiptic vs a cryptic, and what they expect of setters offering a Quiptic. ‘Capital’ to mean LIMA, unconventional anagrinds, dodgy insertion indicators, and so on are not Quiptic material. It’s not good enough, and hardly a rare occurence.

    Thanks to Pierre – and to Hectence, for her cryptic. It was certainly not a Quiptic.

    Yours grumpily etc.

44. muffin@32 I am acquainted with the ragged rascal, now that you remind me of him or her, and I wouldn’t think of the rocks the rascal ran around as wild. I should think their behavior would be distinctly rocklike, rather the opposite.

45. Thanks for helping this new solver with the parsing. Two questions re TWISTIER 16a. How does “who” become W and where does the IST come from.
    This was definitely beyond my pay grade. Not the easy cryptic for beginners.

46. Westridge @ 45

    The clue has *who to start* with *to start* indicating the start (w) of who.

    *first* can be written 1st which becomes IST

    Hope that helps

47. I’m with the grumps about this one – complicated cluing as explanations on this blog show. This quiptic was an unpleasant slog, off putting for those of us still finding our cryptic feet. Everyman & mon/tues cryptic much more suitable.

48. Not given up in a long time but managed one clue then had to turn to fifteensquared and still don’t get that one! Wish there had been a few more motivational questions to get this started. Will look at criptic this week then by the sounds of it might be better for beginner!

49. Thanks for the puzzle and annotations.
    14a is clever but ‘suitable for all’ is G in North America. However, I worked this out even though I never heard of URE.
    2d was straight-forward having M+OJ..+O but could not parse IT – still can’t. I don’t believe it is actually there. “Gin plus IT” is a stretch.
    22d – didn’t get REP, short for repertory, even though Chambers has it but not as a synonym of “provincial theatre”. I suppose all one sees outside London are plays in repertory not original runs?

50. Finally got to this Quiptic, and found the terrain very rugged. (Rugged terrain can be wild terrain, but I agree with V that they aren’t one and the same.) I came here just to see if I wasn’t imagining it. Based on the comments, I wasn’t.

51. Agree with ColinR. Vulcan should do the Quiptic. I got AVERSE for VERSES and so couldn’t do the corner, feeling that I was correct, which
    I was. It actually parses more accurately with A for American, than the given answer. Quite a rare occurance.

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