Quiptic 1,121 by Anto

by

It’s Anto’s turn in the Quiptic slot this week.

I thought this was typical for Anto: enough straightforward clues to get a beginner started, but a few trickier ones to come back to when there are enough crossers to provide some hints. 13a isn’t the first name I’d have thought of for “popular poet”, but the wordplay is suitably simple. I liked 9a (a word that doesn’t look at all like the sum of its parts), the ingenious anagrams in 3d and 15d, and the paradoxical surface of 21d. Thanks Anto for the challenge.

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

ACROSS
1 HAMISH
Scotsman has friends in France confined in hotels (6)
AMIS (French for “friends”), confined in H + H (hotels).

A characteristically Scottish man’s name.
5 HOMESICK
Country person bearing some twisted longing for family again (8)
HICK (disparaging term for a country-dweller as opposed to a city-dweller), containing (bearing) an anagram (twisted) of SOME.
9 TEETHING
Support item during early development stage … (8)
TEE (support for a golf ball) + THING (item).

A stage during a child’s early development, or (metaphorically) a difficult early stage during the development of anything.
10 SPRING
… bound to be over by June (6)
Definition and cryptic definition. Bound = spring = jump; or the season that (in the UK at least) corresponds roughly to March, April and May, but not June.
11 UNDEMOCRATIC
Armed count gone mad in charge, becoming totalitarian (12)
Anagram (gone mad) of ARMED COUNT, then IC (abbreviation for in charge).
13 RUMI
Popular poet starts to rhapsodise using mystical imagery (4)
Initial letters (starts) of R[hapsodise] U[sing] M[ystical] I[magery].

13th-century Persian poet.
14 ISLANDER
Cuban perhaps getting ground into endless misery (8)
LAND (ground) inserted into [m]ISER[y] (endless = first and last letters removed).
17 STEEPEST
Play double set to capture record? That’s most expensive (8)
Anagram (play) of SET twice, containing (capturing) EP (extended-play record).
18 RUED
Lamented disrespectful daughter moving east (4)
RUDE (disrespectful), with the D (daughter) moving to the right (east).
20 HEART-RENDING
It’s painful to pick up when hot (5-7)
HEAR (pick up) + TRENDING (hot = currently popular).
23 FATHOM
Understand me leaving overweight chap in France (6)
FAT (overweight) + HOM[me] (French for “man”, so “chap in France”), with ME going away (leaving).
24 NAILED ON
Certain number were troubled working (6,2)
N (abbreviation for number) + AILED (were troubled) + ON (working).

Nailed on = slang for “certain to succeed”.
25 SORBONNE
Angry about German city university (8)
SORE (angry) around BONN (German city).

Historic university in Paris.
26 RESCUE
Deliver fresh heart ahead of signal to act (6)
Heart (inner letters) of [f]RES[h], ahead of CUE (a signal to act).

Deliver in the sense of “deliver us from evil” = rescue.
DOWN
2 APEX
Top primate sitting on value that’s unknown (4)
APE (primate) + X (symbol for an unknown quantity). “Sitting on”, in a down clue, puts APE before X when reading downwards.
3 INTRUSIVE
Its disturbing when virtue and sin are confused (9)
Anagram (confused) of VIRTUE + SIN. I assume Anto meant “It’s”, which would make more sense than “Its”: a Guardian typo perhaps.
4 HAIRDO
Head is red, so occasionally needs such styling (6)
Alternate letters (occasionally) from H[e]A[d] I[s] R[e]D [s]O.
5 HIGH MAINTENANCE
Going off over key lessees sounding difficult to please (4,11)
HIGH (stinking = going off = becoming unfit to eat) + MAIN (key = significant), then a homophone (sounding) of TENANTS (lessees). The homophone doesn’t quite work for me, because the vowel in the syllable TEN is pronounced differently when unstressed as in “maintenance”, but I can see what Anto meant.

High maintenance = slang for demanding or hard to please.
6 MUSICALS
US claims special treatment for Chicago and Oklahoma! (8)
Anagram (special treatment) of US CLAIMS.

Chicago and Oklahoma!, as well as being places in the US, are both names of stage musicals; the exclamation mark is part of the name of the musical. It might usefully have been followed by a question mark, indicating a definition by examples.
7 SYRIA
Country has open society rising? (5)
AIRY (open) + S (abbreviation for Society), all reversed (rising = upwards in a down clue).
8 CANTILEVER
Against cutting sharp supporting beam (10)
ANTI (prefix meaning “against”) inserted into (cutting) CLEVER (sharp).

A rigid horizontal structural element supported at only one end, like a tree branch.
12 FURTHER ADO
Introductions are commonly shorter without it (7,3)
Cryptic definition: “Without further ado . . .” means “I’m not going to spend any more time giving an introduction – let’s get on with it”.
15 NO REGRETS
Get snorer treated; you won’t be sorry (2,7)
Anagram (treated) of GET SNORER.
16 FERRYMAN
Spooner’s happy supporter works on water (8)
Spoonerism of MERRY FAN = happy supporter.

One who controls a ferry boat, and therefore works on water.
19 OILIER
More slick, having previously spoken in the Bronx? (6)
When spoken in the strong accent associated with the Bronx area of New York, EARLIER (previously) sounds to British ears like OILIER.
21 REHAB
One washing up has no time for getting clean (5)
BA[t]HER (one washing), reversed (up = upwards in a down clue), without the T (time).

Getting clean = rehab, short for rehabilitation = breaking an addiction to drugs.
22 NON-U
Common way for Americans writing about colour? (3-1)
Definition and cryptic definition. The first is from U and non-U: terms describing the differences in vocabulary between the upper classes (U) and the aspiring middle classes whose non-U words betray their common origins. The second refers to the American spelling “color”, without the U that appears in the British spelling.

25 comments on “Quiptic 1,121 by Anto”

  1. Thanks both.
    No complaints, apart from the standard one about this being harder than the Cryptic.

  2. Enjoyable and with a lot of good stuff. 19d raised a smile.
    Mildly kicking myself for not parsing 22d.
    I don’t really think RUMI belongs in a Quiptic.
    But warm thanks to Anto and Quirister.

  3. Thanks Anto and Quirister
    I would echo Shirl that this was far harder than the Cryptic. HEART-RENDING is a good example of a clever clue that has no place in the Quiptic. RUMI – who he? Certainly not popular.
    I didn’t parse REHAB or NON-U – again clever but not Quiptic clues.
    Shouldn’t it be “It’s” in 3d?
    A DNF for me, in fact, as I had a perfectly valid CENTRING for 9a. TEETHING is better, but my answer is also correct.

  5. I had no complaints about RUMI – probably the Islamic poet. FURTHER ADO really tickled my fancy when I saw it. FERRYMAN was towards the more acceptable side of Spoonerisms. NO REGRETS has left me with a Tom Rush earworm. I’m not sure it was harder than the Cryptic (where I am struggling with my last two). Thanks for help with parsing a couple, Quirister, and to Anto for the crossie.

  6. Thanks for explaining the “main tenants”, which I missed. Doesn’t quite work for me either. I have heard of RUMI, but “popular”? Not around here.
    However, I enjoyed this, particularly the FAT HOMme, SPRING and the TEE THING. And OILIER. Der SPRING is sprung and der little boids is on der wing…

  7. No complaints here apart from the fact that it may have slipped into the wrong pile
    I liked the two French clues and the Spooner,
    I reckon HEARTRENDING could be clued better but thats a tiny quibble
    Thanks Q and Anto

  8. I wondered if RUMI was popular in the sense of “of the people” rather than “in” as crossword setters so often have it?? I was defeated by NON-U so a first DNF for a Quiptic for a while.

  9. I’m with TT @5, took about the same time as the cryptic, although as I implied over there I think my brain just likes to potter. Yes, hear trending and fat hom[me] and reversed bah[t]er were clever, though not diabolical. And tee thing was cute. All good fun, ta both.

  10. A very tricky Quiptic but some great clueing. I agree that the homophone in HIGH MAINTENANCE is a stretch. I smiled at OILIER. FATHOM and HEARTRENDING were excellent. No clue who RUMI was, but certainly a write-in.

    Ta Quirister & Anto

  11. I enjoyed this puzzle.

    Favourite: STEEPEST, HEART-RENDING, FATHOM, NON-U, CANTILEVER, FERRYMAN, FURTHER ADO (loi).

    I did not parse HIGH MAINTENANCE.

  12. Like the clues that mine my schoolboy French and German. And 5d reminds me of a previous beautiful girlfriend. Anyway a brief jolt out of the COVID lethargy. Thanks to both.

  13. I have to admit to thinking SUMMER for “bound to be over by June”, given it is a Pommy crossie. 😉

  14. I agree that this was trickier than today’s Cryptic.

    I think the ‘popular’ in 13 refers to ‘as is popularly known’ a la Wiki: ‘Jal?l ad-D?n Mohammad R?m? also known … more popularly simply as Rumi.’ I would have thought that Fuji would have been much more widely known.

    I liked HEART-RENDING, FATHOM and REHAB. I think Anto is trying to make the point he wants to be in the Cryptic slot. As others have said before, it is actually more difficult to make a polished ‘easy’ cryptic crossword.

    Thanks Anto and Quirister.

  17. And 22d appropriate given Nancy Mitford’s promotion of the terms and the start of the latest version of “The pursuit of love” on TV. Thanks to Anto and Quirister.

  18. Re 5d,
    Late to the show again, but…what is it with the complaints about homophones? With all the different accents amongst speakers of English, not many words sound exactly the same to everyone, so to insist that homophones should sound exactly the same is futile. If you take it to mean “sounds similar to (but not necessarily the same as)”, then there is no problem, and it is a useful wordplay tool for our setters.

    Thanks, Q&A for this fun puzzle and blog. I especially liked 20a HEART-RENDING (shifting-the-space clues always take me a while to see) and 22d NON-U (should it be Nancy Mitfourd in the UK?).

  19. Way too hard for a quiptic IMO. As a relative beginner I often star the week with the quiptic, and it can be quite disheartening when I struggle with it – the natural assumption is always that it’s a failure on my part. Reading the comments here always gives me a little reassurance at least ?

  20. Thanks Quirister, I stared at LOI HEART-RENDING for ages but couldn’t see what was going on, now think the wordplay is very good – nice to see words with newly significant meanings, like “trending”, cropping up. And I wasn’t expecting to learn about a new poet – luckily that one was a clear educated guess from wordplay.

    I like Anto’s style and there were plenty of good examples of his (I assume, sorry if wrong) inventive approach in here I thought, but agree that this one deserves and would better suit a ‘normal’ cryptic slot with the happy corollary that it would probably be seen by more solvers. Not that it’s his fault at all – thanks Anto.

  21. “again” in 5a seems superfluous and misleading.
    24a: “nailed on” must be British slang. Never heard of it.
    Lots of great clues. Thanks.

  22. I notice that in 9a there is no indication that this is an &lit clue. In North American puzzles, we append ‘!’ to the end of the clue if it’s &lit.
    I also never got NON-U although Chambers has it as “avoided by the upper classes; socially unacceptable”.

  23. Les @21,22: In 5a, I think it’s “longing for family again” in the sense of wanting to go back to them, rather than just “longing for family” which doesn’t have the same sense of going back home. But I agree it could work without “again”.
    I don’t think British puzzles normally have any specific indicator for &lit clues – but in any case, 9a isn’t one. It has separate wordplay (support + item) and definition (early development stage). Perhaps you meant 10a – but again, that’s two separate definitions (bound / to be over by June) rather than &lit.

  24. Quirister @23: You are right. I’ve done a quick look-over and I can’t see which clue I was referring to but it definitely wasn’t 9a. I solved 9a early on. Thanks for pointing this out.

  25. Thanks Anto and Quirister. I had the usual thing of struggling a bit then clicking with the setter after a while. I quite liked RUMI as an educational clue – I’d never heard of him but it had to be that, so looked it up and learnt something … including the surprising claim on his popularity and sales! I’d never heard “nailed on” but it’s probably some regional variation. I loved FATHOM and SORBONNE – very neat clueing!

Comments are closed.