A fine Quiptic from Hectence this morning, with a good but always fair challenge for the beginner and something to entertain the more experienced solver too.
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 Simmons abandoned Kiss, heading off with British rock band
GENESIS
A charade of GENE [Simmons], the co-founder of the band Kiss, and ([K]ISS)* The removal indicator is ‘heading off’ and the anagrind is ‘abandoned’. Clever surface.
5 Boy reportedly checked for hit on the head
BRAINED
A charade of B and a homophone (‘reportedly’) of REINED.
9 Foreign aide unhappy, at first, to be so long in Paris
ADIEU
A charade of (AIDE)* and U for the initial letter of ‘unhappy’. The anagrind is ‘foreign’.
10 Timber houses get computer access, involving endless support around service initially
LOG CABINS
An insertion of BAC[K] reversed in LOG IN, followed by S for the first letter of ‘service’. The removal indicator is ‘endless’; the insertion indicator is ‘involving’; the reversal indicator is ‘around’.
11 Citrus fruit pieces, set in ice, lent finesse
CLEMENTINE
An insertion of MEN for the chess ‘pieces’ in (ICE LENT)* The insertion indicator is ‘set in’ and the anagrind is ‘finesse’.
12 God‘s shown reflected in Michelangelo diptych
IDOL
Hidden reversed in MichelangeLO DIptych.
14 Terms of will revealing a pretty obvious clue?
DEAD GIVEAWAY
A cd. A last will and testament indicates what the deceased wants to give away.
18 Very nearly trained large dog to be well behaved
AS GOOD AS GOLD
A charade of AS GOOD AS for ‘very nearly’ and (L DOG)* The anagrind is ‘trained’.
21 Track parking at hospital
PATH
A charade of P, AT and H.
22 Cringing when old boys, Etonians primarily, question debts
OBSEQUIOUS
A charade of OBS, E for the first letter of ‘Etonians’, QU and IOUS for ‘debts’.
25 Bloomer spread with cheese and pickle tops posh filling
BUTTERCUP
A charade of BUTTER and U for ‘posh’ inserted into C and P for the initial letters of ‘cheese’ and ‘pickle’.
26 Coffee half-heartedly put on one side for afterwards
LATER
A charade of LA[T]TE and R for ‘right’.
27 Without stopping, negotiate Leeds, crossing north to south
ENDLESS
An insertion of N in (LEEDS)* followed by S. The insertion indicator is ‘crossing’ and the anagrind is ‘negotiate’.
28 Look wise in speech about key allegiance
LOYALTY
A charade of LO and ALT, the ‘key’ on a keyboard inserted into two Ys (‘wise in speech’). The insertion indicator is ‘about’.
Down
1 Look for good clean resort
GLANCE
(G CLEAN)* with ‘resort’ as the anagrind.
2 Heard things about decisions CID disregarded
NOISES
([D]E[CI]SIONS)* Noises are things that you hear, innit?
3 Instrument played by Difford and Tilbrook’s band on TV
SQUEEZEBOX
On the basis that Hectence has undoubtedly used the internet in some way to set this puzzle, I used it to find out that these two blokes were in Squeeze. Then it’s a charade of that and BOX to give you a name for the concertina (or accordion, at a pinch).
4 Share son’s piano books
SPLIT
A charade of S, P and LIT.
5 Batting’s cut short after appeal for a new start
BEGINNING
A charade of BEG and INNING[S].
6 Pasta’s gone off with container slightly open
AJAR
A charade of [PAST]A and JAR.
7 Confirm trouble in northern county
NAIL DOWN
An insertion of AIL in N DOWN. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
8 Policeman spreads out exhibits
DISPLAYS
A charade of DI and SPLAYS.
13 Suffer remorse till guy corrected underpayment
FEEL GUILTY
A charade of FEE and (TILL GUY)* The anagrind is ‘corrected’ and you have to lift and separate ‘underpayment’ to give you ‘under payment’ to make the grammar work for a down clue.
15 Sketch helps to show deficiencies
DRAWBACKS
A charade of DRAW and BACKS.
16 Friend with Very light secures British patent
PALPABLE
A charade of PAL and B inserted into PALE. The insertion indicator is ‘secures’. A Very light is a thing, so the capitalisation is there deliberately.
17 Upset at soldier interrupting special date
AGITATED
An insertion of GI in AT followed by (DATE)* The insertion indicator is ‘interrupting’ and the anagrind is ‘special’.
19 Those active online get cheapish accommodation
HOSTEL
A charade of (THOSE)* and L. The anagrind is ‘active’ and you need another lift and separate for ‘online’ to give you ‘on line’.
20 Some folksy arts are on the rise but getting lost
ASTRAY
Hidden reversed in folksY ARTS Are.
23 Succeed in cutting cocaine quietly in bar
EXPEL
Hectence is asking you to replace the C (‘cutting cocaine’) in EXCEL with P (‘quietly in’).
24 Top tennis player reportedly to give up
CEDE
A homophone (‘reportedly’) of SEED.
Many thanks to Hectence for this morning’s puzzle.
Thanks both. Apart from the popular beat combo knowledge required for 1a and 3d I enjoyed this.
Thanks Hectence and Pierre
I think expecting knowledge of members of not particularly well-known rock groups is out of order, especially in a Quiptic. I actually thought that Hectence had made a mistake in 1a and was thinkg of Jean Simmons!
The rest was quite hard too. Favourite DEAD GIVEAWAY.
Started quickly, slowed down somewhat, and finished in a burst of inspiration. The pangram seems to be something of a Hectence trademark these days, so I was half-expecting it from the moment that SQUEEZE BOX went in (unlike Pierre, I didn’t need to Google it, but I expect he knows far more birds than I do, so fair splits 😉 ). Enjoyed OBSEQUIOUS and DEAD GIVEAWAY very much.
Although I like the enterprising nature of putting it in a clue, shouldn’t ‘Very light’ properly have an accent of some sort?
A smile for DEAD GIVEAWAY, and thank you for parsing EXPEL and CLEMENTINE. On the harder side of the Quiptic range, but it’s a fine crossword (and a pangram too).
[Oddly enough, I’d seen Chris Difford somewhere else this week, or I’d have had to Google him too.]
Nice Quiptic.
Liked OBSEQUIOUS, HOSTEL, BEGINNING, NAIL DOWN.
Needed help for google for Difford and Tilbrook (never heard of them) so SQUEEZE BOX was my last one in.
Or strays (20d)
pnin@6: yes, I had strays until it became obvious it was wrong. Fits def and wordplay.
pnin & gladys: ‘STRAYS’ would work only if ‘ARE’ were to be excluded from the clue. Its only justification is to provide the ‘A’: otherwise, with “getting lost” as the definition, “Some folksy arts on the rise but getting lost” would be the clue.
michelle @5
Used to love squeeze so SQUEEZE BOX was my first one in as soon as I saw the names.
EXPEL means “drive out,” which you can’t do if something has been barred in the first place, so I don’t buy EXPEL = bar.
Thanks, Hectence and Pierre.
Too many convoluted clues for a Quiptic, and “negotiate” and “finesse” are not anagrinds for a beginner, if indeed they are really anagrinds.
Enjoyed this but agree it was more difficult than the quiptic should be. I can’t see how ‘half-hearted’ in 26 can mean to remove one letter from a five-letter word. Am I missing something?
You’re right: you can get LATER from a half-hearted LATTER, but not LATE from LATTE, where the double T is not the “heart” of the word.
gladys @13, my heart is slightly left-of-centre, so I am happy to accept ‘LATTE’s heart as being lightly right-of-centre …
Well, I knew both popular beat combos without resorting to the internet, but I’ve never heard of a Very light. Make of that what you will!
Valentine@10, if you expel someone from someplace, e.g. a school, you both drive them out and bar them from returning, so I think 23d is fine.
I had no problem with 3d SQUEEZEBOX, although I have never heard of the Squeeze band. Once I got BOX for set, and thought what instrument is a ?? box, the answer was obvious, and it was equally obvious that Difford and Tillbrook must have been in a band called Squeeze, so I didn’t even bother to look it up.
This was an excellent Monday, with fine Cryptic and Quiptic puzzles. COD for me was the laugh out loud 14a DEAD GIVEAWAY.
Thanks, Hectence for the fun, and Pierre for the (birdless, alas) blog.
An enjoyable brunchtime offering from Hectence in her typical un-Ximenean style (but well-suited to The Guardian) with, perhaps, the what many call lift-and-separate devices in 13dn and 19dn a bit out of place in a puzzle that should novices teach the basics of crosswords (but as I said, well-suited to The Guardian).
A pity of the mistake in 26ac (because, no doubt, a mistake it is) but these things happen, even more so when you have an editor who is, let’s say, rather laid-back.
I won’t raise a complaint about B = ‘boy’ (in 5ac) – you see it regularly, even if it’s not in the dictionaries.
And if I say that ‘get’ in 19dn is the wrong cryptic grammar, most solvers would see this as nitpicking – and yes, this is again something that you see very often (but that doesn’t make it right, in my opinion).
I am more surprised by ‘finesse’ as an anagram indicator (in 11ac). Ten hours after I saw it for the first time, I find it still odd.
But I have a ‘real’ question about 23dn, and specifically about the use of ‘in’.
The first ‘in’, I mean (although I don’t like how Hectence used the second ‘in’ – but, once again, setters do it (even my fave Vlad), just like some setters put ‘about’ as an anagram indicator in front of the fodder (like in today’s 2dn).
In my opinion, 23dn only works properly if ‘excel’ can mean ‘succeed in’, and that is what I don’t see, unfortunately.
Thanks Pierre for your blog (no birds today) & Hectence for the entertainment.
ps, muffin @2: “not particularly well-known rock groups“?
(a) Kiss was (and perhaps still is) a mega band [I agree though that the use of Gene Simmons is a bit bordering on unfair in Crosswordland],
(b) Squeeze is still alive and kicking. Difford & Tilbrook were decades ago compared to Lennon & McCartney when it comes to songwriting. A wonderful, typical English band, with Jools Holland as their piano player in the first few years.
Coming late to the comments I found this hard for a Quiptic and the band members names were not GK for me. I know the flare as a Verey light, but have now found ‘Very light’ via google Some great clues but quite a lot I needed help with parsing. Thank you to Hectence and Pierre.
Highly entertaining. Still a Quiptic in my book since the definitions are nearly all very straight.
Sil van den Hoek @17, I guess I’m a fellow nitpicker because I agree with you. In ‘those active online get cheapish accommodation’, ‘to get’ would work, at the cost of a slightly less smooth surface.
In ‘Succeed in cutting cocaine quietly in bar’ I made it work in my head by reading ‘in cutting’ in the sense of ‘having cut.’
Most enjoyable. Thanks, both, and commenters!
Still new to cryptese. Why is ‘U‘ posh?