A fairly straightforward Quiptic from one of our longest-serving setters.
The Don (especially under his other names) can do tricky crosswords, but he can also do a good Quiptic. This one has several of the old favourite tricks (see = diocese, ladies = toilets, cricket scoring terms, Che) and a variety of clue types. I hope I’ve explained them all for beginners, but please comment if anything isn’t clear.
I particularly liked the extended definition in 24a and the misdirection of “resistance” in 8d, and laughed at the groan-worthy pun in 16a. Thanks Pasquale as always.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | SOUTH POLE |
Hot soup dished out by the French in a cold location (5,4)
|
| Anagram (dished out?) of HOT SOUP, then LE (“the” in French). | ||
| 10 | BRUSH |
Black — then hurry to get clean? (5)
|
| B (abbreviation for black, for example in HB or 2B pencils) + RUSH (hurry). | ||
| 11 | ONGOING |
Cricket side disappearing or continuing? (7)
|
| ON (cricket term for the side of the wicket where the batter stands) + GOING (disappearing). | ||
| 12 | TOILETS |
Ladies maybe excited by TS Eliot (7)
|
| Anagram (excited, though “by” doesn’t really seem to work here) of T S ELIOT. An old favourite.
Ladies = short for ladies’ toilets. |
||
| 13 | INLET |
Some water — sort of service needed by home (5)
|
| LET (a service in tennis that hits the net on its way over, resulting in a second attempt) by IN (home, in the sense of “at home”).
An enclosed body of water extending into land from a shoreline. |
||
| 14 | SOMETIMES |
A limited number taking newspaper every now and then (9)
|
| SOME (a limited number) + TIMES (newspaper). | ||
| 16 | TOWER OF STRENGTH |
Powerful rescue vehicle is a great help (5,2,8)
|
| A rescue vehicle could be a tower (tow-er) = something that tows another vehicle. A powerful one could be called a TOWER OF STRENGTH. | ||
| 19 | DISCOURSE |
Daughter is given programme of study in ‘Communication‘ (9)
|
| D (daughter) + IS + COURSE (programme of study). | ||
| 21 | FIRED |
Dismissed female I embarrassed (5)
|
| F (female) + I + RED (as in red-faced = embarrassed).
Fire = to dismiss from employment. |
||
| 22 | MISSTEP |
Girl taking dog maybe the wrong way — an error (7)
|
| MISS (girl), then PET (dog maybe) reversed (the wrong way). | ||
| 23 | BOSWELL |
Biographer, dandy following old boy around (7)
|
| SWELL (dandy = a fashionably well-dressed person), following OB (old boy = former member of a school or club) reversed (around).
James Boswell, writer known for his biography of Samuel Johnson. |
||
| 24 | STERN |
Severe — not entirely Mister Nice (5)
|
| Hidden answer (not entirely) in [mi]STER N[ice], with an extended definition. | ||
| 25 | ROCHESTER |
See list that includes guerrilla fighter (9)
|
| ROSTER (list), containing (including) CHE (Che Guevara, Argentine revolutionary fighter).
See = diocese = the area over which a bishop has jurisdiction; the Diocese of Rochester covers areas of Kent and south London. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ASSOCIATED |
Connected ideas — so act in a new way (10)
|
| Anagram (in a new way) of IDEAS SO ACT. | ||
| 2 | BUNGALOW |
Shady deal to get a mean dwelling (8)
|
| BUNG (a bribe = shady deal) + A + LOW (mean = lowly or poor). | ||
| 3 | THRIFT |
The short opening suits a plant (6)
|
| TH[e] (short = last letter dropped) + RIFT (opening). “Suits” is just there for the surface I think.
Flowering plant, typically found on coastlines or in garden rockeries. |
||
| 4 | SONG |
Boy with good musical number (4)
|
| SON (male child = boy) + G (good). | ||
| 5 | CENTIMETRE |
Moment to enter heart unit (10)
|
| TIME (moment, as in “at that exact moment”) entering into CENTRE (heart). | ||
| 6 | ABSINTHE |
Sailor to do wrong when given the drink (8)
|
| AB (short for able-bodied seaman = sailor) + SIN (to do wrong) + THE.
A spirit flavoured with wormwood and anise. |
||
| 7 | MUSEUM |
Source of inspiration university maiden found in the V&A? (6)
|
| MUSE (source of inspiration) + U (university) + M (maiden, in cricket scoring = an over in which no runs are scored).
Definition by example, indicated by the question mark: abbreviation for the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. |
||
| 8 | OHMS |
Characters associated with government business in resistance units (4)
|
| Double definition. Abbreviation for On Her Majesty’s Service, a marking used on letters for official government business; or ohm = unit of electrical resistance. | ||
| 14 | SAFARI PARK |
Animal reserve — a distant one seen in flash (6,4)
|
| A + FAR (distant) + I (one in Roman numerals), inserted into SPARK (flash). | ||
| 15 | SCHEDULERS |
Such elders could be event organisers (10)
|
| Anagram (. . . could be) of SUCH ELDERS. | ||
| 17 | ROOSTING |
Aussie animal gets smart at rest (8)
|
| ROO (short for kangaroo = Aussie animal) + STING (smart = a sharp pain).
Roost (of a bird or bat) = to sleep or rest in a specific place. |
||
| 18 | GARMENTS |
Weapon hidden in fellow’s clothes (8)
|
| ARM (weapon, as in firearm) hidden in GENT’S (fellow’s = man’s). | ||
| 20 | SASHES |
Bands of special soldiers capturing a woman (6)
|
| SAS (special soldiers), containing (capturing) SHE (a woman). | ||
| 21 | FOSTER |
Take care of doctor who stepped in a puddle (6)
|
| Double definition. To look after a child; or from the nursery rhyme “Doctor Foster went to Gloucester”. | ||
| 22 | MASS |
Crowd in service seeing in Christmas? (4)
|
| Double definition. A large number of people in one place; or as in “midnight mass” = a late-night church service on Christmas Eve. Though service = mass would be sufficient without the Christmas reference. | ||
| 23 | BACK |
Second team player (4)
|
| Yet another double definition. Second = back = to support someone’s proposal; or a defensive player in a team sport. |
Great Quiptic – excellent introduction to the “tricks of the trade” for new solvers.
Didn’t know THRIFT as a plant, and it took me a little while to see (pardon the pun) ROCHESTER but straightforward overall. Agree that the ‘by’ doesn’t really belong in 12.
A very well pitched Quiptic (unlike several recent ones that have been rather stiffer than the cryptic!)
25 across excepted, (too hard for a ‘quiptic’ IMHO) a very pleasant crossword. Thank you Pasquale.
Enjoyed this.
Completely forgotten the nursery rhyme.
Liked BOSWELL, ROCHESTER, ONGOING (finally got one with a cricket term), ABSINTHE
Thanks Pasquale and Quirister
Good Quiptic, just the right level, I felt.
I didn’t know THRIFT as a plant. I liked BOSWELL, ASSOCIATED and CENTIMETRE.
Thanks Pasquale and Quirister.
Thanks Pasquale and Quirister
Good quiptic, though FOSTER relied rather on GK.
Those here who didn’t know THRIFT as a plant might recognise it as sea pink. It was shown on the reverse of one of the pre-decimal coins – 3d?
Enjoyable puzzle. Slowed by the GK down in SE corner (the doctor/puddle and biographer clues). In the end, I spent longer on this puzzle than today’s Cryptic.
Favourites: CENTIMETRE, TOWER OF STRENGTH, ROOSTING.
New for me: THRIFT = a plant; BUNG = bribe or shady deal; town of ROCHESTER = see/diocese – sounds like a nice place to visit when covid calms down in UK. Also King Edward I / Doctor Foster went to Gloucester and stepped in a puddle (found via google). If I had ever heard this, I had forgotten it, but it very vaguely rings a bell in the depths of my memory.
I finally remembered BOSWELL but have never read his work.
Thanks, both.
If you leave out the “by” in 12a it becomes a bit of a slur on the poet – still, he’s dead, he can’t sue!
8D OHMS was my favourite.
ROCHESTER I simply could not for the life of me understand. I even used reveal on it, to discover I had been right all along.
I for one am happy to call a moratorium on this meaning of SEE, and I’m only half joking!
Got it in good time, so feeling quite smug for a Monday.
New: THRIFT as a plant.
DNP: CENTIMETRE, ROCHESTER.
Favourites: OHMS, ABSINTHE.
Re ROCHESTER, there’s a tiny allusion in there; although I forgot about see = diocese, I was sent the right way by thinking of Jane Eyre (where, of course, Mr. Rochester goes blind).
Not an obscure religious artefact in sight! Perfect quiptic, ideal for new starters, unlike the usual quiptics.
Not sure if it’s entirely fair for new solvers, but an excellent one for teaching new solvers, if anyone else sees the distinction? No complaints here, but quite a few of them only make sense once you’ve seen them before (or heard about them) from others/experience.
Should also note that this is the first time I’ve seen the legendary TS Eliot anagram in the wild, having heard it several times in comments here!
Thanks both.
THRIFT was last in & new to me as a plant. Thought ROCHESTER was the standout clue in a spot on Quiptic. A nice brisk fun solve that continued a consistent run of puzzles of appropriate difficulty in this slot.
Thanks P&Q.
THRIFT was also new to me, and although perfectly fairly clued, I went for SHRIFT (wondering if ‘SHORT’ was somehow SH, then got waylaid by ‘short shrift’ in my morning fug).
I really enjoyed this. I twigged that CHE was required in Rochester and hade enough to work out where it went, then the full answer without actually remembering the ‘See’ bit. Some were so precisely defined like the animal park that the probable answer leapt out.
I too know of thrift from my childhood days and 3D coins.
The brass ones from 1937 onwards.
Thank you most kindly Pasquale for an excellent piece of work and to Quirister for the clear in concise blog.
This was slightly spoilt for me because I did it immediately after reading the blog on the Vulcan cryptic. 16 across was given away (in error), and the device at 25 was also given away. Can these spoilers (mistaken or otherwise) not be edited out?
Sorry to whinge, and hope I haven’t added any spoilers here myself.
Nice puzzle! My silly American self had CENTIMETER sitting in the grid for far too long before I realized my mistake. Thanks both 🙂
For those who are old enough to remember, as well as the plant thrift appearing on the reverse of a threepenny bit, it also featured on a couple of British stamps issued in 1961 to commemorate the centenary of the Post Office Savings Bank.
Mildly annoyed by 23D, since MATE seemed to fit the clue well. (Meaning as someone’s second, anagram of TEAM.)
> Not sure if it’s entirely fair for new solvers, but an excellent one for teaching new solvers, if anyone else sees the distinction?
As a new solver who slowly did it over ~a week, I think I’d mostly agree. Glad to see that the couple of surfaces that didn’t quite make sense to me are also called out here. (suits, excited by)
Intrigued by the intro. Is Pasquale and Don Putnam one and the same?
Ravilyn Sanders @21: welcome to Fifteensquared if this is your first post (I don’t think I’ve seen you before). Pasquale’s real name is Don Manley. He’s often just called “the Don” here because he sets puzzles under various different names, all of which go with Don or Donald: Pasquale, Duck, Quixote, Giovanni, and so on.