Chandler provides another good Quiptic, though with the occasional trickier moment.
The wordplay of 9a had me puzzled for a long time, until I realised that for once the ellipsis is actually serving a purpose rather than just joining two surfaces into a longer sentence. 17a and 7d needed the crossers to resolve ambiguities. The rest of the clues gave us a wide range of standard crossword tricks that new solvers might like to note for future reference; if I haven’t explained anything clearly, please ask. Thanks Chandler for today’s challenge.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 4 | SOCIAL |
Agents following in this way Liberal Party (6)
|
| CIA (spies = agents) after SO (in this way), then L (Liberal). | ||
| 6 | NUNEATON |
North Warwickshire town where sister misplaced a note … (8)
|
| NUN (sister) + anagram (misplaced) of A NOTE. | ||
| 9 | AFLOAT |
… covering round character with enough money to keep going (6)
|
| A FLAT (a musical note, a semitone below A; the ellipsis at the start tells us to take “a note” from the previous clue), covering O (a round letter).
Afloat = financially secure. |
||
| 10 | HORRIBLE |
Dreadful dump entered by two bishops touring island (8)
|
| HOLE (dump = slang for an unpleasant place), containing RR (Right Reverend = title for a bishop) + B (abbreviation for bishop in chess notation) around I (island). | ||
| 11 | LEADING LADY |
Top actress gained ally in play about drama’s opening (7,4)
|
| Anagram (in play) of GAINED ALLY, around the opening letter of D[rama]. | ||
| 15 | PASSION |
License first person at work showing enthusiastic interest (7)
|
| PASS (license = give permission to) + I (grammatically, the first person singular) + ON (working). | ||
| 17 | IN TRAIN |
Progressing like a rail passenger? (2,5)
|
| Double definition. Hands up all those who came up with ON TRACK before finding it didn’t fit the crossers? – yes, me too. | ||
| 18 | CELEBRATION |
Star is given fixed allowance for festivity (11)
|
| CELEB (short for celebrity = star) + RATION (fixed allowance). | ||
| 22 | SPEEDING |
Parking in beginning in front of garage— it’s an offence (8)
|
| P (sign indicating a parking area) in SEED (beginning, metaphorically) + IN + front letter of G[arage]. | ||
| 23 | BODEGA |
Person in familiar sense, say, associated with a wine shop (6)
|
| BOD (slang, or “in familiar sense”, for a person; short for body) + EG (e.g. = for example = say) + A.
Spanish word for a wine shop, which has been absorbed into English. |
||
| 24 | ABSENTEE |
One missing a book dispatched by European conglomerate, finally (8)
|
| A + B (book) + SENT (dispatched) + E (European) + last letter (finally) of [conglomerat]E.
We’ve had discussions here before about the misuse of the ending “-ee”, which strictly means someone to whom something has been done (as in amputee or internee), from the French verb ending –é or –ée. “Someone who has been absented” doesn’t make sense. But it’s a very common usage. |
||
| 25 | SETTLE |
Establish residence in US city overlooking eastern tip of Florida (6)
|
| SE[a]TTLE (US city) overlooking the last letter (eastern tip) of [florid]A. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SALAMI |
Seasoned sausage with starters of stuffed aubergines lures friend in Paris (6)
|
| First letters of S[tuffed] A[ubergines] L[ures], then AMI (friend in French, so “in Paris”). | ||
| 2 | OUT ON A LIMB |
Lout in a mob rampaging is individually exposed (3,2,1,4)
|
| Anagram (rampaging) of LOUT IN A MOB. | ||
| 3 | PEER GYNT |
Play featuring titled figure generally marginalised by holy books (4,4)
|
| PEER (lord or lady = titled figure) + outer letters (marginalised?) of G[enerall]Y + NT (New Testament = holy books).
Play by Henrik Ibsen; famously difficult to stage, though the National Theatre did an astoundingly good adaptation as Peter Gynt a few years ago. |
||
| 4 | SCALLOPS |
Ring before work on board ship to get seafood (8)
|
| CALL (ring = telephone) + OP (short for Latin opus = a musical or literary work), inserted into SS (abbreviation for steamship; “on board” is a common crossword trick for “inserted into a word meaning a ship or boat”). | ||
| 5 | COLLAPSE |
Firm with a spell in trouble has to fold (8)
|
| CO (short for company = firm) + anagram (in trouble) of A SPELL.
“Fold” suggests a more orderly deconstruction than “collapse”, but both can be used to mean an organisation going bankrupt; or perhaps we should think of something like a folding / collapsing umbrella. |
||
| 7 | TUBA |
Neighbour set up brass instrument (4)
|
| ABUT (neighbour, as a verb = be next to), reversed (set up, in a down clue).
As always, the construction “X reversal-indicator Y” will cause a few grumbles, because you need at least one crosser to work out which is the fodder and which is the solution. |
||
| 8 | NEED |
Requirement for work in a bakery, it’s said (4)
|
| Homophone (it’s said) of KNEAD (to work bread dough). | ||
| 12 | GUNSLINGER |
Staple Western character nursing leg when shot (10)
|
| Anagram (shot = slang for broken) of NURSING LEG. | ||
| 13 | MANIFEST |
Clear set of policy proposals with nothing eliminated (8)
|
| MANIFEST[o] (proposed policies) without the O (zero = nothing). | ||
| 14 | INUNDATE |
Flood in a French department at the end of June (8)
|
| IN + UN (“a” in French) + D (abbreviation for department) + AT + end letter of [jun]E. | ||
| 16 | INCIDENT |
Episode going wrong in end? It encapsulates Conservative (8)
|
| Anagram (going wrong) of IN END IT, containing C (Conservative).
Episode = a short period of time, but it can also mean an individual occurrence of something intermittent such as the symptoms of a medical problem, or an unpleasant / embarrassing experience. |
||
| 19 | AVOCET |
Wading bird fluttering at cove (6)
|
| Anagram (fluttering) of AT COVE. | ||
| 20 | ASIA |
A country once losing money — or a number of countries (4)
|
| A + SIA[m] (a former name for Thailand = country once), without M (abbreviation for money). | ||
| 21 | MESS |
Disorder found in room, essentially (4)
|
| Hidden answer (found in . . .) in [roo]M ESS[entially]. |
I found this quite difficult for a so-called Quiptic. Solved only 8 clues on first pass. Maybe I am getting dumber as time passes…
Did not parse 9ac.
I have no idea about any North Warwickshire towns so I needed help from google for 6ac.
Liked CELEBRATION, INUNDATE
New: IN TRAIN = in progress. I was another who put in ON TRACK!
Thanks, both.
Like michelle, I thought this was difficult at first. Another ON (OFF) TRACK. Liked LEADING LADY, GUNSLINGER and SCALLOPS. Very nice indeed.
Ta Chandler & Quirister
Another ON TRACK for 17a here. It was my second in and seemed so obviously correct it needed the check button to put me back … on track.
Thanks to Chandler (apart from 17a) and Quirister
Possibly the first time I’ve ever seen an ellipsis used as anything other than an adornment to make the surfaces read better. I didn’t parse the clue at all until I read the blog telling me it was meaningful here—even though it was one of the first answers I got.
I have never heard IN TRAIN and I didn’t fill it in until I had all of the crossers because it still doesn’t seem like it means anything. IN TRAINING, sure, but. This is my grumble for today.
Very fond of GUNSLINGER because I couldn’t believe those letters could form any sort of anagram until I tried it!
Had to use reveal a couple of times just because of things I’d not heard of, but that’s OK.
Initially I wondered about IN TRAIN, then decided that ON TRACK was obviously a better answer. Until 2d messed it up, that is.
Thanks Chandler, and Quirister for a helpful blog.
I think our usage of ABSENTEE is fine, even from a strict grammatical perspective, bearing in mind that (as Quirister points out) our -EE ending is derived from the French.
The -é(e) is often found, not just in passive constructions, but in conjugating reflexive verbs, of which s’absenter is one.
je m’étais absenté(e) = I had absented myself = I was an absentee
altreus @4 – I’ve known people here to welcome a ‘meaningful ellipsis’, but I wasn’t so enamoured of 9a. Firstly you have to twig that you need something from the previous clue, but even then there’s no indication of how much you need to take from it – is it the solution NUNEATON, is it another N Warwickshire town, is it ‘where sister misplaced a note’, or is it just ‘note’? Stretching the limits of fairness even in a regular weekday cryptic, I would have thought, and certainly not suitable for a Quiptic. Fortunately the crossers and the ’enough money to keep going’ meant that it was gettable.
Otoh I thought IN TRAIN was good (although I started out with ON TRACK too). Lexico has a lot of quotes (click on ‘More example sentences’), eg
‘Each syndicate member received £660,387 and plans are already in train for spending some of the windfall.’ (!)
Thanks Chandler and Quirister. I ran aground on exactly the same points as everyone else – guessed at AFLOAT but it took a long time of staring at the solution to see the A-flat. That was the only element of this otherwise excellent Quiptic that at all bothered me – I didn’t mind the use of the ellipsis, just the vagueness, as per essexboy’s comment.
I didn’t have to spend very long wondering about TUBA/ABUT before the crossing letters put me right. And although I entered ON TRACK confidently without considering an alternative, getting OUT ON A LIMB made me realise it couldn’t be right. So I’m not going to complain about those two.
Lots of ticks from me – for CELEBRATION, SPEEDING, SETTLE, GUNSLINGER. And others…
I’ve never been to NUNEATON, but I’m familiar with it as both the home of George Eliot (Middlemarch is reputedly based on the town, I think) and the location of the HQ of the client I’ve been working for over the last three years. It’s quite close to Coventry, if that’s any help for anyone!
I agree that this was not as accessible Chandler’s previous Quiptic outing, and there was a bit of a sinking feeling when I was half way through reading the across clues before getting a confirmed entry (unlike the Brendan when the first half dozen were write ins). Quite fun with some tricksy parsing.
I actually entered IN TRAIN first as I’ve just done lots of “en train” practice with DuoLingo.
As a rank beginner I found this pretty approachable. Probably my quickest (not quick) solve.
I wasn’t bothered by the controversial ellipses as I solved both without understanding how the clues work together.
I’m another tripped up by IN TRAIN. But on the basis that I’m still learning I use the check function fairly liberally.
I stumbled on 9a by mistake – there seemed like there might be something of a drama theme (LEADING LADY, PEER GYNT, PASSION) so a got a flat as in what you’d have at the side of stage to cover entrances and exits! The connected ellipses is far nicer though!
RR for bishop and Eastern tip for last letter were new devices for me and have gone into the old etui for future reference
It started out slow. But eventually managed to get most of it done. Just a couple of “reveal”s. So found it quite satisfying.
Nuneaton is probably a gimme to UK solvers and for others … some small 90K population town, kind of obscure I would say. Peer Gynt might be considered too obscure for a quiptic. AFLOAT with part coming from previous clue is not kosher in my book. At least not in quiptic.
Thanks Chandler and Quirister.
I thought the mainly straightforward definitions kept this in Quiptic territory, even though the parsing was sometimes a bit tricky.
I had ON TRACK too, although it did occur to me that that isn’t actually a very safe place for a person to be standing …
ABSENTEE is not only in common usage it’s in Chambers too. Coincidentally I was googling etymological fallacy earlier today 🙂
As someone born in NUNEATON, I appreciate it’s not the most famous town in the world, or even Warwickshire, but it has a literary claim to fame, providing the world with George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans). Milby, from ‘The Mill on the Floss’, is Nuneaton in disguise.
I enjoyed this, with HORRIBLE, CELEBRATION and SCALLOPS my favourites. Interesting to see COLLAPSE there too – locally mispronounced as ‘col-ops’ (to rhyme with scallops, or potato fritters in batter locally) for humorous effect.
I am enjoying playing catch up with the Quiptics. This one seemed easier than last week, but still some difficult bits. Thanks Quirister for the parsing of AFLOAT, and for teaching me what the ellipsis might mean in a clue; that’s a new trick for me. My hand is up for ‘on track’ instead of IN TRAIN. Favourites were SETTLE, SPEEDING and ASIA (where I have lived for 20 years). And GUNSLINGER jumped out at me as I was watching Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West while doing the puzzle! Thanks Chandler and Quirister.
Didn’t like this. The reason why so many of us got ON TRACK instead of the intended IN TRAIN (misinfluenced by French “en train”, perhaps?) is because it’s a bad double def. The metaphorical meaning is trivially related to the literal meaning, so it’s not surprising there are potentially several other phrases with similarly related metaphorical and literal meanings. I have to go with the the Rackenfracker’s golden rules of double defs: “no shared roots”, which IN TRAIN fails badly. Sorry to be so negative but I feel it has to be worth holding Quiptic authors to the same high standards as any other cryptic.