Carpathian brings us our Quiptic challenge today.
It’s quite a feat to fill all four 15-letter entries with single words, especially when three of them are full anagrams. 9a and 7d seem rather appropriate words to be clued by anagrams, and 2d has a delightfully odd surface. The fourth, 22a, is a strange but very expressive word. Thanks Carpathian for the fun.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SUPREME |
Presume swimming is best (7)
|
| Anagram (swimming) of PRESUME. | ||
| 5 | DECEITS |
Mediates now and then after Ant’s partner lies (7)
|
| Alternate letters (now and then) of [m]E[d]I[a]T[e]S, after DEC (Ant’s partner: TV presenters Ant & Dec). | ||
| 9 | UNRECONSTRUCTED |
Scorn utter dunce ridiculously unwilling to accept change (15)
|
| Anagram (ridiculously) of SCORN UTTER DUNCE. | ||
| 10 | FLIER |
Father accepting story in leaflet (5)
|
| FR (abbreviation for Father = title for a Catholic priest), containing (accepting) LIE (story). | ||
| 11 | INAUGURAL |
Popular prophesy with a Latin opening (9)
|
| IN (popular = fashionable) + AUGUR (prophesy) + A + L (abbreviation for Latin). The surface reading suggests the noun “prophecy” rather than the verb “prophesy”, but it might make sense if you take “popular” as short for “popular individuals”? | ||
| 12 | LIMELIGHT |
Green Day finding fame (9)
|
| LIME (a shade of green) + LIGHT (day = daylight). | ||
| 14 | APHID |
Louse lay low behind a piano (5)
|
| HID (lay low), after (behind) A + P (p = abbreviation for piano = musical term for soft).
Lice and aphids are both insects, but I’m not sure that they’re equivalent: does anyone know better? |
||
| 15 | TONED |
Coloured single old penny with bit of tallow (5)
|
| ONE D (a single old penny: the abbreviation for pre-decimal pennies was d, from the Latin denarius) after the first letter (a bit) of T[allow]. “With” doesn’t really specify whether the T comes before or after ONE D, though we might expect the order to be the same as in the wordplay. | ||
| 16 | LORDLINGS |
Wishes to cross road left by independent young peers (9)
|
| LONGS (wishes, as a verb), containing (crossing) RD (abbreviation for road) + L (left) + I (independent). | ||
| 18 | AWARENESS |
Knowledge of new areas being developed by South (9)
|
| Anagram (being developed) of NEW AREAS, then S (South). | ||
| 21 | REEDY |
High-sounding buck returns unknown (5)
|
| DEER (buck = a male deer) reversed (returns), then Y (mathematical symbol for an unknown quantity).
Reedy (of a sound) = high-pitched, like the sound of a primitive flute made from a reed. |
||
| 22 | FLIBBERTIGIBBET |
Flighty individual and female liberationist sent finally by one to gallows (15)
|
| F (female) + LIBBER (as in “women’s libber” = short for liberationist) + last letter (finally) of [sen]T + I (one in Roman numerals) + GIBBET (gallows).
Not the most common word these days – but if you want an example of its usage, it’s included in the song How do you solve a problem like Maria? from The Sound of Music. |
||
| 23 | CENTRED |
Concentrated on coin colour (7)
|
| CENT (coin) + RED (colour).
As in “they centred / concentrated their efforts on . . .”. |
||
| 24 | PASTEUR |
Regret about following former chemist (7)
|
| RUE (regret) reversed (about), following PAST (former).
Louis Pasteur, 19th-century French chemist and microbiologist. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SOULFUL |
Emotional and regularly surly after very bad flu (7)
|
| Alternate letters (regularly) of [s]U[r]L[y] after SO (very, as in “that’s so easy”), then an anagram (bad) of FLU. | ||
| 2 | PARLIAMENTARIAN |
Legislator flying Martian airplane (15)
|
| Anagram (flying) of MARTIAN AIRPLANE. | ||
| 3 | ENCIRCLED |
Group in goal is surrounded (9)
|
| CIRCLE (group, as in “circle of friends”) in END (goal = purpose). | ||
| 4 | ENNUI |
Leaders of Eastern nations now usurping islands in the doldrums (5)
|
| Leading letters of E[astern] N[ations] N[ow] U[surping] I[slands].
The doldrums = ennui = boredom. |
||
| 5 | DETRACTOR |
Critic of French farm vehicle (9)
|
| DE (“of” in French) + TRACTOR (farm vehicle). | ||
| 6 | CLUNG |
College organ is stuck (5)
|
| C (abbreviation for college) + LUNG (an organ of the body). | ||
| 7 | INTERCHANGEABLE |
Wildly celebrating a hen or equivalent (15)
|
| Anagram (wildly) of CELEBRATING A HEN. The surface perhaps makes sense in the context of “hen party” = a celebration for a woman about to get married. | ||
| 8 | SADDLED |
Confused after son put on piece of tack (7)
|
| ADDLED (confused) after S (abbreviation for son).
Tack = horse-riding equipment, such as a saddle. |
||
| 13 | GOLDENROD |
Plant beginning to grow above ancient bar (9)
|
| Beginning letter of G[row], before (above, in a down clue) OLDEN (as in “in olden days” = ancient) + ROD (bar).
A plant with yellow flowers. |
||
| 14 | ALLERGIES |
Exhibition spaces moving opening down to get reactions (9)
|
| GALLERIES (exhibition spaces), with the first letter (opening) moving towards the end (down, in a down clue). | ||
| 15 | TRAFFIC |
Jerk holding fliers following vehicles (7)
|
| TIC (jerk = involuntary movement), containing RAF (Royal Air Force = fliers) + F (abbreviation for following). | ||
| 17 | SHYSTER |
Throw sterling to get unscrupulous lawyer (7)
|
| SHY (as a verb = throw) + STER (abbreviation for sterling, as in British currency). | ||
| 19 | EMBER |
Top of limb lost in some smouldering remains (5)
|
| [m]EMBER (limb), with the first letter (top, in a down clue) lost. | ||
| 20 | SKIMP |
Cut corners, putting top of mattress in refuse container (5)
|
| First letter (top) of M[attress] in SKIP (refuse container, called a “dumpster” in the US). |
Thanks Carpathian and Quirister
Very nice. I loved FLIBBERTIGIBBET – both the word and the clue.
I wondered about louse=APHID too. I decided that louse was metaphorical, as aphids are a pest.
A few sticky moments today. No idea who Ant & Dec are — I presume one needs to be a Brit? Light/day is a bit loose. Is ster a common abbreviation for sterling? Never heard of GOLDENROD or LORDLINGS, nor the tack in 8d. Nor gibbet. So not as smooth a solve as Carpathian’s last week, but enjoyable nevertheless.
An exemplary quiptic! The long ones were reasonably gettable, and I was pleased with myself for spotting FLIBBERTIGIBBET with ‘flighty…’ as part of the definition rather than an anagram indicator.
Interesting point about the letter order in the clue for TONED, using ‘with’ to add the T at the beginning not the end… some positional words specify order (before, after, following etc) but others do not (with, by, alongside etc) – I think it’s maybe a solver expectation that the order of the component parts in such a positional instruction is left-to-right (or top-to-bottom in a down), and some setters play with this assumption for a little light misdirection. But wholly gettable, even in a quiptic.
Thanks both!
Aphids are sometimes informally called “plant lice” but I don’t think it’s scientifically accurate.
While we’re on the subject of gardening, I’ve always written GOLDEN ROD as two words, but that’s probably just me.
GDU@2. How I envy you not knowing about Ant and Dec! I also thought the order of the words in the clu for Toned left something to be desired.
I’m never keen on the “bit of” = first letter device, but otherwise an exemplary quiptic.
“Some smouldering remains” seemed more like EMBERS than EMBER (which would be a single smouldering remain?).
Got tripped up by putting in the obvious “galleries” in instead of actually doing the work needed to get ALLERGIES.
Anyway, I got there in the end, so I’m a happy man.
Thanks to both setter and blogger.
Excellent Quiptic, perfect for beginners.
Favourite: GOLDENROD, ALLERGIES, CENTRED.
Thanks, both.
GDU@2 – Spending time in the UK it is hard to avoid Ant and Dec but I have never watched any of their TV programmes. Not my cup of tea 😉
Re @steve69‘s point at 7, at least there’s a hint.
In my opinion:
16a – I for independent
15d – f for following
just feel like lazy clueing. Randomly stick in a word for a letter.
Steve69 @ 7, I refrained from having a whinge about “bit of” for first letter, as I did so last week. I totally agree.
Very enjoyable. I agree with ck @10 that f/following seems a bit of a stretch, but i for independent is fine – there’s a newspaper named that, after all!
ck @10 and WhiteDevil @12 — from Collins:
“f. is an abbreviation for ‘following’. It is written after a page or line number to indicate that you are referring to both the page or line mentioned and the one after it. You use ff. when you are referring to the page or line mentioned and two or more pages or lines after it.”
Easy but lots of fun with super anagrams. Your explanation for the ‘hen’ made sense of the seemingly nonsensical clue.
Ta Carpathian & Quirister.
You only have to do crosswords to know Ant and Dec(DECANT)
This should have been the cryptic
Thanks all,
Great Quiptic. Having just watched Crufts, I was imagining a chicken-fanciers equivalent, but the hen party makes more sense. I agree TONED is unexpected. I even had CONED for a while, but couldn’t see how it meant a bit of tallow.
I thought it was hard for a Quiptic – beginners may find those 15-letter anagrams tricky. For me, the Cryptic was done in half the time. LORDLINGS? Ster for Sterling? Chambers and wildflower books have GOLDENROD as one word, btw.
I found this hard for a Quiptic, but maybe I’m just tired. I would have liked an indication of the order of the pieces in 15ac (TONED), and I agree with Horexio Helgar @8 that the definition in 19dn leads to EMBERS, not EMBER.
Very nice puzzle, Carpathian, for which much thanks. I concur with Quirister’s preamble; the four 15 letter words were nicely done, and FLIBBERTIGIBBET is such a delightful word.
I don’t think the long anagrams were unfair for a Quiptic. Beginners are not necessarily unfamiliar with anagrams, both the fodder and the indicators were clearly clued, and once you got a few crossers the solutions were not overly difficult to work out.
I play the cello, not the oboe, and in spite of my training I never actually practiced law, so I have no objection to 21a REEDY and 17d SHYSTER. 🙂
I’m in the camp that says too tough for the slot but very enjoyable puzzle nonetheless. Thanks both
Thanks RobT @13 – I stand corrected.
Loved it. Thanks setter and blogger. My favourite was LORDLINGS although I had never heard of this word.
Rather tough for a Quiptic.
Ted @18 and Horexio @8, for me the use of ‘some’ indicates that we are not using all of the word EMBERS, although many setters would use ‘most’ especially in a Quiptic.
Thanks both