Quiptic 1,249 by Anto

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Anto provides our quick cryptic challenge today.

Plenty to like here, mostly fitting the bill of a straightforward cryptic. I think my string-player friends might take issue with 12a; 3d might be a sad reminder of what Russian “help” can look like. I’m afraid Anto has managed to annoy me twice with double definitions that aren’t really two separate meanings, something that I can’t help being a PE[n]DANT about. But I’ll let him off because of the excellent surfaces in 25a and 17d, among others. Thanks Anto for the fun.

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

ACROSS
1 ALARMIST
One causes panic having limb stuck in a register (8)
ARM (limb) stuck into A LIST (a register).
5 GRUNTS
Good little fellows make GIs? (6)
G (abbreviation for good) + RUNTS (runt = disparaging term for a small person = little fellow).

Grunt = GI = US slang terms for a soldier.
9 TEAM GAME
It requires fellow players giving support to hold back dangerous stuff (4,4)
TEE (support for a golf ball), holding MAGMA (molten rock from a volcano = dangerous stuff) reversed (back).
10 VICTIM
Casualty of never-ending evil period (6)
VIC[e] (evil, as a noun) + TIM[e] (period), both without their last letters (never ending).
12 VIOLA
Instrument giving chord, flat essentially (5)
Middle letters (essentially) of [gi]VI[ng] [ch]O[rd] [f]LA[t].
13 ON THE NOSE
Place bet? Not if it’s this accurate (2,3,4)
Double definition. In horse-racing, a bet “on the nose” is one that pays out only for a winner, as opposed to a “place” bet which pays out for a first-three finish; or “on the nose” = slang for exactly = accurate.
14 MISDEMEANOUR
Roam semi-nude when drunk, giving slight offence (12)
Anagram (when drunk) of ROAM SEMI-NUDE.
18 TAKING TO TASK
Beginning to enjoy work in carpeting (6,2,4)
TAKING TO (beginning to enjoy something, as in “she had a tennis lesson and she’s really taken to it”) + TASK (work).

Carpet, as a verb = take to task = to criticise strongly.
21 MELBOURNE
Criminal mob rule North East city (9)
Anagram (criminal) of MOB RULE, then NE (abbreviation for North East).

City in Australia.
23 AWOKE
Roused in astonishment having received permission… (5)
AWE (astonishment), containing (having received) OK (slang for permission, as in “I need your OK for this”).
24 CADETS
…bad guys imprison alien recruits (6)
CADS (cad = someone who treats other people badly = bad guy), containing ET (abbreviation for extra-terrestrial = alien).
25 MISNOMER
Skinflint has no money? That’s the wrong description (8)
MISER (skinflint), containing (. . . has) NO + M (abbreviation for money).

Misnomer = an incorrect description. The surface is very neat: a skinflint is someone who doesn’t want to spend money, rather than someone who doesn’t have any.
26 SWEDEN
Slow eastward expansion emptied a country (6)
S[lo]W E[astwar]D E[xpansio]N with all the inner letters removed (emptied).
27 PENDANTS
Sticklers will want name removed from such jewellery (8)
If you remove N from PENDANTS, you get PEDANTS = sticklers = people who insist on getting small details right.
DOWN
1 ACTIVE
Working to bring back musical about college (6)
EVITA (a stage musical) reversed (to bring back), around C (abbreviation for college).
2 AMAZON
River that delivers so much! (6)
Double definition. River in South America; or the company that sells a huge range of goods with home delivery.
3 MIGRATION
Russian fighter helping people moving (9)
MIG (MiG = brand name of Russian fighter aircraft) + RATION (helping, as a noun = a portion of food).
4 SAME OLD STORY
Massage so dear, mostly – that’s just typical (4,3,5)
Anagram (massage) of SO DEAR MOSTLY.

Same old story = that’s just typical = expressions of annoyance that “it’s always that way”.
6 RHINE
River starts to rise here in northern Europe (5)
Starting letters of R[ise] H[ere] I[n] N[orthern] E[urope].

River flowing from the Swiss Alps through Germany and the Netherlands.
7 NOTSOHOT
It’s said to deny being feverish when unwell (3,2,3)
NOT SO (a statement of denial) + HOT (feverish).

As in “How are you feeling?” “Not so hot” = not very well.
8 SYMMETRY
Pleasing arrangement that doesn’t change on reflection? (8)
I’m not sure this is really a double definition: “something arranged in a neatly proportionate way” and “something in two mirror-image halves” are just different senses of the same meaning. But perhaps it’s more of a cryptic definition, suggesting “on reflection” = “after further thought”.
11 STEMS THE TIDE
He detests Tim working and holds things back (5,3,4)
Anagram (working) of HE DETESTS TIM.

Stem the tide = hold things back = to slow the progress of something.
15 ABSTAINED
A bishop disgraced, having refused to take part (9)
A + B (abbreviation for bishop) + STAINED (with a damaged reputation = disgraced).
16 STOMACHS
Keeps down bears (8)
Again, this isn’t really a double definition. Stomach, as a verb = keep down = successfully eat food without vomiting; but stomach = bear = tolerate is just a metaphorical use of the same meaning.
17 SKI LODGE
Dogs like frolicking where there’s snow outside (3,5)
Anagram (frolicking) of DOGS LIKE.

A building providing rest and refreshment facilities at a ski resort.
19 COMMON
Ordinary company working to acquire millions (6)
CO (abbreviation for company) + ON (working), containing (to acquire) M M (M = abbreviation for million).
20 DEBRIS
One coming out over master getting promoted? That’s rubbish (6)
DEB (abbreviation for debutante = old-fashioned term for a young lady “coming out” into society), before (over, in a down clue) SIR (formal address to a schoolmaster) reversed (upwards in a down clue, though I don’t think “promoted” really suggests that).
22 OUTRE
It’s shocking to get incorrect order regularly (5)
OUT (incorrect = not acceptable) + alternate letters (regularly) of [o]R[d]E[r].

Outré = French-derived term for “shockingly unusual”.

27 comments on “Quiptic 1,249 by Anto”

  1. I liked MISNOMER and TAKING TO TASK. One of Anto’s better Quiptics, I thought, though I agree with Quiristers criticisms.

  2. Very enjoyable and I thought at the right level, when Anto can sometimes be a bit chewy. I really liked MISDEMEANOUR, ON THE NOSE and SKI LODGE but SYMMETRY was a bit meh.

    Ta Anto & Quirister.

  3. Thank you Quirister. MELBOURNE is a great clue, but I’m not saying that out of parochialism. It was a really good clue.
    I looked it up and found that MELBOURNE is indeed a North Easternish place in the UK. Many of the towns and cities in 0z are named after places in the area also known as the North Western archipelago of Europe. (Another TILT this week.) But it seems that the Australian Melbourne is only related by a couple of degrees of separation to the UK one.
    And I have to say it’s not the capital city of Australia. It’s just the capital of one of our states. 🙂

  4. Thanks Anto and Quirister
    I disagree with previous posts – I thought this was far too hard for a Quiptic. Some unusual constructions – SWEDEN for example.
    I particularly didn’t like GRUNTS. Why should British solvers be expected to be familiar with obscure US slang?
    OUTRE was also a stretch – “incorrect” for OUT is loose, as is the definition

  5. paddymelon @3: yes, sorry, I obviously wasn’t quite awake reading Wikipedia this morning. Now fixed – thanks.

  6. muffin@4 GRUNTS. Hate the word. Some of those GIs saved my life when I had a car accident while working with American armed forces in educational programs in the then American sector of West Germany in the 70’s. But we have been exposed to both British and American English and perhaps that’s why it doesn’t come across as so foreign to my ears.

  7. I like Anto, enjoy his constructions and enjoyed this, but it took me significantly longer than Vulcan’s Cryptic, so I, like muffin @4, question its suitability for the Quiptic slot. (And if we don’t say this, those newbies who really struggle will think its them, not the puzzles in the wrong slots, again.)

    Didn’t parse TEAM GAME but should have.

    Thank you to Quirister and Anto.

  8. As so often with Anto, a bit tricky for a Quiptic, but I enjoyed it. I spotted the middle letters of fLAt so it had to be a VIOLA, but couldn’t account for the rest: there’s a VI chord, but where’s the O? I forgot that Anto’s middle letters don’t always follow a consistent pattern.

    Hands up if you were looking for a palindrome for SYMMETRY? I know I was.

  10. Didn’t know GIs/grunts nor ON THE NOSE’s equine connection. I wasted time thinking that 8d was going to be palindromic.

  11. Pleasant solve; I liked the wordplay of TEAM GAME, the essential VIOLA, the good anagrams for MISDEMEANOUR and SAME OLD STORY and the definition for TAKING TO TASK.

    I thought GRUNTS would be fairly familiar to Brits – perhaps because of US films?

    Thanks Anto and Quiptirister

  12. Fun and yes I was looking for a palindrome too.

    Am familiar with GRUNTS from American films.

    Thanks Anto and Quirister

  13. I confess I’m not one of Anto’s greatest fans but I enjoyed this a lot. Splendid long anagrams with good surfaces.

    I didn’t know that meaning of GRUNTS (obviously watch the wrong films 🙂 ). And I also first sought a palindrome for SYMMETRY (which doesn’t necessarily imply a mirror plane, but the question mark excuses this, as a DBE).

    Thanks to S&B

  14. I feel like “NOTSOHOT” is more of a double definition as it is what you would say to deny being feverish, but I suppose that’s also being a PE[N]DANT?

  16. A bit tough for a Quiptic, but still plenty to like. I complain about Anto when he goes off the rails, so I’d like to give him credit for this one.

    I didn’t understand 13ac (ON THE NOSE), due to my complete ignorance of horse-racing, and I’m still not 100% sure I understand it (particularly the phrase “not if it’s this”), but I’m willing to assume that that’s my fault, not Anto’s. Other than that, the weakest clue to me is 8dn (SYMMETRY), which I took to be a (NV)CD. [That’s my personal abbreviation for “(not very) cryptic definition”, which seems to me to be a common enough clue type to warrant its own descriptor.]

    On the other hand, I thought that 10ac (VICTIM) was quite cute.

  17. Sometimes the line between a double definition and a cryptic definition can be blurry. This can disturb our (pedantic?) need to categorize clues, but it doesn’t make the clue intrinsically weak. Not every bit of wordplay needs to fit into one particular box.

    Perhaps I was in a heightened mood for crypticity/crypticiousness/crypticallity this morning, but I found this puzzle to be well-pitched for a Quiptic, even if it was slightly more challenging than the Monday Cryptic. There is no rule that requires the Q to be easier than the C, as long as they are both pitched for beginners and solvers in a hurry. And relative difficulty is often subjective, so if YMMV, you shouldn’t blame the editor.

    I enjoyed this one, so thanks Anto and Quirister for the fun. My clue of the day was 25a MISNOMER, not only for the superb surface but also for the deceptive wordplay that invites us to subtract money rather than add no money.

  19. I also thought this one was well pitched. I’ve been trying Anto’s cryptics, and perhaps got used to his style. But I really liked this one, although I couldn’t get TEAM GAME by myself. I loved AMAZON. Thanks Anto and Quirister.

  20. Late to this party today.

    I tried TABLA for the instrument, with tabs being shorthand ways of writing guitar chords. I guess this makes me weird. But it fits the clue!

    I agree with the sharp eyebrow raise about SYMMETRY, which seems like a single, completely un-cryptic definition.

    GRUNT for a US enlisted serviceman appears in so many movies that it should have crossed the Atlantic by now. I’d add, contra Paddymelon @6, that the term is mostly seen as a badge of honor.

    Also to Paddymelon: isn’t Melbourne named for Lord Melbourne, who was Prime Minister a couple times in the early 19th century? Of course, he probably was in turn named after the UK locale. There’s also a Melbourne in Florida, but in general, the less said about Florida the better.

  21. mrpenney @20, thank you for the GRUNTS badge of honor link. Interesting, and good to know.

    And true regarding MELBOURNE, in Oz. Perhaps I was being a bit pedantic but that’s what I meant about about ”degree of separation”. Strictly speaking we didn’t simply copy the name of a British or Irish place name in this case, but, as you say, named it after Lord Melbourne (who of course is connected to Melbourne NEUK]

  22. I used watch many American war movies but don’t ever recall hearing Grunts. But I learnt it years ago from crosswords, and also pleased to hear it’s not derogatory.

  25. Surprised there’s not more mention of OUTRE… je ne realised pas that we parlez franglais in ces crossmots!

  26. I found it harder than usual. Some nice clues like ONTHENOSE and SWEDEN, but I had to cheat on four of them. Still a lot of fun. Thanks Anto and Quirister.

  27. I managed to finish this one, which I still don’t always do, so it was at least within my growing but still small skill level.

    I also spent a little time thinking of palindromes for 8d, but after I gave that up, I got the idea in my head that it might be SYMPHONY, with the logic that it’s a pleasing (musical) arrangement, and unlike images, when music reflects off a surface it comes back in the same order. Eventually crossers sorted me out, but the idea that it could have been still tickles me a bit.

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