A pleasing and tractable Quiptic from Chandler. This might have been a ‘first puzzle I solved unaided’ experience for someone, somewhere this morning.
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 Set of items put behind somewhere filthy for hairdresser
STYLIST
A charade of STY and LIST.
5 Bachelor keeps getting excited about round made for a particular customer
BESPOKE
A charade of B and an insertion of O in (KEEPS)* The anagrind is ‘getting excited’ and the insertion indicator is ‘about’.
10 Self-satisfied sergeant major outwardly unappealing
SMUG
A charade of SM and UG for the outer letters of ‘unappealing’.
11 Make a mistake blocking novel exit for dog
FOX TERRIER
An insertion of ERR in (EXIT FOR)* with ‘novel’ as the anagrind and ‘blocking’ as the insertion indicator.
12 Fool here essentially gets to speak in a barely audible voice
MUTTER
A charade of MUTT and [H]ER[E].
13 Engineer agreed to enter road given a new assessment?
REGRADED
An insertion of (AGREED)* in RD. The anagrind is ‘engineer’ and the insertion indicator is ‘to enter’.
14 Tom in band played a racket sport
BADMINTON
(TOM IN BAND)*
16 Same thing again defended by pundit today
DITTO
Hidden in punDIT TOday.
17 Inferior guide’s coat has sign of identification
BADGE
A charade of BAD and GE for the outer letters of ‘guide’.
19 Journalist left among sheep is beginning to survey mountain plant
EDELWEISS
A charade of ED, L inserted into EWE, IS and S for the initial letter of ‘survey’. The insertion indicator is ‘among’. Bless my homeland for ever …
23 Anxious racer now after a crash
CAREWORN
(RACER NOW)* with ‘after a crash’ as the anagrind.
24 Some began nettling seabird
GANNET
Hidden in beGAN NETtling. The obligatory Pierre bird link shows the bird that has long everything: wings, neck, beak, tail. And an astonishing ability to plunge from great heights into the sea to take a fish.
26 Minor keyboard, maybe
PERIPHERAL
A dd. The second reference is to computer peripherals like a mouse, a webcam, a scanner, a keyboard …
27 Chances characterising one leader of students
ODDS
A charade of ODD and S for the initial letter of ‘students’. ‘One’ is characterised by being an odd, rather than an even, number.
28 Foremost pair, one linked to Joseph’s partner
PRIMARY
A charade of PR, I and MARY of virgin birth fame.
29 British yard found beside centre from memory
BY HEART
A charade of B, Y and HEART.
Down
2 Casual worker starts to unpick really appetising Japanese dish
TEMPURA
A charade of TEMP and URA for the initial letters of ‘unpick’, ‘really’ and ‘appetising’.
3 Delicate thing that might be struck?
LIGHT
A dd. The second element is referring to the phrase ‘Strike a light!’, roughly equivalent to the more evocative north of England expression ‘I’ll go to the foot of our stairs’.
4 Orangey flavouring for fans varied
SAFFRON
(FOR FANS)*
6 Eastern writer with regret regularly gets to appear
EMERGE
A charade of E, ME (‘the writer’) and ReGrEt.
7 A spree Viv arranged to become widespread
PERVASIVE
(A SPREE VIV)*
8 Most enthusiastic king has three points established
KEENEST
A charade of K, EEN for three ‘points’ of the compass and EST.
9 Minor actor with alternative record around November that’s remarkable
EXTRAORDINARY
A charade of EXTRA, OR and N for the phonetic alphabet ‘November’ inserted into DIARY. The insertion indicator is ‘around’.
15 Drawing power in team’s MG in a fancy guise
MAGNETISM
(IN TEAMS MG)*
18 Friend wearing gold ring initially like a non-professional?
AMATEUR
An insertion of MATE into AU for the chemical symbol for ‘gold’ followed by R for the initial letter of ‘ring’.
20 Line, say, followed by friendly country in a permissible fashion
LEGALLY
A charade of L, EG and ALLY.
21 Lean son overlooking bank, perhaps
SLENDER
A charade of S and LENDER.
22 Bishop introducing different trouble
BOTHER
A charade of B and OTHER.
25 Loop shortly arising close to home
NOOSE
A reversal (‘arising’, since it’s a down clue) of SOON and E for the final letter of ‘home’.
Many thanks to Chandler for this week’s Quiptic.
Thanks Chandler and Pierre
Near flawless Quiptic – easy but fun. I only stumbled over “one” for ODD.
No dramas, straightforward but enjoyable. Fool/mutt was my only head scratch.
Thanks Chandler & Pierre.
Nice Quiptic – and a bird for Pierre!
Two birds in one day, Shirl. Life is good.
Excellent Quiptic – I have just recommended it to a friend of mine who wants to start doing cryptic crosswords.
Thanks, both.
Not the first cryptic I’ve solved, but certainly the first I’ve solved with my morning coffee.
Straightforward enough until I hit a brick wall with peripheral and regraded. But I got there in the end.
Definitely Quiptic-standard, but a couple of lovely touches in PERIPHERAL and EDELWEISS.
While I generally agree, I had to go to the Cryptic and return to finish. I think I was thinking too straight this morning.
Thankyou both.
I managed all but 9. Kicked myself over a couple of the ones I didn’t get after revealing, especially 1a. All in all I felt this was very doable, annoyed I couldn’t quite get over the line.
Diary for record is something of a blindspot for me, my mind never makes it past LP, EP etc. New: FOOL=MUTT and “defended” as a hidden indicator.
Thanks Pierre & Chandler.
Got all but PERIPHERAL. From the crossers, I went down a rabbit hole wondering if perhaps “semichoral” were a thing…
To Horexio. Me too, I was hoping an organ keyboard might be semichoral. And as a technophobe, never heard of peripherals.
Lovely Quiptic from Chandler. PERIPHERAL was my last one in too, as it took me longest to see it.
Pierre, either Inge Thomson or Jenny Sturgeon said their favourite bird is the gannet as part of the discussion of their album/show Northern Flyway because of the way the gannets dive. That conversation is somewhere in the Hudson site.
Thank you to Pierre and Chandler.
Not easy for this bear of reasonable brain, but I got there eventually with guesses and checks, and a couple of visits to Wordsolver. Nonetheless, an interesting set of clues – most of which made sense, even if some of the parsing was done after finding the answers. Came here to search for two or three solutions, which were peripheral to my range of understanding. Cheers!
I agree with the general praise, though I wasn’t keen on KEENEST. I sort of feel like “three points,” if you use that device, should be three different compass points.
TEMPURA has the distinction of being one of the earliest examples of fusion cuisine. Breading-and-frying things was imported to Japan by the Portuguese, and the Japanese took that idea and gave it their own delicate, fragrant spin. I guess it’s little wonder that it’s among the more popular Japanese items in the West.
Lastly, the name Chandler above this puzzle brought to mind the late Matthew Perry, who played the character of that name on the long-running show Friends, which (as I’ve learned from these crosswords) was for some reason exported to Britain, so you’ll know it. I am not sure if this is the first Chandler puzzle since Perry died, but anyway I spared a thought for him–dead too young, and after he’d actually straightened himself out, too.
25d – I am struggling to see how the clue tells us to use E from the end of HOME. Could someone please explain that?
Well explained in the blog, steffen – I can’t improve.
@Steffen 15, “close to homb” gives the e. The close of something, as in the end of something, as in “at the close of play, England are 89 for 5”.
Despite this ability to help on one clue for Steffen, this amateur found it quite hard for a quiptic, with various fails eg 1A, 11A, 13A, 2D. Others like 9D and 26A I only got from the crossers but needed this blog for the explanation – thanks Pierre.
But some of the clues were quite easy as well, so a mixed bag for me.
Correction! “Close to home“!
Thank you.
I managed about 2/3 of this, which is 2/3 more than I have in the cryptic.
Thanks to Chandler and Pierre. All lovely!
I was also off on some music distraction about the keyboard at first …