Carpathian is good at setting Quiptic puzzles, and here she is again.
A very concise set of clues, with some great surfaces – I particluarly liked the annoyed Frenchmen, the enthusiastic Englishmen abroad, the annoyed US sports fans, and the unsuccessful date with a pixie. Thanks Carpathian for the fun.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 4 | BUSTED |
You and me with time in sack getting shattered (6)
|
| US (you and me) + T (abbreviation for time), inserted into BED (in the sack = slang for in bed). | ||
| 6 | BELITTLE |
Live with petty put down (8)
|
| BE (live, as a verb) + LITTLE (petty). | ||
| 9 | SORTIE |
Sally is kind and gives regularly (6)
|
| SORT (kind = type) + alternate letters (regularly) of [g]I[v]E[s].
Sally = sortie = a brief trip away from one’s home base, especially a military excursion into enemy territory. |
||
| 10 | CONCLUDE |
Study hint about day to decide (8)
|
| CON (study = read closely) + CLUE (hint), around D (abbreviation for day). | ||
| 11 | MASTERPIECE |
Teacher getting man to produce great work (11)
|
| MASTER (a male schoolteacher, especially in a boys’ school) + PIECE (man = playing piece in chess or draughts). | ||
| 15 | NEEDLES |
Annoys the French following demand (7)
|
| LES (plural form of “the” in French) following NEED (demand, as in supply and demand). | ||
| 17 | ANTIQUE |
Relic concealed by servant I questioned (7)
|
| Hidden answer (concealed by . . .) in [serv]ANT I QUE[stioned]. | ||
| 18 | CLANDESTINE |
Private cleaned tins out (11)
|
| Anagram (out) of CLEANED TINS.
Clandestine = private or secret. |
||
| 22 | ONLOOKER |
Observer on throne with King and former Queen (8)
|
| ON LOO (on the loo = on the throne = slang for on the toilet) + K (abbreviation for king) + ER (the former Queen Elizabeth). | ||
| 23 | BOTTLE |
Guts put in container (6)
|
| Double definition: Guts = bottle = slang for courage; or to put something (usually food or drink) into bottles for storage. | ||
| 24 | LODESTAR |
Left poems by traitor about guiding light (8)
|
| L (abbreviation for left) + ODES (poems), then RAT (slang for traitor) reversed (about).
A star (especially the North Star) used for navigation. |
||
| 25 | BANDIT |
Criminal group with sex appeal (6)
|
| BAND (group, for example a jazz band) + IT (old slang for sex appeal). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DERIDE |
Mock director with dreadful revolting movie’s finale (6)
|
| D (abbreviation for director), then DIRE (dreadful) reversed (revolting), then the last letter (finale) of [movi]E. | ||
| 2 | BEFOREHAND |
Leaders of busy enterprise warning worker in advance (10)
|
| Leading letters of B[usy] E[nterprise], then FORE (a warning shouted to spectators on a golf course when a ball is coming towards them) + HAND (worker, as in deckhand). | ||
| 3 | DISCREET |
Diplomatic record king rejects regularly (8)
|
| DISC (musical record) + R (abbreviation for king, from Latin Rex) + alternate letters (regularly) of [r]E[j]E[c]T[s].
Diplomatic = discreet = acting in such a way as to avoid causing trouble. |
||
| 4 | BASEMENT |
South-eastern people entering club in cellar (8)
|
| SE (abbreviation for south-eastern) + MEN (people), inserted into (entering) BAT (club = weapon or piece of sports equipment). | ||
| 5 | STRESSED |
Highlighted way editor welcomes leaderless journalists (8)
|
| ST (abbreviation for street = way) + ED (abbreviation for editor), containing (welcoming) [p]RESS (journalists) without the first letter (leaderless). | ||
| 7 | TAUT |
Announced wrong tense (4)
|
| Homophone (announced) of TORT (legal term for a wrong done to someone else). | ||
| 8 | EDEN |
European to study paradise (4)
|
| E (abbreviation for European) + DEN (study = private room). | ||
| 12 | PASSAGEWAY |
Bride’s attendant holding donkey with a yoke heading to aisle (10)
|
| PAGE (short for pageboy = bride’s attendant) containing ASS (donkey), then W (abbreviation for with) + A + first letter (heading) of Y[oke]. | ||
| 13 | SQUINTED |
Glanced, seeing cephalopod ingesting odd bits of nutmeg (8)
|
| SQUID (cephalopod) containing (ingesting) the odd-numbered letters of N[u]T[m]E[g].
Squint = slang for look briefly, especially sideways = glance. |
||
| 14 | VEHEMENT |
Impassioned English hunks in outskirts of Vermont (8)
|
| E (abbreviation for English) + HE-MEN (hunks = physically fit men), inserted into the outer letters (outskirts) of V[ermon]T. | ||
| 16 | LACROSSE |
US city angry before start of every game (8)
|
| LA (abbreviation for Los Angeles = US city) + CROSS (angry) + starting letter of E[very]. | ||
| 19 | SLOGAN |
Phrase in hit article (6)
|
| SLOG (slang for hit violently) + AN (form of the indefinite article). | ||
| 20 | BOWL |
Roll ball and dish (4)
|
| Double definition. To roll a ball in lawn bowls, tenpin bowling etc; or an open container for serving food. | ||
| 21 | FLED |
Ran away from upset pixie on date (4)
|
| ELF (pixie) reversed (upset = upwards in a down clue) + D (abbreviation for date). |
Thanks Carpathian and Quirister
Carpathian is my favourite Quiptic setter, and one of my overall favourites. This was up to the normal high standard.
Good fun, with no obscurities (though I generally don’t mind one or two to broaden horizons) and plenty of smiles. Thanks Carpathian & Quirister.
I’ve missed Carpathian in the Quiptic slot. She always delivers a fun, accessible puzzle.
Thanks Carpathian and Quirister.
Quirister – you seemed to have missed out the W for WITH in the parsing of PASSAGEWAY
Very enjoyable – this is an excellent Quiptic.
Thanks, both.
Crispy@4 I saw that too but think it must be the headings of with a yoke. A lovely puzzle with a couple of head scratchers.
Thanks Carpathian and Quirister.
A super, accessible Quiptic without losing surface coherence, thanks Carpathian – and Quirister for the blog.
Crispy @4, oakvillereader @6: thanks for pointing that out. I’ve corrected the blog.
Thoroughly enjoyed that! Completed unaided ? and could parse it all! thanks Carpathian and Quirister
A bit fiddly in places, but I do enjoy Carpathian’s surfaces.
Could someone please let me know as to how “CON” equates to “study = read closely”?
Thanks!
Regarding my above comment, no need, I found the usage. Never heard of that before.
Lovely puzzle that fit the bill nicely. I’d query “outskirts of Vermont”. To me, the outskirts of a city are the outlying bits where it gradually transitions from suburban to rural. Can an entire state–let alone one that rural–have outskirts? Anyway, just “Vermont” would have done the trick, since the standard abbreviation for the state, in both the USPS and AP lists, is VT.
I liked the LACROSSE clue quite a bit. It’s amusing to imagine Angelenos working up anger over any sport, let alone that one (whose main hotbed of popularity is on the east coast, and in Canada–it has a similar footprint as ice hockey, but with fewer fans in general).
As above. Lots of lovely surfaces, and con was only word I did not know. Had the same favourites as Quirister
Thanks to setter and blogger
On the surface(s) this was an outstanding puzzle – every one a winner. My favourites, not mentioned by anyone else (I think), were the friendly attacker at 9a SORTIE, and the slightly scatological 22a ONLOOKER.
Thanks Carpathian for the breath of fresh air after last week’s SLOG, ANd Quirister for the blog.
Lovely puzzle. The last few were painful to get. Took me a long time to get taut and sortie.
Gotta say, lovely surface readings. The amount of double definitions in the clues (Sally, club etc.) is lovely and makes for some great reads (even if I spent 90 minutes googling famous Sallys and getting nowhere).
Long time lurker and first time poster… I’m a newbie who’s been going back through the Quiptics (currently back to Jan 2022!) for the past few months, as well as tackling the new ones every Monday. Thanks to this site I feel like I’m finally making good headway in all of them, and I now have 5 fully complete under my belt including this one!
Never heard of Sally or SORTIE but the wordplay and checking letters left little other option. Last one in (LOI?) was TAUT, I was unsure of the spelling and tort = wrong is new for me, so that was a bit of a punt and was very happy it was correct. PASSAGEWAY was my favourite for the satisfaction of piecing all the wordplay bits together.
Thanks Carpathian for the crossword, Carpathian for the blog and all of you for helping me improve my cryptic crossword skills. I’ll try to contribute some more here in future 🙂
Sorry, thanks Quirister for the blog!! (good start, eh?!)
Sam, welcome to Fifteensquared, and I’m glad you’re finding your confidence with these puzzles. Hope we’ll hear from you again soon. Tort = wrong is one to remember for future clues; it often gets used in the wordplay for words like retort and distortion.
TORT doesn’t sound anything like TAUT in my accent, but thankfully got it on the surface and letters I had!
Agree with MaggieBob, in which part of the world is TAUT a homonym of TORT?
Peter@21: London! I would pronounce those words exactly the same. How do you pronounce them?
Peter@22 exactly the same. I don’t think I’ve got some weird unBritish accent. We need examples of why people think it’s not the same?!?!