Chandler is in town this week with a Quiptic that I think will please those still new to the Dark Art. Certainly enough straightforward clues to get you a foothold, which I know when I was a beginner was one of the things that I always found useful. Once you’ve got some crossers, it starts getting easier. Then one day, you finish your first one without any external help and feel good about yourself.
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 Dishonest soldiers right ahead in court
CORRUPT
An insertion of OR for Other Ranks, R and UP for ‘ahead’ in CT. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
5 Examine varied pins etc
INSPECT
(PINS ETC)* with ‘varied’ as the anagrind.
10 Part of scam plaguing place with tents
CAMP
Hidden in sCAM Plaguing.
11 Writer taken with judgment in dictionary that’s unbiased
OPEN-MINDED
An insertion of PEN and MIND in OED for [Oxford English] Dictionary. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
12 Sift something difficult to understand
RIDDLE
A dd.
13 Different rate set around institute for formal written work
TREATISE
An insertion of I in (RATE SET)* The insertion indicator is ‘around’ and the anagrind is ‘different’.
14 Fear Italy is destabilised? It’s a fabricated story
FAIRY TALE
(FEAR ITALY)* with ‘is destabilised’ as the anagrind.
16 Noisy type distinctly drained after argument
ROWDY
A charade of ROW and D[ISTINCTL]Y.
17 Learner in bed showing little activity?
SLACK
An insertion of L in SACK. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
19 Start to promote exotic diet only in a very obvious way
POINTEDLY
A charade of P for the initial letter of ‘promote’ and (DIET ONLY)* The anagrind is ‘exotic’.
23 Lean crab moving around marine crustacean
BARNACLE
(LEAN CRAB)* with ‘moving around’ as the anagrind.
24 Hear about the Italian bishop in narrow-brimmed headgear
TRILBY
An insertion of IL for one of the Italian words for ‘the’ and B in TRY. The insertion indicator is ‘about’.
26 Loyalty, say, found in association
ALLEGIANCE
An insertion of EG for ‘say’ in ALLIANCE. The insertion indicator is ‘found in’.
27 Some stock a leading green-leafed vegetable
KALE
Hidden in stocK A LEading.
28 Principal expression curtailed for early course?
STARTER
A charade of STAR and TER[M].
29 Army man mobilised in Asian country
MYANMAR
(ARMY MAN)* with ‘mobilised’ as the anagrind.
Down
2 Antiquated instrument from old estate, perhaps, in area
OCARINA
A charade of O, CAR, IN and A. I wouldn’t necessarily describe the OCARINA as ‘antiquated’. Round, shaped flute-like instruments have certainly been around for millennia, but modern versions are still played in primary schools; the term was only coined in 1853, and means ‘little goose’.
3 Quick incursion by the police to arrest first of perpetrators
RAPID
An insertion of P for the initial letter of ‘perpetrators’ in RAID. The insertion indicator is ‘to arrest’.
4 Demonstration in support of trial
PROTEST
A charade of PRO and TEST.
6 Maybe, one anaesthetic?
NUMBER
A dd. If you’re new to all this, here is one to tuck away for future reference: the pun of describing an anaesthetic as something that numbs, or a NUMBER, comes up frequently.
7 Open a tent possibly to supply Italian bread
PANETTONE
(OPEN A TENT)* with ‘possibly’ as the anagrind. Bit of an Italian theme this morning.
8 Folded note put in item of luggage by daughter
CREASED
An insertion of RE for the second note of the tonic sol-fa in CASE, followed by D. The insertion indicator is ‘put in’.
9 Bachelor, a desolate one sadly, gets to have nothing to do
BE AT A LOOSE END
A charade of B and (A DESOLATE ONE)* with ‘sadly’ as the anagrind.
15 One favouring a lot of relations?
RACONTEUR
A cd. Since a RACONTEUR tells or relates tales, he’d be up for a lot of ‘relations’.
18 A box of papers I forgot in rental property – and circular?
LEAFLET
An insertion of A F[I]LE in LET. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
20 Talkative striker losing head in US city
NATTERY
An insertion of [B]ATTER in NY. The insertion indicator is ‘in’. Not a word I’d ever use, but I can’t say it doesn’t exist.
21 Bedding plant found by old boy with priest in filming location
LOBELIA
An insertion of OB and ELI in LA. The insertion indicator is (again) ‘in’. Did you say you were still quite new to this? Then ELI for ‘priest’ is another one to move from short-term to long-term memory. He’s in the Old Testament.
22 Energetic performing group I have shortly indicated
ACTIVE
A charade of ACT and IVE (for I’VE).
25 Definitely confirm those at heart of fine family
INK IN
A charade of [F]IN[E] and KIN.
Many thanks to Chandler for this week’s Quiptic.
I liked this, apart from NATTERY. Is this a word that the young people use?
Couldn’t figure out 15D.
Never heard of PANETTONE or NATTERY. I thought 16a clued a noun — why is “type” in the clue? I learned today that RIDDLE can mean “sift”.
Good fun. Thanks Chandler & Pierre.
15d was my last one in, Robert – as with a lot of cryptic definitions, it can take some time to figure out what the setter is getting at.
ROWDY can be a noun, Geoff Down Under, which is why ‘type’ is in the surface reading.
So it can, Pierre. That’s two things I’ve learnt today.
Nice accessible Quiptic.
ROWDY as a noun is old-fashioned, I’ve read it in 19th Century books, OCARINA was my last in as I was misled by the antiquated, I’ve only seen it as a modern school instrument, replacing recorders.
Thank you to Chandler and Pierre.
Excellent Quiptic – perfect for beginners.
SW corner was hardest for me. I could not parse 28ac.
Favourite: RACONTEUR (loi).
Thanks, both.
I wanted to put nymphomaniac in 15D but it messed up the crossers… (a bit long too)
OCARINAS have been around for a long time, but so have many other instruments. I was expecting something more like a harpsichord or a viol.
The SLACK/RACONTEUR pair took nearly as long as the rest put together. Thanks Kite for a proper Quiptic and Pierre for the explanatory blog.
Last one in (Loi), as Pierre – 15d RACONTEUR – I liked it, but maybe too hard for a Quiptic – ‘favouring … relations’ could have meant nepotism, too.
Shirl@1: oed.com dates 20d NATTERY as ‘1825–’. Wiktionary has quotations up to 2013.
Thanks C&P
I think 18d is A F[i]LE in LET.
I thought this Quiptic hit the spot. It seemed to me to have a lot of anagrams (although I haven’t gone back to count), but there’s nothing wrong with that in an entry-level puzzle.
Thank you, Bear of little brain. Blog corrected.
This is definitely one of those that help me feel like I really am getting better at this. Only one I needed help with was ALLEGIANCE, where I had the ALLIANCE and couldn’t figure out the middle bit. Was googling words that it might be just to see if there was a weird definition I didn’t know and it auto-suggested “allegiance” – feels like a bit of a cheat, but I was basically there….
RACONTEUR was odd, because it popped into my head straight away from the R N R crosser, but I couldn’t parse why it would be that, so only put it in right near the end, and then it clicked.
Other than that, STARTER was the only one I couldn’t parse. Like you say, plenty of easy-ish ones to get that foothold and then they started roughly filling themselves in. A great start to the week for me!
Thanks a lot to Chandler and for a great write-up Pierre
The time seemed to pass slowly even though it wasn’t a particularly quick solve – so that’s nice.
Did start to get a little boring staring at my last five of RIDDLE, SLACK, ALLEGIANCE, NATTERY, RACONTEUR and I took as long to get those as the rest of the puzzle. Bet meh about NATTERY.
Big fan of PANETONNE
While the clue construction is at a good Quiptic level, it seems to me that the GK is a little advanced. It wasn’t until I started reading fifteensquared blogs that I learned that OR = Other Ranks, or that a riddle is a sieve.
Thanks, Chandler and Pierre (no birds, alas!)
That was a perfectly pitched Quiptic for me. Like others, I haven’t really encountered NATTERY…although I have certainly encountered a lot of nattery people. It wasn’t too difficult to get from the clue. I liked the clues for OCARINA and LOBELIA, and I took a while on TRILBY because I was looking for a homophone.
Thanks very much S&B
I breezed through this until I hit the sw corner. I am still not sure I would use SLACK or STARTER as used in the puzzle, and RACONTEUR also took some time to see
All in all, an enjoyable outing.
Thanks Chandler and Pierre
All looking good up until SLACK and RACONTEUR, which eluded me so a disappointing DNF. To be fair I only had BLANK instead of SLACK so the checking letter between the two was incorrect, but I’ve never heard of RACONTEUR anyway so was never going to get it.
New for me were RIDDLE to mean sift, try to mean hear (I guess that’s from a legal sense, a judge would hear/try a case?), and RACONTEUR. Favourite was LOBELIA which I’d heard of but couldn’t have spelled without the wordplay – glad to have remembered ELI from previous crosswords.
Funnily enough Ted@13 I had quite a few in before thinking it had been a long time not to see an anagram in a Quiptic! Interesting how people differ in their approach and the order they tackle clues.
Thanks Chandler and Pierre
The most famous ocarina in popular culture is the Zelda game, Ocarina of Time.
Perhaps that ‘Time’ is the source of antiquity?
Question: I get that Trilby is a hat, I get “il” for “the”, I get “B” for bishop (and was able to solve on that basis), but what part of the clue would suggest “Try”?
SNB@22: hear indicates TRY – as in hear or try a legal case
A good quiptic although I was unable to parse STARTER or LEAFLET and I had to give up on SLACK where I had first confidently written “blase” (which I still like as an answer).
12A made me laugh – very witty!
Thank you for the very clear explanations, Pierre.
Very appropriate, but weren’t there too many question marks in the clues of the bottom left-hand corner?
It’s late in the week I know, but I just completed this, having been too busy earlier. Not many that I solve, so a good level thanks Chandler, and very encouraging explanations from Pierre, merci.
Egregio Sig. Chandler
Il panettone è un dolce natalizio italiano. Non è un pane ..dixit 7d “Italian bread”.
Grazie per la Sua cortese attenzione.
Cordiali saluti.
Excellent entry level crossword apart from the obscure NATTERY. But perhaps that was deliberate, to teach newcomers to trust their parsing even if the word is unknown. I failed to parse LEAFLET, so that is now my favourite. Thanks Chandler and Pierre.