Hectence made her debut as a Quiptic setter in the last century. That is not a poisson d’avril, btw, but a true fact. So I think you could say that she gets what the Quiptic is about, and this Bank Holiday offering is evidence of that.
One or two intricate parsings, but it’s all clearly set out in a solver-friendly grid, with the trademark Hectence pangram also included as an added bonus. For newcomers, that just means that she has used all 26 letters of the alphabet somewhere in the grid. Just for fun.
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 It’s Irish coming back following catastrophic start with epic finish for commentator
CRITIC
An insertion of IT and IR reversed, after C for the first letter of ‘catastrophic’ and followed by C for the final letter of ‘epic’. The reversal indicator is ‘coming back. You have to read ‘it’s’ as ‘it has’ to make sense of the cryptic grammar.
5 Appreciated priest reading me last letter
PRIZED
A charade of P, R, I and ZED. R for ‘reading’ is crosswordspeak: it comes from the expression ‘the three Rs’, referring to reading, writing and ‘rithmetic.
8 Have a go at hooligan getting hold of tree
LASH OUT
An insertion of ASH in LOUT. The insertion indicator is ‘getting hold of’.
9 Strict-living sect discovered imprisoned by revolutionary spies
ASCETIC
An insertion of (SECT)* in CIA reversed. The reversal indicator is ‘revolutionary’; the anagrind is ‘discovered’; the insertion indicator is ‘imprisoned by’.
11 Part of her is upset with studies being just as expected
PAR FOR THE COURSE
A charade of (PART OF HER)* and COURSE. The anagrind is ‘is upset’.
12 Disease picked up, passed quickly
FLEW
Aural wordplay (‘picked up’) of FLU.
13 Get in shape as sole new women’s rowing crew
LOSE WEIGHT
A charade of (SOLE)*, W and EIGHT. The anagrind is ‘new’.
17 Lying article in Paris Match heartily hurtful rubbish
UNTRUTHFUL
A charade of UN, one of the indefinite ‘articles’ in French, T for the central letter (‘heartily’) of ‘Match’ and (HURTFUL)* The anagrind is ‘rubbish’.
18 Tokyo gangsters showing physical and mental discipline
YOGA
Hidden in TokYO GAngsters.
20 Spy is not old enough to comprehend obscure books
UNDERCOVER AGENT
An insertion of COVER in UNDERAGE, followed by NT for New Testament or ‘books’. The insertion indicator is ‘to comprehend’.
23 Finally certify gross earned when accounts close
YEAR-END
A charade of Y for the final letter of ‘certify’ and (EARNED)* The anagrind is ‘gross’.
24 Read out note Romeo’s hidden inside fan
ADMIRER
An insertion of MI for the second note of the tonic sol-fa and R for the phonetic alphabet ‘Romeo’ in (READ)* The anagrind is ‘out’ and the insertion indicator is ‘hidden inside’.
25 Jumper has ruined front, covered in Jeyes fluid
JERSEY
An insertion of R for the initial letter of ‘ruined’ in (JEYES)* The insertion indicator is ‘covered in’ and the anagrind is ‘fluid’.
26 Care for daughter between 10 and 2 with wife going out
TEND TO
An insertion of D in TEN T[W]O. The insertion indicator is ‘between’.
Down
2 Almost certain to block acting ruler re-emerging
RESURGENT
An insertion of SUR[E] in REGENT. The insertion indicator is ‘to bkock’.
3 Tackled knot tangled round ducks
TOOK ON
An insertion of OO for two ‘ducks’ in (KNOT)* The insertion indicator is ’round’ and the anagrind is ‘tangled’.
4 Get chopper with Charlie, also heading on trip hosted by state
CUT A TOOTH
A charade of C for the phonetic alphabet ‘Charlie’ and TOO plus T for the first letter of ‘trip’ inserted into UTAH. The insertion indicator is ‘hosted by’.
5 Read aloud basic flier
PLANE
Aural wordplay (‘read aloud’) for PLAIN.
6 Enjoying happy days at home opening champagne with partner
IN CLOVER
A charade of IN, C for the initial letter of ‘champagne’ ad LOVER.
7 Consumer gets special rate after last time
EATER
A charade of E for the final letter of ‘time’ and (RATE)* The anagrind is ‘special’.
8 Comfort friend over foul play by jury disregarding judge
LAP OF LUXURY
A charade of PAL reversed, (FOUL)*, X for ‘by’ and [J]URY. The anagrind is ‘play’.
10 Indicate concern as King tries a ramble after lunch
CREATE A STIR
A charade of CR, EAT and (TRIES A)* The anagrind is ‘ramble’. Note to self: must remember that Brenda is departed and that Charles Rex is now i/c.
14 Very pleased with former taxi worker
EXUBERANT
A charade of EX, UBER and ANT.
15 Travel blog tore around Thailand
GLOBE-TROT
A charade of (BLOG TORE)* and T. The anagrind is ‘around’.
16 Accommodation divides into four
QUARTERS
A dd.
19 In combat manhandled masked superhero
BATMAN
Hidden in comBAT MANhandled.
21 Male bird finally spotted on garden tool
DRAKE
A charade of D for the final letter of ‘spotted’ and RAKE, and an opportunity (just) for the obligatory Pierre bird link, for which I thank the setter. Strictly, it just means ‘male duck’ and comes from the OE for ‘duck-king’, since you ask; but most commonly, folk associate it with the mallard, so that’s what I’ve chosen this morning.
22 Strangely not even lazy on vacation
ODDLY
A charade of ODD and L[AZ]Y.
Many thanks to Hectence for the Bank Holiday entertainment.
As a solver who has difficulty with Quiptics I found this too difficult.
I thought it was PR(iest)+I+ZED without the need for the Three R’s.
Yoakam@1: yes, I found it hard for a Quiptic.
A nice puzzle perfectly summed up by Pierre.
Thank you Pierre for your very clear blog and the spectacularly colourful mallard. I needed your help with CRITIC.
EXUBERANT made me laugh, although I wasn’t familiar with the cheerful/pleased connotation.
Collins: If you are exuberant, you are full of energy, excitement, and cheerfulness..
I was a bit flummoxed by eat for lunch in CREATE A STIR, but I suppose you can say I eat at 1, or I lunch at 1.
CUT A TOOTH made me think of Easy Rider (showing my age) although it wasn’t filmed in Utah. with the chopper and the trip, and Charlie is slang for cocaine.
Liked TOOK ON for the surface, and LAP OF LUXURY very clever, surface and wordplay.
I found this very enjoyable, with plenty of smiles.
I wouldn’t have equated “create a stir” with “indicate concern”.
gladys@2
PRIZED
I am with Pierre on this. Otherwise, the ‘reading’ is not accounted for.
P for Priest is supported by whatisitsname!
I agree with Yoakam @1 and gladys@3 that this was quite tough for a Quiptic.
Favourite: TEND TO.
Thanks, both.
I really don’t like to criticise , but there are so many normal cryptic crosswords available, I can’t understand why the quiptic can’t be a bit easier and therefore more fun for those of us who struggle, but still can’t throw in the tyrannic towel of cryptic crosswords. I have to disagree with Pierre – who I am so grateful to – and say that this was pretty far from a quiptic.
Hi – me again – from number 9. I’ve just found a string of easier ones, so maybe I was just getting a little frustrated with the difficult ones – sorry !
I thought this was reasonably tricky for a Quiptic. Not keen on e.g. ‘ruined front’ for R, ‘opening champagne’ for C, or ‘foul play’ for an anagram of FOUL; they seem to rely more on proximity of indicator/fodder than precision of instruction.
I did like YOGA, BATMAN, and GLOBE-TROT.
Getting there @9 – I would say that on most days, the Telegraph’s back-pager and especially the Times Quick Cryptic are better-pitched for someone learning the ropes than the Quiptic. Plus there’s more of them, so more chance to practice!
Thanks both.
Because of the crossers I finished this in record time for me but failed to parse CRITIC as at first I was hung up on Craic. Thanks Pierre for explaining the crossword speak.
Far from easy and ergo not suitable as a Quiptic. 6d and 7d are the level I expect in a Quiptic. 1a, 4d, 8d and 10d seem more like a Saturday Prize. Discovered as an anagrind in 9a seems decidedly dubious to me.
Lots of chuckles here. I can’t really comment on it’s suitably as a Quiptic I’ve been solving too long. Picaroon was definitely harder, I think. I thought the mix was good, you need to be challenged a little.
I realised as I was reading the blog that I had a lot of half parsed clues, but you know, you half parse it and the answer leaps out.
Thanks for the puzzle and the blog
In addition to what Amoeba@11 (a crossword puzzle setter) recommends, one looking for quiptic puzzles can try this as well:
https://games.dailymail.co.uk/games/daily-cryptic-crossword
I agree with the people who have said this was too difficult.
It would be great to get an “easier” crossword as I think the main cryptics are getting harder.
Where does COVER come from in 20a?
I originally parsed 5ac (PRIZED) like gladys @2 and was dissatisfied with the seemingly unnecessary “reading”. I agree with KVa that Pierre’s parsing is better for this reason. I don’t recall knowing that P could be an abbreviation for “priest”, but there are plenty of more implausible one-letter abbreviations in crosswordland.
Steffen@16
UNDERCOVER AGENT
to obscure=to COVER (in the sense of to conceal/hide)
Ted@17
PRIZED
P=priest (Chambers)
18. Thank you
Peter Kennetson@13: “Discovered” to me indicates that the word needs to have its outer letters removed: SECT discovered = EC. But I can’t see a way of parsing ASCETIC that allows this.
I was all ready to give up on cryptics after a couple of last week’s, but this one was lovely. Never finished before the blog was available before! Thanks Hectence and Pierre.
I found this a perfect Quiptic level, but given comments above perhaps I just was on Hectence’s wavelength.
Liked this, it went steadily. Re 10d, agree with GDU, it doesn’t really equate plus I forgot “lunch” was a verb as well as a noun, so was held up for a minute or two…thanks to Hectence and Pierre.
Enjoyable and certainly not a stroll in the park. Favourites and quibbles have been mentioned already, so I will not repeat them.
Thanks, Hortence and Pierre.
I agree with all the comments, this was enjoyable. But where is Pierre’s mallard? He’s not showing up on my screen.
He’s still there, Valentine, if you click on the obligatory Pierre bird link. Or here, if he really has gone awol on your screen.
I found this hard (I have been having a go at quiptics for a few months now). Please can someone explain ducks = oo, and by = x?
marmite22@27 A duck is a batter’s score of zero in cricket. So duck = zero = o, and ducks = oo
x is the symbol for multiplication, as in 3×4 = 12, otherwise 3 by 4 = 12
Thanks @crossbar!
I am such a big fan of yours Pierre – you explain things so clearly. But I don’t think that this was a Quiptic – much too complex for this slot.
Got there in the end but struggled to parse a couple.
Ashamed to say I’ve always misheard par for the course as ‘part of the course’ and now I’m wondering whether I’ve picked this up from other ignoramuses or if it was just me.
Also never heard of cut a tooth in the singular, only as an expression for learning skills, but worked it out from the cluing.
I enjoyed the puzzle but I do have a few more quibbles. Create a stir isn’t really indicate concern, it’s cause concern. And untruthful isn’t really a straight swap for lying, although it’s close enough to work.
Found him, Pierre, I didn’t notice that “obligatory Pierre bird link” was a link! He’s magnificent.
newbie@30: When our kids were young, they would inevitably CUT A TOOTH from time to time (and grizzle). And you can CREATE A STIR if you point out someone else’s wrongdoing. I had a partially parsed CELTIC at 1a until 2d put me right. And I had ‘reading me’ = I, so the priest was PR. Thanks, Hectence and Pierre.
I’m a bit late to the party as I only finished this today – LOI was GLOBE TROT which I just couldn’t see yesterday but was then obvious this morning.
I have to agree with others that this was a bit on the hard side for a Quiptic, but as a counter to that I also found it great fun, with a wide variety of very well constructed clues.
My only real quibble was with “discovered” as an anagrind in ASCETIC, echoing Peter @13 – I’m with Gladys @20 in that I took this to mean “dis-cover” sect to get EC and this held me up for a while.
Favourites were LAP OF LUXURY and EXUBERANT.
Thanks to Hectence and Pierre.
Felt a lack of explanation in these answers. Not always clear on why the solution was what it was. So not helpful for a newbie at these cryptic crosswords.