Don’t worry, it’s not Monday already! The Quiptic has now moved to Sundays, with very little advance warning. Sorry this blog is a little later in the day than usual, but I wasn’t expecting to see the puzzle until tomorrow . . .
In other respects this puzzle is business as usual; Pasquale is good at these entry-level puzzles, although he can do tricky ones too when he wants to. I enjoyed the two bishops with dramatic ambitions in 17a and 29a (with the two different abbreviations they often have in Crosswordland), and the neat construction of the European in 3d (which had me puzzling over Caledonian for far too long). Thanks Pasquale for the fun.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| Across | ||
| 9 | ESPLANADE | Part of Mollie’s plan: a delightful walk by the seaside? (9) |
| Hidden answer (part of . . .) in [molli]ES PLAN A DE[lightful].
A public walkway, usually along a seafront. |
||
| 10 | PAPER | Stuff hanging on wall? It is the norm around gym (5) |
| PAR (the norm, for example the “expected” score in a round of golf) around PE (abbreviation for Physical Education = gym). | ||
| 11 | TRIPE | Food taking time to mature (5) |
| T (abbreviation for time) + RIPE (mature, as an adjective). | ||
| 12 | LEGENDARY | Fabled lad playing with energy (9) |
| Anagram (playing) of LAD + ENERGY. | ||
| 13 | TANGOES | In dances one finds beat disappears (7) |
| TAN (beat = thrash) + GOES (disappears). | ||
| 14 | MAIDENS | Girls and men said to be bad (7) |
| Anagram (to be bad) of MEN SAID. | ||
| 17 | BAMBI | Bishop has ambition – not half! – to be in children’s film (5) |
| B (abbreviation for bishop), then AMBI[tion] but not the second half of it.
The Disney classic animation from 1942. |
||
| 19 | SIT | Squat as one blocking street (3) |
| I (one in Roman numerals) inserted into (blocking) ST (abbreviation for street). | ||
| 20 | PATIO | Some occupation that may be outside the house (5) |
| Hidden answer (some . . .) in [occu]PATIO[n].
A paved area, usually between a house and its garden. |
||
| 21 | REIGNED | Came down, reportedly, and acted as monarch (7) |
| Homophone (reportedly) of RAINED (came down). | ||
| 22 | CARAMEL | Sweet desert animal carrying artist (7) |
| CAMEL (desert animal) containing (carrying) RA (abbreviation for Royal Academician = artist). | ||
| 24 | CATTLEMAN | Worker who may shift stock (9) |
| Cryptic-ish definition: the worker in question is moving cows and bulls around, not shifting boxes in and out of a warehouse. | ||
| 26 | ORDER | Directive establishing borders with borders disappearing (5) |
| [b]ORDER[s] with the end letters (borders) disappearing). “Establishing” seems a bit long for a link word, but I think that’s what it is. | ||
| 28 | SEINE | Observe home being surrounded by that river (5) |
| SEE (observe), with IN (home = at home) surrounded by it.
The river that flows through Paris. |
||
| 29 | NARRATION | A bishop in the country telling a story? (9) |
| A + RR (abbreviation for Right Reverend = title for a bishop), in NATION (country). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MEAT | Male to consume pork? (4) |
| M (abbreviation for male) + EAT (consume).
Definition by example, indicated by the question mark. |
||
| 2 | OPTION | Work? Not I – terrible choice! (6) |
| OP (abbreviation for Latin opus = a musical work) + anagram (terrible) of NOT I. | ||
| 3 | MACEDONIAN | European club joined by two men (10) |
| MACE (club = weapon for hitting people with), then DON + IAN (two men’s names).
A somewhat disputed term: from the country now known as North Macedonia, from the region of northern Greece known as Macedonia, or from a group of countries in this general area of south-eastern Europe. |
||
| 4 | CALLUS | Skin problem? Phone America! (6) |
| CALL (as a verb = phone = contact by telephone) + US (abbreviation for the United States of America).
An area of thickened hard skin. |
||
| 5 | BERGAMOT | Get me to grab rotten fruit (8) |
| Anagram (rotten) of ME TO GRAB.
A citrus fruit: similar to a bitter orange but yellowish-green. |
||
| 6 | OPEN | Duck enclosure not shut up (4) |
| O (zero = duck, in cricket scoring) + PEN (enclosure for animals). | ||
| 7 | APPARENT | A quiet relation, that’s obvious (8) |
| A + P (abbreviation for Italian piano = musical term for quiet) + PARENT (relation). | ||
| 8 | TRAY | Attempt to carry a carrier (4) |
| TRY (attempt), containing (to carry) A. | ||
| 13 | TUBER | Potato maybe in container here when peeled (5) |
| TUB (container), then [h]ER[e] with the outer letters “peeled” off.
A swollen underground stem of a plant, such as a potato. |
||
| 15 | IMPERSONAL | Unlikely pair, solemn and distant (10) |
| Anagram (unlikely) of PAIR + SOLEMN.
Impersonal = distant = unfriendly. |
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| 16 | STOOL | Second implement found in seat (5) |
| S (abbreviation for second) + TOOL (implement). | ||
| 18 | MAINTAIN | Assert chief ain’t wicked (8) |
| MAIN (chief = most important) + anagram (wicked) of AIN’T.
As in “to maintain one’s innocence” = assert = insist on. |
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| 19 | SEDIMENT | Deposit dispatched – small amount of money enclosed (8) |
| SENT (dispatched), with DIME (ten US cents = small amount of money) enclosed.
Solid material falling to the bottom of a liquid. |
||
| 22 | CENTRE | HQ maybe in decent region (6) |
| Hidden answer (in . . .) in [de]CENT RE[gion]. | ||
| 23 | MADE IT | Mum on new diet achieved the desired result (4,2) |
| MA (mum = mother) + anagram (new) of DIET.
As in “I thought I’d be late for the train but I just made it”. |
||
| 24 | CAST | Hurled bits finally eaten by pet? (4) |
| Final letter of [bit]S contained in (eaten by) CAT (possibly a pet). | ||
| 25 | LIES | Biographies, not very short stories (4) |
| LI[v]ES (biographies), without V (abbreviation for very = “very, short”).
Slang for untrue accounts = lies. |
||
| 27 | RANK | Offensive position (4) |
| Double definition. Rank = offensive = disgusting; or as in first, second or third position / rank. |
I found this straightforward and enjoyable. Favourites were RANK LIES and IMPERSONAL. Thanks Pasquale and Quirster
This was a breeze, just zipped through it…like Quirister, also momentarily had “Caledonian” and couldn’t parse LIES, but those were the only two hiccups…
Thank you to Pasquale and Quirister
As always, Pasquale provides the perfect quiptic. Thanks to him and Quirister.
The only confusing one was MAINTAIN, where AINT was both contained in MAIN and also fodder for an anagram following it. I liked MACEDONIAN (Don just had to be one of the two gents!)
Failed with BERGoMaT – 50/50 choice and CALEDONIAN – parsing it as C=club, ALED ON IAN. This kind of a grid is a nightmare for not having the first letter of answers. And I CBA to think my way round Europe’s 47 countries or whatever it is these days.
Struggled to break into the SW corner until I initially put CAMERAMAN thinking of film stock.
LIES – I parsed the definition as “short stories” with the V=VERY on its own
9 – “Mollie’s” is also a reference to ecstasy, or e’s in my tiny mind 😉
Thoroughly enjoyed this one! Thanks setter and blogger
Only just discovered this on Monday — didn’t think to look for it on Sunday. Certainly a quickie. Good fun, LIES the only one I didn’t parse. I didn’t think CATTLEMAN was cryptic.
I had ????RONIAN for a long Time and then I thought of MACE, ah, wrong bloke. Took a while to spot PATIO and work out BERGAMOT, I’ve come across the word, but vaguely knew it was edible. I thought it was a herb or a spice.
Nice to have an easy but well clued one occasionally. Restores my faith in myself.
Thanks both, now off to see if I can find the miniquiptic.
A real good Quiptic this one.Managed to complete it in fairly good time.
This was a fun Quiptic. I think it is a good one for beginners. It felt weird to be doing it on a Sunday though!
Thanks, both.
Waited until Monday morning to try this. As others have said – good cryptic.
Liked: MACEDONIAN, CALLUS, SEDIMENT
Thanks Pasquale and Quirister
Thank you Mr Connor for two sensible and thoughtful innovations. Now that you have proved that change is possible, please can we have interactive grid-fill on Genius and non-standard Prize crosswords – forcing the use of a printer is inconvenient, expensive and environmentally unfriendly.
That was a nice Quiptic. I know it has moved to Sundays, but it’s going to take me a while to change the Monday tradition.
I liked BERGAMOT, MACEDONIAN and RANK.
Thanks to Pasquale and Quirister.
Even I got most of these without cheating, so it must be an easy one. Thanks both
Would the directive be better setting borders, rather than establishing them?
Pretty straightforward. Does this mean that the Everyman will be more difficult in future? I’ve certainly struggled with this week’s puzzle.
Got Bergamot from the clue, but didn’t know it was a fruit! All this time I’ve been enjoying my Earl Grey in ignorance.
Re 4d, a CALLUS is not a skin problem for a string player. Just the opposite, we work at developing calluses on our fingertips (and thumbs for cellists and bassists) so they won’t bleed when we practice too much.
Thanks Pasquale for the perfectly-pitched puzzle and Quirister for the quintessentially quality Quiptic blog. (I’m minding my Ps and Qs today.)
Tricky for a quiptic. Held up on LH side for a while. Couldn’t parse 10A and didn’t get 25D or 27D at all as had NARRATIVE instead of NARRATION in 29A.
[I also didn’t know bergamot was a fruit. I just knew that it was the way that Earl Grey contrived to ruin a perfectly nice cup of tea.
I think Captain Picard has a lot to answer for: I blame his signature order of “tea, Earl Grey, hot” for the fact that lots of non-tea-drinkers assume that Earl Grey is something they should serve their unsuspecting guests. But since he saved the Galaxy multiple times, I guess he’s forgiven.]
I got there, so I guess it was a relatively easy one.
Two questions though —
28 — Is there a reason why the word “that” is used rather than the simpler “a”?
13 — what is the “In” doing at the start of the clue? I thought that the definition was at one end or the other of a cryptic crossword clue, but this definition (“dances”) is separated from the edge by “In”. Seeing that useless “In” there made me think that “disappears” must be the definition.
Thanks to S & B, as always
Horexio Helgar @22: these are good questions.
28: We need “that” because of the order in which the two parts of the wordplay are given. SEE comes first, then IN is “surrounded by that” = surrounded by SEE. I agree “a” would be a smoother surface reading, but it would mean the clue wouldn’t work.
13: “In . . . one finds” is all really just link words: in the definition, one finds the wordplay. It’s a little odd to find something like this outside the definition, but it’s not unheard-of in crosswords. Something similar happens in 5 (though here the wordplay is first): the initial “get” isn’t required for the wordplay but contributes to the flow of the surface. Though on reflection it’s perhaps not something you’d expect to find in the Quiptic, which is supposed to be an entry-level puzzle.
Quirister@23 — thanks for taking the time to respond. I appreciate it.
28 now makes perfect sense to me.
13 is still a bit confusing to me, but I’m sure I’ll get used to this approach as I continue to do cryptics. Incidentally, I did consider adding a third question to my post about that “get” in 5, so I’m very glad you mentioned it yourself:)
A week late to this one. Very enjoyable. LOI was CATTLEMAN. Took too long looking at the misdirections, which included moving the market (stocks and shares) as well as moving boxes in a warehouse. Thanks Pasquale and Quirister.