Anto’s first crosswords for the Guardian were in the Quiptic slot, and it’s fair to say that they were not universally well received, either for their quality or for their suitability for the Quiptic slot. He moved on to the daily cryptic (which isn’t a ‘promotion’, btw) and continued to be seen in the Quiptic as well; but I don’t think we’ve seen him set a Quiptic since the new editor took over.
I have to say that this seemed to me to be a puzzle that was specifically written for the Quiptic slot, so well done to the editor for the direction and bravo to the setter for working to that brief. It would probably sit at the top end of the scale of trickiness – we are about to find out – but it was all, I think, within the boundaries of what an improving solver could enjoy and complete. Or mostly complete, which is where when I was an improving solver, I would often be quite satisfied to be.
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 Grow quickly, providing benefit everyone participates in
BALLOON
An insertion of ALL in BOON. The insertion indicator is ‘participates in’.
5 Gives up and prepares to travel home
PACKS IN
A charade of PACKS and IN. ‘Is Anthony home/in?’
9 An early version of old copper vessel
DRAFT
A charade of D for ‘old copper’ and RAFT. D for denarius is part of the LSD or pounds, shillings and pence system, which disappeared in February 1971, hence ‘old’.
10 Entertainers turn on match
DOUBLE ACT
A charade of DOUBLE and ACT. ‘On’ points you to the order of the two particles. ‘Who’s the turn/act tonight?’
11 Congratulations for being so healthy
GOOD FOR YOU
A dd, a good spot, and a lovely surface reading.
12 English auntie dismisses conservative retreat
EBB
A charade of E and BB[C]. ‘Auntie’ is Britspeak for the BBC and it comes up reasonably regularly in cryptics, so is worth storing away.
14 Against constant reversal in position – it delays waste elimination
CONSTIPATION
A charade of CON and PI for the mathematical ‘constant’ reversed in STATION. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
18 Encouraging core faction to hold on to weapon
HEARTWARMING
A charade of HEART and ARM inserted into WING. The insertion indicator is ‘to hold on to’.
21 Express disapproval when adult has left chore
TSK
T[A]SK
22 Ape mother’s complicated mood
ATMOSPHERE
(APE MOTHERS)* with ‘complicated’ as the anagrind.
25 Arranging vague trip to find cure for 14?
PURGATIVE
(VAGUE TRIP)* with ‘arranging’ as the anagrind.
26 Return information found in a small piece of bone
TIBIA
An insertion of I in A BIT, all reversed. The insertion indicator is ‘found in’ and the reversal indicator is ‘return’.
27 Add label to minced food – it’s a pound sign
HASHTAG
A charade of HASH and TAG. ‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’ Which is, interestingly, what speakers have done with HASHTAG since it was coined not long ago. Strictly, the # is just the ‘hash’ sign, also referred to as the ‘pound sign’ from its old use to represent the avoirdupois pound. HASHTAG is the word or phrase preceded by the hash sign. So in, say, #NotMyKing, it is the ‘Not My King’ that is the HASHTAG, not the sign itself. But everybody now uses it the way Anto has indicated, saying ‘Hashtag not my King’ before they get arrested for treason by an overzealous policeman.
28 Close to having 22 missing
AIRLESS
A charade of AIR for a synonym for the solution to 22across and LESS.
Down
1 Criminal has sack full of diamonds for example
BAD EGG
An insertion of D and EG in BAG. The insertion indicator is ‘full of’.
2 Pressurise poor over working
LEAN ON
A charade of LEAN and ON. ‘Is the fridge on/working?’
3 Unhappy when husband leaves having no underwear?
OUT OF SORTS
OUT OF S[H]ORTS
4 Pulling up some off-grid anarchist – it’s a low point
NADIR
Hidden reversed in off-gRID ANarchist.
5 Decaying muon lit up some dangerous stuff
PLUTONIUM
(MUON LIT UP)* with ‘decaying’ as the anagrind.
6 Ocean life regularly features this young animal
CALF
The even letters of oCeAn LiFe.
7 Skinny kid putting together some barbecue food
SPARE RIB
A charade of SPARE and RIB. ‘She was kidding/ribbing him all afternoon.’
8 It’s important component of gunboats
NOTA BENE
NOTA BENE is the Latin phrase meaning ‘note well’ or, as the setter has it, ‘It’s important’. Usually it’s abbreviated to NB, which you’ll find as part of guNBoats.
13 Society is not safe from this religious gatekeeper
SAINT PETER
A charade of S, AINT and PETER. PETER as slang for a ‘safe’ that you keep valuable things in comes up occasionally in crossies and is another one to tuck away if you didn’t know it already.
15 Shocking for a bird when taking temperature
STARTLING
An insertion of T in STARLING. The insertion indicator is ‘when taking’.
16 Cabin on health resort sounds daring
CHUTZPAH
I can’t make this work. ‘Sounds’ is indicating aural wordplay for SPA, which gives us the ZPAH bit; HUT is the ‘cabin’; but I can’t see where the initial C comes from. Some kind soul will explain, I’m sure.
17 Runs around animal shelter – magic
DARK ARTS
An insertion of ARK in DARTS. The insertion indicator is ‘around’.
19 Weak charge almost drained
FEEBLE
A charade of FEE and BLE[D].
20 Setter follows one out to get gold or silver perhaps
METALS
A charade of ME and TA[I]LS. It wasn’t MEDALS, was it? When in doubt, follow the instructions (like your blogger, eventually).
23 Character immersed in some game
OMEGA
Hidden in sOME GAme.
24 Opening of false accounts conceals troubling truth
FACT
The initial letters of the third, fourth, fifth and sixth letters of the clue.
Many thanks to Anto for this week’s Quiptic.
All very fair with only NOTE BENE causing me a problem. I’ve always been a fan of this setter.
Ta Anto & Pierre.
16d sounds like HUT SPA
3d Are shorts underwear? Is that an Americanism?
Some fun but I thought Nota bene and chutzpah were fiendish.
Can someone explain spare rib and double act in more detail please. Thanks to both setter and blogger.
Thanks Anto and Pierre
Agree with Shirl x 2 and AlanC.
Liked Fact a lot .
Spare can mean Skinny in terms of body shape. To Rib is to mock or to Kid. Spare Ribs are a form of barbecue food
Entertainers is the clue to whole solution – Double Act( as in More one and Wise) A Double is a Match, as in two things which are identical. An Act is a Turn, as in a comedy skit. On means Double proceeds Act in answer even though it followed in clue
Morning Crackers.
SPARE RIB is as Matthew has indicated, and with the example sentence I gave in the blog.
DOUBLE ACT is a charade made of two words: DOUBLE, meaning ‘match’ in the sense of ‘he’s his double/he’s his match’ if two men look identical; and ACT as in the example sentence in the blog. ‘Turn’ for ACT (as in someone who’s performing) is perhaps more northern dialect than standard English. In the past it would be heard in working men’s clubs in my native North-East, certainly.
Thank you, Matthew, for the second explanation too.
I will fess up to an example of ‘well, I never knew it was pronounced like that’. For all my life, I have been pronouncing CHUTZPAH with an initial ch sound like ‘chutney’. How embarrassing. I will crawl back under my stone now for the rest of the day.
Thanks for a good blog. But this was no Quiptic as far as I am concerned; probably one of those that suits some solvers more than others. A good puzzle, but one that would have been right at home as an old-style early-in-the-week cryptic. A good example was NOTA BENE, which is fairly obscure to many people who haven’t learned Latin at school, and was tricky to parse if you didn’t happen to spot Anto’s thinking.
CHUTZPAH is a word I have seen written far more often than I have heard it, so its parsing also puzzled me for a while.
Thank you, Pierre, for saving me the trouble of writing a short essay on HASHTAG!
@Pierrre №7 and 8 I had noted you had blogged TWO puzzles by 0900 hrs Lt so thought I could lend a hand. Kudos for two excellent blogs so swiftly
Not familiar with this setters style.Harder than a quiptic but probably slightly easier than the daily cryptics?Still can’t understand how 16D came about🤔
Well this deteriorating solver found it quite hard, but that probably says more about me than the puzzle, as it all seems fair after the event.
@DrMZs №12
Cabin gives Hut (a small rough building.) Health Resort gives Spa . If one says those two answers together; HutSpa can sound very like Chutzpah which means Daring (more often used to mean brazenness or impudence – but can be more positive)
Here’s a link to Wiktionary which has audio of pronunciation
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/chutzpah
I agree with Monkey@10. I would not class this as a Quiptic = a “cryptic puzzle for beginners and those in a hurry.” For me, it was quite difficult as a cryptic (let alone a Quiptic) and harder than today’s Everyman puzzle.
I’m not sure that the front bit of 16d works all that well as a homonym but I liked the ZPAH= spa bit.
I could not parse 8d; 12ac – I forgot about BBC = Auntie – and in Australia we also call the ABC auntie as well. Apparently, the ABC became informally referred to as “Aunty”, originally in imitation of the British Broadcasting Corporation’s nickname.
Thanks, both.
Matthew Newell @6: I did laugh at your new double act. NOTA BENE caused me such trouble, I couldn’t even get it right @1!
Thanks Pierre and Mathew for helping. I had not heard of spare for skinny before, but the double = match clicked in and now I can’t see how I did not spot that!
I had this in and parsed, but would agree chewy for a Quiptic – about the same level as the Anto we had midweek a few weeks back.
I like Anto, enjoy his quirky cluing as a solver, but was grateful not to be blogging this as a Quiptic.
Chutzpah is Yiddish – so the initial Ch is anglicised to sound like an aitch, but it’s really that back of the throat sound in Germanic languages, as in doch, nacht. Being a north-easterner, the U in your hut is nearer than the RP version.
Thank you to Pierre and Anto.
I’ll add my agreement to Matthew @10, and the fact that in the thread there’s been a need for further explanation/clarity of some of the clues underlines for me that this wasn’t well-pitched as a Quiptic.
I got NOTA BENE but without parsing. Fairly clued, but like a lot of this it seemed far more within cryptic territory. I’m grateful also for the clarity on SPARE RIB, DOUBLE ACT for similar reasons.
I revealed three or four in the SW corner. I wish I’d adjusted my approach and treated this as a cryptic, as I might have then had the patience to complete it (which has worked for me in the past when there’s been a quiptic/cryptic mismatch).
Perfectly good puzzle, but a shame it’s been put in the Quiptic slot.
Thanks Ant and Pie. Good puzzle and blog. Held up by NOTA BENE until the copper coin dropped. Spent too long trying to figure out a piece of equipment that gunboat may have.
I liked it. A little confused as put in packs up for 5 across, then couldn’t fit anything in to 8 down until I checked it.
Many thanks all.
Sorry, where I put ‘Matthew @10’ that should have been ‘Monkey @10’ in my comment above. I’m sure no-one’s day would have been ruined if I hadn’t corrected it, but it would have bugged me not to do so…
These blogs are fabulous, especially when the quiptic is one of the tougher ones. I understand all the solutions now. I got NOTA BENE from the cross letters, but as a newbie getting NB from gunboats still seems like a bit of a stretch!.
Another who didn’t spot the NB lurking in guNBoats or the BBC in EBB, and I didn’t parse CONSTIPATION either. Got confused by trying to treat PACKS IN as a straight double-def instead of the charade it actually was, and CHUTZPAH (like Pierre) as something more complex than a full sound-alike. I enjoy Anto, but I think he is better suited to the Cryptic slot – this is tricky for a Quiptic.
Too hard for me – had to reveal several and even after guessing some correctly didn’t understand the parsing. So thank you all here for helping me out. At least I managed Everyman last week ( apart from 6d where I wanted to put mouth or tooth). And quick cryptic yesterday was good. So I’m trying not to be discouraged.
I agree with scraggs@19: this was a perfectly good puzzle but it really didn’t belong in the Quiptic slot.
I wonder how many folk outside Britain know the old term for the Beeb? (And honestly, does anyone use it anymore?)
Thanks Pierre and Anto
I thought this was tough but fair, so a satisfying solve. I put in EBB for retreat without knowing that the BBC was an auntie. CHUTZPAH went in from the crossers and I didn’t know about the C being silent. thank you Anton and Pierre.
As experienced solvers we found this tricky in places, so would agree it’s at the top level of difficulty for a quiptic. We too would have pronounced CHUTZPAH with the ‘ch’ as in ‘cheer’. And, probably influenced by certain games taking place in Paris, we had the ‘gold or silver’ in 20dn as ‘medals’ – no wonder we couldn’t parse it.
A generally enjoyable solve, though. We liked the cross-referances between 14ac and 25ac, and between 22ac and 28ac. Thanks, Anto and Pierre.
Thanks for the patient beginner-friendly explanations! I am even after many years still far from a proficient solver and filled in several answers without parsing (7d, 9d, 19d), plus several more where I’d missed something (e.g. the “close” in 28d being the actual definition and not just an indicator of metaphorical usage).
So it seemed to me a bit tough/abstract for a Quiptic but I (sort of) got there in the end and did really enjoy some clues – e.g. was tickled by the surfaces on 4 and 5d.
Is “skinny” for “spare” a reference to a car’s skinny spare tyre or is there some less newfangled meaning I’m not aware of?
Volespotter@29: ‘Skinny’ has long been used to describe (or even as a nickname for) a very thin person.
allan_c@30: Thanks – I was aware of that half of the equation but the other half less so, though it is certainly far from new-fangled, as Wiktionary provides a Shakespeare quotation!
spare adjective
7. Lean; lacking flesh; meager; thin; gaunt.
“O, give me the spare men, and spare me the great ones.”
And of course I should have thought of “spare” meaning sparing or frugal*. So, my ignorance at work again – apologies, all.
* Perhaps odd for a word which also means surplus to requirements; like the opposite of my confusion at Young People using “bare” to mean “a lot of” when it makes me think of a “bare minimum”, or Old Mother Hubbard having conspicuously not a lot of anything…
The CHUTZPAH homophone isn’t perfect, but it’s close enough to be amusing. (Which hopefully is the point of crosswords, right?) Yiddish loan words are more commonly seen and heard in American English than over your way–we have a larger and more visible Jewish community here, so that’s not surprising–so no wonder most of you didn’t know how to pronounce it. The U in CHUTZPAH is closer to the vowel in “good” than it is to the one in “hut,” and as someone already said, the CH (if you’re pronouncing it like it’s Yiddish) is more like it is in the Scottish “loch” than a true H. Now I’ll shut up so I don’t sound like a schmuck.
Shirl@3: I was under the impression “shorts” for underwear was a Britishism! I think I’ve heard it said maybe once. I am pretty sure “shorts” means short-legged trousers to everyone I know. But hey–the underwear version is in the dictionary, so…
I completed this which feels really good as a couple of the puzzles at the end of last week were a real dnf struggle. Couldn’t parse them all but lots of new learning to squirrel away, Auntie completely flummoxed me and I am ashamed to say that I have never realised that NB was short for NOTA BENE. Thank you for the clear explanations Pierre (and to Anto for the puzzle)
Thank you so much. Will file auntie away in grey matter. Hope it comes up soon. I couldn’t understand v 8d either. Its neat. Like it. Thought it was a little tough. But mostly fair and fun.
I never felt I was on the wavelength of the setter. I was surprised by how challenging this was and I finished with a couple unparsed. I cannot say any clues stood out as favourites.
Would someone tell me why information is I in TIBIA please?
Thanks Anto and Pierre
I is a standard abbreviation for Information (think of those websites with an i in a circle). I still do the Quiptic on Mondays and found this hard Many thanks for the explanation of DOUBLE ACT and for pointing out the NB in GUNBOAT. And I also pronounce CHUTZPAH with the CH as in chore Ah well…
Martyn, I is a standard abbreviation for Information (think of those websites with an i in a circle). I still do the Quiptic on Mondays and found this hard Many thanks for the explanation of DOUBLE ACT and for pointing out the NB in GUNBOAT. And I also pronounce CHUTZPAH with the CH as in chore Ah well…
Apologies for the double comment. It didn’t show up the first time.
I managed about half of this. Of the ones I didn’t get, I understood the clue after revealing in nearly all cases, except for a couple of gaps in my vocabulary (NOTA BENE and PETER for “safe”). Favourite was easily 3d.
Thanks Anto and Pierre.
Could someone please explain why “gold or silver perhaps” = metals, rather than metal singular?
If it said “gold and silver perhaps” I would expect it to be plural, but am I wrong here too?
I found this one difficult and agree with others here that it felt a little too hard for a Quiptic. I still don’t understand how the word play around DOUBLE ACT works from reading Pierre’s explanation 😄, and CHUTZPAH I think I got HUT from ‘cabin’ but then guessed the rest based on crossers. A number I was guessing letters or getting the answer direct from the definition and then having to work back for the parsing. Thanks Anto for the challenge and Pierre for explanations.
Difficult to get an initial foothold but once about third of the crossers in, the rest of the puzzle completed fairly quickly, though I now learn that I did not parse all the clues entirely correctly! A chewy but do-able Quiptic, albeit in longer time than usual. Thanks Anto and Pierre.
Got about half whilst drinking my morning coffee but gave up on the second half whilst having my afternoon tea
Thanks Beobactarin@37 & @38. I will look out for that symbol, as it is not familiar to me. Good to learn.
I did not find I to mean information in any dictionary, and I tried a couple of emails asking for “I”, and no-one so far has understood what I meant. The setter seems to be skating on thin ice with that one
Another poor showing here.
As I have already lamented below the line on the Guardian I struggle to see quite why I can’t make that leap from the Quick Cryptic which fills a very enjoyable hour on a Saturday morning and the Quiptic which seems an utter ball ache for me.
Have decided that taking a few weeks out from the Quiptic is a good idea – I really don’t need something that is just a massive frustration and devoid of any joy in my life at the minute.
thecronester @42: since your comment comes toward the end of the list, I’ll assume you are in N. American like me. I don’t know if it’s strictly a British thing, but the definition of “turn” as ACT is something you’ll never hear in N. Am. English but it appears frequently enough in cryptics that I’ve learned it. The DOUBLE, of course, comes from match = twin.
A tricky one.
Only got Nata Bene via Margot in the Good Life
Crossword usages that are “Things that nobody has said in real life since 1952”, like “Auntie” meaning the BBC, or “Peter” to mean safe (??) are such an unsatisfying obstacle to encounter. Some people just enjoy the feeling of being “in the know” of these obscure and meaningless archaisms, but they should be binned where they belong.
Whenever I puzzle over a clue for ages only to check here and find out that “H” is an antiquated synonym for “cat” in some defunct university’s 1921 charter, it makes me want to throw toast at the wall.
Fru @49: I feel the same. Also, when it turns out to be some specific posh sailing term, or something related to expensive dining, or some obscure British county. When I tried to raise it as an area that could be improved, the returned attitude was “well it works for me so too bad for you, go do something else”, as if we can’t try to make things better for all. What a miserable worldview. It’s hostile, exclusionary, and disappointing when cryptics are picking up steam as a pastime amongst my friends in their 20s and 30s, and there are so few that make us feel welcome. These puzzles are a great alternative to doomscrolling and other negative phone habits, it’s frustrating that they are being made every single day for a very specific group of people who don’t seem to want to include others.
Re 16dn, I’m with mrpenney@32: “The CHUTZPAH homophone isn’t perfect, but it’s close enough to be amusing. (Which hopefully is the point of crosswords, right?)”. The pronunciations are pretty different for me — both the first consonant and the first vowel differ — but homophone clues would be nearly impossible if we insisted on a perfect pronunciation match for all of the varieties of English out there.
If I were feeling particularly churlish, I’d complain that the cryptic reading of 24dn requires “openings” rather than “opening”. (And if my memory were sharper, I’d remember the name of the rhetorical device I just used, sneaking in a mention of something by observing that one is not mentioning it.)
I was one who complained about Anto a fair amount in the early days, so I like to give him credit where due: I thought this was a very good Quiptic (albeit probably toward the more difficult end).
I haven’t missed Anto, in fact I agreed with the responder who was once so annoyed he came up with his own clue: “not a poor, poor setter” (or similar), but I did enjoy this one.