This is the twentieth Guardian Quick Cryptic, a series of 11 x 11 crosswords designed to support beginners learning cryptic crosswords. The whole point of these crosswords is support and encouragement of new solvers, so special rules for these crosswords apply – see here. The puzzle can be found here.
This week we continue consolidating clue types learned earlier in the series, and with anagrams and alternate letter clues, plus the soundalikes and charades, this should be familiar ground to those who’ve been following this series. There are some new tricks, discussed below.
Fifteen Squared uses several abbreviations and jargon tricks, there’s a full list here, of which I’ve used the following in this blog:
- underlining the definition in the clue – this is either at the beginning or end of the clue
- CAPITALS to indicate which bits are part of the answer, e.g. PASS (qualify) to get PORT (drink) or EnViEd, see below
- anagram *(SENATOR) shows letters in clue being used, see clue below.
- anagrind the anagram indicator (arranged)
- homophones/soundalikes are shown in inverted commas – Oscar ‘Wilde’ sounds like wild (see below)
- surface – the meaning from reading the clue – so often cryptic clues use an English that could only be found in a cryptic crossword, but a smooth surface is a clue that has a meaning in English, which can be pointed or misleading.
TODAY’S TRICKS – from the crossword site – which can be found at www.theguardian.com/crosswords/quick-cryptic/20
Clues begin or end with a definition of the answer. The rest is one of these:
- Anagram An anagram of the answer and a hint that there’s an anagram
‘Senator arranged crime (7)’ gives TREASON - Charade A combination of synonyms
‘Qualify to get drink for ID (8)’ gives PASSPORT (pass + port) - Soundalike Something that sounds like the answer
‘Excited as Oscar’s announced (4)’ gives WILD - Alternate letters Choose every other letter for the answer
‘Oddly envied First Lady? (3)’ gives EVE
| ACROSS |
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| 1 |
One sitcom’s funny for financial experts (10)
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ECONOMISTS
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anagram of (ONE SITCOM’S)* with anagrind of funny
funny is a new anagrind to this series – but it’s one that comes up regularly
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| 7 |
Invitee made suppositions loudly (5)
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GUEST
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soundalike (loudly) of ‘guessed’ (made suppositions)
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| 8 |
Equine speaking with a croaky voice (5)
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HORSE
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soundalike (speaking) of ‘hoarse’ (with a croaky voice)
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| 9 |
Get mousse regularly for Aussie natives that can’t fly (4)
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EMUS
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alternate letters (regularly) of gEt MoUsSe
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| 10 |
Drug picked up for leading female protagonist (6)
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HEROIN
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soundalike (picked up) of ‘heroine’ (leading female protagonist)
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| 13 |
Trendy school for cricket, for example (6)
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INSECT
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charade of IN (trendy) and SECT (school) to give this kind of cricket
cricket, for example, as crickets are just one kind of insect – so a definition by example (DBE).
Sect is also defined as a school of thought, not just a religious group.
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| 14 |
Eye infection from filthy place, we’re told (4)
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STYE
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soundalike (we’re told) of ‘sty’ (filthy place) – literally the home of pigs
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| 16 |
At regular intervals, floor chummy stand-in doctor (5)
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LOCUM
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alternate letters (at regular intervals) of fLoOr ChUmMy
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| 18 |
Little bird caught by American bumpkin (5)
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CHICK
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charade of C (caught) + (by) HICK (American bumpkin) to give C HICK
C for caught is one of many, many cricketing abbreviations used in crosswords – and as anyone who completes the Quiptic will realise, my knowledge of cricket comes from crosswords. Also look out for O for a duck (zero) or o for over, w for wide or wicket, leg for on, r for run, m for maiden, st for stumped, and ODI for one day international, plus test. There’s a longer list here, with more explanations.
Hick is an American colloquialism for someone who lives in the country and is regarded as unintelligent – and the American use is indicated here.
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| 19 |
Reporter’s still providing writing materials (10)
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STATIONERY
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soundalike (reporter’s) of ‘stationary’ (still) for the supplies that come from the stationer’s shop.
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| DOWN | ||
| 2 |
By the sound of it, verifies payment orders (7)
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CHEQUES
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soundalike (by the sound of it) of ‘checks’ (verifies)
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| 3 | Brief message in bottle, regularly (4) |
NOTE
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alternate letters (regularly) of iN bOtTlE
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| 4 |
Composer from Harlem, strangely (6)
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MAHLER
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anagram of (HARLEM)* with anagrind of strangely to give this composer
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| 5 |
Skiers, oddly, getting male teacher (3)
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SIR
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alternate letters (oddly) of SkIeRs
teachers appear regularly in crosswords, not just as Sir and Miss, but also tutors, and rabbis
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| 6 |
American novelist bites neck foolishly (9)
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STEINBECK
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anagram of (BITES NECK)* with anagrind of foolishly for John Steinbeck.
He was well known in England as the author of Of Mice and Men, which was a regular GCSE set text until Gove changed the curriculum and wrote Steinbeck out of it. He’s also know for The Grapes of Wrath, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize, and East of Eden, among other works.
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| 7 |
In speech, apes irregular soldiers (9)
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GUERILLAS |
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soundalike (in speech) of ‘gorillas’ (apes).
I anticipate grumbles coming that this isn’t a good soundalike, but near enough is good enough in cryptic crosswords, and if it’s near enough in English RP then it passes (or goes in as outrageous and therefore funny for some setters).
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| 11 |
Piece of data that’s very different to rule I amended (7)
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OUTLIER
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anagram of (TO RULE I)* with anagrind of amended.
These slightly longer definitions are often used to mislead – here it’s a clear explanation of the solution.
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| 12 |
Naughty child, one getting breaded seafood (6)
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SCAMPI
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charade of SCAMP (naughty child) + I (one) to give (getting) SCAMPI.
This was a 1970s/1980s pub staple, served in a basket with chips, which I remember sitting outside and eating as my parents were drinking inside. It looks to be currently enjoying a comeback from the hits I got when I checked.
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| 15 |
The compiler with Tory person who’s venerated (4)
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ICON
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charade of I (the compiler, first person) + CON (Tory) to give I CON
We saw Carpathian use her name to give SETTER recently – this is a variation on the same trick – the setter or compiler appearing as I, me, my, I’ve, I’m.
Con or C for Tory or Conservative comes from election coverage (and also gives L or Lib for Liberal, Lab for Labour). The same abbreviations turn up clued as party.)
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| 17 |
Even bits of ice heap in hot drink (3)
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CHA |
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alternate letters (even bits of) iCe HeAp
I don’t think CHA or char for tea has turned up in the Quick Cryptics before, but this is another regular to look out for (also Char for daily, as in charwoman).
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Nice crossword, nice blog. Thanks Picaroon and Shanne
WTH … I’ve noticed these “quick cryptics” are progressively getting tougher.
Thank you Picaroon and Shanne
I think 10 is clued wrongly. I know it is sometimes difficult to tell which part of the clue is the definition and which is the soundalike, but here we have the word “for” which breaks the clue up into two, and we expect the object of the preposition to be the definition, since “for” appears to serve no other purpose.
Drug picked up [wordplay]
for [linking word]
leading female protagonist [definition]
It does not really work the other way round:
Drug [definition]
picked up for leading female protagonist [???]
Excellent puzzle, very enjoyable and I think a great one for beginners.
I had not realised earlier but I now agree with Remus @3 that that the clue for 10 would have been better as ‘leading female protagonist picked up drug’.
Thanks, both.
I don’t see any problem with gorilla/guerilla. The first syllable is unstressed, which turns the “o” into a schwa, and OED offers the same pronunciation for both: /ɡəˈrɪlə/
When I read your comment, I thought your objection was because of the “o” in “gorilla”, but OED doesn’t suggest /ɡɒˈrɪlə/. On the other hand, it does have an alternative pronunciation for the soldier: /ɡɛˈrɪlə/. I can’t say that I’ve ever noticed it being spoken this way, but this probably just shows how little I notice.
At least we didn’t have “interrogator” as the clue for the soundalike.
Remus @3 – I think I should have used the sound alike indicator as “picked up for” on the HEROIN clue.
@5, I say GUERILLAS and gorillas differently with a different initial vowel sound, completely different mouth shape, wider for the soldiers, rounder for the animals. GUERILLAS comes from Spanish and guerra, war, and I’ve heard Spanish speakers pronounce the guer- with a gutteral sound and a definite “e” vowel, unlike the “o” of gorilla.
I thought that was well-pitched from Picaroon and I’ve uploaded my live solve over at https://youtu.be/e9lTy1s17kc … as ever taking it slowly and talking through my approach.
If I were being super critical, it would be that there was too much help in the EMUS clue (by including “that can’t fly”) while the INSECT clue with sect=school and the cricket misdirection gives little.
The gorilla/guerilla soundalike – I reckon the average (wo)man in the street pronounces them the same.
I agree with @3 Remus that the HEROIN (“drug picked up”) suggests you’re looking for the female protagonist. The saving grace is they have a different number of letters.
@2 Rats – there were certainly a few clues which needed a bit more thought.
We had 7 soundalikes, 5 alternate letters, 4 charades, 4 anagrams.
– The alternate letter clues are easy (if you can spot them) and will get some letters on the board.
– The anagrams were ECONOMISTS, MAHLER, STEINBECK, OUTLIER which aren’t easy.
– The charades were ICON, INSECT, CHICK which are definitely hard and SCAMPI (helpful definition).
– I’m not good at soundalikes – they’re a variant of a double definition which are hard if you can’t think of a word for either part. GUEST/HORSE/STY were probably the easier ones.
From that breakdown, I can certainly see why you might have struggled today
Thanks for the excellent and detailed blog, as always, Shanne. Thanks to Picaroon too for a perfectly pitched Quick.
Regarding HEROIN, I agree that “picked up for” is probably the entire homophone indicator, Shanne@6. I thought “picked up from” would have made the surface cleaner.
No issues with GUERRILA/GORILLA but my outrageous hybrid accent means that my opinion on vowel stress and pronunciation should probably be discounted 🙂
Happy Saturday all!
The BBC newsreader Jan Leeming used to pronounce “guerilla” as in Spanish, and Pamela Stephenson on “Not the nine o’clock news” used to parody her.
@10 muffin – how did Gerald pronounce them?
HG @11
I tried to find a clip of Pamela saying it, but Googling NTNON and guerilla only turned up Gerald!
A very enjoyable quick cryptic today, thank you Picaroon, and Shanne for the blog. Loved the soundalike category especially. By the way @10 , wasn’t it Angela Rippon who was the newsreader?
[Jaytee @13
When I was searching I did find a site where someone said that it was Angela Rippon, but was corrected to Jan Leeming.]
I agree with Remus@3: you can tell which way round the HEROIN clue is supposed to work because of the enumeration, but it isn’t obvious from the wordplay. This is a common problem with sound-alikes (is it STATIONARY or STATIONERY? ) – and there are always people for whom the sound-alike doesn’t sound alike! I’m usually OK with anything that’s near enough for a painful pun (Paul is well known for these), but on a couple of occasions I have found that I have always been mentally mispronouncing a word that I have only ever seen written down and never heard spoken.
Great blog and great crossword for us beginners. My problem with 7dn which I guessed as soon as I had guessed 7ac (pun intended) was not the pronunciation but the spelling. I’ve always spelt it with two Rs – guerrillas – and I find the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary agrees. Anybody else agree? ( I entered it with one L as it was the only way I could fit in the plural – made 13ac difficult to solve!)
Found this one pretty straightforward, and unusually for me I got the anagrams straight away.
Tyro @16: Exactly what I was going to say! I’ve always thought it was spelt GUERRILLAS, but apparently an alternative spelling is with one R.
Tyro @16, Ed @17 is right, there are two ways to spell GUERRILA or guerrilla. Both are in the dictionaries.
I’m not sure that the IPA will translate, but according to Wikitionary, it’s gorilla that’s changed pronunciation, and instead of the (UK) IPA(key): /ɡəˈɹɪlə/ of guerrilla (see here), the pronunciations of gorilla has changed from the first (as guerrilla) (UK) IPA(key): /ɡəˈɹɪl.ə/, (dated) /ɡɒˈɹɪl.ə/ (see here), although the same page also says they are homophones.
Very much enjoyed today’s puzzle and usually I struggle with soundalike clues. Managed all of it without checking here until after completion, which I like to do just to confirm my thinking with Shanne’s excellent explanations. Thanks to Picaroon for the puzzle and Shanne for the blog page.
PS: enjoyed the discussion re guerrilla v guerilla and pronunciations of same and gorilla.
I managed all of this, bar 18a (curse you, cricket). I also originally misspelt GUERILLAS as GUERRILAS.
Thanks Picaroon and Shanne.
Anyone else notice the first cryptic in today’s Phyric Puzzles is almost identical to 4dn? Are Chris and Picaroon in cahoots!
Just wanted to mention that this evening we plan to go hear MAHLER’s 8th Symphony at Millennium Park, so that clue was quite timely. Of course the clue suggests someone like Duke Ellington or Cab Calloway, but none of those guys were actually *from* Harlem–they just wound up there.
I was certain we’d have the HEROIN/HEROINE discussion–that clue might be the first error I’ve ever seen this setter commit. His clues are always so precise; I’m kinda shocked.
[Take a comfy cushion, MrP – it goes on a bit. I remember once staying with friends at a hotel in Snowdonia. We heard the beginning of it at a prom, went and had dinner, and it was still going on when we had finished. I have heard it live as well, though. Worth it – I hope you enjoy it.]
Liked: LOCUM. Poor doctor getting floored simply for being overly friendly.
Also liked: STEINBECK. Suitably clever yet succinct.
Didn’t get: HEROIN or CHICK.
I think it was Jan Leeming.
Quite easy this one but I don’t understand how “reporter’s” is a sound alike of stationary. (19a)
Saxonangle @25 – the “reporter’s” is telling you it’s a soundalike. The soundalikes are STATIONERY and STATIONARY – I remember these as you buy STATIONERY from a stationERs, and stAY still to be STATIONARY, so the clue breaks down as:
19a Reporter’s still providing writing materials (10)
Reporter’s – it’s reported so it’s a soundalike
still is a synonym of “stationary”, but we know it’s soundalike because it’s not at the beginning or end, and it’s next to the soundalike indicator.
providing – a linking word that says that the soundalike provides the answer
writing materials – the answer STATIONARY